Kit 2

Again, straight forward assembly although I discover that the holes in the back edge of the footplate don't quite line up with the brackets on the frames. The two sets of holes are slightly too far apart but a drill soon lines them up.

After assembling these parts it is now time to start painting the frames. This is where I start to worry as I'm always scared I'm going to ruin a perfectly good model with a lousy paint job. I haven't done yet, but working on a model this large, any imperfections are going to show up. Still, a lot of this paintwork is going to be out of sight so it may not matter too much.

The construction manual says that the designer usually uses Hammerite paint for the frames. I've used that before around the house and garden but never in a modelling sense. The one advantage is that it's made specifically to paint bare metal. I'm not keen to spray the frames with an aerosol as there are so many bits and pieces to get round I'm sure I'll get runs all over the place. So decision made, I'll try the Hammerite. At least it's readily available and I won't have to wait to get something else through the Christmas post.

I'm trying to copy the colour scheme of the engine at Valkenburg, so I need to paint the outside of the frames in red and, as the insides are going to get pretty mucky in use, I decide to go for gloss black. After much pre-cleaning with white spirit and finally with Hammerite thinners, I'm ready to start.

The first coat of black doesn't cover too badly and after rubbing down the brush marks and smudges and another coat we are getting somewhere. It's really difficult to get a good sweep with the brush as it's so cramped in there. A final rub down and third coat sees a pretty good final finish.

Then on to the red outside frames. This has got to be pretty good even though a lot of it will be covered up with wheels, cylinders and so on. Again after three coats with much careful rubbing down in between, I've ended up with what I think is a pretty good finish.

So here we are towards the end of January 2009. Andy has been tied up with the London Model Engineering show at Alexandra Palace so I haven't got kit 3 yet. I've just got to finish painting the running boards and the footplate and then I'll just have to wait for Andy to catch up. See you over on kit 3 page in a few weeks.

Kit 2 Running Boards and Footplate