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So far so good! As you see the formed terrain plus the use of Contract Filler (spack) in filling up most of the holes in the poly due some of my over exuberance with the rasp and hacksaw blade. Finally the diorama has been given two coats of ordinary acrylic house paint to seal the polystyrene and provide for a stronger top surface and edging. I may have some more fettling to do at the module joint to ensure the diorama is a good match. Firstly I needed to assemble the 1 & 2 modules together once again and complete the platform patterns so that they can be cut out from 1.5 mm thick card. Then with that done I have used the the paxolin tag strips as mentioned earlier to join the track work across the module joint. I plan to use some Evergreen styrene strip to simulate the track sleepers and ballast accordingly around the paxolin to help disguise this area. The paxolin tag strip worked well and my only difficulty was cutting the branch line track to Hawes because it was close to the uphill embankment I’d placed on the Eastern side of the second module. While I had the modules joined I took the opportunity to tidy up (fettling) the diorama on module 1 where it joins module 2 just before the platform 1 waiting room on the Carlisle down line.

I haven't been able to spend a huge amount of time on the layout recently. As a result I have started many things but haven't completed much. Some projects have been started, scrapped, restarted and stalled! Some simply require more time to complete. I prefer to post when I have something significant to show. So in order to get away from the nightmare building project, I tackled something easier and altogether more enjoyable. Some low-relief buildings for my farm and a small stable block. I gathered lots of pictures from the internet and integrated my favourite features to bring these rather dilapidated and totally generic farm buildings to life! All for now, Jonathan

So in a brief interlude from the Attacker build (waiting for the filler to cure properly), I decided on a quick build. This kit arrived Thursday morning: The parts removed very cleanly from the sprue and only need a minimum of clean up. Though an older tooling (2006) the fit was very good. Obviously I've diverged slightly from the instructions because of painting.. To give some extra weight the lower hull is die-cast, so super glue is needed to glue the front & rear panels to the lower hull. At this point the wheels and tracks should be fitted, however I decided to make things easier and build up the top of the hull and the turret (the top of the hull is secured to the bottom half of the hull by two screws) Next wheels, lower hull and the underside of the topside of the hull painted. The wheels, idlers & drive sprockets where glued to the lower hull and the tracks returned from paint. With the tracks assembled and fitted the hull could be closed up finally and a Cromwell appears. With some minor filling and clean up done, the tracks where masked up and it was ready for paint. A coat of Nato Black was applied. Then a shadow coat of Insignia White After several coats of Dark Green and some details painted the Cromwell is nearly ready for Decals. A photo taken under more different lighting. That's all for now. TBG

Evening folks, Completed a couple of Parkside opens recently and took a few pictures of the painting process. It has involved a few techniques i have read about and a bit of experimentation. The wagon is primed using halfords grey Matt spray, the body brush painted with phoenix precision pre 1964 bauxite, thinned right down. I paint the underframes humrol dark grey 34. I used humbrol stone colour, humbrol light grey and humbrol black to pick out the bare wood planks and a mix of different humbrol browns and reds to vary the plank colours suggesting fading. The bare plank mix is dry brushed (more like scrubbed) over some of the planks to suggest flaking paint and ware.

Some photos from Tolworth. A good show, well attended and with plenty of quality layouts. This IoW layout, or rather three linked layouts was just across the road from us. Always a nice subject and nicely done. Harlyn Pier was our next door neighbour. A lovely layout with a T9 - one of my favourite locos. It moved off before I got a pic but the pannier was nice too.

