Chubber

The walls are supposed to 'slope back'... it is called 'Batter' and is usually at a slope of 1 in 6 to 1 in 10. It adds to the strength of the structure allowing less materials to be used. Doug

Oh Justin! Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I have rubbed my shellac'd surfaces with a green pan scourer to give a little 'key' for gluing, etc. Look here... https://thechelseascrolls.com/tag/lac-beetle/ More power to beetle poo! Doug

I'm sure you have cottoned on, but hope you had some methylated spirit to hand to wash out your brushes..... Doug

There are modern knotting mediums, (in case someone is wondering what it is for, it is used to paint over knots in joinery softwoods so that the resin (think turpentine) doesn't find its way through subsequent coatings of oil-based paint finishes) which are a clear plastic like coating.You need an alcohol based preparation of lac beetle wing cases or the modern equivalent. Knotting is generally brown in colour, but French Polish of similar formulation may be had in colours as pale as cream, wherein the particles are bleached before use. 'Button Polish' is another stable formulation, once available in appropriately small bottles! . Doug

I can't comment on the kits in question, but several years ago I built a lasered wooden signal box kit for a magazine review which included interior detailing in lasered card. I should have realised when pushing the 'levers' into the slots with difficulty that the PVA glue I was using was making them swell up, and when I used water based acrylic paint on them they swelled up to a scale 4" square! I suspect the 'primer' may indeed be a type of varnish designed to minimise the uptake of moisture from finishing paints. Perhaps it might be wise to try out your finish on a scrap bit of card first, or, take a copy of the German instructions to your nearest foreign language night school, and follow an attractive young lady into the Modern German class with a request for a translation! Good luck, Doug

George, I have had Roket card glue in a Metcalfe applicator for over 12 months with no ill effect. Doug

That's not something that would worry me to much, it is supposed to confer rigidity, after all. Back in 2007 when living in SW France I made two scratchbuilt buildings using card and paper with shellac as a sealer and surface treatment, they went to the Warley show as part of a trade stand. I still have them and they are just fine. I used 'knotting', as I was too lazy to dissolve shellac nibs in alcohol in the time-honoured way. Just as a couple of 'funnies', herewith a a little bench etc, made from cartridge paper treated with several coats of shellac before being cut out and joined up. It scales up to boards about 1 1/2" thick, and the interior deatils for a Stationmasters office, the chair is made from layers of very thin card, of the sort found in new shirt wrapping, also treated with shellac. It keeps dampness out of little things like this so that they don't change shape with variations on humidity. I look forward to seeing some of your buildings, Doug

Perhaps securing the thread with shellac/knotting would have proved more successful as it is spirit based, and provided care was taken in the application of a water based acrylic paint it should not be affected by the painting stage. It will also confer a certain degree of toughness to the card/paper, sufficient to allow gentle sandpapering if needed at any stage. Hope this might help in future, Doug

....whilst you are out shopping, perhaps find a nice thick-walled carboard box to cut out a circular/eliptical template for the big circle/elipse, pin it down and work the track round it, using drawing pins between the sleepers to hold it in place as you go. LNER4479s idea is really worthwhile, as is soldering the end fishplate joints... Save the cost of Traksettas, I think you will have a lot of extra spending to do, my 'little girl' is 40 next week, it never stops! Good luck! Doug

Hi, Victor, I too realised my eye/hand co-ordination is not what I hoped it would be for painting steel strapping etc, so now I use artist quality waterproof gel pens. They make painting cab window rims and the odd handwheel or clack easier too as they come in metallic colours too. Watching with interest, Doug

Must have missed this? Here's one for consideration, in Greywell, Hampshire.

Thank you for your Christmas wishes, John, it's deffo Yuletide now! Settling into a new house after 15 years is difficult, and now that I have a 'railway room', albeit not on the same scale as Dewshire, do you know, I can't make my mind up what to do..... Fools rush in, etc., so best wait and see. I'll raise a large glass of S.L.W. to you and my YMR companions of all these years on the 25th, kep safe, Doug

'Photocare', a print and photographic outlet in Fore Street, Ivybridge 01752 896959 now also sell Hornby , Warhammer paints, plastic models and are soon to be stocking Peco stuff. I hope the proprietor, Tim Salter expands his stock as he's only a five minute walk from Chez Nous. Doug

Scrub'em with a toothbrush and blue window cleaner, works very well. Another tip, don't use tissues/loo paper to wipe your brushes etc, it's full of minute fluffybits (a technical expression...), use an old cotton hanky or piece of old worn out pillowcase or similar. Don't know if IPA would work, might just dilute it and leave traces. (I presume you are not going to use India Pale Ale!?) Vallejo acrylics are great, since starting to use an airbrush last year they are my preferred paint. I had some disasters with Humbrol. Doug

