When I last spoke about my L1 there were really only one or two bits left to work up on it.

Well I'm very pleased to say that it is now finished!- another loco out of the shops and ready for the planned layout.

I began by firmly attaching the front footplate footsteps. Previously these had been glued into position, but they kept coming adrift. Something a bit more permanent was required. I drilled 0.8mm holes very carefully into the underside of the running plate to a depth of about 2mm, then UHU'd some lengths of brass wire into the holes. I smeared UHU over the rear face of the footstep castings, then pressed them onto the wire. Result? Much firmer fittings.

The coal bunker I managed to build up by simply taking a piece of paper, measuring the hole through the bottom of the bunker and transcribing that to the paper (with a little extra to the front and rear to form fixing tabs) and painting the resultant rectangle matt black. Once it had dried I cut it out, folded it up and glued it into the bunker with UHU. Left overnight to set I was then able to fill it with coal this morning.

Nothing looks more like coal than coal, in my opinion. Living as I do on top of about five old coal pits it was a simple matter (at least, it was last Spring- might be a bit difficult right now!) to find a decent lump of the stuff sticking out the ground on the fields behind my house. Wrapped up in a plastic bag and then worked over with a hammer, you end up with a load of bits. Some are too large and really need smashing up further, others are okay to build up a foundation and still others are tiny shards or dust which can be placed on top.

So I started by filling the bunker up to a decent height with some large-ish bits and then filled in the gaps with the smaller shards and dust. I then set it in-place using very dilute PVA glue delicately poured over it.

Before I did this however I applied the transfers. I use HMRS pressfix transfers but in a slight twist I remove the backing paper before applying them by soaking them in water, This has an additional beneficial effect in that it removes most of the decal adhesive, meaning when I lay it on the model I can move the decal around using fine tweezers and a paintbrush until I am happy with the location. I then firmly dab the decal onto the model with a sheet of tissue paper, removing the excess water whilst temporarily fixing the decal in place. Once I have all of the decals on I give the model a coat of very dilute PVA glue. This sounds mad but it does a very good job of fixing the decals down fully, sealing them in and it dries to a matt finish to boot. It has to be dilute though- you can't get nearly as thin a coat as you need with the stuff as it comes, as a thick gloopy liquid from the DIY shops.

Once the PVA had dried I gave the model a subtle dusting down with artists' chalks (in brown, grey and black tones) to suggest weathering.

And there we have it, an unusual prototype ready to roll, available for a reasonable price and capable of being built to a good standard straight out of the box and to a better one with just of modicum of thought and tweaking.

Would I build another? Absolutely.