I had sort of promised myself that during the festive season I'd celebrate in my own way by trying to finish as many of my half started projects as possible. However it hasn't panned out that way. A spot of pre Christmas bargain hunting on e-bay resulted in me being the proud owner of this.
Which I decide could be turned into
one of these; the principle attraction being that I could festoon it with soviet bloc style red stars, front and rear. Fortunately a side elevation was available on the net, so I could work out what would need to be done.
The plastic flew everywhere for the next few hours.
I was amused by the buffers; moulded in rubber they have a satisfying wobble when twanged.
Fairly early on I was able to rebuild the underframe, whilst working out where to chop the cab and bonnet. As I have been fairly fired up with the project I've made better progress than I usually do. Here are the part reconstituted upper works reflecting the state of play this lunchtime.
At the moment I have no inclination to build a Czech layout, but this T 211.0 shunter was built in huge quantities, exported widely and after front line use sold on to industry in good numbers. Mine will find a home when I get round to building a depiction of the inland Belgian port of Ennui/Verveling, where it will find a use shunting the warehouse complex.