After the delights of the Chelmsford exhibition, [and all that free tea] I adjourned to the shed full of enthusiasm and decided I would attempt to finish off at least 4 or 5 of the half built kits I have gathering dust on various shelves.
The one which took my eye was a DJH LNER Q7 kit which I had started probably around 16+ years ago when in Bahrain,,,,, my type of engine the Q7,,,, a boiler, 8 driving wheels, a no frills freight engine.
I then remembered in an old edition of Modelling Railways Illustrated there was a nice picture of a nearly completed one and was assuming that there might even be an article on how he'd done it and what sort of problems he had encountered.
My filing system is slowly improving as it only took me about 2 hours to locate the MORRILL concerned,,, [what a great magazine that was,,, full of useful info and plenty of Mr Rices quirky drawings to ponder over,,, a great shame it vanished,,, not so sure I miss the drawings though,,, and whatever happened to him]
Yes!!!!! there it is,,,, a nice pic of a Q7 just about to go to the paintshop on the front cover,,, I explore the 1996 mag and guess what this Q7 has been put together by Tony Wright,,, there is NO article on how he'd done it but it is a nice picture and it spurs me on further.
Out comes the kit bashing 25w soldering iron,,, I wipe away all the cobwebs and away we go,,, this is what rainy Saturdays are all about,,, a serious bout of "tingle finger" soldering white metal kits together.
After copious quantities of tea and a few visits from the cat I am making serious progress and am quite happy with the results,,, especially the cab which has gone together nice and square and I am particularly pleased with the solder joints from the cab sides to the roof.
The management advises dinner is ready and I wrap it up for the day,,, remembering whilst wandering across the lawn to the kitchen that I also have a Locomotives Illustrated mag of NER freight engines,,, that will need finding as well as I am getting close to doing a bit of detailing.
Now I knew where that one is and it is to hand within just 10 minutes,,,, after dinner I start flicking through the mag and am getting quite excited about finishing of this monster of Raven freightliness.
I'm getting so excited I even start browsing through the written bit at the front of the article and then it hit me,,, that horrible sinking in stomach feeling that I used to get quite frequently about 3 minutes before the old man read the school report!!!!! you know the feeling,,,, and I quote, " one of the distinctive features of this type is the stepped front spectacle plate recessed into the cab which was seen as the preferred option to extending the wheelbase of the loco",,, stepped spectacle plate,,, distinctive feature,,, my DJH kit hasn't got a stepped spectacle plate,,, and more to the point neither has the picture on the front cover either,,,, I flick through a couple of pics again and yes there is a step in the spectacle plate and it is quite distinctive!!!!!
The soldering of the cab was probably my best ever,,, and we all know that to try and undo it is going to result in scratch building the whole ensemble,,,, What to do!!!!
Now not many people know there was a Q7/2 which had a flat fronted spectacle plate and very few people have ever modelled one,,,, I know of only 2 me,,, and one other!!!