About ten years ago I came back from Warley with three Ratio Midland clerestory coach kits. My vague intention at the time was to paint and line them in full S&DJR blue livery, possibly with some minor modifcations to the bodies and roofs, just to have a semi-acceptable period-looking train to run behind my one or two S&D blue locomotives. However, time went on and I never got around to it. Eventually I decided that, if I were to go to the trouble of painting and lining a set of coaches, I would rather they were at least approximately right for the desired prototype. I therefore decided to finish the Ratio coaches in lined crimson lake as running in the LMS era, and set about painting the sides as a batch, while still on the sprue: The sides were brush painted with four thin layers of crimson, then allowed to dry properly before adding the yellow panel lining. This was done using gloss yellow enamel applied by bow-pen, neat from the tin. All the books on painting and lining say that more or less neat gloss paint should work properly through a bow-pen (unless there's a fault with the pen itself) and this proved to be the case. However, the paint only has to be a little off its freshness to not flow properly, and it's then that I find it very difficult to thin it back down to the right consistency. There is probably an argument for sticking to fresh bottles for lining. In the above picture, the lowest pair of sides has also had the black line drawn down the middle of the yellow - again after giving the yellow at least a day to harden. In this case I couldn't get acceptable flow from my bow-pen with my existing black gloss bottle, so I opted to use a 0.25mm Rotring pen. Personally I find using these pens a lot more intuitive than either a bow-pen or a Bob Moore lining pen; it's just a pity that they only take inks. The other four sides were treated similarly, and I then made a start on the assembly of the first complete coach, shown here with its roof loosely in position: Things were going spiffingly until I noticed something odd: all the black lining had disappeared! It turned out that just handling the coach had caused all the Rotring lines to rub off, presumably because, going onto gloss yellow, they hadn't had much to key on. Time for a cup of tea! I redid the lining, which wasn't all that harder even though the sides were no longer flat, and then went back over all six sides with a coat of satin varnish, applied carefully so as not to disturb the lining already present. Close-up of the lining at the end of the coach: I'm pleased with the overall effect from normal viewing distance, and it's certainly a lot better than my first attempt at lining one of these coaches, in my teenage years. Now progress must wait as I want to add some seats and passengers before (regrettably) having to fix the roof in place. However, I am very happy with the batch-production method of doing these, and will be taking a similar approach with some LNWR coaches from the same stable. While I was in painting and lining mood, I also tackled this Ratio GWR four-wheeler composite, seen next to the brake third I built a couple of years ago. These are on the Mainly Trains etched chassis. I think there's something a bit doubtful about the overall relationship between footboards, solebar and coach sides but there is possibly some scope for getting the bodies to sit a bit more snugly onto the chassis. In the meantime, though, I need to finish two more of these coaches. This is what operating Wenlock's llayout, and reading Mikkel's blog, does to a chap.

Great Western Railway open wagons constructed using Cooper Craft kits, with the addition of Slaters sprung buffers and wheels. GWR 3 plank open GWR 4 plank open

So far the only coaching stock that I've built to use on Sherton Abbas, are a rake of 4 wheeler's along with a solitary all 3rd bogie clerestory. To add a bit of variety to operating sessions I've decided to build some more passenger stock and thought I'd document their build in my blog. The Slater's kits comprise of really well moulded plastic components for the majority of the coach body, accompanied by lost wax castings for for detail parts. The coaches run on etched brass bogies, that incorporate individual sprung suspension for each wheel. The instructions suggest starting construction of the kit by building the etched brass bogies, so I tackled these first. The main frames are a simple fold up exercise, with the corners reinforced with solder. A little judicious filing was need on the etched brass cusped edges to enable the hornblocks to slide freely and then the wheels could be temporarily fitted to allow the set up of the brake shoes. Etched brass bogie fold up The brake gear was fitted with the wheels in situ and once happy that I had adequate clearances was soldered into position. Fitting the step supports was the final step in the bogie's construction involving heat, so once that had been completed the plastic components could be glued in position using 5 minute epoxy resin. Brake gear and leaf springs The bogie was then sprayed with acid etch primmer to ensure the paint would have a good adhesion to the brass. I don't like the idea of putting acid etch paint through my airbrush, so used an aerosol can from Autotek https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005JCRF8Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which seemed to give excellent coverage without masking out any detail. Bogie after priming The hornblocks and wheels were then fitted back into position, along with the tiny coil springs that provide the bogie's suspension. Wheels and springs The bogies were then painted in their final colour with enamel paints. Painted Bogies Now the bogies are complete, I plan to make a start on the coach body. One of the advantages of a plastic kit is that the sides can be painted before assembly of the body. Painting complex liveries is so much easier if the sides can lay flat on the work bench! Until next time.... Best wishes Dave

Here we are finally at the strip down and big clean up time. I think it is all done now. The castings have all been added although some are better than others. I am sure there are better ones out there. There is only so much time and effort that can be spent on a project. I also added a representation of some of the oil pipes at the smokebox end. The roof had it's gutters and vent covers adding. To hold it in place I soldered a two wires at the front one in each corner to hold it in the right place. Then one on the centre at the rear which acts like a spring clip on a piece of wire soldered on the back sheet in the tool cupboard. Hopefully next time I post it will be because there is some paint on the body. Must dig out my lining pen and practice a little. At least it is only one colour.

Here we are at the end of another adventure. The Ivatt has now been finished apart from glazing. I was very pleasantly surprised the transfers from Fox arrived in 22 days, for mail not tracked it must be a record. It normally just never arrives. The emblem is from Fox and the numbers from HMRS. As usual I had to use 3 of the lovely emblems to get two. But never mind. I think the lining looks a lot better now coated with some black tinted varnished. All in all I am pleased with the way it turned out What do you think. Next up is a Dukedog rebuild. I am not sure whether to continue it on here as a blog or open a thread as I did for my own models. Not sure if it is me but there seems to be a decline in responses here. But I will not need to decide now as I am going to get on with the G6 now as it is only a few weeks before we go away. So it will not be started until November, need some tender wheels from Guildex anyway. Nice to have the bench clear for things that are just for me.

