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Hi all. Just a quick entry this evening to show a little more progress. Work the last few days has focused on finishing the backscene whilst I wait for a fresh delivery of track components and the locking, folding brackets for the fiddle yard legs. I always intended the backscene to be a fairly simple affair, essentially representing a lovely sunny Hampshire day (he types, as it's grey & wet outside!) To get the effect I was looking for, the whole backscene was first sprayed with Halfords white primer, and then a light blue colour was added with lighter coverage towards the bottom, leaving the fade from white to blue you get on a clear day. I think this gives quite a nice, simple effect as shown in the photo above. I may be tempted to add clouds at a later date, but I'm undecided at the moment as a badly done backscene can spoil the effect and detract from the rest of the layout. Cheers, Tom. Ropley is a N Gauge Model using 2mm Finescale Easitrac modelled after the real location on the Mid Hants Railway Watercress Line.

Hello Just a little update, nothing really exciting to report this time but there are a couple of things worth mentioning... 1. Tank wagons... This is the latest test build of my anchor mount tank wagon. I have tweaked the etches to make a 10ft wagon this time as its the one I actually need! This particular wagon has also got a 3D printed tank, printed in the classic FUD and with a very small amount of sanding came out really well. It looks like there has been a problem with the paint reacting at some point and had produced some crazing in some areas but you know what, I quite like it and I think it add a nice 'effect' to the wagon so its going to stay. 2. Jinty. This has been on and off my workbench for a while now and has been in parts more time than I care to remember testing out various different components, but its now together and running really well. The components work and if I take away all the 'testing' aspect of it, it has taken about an hour to convert from N Gauge to 2mm Finescale plus its not that difficult to do either. Julia

Apologies for lack of updates iv been doing a bit of decorating for a mate so thats taken up pretty much all my spare time over the last month or so. Anyway 13 003 last time i left it was painted so slowly but surely transfers were added including thh wasp stripes, slapped a bit of weathering on and then blasted everything over with humbrol satin which i think leaves a lovely sheen. Next i ordered an 08 sound chip from Charlie at DC kits and a couple of sugar cube speakers but then i found a a bigger speaker so put one in the master unit, now it was very loud but something didnt seem right with the engine noise it just didnt sound right to me, i tried a few things moving speakers around etc but i couldnt get it to sound correct to me. I dont doubt that Biffo's sounds are the best around, nearly all my other locos are Biffs sounds but for some reason i dont like the 08 but thats just me so itl be off for re blow as a 40 or 26 i think, iv been searching around at other 08 units on the internet and i cant work out which would be best as i think the problem is in videos its bad microphones picking up small speakers so i cant decide to try another sound project or not. I think ill keep my ear out at exhibitions and see if i can pick one so i spent most of the day de chipping so its just silent & DC only now. Its through wired so its 12 wheel pick up and it runs like a dream and will creep along at a snails pace. Heres a few pics of the completed 13 kncking around the shed yard, i was playing with my camera on the phone as well so iv added a couple more in of the super deltic for a bit of a change. Any comments/questions just fire away, id be interested to hear from anyone with 08 sound units and to see what they think. The 'pipe work' between the unites is the wire for the pick ups, i think it looks pretty good doubling up as air pipes. And i found a panorama setting as well Thank for looking All the best James

Having set the tender aside, and with Bank Holiday rain to prevent any outdoor activity, I started on the loco chassis. All in all, things have gone well, barring a couple of silly mistakes which were easily rectified. The chassis fits nicely into the Hornby shell with a few minor adjustments with the craft knife. The tiny Mashima motor and gearbox were not too difficult to assemble and the mechanism is ready for testing before being stripped down for painting. The coupling rods and crank pins still need to be fixed, then, when all is ready the brake rods can be fitted. The shoes, by the way, now need some adjusting following the struggle to get the gearbox to fit inside the frame. Some photos: Early on, frame soldered up, wheels fitted Current status with motor and gearbox Two side profiles

It seemed appropriate to show a picture of the bits that make it work. The servo motor is self explanatory. the brass plate screwed to the small block of ply is the main below baseboard drive. The red and black wires power the LED. What may not be so obvious is the double crank arrangement for the signal. Just below the red and black wires can be seen a small section of copper Mercontrol tube, a steel wire attached to the signal is guided through this to a small hole on the crank, which is very close to the pivot screw. Now to get this wire bent in the correct place is no easy task, so the crank is mounted on a swivel link. the pivot for this is to the left of the crank pivot. this enables the position of the crank to be adjusted to suit the actual position of the bend in the operating wire. Once set the swivel arm is locked in place with Cyano. The next pictures show that I have actually now fitted the ladder, and made good the hole in the platform. only the finial and spectacle film to add.

