My daughter, who is mad about Harry Potter right now, gave me a Metal Earth kit for the Hogwarts Express for Christmas. I've built a couple of these sort of kits before but this is probably the most complex, with three frets of etched steel parts, and 8 A4 pages of instructions.
The instructions suggest cutting the parts out with wire cutters, and bending the tabs with tweezers. Well I don't see how wire cutters can get in to cut the parts out without damaging them, the gaps are too small, so I used a craft knife. The steel is quite hard to cut and a little distortion can occur, but it is easily flattened with smooth jaw pliers. It's also too tough for any tweezers I have to be able to bend the tabs, but a couple of different types of small pliers did the job easily. The parts are very accurately cut and there were no problems fitting them together, except that some were quite fiddly, and although some of the curves were tricky to get right, the instructions are clear.
The result is quite impressive; surprisingly detailed, well proportioned, and very shiny! It's a little odd what details are included. such as tender brakes, and springs behind the driving wheels, which will never be seen. But there is no doubt that the etching is very fine
As you can see it actually fits onto 9mm gauge track - here sat on Awngate's rails. Of course the wheels don't turn (and in any case they are not round, but polygons...). I don't know if that means it is "N" gauge, I suspect it might be slightly over-scale for that, and I don't know how accurately it is scaled either - but it does look "right". The tender gap is huge, which is unnecessary as it is not as though it has to go round corners!
An enjoyable project, and a nice shiny thing to go in the display cabinet.
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