The show was the Heathcote Modeller exhibition just off the M1 (the oppose way to Loughborough) at Shepshed. This is a really an O gauge model railway event, but others are catered for. On the Saturday there is a lot of trade. On Sunday some of these don’t come in and are replaced by demonstrators. I’d been invited to attend by Mercian Models and ended up next to Trevor’s stand.
As it turns out this was very convenient. The first couple of jobs I did were building saddle tanks for locomotives in the range. A bit fiddly for me but quite worrying to the novice builder, hence they took the chance to get me to do the hard work. The first, a Peckett went pretty well and was assembled quickly. I managed to crease the metal in an ill advised attempt to put one of the bends in sharper than it needed but I was able to smooth this out enough not to show under paint. The owner was happy anyway.
The second tank was for a Barclay. These are a pig of a job as there are several fairly sharp bends and a tuck under at the bottom. The former that the tank top bends around has a fault as well – it’s about 1mm too long. I moved this and then gingerly tacked the metal in place. All looked OK except for the bottom. At the front and back it bulged. Normally I am confident I can bodge this away and cover the result with paint. It’s not quite so much fun doing this with people watching and knowing that you will hand it over in the brass. However there was no choice so I proceeded to fill with solder and file away while pretending that this is normal kitbuilding activity. I suppose it is really but don’t tell anyone.
The result was good and another happy punter. A bit nerve wracking as I didn’t really want to wreck someone else’s kit !
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