Locomotive Repair

Yesterday I had a broken 07 shunter and was not happy. I chucked the bits back in the box, shut the lid and left it for the rest of the day.

As the show quietened down, I summoned up the courage to have a look. It appeared that the model had hit the floor on the bottom corner of the front bufferbeam.

The buffer had broken off and a crack ran up the front and along the top of the nose. A bad crack, all the way through.

The front and top corner handrails were gone, so had several of the marker lights.

I didn't notice it at the time, but so was the back buffer on the same side. This didn't get noticed until I found it while we were packing up.

Back home, I started the repairs. First, the cracks were glued back together with Zap-a-Gap superglue. Then I attempted to make good the paintwork. A quick coats of acrylic didn't do much but puddling it on did. It filled the gaps that the glue hadn't taken care of. Not perfectly but I reckoned, well enough.

Next the new marker lights were made from square styrene strip cut to length and rounded to match the originals. They aren't quite as good but I can live with this, especially since I found some of the originals (little more than black specks) on the floor of the show. And then lost them again.

Restoring the black stripes with a fine paintbrush helped as did making new handrails.

Finally, a few coats of Humbrol Weathering wash, a bit of powder and some matt varnish.

OK, the result isn't perfect but short of a complete strip down or throwing away the body, it won't be. At least I have a presentable blue 07 again - in real life the reapir isn't nearly as visible as it is in the photo. I'll be more careful in the future.