Decanting the contents of the packaging onto the dining room table, what immediately struck me was both the number and size of the resin castings. They're much larger than I'm generally used to dealing with, and there are a large number of them!

Quality of the castings looks pretty good, with very little flash and no immediately obvious sign of warpage; the kit also came with a Hornby 'Smokey Joe' chassis which needed a little alteration to fit (the removal of the couplings and cylinders).

The new resin cylinders need drilling out to a depth of around 16mm (the first 5mm are pre-drilled), and this has to be done carefully to avoid breaking out through the side of the cylinder. I used a 4mm drillbit in a dremel set to a fairly low setting, and went very slowly checking every 30 seconds or so to make sure I was drilling true.

I'll be using UHU throughout to assemble this model; I've already attached the cylinders to the running plate and slipped this into position on the chassis.

One thing I will try with this model is to step back a little from the cartoonish whimsy and try instead for a more 'serious' model; at the moment my thinking on this is leaning toward a livery based upon the pre-1906 GWR scheme with brunswick green, indian red and lots of copper and brass.