Sir TophamHatt

But have uses. Especially as accessory decoders to run lights... But some have them in locos that run fine too.

Although apart from Facebook groups, there seems to be very few forums online about 3D printing in general. One I visited was full of obvious chinese spam. Another UK based one had few posts and fewer replies. Unfortunately the videos for beginners on YouTube were just unboxing and using 3D printers, not particularly showing (simply) what the difference is between resin and the other one and what you can and can't print with either. What is the talk about "screens" and that you may need spares? I'd expect most things to last the life of the product :S What's all this about "washing" too? Do you need to wash every build piece in some IPA? For how long?

Is the Mars 2 Pro just better because it's quicker? £275 is a bit more than I'd be happy spending but don't want to false economy with one. Did that with a static grass applicator - spent £25 and it's not that great. Spent £95 on a better one and it's loads better. Also did the same with a CMX track cleaner and just plumped up the cost to buy it rather than cheaper alternatives. Not disappointed. EDIT: Took a look on Amazon and found the AnyCubic Photon 2K printer for £169. Returns window until 31 January 2021 + prime delivery = bought. I'm mainly looking at small board game pieces but can see me venturing into model railway pieces with this. Now have to figure out how to use it.

It really depends. I connected nearly every piece of track and my layout has ZERO dead spots. It's in a room that sees 10°C up to 20°C. Never had a problem with buckling track either. Next time I build, I will go for soldering every two or three pieces of track. I can always add more if I need to but in my experience, it seems like extra work for no real gain. I think the apparent need to solder every piece of track is nothing more but a myth. Go slow, double check connections and you shouldn't get any short circuit faults.

I'm surprised someone hasn't mentioned some sort of wall air conditioner / heater? The office I worked in had one, which would do heat and cooling. Set the temperature and BOOM, it tries to keep it at that temperature. I was reading a Facebook comment about a guy who said he installs them and they don't cost as much to run as people think. Large industrial ones perhaps so but technology has got a lot better in the last 20 years. He quoted 40p a day for 12 hours of use. While obviously biased, it's still potentially worth looking into. As is one of those thermometers that show the maximum and minimum recorded. This will show you how bad each extreme can get, although would need a full year to do so. But even if you're build, still useful to have.

Would be interesting to see some in action and whether people put this on a separate function or link it to another.

Ahh, the old "wide game" - any game that can be played in a big field. Just a shame the few I played, I can't remember what game it actually was! The only one I can remember involved large boxes. Two teams split into two, each at opposite corners of a square shape. Aim of the game is to swap so all team members are on the opposite side from where they started. The challenge? A large box over your head and body so you can't see but have to hear your team instead. May not sound fun but when people are all crashing in the middle and then walking off in the wrong direction or one guy who just bombed it as fast as he could - it really was quite fun!

Home made. I'd been waiting since about February for a kit from from a retailer that primarily started selling magnetic couplings but despite "ready to send next week" and "packs together next week" and "you'll be the first one we send" - 8 months later, I gave up and got some components together to make my own. Lights: Ali Express - These aren't the exact ones I used but they're the same product (my account doesn't seem to show me the seller I ordered from). I ordered a spool of warm white and a spool of cool white. Estimated 30cm or so per coach, got 6m worth of each for less than £10. The brand I bought was "Elenker" E0008125, but I suspect they're all very similar. Resistors (220R): ebay - check as many sellers will sell for 99p free postage for 20. Resistors (3k): ebay (no link, account doesn't show it ) Bronze Strips: ebay - by far the most 'expensive for what it is' component. I didn't have any to hand or any knowhow of where to buy some cheaper ones from. Bridge Rectifiers: RapidOnline Capacitors: RapidOnline - make sure you get more than 16v. 25V is great and the 1000µF is enough. I was going to go for higher but after a little play, the lower value is fine. They fade slightly when taking them off the track, then about 10 seconds later begin a very slow (20-30 second) fade. Leant heavily on this thread: But it's actually pretty easy to do - @Art Dent explains things very simply and because they show simple diagrams of components and screenshots instead of just a proper electronic diagram, it means I can follow easily. The more crude the drawing, the easier it is for me. Self-built means it's also more flexible than a kit as I can put them together how I want rather than having something pre-built and squeezing that in. I did think of a little piece of board to attach all the components to but decided not to bother (despite it being cheap) and turns out I didn't need it after all.

I really don't want to poop on anyone's fun but fireworks really aren't that exciting. I'm surprised in the last 20 years, they seem to have evolved 0 paces forward. If they did something more exciting than just bang with some colour, great! But most seem to do just that. The most exciting ones have no bang but release some little lights that then whizz off for a few seconds, then fizzle out. I'll be glad when this weekend is over as nobody should be using them then until New Year.

