Evening all, thanks to a couple of very fortunate ebay purchases earlier this week i have just taken the plunge and started creating my very own class 13.

Im aiming for 13 003 in blue when its finished, but at the moment there is a lot of work to do on the slave unit before i get to the spray cans out

So this is what iv started with, a model of 3256, not in the best on nick but useable for the slave unit. I did some research and it soon dawned on me that the 13's all had smooth body side doors, after a bit of thinking out can the files and i removed the strapping, took a while but i think ill gte away with it.

The filiing and sanding took up a fair bit of time, but im pretty happy how it went, a blast of pimer is needed though to check. Next job was to file back the end of the bonnet section to fit the end plate from the RT Models pack

After that you have to unscrew the decoder socet and the metal block over the gear tower to file it back to clear the end plate

After i filed the protrusions down i offered up the plate and checked all was well.

I fount the top of the gear tower was preventing the cast white metla bulkhead from sitting flush with the plate so out came the dremel to take some material from the back of it. The red paint in the pic above on the gear tower was used to check id removed enough material from the back of the bulkhead, basically keep offering it up until no paint appears on the back of the casting.

Once it all fitted together i removed about 1mm from the bottom of the bulkhead so it sat about right with corners of the plate and glued it all up.

Next job was gluing the floor plate in and then folded up the back plate after punching the rivets through, next was gluing a bead of wire round the top, there is a strip included with the kit but i knackered mine by dropping it on the floor and bending it whilst i looked for it (stuck in my sock!)

Whilst all that was setting, i turned my attention the chassis, it runs like a dream but has had a hard life, its missing the front left sandbox and also both front steps and r/h cab steps. These are the main things iv found missing also a buffer from each end but nothing that cant be bodged and fabricated.

Last thing tonight was fitting a new sandbox, after a bit of thinking i rememberd i hav an ancient old kitmaster 08 sat waiting for snow plough to be added so i borrowed the sand box from there, not ideal but it does the job.

Thats about it for now, ill be back at it tomorrow and hopefully get the staps sorted and the big buffer beams on, also the pile of bits in the back ground is the makings of class 42 Warship, was bought with a badly damaged body some time ago but ran well, a cab transplant from an old mainline warship was done a while back and is now going through the paint shops to become Zebra eventually

Cheers for looking

James