Well, hurrah. Christmas holidays over and back to work. At least I did get some time on the WB yesterday and I wasn't totally idle while away.
To continue on the Toad theme there was some useful information on my thread on RMWeb from someone who has access to a GA drawing. This shows that the chimney was on a square plate on the roof and had a cast surround at the bottom giving it a stepped appearance. I've turned up a replacement from some 2mm Evergreen rod and stuck it on. Not the best picture; have a look at my thread on RMWeb for a much better picture from Mikemeg.
While on holiday in France it seemed appropriate to start work on my next ferry van project, which was always intended to be a French Fasu van, which is the type preserved in the NRM. Studying pictures from the HMRS it became apparent that there were in fact two types of French ferry van seen in the UK, the other much shorter. The second one turned out to be very similar, if not identical, to this preserved one I photographed at Langeais, very close to the inlaws, in 2009:
and the barely started model
The vent grilles on the FASU took ages to do but I'm quite pleased with how they turned out once I'd developed a technique to space them consistently.
In between vent grilles (well you need something to stop you cracking up) I also had a go at these, the new (ish) open from Cambrian. I haven't seen anyone else on here build any yet - apologies if I've missed a thread from someone) but they're the sort of thing pretty much every LNER layout ought to have. They went together pretty well - more care needed than a Parkside and one or two corners to tidy up. I gather they were to/based on a GNR diagram so there may be scope for another variant when I have time to read it up.
Last job was this BR Lowfit. The kids liked my tractor on a Lowfit for Thurston so much they each gave me another tractor for Christmas, so I'm looking round for a third Lowfit to make the set. This is a Red Panda kit; I hadn't made one before the first Lowfit I built but they're pretty good. Shame they don't do any purely LNER wagons.
![Image](https://s20.postimg.cc/k1hatexjh/lowfit_zps6c35efa6.jpg)