Treasure Girl is of brass and white metal construction on a LGB chassis. Although small she has digital sound as well as lights and smoke unit.

 

Having completed a couple of cheapo conversions in plasticard and wood I fancied trying my hand at making a brass body shell. I'd not attempted anything like this since an abortive effort in 3mm scale at age 14. I reckoned that this time I had a better tool kit and if all else failed I could cry for help on the Forum. Another reason for doing the job in brass was that I like a body with plenty of curves...

 

The donor loco was this Spremberger that I think had come from a digital starter set. I know some find this loco cute but it always looked to me that it had been punched in the face. Having used it to experiment with weathering techniques I decided the time had come for a radical makeover.

 

These are some of the tools I used to cut and drill the brass. I know some experts can perform wonders with only basic hand tools but I'm not one of them. In case my wife sees this I should add that I did cover the dining table with a sheet of ply before actually cutting anything on it.

 

 

The first job was to get the body off and try the LGB sound unit for size. I had a vague idea of what I wanted the loco to look like but had to keep revising the design to get everything to fit.

 

 

The footplate was cut out and tried for size. The tricky bit was making sure that I had allowed for the lights and retaining screws.

I decided to retain the plastic bunker unit because it nicely concealed the lighting board - and the opening coal hatches are neat too. The joy of a freelance design is that parts could be shaped to suit.

Starting to take shape now. All the white metal parts were bought from GRS. The LGB smoke unit is a perfect fit inside the funnel and the lamps fit nicely over the existing bulbs.

The tropical roof is removable. The 'legs' swivel in bits of tube soldered to the roof and locate into more bits of tube fixed to the bodywork.

 

A bit of testing was called for to make sure it all worked.

The body was sprayed with etch primer followed by satin black.

Nameplates and vanity builders plates were glued on.

 

Finally here is the finished loco hard at work.

 

The end result is not hugely powerful but looks suitably tropical. It is crying out to weathered but i can't bring myself to do it...not just yet anyway.