Cornholio

I was wondering if anybody could tell me if a coal stage would typically have internal lights, as I'm currently modelling one. Perhaps I'm over thinking things, but I was wondering if gas lighting in particular was avoided due to the risk of fire from coal dust etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Andrew

@Howard Smith, I think this is as far as I'm going to take it for now.

Hi @Howard Smith, Thank you for the kind mention in Friday's WoR newsletter. Unfortunately life got in the way of modelling and I wasn't able to finish in time. You've prompted me to finish it off, the building gained its roof this afternoon. There's still some bits I want to work on though - I'll keep you posted!

@Captainalbino likewise!

Hi Chris, The water is simply PVA pasted over the green coloured print-out from the kit. Canal water should be still/flat. I had some visible brush marks that I wasn't happy with, so I stippled another layer of PVA over the top to give the rippled effect. Maybe it was raining? Regards Andrew

Thanks Grahame, They are from Gaugemaster/Kestrel GMKD75, nine figures for under £3 is a bargain in my book. Andrew

If Kev has the largest entry, mine is surely going to be one of the smallest. My entry is the stairs portion of the latest Scalescenes boxfile layout, but shrunk down to N-Scale. Rather than repeating myself, I've put a build summary over in the Card Modelling Section. Best of luck to everyone that enters, the deadline is fast approaching! Andrew

Some people may have already seen this, as I posted it on the Scalescenes Facebook page last week. I've just entered the staircase part of it into Round 4 of the See It/Make It Challenge, so I've reposted it here on RMWeb in case anyone was interested in how I went about adapting the kit. OK, so this is my N-Gauge reworking of the LY02 Canal Wharf built into an A5 boxfile. Here's a brief summary of how I went about it. I'll also share a few of the "complications" that I faced along the way. I started off by printing the kit at 52% scaling, to give a rough conversion to N-Scale. Following the instructions, I cut out the wharf base layers and fitted these to the boxfile. It turns out that an A5 boxfile is proportionally larger than its A4 sibling. Not a problem though, I simply printed off an extra section of wharf to fill the extra 2" of width. I then kitbashed a 2" wide warehouse using the base layers for "structure A" (the stone building) and textures from the T026a Factory. I continued building, hoping that I'd overcome the biggest hurdle. But no. The side walls of the boxfile are the same height as the A4 version. This means that Structure B (the white building) doesn't fit. This received extensive modification to realign the green doors to the edge of the boxfile, rather than sitting on it. The frontage of the building has been shifted about a ¼" to the left. Every single piece of the kit needed modifying to make it fit. Even then, the clearance between the structure and the far track is very close. The bridge has been stretched to account for the extra 2" depth of the boxfile (something that I should've spotted earlier in the build). Obviously this allowed me to have a much wider canal area. Structure C (red brick) went together without any real headaches. Unfortunately it was too deep for my wharf base and hung over the water! This was resolved by adding a small extension to the front of the wharf. I'm pretty proud of that bit because it doesn't look out of place. If I was to make it again, I would extend the entire wharf forward by about 2cm to improve clearances and also make the entry under the bridge at least a cm wider to allow a bit of breathing room Extra Details: The extra piece of towpath at the front right of the boxfile is made from the canal lock in T018 Narrow boats. Lifebelt and wharf bollards are from Langley Models. Windows are a mix of Brassmasters, Scaleglaze and Sticky Labels. Fencing is the recommended Ratio 246 and boat detailing is TB1 solid 1.4mm tube from Squires. Foliage/Buddleia is homemade from scatters. Light Card is the printout stuck to another sheet of 100gsm paper, Medium card is Cornflake Packet, Heavy is 2 layers of cornflake packet. Glue used was Roket Card Glue. I think that covers everything , but if anyone has any questions I'm happy to help. Andrew

@George Hudson I have a question about your window making technique. Do you make the fine glazing bars by scoring the plastic, then rubbing white paint into the groove? I can't fathom how else you get such fine sharp lines. Thanks in advance. Andrew

Just remember that an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. It's still perfectly possible to buy a copy at a sensible price. I think I paid about £6 or £7 delivered for my copy about a year ago (eBay). Happy Hunting! Andrew

Wow, the canopy looks stunning.