To be fair, it's a photography distortion that makes the lights seem that bright. Try it yourself - very (almost pitch) black room, turn on a small light and point it at the camera. Take the photo. The light will look a lot brighter as the camera tries to balance the light it sees with the surroundings. The shutter needs to be open longer so it can gather as much detail from the near on black surroundings but it also needs to be open only a short time as the light it sees is pretty bright (in comparison to the surroundings). I don't particularly plan on using these in the dark, but will take a photo in the light they would usually run in. It'll be completely different. But (and I don't mean to come across as rude here) I'm asking how to do it not whether I should . I'll try some of the methods discussed above and report back if I manage it. It'll be especially interesting to see what the MK3s are like - two sets, one MML (old livery) the other the latest Swallow livery - both from a window glazing point of view and a bodyshell point of view.

Spray the area you want to ballast with water + a drop of washing up liquid. Any old spray bottle will do. Don't worry about getting the track wet. This is the bottle you see Richard using. When the water has soaked in, it'll break through the dryness of the ballast and allow the glue mix to soak in too. The glue mix should be made of 50% water + 50% PVA. Some use a drop of washing up liquid. I didn't. When ballasting, use a brush to sweep the ballast. Then use a teaspoon and bang it on the railhead a few times. The ballast is likely to fall into the cracks and off the sleepers and rails. I used a big syringe to drop your glue/water mix around the track area making sure I got it inside and outside of the rails. If it "rolls off" ballast, it's because you didn't wet that bit of ballast before. Don't worry. Allow it all to dry and come back to it a few days later to repeat. DO NOT TRY AND MOVE THE BALLAST WHEN YOU HAVE DONE THIS. You will just make a mess. It's a pretty permanent fixing and although you can soak it in water to get it off, the ballast won't be able to be used again. However, you can "rub" any misplaced ballast off the track or sleepers when it's dry. It's worth checking out a product called Copydex. PVA dries hard, but Copydex will dry with a rubber-like fashion. This means you can "peel" it off the track when you want to re-use it. Either way, the track will look a little used. Mine generally dries in a 24 hour period. Re-watch Richard's video. Also worth looking at Chadwick Model Railway. Charlie also has a video when he ballasted. You'll see similar techniques used.

Correct! I've added lights to two coaches and the light bleed is more noticeable since someone pointed it out. The last two I've now painted as a barrier to help stop the light bleed. The photo looks a lot worse than it actually is as photos seek the light but you get the idea. I have 16 MK3s to light up so guess I may have to employ the same painting of the insides. Haven't opened one so don't know about the glazing as yet. This is a photograph. The lights look twice if not nearly three times as bright here as the camera I used was searching out for any light possible in a pretty much black room. This is how photography works, especially with a relatively simple camera. I've added a slight note to the opening post that makes this more clear

Another day nearly over. Been a tough week with the little one and fireworks waking him. Put that together with teething, desperation to crawl and a lack of interest in actually sleeping means a whole lot of tough times. However, on the up, off for two days, in for three days, off for at least 7 days (at the moment). That'll do me just fine thank you.

Hard to see but here is a photo. I'm not sure masking off the inside would work as it's a huge amount of work as I'd have to mask each window. The glazing is glued from the bottom. The small long grooves are fairly fragile.

I love selling through the GSP. Send it off to Lichfield and as soon as it gets there, responsibility is diminished as eBay repackage and send on so if they damage it, it's up to them. Luckily, never had a problem on the four or five I've sent.

There's also a documentary worth watching called: The Great Hack - a documentary about Cambridge Analytica and how much we're "tracked" online.

I think this is it. While I'm happy to keep the boxes for stock, am I going to sell it in my lifetime? No plans to at the moment. Ergo, customise away. I guess some customisations (IE, internal lighting, weathering, passengers) may actually increase their value from the initial purchase anyway.

I'm disappointed no further 158 liveries. But I guess there's always next year.

I'm painting up some of the inside of some MK1 coaches (to stop light bleed). The first two, I didn't remove the glazing from inside and went carefully. But I wasn't careful enough and got some on the glazing. Then when removing it with some tweezers and tissue, I made a small scratch The next two (and subsequent 16), I'm looking at removing the glazing. I'm a bit afraid of snapping it though. Loosened one bit on the end but it seems inside it's all joined by some sort of zig zag effect. The only way I can think of doing it is purposefully cutting the glazing into parts instead of trying to get the whole lot out in one go. Doesn't help that there's little lugs near the top of the coach roof that stops me pressing it out of the window frames. Any advice?

Gonna get chilly tonight. Have I prepared the garden? Well... I guess whatever needs to be inside is inside. Just need to empty and shut off the outdoor tap.

Wow, didn't think they were still around!

Evening A pretty good day I think. Made a great roast dinner, now settling down with a glass of wine, Christmas pudding we bought two years ago and watching Ready Player One. I'm learning to really appreciate good days.

Here's the photo of my takeaway container storage: I have 12. They also hold: Lead weights Rolling Road, black tac and an LED tester. Couplings. Luckily they fit pretty well in the drawer.

What a busy day at work. Sort of glad as it makes the shift go quick. Especially more good as I'm off for 3 days, in for 2, then off for 2 + potentially 7! Sad that the heating bill has doubled the last month. I think I must have mis-typed the last reading as through September we only used £10 worth of gas. October is nearly £30 :/