Hello.
Now I have had a good nights sleep and time to reflect on the show yesterday it was definately worth posting an entry about it.
The show was fantastic! I had a brilliant time and couldnt fault anything. I have a Thank you list as long as my arm but here are some worth mentioning...
Firstly a bit thank you goes to Mark (Mitziblue) for all the help, not only with driving and his van but also for helping out on the layout during the day.
Secondly Andy H, Bryn, and Pixie for sett
Hello.
After struggling a bit soldering the point rodding stools on Friday evening my mind started to think of an alternative solution to holding the bits together while I solder them. As per normal I ended up spending pretty much all of Friday night/Saturday morning lying awake in bed trying to think of a new jig and I got an answer in the early hours of Saturday.
After a few sketches (above) my milling machine was out and a new jig was made. The rest of this weekend has pretty muc
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After finding out and purchasing some 0.4mm square Nickel Silver wire from MSE at Railex a short while ago I have been itching to rethink how to represent the point rodding on Highclere and as I would like to get the point rodding in place before I (re)ballast the layout I made an effort tonight to knock together another jig to help solder the point rodding stools onto the wire...
The photos above show my results. Now I know the wire is a little overscale for 2mm (it works
Hello.
I thought I would record what has happened today as it once again didnt go exactly according to plan...
What was supposed to be a quick couple of hours job to wire up the station lights on the goods shed end of the platform kind of turned into something that still hasnt quite been finished off....
The first thing is the original holes I drilled in the platform came through the underside of the baseboard directly onto one of the supports for the legs so I couldnt get near it to
Hello.
Its common knowledge that after a low there is alway a high and I am not different. I have managed to fit in quite a bit of modelling again this weekend!
Firstly Saturday was once again spent in the company of Mark at his workshop and this time it was time to work on the fiddleyard board at the back of the layout which will hold the cassettes. As with the semi-circular end boards the fiddleyard board was supplied as an amazing 'flat pack' from Alan S of 2mm fame and went together
Hello.
I forced myself today to get the joint between the two scenic boards on Highclere finished off. I have been putting it off now for too long and it was slowing progress on the layout (as if it could get any slower!).
So I can now say with some confidence that I can now run an engine from one end of the layout to the other...
Its a really nice feeling knowing that I am now comfortable with the track, points, and joins and now I can start to look forward once again, alth
Hello.
For a while now I have had tucked away the bits for Highcleres fiddleyard which were very kindly made for me by Alan S from the 2mm SA who is a genius when it comes to machining things on a CNC machine. The fiddleyard bits are all made from plywood and quite literally slot together, and after a kind offer from Mark C (mitziblue on here) to help assemble them at his workshop it was an oppertunity too good to refuse.
The above photo shows the parts for the 2 semi-circular end b
Hello.
I am getting a bit frustrated with Highclere. So much so that today my mind has begun to think about taking it round the local tip and getting rid of it all. I have now been fighting with the joint inbetween the two baseboards for several days (solid) and am still no further forward than when I started which is getting really annoying.
I know its probably down to me having a bad day but thinking about the layout in general its a BIG layout and I just dont have the room for such a
Hello.
As Highclere is due to be on display at the RMWeb members day on the 2nd July it is about time I got at least the trackwork on the scenic boards finished off so I can run things at the show. The plan at the moment is to take just the two scenic boards which will hopefully give a flavour of the layout, even if it wont be finished.
So today I finishyed off the trackwork on the second board and got things running along it. I am now happy with all the track with the exception of a lit
Today has been mostly spent doing a bit of batch building and producing all the bits I will need to complete all the signals for Highclere. There are still a few more bits to make on the lathe but I have now finished the majority of the lathework for them. As you can see from the above photo I am making good use of the telescopic abilities of the K&S range of Brass tubing which is available from many modelling outlets, to give you an idea of what is what in the photo the smallest tube on the
Hello.
As I am still having some minor problems with the servo controllers I took the oppertunity to make up a little etched kit I had purchased from N Brass Locos a while ago, mainly to go with the little diesel engine.
The kit is not really that difficult to make with the hardest bit being the seats, my advice would be not to bother with the etched ones in the kit and make some out of plasticard. The only other modifications I did was to add pin-point bearings and fit some Z Gauge
Hello.
Its time for a little update to tell you all about what I have been upto...
Firstly I have now started a new job which is good and a bit of a relief! Of course the down side is it has taken a large slice of my spare time so right now modelling time is limited mostly to weekends.
The trackwork on Highclere is nearlly there. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out a problem with the MERG servo controllers though which has been slowing me down. For some reason at th
Hello.
