Cheatwell Games 02378 BYO 3D Puzzle Flying Scotsman

============= REASON FOR BUYING =============I originally got this model for an Xmas gift for a train enthusiast colleague, but he fell ill so we gave this as a get well soon present and I got another model for Xmas============= Putting it together =============As it was a gift I didn't open it, but I've got pictures now it's been made and some comments from my colleague.It took him a decent amount of time to put together to warrant the amount paid. I feel there's nothing worse than buying a model that contains 10 odd bits.The only comment he made is the instructions say no tools are necessary, however he said he needed a small knife to cut out the holes required for smaller parts.============= History on the train =============I took this from a certain free Encyclopedia site, but I used this to see what this train was about as I know nothing about this and wanted something that had some historic value in the evolution of trains as my colleague takes this seriously.London and North Eastern Railway locomotive numbered 4468 Mallard is a Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive built at Doncaster, England in 1938. It is historically significant as the holder of the world speed record for steam locomotives at 126 mph (203 km/h).[1]The A4 class was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley to power high-speed streamlined trains. The wind-tunnel-tested,[2] aerodynamic body and high power allowed the class to reach speeds of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), although in everyday service it rarely attained this speed. While in British Railways days regular steam-hauled rail services in the UK were officially limited to a 90 mph 'line speed', pre-war, the A4s had to run significantly above 90 mph just to keep schedule on trains such as the Silver Jubilee and Coronation,[3] with the engines reaching 100 mph on many occasions.[4][5] Mallard covered almost one and a half million miles (2.4 million km) before it was retired in 1963.The locomotive is 70 ft (21 m) long and weighs 165 tons, including the tender. It is painted LNER garter blue with red wheels and steel rims.Mallard is now part of the National Collection at the United Kingdom's National Railway Museum in York.============= CONCLUSION =============Looks great, good price. He's very happy. I'll be adding a review of the Flying Scotsman shortly once he's completed that.

Wow! Having read so many 5star reviews, & having just been on The Flying Scotsman on 13th of March, i decided to give it a go. I am so pleased that i did & the end product is fantastic. I was in no hurry to finish it & took my time to make sure i made no mistakes. Instead of having pieces all over the place i just took out the numbered pieces as needed, eg, diagram 1 you have pieces 17, 38 & 87. Beware! some of the tiny pieces can be difficult to punch out, so take your time. The pieces are well numbered & the diagrams/instructions are very clear & easy to understand. It says the average time to complete the puzzle is 4 hours, that, to me is rubbish, i took no notice of that & did it in MY OWN TIME. On some of the fiddly bits i used a dab of super glue just to make sure it did not move out of shape. Take your time, keep your patience in check & you will be rewarded with an end result that will make you proud(it did me). As i look at it now in the middle of our wall unit it looks nothing like a puzzle, it really does look like a very expensive metal model of The Flying Scotsman. Anybody who loves the age of steam trains & who would like a miniture of the Scotsman, i really recommend you to buy this & build it yourself. I look at it & i say to myself. I BUILT THAT.

Well, I'm mid 50s, and an experienced model maker, and I had problems getting the outer cylinders to fit properly. That, in turn, caused me problems with the front bogie and with a couple of formers that support the fairing over the smoke box. This led on to the main fairing not fitting as easily as it might have done. I think I spent about an hour retrying and easing slots to get these bits together, which may be the main reason the kit took more like 4 hours to build.Also, there were some bits that could easily have been more detailed, like the chimney (no holes rather than the 2 the real locomotive has) and the 2 identical valve gear assemblies, which mean that one of the connecting rods is wrong, since they both end up low, rather than one high and the other low. Similarly, the streamline boiler casing is clearly a series of flats rather than smooth curves, and this shows on a 1/43 scale model.On the positive side, the tender went together really easily, in fact it might have been better to build the tender before the locomotive for practice working with the material, and casual viewers will probably take the base for actual wood rather than printed foam board.Also, the history is well written, particularly the quote from a BBC interview with the driver, Joseph Duddington.

Don’t know what other reviewers are complaining about because it took just 10-15 mins for my 7 yr old to build with a little help on the fiddly bits from me. Absolutely brilliant, my boys loved building it. They used it as part of school project stick to the top of a shoe box lid with fake sea, life boats etc. There is also a Titanic resource pack you can buy which is excellent. Replicas of teal documents, letters pictures etc off the ship. This is well worth the money. A great model BUT not a toy that you can play with.

This 'jigsaw' is very fiddly, which I did expect, but some of the pieces and holes don't even line up, which of course throws the whole thing off. It's a shame because it probably looks good if it was possible to complete it. It says no need for glue on the box, but I think that's the only way I'm going to be able to finish making it.I do not recommend this product.

Makes an excellent scale model - material used is thin black foam coated on each side with a thin gloss plastic film - all parts are beautifully painted on both sides - all cut and scored very precisely - all a perfect fit - used a flat screwdriver to press out the slots - otherwise no tools required - took me about 7 hours to construct - I modified the chimney to lower it and remove the ugly top lugs - stand with track is brilliant - all very strong and rigid - I added real ground coal to the tender top - very pleased - bought another..!