Taz

Never knew that. I’d assumed the made to order for old stuff was resin as well. As a recent returnee to the hobby, I’ve concentrated on the new stuff which is miles better in terms of detail etc. I’ve never played lord of the rings. I was originally at fantasy battle player, then epic before hitting 40K on my return a couple of years back.

I didn’t think anything was metal anymore. Any old metal models are now fine cast, which is GW speak for converting the minis to use resin, usually with poor results. Now everything new apart from a few low production items are plastic. The other items are resin and usually sold under their forge world brand.

I’m curious as to what you could rivet count in the 40K universe 😋

Ah, warhammer - my other hobby love. I used to play as a teenager but drifted away from it. Always thought I only really had time to do one hobby or another so I concentrated on my model railways. Then Covid struck and my eldest daughters boyfriend came to stay with us during lock down. He was a warhammer 40K player and the flame was reignited. so I started playing and collecting again and forgot all about my trains. I packed them all up and decided to sell to concentrate on Warhammer. But then when I went to DRAG to hand over some sold items I realised I missed the guys and the model railways. So now I have decided to try and do both hobbies. It causes me internal consternation as I feel I haven’t got time to do justice to either (or rather achieve what I would like to do with them both - first world problems….). My current warhammer project is this custom space marine chapter:

My understanding is that the Abbey rebuilds did have squared off inside cylinder cover but that they were narrower than the later castles as the frames were still the narrow ones the Abbeys and earlier castles were built with. When I was still modelling a few years ago I wanted to renumber a Hornby castle as one of the Abby rebuilds but I could never find a source for the narrower squared off inside cylinder chest.

Or, conversely, it could have the effect of encouraging vaccine uptake. There is a fear that the young (18-30) age group may have a lower uptake of vaccination as they are much less likely to suffer severe illness or death. Take away their ability to go to the pub or out clubbing and suddenly they have a big incentive to get the jab.

Not strictly true. Any EU country could have chosen to go it alone like we did if they wished. But they chose to pool their efforts under the EU banner. Now, if they are regretting that decision is another question altogether....

I’ve not had the call yet (47) but I’ll happily be stabbed with whichever vaccine they offer me when the time comes.

To me he is a superhero - so more like Captain America

But European medical expertise says it’s safe (as do WHO). In fact I’m not aware of any medical or scientific opinion that says it isn’t safe. So in this case the political bluster would appear to be coming from the individual European governments.

Hi Phil, Yep, he has done some great work. I’m not too bad thanks, certainly doing better than many others in these trying times. As lack of updates on this thread indicate, I haven’t really progressed with the layout over the past few years. However I have been keeping busy building coaches for it and also contributing to Rod and John’s Balcombe project by building a few coaches and EMUs. Don’t worry about what you have or haven’t managed to achieve this year - it’s a hobby, not a job. Good to see your mojo is starting to return though.

Tony, I’ve just found your thread thanks to Ducky’s links. There is some seriously impressive modelling here. In particular, the work you put into the interiors is stunning and it is encouraging me to raise my game in this area.

I also drill .5mm holes and solder in the hinges (either Comet from their detailing etch or the Dart castings ones listed above - they are much the same) i’m curious about the glued plastic strip option though. For those that have used it how do you rate it’s durability?

Yes, i solder mine so they are flush. The resultant bogies are a bit wide compared to prototype but i live with that and you don’t have mush choice if using brass / white metal bogies.

Hi, I guess how far the bogie needs to swing will depend on the curves on your layout. I have a very tight R2 curve leading into my traverser so I need a fair bit of bogie swing. Conversely some of these coaches run on a P4 layout with a change of bogie where little bogie swing is required. Most of my coaches have bogies packed with a piece of 20 thou plasticard. I measure buffer height against a gauge. This normally suffices and I don’t have to remove much if any from the top of the cosmetic side frames. With the white metal side frames I remove extra material from the back using a burr tool in my dremel. I just carefully nibble away until enough material has been removed to fit the brass bogie. I think the original pattern maker for these side frames didn’t account for shrinkage when positioning the holes for the bearings. So they are just ever so slightly too close together. You can also remove a bit of material above the holes to allow the side frames to sit a bit lower if required to help with clearing the solebars. Hope that helps.

Thanks Johnster, I appreciate the comments. To get a nice square body i solder the ends to the sides against a 90 degree wood jig and keep the body square by soldering a strip across the top of the sides and then adding cross members. This keeps the body nice and square and not reliant on the roof for rigidity.

Going back to fixing roofs on brass coaches - I have always struggled to get a neat join (due to my cack handedness) with either having glue to clean up that has seeped out or bulges where too much glue is in the joint. To get around this i solder brass strip at the top of the coach side and then brass spacers between the two sides. By using roof off cuts to space the sides you end up with a tight friction fit between the body and roof. I then secure at either end from the inside with evostick. This then allows the roof to be easily removed if required in the future. It also makes painting easier as the body and roof are separate items. I think it produces a nice clean join

Do you mean like this Comet kit? If so you use a piece of scrap etch soldered in from behind

The replacement heads are 18”, same as the outside end. Not sure what the original ones were, much smaller standard wagon heads - 13”?

Hi Rich, have a look at this post on what I did for a E147 pair. I modified some shock absorbing wagon buffers from MJT.

7928 Wolf Hall. Cool name and a great book / tv series.

I use Humbrol 67 for coach roofs (as recommended by Tony Wright)

Clive, I don’t think Rob has to worry. There is plenty of photographic evidence of an ex LNER 4 wheel BY on the Kingsbridge branch. Even if it isn’t the exact same diagram to us Western aficionados they all look the same

At the risk of (almost) repeating myself from the last poll, as I am from Plumuff it has to be Plymouth

Being from Plymuff it has to be Sir Francis Drake.