Ragtag

Maybe too late now, but Mark Hughes models have vac formed replacement screens suitable for a VR3.

Looking the part, new road surface is very convincing!

How's this one coming along?

As Phil suggests for the dismantling. Rather than replacing the plugs I actually recommend removing the plugs/poles altogether and reassembling with a little PVA to hold the model together. If you're detailing the interior the poles rather ruin the effect.

I loved those long F-JTY Alexander-bodied Olympians - very comfortable. I built a couple of Arriva ones, must get round to making some Northumbria ones.

I've a bit of a soft spot for NMS, so thought I'd share some shots here in hopes of inspiring others to be a little more adventurous in what they park on their bridges. Warning: secondary hobby may ensue.

A lot will depend on the quality of your decal paper - if it's decent then you should be able to use MicroSol or similar to help bed the decals into the grooves. I usually use a cotton bud with a little nail varnish remover to lift existing branding, but you'd want to be careful using that if the model is plastic.

Started work on the depot so thought I might as well have a quick mock-up.

A little out of era for me given their withdrawal date but I couldn't resist when they were released so there is one in the stock cupboard alongside a half-finished 114 conversion. 😉

Having finally shifted a few things off my desk, I now have room to bring my Scale Model Scenery diorama boards out and do something with them. Overall size of the scenic area is 80x29cm so not too much to play with in 00, but should be enough to try a few things before progressing with the larger layout. My current thoughts are parcels-related (of course) - a multi-level scene with easily changeable operating eras but primarily set in Res/EWS periods. The diorama/layout will depict the tail-end of a larger depot, one which was established pre-Railnet in the Track 29 era but which survived the Railnet streamlining. A small TMD for the Parcels sector (later Res) fleet provides a little operational interest, with the mid-ground being the end of the parcels platform. The foreground on the lower level will primarily be 'under the arches' scenic interest to try and add a little more depth to the scene - 3 of the arches providing a maintenance garage for the Royal Mail road fleet which I want to show off. I had initially intended for a loading dock of some sort but space is tight and it always ended up looking a bit too contrived. I also flip back and forth on the dog-leg in the retaining wall and may well remove it in favour of a straight wall and wider platform end. Anywhere, here's where things stand at the moment:

This one's right up my street, following with interest!

Must admit I'd assumed it was the Realtrack tooling, EFE seems an odd choice of brand if this is something they've tooled from scratch.

I'm not familiar with Tonbridge but I wouldn't rule out 73s, this pic is from June 2003: 2001: https://www.flickr.com/photos/briantrailandmore/10276640803/ 2002: https://www.flickr.com/photos/45726467@N02/14954370828/

I'm sure there were changes but by and large the stock in use would have been the same (PCVs, Super BGs and Super GUVs). The main difference would have been in the traction - in 1996 Class 47/7s were the mainstay of the diesel traction whereas by 2002 the 67s were widespread.

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere, couldn't see anything on it. I've noticed recently that when accessing RMWeb on mobile there are some ads which have a tendency to pull you off the site altogether (not just a popup) - I say ads but it looks like an outright scam. I've noticed it once in a while for a few weeks but last night the mobile site was virtually unusable. I'll try and think on and snap the screen next time - it only ever happens on RMWeb and always the same ad so I don't think it's an issue on my device.

I remember that article as being Railway Modeller too - somewhere buried in the depths of RMWeb will be my own attempt at that technique before I got hold of one of the resin bodies and abandoned it.

A nice casting overall, was nice not to have to fiddle with cutting axles to length etc. for the wheels. I would have preferred the panel lines etc to be a little deeper but that's only because red and yellow take so many coats for coverage. My one criticism is that both of mine had a fairly pronounced ridge along the centre of the roof from a printing error which I wasn't able to fully remove without sacrificing the roof detail. A bargain at the price, really.

I actually couldn't find any info on the van at all other than Roxley Models used to make a version in O. I suspect that it didn't go as far as being electric though. For example, GREEN 4 was a DAF 95 with various modifications to make it more environmentally friendly (streamlining, a trailer frame built from softwood instead of hardwood and so on).

The yard workhorses: And lastly three generations of Transits alongside a DAF for the Reivers fleet:

Calling most of these done now, so some pics as requested. First up, the mail vans: Then the postbuses and crew van: The competition:

Charles Wright 1935 is the font, I use MS Word at 3.5pts and it seems to scale out correctly

Thanks Ryan - I'll share this one for now. Other than the 4 in my last pic which are missing here, the green machine is also hiding in the background.

Might be worth suggesting to CMAC

Quick update on the final 4 (bringing the total to 14 - oops!) - the yellow stripes have had me stumped for a while. I recently tried a new white transfer paper having run into no end of bother with the new formulation of the Mr. Crafty stuff (I still love their clear but the white is just terrible!) Must say the new brand is fantastic, very resilient but still thin & doesn't need to be lacquered even on an inkjet - my only complaint is it could be stickier but to be fair it is marketed for mugs etc. and not surfaces with fine detail. I decided to try just printing the stripes without border and see how I got on, think they look good enough that I'll glaze these and call them done! 🙂

The pics I shared were the only example I could find, and I believe a result of accident damage.