Happy New Year everybody.

I decided on a long rest from modelling, (at least long for me!), over the Christmas break and I’ve not been in ‘The Tank’ for the duration. Since New Year I’ve been attempting to convert music from old tapes into .wav files in the computer ready to burn some cds. I’ve managed to sort out how to do it without any expense but that allows for my having in stock a whole host of audio leads. Mind you it’s time consuming if you want to improve sound quality and save each tune as a single file. I’ll have to be careful to not allow it to become another hobby. Back to the J10 on Friday.

In my last input I noted the loss of part of a smokebox dart. That's been rectified. Prior to that I referred to “…some silicon cooking ‘paper……â€. Since then I’ve realised that many of you may not have met the material I mean, and accordingly I’ve looked up an article I wrote a few years ago for Manchester Model Railway Society. So the input today is a copy of that article which may prove to be rather more useful than “…some silicon cooking ‘paper……â€.!

How do you stop body filler sticking to hardboard?

Too many years ago, when attending a county fair of some description, Margaret, my wife, discovered some rather expensive “Wonder Materialâ€. It was a plastic sheet designed as a non-stick baking liner film.

It did prove to be a “Wonder†material; definitely non-stick and proof against boiling water and the highest of oven temperatures and some of that original sheeting is still in use for Margaret’s baking. The original purchase has indeed been reinforced by at least two further batches.

The material is actually silicon film and is sold by Lakeland Ltd of Windermere (www.lakelandlimited.co.uk). They call it “Magic Non-stick Liner†and you can buy a 10†x 20†sheet for £4.50. A bit pricy perhaps but it truly is Magic! (Note added 11.1.12 - Probably more expensive in 2012!)

My workshop stock of this stuff is made up of Margaret’s throw away off-cuts so there is a good chance that you can get some bits for free too if you play your cards right.

How do I use it? Well if you read my notes about moulding a belpair firebox then pieces of silicon film were placed over the hardboard shuttering faces, which were to be subjected to the resin. There is no chance that the filler will stick to the silicon film.

Its proof too against Araldite and I’ve used it to provide a flat, small work area on which to force two or more Araldited pieces of model against a firm flat surface during curing. Again, the model parts will lift cleanly off the film.

The film is about 0.004†thick and seems to be proof against soldering iron temperatures up to about 400 degrees Celsius so it can be used when soldering pivot pins and the like, keeping the moving parts clear of the solder area.

No pics this time.