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Hi all. Well its been a very very long time since I updated this on going project. Last year was very busy for me and this one will likely be the same but I have been making progress on these since and I have failed to update. I did get the final gloss finish on Sir Nigel Gresley, Bittern and Mallard. I am yet to replace the motion with the finer variety on the first 2. I had come across some very Cheap Ultrascale wheels on ebay I picked them up for 20 quid including postage !. Lucky me. I was almost frightend to use them and that was a year ago. These wheel sets usually take 6 months to wait for to be made for you and cost over a £100 quid !... But it will make your A4 Look like a real A4 so ... The things we do for detail eh ! I have done much reading on wheels, motion, etc etc. I have also been asking many questions much to the annoyance of some on rmweb I bet ! , But the advice on here has been brilliant and This past few weeks I have thrown myself in at the deep end. As there are still bits that seem to be a dark art. I have always found info on Kit Built locos hard to come by. It almost feels as If you have to be invited to a small clandestine religion to learn the tricks.. Well I hope to expose it as I learn in the hope others will have ago. As the kit industry for railway models seems to be on the decline and that’s sad. Much as RTR is nice making models or customising them is where the fun lies. This is a custom job but I hope to make a model soon. I have done something that might be considered a sin to many. But I have found it is indeed possible with care to resuse the Hornby fittings from the motion on Ultrascale, Scalelink and Alan Gibson wheels. At least on my ones. I tried this first on a Scalelink, Then an Alan Gibson, Then an Ultrascale. I have been successful and managed to make a working chassis using the Hornby A4 chassis, Hornby 80s Nickel plated motion, and the Ultrascales. This has given me a chassis that will look right for Mallard and now all I have to do is paint the wheels red and add the balance weights. I want to share with people on here how I have done this as I have found the information on how to do this hard to come by. I want to do my bit to try to share my first attempts with you all in the hope others have ago. I know many already know how to do this but there are likely many more like myself that wish to try. So hope this helps. here goes... I had started with the easy part, Fitting the Tender, Pony wheels etc,. These gripped well enough to not need any loctite and were a breese to assemble by hand and the back to backs checked with and Alan Gibson back to back gauge. Before you put together your drivers you need to shim them and replace the Hornby washers with these, They are from Alan Gibson and come in a pack with various thicknesses, The Hornby ones do not seem to want to fit onto the axle so I replaced them as you can see in the photos. As you can see I had fitted the Ultrascale pins but then soon after this I ditched them, I had only fixed one side of the wheels with loctite 603 (thankfully) So I could remove the wheels. The plastic Ultrascale uses is surprisingly tough and I had no problems with wear or loose wheels or any issues with them going out of true when refitting but I don't recommend messing unless absolutley nessercery. The loctite 603 is nasty stuff if certainly grips VERY strong. If you get it wrong forget it so be careful. I will also note the Hornby Gear that I refitted to the Ultrascale axle needed to be very slightly drilled wider to fit the axle. like the Hornby washers it would not refit. When I say slightly drilled out I mean very slightly using only my fingers to twist the drill bit. Here are the Ultrascales as you can see I have Drilled them out by hand using a pin vice and taking my time,. The plastic as I mention is very very strong and it took ages to drill out these holes using the molded ones as a guide. But as you can see the 80s Hornby part fits and so will the modern versions. I had to file off the rivets holding the cross frame attachment from the modern railroad motion off a spare chassis I have and then drill the old motion parts out to fit to the cross frame. This again was done by hand with a file in a pin vice. I just put a comedy show on and sweated it out for a few hours and got through threre eventually. The old metal rods were made of much better quality material than these new ones and are very robust unlike the kitchen foil ones of today. Moving on you can see I am now using my modified Railroad Peregrine to help with the build of the chassis for Mallard. Here you can see the 80s Hornby Nickel matches the Ultrascale wheels a treat,. These motion sets might be basic but they are not that bad and they are strong. also the solid conection rod is one piece making the wheels move more realistically that the modern type. I like the robustness here and like with all modelling compromises are always to be made. I am having to delete the little lubricator arm thing (I am not sure what it is ) From the right wheel. But I can live with that. This is my first attempt at a loco chassis conversion and re-wheel. I was going to use these Rivets from Alan Gibson but Instead used Alan Gibson crank pins and bolts. You can see the holes that are drilled out ready to attach to the cross frame. Here you can see the Hornby boss which Needs little mods to it to fit, with the shim washer in place on the axles as seen previously the boss at the back will not collide with the chassis or pickups. The only mod is the file down the oval ear on one side to allow you to set the lead correctly. There will be many times you will have to assemble and de assemble the chassis and motion to make sure this works freely with friction fit only before loctite 603 goes anywhere near... But its worth doing to get it right even if it does take you days. The other advantage to this old motion being used is the return crank arm moves elaborately and realistically where as the later finer type hardly moves at all. I prefer this old type for that reason. Here you can see the Gibson Crank pins holding the motion together these were tigtened and Loctite 603 applied when in situ on the loco to make sure they set in the right place. And here is my 1st atempt at a chassis mod complete and running sweetly. I quartered it by eye and now I just need to add the red paint and the balance weights but right now I put the body on for a few photos and enjoy finally having an LNER A4 with nice shiney thick rimmed wheels. What a lovely site. I do like the blackend ones but I adore the highly polished look. If only Hornby made the wheels like this in the first place it would have been perfect. Here is a comparison with the standard wheels which I must admit look fine for most locos. If they had red to the edge which a few did. Thanks for reading. I hope its not been boring and might be of help to others out there. I will be doing more conversions now and love ultrascale wheels. I also hope to do my first chassis soon. Happy New Year everyone. This is my first modelling post on here this year. For anyone curious about Ultrascale they are a great company and the website is well worth your time reading through http://www.ultrascale.com/ Cheers Rob