chrisveitch

2323 is a splendid piece of work and the last few photos show modern 2mm at its best (in my opinion...). I thought the latest Magazine cover with the loco on Drws-y-nant was a work of art, not least because Ruabon-Barmouth is one of my favourite locations. Many thanks @Nick Mitchell for providing us with inspiration, and hopefully a bit of aspiration!

An absorbing account of progress as usual, Gerry - a shame that I never got to see Foxcote on the exhibition circuit. Wells is a bit of a trek for me but good to see that Mick made the trip to represent the region. I'll have to wait until you bring Tucking Mill suitably far North... It was good to see your 2mm empire getting a mention in the new Pictorial Atlas of the S&D. The S&D isn't my usual tipple as it's one part of the UK I've never visited, but I have to say that I bought this magnificent new book on the back of my interest in the route being kindled by your modelling work. It's an expensive and weighty tome but I've not been disappointed. Like the Forest of Dean, I find the "rural industrial" scene there much more interesting and appealing than the sometimes bleak industrial panoramas which were created up here in the North East.

Not exclusively. Slightly further south here in Sunderland, I noticed my mum’s neighbour adjusting his outside Christmas tree lights dressed in a tee shirt and pyjama bottoms yesterday. My car was registering -4C at the time. And apologies for encouraging the thread drift, Jerry. I'll confess that I'm mesmerised by the productivity of yourself, Dr Nick, Kevin, etc. (well, most other members to be honest) in comparison to my sloth-like lack of it. Perhaps less time on the forum and more time at the (now uncomfortably cold) bench would help. I no longer even have the excuse of full-time employment to hold me back so really need to get my finger out.

Having decided to throw in the towel with my own home 3D printing efforts, can anyone advise me on the best printing services to use for one-off items for our type of application (i.e. usually very small items those requiring and smooth surfaces and fine detail)? I did try Shapeways some years ago but the results were mediocre at best and could hardly be described as perfectly smooth, and I believe their pricing structure has now changed to make them pretty uncompetitive. I'm assuming that UK-based companies are the best to go for given the difficulty of getting anything in and out of Europe nowadays, but I might be wrong. Thanks in advance, Chris

Update - I retrieved my tooling yesterday. The liquidator is attempting to write to anyone who still has tooling with them, but they think there are about 350 customers to inform and obviously they've no guarantee that contact addresses etc. are up to date. The last date for retrieval of anything from the factory will probably be 1st November, after which the contents will be disposed of and the premises handed back to the landlord.

I had some of my tooling with them and have since been in touch with the liquidators since I was not (along with many other customers, apparently) informed of the closure by PEC Ltd and only came across the news a couple of days ago. The process is being handled by Matthew Hill from the Birmingham office of PKF Smith Cooper who can be contacted on 0121 236 6789. I spoke to Matthew today and he suggested that I should pass on his details to anyone who has tooling with them and wishes to arrange to retrieve it. What remains in the company's premises apparently seems to be well marked and documented and it didn't take Matthew long to find my tooling amongst the remaining material. The current date for final clearance of the premises and disposal of what remains seems to be the beginning of November.

Many thanks for your help guys, which has certainly given me a few ideas. @Jan W thanks for the epoxy information - we have a very good boat supplies place locally which I'm certain will have this or something equivalent.

This is a very nice build, Bryn - even though I also initially thought it was in real time… :-( The paintwork is beautifully crisp, I’m most impressed with the wasp stripes having had less success myself with water slide versions.

This isn't really even a 2FS-specific question, but as it concerns a DJLC baseboard and I was most impressed by the entries at Derby it seems like a good place to ask. I'm designing a small layout around a DJLC baseboard and am now happy with the idea of the layout and logic behind it, and I'm at the stage of mocking up a 1/4 scale model to see how to proceed. I'd like a fully enclosed design (or whatever they're called) i.e. with a proscenium arch, side wings, overhung pelmet for fill-in lighting etc. as per Rice's "Cameo" book and many other designs. My doubts centre around the actual order of construction and the ability to access and work on the scenic bits "inside the box". The options seem to be: 1. Building it as a single structure and maybe only fitting the back sheet and backscene right at the end (or making them somehow removable, which seems tricky - especially at curved backscene corners). This has the benefit of strength and the disadvantage of sometimes difficult access; 2. Building the baseboard and casing separately and attempting to make one fit seamlessly (and removably) inside the other. The benefit is that the baseboard is fully accessible for track, scenic and building work. This was what I've tried previously and the casing ended up as a large flimsy box with a very big hole in the front - this was unsuccessful enough to motivate me to scrap the lot and I've not tried since; 3. Some sort of other compromise where sides and or ends are removable but will fit seamlessly enough to look OK. How have people approached the problem? I hope my explanation the question makes sense - any views or suggestions are welcome. Regards, Chris

Thanks Kevin - I'll hopefully be along. Is it my faulty imagination, or did there used to be a downloadable calendar entry for these? Regards, Chris

Thanks Chris - it's a few months since I worked on these and my confusion was exacerbated by forgetting what I'd done previously. I'll not embarrass myself by elaborating! Chris

I have a (possibly naive) question regarding interpretation of the instructions for the 2-382 Peco 10’ wheelbase wagon chassis replacement etch. I’m working my way through a batch and I’ve come unstuck on bufferbeams. They state “Solder into place, ensuring they are accurately located over the buffer holes, and that the etched channel section faces inwards in the case of the steel bufferbeam.” (my emphasis). Am I right in thinking this means that the outer (visible) face is flat and the channel forms a void in the end of the bufferbeam? If so, what does this represent? Thanks in advance, Chris

Great work Peter, and I’m really looking forward to Easter next year. I’m always impressed with the original presentation of some 2FS layouts which use the scale to do what can’t be done effectively in anything larger, and this is surely one of the finest examples. The Derby show was a rich seam of inspiration of such things, although I now wish I’d paid more attention to that ingenuous fiddle yard system which I didn’t realise was associated with York…

There's (probably) nothing like the magic of an early morning gravity train - although this one is pictured before the "gravity" bit...obviously. Incidentally @2mmMark, British Oak was one of the layouts I was really looking forward to seeing at Derby and to be honest I didn't take that much of it in as we were too busy talking about this stuff!

...hopefully I'll still be active on the FR for your 2028 trip then! It was surprising how many people I talked to at Derby had an interest in the FR, I didn't expect that from a standard gauge modelling group.