YesTor

These look fantastic - roof, underframe, bogie detail - absolutely stunning! I'd agree with the above comment re cab side glazing. Also, not to pick fault - instead merely an observation, whilst appreciating these are approval samples - but the 'Victor Hugo' and 92001 text/numbers appear not-quite-horizontal on both sides. Also, and sincere apologies for asking what must have been covered some-place already, but if purchased DCC ready, is there/will there be an option for purchasing the sound-chip later on? edit: Actually I can see that this is the Legomanbifo project. So a related question, does the DC model come with a speaker pre-fitted? I'm guessing perhaps not? Lastly (for now), will the brass horns and rectangular buffers be available as separate items - I don't believe anyone offers rectangular buffers as a separate item anywhere, so could be useful...? Look forward to seeing these in the flesh. It's at times such as this I really miss the exhibitions... thanks Al

Some of those "idiots" make a lot of money from doing comparatively little. That doesn't sound so daft to my ear...

Ditto! Times 10!

Agreed - it's surely in a similar zone as working sliding doors on passenger stock, ie. a nice thought, but just how practical is it realistically, and is the technology there to manufacture such features reliably and consistently over many production batches.

I'm no overseas modeller by any means, but that boxed silver A1 does indeed look fantastic! And this to me looks like how rotating axleboxes should be done... (if anyone else is looking...) *cough* Awesome stuff! Best Al

Right, but even though the result may not be as great as you might wish for, you will undoubtedly have learned something toward acquiring and perfecting the relevant techniques along the way. And you may very likely gain more pleasure over time from observing your perhaps less-than-perfect repaint than from simply plonking that flawless RTR example out-of-the-box on the track. There's a lot of satisfaction to be gained from learning along the way. All of which may inspire you to work on a second model later on, and so forth... All part of the fun/learning curve... Al

The belly section of the underframe looks too broad in relation to the fuel tanks - whereby the fuel tanks are also not deep enough, as they should finish just slightly lower than the adjacent battery box: If anything, the fuel tanks should be proportionally deeper than the section of underframe from which they are mounted: Best Al

Or is this perhaps due to reflection - the loco sides always being slab-sided whilst the coaches having an overall curvature? Several (in fact most) images online may indeed suggest slightly differing shades, however there is almost always reflection involved. The only photograph I could find that appears to show similar light reflection on both loco and stock appears to demonstrate both to be of the same hue?: Agree though on all other comments re underframe, axleboxes, dampers etc. Best Al

I'm interested in the Caledonian Sleeper coaches but at the moment it really depends on if the 73/9 is going to be produced. I wonder how many feel similar? An educated guess says that it would be in Accurascale's interests to produce the 73/9, one way or another...

Sorry, perhaps my use of words was slightly misleading, ie. in that when I refer to 'customs' charges I'm generally referring to import charges as a whole (ie. VAT, processing fees etc), and I'd guess that's what @MGR Hooper! is likely referring to as well (feel free to correct if I am mistaken)? The real point being, that goods being replaced will be subject to customs relief (which means VAT too), and should be received with no charges, otherwise VAT and other fees would be charged twice on what is effectively one single purchase. Similar rules for returning goods, ie. always ask your customer to label goods as being returned, so that the retailer isn't subject to 'import charges' on their arrival. Best Al

'Replacement goods' are eligible for customs relief, ie. immune from any customs charges. Best Al

Then you are very lucky. Was your closest mailing centre a six-mile round trip, by chance? And if so, would you have managed this on a daily basis to perhaps mail one item by itself? The cost of petrol alone would likely extinguish any profit from said sale... And how do daily six-mile trips fit in with today's trend toward reducing everyone's 'carbon footprint'? I'm not sure about "being organised", but the above sounds remarkably inefficient to my ear. I'm self-employed, so "being organised" is absolutely essential to my daily functioning, and this often means I work 10 to 12 hours per day at busy times, with barely time to stop for lunch, let alone a daily trip to the post office. For myself, a trip to the post office is viable only once per week, and as such my listings display "Ships within 5 working days", however that doesn't seem to prevent buyers becoming aggravated after 48 hours because the postman hasn't knocked at the door. I'm totally with 'showing respect for the buyer', however that same respect cuts both ways.

What many buyers seem to forget is that not every individual is operating an automated warehouse system. For a private seller who let's say - for the sake of argument - might sell five items in one week, but all on different days - what are you saying, that said seller should make five individual trips to the post office that week, just to keep up with eBay's algorithms? Many people work long hours and have families and this kind of practise isn't always viable, even for some businesses, let alone an individual. Often I feel that many buyers are under the impression that every seller across the nation has little else to do but sit poised by their screens just waiting for the next eBay sale, followed by a mad dash to the post office each day clutching just one parcel. Bonkers!

Wrong! The worst thing you can do is colour-match to a photograph.

These look awesome! And brass horns?! I'm in! Great work, chaps! Best Al

We simply don't know. However, what it might be fair to deduce is that no business entity would enter into any deal in order to lose out - what would be the point - Bachmann and GBRf are both businesses after all, are they not? So I think it's fair to assume that both Bachmann and GBRf would be gaining something. Who knows, maybe Bachmann paid a higher rate per model for exclusivity, and as such GBRf achieve their gain in that respect. Either way, it is of little interest to myself as an individual, but I suppose there will always be those that like to speculate. Best Al

Well, in actual fact the Final Value Fee is still the Total Transaction Fee, ie. including shipping (I didn't mention this, as firstly it is something that hasn't changed, so seemed slightly irrelevant, and secondly I simply didn't want to introduce a further element into the example for fear of complicating things further!) So anyway, that part is still the same. I do understand that the wording used isn't quite as straightforward perhaps as previously, but it's pretty plain to realize that eBay are simply trying to adjust their rates to something that they feel works, whilst factoring in the previous PayPal fees and still making what seems like an attractive deal for the seller. cheers Al

The Variable Selling Fee is a portion of the Final Value Fee: Fixed Selling Fee + Variable Selling Fee = Final Value Fee example: Item A sells for £50.00 : so £0.30 + £6.40 = £6.70 final value fee Item B sells for £100.00 : so £0.30 + £12.80 = £13.10 final value fee I'm guessing that eBay may be referring to it as a variable fee as I believe that some categories are subject to different percentages depending on what you might be selling, eg: vehicles, property etc. Also, in some of those categories - where goods tend to be more expensive - once those selling prices go above a certain threshold the fees level out, or become a fixed rate.

Fixed selling fee = 30p (which will always be charged no matter what the final value less any additional offers that may be applied) Variable selling fee = 12.8% on the final value The "variable selling fee" is clearly the subject of various differing offers that eBay appear to be trialling. How complicated can that be?

I'm assuming that there was only ever one wagon in this livery?

Even bigger issue is the still incorrect body shape. Please, let's at least have the 45 correct before we start frothing for an ill-shaped 44 to boot... Al

You forgot: challenge 4: finding a section of wood that isn't buckled to begin with...

Totally agreed.

I get that totally, but there's a difference between 'slightly overscale to meet the demands of mass production' and downright chunky. I'm not suggesting that I wouldn't purchase because of it, but it does detract somewhat visually, to my eye at least. It was just an observation anyways Best Al

Why are the bogie steps so incredibly 'chunky'?