Spikey, there are plenty of 'just standing around figures' in the Dapol set, plus, the plastic is very easy to bend to repose them, or to chop and modify. I know I keep trotting this link out but Dapols, for their price are a good introduction to figure painting. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=744659 Alternatively, here, http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/21802-earl-of-devon-phase-iia-interiors-the-snug/ from post 7 to show how easily you can make the Dapol figures do what you want them to do. Best wishes, Doug

Have a look at some old VHS cassettes if you can find them...The 'grippy' bits on the upper and lower surfaces are good representative surface. Doug

Agree completely. Can be stippled in to slightly textured surfaces with a hogs-hair brush, too. Doug

I am unable to comment on the modelling aspect, not having built such a kit, but with regard to the 'white paint' question, a photograph in 'The Wallingford Branch Line' by Karau and Turner, ISBN 0 96867 10 X clearly shows Cholsey and Moulsford station (on the GWR main line Maidenhead to Didcot) as having a white edged platform in 1929. Perhaps 9-12" wide, and, incidentally painted only on the horizontal surface, not the vertical edge. I believe that the 'pea-souper' fogs that parts of the U.K. suffered from at the time due to the heavy use of coal fires for domestic heating were severe enough to warrant the edges of plat forms to be clearly marked! Hope this helps, Doug

I think that thought ought to be given to whether or not bottle beers will be the greatest output of Flann's Flavourful Brewery or cask ales, distributed locally by horse dray. Bottling plants might take of a lot more space [supposition only]? Neddies need stabling...? Hmm, Doug

A quick note to say the textured roof finish was achieved by printing out that portion of the model on fine textured watercolour paper and the chimney pots by wrapping strips of newspaper around cocktail sticks wrapped in cling film then 'twizzled' in thick acrylic paint between thumb and fore-finger. If the 'phone rings in 'mid-pot' ignore it.... Doug

Let me see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/97427-scalescenes-edwardian-school-to36/ Does that work? Let me know, Doug

My vernier and modelling stuff are in one (or maybe two)out of 54 cardboard boxes. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. .... (Bovril was also an ex-pat contraband item ) Doug

Aah! 'Packeto-Cornoflako' at its best is the card from large (1kg) Kelloggs cornflake boxes, the interior surface of which is a good white finish, which... a. Goes through most ink jet printers without demur b. And may be cut to an A4 size, C. Does away with one 'print and glue to thin card' process. As a one-time long term expat, annual duty visits to Pater et familiar included restocking with a dozen or so of the same. The best-buy dates extend to over 12 months! Being primarily an 'export' or 'catering' size, the card must confirm to more stringent packaging regulations than those set down for domestic use. Stocked by larger supermarkets. Another packaging worth seeking out is the card boxes of 'Barilla' pasta, with a variagated inner surface of marbled brown which lends itself to stone lintels etc..but many of the foreign pastas have the same boxes. One box will keep you in window-cills, lintels and structural stone components for life. HTH Doug

As I have grown older I found joint pain in my knuckles has made the combination of a S&M scalpel handle and mounting board an unwelcome proposition so switched to larger Stanley snap-off knives for card, reserving scalpels for trimming flash from plastic models etc.. In an effort to lessen the physical effort of cutting I deliberately set out to build a Scalescenes school building using 1.30mm white art card and 0.6mm white card (instead of the recommended 2mm and 1mm) and a small snap-off knife with considerable success, the thin card cutting through in almost one pass. John Wiffen now specifically recommends this type of knife. I made due allowances when 'stacking' components or used 3mm balsa wood to bulk out chimneys and found that lengths of components needed little or no adjustment. When our house move is complete and my 'pooter is running again I'll post some piccies if anyone is interested. The thin card is virtually the same thickness as Packet0-Cornoflako. I might have posted it on RMWEB as 'A Victorian School'. Doug

I find that gluing the texture paper to the matt side of Paketo Cornoflako works well, because, as the stick glue dries, the tension in the shiny side resists the pull of the drying adhesive. If you have ever wallpapered (another dying art?) you'll know that you must leave the pasted paper to soak long enough to let it become both flexible and stretchable. The same applies to texture papers. Incidentally, I have always had good results when I choose to cut down the Scalescenes printouts to smaller, more manageable pieces rather than pasting a whole A4 sheet. Be aware though that John Wiffen cleverly arranges some components so that one continuous cut will cut the borders of more than one element, so don't miss out on that feature of his print outs. As always a wall paper roller will press paper to card far more evenly than the average 12inch/1foot paw! Good luck, Doug