Rather than convert Bachmann tanks which I did`nt feel were opened framed enough. I had a go at David Geen kits and started on a set of three. I began with a general clean up of parts and to work out how to incorporate my favourite w-irons. this proved to be a little more complex as I had to to fit all three springing units seperately making sure they all squared up with the framing. A little jiggery pokery to make sure the wheels were free of the framing. One of my pet hates is poor quality axle box details, and I feel this is a failing on these kits. All were replaced with MJT. The rest of the kit was very good and went together well. Then a thorough clean and off to the paint shop. I used Fox transfers to complete the project.......... The entire project was completed in the late Ray Earl style...........three Brownie Points to anyone who can say what that is........????? And I did the same!!!!! Actually I messed up the Fox transfers.

Following general scenic work completed in time for the Basingstoke exhibition, a start has been made on some detailing and buildings. One important detail item is the starting signal. Fortunately there is only the one proper signal on the layout, as it has taken 6 months to build it. The two ground signals required will be another story. I wanted to build a typical SR rail-built upper quadrant signal, operational of course. I purchased some etched brass signal boards, counterweights, brackets and ladders from MSE. The post would be scratch built, using bullhead rail from the 2mm Scale Association. I laid two longish lengths of rail together, and joined them with a blob of solder at each end. I could then drill through the pair for the joining bolts at the correct intervals, confident that they would line up later when the rails were parted. I found a piece of card of suitable thickness, and cut comb-like teeth into it. With some wire passed through the rail holes at each end, I could then sandwich the two rails either side of the card and solder the joining wires in each hole, with the card keeping the rails the correct distance apart. The comb slots in the card meant the resulting signal post could be slid off the card once complete. I had some small surface mount gold-white LEDs, and decided to use one as the signal lamp. It is rectangular rather than cylindrical, but is about the right size. I formed a triangular bracket from some unused nickel-silver etch and soldered it to the signal post, and one end of the LED to the top of the bracket. This formed bothan electrical and a mechanical joint. Some very fine enamelled copper wire was soldered to the topmost terminal of the LED and runs down the post to the lampman's platform. The platform is actually a piece of thin double sided PCB. The lower face is soldered to the post with some more nickel-silver brackets. The top face is insulated from the post, and so the other end of the enamelled copper wire is soldered to it, as is the top end of the ladder. Electrical current for the LED therefore flows up the ladder, through the enamelled copper wire to the LED, and then down the signal post. I used an old 4mm copper clad sleeper as a base for the signal, with the post passing through a hole drilled in the sleeper, and the lower end of the ladder through two smal holes. Both were soldered to the copper, again for both mechanical and electrical connection, the gap at the centre of the sleeper keeping them electrically separated. A piece of nickel-silver was added to the top of the post for its cap, and some small backets from the MSE etch soldered to each side of a rail for the signal arm pivot wire to pass through. An MSE counterweight and bracket were made up and attached just below where the signal arm fits. A pivot wire was soldered to a signal arm from the etch, and the arm and post were painted, sprayed with white primer, and then brush painted black and colour details. Some red and blue-green paint was mixed in some Krystal Klear PVA which was then added to form the spectacle plates in the holes in the signal arm. The final bit of above ground work was to add the operating wires. This is a very fiddly job, requiring good right-angle bends in the wire and a lot of luck. Below ground, I created a lever arm from some more PCB, pivoting on a wire pin through the two rails. The lower end of the operating wire passes through a small hole in the PCB. A couple more pins were soldered into holes drilled in the PCB to act as mechanical end stops, so the signal operating wire cannot be pulled or pushed further than required and thus causing damage. The signal was then carefully glued into a hole in the baseboard, with the base covered with ballast and ground cover. I will probably regret not making it removeable when cleaning the track, but I have not found an unobtrusive detachable mounting method yet. The final piece of the puzzle was the operating servo. One of the new design, 3D printed, Merg servo mounts was used, with the operating wire bent into a curious form to reach the lever arm below the signal. In the end, the operating movement was not as great as expected, and I could have got away with a smaller lever, but it works. It is now configured into the Merg CBus system so that a single CBus event will raise the signal arm. This can be generated from a Merg CANCAB controller, or a simple push button on the control box I made to give simpler operation of the uncoupling magnets. Any of the route setting events will lower the signal arm, so it should not be possible to forget returning the signal to danger before the next movement takes place.

