mike morley

I have learned the hard way that this is one area where price is no guide to quality. I've seen too many kits that were right at the top end of the price range but were no better than those near the bottom, so I feel it is far safer to buy at exhibitions, where you can see for yourself how good they are or aren't. It is of course possible to use others as your crash-test dummy. For instance, a friend of mine bought a couple of Scale Model Scenery kits blind, and having seen them I was impressed enough to buy a couple of my own - a decision that turned out to be entirely justified. The Johnster clearly knows what he's talking about so he would make an excellent crash-test dummy!

While you're talking to the venue about car parking, can you also mention toilets? A tiny one-trap-wonder (presumably the same for the ladies) for an entire exhibition really isnt enough and as it's a school - sorry; Learning Campus - there must be plenty more on the premises. Apart from that it was a very good venue and an excellent show. I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favourite layout.

An exceptionally good advert for the hobby as a whole, not just the OO9 aspect of it. I do not envy whoever had to choose 'Best in Show'. I found it very difficult to pick a favourite five!

Since first asking the question I've discovered the Glyn Valley did indeed have a metal box in the guards van for conveying gunpowder. As the GVT actually served a gunpowder factory I'd have expected the sheer volume of outgoing explosives would have made their need for a dedicated gunpowder van even greater.

But in it's earlier guise of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway it quite definitely served several quarries. To which I would add the Dinorwic and Penrhyn Railways and the numerous quarries in the Vale of Nantlle. Good point re Snowdon Mountain and Fairbourne Railways. Even if there had been quarries on Snowdon I'm not sure gunpowder vans would have been permitted; a steep incline, explosives and passengers not being a happy combination!

As all the narrow gauge railways of North and Mid Wales served quarries, and was indeed the entire raison d'etre for many of them, it surprises me that only the Talyllyn and the Ffestiniog appear to have had gunpowder vans. Were there others, unknown to JIC Boyd and Google? If not does anyone have an explanation as to why? I'd like a gunpowder van for my layout but fancy something different to the ubiquitous Talyllyn and Ffestiniog versions. I also like the look of the ex-RNAD armaments vans, but they are far too late for my era.

Found these on Braunston Flight, Grand Union Canal

These two both began life as an Airfix church. The longhouse has been posted on another thread about dry stone walls, but I think it deserves a place here, too.

One thing I learned recently is that limolene has quite a short shelf life so if, as your comment implies, you've already had your bottle a while its probably already not worth keeping. Another thing I learned is that limolene is also very susceptible to contamination and needs a new brush dedicated to being used with it and it alone. I recently ruined an almost new bottle of limolene by mistakenly using the brush used for Mek Pak. Within a couple of hours the limolene was no longer worth using.

I've gone to apply some transfers bought eons ago to a pair of Cambrian timber trucks built even longer ago and have realised I cannot remember if they are rub-down, pressfix, waterslide or what. Neither the label on the packaging nor West Coast's mothballed website provides any clues. Can anyone either remind me what type of transfer they are or suggest a way of finding out that does not risk spoiling them in the process?

Tile grout mixed with PVA and emulsion paint. The PVA greatly extends the time the mix took to dry enough to become useable (72 hours) but without it the 'slates' were so fragile and prone to shattering construction was almost impossible.

Obviously aimed mostly at wargamers so only some of his many videos are relevant to us, but he's likeable and entertaining.

Saw a YouTube tutorial earlier this year by someone trying to replicate the problems his followers experienced. One of the few he did succeed with was cloudy varnish, which he reckoned was caused by adding a second coat before the first was fully dry. I'll have a hunt round and see if I can find the video.