I find it much easier to paint coach sides "in the flat" rather than when the coach is fully assembled. This is obviously impossible with etched brass kits, soldering painted sides would be a challenge, however with plastic kits it's not a problem. The Slater's sides come in two halves which have to be joined, fortunately the Guard's ducket helps hide any join line. I think it looks more realistic if coaches have a few windows open, so micro strip was used to represent the top of the droplights in the doors. Sides joined and droplight height adjusted The sides were then painted with gloss Phoenix Precision GWR coach cream https://www.phoenix-paints.co.uk/, using my airbush. I used gloss paint, which once dry gives a hard smooth surface to apply the lining to. Unfortunately the paint has dried with an "orange peel" finish, which hopefully won't be too apparent after a coat of satin varnish has been applied, once the coach is completed! Cream application Once the cream paint had dried for a couple of days, low tack masking tape https://www.amazon.co.uk/FrogTape-Painters-Masking-Multisurface-41-1m/dp/B004QXKFBQ/ref=asc_df_B004QXKFBQ/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=223237768057&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6166215919130271044&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045352&hvtargid=pla-357994525169&psc=1&th=1&psc=1 was applied on top of the raised panel beading. Masking tape in position Phoenix Precision GWR coach brown was then applied to the sides, once again using my airbrush. The join between the cream and brown paint occurs on the raised moulding, which will be painted black later, so consequently doesn't need to be perfectly straight Brown Application The bolections and droplights were then brush painted using Phoenix Precision Indian Red. Indian Red The raised panel moulding was then painted black using a fine tipped brush, fortunately the junction between the black and the body colour will be hidden by the lining. Black panel moulding The next stage of the process is to apply the lining and for this I use a Bob Moore lining pen. https://www.phoenix-paints.co.uk/products/lining-and-sundries/moore The pen comprises of a handle, paint reservoir and fine needle like tubes of assorted diameters. I've got the Craftsman Plus set, which includes 3 different heads, one each of 0.008” Fine, 0.012”Standard & 0.020” Standard Plus Heads I've found that In order to get a successful result using these pens two things must be right. The paint consistency must be correct, so that it flows properly and the pen must be held at the right angle. A bit of practice is useful on a scrap of plasticard and is useful to check that the paint is flowing adequately before applying it to the model! Bob Moore lining pen I start the lining by going around each of the cream panels with brown paint using the "Standard Plus Head" giving a line about 0.5 mm wide. Brown lining Once the brown lining is dry, I go around each panel again but this time using gold paint applied using the "Standard Head" which gives a line about 0.3 mm wide. This means that each cream panel is edged in a 0.3 mm gold line, which is then edged with a 0.2 mm brown line. The brown panels are simply lined with gold paint using the "Standard Head" giving a 0.3 mm line. Gold Lining applied Lettering was applied using CPL products https://www.cplproducts.net/transfers.html ,along with numbering using transfers from HMRS https://hmrs.org.uk/transfers.html Lettering & Numbering The sides now need the application of some clear satin varnish to protect the transfers and to tone down the high gloss finish, but I'll probably do this once the coach has been further assembled onto it's under frame and ends which will have to wait until the next bog entry All in all a rather long winded process which makes the advent of Slater's pre-printed sides look very attractive, although there is some satisfaction in having a go yourself! Until next time ...... Best wishes Dave

Hot on the heels of the Tempest and defying my normal convention of posting a cameo of my next build - as I have three unfinished (and I'm unmotivated to finish them yet), I opted for a quick and simple build instead. I've had the Attacker in my stash for nearly a year, so I thought what the hell let's build it. Up first here's what's in the box... The sprues a clean a crisp, no shorts or burring and a minimal flash. I assembled the cockpit and jet pipe, I opted not to paint them as on test fitting within the fuselage the tolerances a very tight - so painting before will cause problems.. The ejector seat is dry fitted, as this can be fitted after painting. Something of note - fit the intakes, before gluing the fuselage halves together, as it makes getting decent fit easier. Fuselage glued together, it needs only minor filling. Wings and tail planes assembled - no issues though some minor filling is needed around the cannon. Tail-planes fitted with no issue. However the wing need so fettling to fit and then to remove the anhedral - nothing major. Wings corrected a few lumps and bumps added. Belly auxiliary fuel tank* and arrestor hook fitted. * The tank doesn't have to be fitted, but it covers a lot of joints Flaps fitted and ready for some Mr Surfacer 1000. That's all for now TBG

