I've decided that before I carry on with the rest of my new projects to revisit and perfect an older one.

The first project I described on RMWeb was a hackbash of a Hornby B12 into a C5- compound Jersey Lily. When I finished the model back in January I was very happy with it; but since then I've finished one or two more models and it began to look a little down at heel.

The list of things wrong with it really ran to

- poor cab lining

- wheel splashers too thin

- buckled handrails

- no curved smokebox handrail

- issues with the pony truck

All really quite small jobs.

I began this afternoon by worrying at the cab lining with a little warm water, a firm brush and a scalpel. It took a while but I was able to remove the lining transfers without damaging the paintwork. I then used an easi-liner tool to add a thin white line in gloss paint... the result of this is far better-looking than the transfers were. I needed now to add a thinner line of gloss black on the outside of it tomorrow.

Moving on, I removed the plastic handrails. I was hoping to get them out 'clean'- that is, pulled out of the handrail knob without parting and getting stuck in it- but on several of the knobs the rails did indeed break and leave a tiny bit inside... damn. Undaunted I made a curved smokebox rail from brass wire, then cut lengths of plastic rod to create new boiler rails. I glued the three parts together and left them aside to set, whilst I moved on to the splashers.

The splashers I decided to bulk out by using some 2 x 2.5mm plastic strip, glued to new splasher faces cut from 0.5mm plastic sheet and cut and sanded to shape. On two of them I added a further layer of 0.5mm sheet to create the brass beading. I then painted them with apple green paint and glued them to the model.

On the chassis I added a length of balsa wood to create a new sturdy spacer for the pony bogie sides. I glued this into the hole created when I removed the magnet from the B12 chassis. That is now setting nicely, so tomorrow I can move on to re-attach the pony axle and the frames.

It's looking a lot better!