EHertsGER

Just FYI I commissioned Fox to produce GER decals for this, if you are planning on that period. They are in the Fox range.

I suggest you take a look at Rumney Models' website Morton-Independent-Lifting Link Brake Underframes | Rumney Models. You will, of course, need axle boxes and so on, which he also supplies. Your van bodywork has been finished very well, so a decent chassis should go under it. The kits are not as hard to build as you might think form the pictures. I managed it...!

Well, if it comes to that I could turn up some more myself…I had hoped it would still be supported.

With the demise of Eileen’s Emporium, who is picking up the business of supporting the Avonside jig with spares, such as the axle rods?

Paraphrasing a recent remark by a Healthcare Corporation (of course) to the effect that they are in business to make money, not cure people…

Try candle wax on the blades; just run the blade through and old candle offcut. It will make passage through the metal easier and reduce the binding that causes most breakages. Washing up liquid at a pinch if your household is all electric!

I’ll vouch for these little marvels; so far I’ve used them on the fabled quad art (there you go, Richard, one less excuse…) a twin art, a half dozen NPCs and about a dozen coaches. Just be careful keeping them in line and you’ll have some really nice looking hinges. Steady with the solder, though, or you’ll get blobs. Clean work, flux and heat, as ever, are your friends.

Rumney Models will be releasing an etched kit for the Mink F later this year - likely July

Rumney Models will be releasing an etched kit for the Mink F later this year - likely July.

Your prayers will be answered in part: Rumney Models will be releasing an etched kit for the Mink F later in the year - likely July…

Thank you, Mike - I can now ‘get on with the job’!

You’ve captured the scale and heft of this locomotive perfectly. Well done!

Now to the subject of footboards, or more specifically, those footboards supplied by MJT. As I look at them, they appear not to be ‘handed’ (see attached), so my question whether they were not ‘handed’ so bogies could run either way round (given the pipework and wiring on the real thing this seems unlikely), or they were so and the MJT etch has overlooked this. I ask as I am about to undertake ‘footboarding’ a Hertford Quad and, as a rather camera shy set, have few photos as reference. Poring over the pages of Harris has not helped much either. The collective wisdom hereabouts would be welcome… Best, Marcus

Trigger, perhaps.

Maybe I missed previous posts, but this brings me to glazing materials. My preference is for - as espoused by the venerable Jim Whittaker - slide cover glass slips. I welcome your thoughts and experiences…

4 mm scale Alan Gibson LNER/BR F6 kit, ideally just the body. Unmade preferred but half-built, but not butchered, is OK too. I’m really only after the etches so the Falcon body would work just as well.

A lovely, evocative build that really ‘fits’ in my memories of Liverpool Street to Ware from ‘66 to ‘75 - my father did the commuting, I just went along to be an annoying kid home for the holidays! I recall them from green to blue/grey. Now all we need to do is persuade Charlie up at DC kits to reintroduce them - 305/1, 305/2 and the 304/308. It seems Southern Pride no longer markets theirs either, leaving just Worsley Works’ etched offering. Alas.

So would I…

Is this the one now manifested as part of the Worsley Works range. Has anyone actually built one of this class? I recall Stephen Johnson has one in the works from his own castings/print masters, but has anyone built the Worsley one - or any other that is 'finished'? I ask as I am tinkering with the Worsley 'kit', looking at getting the curvature of the front right and an approach to the radiused corners of the cab. The Worlsey etch comes 'in the flat' and does not look to lend itself to bending. I am also looking into the roof profiles and their construction. The rest is likely to be a Class 108 chassis set, MJT BR fittings, a Masokits gangway set and so on. That's as far as I have progressed. Please do not hold your breath but I will write it up...I promise. I even flew 3500 miles to photograph the preserved one but it was at the other end of the line and Llangollen was a zoo, dammit. Ah, well, on with the vacation... Best, Marcus

Can one buy the gangway connections on their own? Please...

Signs of progress - and of an actual Hertford Quad. Compared to the photo in Harris, I think its coming together well. I admit its a bit grubby and it isn’t sitting as well as it should but we’re nearly there. More as things progress. Bogies by Comet, wheels by Exactoscale, roofs by MJT vents by someone on Shapeways, buffers by Kean-Maygib. best, Marcus

I thought we did - it was a movie about the first people to fight the Nazis. Dunkirk, I think.

Any news on the 14xx chassis…?

Finished! Turned out quite well… Anyone wondering what a fellow claiming allegiance to the GER in East Herts is doing with a Coronation (way beyond the axle loading limit on the Buntingford Branch) should find that wonderful song ‘December ‘63, oh, what a night!’ in their music collection and enjoy sharing my memories of being escorted from Euston to Rugby (removed in favour of a green thing) on our way to my grandparents in North Wales for Christmas. It was a daytime service, but the song always seems apt. And I did thank the driver. One did in those days…

I’ll second all of that, having wrestled with a Coronation chassis from Comet in P4 (dammit it looks good now, though!) to sit under the old (2005?) City of London in BR maroon. Just as a new one is announced…