Accurascale Deltic.

I succumbed to this after literally years looking at the website on the progress Accurascale were making with this long awaited project which was heralded as being the best Deltic ever produced. The Deltic is one of those iconic diesels that replaced steam and took British Rail passenger traffic into the 80s when the HST's took on that role. It is popular with many railway enthusiasts so the model had to be special to meet up to the makers claims. Have those claims been fulfilled in the final model? Well like many others who have received their models you cannot be anything but impressed. The packaging is superb. The accompanying literature is fully detailed and comes complete with a sheet of alternative head codes. The model itself is hefty at about 800g or just under two pounds for those of us with long memories. As you start looking at the model itself you realise this is something else. For the price or even less than the price of some Hornby and Bachmann locos you get a level of detail I have never seen on a mass produced model.

It looks great but start moving in to see just how detailed this is.

Sprung buffers compliment the model but things like the finesse of the windscreen wipers, the sliding cab windows, the way the door is correctly recessed are all things that you really do not find that well done on other models.

Move in closer still and you see the chains that run between the bogies and the body which I have never seen modelled before. You also see the manufacturers plate above the loco number and through the window the dtail inside the engine compartment.

However the biggest surprise is the cab. My camera is not good at close up shots but this photo at least shows the level of detail just in the cab. Regulator, recessed dials, doors for the electrical cabinets. If there were such a thing as a 4mm real life driver I think they would be fully at home in that cab!

I have the DCC sound version and the sound of the real Napier engines is fully captured. They really have a unique tone.

Any downsides? Well I have to be honest and say on unpacking there were a couple of small detail parts that needed to be reattached. After some running I have also collected four other detail parts that need to be reattached. And this is the quandary. If we want models this well detailed they are going to be fragile and parts will fall off if they are used which is something your 1980 Hornby Deltic would be hard pressed to replicate as there was only the body moulding with no other detail to fall off. 

I am not sure where I stand on this quandary but for the moment I am just going to enjoy this model and appreciate the detail it has.