The trackwork is slowly comming to an end for now. Board two now has all the track back together to a standard that I am much happier with. Next on the list is to wire the new track bits together with the existing old stuff and then test it all out with an engine. So far the wagons seem to have no trouble moving along the track at all.
The picture below didnt really come out (as its difficult to get enough light on the layout where it is) but it has a feeling of moon light t
Hello.
I think its about time for an update, there are a couple of things worth mentioning..
Firstly progress on Highclere is slow but it hasnt stopped. I have, and still am working through the trackwork on the second board making sure that there are no obvious faults along its length.
Its difficult to make out in the above photogragh but I am now about 2/3 the way along the track on the board. Most of the track on this board has been replaced with only the point really left but
Hello.
This is another one of those random blog entries that dont seem to fit into any scheme that I might have!
I ordered a short while ago a little NN3 diesel engine body kit produced by the Z Scale club UK as in my big plan I would like to have a go at some narrow gauge stuff sometime in the future. The kit is designed to fit a Marklin Z Scale chassis which I am planning on making a replacement for sometime in the future (no doubt it will be another ramdom blog entry!) but I had a few
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On the way back from the Newbury Show yesterday I decided to pop over to Highclere Station as it was 10 mins drive away. Apart from ending up with very wet and muddy shoes (it was a bit of a swamp there!) I managed to get a few more photos, mainly of the trees without leaves but also some more of the bits left there...
I hope they are reconisable!
Anyway, feeling a bit inspired from seeing Witney and Avonwick I also made a start on the second board trackwork....
Morning
I have now got the trackwork on the first board to a standard that I am happy with. Its taken about a week to get it to this standard but I really feel it has been worth it. The trackwork on any layout its so important, is there any point having a layout that looks fantastic but has no end of problems running anything?
The above photo shows pretty much the work that I have done, it has been a case of tweaking and tweaking again until I could get my pannier tank engine with
Hello
Finally I have faced my fear of the trackwork on Highclere. As mentioned in my last blog entry I really needed to get back on with the layout as it had been untouched since July last year mainly due to the poor running of the layout.
This time I have approached the track with a 'no compromise' kind of thinking and have started working through the first board. I have been checking things like track gauge, track joints, and how level the track is and I have been surprised how bad it
Me again
I have some progress to report, both on Elvis and also the layout (believe it or not!).
Since the last posting about the banana I have finished of the painting. It has been varnished with a satin varnish and now I have made a start on the glazing.
I dont like that picture because it is a very cruel enlargement but it shows the paint and the glazing so far. The cab windows have been glazed with Microscale Micro Kristal Klear after a tip-off from Mark and Steve at the Ox
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I have spent this morning finishing off the cattle dock as I seem to be collecting unfinished projects!
I have tried to make it as dirty and unloved as possible, please let me know if it looks right.
Missy
ADDITIONAL:
Steve posted a comment that the cattle dock looked a little too clean so with thanks to Steves advice, below are a couple of photos with a little more mud added...
M.
Hello
One of the things I decided to do with the cattle dock was to make the railings just like the real thing and feed the bars through the posts. In an earlier post somewhere I made up a little jig so I could drill the holes through the posts at the correct spacing. It was all designed to use 0.5mm square posts and 0.3mm round wire for the railings.
To start with I thought plastic would be fine to use for the posts. 0.5mm square plastic is easy to get hold of plus the fact that its ve
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For the second year now at the St Albans show I was there with bits from my 2mm modelling doing a demo. I always enjoy myself doing demos at these shows and this year was no different.
I like the St Albans show, it is nicely just after the new year so its a welcome break in the drudgery that is January. The show itself this year had a nice selection of N Gauge layouts which I enjoyed. Unfortunately once again at a show I struggled to spend much money leaving with just a few bits a
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Its about time for a quick update. Things havent really gone as well as I would like but I am still getting a few things done...
1. Q1 Revisited.
I never managed to get the Q1 to run well enough the first time around to be totally happy with it, so after finishing the 42/52xx I made a start reworking a few bits.
I 'salvaged' a couple of gears from a tiny servo I had in a box and decided to redo the little reduction box I originally fitted to the engine to lower the dr
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Still avoiding Elvis I have now made a start on a few jigs I will need in the future. I find jigs are so important as it makes life so much easier, especially in 2mm scale.
The first came from the need to get my Q1 running much better. One of the main problems with the engine is the driveshaft I originally made isnt really a very good one. Its made from a length of steel wire which has loops bent on each end of it, the problem is the loops arent really good enough so it causes the
