TWEAK A DAPOL CLASS 122

I then set about painting the interior, in particular the cream plastic box which shows through the guard’s compartment windows. This was treated to a couple of coats of Humbrol acrylic matt black. The stark, white roof domes soon discoloured in service, taking on a creamier tone. After masking, Railmatch acrylic Weathered Stone was applied. I also painted the axlebox covers yellow, with a horizontal red stripe. The destination blind decal sits on the outside of the glazing. I found the font size (6pt) by a process of trial and error, but it depends entirely on the length of the word. Choosing short names makes life a lot easier. The body unclips from the chassis. A few bits of cut-up credit card slipped between the body and solebar will release it. The cab interiors are trickier to remove – I started by unclipping them from either side with a small screwdriver. Humbrol acrylic No. 62 was applied to the raised floor, rendering it less obvious than the bright cream moulding. This colour suggests the terracotta-coloured linoleum employed on a lot of early DMUS. Dapol supply an excellent speedometer drive which plugs into one axlebox and an adjacent location in the solebar. The ‘cable’ is flexible, and it’s the first time I’ve seen this on a ‘OO’ RTR model, other than the rigid version on railbuses. By careful cutting you can create partially wound blinds. Mount the decals face down on the inside of the glazing, sealed with a drop of Microsol. A spare set of headcode frames is supplied; keep them in place with a spot of PVA. The cabs connect to the lighting bar via copper strips. You could unsolder them, but it’s safer to unscrew the whole assembly. Easing the strip from the light ducts needs some persuasion – take care not to bend or break any contacts. I keep a Word document on my PC containing various sizes of destination blinds and other details, for printing onto waterslide decal paper. I change it for each new project, but it saves time finding correct fonts and sizes. The tension lock couplings were removed before fitting the bufferbeam details, following the supplied diagram. Multiple-unit jumpers fit to the left below the bufferbeam, and vacuum hoses to the right in holes in the bufferbeam.