HornbyMadMan

If my hands shook as much as yours and I could line like that I would be happy.

I have ben allowed back on here for a bit by SWMBO and I have to say I am really impressed, I remember seeing a self weighing tender on a B1 in my spotting days and always thought it would make an interesting model. The LMS one is very impressive, I bet there are not many of them out there, and it would definitely generate interest at exhibitions, can you let me know where your next exhibition is?

Those two look like beautiful little bundles of trouble, what bread are they, are they Jack Russells? The lining is looking really good, apart from the little give away's you would think these are 4mm models, I cant believe you can produce this standard by hand, even if you claim they shake. The Mogul looks stunning, I think there will be a lot of people wanting to ad one to their collections now? I know you have said you would not consider commissions but I think there would be lots of us out there who like me think you should consider it.

Yesterday a member of the family in shock after discovering I was a blogger at my age, told "her in doors", who promptly read my first entry and then got me to actually admit how much my latest acquisitions cost, I am now in serious risk of being known as "him outdoors" as I was banished to the shed to review the error of my ways, I don't think my wife understands what she calls toy trains. So I think this will be the last blog until she clams down a little,

I still have an active boiler ticket

Will the mogul be fully lined or just plain black

Do you have any NE stock or is it all from a lesser company like the LMS, just wanted to see if you could model from a real railway. Only joking, about the LMS being a railway

Apart from visit the occasional exhibition, and buy the odd item of stock from time to time I have not really done any modelling. I may put together the odd kit every so often and then put it into the "to be used on the layout" cupboard but that's about it really. This has meant I have done a lot of arm chair modelling and planning which is not a bad thing if you seem to make any progress, but I just seem to increase the number of rejected schemes I have considered. The major cause for this use to be that I was far to ambitious for the space, time or skill levels I have available to me. However I have realised that more and more lately have been rejected because of cost, I model in 00, so I can just about get away with a loco and six coaches in the space I have, but have you seen the cost, approaching £150 for a decent tender engine and £40 per coach, that's nearly £400 per train, and if you look at freight trains I still can get over £20 plus wagons. Ive seen some brilliant N gauge models on here and in the shops and they are virtually the same price and 00, but that does not in my mind mean the costs are the same, as in the same space as I have to model in N gauge even if I looked at secondary lines, that's still trains of 6+ coaches, and 30+ wagons. I recently thought I would modify some of the Hornby teaks I have been slowly collecting over the last couple of years, but the price sticker on the boxes, is making me think if I mess it up its a very expensive mistake, and the other half of my brain is saying for the money I have paid, short of changing coupling there should not be anything else I could improve. This means that there are two things that really worry me.... 1 Even if you use the railroad range from Hornby, which are not exactly cheap, how does the average man justify the cost of his "train-set" and how do youngsters manage, as you need huge amounts of pocket money, does this mean we could be a dying hobby? 2 To quote the old joke "I hope when I'm dead the wife does not sell my trains for what I told her they cost me", if my wife new the truth my death would be a lot sooner than expected. A recent purchase of an NE freight engine and 6 coke hoppers led to a few sleepless nights Im off now to pluck up the courage to maybe consider taking them out of their boxes, let alone contemplate weathering. What do you guys think, am I just a "tight" ###### or more of a worry do I have a point??

I cant believe how fast you progress, my record for fitting a chip into my loco's is 6 months

Can you post some step by step pictures so that we can all learn how you do the scenery

I'm sure there are plenty of people on here who would like to see how you do it

I still think other people like me will be interested, you should put some details up to judge interest

Can you please put some step by step updates on how you weather and build your locomotives please, as I think this would be more useful than just completed pictures?

I cant with to see the finished model as I have a couple of Mainline loco's I have been waiting to replace the chassis on myself

I see you have the same issue as me, when I paint a loco with black in hiding the brush marks