Another tale of woe you can only but laugh. An Alan Gibson MR 3F in this case, a kit form the distant past which really shows it's heritage, I'd guess a blow up from a 4 mm kit and hand drawn given how ragged the edges on some parts are.
There's very little in the kit, more an aid to scratch building and the tender needed a new top and front shelf and raised bulkhead as the kit ones were wrong and in the case of the top, not supplied....Plasticard is recommended in the instructions
Beware the tender footplate, there's a nice half etched groove to locate the sides and rear, problem is the groove for the sides is 52 mm apart but the rear and front bulkheads are only 50 mm wide, I flipped it over and fitted the sides to match the ends and lived with the groove on the underside.
The sides are half etched and I suspect over etched (at a rough guess only 6/7 thou thick) so when forming the flare the skin split along the top of the outside strengthening framework. I've had to add backing strips inside the coal space for support. It's not a problem as they'll all be covered with a full load of coal eventually, which is also why I've paid minimum attention to cleaning the model inside the coal space.
The tool box is the wrong shape (new info this afternoon enabled a new one to be drawn up and is in the printer at the moment. I've also not fitted the small raised deck at the front, something doesn't seem right so I'm waiting for some books to arrive with better photos and hopefully drawings in as well.
The engine is even worse, the only recoverable bits are the frame sides, footplate with splashers, cab front and sides/roof, the rest will have to be scratch built, that'll be a long dreary haul.
Buffers, Vac stand are in the post and I'll add some lamp irons in due course, they're rather simple bent up L shapes so easier to fabricate by hand from NS strip.
, hypocrisy at it's finest.
or, as it has the same wheelbase, a Palestine Railways ex WD ex LSWR Adams 0395, just for the hell of it.
