Ian Rathbone

Do you mean like this? Scratch built in 7mm scale by Bill Davis. Not an easy livery to paint. Ian R

I painted this Millwall Extension Rly loco (P4 gauge) some time ago. It was scratch built by Paul Berntsen in New Zealand, who solved the wheel problem by making his own! Ian R

I have a number of Hornby-Dublo locos, which must be between 60 - 70 years old, and none has any Mazak rot. I can only hope that Hornby, and the other manufacturers, are tightly specifying the alloy to be used, and checking that it is being used. Why do I have H-D? Well, I just kept my original models and my children & grandchildren played with them but, sadly, none retained an interest. I have been known to repaint some of the locos and coaches. Ian R

Any domestic lime scale remover will remove the tarnish. I use Viakal but there are many others. Ian R

The origin - one of the RODs as shipped to France. Plain black, including buffer beams, Westinghouse fitted, and with French pattern buffers. The only colour on this 7mm scale model is the dirty pine cab floor. Built by Mike Edge from his own etches.

Your printed loco looks very good but one thing spoils it, in my opinion. The boiler bands are far too thick - in real life they are about 2mm thick so in 7mm scale they would be about 2 thou thick (sorry about the mix of units but in 7mm 1mm in real life is very close to 1 thou on the model). It is best to have no bands at all as a lining transfer is thick enough, and if you are not lining it then a thin strip of Sellotape is thick enough. Another problem with the bands is that they are generally too narrow, as it is virtually impossible to cut transfer lining exactly to scale width, so there is usually a bit of overhang which is unsightly or liable to damage. Ian R

I was going to add to the TT topic a week ago but life intervened. Firstly, back to basics. When Hornby Dublo chose 4mm:1ft in the late 1930s it had absolutely nothing to do with the size of motors, that is a myth. It may have been a factor in the 20s but not in 1937. They were planning to introduce an A4, a freelance 0-6-2T and a Duchess but, in the event, the Duchess did not appear until after WW2. Now, British locos are small compared to other countries’, so small that the cylinder centres of a Duchess are only about 6’ - 9” apart (29mm in 00 or 23.5mm in H0). The distance over the outside of the wheel treads of an HD loco is 20.5mm, which, in H0, would give a width of 1.5mm each side to fit in the coupling rods, the connecting rod, the return crank and the eccentric rod. Simply not possible, so they chose the larger scale for the bodywork. The splashers were less of a problem due to the wheels being much smaller than scale. In other countries the cylinder centres were further apart and the bodies much wider so there was more room for compromise, including not sticking to a strict 1:87 scale. In fact, for steam outline, the only ‘scale’ part of H0 is the track gauge. So, what compromises have Hornby made? The wheel width is well over scale so cylinder centres will be too. Perhaps Tony could get his ruler out and measure these things to give us an idea. Ian R

Another GCR Class 8 (LNER B5). Built by Steve Duckworth, P4 gauge. Ian R

It doesn’t really matter what you use to strip it, the key thing is not to soak it. Brush on a stripping gel, watch the paint bubble then wipe it off. The gel, or whatever stripping agent you use, can remain in place where there are no joints, eg. tender sides or boiler, for much longer if necessary. It’s not a pleasant job and can take some time but make sure every last bit of stripper is removed from nooks and crannies. Frequent scrubbing with neat washing up liquid will remove the stripper. I use a half inch paint brush for the job. I have recently stripped the first loco I built, a K’s Bulldog (1977), and repainted it. It was glued together all those years ago but is still intact. Your Dean Goods looks like a K’s kit. Look forward to meeting you at Missenden. Ian R

BR Green was never ‘Brunswick’, that was the colour used by the GCR and by Wainwright on the SECR, which has much more blue in it. BR Green is a bronze green - and very close to GW mid-chrome green. In a rattle can Land Rover Deep Bronze Green is the colour to go for. Ian R

That V4 - The same customer also had this beast from Mike - You don’t see many of these. Ian R

