Now here is the update on where I've got to this week - not very far! I've found this current work very frustrating but I'll share that as I get to it.
I didn't include the shots of the castings with my initial posting about this kit so here they are now.
As you can see, and because the kit was quite well advanced when I laid my hands on it, many of the castings have already been used. There has been a significant attempt to identify the castings in the instructions, but these are sadly incomplete. There is a list of the white metal components associated with their part numbers from the diagram but there is no photo of each part so it is necessary to have a knowledge of the parts before they can be properly applied. As far as the lost wax parts are concerned, there is a good photo of each sprue with each part identified by part number but no list by name, so it's not possible to look for parts by name, (when you actually know the name of the part!) In fact, there is one part on one of the drawings hanging in mid air with no indication of where it fits and as we don't know what the part is meant to be by name it's not possible to work out where it should fit. Note too that the instructions are actually very basic. Once the base assembly is built according to the instructions one works entirely from photos or drawings and the instructions simply say to add the parts shown on the drawing or photo. In my opinion DJH would have been well advised to ask a competent but not expert model builder to build their kits using the instructions as they are at the moment and identify where they fall down.
Front footsteps formed and fitted. No problem here.
We've previously discussed the issues surrounding the regulator gear, and here it is in it's modified form . I fitted the small cowl at the top of the cab and the rod coming from that. Looking at Mickoo's prototype pictures this is much closer to prototype than the provided kit position identified in the photo above by the unoccupied hole in the cab front. This created a lot of work in checking prototype data and working out how to fit. Not a great problem as such and interesting in it's way, but this sort of thing is really slowing the build and my mojo is being frustrated.
Here's the latest issue. There is no instruction when to fit the ejector. The drawings show an ejector as fitted but in fact there are two different castings provided, with nothing about this in the instructions. As a result I found one casting but it did not match the prototype or drawing. That's the one temporarily blu tacked to the loco above. Looking at photos it is a 9F ejector but not the one fitted to Evening Star. In the absence of any advice that there were two types of ejector provided I started to think about how this one could be modified or whether to try to get a suitable one at Telford, and while cogitating I went through the castings in the tray. Low and behold, there was another casting, but in two parts. That's the one above the chimney.
So....I blu tacked it in place for the photo only to find that it is too long for purpose and fouls the steam pipe cover. Again, I have the option of either trying for a new one at Telford or modifying this one. I have to join the two parts anyway!
In order to not delay the build any longer I decided to try modification by cutting out a section of the front piece of the casting. With the section cut out this length more nearly matches the prototype - see Mickoo's photos again. So I now had the part in three pieces. I drilled the centre of each part with a .7mm drill and installed a piece of .7mm wire in each hole to hold the part together before I soldered with 100 degree solder. Success! All that's needed now is the brass pipework which will be the next job.
In a perverse way this sort of problem is a test of skill, I suppose, and gives one "ownership" of the specific build. However, should such problems be acceptable? Considering the frustrations of this one, how on earth will I cope with the Ace K?
Brian
) to suck eggs at all. That's a method I'll try when I'm next in the workshop. It makes more sense than my current method which has involved cutting little bits of tube and watching them stick to the end of the soldering iron! The pipework is .45mm and I have some thin bore tube which is exactly right for the brass wire to be a tight sliding fit. 
