No not deep vein thrombosis but the other type of DVT - in this case the Hornby W&S version. I purchased this quite a while ago and its just sat on the shelf waiting for me to get to it. A recent trip down to London Marylebone however, with one of these at the front (or rear depending on how you look at it) sparked up the interest in working on it again and so I used it as a bit of a break from finishing off the final MGR wagons - at last!
The Hornby DVT is quite a nice model with a few really nice features - one of which is its already fitted with lights. These however, do need a bit of work on them to make them more practical and more to the point, prototypical. To start with the outer edge marker lights need to have a warmer/yellower tint than they do as fitted as standard. I sorted this by taking out the light guides and dipping the outer ends in Tamiya Clear Yellow X24. Once refitted the difference between marker and headlights is far more obvious and accurate. What I do intend to do is also fit a small bright white micro LED behind the daytime marker light as the standard Hornby LED loses its brightness through the light guides. Other than that I also relocated the orange cab light to the rear guards area.
The under fame was given its usual coat of frame dirt and I intend to add buffer grease and subtle weathering powder tones along the sides. The wheels were fitted with Mk3 brake discs and make so much difference in my mind.
I missed out on getting the later silver/grey W&S stock to make up the train I wanted, but I do have the earlier Hornby blue/grey stock to work with, so coupled to a Class 67 can run my own W&S train hopefully. The only remaining thing to do on the DVT was fit a function only DCC chip to control the directional lighting/cab lighting. I also tagged the bottom of the coach with its DCC address (normally use digits from its actual running number) just for easiness of finding stuff and the fact I'm not getting any younger or my memory (and come to think of it eyesight) any better.
So with that done, a break from the MGR stock, normal service can be resumed whilst I plod through some of the more mundane jobs I need to finish off. Thankfully little quick win projects like these not only keep the modelling mojo going, but they also enable you to tick another one off the ever increasing 'things to model and detail' list.
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