Chubber

Fading... Best quality paper (acid free hot pressed watercolour sheet) with Epson Durabrite ink protected by matt/satin UV protective spray of the sort designed to protect pastel artwork. Structural integrity.... Use a quality P.V.A., e.g. Evostik Resin W, seal raw edges of cut card, pre-glue (smear with thinned P.V.A.) joints and use quality stick adhesives. Design smart, I.e. an applied chimney can be knocked off but not if is an appropriate piece of softwood that penetrates the roofline. Use clearglaze adhesive to fasten acrylic window sheet as it retains a degree of flexibility. Fit floors for bracing. These are the standards I applied to the construction of a small building for the Green Howard's Museum diorama of the Battle of Waterloo in Winchester, years ago and it's still there. I'd suggest that 50 years life is wholly achievable. Doug

Look here? My method of hanging big doors https://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=9000&forum_id=12&page=5

Birds. Boats, pastry making...about Connatix?? WTF?? Can't stop them. Why? Doug

Some more pictures

Not sure where they are, but this might help, they could be on Your Model Railway. I'll try and find more info. I've include smoke hoods and the way to make hung swinging doors. I've found that if you cut a Scalescenes sheet accurately along a brick course line then use the bottom edges and a flat surface to align the texture it all seems to come out well. Suggetsions such as 'Don't join at corners' doesn't take into consideration the need to work up multiple layers or to aply details etc with the walls flat down on the bench, for detailing interiors etc. Best wishes, hope this is useful, Doug

Alternatively, look at Edward Beale, Railway 'Modelling in Miniature' [no ISBN] for 1940s, many scale building drawings including full info for a UK 30-40s sawmill, wagon repair shops, etc. Or 'Modelling the old time railways' by the same author. These men wrote 'how to do it' before plastic moulding was invented and their techniques still astound me after years of studying heir work. If you are getting that keen, then 'Building Construction' by WB McKay Vols 1-3 should be on your list of 'must haves'. These 1950s volumes originally produced for the 'Clerk of Works' examinations have been re-printed in one modern volume [AFAIK] Finally, though intended for plastic [yech!] modellers, David Rowes 'Architectural Modelling in 4mm scale' [Wild Swan] contains plenty of good advice, interesting methods of window construction and 'How to measure and scratch-build a real building' stuff. Douglas

If Ahern buildings such as the cottage below ever become outdated or irrelevant, it will be time for me to hang up my craft knife and glue pot...No doubt if he were writing afresh today, he would include CLASP buildings, multi-storey car parks et al. Take a drive around the Shires [Covid permitting] and have a look at all the irrelevant and outdated buildings, or, if you are rural-phobic, walk around your town scene and lift your eyes above the plastic 'Clinton Cards', 'Pound Shop' and 'Macdonalds' facades to see the outdated and irrelevant buildings they have been grafted to. Douglas

It gives a series of consistant 'drip points' along the length of the valance. Without it, rainwater would follw any slightest departure from the horizontal along the lower edge to run off as a stream in one place. On slope ended valances this would of course mean running back to drip down the building walls. Doug

Hullo L.S., Thank you for your kind remark! Yes, TX34 for the awning roofs, with a bit of watercolour pencil shading. The slates are Scalescenes TX18a, printed on thin matt Self Adhesive photopaper, then applied in strips and finally cut with a Stanley knife between each slate once laid on. It's a new product for me [the S.A. photopaper] but I think I will revert to ordinary S.A. lable paper as it is a sod to work with, delaminating at a touch. The slightly different square area to the left hand side is the 'repair' to the roof after the affair of 'Gustave and the Exploding Seagull', part of the layout back story. Below a picture of the road side door. Also a new product to me, Teddy Bear Fur fabric....great fun but if you buy it, be sure to take it outside and with a clothes-brush carefully brush away any loose whiskers from the long cut edge, my railway room looks as though someone has put a ginger tomcat in a blender. Below the sleeper built buffer stops for the shed using it, rubbed with some green acrylic paint then attacked with nail scissors..

