MrWolf

I've said it before, that's not how you scrap a boiler, big, heavy red hot bits of scrap will fall on you. Also, whilst I'm being picky, I'm sure that all the spamcans had lost the casings by the time that they were sent for scrap and were scrapped as rebuilt MN, WC, BoB?

A lot of my friends had Fizzies, all worn out and abused by the 80s and my Puch 50 Sports used to leave them for dead. As did a Honda Cub 50 Step Thru come to think of it. Try finding an AP50 nowadays, they were pretty quick.

Soon to restored and appearing in a concours d'elegance at a Burger King car park. I wonder how many horsepower the sound system will be?

A railway related parcel arrived this morning, containing an Oxford Rail GWR 16T Toad in its early guise without plated verandah. I'd asked @KNPwhat the model was that he had worked his magic on, assuming at first glance it was a kit, so I had a hunt around and found one at TMC for a very reasonable price. It is, in most respects, a really nice model with really fine detail, but I can't buy anything and just plonk it on the layout. I wasn't worried about the shade of grey or the Paddington branding, nor the meat cleaver under the buffer beams, but I did know that it has a peculiar window in the back that looks like it was purloined from the bathroom of a grotty bedsit. I'd already got it in mind to dispose of this and board up the resulting hole. But. Does anyone know how to get these things apart? Or whether it's actually possible? Being more attuned to dismantling things that have been rusted solid for fifty years, I handed it to Miss R, as she has a more surgical approach and is quite deft with dismantling phones and coach rooves. She peered and prodded and pouted at it for a few minutes before handing it back and saying: "If anyone is going to break it, I think it should be you...." Any thoughts, or is it going to be keyhole surgery time?

That's not the curse of RTP, that's a stress crack caused by the thunder of two and three quarter horsepower...

Although I have several big bikes, I like anything with a Villiers engine in it, doesn't have to be a bike even. Although they're rather old fashioned in design, they're very well engineered and pretty much bomb proof. One of my favourites was a tiny 98cc, two speed Excelsior Consort Deluxe, about 50mph flat out but brilliant in town traffic and about 150 to the gallon. Apologies for the duplicate post, the internet is being slightly more annoying than usual....

Although I have several big bikes, I like anything with a Villiers engine in it, doesn't have to be a bike even. Although they're rather old fashioned in design, they're very well engineered and pretty much bomb proof. One of my favourites was a tiny 98cc, two speed Excelsior Consort Deluxe, about 50mph flat out but brilliant in town traffic and about 150 to the gallon.

I was thinking that too, despite adding to the melee, perhaps we should find some overpriced, misrepresented and bodged up junk in the eBay classic cars section? Believe me, it's not difficult!

My late father had learnt roping and sheeting back in the mid fifties when he used to work the summer holidays with his uncle delivering materials for the new housing estates. He showed me how it was done when I was briefly messing around with vintage lorries forty years later. It's a very useful skill to have even though I don't need it that often, but it's saved quite a few motorcycles falling over in the back of vans.

They would be legal from a construction and use regulations and a licensing point of view if they were not in permanent contact with the ground, but wouldn't actually be much use in improving the handling or preventing a rollover, as they act like a further pivot point. It's something of a myth that old cars from the 50s and 60s are slow, we managed to prove that plenty of times during the, ahem, impromptu traffic light drag races in the 1980s. It's stopping that can be a little bit of a concern... I also "caught some air" over a canal bridge in a Herald convertible, although as they have a hefty separate chassis and anti burst door catches, the bonnet catches decided to let go instead. That was a case of slow down gently so that the whole front of the car didn't tilt upwards and block the view ahead.

That wouldn't surprise me either, the little alloy engine can be tuned up to formula 750 spec. I'd quite fancy doing that with a Reliant Rebel or Reliant Kitten. There's a lot to be said for a fourth wheel!

Could be worse though, that derelict house might have been modernised as open plan...

Varnish advice duly noted. I like what you've done there, The dirt between the planks highlights them nicely and takes away the plasticky look that red wagons seem to suffer from more than other colours. The corner plating and axle boxes are particularly convincing.

And they're much neater than they used to be...

I guess that it's a case of if you enjoy it, listen to it and don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't, When I was in sixth form, I had an evening job stacking shelves for a miserable £1.38 an hour. Whilst we worked there was an endless tape of popular mid to late 80s music that cycled about every half an hour. It wasn't my kind of music, so that made it even more monotonous. After a while it became like white noise torture. Even now I can't listen to Dire Straits, Rick Astley or Whitney Houston without feeling the urge to punch something. It did, I think, inspire me to expand my musical horizons, so it quicker to say what I don't like, so it was probably a good thing!

It's quite possible to tune one to hit the magic ton and it being a 2CV of the national service era would have had next to no interior trim and canvas hammock seats, saving quite a lot of weight. The 1986 version my sister had was one of the bling models with more trim, but that would hit 80 with a favourable wind.

"I do my best to accurately describe items..." Er, actually.... No. You don't. "Untested, unchecked or incomplete" Is not a description. It's just a vague indication that there might be something wrong with it and a tempter for potential buyers that there isn't.

Thin metal sheet can be curved on a rubber mat with something as simple as a rolling pin or a piece of round bar and a bit of downward force as you run the roller across it.

Folding up a tarp like that was fairly easy, chucking it on the back of the wagon by yourself was pretty taxing I remember.

Admittedly, Horderley was at the "Pass me the banjo Elly Mae..." level of overgrown, but one of us will build a model inspired by it before long I'm sure.

Interesting that they are doing TT scale, although I know that there's a following for TT, I was hugely impressed with the model of Helston some years ago, but commercial TT is well before my time and I've always read that it was a commercial failure, saving little space over OO, something that N did manage. What made Hornby decide it was worth the investment?

If it were a largeish piece of metal and you had rollers, I would say yes, cut out the areas you need to first. But with a small piece of plastic, you may struggle to create a uniform curve with bits cut out, also it is more likely to try and spring back into its flat state.

Not too overgrown yet...

The problem with boxes is when everyone jumps on the bandwagon and buys instant collectibles to stash away unopened. It's particularly prevalent amongst sci fi, action figures and diecasts. Certain examples get talked up by those with a vested interest. Unlike things such as the original 70s toys and earlier, they are bought by adults and rarely thrown around the garden by children as they were when I was in junior school, so that the rarity value of mint boxed items is a myth created by collectors and auctioneers.

Don't even think of pushing me off this couch....