Mike W

Rightio, I've just pledged for a £30 2 car add on as well. As I've said before, I've no interest in running a layout with a Pendolino on, but as a committed N gauger I think this is a fantastic opportunity to drive the gauge forward. Pledging for the 2 car add on set is a great way, in my opinion, of having the excitement of the production process by pledging for some stock and also showing a reasonable amount of support for the project. If I can sell it late on in 2016 for a profit, then so be it, if I decide to at the time. Really hope this gets over the line! I reckon Rapido would make the development & production phase a lot of fun for everyone.

Hello chaps, I didn't realise that you could pledge to support the project but not the full amount for a Pendolino - I'll definitely support it, in that case, I'll give some thought as to how much. As an N gauge modeller, this really is very exciting and I hope it reaches the target. I model the 70s and 80s, so can't justify running a Pendolino (and have little interest in them) but I can't help thinking that £255 for a nine coach Pendolino is just staggeringly good value for money. Oh, how I wish you'd done APT-P! Well done to all concerned for driving the gauge forward.

I'd say brush - while both look excellent, I think the brush looks slightly softer to by eyes and that will focus attention more on the modelling at the front. Superb work by the way, thank you for uploading photos of your progress.

Hi Ben, Having seen clear rapidos on Mathieson wagons, I've wanted to try some out for myself for a while. I think your pictures show a big improvement so definitely consider me interested.

I got my Blue/Grey & Intercity Exec HST buffets yesterday. The Blue/Grey one needs the roof painting black and the gangway ends painting white, to match the rest of the set. The Intercity one needs the '1's removing and a cantrail stripe adding. So all in all not too onerous.

Hi, I got my sheet of transfers from Sheffield Transport Models - it's an old FMR sheet, if I remember correctly and contains just about every possible wording combination for Exec HSTs in N.

We're wandering a bit off topic here but provided you can get donors in the livery you need, you can make Dapol TGS and buffet coaches using PHD etches; I'm doing an Intercity Exec TRUB at the moment (new window frames to go on tonight!).

The Farish electrics, when detailed, don't look bad at all (see this thread) . I think we have quite acceptable models of 86, 87, 89, 90, 91 & 92 in N right now. Granted, the 89 & 92 are CJM but the rest are cheaper and detailing up the Farish models makes them look much better. Fixing the air dams to the bodies of the 90 & 91 makes them look much better, as do Dapol pantographs and TPM detailing kits. It's well worth doing, in my opinion. Equally, whilst electrics are mainly used on long trains, clever layout design showing only the 'end' of a longer train can correct this.

Every so often you find an absolutely inspiring and brilliant layout that you'd previously missed; this is one for me. Brilliant work Simon, I love Lord of the Rings and this just oozes atmosphere. Brilliant, brilliant and brilliant again, hope I get to see it at an exhibition at some point.

Hi Matt, I guess no one is forcing you to buy anything but in these days of limited production runs, for some products you must have a pre-order in place and therefore it is possible to be charged for and sent an item before seeing it in the flesh. That is certainly what happened to me with the Executive bookset mentioned earlier. I definitely agree as regards to weathering being able to make the models more even but I think that most HST sets tend to look pretty uniform in terms of colour if they've all got the same livery. Might be my poor eyesight though!

I think that raising the problem of colour discrepancies is fine. My only bugbear with the Mk3s is that the Executive box set (originally described as a 253 xxx set) came out with Swallow branding. Whilst that was easily remedied, I prefer not needing to alter models which cost over £100 to make them 'as described' on the box. Weathering is a different matter, of course. To possibly add to Mark's post regarding colour, the grey on the power cars in the Executive set is Falcon grey (or at least it seems to be to me as it matches my Railmatch Falcon grey almost perfectly), which I think is incorrect. On the other hand, Dapol's Mk3 coaches are superb models and whilst repainting might be a pain for an expensive model, they do look excellent when all matching in a rake.

According to Dapol's Facebook page, they're doing a British built Colas liveried 56 to be released around July. Looking forward to more progress on the 47.

Dapol do them RTR, unless I'm very much mistaken.

Just a small comment; the old tooling class 20 can be made into a better model by using the TPM detailing kit. It takes a bit of filing round the windows (to make them the right shape) but it is worth it, although having said that, I didn't file the window aperture, I just painted and stuck the new frames on and it looks OK. I've got an old TPM detailed one running as a dummy with my new tooling example and they look fine together (in my opinion).

Another option would be to pick up an old Farish 20 on an Ian Stoate chassis and detail with a TPM detailing pack; the cab windows need a bit of work but the end result looks much better than normal and should look fine with a new 20 heading the train. I'm looking forward to finding out if that's the case as I haven't got my new 20 yet!

Just got caught up with this Dave; a brilliant project and a great read. Thanks for undertaking it all, in a hobby sometimes seemingly obsessed with new releases (and the spending that involves) this is a welcome breath of fresh air. Just the thing to try and help me fix my new stock/loco addiction!

Thanks for the clarification Dave, much appreciated.

A friend had this problem with his GC set. Through trial and error, we managed to find a way to swap the coaches around so that it doesn't uncouple. He does have the 2 extra coaches, however, and it took a while to get all 4 sorted out in the right order so that they didn't uncouple. We have had to label the unit so that we know which ends couple of which in order to avoid uncoupling. My blue/grey and Exec sets don't have this problem so I wonder if its something to do with the GC set only.

Ha! This made my day yesterday, doubt I'll be able to afford them though! http://www.virginmed...re-trainers.php Edit: defintely can't afford them! http://nikemag.ebay.com/shoes

Hi, Plenty of pictures here.

That's fair enough, I suppose the book set really couldn't have been better. I was hoping for a full Executive set so I'm looking forward to Dapol's reply on the coach issue and whether or not they'll release Executive coaches in the future. I will have to re-brand the bookset coaches in due course.

Bomag, did you see any pictures of the set before release? Just noticed something else as well - the set is listed as being 253028 but I don't think this is anywhere on the models. If I remember correctly, this should be on the cab fronts? Bit gutted about this, I was really looking forward to a full set in Exec livery. I can always re-livery the coaches I suppose, I'll have to give it some thought. Edit: further observation, albeit rather niggly, the coaches don't have swallows on the windows......

I've just received my Executive book set in the post and whilst the power cars are very nice indeed, the coaches are in SWALLOW livery, so it'll have to go back. There are 2 seperate coaches listed as being in Executive livery so I assumed this would be the case with the book set as well. This may be my mistake if Dapol have previously said that the Exec set comes with Swallow coaches but I haven't seen that anywhere. Would be interested to know if others have the same problem?