Thank you, gentlemen for your inputs. Maybe I am better off waiting to see if anyone makes a better model, I have an 8750 pannier I could use, but it will need a respary. Again, thank you for showing an interest. Doug

Thanks for this, David, it's the Hattons I am after, of course I should have said 00. It will have to pull only the H'worth auto. Douglas

Very late to this but I'd suggest using watercolour paper to clad the model.

I'm looking for a DC Early 14xx to go with my BR grey roof Auto coach. What should I be looking out for having missed the chance with the latest Dapol (?} Model? More importantly what should I avoid? Thank you, Doug

Thank you , John, On the ball and as perceptive as ever! Poop-poop! Doug

ScalescenesTX34 zinc roofing, TX21 pavement, TX37 cream clapboard suitably colourised, TX48 squared rubble and TX01 red brick. A bit of tidying up to do, but passable at 12"!

I scrape dark grey artists pastel onto the roof [rusty red for tiles] with the back of a scalpel blade and brush all over to cover up the edges. If you don't want it on the face of the slates/tiles, wipe off with a soft cloth. If you want the effect of newer, shiny slates, rub the powder into the surface with a stiffer brush and Lo! It will come up shiny. If that's too much of a faff, then just like Andy, a watercolour wash. Poop-poop! Doug

Hullo Steve, Thank you for your kind remarks, but unfortunately I no longer have anything of that vintage on my 'pooter! There is however quite a lot of my stuff on http://yourmodelrailway.net/ although you'll have to 'join', I am on there as 'Chubber' or much earlier as 'Dooferdog'. Putting Doug Dickson model railways into Google can turn up a bit, too. Best wishes Doug

Another book that I would be very reluctant to lose is 'A World of Model Railways' by P.R. Wickham, 1949, Percival Marshall & Co. Ltd. [It does not seem to be very well listed, but this link to Rev. Audry's books might interest you.. https://ttte.fandom.com/wiki/P.R._Wickham ] The book is a delight, he was a fine technical artist and for the times writes with an easy fluid style. Subjects as diverse as practical means of constructing O.H.L.E. and a working practical girder swing bridge are clearly illustrated, layout planning, scenic backgrounds and perspective et al. Produced only in a dull brown board cover, it makes an interesting and absorbing read. Doug/Chubber

Very succinct, I agree with your sentiments exactly. Douglas

'...Old time Railways. is a gem. Sheds, coaling, wagon repair shops, cranes, buildings, sand drier, tunnel and bridge engineering, almost all with usable scale drawings. I'm currently doing a goods shed based on the one on page 113. I have spent the odd spare hour for several years trying to find the current copyright holder with no luck. It took me two years before a lucky strike got me limited permissions for the Ahern books. Sometime comes in useful on another forum. Doug

Hullo Stevey, Indeed I posted some 10 years ago that as a matter of course I always scan a M'calfe model before I start it in case I need a 'patch' to repair/conceal an inevitable coc%-up. If you are referring to Kit PO229, Brewery, circa 2003, I have one, complete, unbuilt, which has only been opened to scan a few of the shapes for another build. If you p.m. me I'm sure we can come to a reasonable agreement. Douglas

Hi Thanks to all for interest and suggestions to date, replies in due course. Have found my GWR wagons (appendix), will try to contact B'mann soonest. Douglas

Having lashed out a whole £5 at Chris's Crafts [Plymouth PL4 0NH T: 01752 665 007 ] I am now a Crocodile keeper. Made by Bachmann, it looks OK but the wheel sets and bearings are pretty antediluvian. Any suggestions as to the easiest/least expensive way of replacing wheels/coupling etc? I should prefer to keep it 'tension lock'. I have bought it to carry my 'Tugwell-Pushleys', the manufactory for such will be my 'industry' on my nascent trainset. It will gve an opportunity for a OO9/OO interchange. Douglas

I have had considerable success using Derwent water colour pencils DRY at a shallow angle. They adhere quite well to the white print surface , any over colour on the panes can be wiped off with a damp cotton bud. Somewhere on here is a Metcalfe pub I kitbashed ten years ago! Douglas

Might these help, too?