Apart from 3 of the 4 wheels on the front pony truck being loose in the box (Athearn check your quality control!) what a fabulous model, the Tsunami is such and improvement on the MRC and the detail level is very high.
However a few (to me) glaring issues... the tender, trailing and pony truck wheels have all been chemically blackened, but are still seriously shiny! This is not that uncommon on models nowadays but what is unforgivable to me is the bare metal shiny axle ends poking out the centre of not only the pony truck but the driving wheels!
This I feel is ridiculous from a manufacturer as big as Athearn and puts a dampener on what is otherwise a great model.
Below are pictures of the 2 minute fix I made to greatly improve the look.
Before:
After
I think you'll all agree an essential task.
The other main improvement is the fitting of a Kadee #148 on the rear of the tender!
There are issues with the tender coal load which I will address in a future post.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
