After eagerly waiting my latest purchase, an O Gauge LNER B17/6, imagine the disappointment when it arrived badly damaged. The chimney had been pushed down into the smokebox by about 10mm, causing a bad dent and creasing.

After getting over feeling sorry for myself, and discussing possibilities with the Seller, I decided to repair the loco rather than sending it back. I worked out a plan of action and started to prepare the model.

After removing the original chimney and snifter valve – I cleaned up the whole area. I pushed a piece of balsa dowel into the hole left by the chimney – I then cut the dowel down to the height the Car Filler needed to be – this gave me a guide when filling.

After letting the filler dry for a hour, I then started to file and wet and dry the filler into shape.

The balsa guide really helped.

I smoothed the area and then filled the imperfections and blended again, until I was happy with the result.

I added the new chimney (the one removed was the wrong pattern for this Loco) and the snifter valve. I also did a further fill  a couple of imperfections and smoothed down.

I then hand painted  all areas worked on with an undercoat – left it to dry overnight and then hand painted a black undercoat to finish the repair.

Well it was certainly a challenge – but I am reasonably happy. I will let the paint dry for twelve hours and re-assess if further work is needed. It took me six hours overall to get to this stage!