Hi Steve, I've sent you a Private Message. Regards Andrew

My Canon inkjet printer doesn't like collecting OHP film from the paper tray, it always gets itself in a flap, invariably jamming in the process. I now use a thin strip of masking tape along the top edge to attach a carrier sheet of normal A4 paper to the back of the film. This allows the printer to grip the film properly. This idea can be combined with @JimFin's suggestion to print on off-cuts. As far as the printer knows, it's still printing on an A4 sheet. This allows you to use every last scrap of film, should you so desire.

@Dan Griffin Chris Heath has a couple of articles about the Scalescenes cargo ship build on his blog: https://wynyardlanemodels.blogspot.com/2015/08/cargo-ship-revisited.html Lots of construction photos to give you an idea of what's involved. Best Wishes Andrew

Spotted this advert in Model Rail:

@Shanghai Diver Dave Lowery edited "Your Model Railway" during the period in question. I think he is possibly your strongest lead. If you need help getting in touch, send me a pm. Good Luck! Andrew

@Phil Parker shared a tip recently of using a scrap piece of wood as a cutting guide. The thickness of the wood holds the blade perfectly vertical, therefore resulting in a nice straight cut.

Further to previous answers, some retailers carry a limited range of Kingsway kits. The two that I can think of are Morris Models in North Lancing and Harrison Brown (online/shows). The owner of Kingsway, John, is a really lovely guy and his mail order service is fast and efficient. As to difficulty, I would say a little bit more work than a Metcalfe kit but with excellent instructions to guide you. A point to note is the difference in printing methods. Metcalfe print their kits directly onto card and diecut the parts which makes construction quick and easy. Kingsway models are printed onto paper which is pre-pasted to the appropriate thickness of card. You have to do all the cutting. ScaleScenes just supply the design, you do the printing, sticking and cutting.

I don't know John's plans for this kit, but generally speaking, the Hornby Magazine kits appear in retail form a couple of months after the magazine.

Here you go: https://scalescenes.com/Hornby-magazine-low-relief-railway-works/

I spent a pleasant hour this afternoon talking with Witek. His shop is either a dream or a nightmare depending on your point of view. The shop is literally crammed full of stock. There is so much stock that browsing is impossible. Fortunately Witek has got a pretty good idea of what he has and which box it's stored in. I took 10 n-scale wagons off his hands, most of his stock however consists of 2nd hand OO locos. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. There is plentiful free parking opposite the shop and it's only a 2 minute walk from Northfields tube on the Piccadilly line.

Palm trees and sword grass winging their way from China as we speak!

I've just double checked this by turning off my WiFi (therefore no internet connection). I opened the app and I was able to browse and view all my downloaded magazines without any issues. I'm therefore assuming that the app only checks for an active subscription when you download. Point c) is really just a reminder of the legal status of ownership. I guess that boils down to an individual's morality. As for a long-term storage strategy, without an active subscription or if Exact Editions were to disappear, the magazine's will only be stored for the lifetime of your device (eg tablet).

This 'star'.... The screenshot was taken on my Kindle Fire tablet, but the app looks the same on my phone. It may of course look different on your device.

I'm using Railway Modeller as an example of how the "Exactly" Android app downloads magazines for off-line reading. The process will be exactly the same for RMweb Gold Members. I do subscribe to BRM, but through PocketMags, as I've got a cracking deal on it. Clicking on the star underneath the relevant issue will download it for off-line reading. The magazine is then stored on your device for reading on the beach etc. You will see in my example that the September issue is currently downloading (star is incomplete) and that I haven't downloaded the "On the Rails" supplement. Should you wish to free up some space on your device, clicking on a "full" star will give you the option of removing a synced issue. You can of course download and delete issues as many times as you like. To pre-emptively answer a couple of questions.... a) The downloads are in a proprietary file format. They won't work outside of the Exactly app. That means no "backing-up" to your hard-drive or "sharing" issues with friends. It simply won't work. b) If I were to cancel my subscription, then I wouldn't be able to read anything that wasn't already stored on my device. In theory, so long as I didn't delete anything I would still be able to access the downloads though. c) Unlike with Pocket Mags you are NOT buying the magazine to keep, merely paying for access. Please bear this in mind whilst reading point b. d) There is an excellent bookmark feature. This enables you to mark pages that you may wish to refer back to. These are listed on a separate screen meaning you don't need to remember the correct issue. @teaky I'm not aware of any way of downloading to view on a off-line computer/laptop. The desktop version of the Exact Editions website lets you save individual pages/articles but not complete issues. I hope this is helpful to others, I'm no expert but I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have.I Happy Reading, Andrew