pete_mcfarlane

Bostik Fast-Tak. It worked OK on the test piece I did, but not on the actual model.

It looks like my experiment of using spray adhesive to hold the sides together hasn't worked. This isn't the best photo, but it shows that the sides have de-laminated in a few places, and to all intents and purposes have warped in the same way as if I'd used too much solvent. I gave the warped body a coat of Halford's red oxide and it looks pretty good apart from that one problem. So when I've got some more 10 thou sheet I'll cut another coach body and assemble it with Limonene, and it should turn out OK.

Just out of interest, what's meant by 'two computers out of three'? Is it some kind of high availability system?

That one annoys me, especially when applied to kits that are relatively uncommon but still in production.

I suspect that a lot of these 'professional' loco kit builders throw the models together as quickly as possible, probably with little or no research in to the prototype. I guess it keeps their prices down.

I've spotted a lot of that on eBay - 'Kit Built' being used on anything that's not straight out of the box. One of the common suggested searched in the model railway section is 'kit built' so no doubt the plan is to get as many items as possible picked up by these common searches. I do wonder how anyone could think that a badly detailed old version M7 is worth more than the latest Hornby version. It's as if he thinks that because the model had has work done on it, it instantly becomes more valuable regardless of how well it;s been done.

I'd imagine that the Japanese are being involved because they have lots of experience of building High Speed Lines, and paying them a few million pounds in consultancy fees will hopefully save the UK money in the long term. Nothing to do with the country going to the dogs, just sound business sense.

I'm not sure what the current status is, but there were certainly some restrictions a few years back on loco workings between Boston and Skegness. The HSTs which work some of the summer services take longer from Nottingham than the Sprinters (despite avoiding Grantham) which implies that the speed restrictions for locos are lower.

This is the latest state of play with the Hastings unit. It's been a case of two steps forward and one step back. The step back being the realisation that when I added an extra layer of 40 thou in to the roof, I didn't adjust the formers to compensate. So the roof for the TS, and the half completed one for the Motor coachw ere both two high. New roofs are currently being constructed to the correct height. Apart from that, the motor coach is coming along nicely. It now has MJT bogie sideframes, and a Souther Pride Resin 6KT diesel engine squeezed in to the engine room. Because the Black Beetle intruded in to the floor I had to remove a chunk from the engine to make it fit. The driving trailer is now on it's bogies The bogies are slowly being detailed - this is slightly soul destroying work as there are 8 boogie sideframes to do, so it's taking a while. And lastly, this is the current state of play with the SECR lavatory third. After some experimentation I made the sides from 5 layers of 10 thou: - Droplights - Inner side 1, including droplight frames. - Inner side 2, including droplight frames. - Outer side. - Panelling, and separate window bolections. I experimented with using spray adhesive to stick it the sides together, using solvent only for strengthening the edges and sticking the panelling and bolections in place. So far there's zero sign of warping, although the sides are less rigid than if they'd been stuck together with solvent. This shouldn't matter when the body is assembled.

I guess this may be (at least in part) due to the development of artificial dyes in the mid part of the 19th century.

I've built SE Finecast chassis as intended - using the turned spacers followed by soldering in the etched ones. It ended up perfectly square with no need for any kind of chassis jig. Since you're using Romford wheels you could always fit them after screwing the chassis together and check that it's all square (stand it on a mirror and check that all four wheels are in contact). Then take the wheels off and solder the remaining bits in place. As for cutting etches - I just use a Stanley knife, with the etch resting on a hard surface like a piece of wood to avoid any distortion. Any remaining bits of the tab get filed off. What livery are you going to do it in?

That's not just an issue with the BBC - it permeates most of the media. It's why the views of (to take a random example) crackpot anti-vaccination campaigners are given air time because they give 'balance' by countering the views of Scientists backed by vast amounts of evidence and research. Basically it allows pressure groups to get air time and column space by making lots of noise, no matter how small the group actually is.

I tried this last night, and apart from the intial run I had no problems with multiple cuts being out of alignment. The one issue I had was when the edge of the plasticard sheet was too close to the wheel on the powered roller. I guess it was catching and knocking the cutting sheet slightly out of alignment. I also tried the approach of overlaying multiple drawings on top of each other, rather than sending the file to the cutter multiple times. The advantage is that you don't have to keep restarting the cutting when it finished. So I'll be using this method future.

One more piece of advice for doing multiple cuts from Inkscape - be sure that the cutting sheet and the plasticard on it are 100% correctly aligned when they go in to the cutter. I had some fun earlier when I wasn't paying full attention when loading the plasticard, and put in some plastic that was slightly wonky. Some of the subsequent cuts aren't in the same place, and you end up with a double image.

Or just the worst typist ;-)

I remember going to the shop a few times in the late 1908s when my grandparents lived in Hythe. Some people just aren't cut out for customer facing roles.......

My hands on modelling has been a bit limited recently, so there's not been a massive amount of progress on the Tadpole although all of the vehicles are now on their bogies and the driving coaches are still distortion free. I'll post some photos in the next day or so. One thing I have discovered with the CAD malarkey is that you can do 'modelling' away from the workbench. This evening I put the finishing touches to the cutting files for my second Silhouette project - a SECR diagram 47 lavatory third. One of the peculiar SECR coaches with some of the compartments having dedicated lavatories. This is based on a Mike King diagram, and was worked on in odd moments between other things. The next step is to have a go at printing it out.

I've gone down the 'print a second time' approach when I cut from Inkscape. It normally takes a few goes to cut through the plastic. Make sure that the plastic is firmly attached to the cutting matt or it may slip, and subsequent cuts will be out of alignment.

No books as far as I'm aware but there have been a few articles down the years. I remember a rather good model of Fury, the LMS High Pressure loco, in the RM in the early 1980s. I was also wondering if the Silhouette could be used to build Plasticard locos. Curved splashers with beading would be a doodle, for example.

Just read the link - it's good to hear that these will be kept inside a shed when not in use so they won't deteriorate.

Is 127 fitted with continuous brakes? I can't see any pipes. I shall take a drive along the A50 to Blythe Bridge when they are in service. They look wonderfully archaic.

I think the issue with Labour is more about how their views have been presented in the media, than any actual opposition to what is after all a scheme they started. Note how the BBC article presents Ed Balls' statement from a few months ago (the no blank cheque one). It's presented as if he's opposing HS2 rather than supporting it. I reckon they've probably got wise to this, and are being more careful about what they say in case it gets misrepresented in the media.

The Motor coach front end has been detailed, and it now looks a lot more like the real thing. The etched parts are from NNK, and the cast ones from MJT. The gap in the buffer beam is for a Kadee coupled mounted where the real thing had its buckeye. I'm now waiting on some EMU motor bogies from MJT. The underframe gear will be a mix of scratchbuilt, a set of Hornby 73 fuel tanks and some odds and ends from Southern pride. The roof is also under construction, using the same method as the trailer second, with formers on a very soldi (3 layers of 400 thou) base. It's clamped to a set of bending bars whilst it sets to ensure that it's a straight as possible. Lastly, a bit more work has been done on the ex-EPB driving trailer, again using MJT parts.

Must remember that for next time I get lost in the countryside. There was a deliberate error in the map, and it's not my dodgy map reading ;-) As for the models, it is telling that all of the models have been available from other sources in shape or another. I'd expect an actual list of Great British Locos to include all sorts of things that have never seen the light of day in RTR - GWR broad gauge stuff, LNWR DX goods, Lion, LBSC I3, SECR D Class, Midland Spinners, Hardwicke, the list goes on.

I've seen mirrored thin card in craft shops - I wonder if the Silhouette could cut that?