Hi all, Just bought the splendid Bachmann Ivatt Class 2MT but don't like the trailing DCC wires to the tender. I'm an analogue runner so have no need for the chip interface in the tender. Does anyone know how to get rid of these wires - found that if the plug is removed from the tender it wont run? I have no understanding of DCC electrics so if there's an easy way to remove them I'd be really grateful for info. It also judders when running slow - is this normal and will it go away after the customary running in period? Cheers - Mike

Although I've got a few horse drawn vehicles on the layout, I haven't got anything suitable for transporting goods from the station into the town. While I was at Guildex, I found a white metal kit from Duncan Models http://www.duncanmodels.co.uk/ that looked like it had the potential to make a simple flat bed wagon. Duncan Models flat cart They also make a nice range of horses, I chose to use their Shire horse. The horse is cast in a running position, but as I wanted a standing animal the legs were re positioned and filled with Milliput epoxy putty https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glue-Lines-Standard-Milliput-Epoxy/dp/B007SLC372/ref=asc_df_B007SLC372/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=226557876382&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18315479174994515514&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045353&hvtargid=pla-581817163082&psc=1 White metal kit The kit provides for a raised type seat, but after looking at pictures of prototype carts, in conjunction with information provided by Mikkel, this type appears to be more common around Paddington. In a rural backwater like Sherton Abbas a simple flat wagon where the driver sits on the left side of the deck appeared to be more appropriate. The boarded deck was made from a piece of scribed plastic card, which was glued to the white metal frame. The cart was then painted using enamel paints. Painted wagon I thought a grey coloured horse would contrast nicely with the chestnut mare that pulls the coal cart in Sherton Abbas's yard, so searched the internet for a suitable picture. After a bit of searching I came across this rather magnificent beast, which I used as inspiration for my model. Splendid Shire! Model horse The wagon was then attached to the horse and the chains and reins were added. Richard (Tricky) of this parish http://www.monksgate.co.uk/ had given me some of his splendid wicker baskets, so these were arranged on the wagon along with some wooden packing cases to form a load. Horse, wagon and load The model was then positioned on the layout alongside the platform. I cut and repositioned the legs on an Andrew Stadden figure and positioned him climbing onto the cart to inspect his load. In situ on layout I’m taking the layout to the Cardiff show in a couple of weeks time http://www.cardiffmodelrailwayshow.co.uk/ Looking forward to a great weekend Best wishes Dave

I usually take pictures of the layout using my iPad, but thought I'd have a go using a compact camera for a change. I've had a Panasonic Lumix https://www.panasonic.com/uk/support/discontinued-products/cameras-camcorders/dmc-tz60eb.html for a few years now, that I use on motorcycle trips and for general photography. Although generally happy with the results that I get from it, the smallest f stop that it will go down too is F8 and I thought this would cause problems with depth of field on models. The pictures were taken using a tripod, with the camera set on F8 for an exposure of about half a second. I found some free software online https://www.nchsoftware.com/photoeditor/download-now.html which has a "sharpen focus" setting which I've been playing with, I've also used the software to make the image size suitable for posting. I hope you enjoy the pics! Waiting for the morning train Arrival of Metro class number 1500 with the branch set Number 1500 running round the branch passenger Number 1500 ready to return back up the branch 517 class number 539 arriving in Sherton Abbas Dean Goods number 2467 propelling some cattle wagons into the back siding Dropping off some cattle wagons by the cattle dock Assembling the morning goods Ready for departure! Until next time........ Best wishes Dave

Finally finished off my Coles Crane tonight, 14 months after starting it. It didn't really need a lot of work to finish, a coat of varnish, some couplings and rigging. The 3 links were supplied with the kit although I lost one hook, easily replaced as it was supplied with Exactoscale hooks, which are excellent. The hooks and links were treated with Birchwood Casey 'Super Blue' before fitting. Rigging, with black cotton (supplied) is fiddly. The cotton is held in place under the rear of the body by a keeper plate and both the jib height and hook are seperately adjustable. A couple of pics; The 48DS chassis, seen on here previously, will be used with the crane, possibly with a cement mixer on. One job that needed doing was to apply some markings to the safe load/angle indicater (the crescent-shaped object on the jib). These were applied with a bow pen and compass. Its a small detail but to me quite important to have some kind of representation of. Shown here; Quite pleased with it. I will get some suitable chain to make up some tackle to hang off the hook (and help tension the cotton). The crane still needs weathering but that can wait untill I build a layout (there are plans afoot.....). Paul.