Tollhouse on the outskirts of Great Missenden. It wouldn't take much to convert the Wills Crossing-Keepers Cottage to a reasonable facsimile of this. A quarter of a mile-ish beyond the tollhouse in the Wendover direction, this flower tub outside the Black Horse pub looks to have begun life as a blacksmith-built cattle or horse trough. The low sun made photographing it difficult but it is very solidly made. A good project for anyone who's got a recently-acquired rivet-punch they want to get used to using! This old iron gate is in very good condition. Measures approx 4'x10'. I soldered up a simplified version of something like this from scrap etch a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised at just how easy it was. I'll try turning something like this up in the drill for the post of the next gate I build.

A friend has given me his Peckett on permanent loan. He'd fitted it with Dingham couplings, which I don't use, and during the struggle to remove the rear one I damaged the handrails that run up either side of the cab backsheet. I assumed it would be a simple matter to replace them with brass wire, but on further investigation I've realised that the original handrails are moulded integrally with the backsheet and that fitting replacements looks like being a far from simple task - the beading at waist height being the trickiest bit. I guess you must have damaged those handrails at some time during the numerous drastic alterations you've done to your host of Pecketts. Any advice?

I'm after the same kit. He's cautiously optimistic for it being available by next year's Scaleforum but not 100% certain.

I'm slightly puzzledby this as it appears to be in too good condition to be an original, but I cannot imagine the Canal and Rivers Trust or the British Waterways Board before them bothering with replicas. Just in case it is an original, I won't make any souvenir hunters life easy by identifying its location, other than to say it's nearer the Severn than the canal.

Another hint that the layout is at the end of its life is when you find yourself accepting invites to exhibitions, only to find your layout is conspicuous by its absence when the 'layouts attending' list is published. Recently happened to me for the third time. It's become pretty obvious that my layout is now relegated to being a mere reserve and will only actually appear if one more highly regarded drops out.

Run For Home. Lindisfarne

That reminds me! Not the best picture I've ever taken. This is in a tiny, difficult-to-access cove just south of Maughold Head on the Isle of Man and was presumably the 'harbour' used by the fishermen of Maughold village, half a mile away. I'm slightly curious about the stump of a chimney on the clifftop above the cove. Kipper houses and lime kilns are very different in nature. There was some lead mining carried out a little further south but, as far as I know, not where this is.

They often crop up in farmyards or the yards of small industrial premises. This particular one was in the garden of a lock-keepers house. Re the comment about 3d printing, would those wonderful bargeboards on the bank barn at Llan be a candidate or would etching be the better route?

Finally, one taken today. Probably easier in 7mm than 4mm, but doable in either, I feel.

I live in terrace built in the 1880's to house the families of canal boatmen. (Sounds romantic but isnt) These are the washhouses of numbers 4,6 and 8, located in what's now the back garden of number 2 but was an orchard when the terrace was built. Number 2's was at the right hand end but was demolished not long before this picture was taken in 2010. Number 8's, at the left hand end, has since collapsed. A lot of 19th Century terraces would have had things like this but you never see them modelled. Something most 19th Century terraces would have had was the privy. These are in Aberangell.

My laptop crashed the other day but was saved with the aid of a system reset. It now works better than it has for years, and I found these while going through my files to see what files had been lost and what remained. The Windows update that immediately followed the reset has inflicted a picture editing system that is neither as versatile nor user-friendly as the one it replaced but I hope these will come out okay. A small bank barn near Llan, on the Llanidloes to Llanbrynmair road. What would normally be a simple building is, in this case, anything but, resulting in a modellers paradise. One for modern image modellers of Welsh subjects. As you undoubtedly know, things in Wales have to be bi-lingual, and the humble grit bin normally looks like this . . . However, if you have a good imagination and a wicked sense of humour it can be altered to say this . . . This picture was taken in 2008 and I'm no longer able to remember exactly where I found it, other than in the hills behind Aberystwyth.

Something that hasnt been mentioned/emphasised as much i think it should is the need for spare motive power. I once had every loco bar one fail within an hour of opening on the first day of a two-day show. I very nearly left the one that hadnt failed at home because it was so notoriously unreliable. By holding the fort while I desperately revived a couple of the failures it more than redeemed itself but that was a very, very stressful show.