I still like making whitemetal kits but having moved into 7mm modelling this is to be the last. Bought through the O Guage Guild Society relatively cheaply with wheels included, I already had a motor and gearbox in the spares box. The kit is from the 1980`s and the body castings seemed reasonable. With some major fettling of the body parts I felt she would make a reasonable loco. By thinning the edges I felt she would have a much better profile. The boiler casting would really need some major work. I decided to remove all cast boiler bands. Then provide brass boiler bands to improve the look. She has been low melt soldered throughout due to the weight of a 7mm model. I would normally provide compensation on the chassis, but this time I did`nt bother as she weighs a ton and some!! But I did add some extra frame detail with plasticard. Having got this far i decided to scrap all the boiler and smokebox fittings as they looked overscale. I sourced alternative castings from various O guage suppliers. Overall I think it improved her looks no end. Then it was off to the paint shop for etch priming and livery. Number plates and cab detailing and the Old Gal was done......

This blog was originally set up to document progress on my Midland Railway modelling, and layout Maxstoke. So after a brief excursion to GWR metals, and a rummage through the gloat box, the next loco has been started. This will be based on an etched (10 thou NS) originally produced by Nick Dearnally many years ago, under the name of Lodge Coachworks. The basic etch components are reasonably well defined, Those on my etch are marginally mis-aligned, and some of the etch fold lines were less defined that they should have been, but using these pieces will be a whole heap easier than scratch-building. There is a chassis, but one of the spring hangers has etched out, and I have yet to decide if I will use the main frames. This class of loco has outside frames, so clearances will be tight. I have therefore decided not to start with the chassis, as would be my normal process, but to make a start on the main footplate & body work, so I can check clearances as I progress. The main outside frames and footplate assembly was carefully folded to shape. I found that the artwork design over estimated the curved splasher length, so I have opted to cut these into three sections. There will be a joint in the footplate at the top of the curved section of each driving wheel, but this joint will be filled in and hopefully not be evident later. They can be seen clearly in the running plate view below. The cab sides have a simple pattern of rivets, that in modern etches would be half etched in. The designer in this case has half etched them from behind, a sharp scriber, is used to push the rivets out - the pictures explain the process far better than words. The cab sides and spectacle plate are then soldered up, keeping everything square. Half etched rivets on cab side. Punching out the rivets Half done All done, ready for assembly. The basic cab assembly is now test fitted in place, after carefully filling back the inside for the rear splashers to provide clearance, making sure that all sits centrally on the footplate. The boiler was first annealed to allow it to be rolled - a tricky job at the best of times, but I do find that the annealing helps. The spectacle plate has an etched line to show where the boiler should fit, This can be seen in the next picture. holding the parts in place shows that there is excess material below the fire box that will have to be trimmed back. I have temporarily tacked the boiler in place on the cab front to measure and file back as required. The boiler will be removed later during chassis assembly to cut away more material to provide clearances. This represents a full day's work, and is for me very fast progress. The next task is to look at chassis and gearing etc. But right now I'm going to have a quiet drink! Happy days Richard.

I had a go at cutting the building again, this time in the more conventional 3mm MDF, using .7mm ply for the quions. The result fitted together quite nicely, though I probably shouldn't have turned the 'corner power' down so far on the ply as I had to resort to a scalpel to get some of the parts free. Before discussing painting here is a picture of Clare station to give you some idea of the colouring. I'm not convinced that four decades of no trains and possible cleaning haven't changed the colour a bit. I painted the building with an acrylic varnish to seal it, and then fairly crudely painted the walls in Humbrol brick red (Matt 70) and the quions in light stone (Matt 121). When dry I applied ModelMates Brick joint filler, This is an interesting material as you are meant to paint it on, leave it to dry and then wipe off with a damp cloth (or in my case cotton buds) The problem I have is that the filler also tones down the colour of the bricks making them too pale and I'm not sure that the mortar would really be that white. I've tried dealing with that by applying some earth weathering powder and then washing most of it off the brickwork. I'd appreciate your views on the result. Worth putting a roof on? thanks David

It has long been a task to get Lambourn's platform mounted starter signal into operation. In fact the original non-working signal was broken some time ago. A fit of enthusiasm, and a wet weekend (Well two actually) has seen the task completed. the signal was sited at the end of the platform, and so was unusual in that the balance weights were mounted high on the post, an early example of 'elf and safety'! I confess that the model is actually too tall, ( it should be a bit lower for the driver to sight the arm from below the canopy, but that'll be our little secret eh? The arm is actuated by a servo drive, and illuminated by a tiny (1.6mm x .85mm x .65mm) surface mount LED. I destroyed one as the cast brass post held too much heat which destroyed the LED. Finally I attached two fine enamelled wires and these are hidden in a filed slot in the post, which was finally filled with thick paint. The wires are carried below the platform level and soldered to thin PCB, from which normal layout wires connect to a battery pack below the layout. The fine enamelled wires are protected by 'potting' them in rapid setting resin. At the time the pictures were taken I still have to fit the ladder and finial, but it has been a satisfying project and transforms the layout.

