I now have my 34045 Ottery St. Mary, (which will become 34042 Dorchester this weekend). In general, I'm very pleased with it.
The detail is incredible, running is superb, and the finish is excellent. Placed next to unrebuilt 34041 Wilton it is very evident how Hornby have improved such things as lining in recent years.
However, the rather obvious fact that the upper boiler section is a separate moulding has been inherited from the rebuilt Merchant Navy. I haven't got one of the latter but my impression is that the gaps at the smokebox / boiler and boiler / firebox joints are even more pronounced than in the illustrations which I recall of the Hornby rebuilt MN.
What is significant is that the box illustration, which is presumably of an actual model, *must* have been touched-in as there's no sign of thes rather obvious gaps.
These joints are at the limit of my personal tolerance, and I suspect that if I can match Hornby's shade of BR loco green I'm in for some fiddly work with Milliput and touch-in paint.
Also, I do *not* like the fixed trailing truck. Fine, the lower firebox / ashpan and associated pipework is modelled in incredible detail but flangeless wheels went out many years ago by my standards. I've fitted the flanged wheels but I can't see there being sufficient sideplay for reliable running on even modest radii.
I'm guessing that I'll end up doing some fairly radical surgery to remove the inside bearing slot for the trailing wheels in the cast mainframe and mounting a pin-point axle in the truck dummy bearings; (drilling these centrally will be fun)! The silly thing is that the trailing truck has a conventional pivot bearing and screw but is locked solid by a second screw immediately behind it.
It's my guess that it was originally designed to pivot but was fixed to allow the pipework which wraps round the back corner of the truck to be modelled. I'll sacrifice a small section of this for the sake of a functional truck.
Despite these two winges it's a good model; I just feel that the boiler seam gaps are unnecessary, (they don't seem to be evident on the rest of Hornby's range), and I believe the fixed pony truck to be 'a step too far'.
Regards, John Isherwood.