The Garratt Locomotive kit provides a set of nicely moulded cylinder faces cast in nickel silver. This give a good, realistic colour which is better than a brass equivalent would be.
The only trouble is that they are blank - you have to drill a hole for the piston rod. I think this is a job demanding more than just twiddling a pin vice. In fact to get the best out of the model a pillar drill will make a big difference. Therefore, lazy as I am, I extracted mine from the cupboard and set it up.
The castings have a chunky sprue which can be held easily in a vise or even pair of pliers. The metal took a fair bit of drilling (I was right about the pin vise !) with the bit being moved in and out to clear swarf. I drilled to 1.5 mm which seemed to give a good sliding fit for the piston rods. Some bits seemed to work their way through better than others so there is a bit of technical knowledge I'm missing but never mind I managed to muddle through.
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