Opening the box

So I've just received my kit for a 2mm finescale "08" diesel shunter.

It's in a solid box with a 36-page illustrated instruction booklet and a CD with further illustrations.

It's beautifully presented and obviously superb quality, but I'm initially overwhelmed by the number of parts and the small size of many of them.

one of the frets

tiny (but not cheap) motor


more small parts

OK obviously I should have expected it, working in a small scale, but this is my first loco kit and perhaps it's the idea of building a loco as much as the kit itself that's daunting. (The "08" that appears elsewhere on pictures of my layout is a converted Farish model).

I've always felt as though there's some mystique about building a loco from scratch. I know some people feel similarly about building their own track but I never felt that. These two aspects are what many 2mm-ers believe puts potential modellers off this scale. Well I know making your own track is no big deal once you take the plunge, so I'm hoping that by getting this thing running I'll feel confident to tackle something else in future.