Paperballpark

I don't usually have a problem with the IR Receiver, but the big battery box is a pain in the bum to build into steam locos, especially those without a tender.

As many as you want - it depends how big you want the oval! You'll need 16 curved pieces, as each curved piece is 22.5 degrees (so 4 = 90 degrees and 16 = 360 degrees). Other than that, you could just get two pieces of straight to make a simple oval, or you could get two hundred. Be aware though, that the Horizon Express has just been discontinued, so get it while you still can! Or rather, while you can get it for a reasonable price.

I very much doubt that would happen. The one thing that has been consistent over the four different train systems is the track gauge. I really can't see them changing it. Furthermore, can you imagine how much every train-owning afol would complain if they did?!

I tend to just have the trains running at the same speed the whole way around, so that I don't have to keep fiddling with the speed.

Nope, they're not available in green at all - not even as rare pieces. If they had been, I'd have bought them.

The Flying Scotsman I built recently is 81 studs in length - without any coaches!

^ Regarding the train windows, there's no need to bother dying them, I'm going to get the green printed directly onto the clear windows when I get the rest of the train decals printed.

I think it's looking more and more likely that there won't be one. When was HE announced?

Thanks! I don't have the Emerald Night yet, so can't compare it. To be honest, the smoke deflectors were put on partly because I like them, and partly because they help to hide a couple of the more ugly bits of the build - namely, the tubes coming down from the boiler (where they join the boiler, which isn't pretty), and the front boiler door, which in all honesty is just too small (it's 4 wide, when 5 wide would be ideal). I'm looking into swapping the chimney for the Kylchap version, but it's not quite as easy to do as the current one. EDIT: Just realised I didn't answer your question. I think I like the smoke deflectors because they give it a bit more 'sense of purpose' if you like. It's hard to explain really, I guess it comes down to personal choice. But I will stress that the front of the boiler on the model doesn't look half as good without them.

I was told a few months ago that HE was going EOL at the end of this year.

No, the printing can be done directly onto the model without it having to be taken apart. I have rebuilt the second tender yesterday though, to remove the tiled section, which makes it look better. I'll do the same to the first tender when I get back from Brick 2014. The first tender is a little more complex than the second...!

Ah I see! Yes that's the one.

They all look very nice! My main gripe with LDD/Ldraw models is that you've been able to use parts in colours that simply aren't available in real Lego. I also hate to think what would happen to your connecting rods if the trains were to move

Yes I'll be getting the sides of the 1x4 bows for the wheel arches printed green. I could have used green, but that would have meant the top of them being green too, which I didn't want. If anything, the tenders are just slightly too low. I think it's partly because of the perspective in the photos. The front double tender was about the same height as the cab, whereas I've built it one plate lower. I do know what you mean though; I spent a bit of time looking at them after they were built, thinking they were slightly out of proportion. After a little bit of consideration, I think I worked out why... Basically, the driver wheels are to blame. Although I managed to get the ridge on them recessed a bit, the real engine has the whole wheel recessed under the arches, behind the running plate. Because I can't do that, the entire engine - boiler, running boards, cab - was built a little bit (maybe one or two plates) higher than ideal. Now, you don't notice this on the engine itself, because of the detail, and because it looks roughly right and in proportion. But when you get to the tenders, you do notice it, because they're basically just boxes. Ideally, if the whole train was one or two plates lower, the black border at the bottom of them would only be one or two plates high, rather than three. However, to make the green line up with the bottom of the cab, and to ensure the bogies weren't visible, they had to be three high, which makes them look just a little bit out of proportion. Unfortunately it's caused by one of the constraints of modelling in Lego. But then, if I wanted to have a model that was 100% accurate to the exclusion of all else, I'd buy Hornby On a couple of your other points, the windows basically hold the cab together, so I couldn't really SNOT them! Plus I looked at the options and they wouldn't have been in proportion anyway. The 1x2x2 windows would have been perfect, but they're not in green. I've not ruled out using black and getting them printed green, but we'll see. I've only actually previously seen one LEGO Flying Scotsman before, which looks to have been done about 6 years ago, before curved slopes. I've just done a bit of searching and have found another, which looks quite similar to mine, but with pretty much everything done differently! (this one: https://www.flickr.c...57632754585185/) Even that has compromises though - look at the cab interior! Different choices, different compromises...

Here comes Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo! ;)

@Redimus in later years the train sometimes ran with a curved name-plate above the boiler door. This will be printed onto those bricks that are sticking out. @zephyr1934 yes the train did a tour of America at some point. I believe it had to have a cow-catcher and bell fitted to comply with US regs...

@Legotom There's a couple of UK companies that print directly onto bricks - minifigs.me and minifigs4life. I'll be using the latter.

Stickers? Stickers?!?! All the numbers, lettering, lines etc are going to be printed directly onto the model. No stickers here! Thanks Legotom, I knew there were water troughs back when steam locomotives were mainstream, but I couldn't remember exactly. I did a lot of research before building this, so I did read up on stuff like that, as well as the bit about the name not being used solely for this engine. I used to model in 6-wide when I started with trains about a year ago, but I found I just couldn't get enough detail into the width. You do find that you use a lot of 1x2 'jumper' plates though

Thanks! I will at some point, but it's packed away ready for Brick 2014 now, so it won't be until after then. The wheel arches are the standard '1x4 double bow' element, otherwise known as the 'telephone' bow.

^ I've started using the lever base (without stick) to represent them. Very nice design, I have to say! For some reason I'd not considered using that curved piece before.

The second tender was for extra water, so that the train could run non-stop from London to Edinburgh without having to stop for water. Both tenders are 'corridor' tenders, having (as the name suggests) a narrow corridor in them so that the train crew could swap shifts halfway through the journey without having to stop at a station. Double tenders weren't a common thing in the UK. IIRC this was the only train that consistently ran with them.

Ok, I wasn't going to show this off until I'd got it fully printed, but that won't happen before Brick 2014 later this week. However, I've decided to take it there to show it off 'naked' as it were, so I thought I might as well post about it on here. This is my model of the double-tender 4-6-2 LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman. As you can see, there is a lot of printing to be done on it - including green printed onto the windows and a couple of other bits of colouring. I'm also going to try to get green printed onto the wheel spokes... It has power functions included. It runs fine with a single train motor (although I've not tested the limits of what it can haul yet), and runs smoothly around corners and over points. The driving wheels are the XL drivers from Big Ben Bricks. Unfortunately, including PF in it (as well as ensuring it could go around curves) meant that I was unable to properly implement connecting rods, valve gear etc. As for stats, it's 7-studs wide, 81 studs long, contains over 1300 pieces, and took about 35 - 40 hours to build over the course of about two months. Oh and for any pedants out there, yes I know that 4472 Flying Scotsman never ran with the smoke deflectors and the double tender at the same time, but I don't care It was always going to be double-tendered, and I much prefer it with smoke deflectors. Anyway, let me know what you think. I'll post more photos once it's been fully printed (probably in the New Year). Full size photos are on my flickr stream here.

If it helps, I was told that the colour is cool yellow. The Friends colour.

I think that guy is the guy with hair on the front of the box (blue shirt, dark trousers).

I'd be interested to see more shots of the loco, as it looks a bit unrealistic from far away.