A couple of compounds in 7mm scale. The first is Greater Britain 2-2-2-2 in Queen Victoria’s Jubilee livery (which it carried for about 6 months. The model, which I built, has a Delrin chain between the uncoupled driving wheels. The second, built by Bill Davis is a NER 2 cylinder compound 4-2-2. Photographed before handrails and various bright parts were added. Livery’s a bit bright! Ian R

If spraying or brushing paint it is important that the masking is removed as soon as possible. The main reasons are that any leakage can be dealt with while the paint is still wet, and it prevents a hard ridge forming at the edge of the masking tape. Also paint that is allowed to dry before removing the masking risks being lifted off with the tape. Ian R

Hello Tony A slight problem with 40585 is that the ‘pointy’ lining on the cab side and splashers was peculiar to the Scottish Region. I may be wrong of course but you may need to invent a plausible back story for it! Cheers Ian R

Can anyone tell me which bit of Flying Scotsman is actually 100 years old? Ian R

I have a 7mm Jersey Lilly that has a live body with dcc. It has Allan Harris wheels which are only insulated one side so it’s loco one side and tender the other. Additionally it has wiper pickups on the insulated drivers so that the loco can be run on its own; the wipers being mounted on double sided copperclad soldered to the chassis. The tender chassis is insulated from the body with insulating tape and a couple of bits of plasticard. It was fine while dc but on conversion to dcc it started shorting. The short was traced to the copperclad but there was no obvious visible cause, such as solder bridging the insulation. The problem was solved by substituting single sided copperclad glued to the frame. The cause of shorting is still a mystery but it runs fine now. So you can have live bodies and dcc, it just needs a little extra care on insulation and clearances. Ian R

What goes on top of what depends to some extent how the paint is being applied. I have sprayed cellulose over enamel with no Ill effects but would not recommend it. I sprayed with an airbrush with lots of air and very fine spray so that the paint had little solvent left when it landed. Try it with a rattle can and you get a disaster. The propellant in rattle cans is cellulose based so that any auto paint (acrylic) will act like a cellulose. Enamel can be applied over acrylic or cellulose. Acrylic (non rattlecan) can be applied over enamel or cellulose. Rattlecan over rattlecan, cellulose over cellulose only. The other myth is solvents. Enamel solvent, white spirit, will not affect cured enamel, acrylic or cellulose. Likewise acrylic thinners will not affect any cured paint. Cellulose thinners will destroy any paint except oven baked proprietary finishes. I hope this clears things up. Ian R

Yes, the garden railway is beautifully done, it sits in the landscape so well. Here is my Patriot enjoying a run over the viaduct. Ian R

The Patriot is a 7mm model I built from the Gladiator kit and it is standing on Peco track. I Photoshopped the loco and track onto a photo I had of ‘Lord Nelson’ standing in Minehead station. Here it is again on 82G, which is a model. Ian R

A Patriot at Minehead. Ian R

The blacking is mostly removed with the fibreglass brush stroking. What is left is something that looks more like steel - you can simply repeat the process to get a condition you’re happy with. I use a mix of Humbrol 85 & 70 for general chassis gunge and that is what is on the rods of the Schools, plus satin varnish to give an oily look. On the rods adjacent to the cylinders there is a light touch of H10 (Service Brown) which is a good grease colour. If you do choose to paint the C2 rods then spray rather than brush. Ian R

One needs to spend some time preparing the rods. I use plenty of solder to laminate rods so that there is no gap showing. I then file every edge, firstly with a coarse -ish file to remove the cusps, then a very fine Swiss file to remove any marks, then at 45deg around all edges to take off burrs, and finally polishing all faces and corners with fine emery. I then chemically blacken the visible faces by vigorous rubbing with a soaked cotton bud and, finally, when dry, a very gentle stroke or two with a fibreglass brush. This gives the NS a steely sheen. The C2 is looking very good, well done. Ian R

I’m afraid it is. I only built the loco so I thank the 82G team for the backdrop. The loco is a David Andrews kit with additional inside motion, dcc and sound. Repton was an occasional Royal engine so I painted it as it might have been two weeks after such a duty, still fairly clean with the bulled up brass and copper starting to tarnish. Ian R

Copydex, in a tube, is the way to go. Any hardware shop. Ian R

30926 by the lifting shed at 82G. Ian R