It's been a long time since there were any updates to the viaduct project (and no I haven't done any more to that footbridge). This has been due to a variety of non-modelling issues for both John and myself. Anyway, we're back looking to rebuild some momentum. This weekend we have made significant progress in conceptual planning of the final presentation format (of which more in due course). The main thing was to decide how high to have the track, bearing in mind that it will be different (higher) for the viaduct on its own compared with when it's exhibited with other modules. This has been done, and the track level will be at 1.40 m off the floor for the viaduct solo, and 1.15 m otherwise. The next thing was to determine depth of scenery at the back to the backscene, and the height of the backscene, taking into account likely viewing distances and eyelines. With some experimentation we were able to reduce the depth of board behind the layout without seeming to compromise the illusion. This is the real view through the viaduct: And these are the preliminary test images from today's experiments: Don't worry about the missing balustrades and pavilions - these were never permanently attached and have been removed pending final detailing and fettling. The backscene image is based on photos from the actual location. Obviously the final versions will be in (muted) colour with some 'real' vegetation in front. We'll decide on the actual sizes later on when we are nearer completion.

In the September issue of BRM, I've been painting some little people. While the step-by-step guide covers the painting part, I've set them in a little scene with the two hikers asking directions from the passing cyclist. Here's how I built the model - it's in 7mm scale but everything would work in 4mm: The base for the scene is an offcut of plywood 16cm by 14cm. My plan involved a gateway on to the country road so household DIY filler was used to build up the grass verges and camber in the road surface. A coat of mud coloured emulsion paint seals everything and gives a nice base colour to work on. A whitemetal gate casting hangs on gateposts posts of real wood, but not the ones supplied. A single length is intended to be cut in half and I reckoned that this wouldn't leave enough to bury in the ground so I substituted bits of basswood. The road surface is from the Geoscenics pothole road kit using the grey powder on the road and browner shades in the gateway. This is laid on to PVA and then swamped with the same glue watered down. While sludgy, a toy tractor was run in and out of the gate to model the rutted surface. The hedge is rubberised horsehair dipped in PVA glue and then rolled in flock powder. Even for the countryside, it's bit untidy. I think my model is set in the 1930s when farmers would "lay" a hedge properly instead of flail cutting it as they do now. A little tidy up with some curved nail scissors (a very handy tool) smartened things up. Finally, a bit of electrostatic grass finishes the scene. Spraying this with hair spray then sprinkling some yellow flock provides a few dandylions for our rural location. After this, the people are fixed in place by drilling holes in the base to accpet the pegs cast in the bottom of their feet.

After an excellent weekend with 'Fen End Pit' at the Southwold exhibition I came back and spent a few more hours on the PC producing the drawings for the roofs and chimneys of the test station building. No matter how hard I try to sort out the angles of hipped roofs by being mathematical I'm always surprised when they fit, more often than not after a bit of 'adjustment'. The chimneys are cut from 1mm MDF and fitted together quite well. I'm less convinced about making 'interlocking' brickwork than I was originally but it seemed the right approach for these as I wanted some strength in them. The built out sections which fit horizontally around the main chimney worked particularly well. The fit will be better once I have the slates and the flashing in place but you get the idea. I also fitted the remaining windows into the building and with these in and roof on I think it is coming together quite nicely. David

Hello Well July has been a bit productive on the layout. Its probably because all the long drawn out bits are done and its now down to the scenics really (well, apart from a few bits and bobs). I enjoy scenics and it can come together relatively quickly too, I have even added a few details... This is an overall of the station forecourt area.Bits I have done include adding a field (of something) in the foreground, the station building now has some flowers around it, the station master now has a nearly completed vegetable patch, and there are a few more trees. This is a close up of the station veg plot with some potatoes, onions, and some (rather flat) rhubarb amongst other things. I still need to add some beans on one of those frame things. The field of something. I was aiming for sugarbeet! People are even popping up! A group of servicemen await a train. The station building needs a bit of repairing now but I can do that when I do the interior. Julia