lezz01

Hi Bob. I think you had too much paint on the brush when you did the grey mate. Try rubbing them lightly with a fiberglass pencil to cut through it and show the darker colour. The thing with dry brushing is to wipe most of the paint off the brush with a paper towel and use a really stiff scrubby old flat brush and brush lightly across the width of the sleepers to bring up the raised detail. Sorry if I'm teaching my granny to suck eggs here mate. Regards Lez.

Looking good Bob. Regards Lez.

Have you got access to Ian Rice's book on small track plans? He did a colliery one on multiple levels that was quite good. I was going to have a go at it myself in P4 and augmented the plan to suit my style of things with a passenger halt and two fiddle yards. I could look it out if you like. Although I wouldn't hold my breath as it was a couple of house moves ago. If I can't find it I'll draw you a new one. It would be easier in 00 than P4 I think. Regards Lez.Z.

Hi there. Well as it is with the diamond crossing you can't access either the middle siding of the bottom 3 or the head shunt. so that needs to be either a single or double slip mate. Regards Lez.Z.

Hi Bob. You do it the other way around Bob. Start dark then the brown wash and then dry brush the grey hi-lights and dark rust last. Otherwise the dark colour will cover the lighter colours you put on top. Regards Lez.

Hi Stu. Those bridges are excellent mate. Regards Lez.Z.

Hi Bob. The rails are looking very nice mate. The sleepers would have started life creosote black mate which is kind of oily and would fade over time to a light grey on the high points but would retain a certain amount of oily black colour in the low points which would be the cracks and depressions of the wood grain. They would also stain a dark rusty shade somewhat around the rail chairs. Regards Lez.

Hi Andy. Your vids are better than the telly mate. Regards Lez.

Hi Bob. Well I would go with two parts 133 or it might be 113 rust, without going upstairs I can't be sure, and one part metalcoat gunmetal and a bit of leather if it's too dark. Or 2 parts rust and one part black and one part 53 gunmetal or even silver if you don't have the metalcoat. You should be looking for that purple/black colour of really old rust. Then dry brush it with an orangey rust to bring out the detail. Regards Lez.

Hi Bob. Equal parts black and dark earth with a bit of metalcoat gunmetal for the basic sleeper colour then dry brush with a generous dollop of gunmetal 53 or metalcoat polished aluminium added to the basic mix. Then do a dark rust for the metalwork and then do a track colour as I mentioned earlier with dark earth/trackcolour and a bit of black as a dilute wash over the lot as many times as you need. Regards Lez.

Hi Colin. If the drive pin is too short just fit a sleeve and extend the pin. It sure beats lifting track mate. If the peco option isn't good I'm sure that seep do one that is self latching. Regards Lez.Z.

Hi Colin. Yes mate what you do is wet a couple of sheets of kitchen roll and fold into a strip the width of the ballast. Cover this with a piece of polythene and fix it down with tape. Do it last thing at night and when you wake up the glue will have gone liquid again and you can lift the point and a bit of track either side without damage. Done it myself more than once so I know it works. Regards Lez.Z.

...or you can use powder paint and mix it in with the pva. I would go with 2 parts burnt umber with 2 parts burnt senna and 1 part black nice and runny and mix it 50/50 with pva and then fix the ballast with it in the usual tedious manner. Regards Lez.

I usually go with a blend of dilute dark earth and track colour plus bit of black where the locos would stand mate. Paint the sides of the rails first though. Regards Lez.

Looking good Bob. You just need to make it dirty. Regards Lez.

Well that's a much better collection than mine mate. I've never owned a strat although I did have a mustang for a while in the 70's. I'm more at home with an acoustic tbh. I was thinking about a 12 string but I would only play one or two songs on it and I can't really justify it. Regards Lez.Z.

Hi Phil. Nice station. Don't hold back tell us about the planks mate. This is my little collection. From near to far. Fender DG60CE, fake LP, real LP, Aria pro II Ltd and Yamaha APX700 II. Yes I do play them all my fave is the Yamaha. Regards Lez.Z

Looking good Bob. Regards Lez.

Hi Bob. Good man. Never let a small set back stop you moving forward mate. Try the other method I showed you in my diagram. Drill a smaller hole as well, something closer to the diameter of the wire. Regards Lez.

Hi Bob. Never mind mate. There is more than one way to skin a cat. You can always retro fit point motors from underneath or even hide them in the scenery come to that. You could even refit the droppers, it wouldn't take long to do to be honest and that my friend is the real problem. You can fix the pulled through tie bar with epoxy instead of UHU so it's not a dead loss. Have a think about the way you want to go forward and I'll give you what help I can whenever I can even if it's only advice mate. I just wish I lived a bit closer so I could come on over and get my hands dirty. Problem is I'm kind of pinned down until I get back from Turkey in May. My layout is still in bits and will be for a few weeks but once my storage issues are sorted I will be building control panels and fitting point motors and flogging all my wire in tube stuff off on flea bay. Regards Lez.

Hi Andy. Loving the videos mate. I might have to come up your way with my sound equipped locos one of these days. My 28 sounds fab and my 24 hasn't even been run yet, it's one of the Sutton one's and my layouts been down since b4 it arrived. Regards Lez.

Hi Bob. Use a smaller drill mate or try my second option in the drawing I posted for you in the other thread. If the blob of "UHU" pulls through use epoxy instead. Regards as always Lez.

Well done Bob we knew you could do it. Regards Lez.

Hi Jesse. 1 Nice TAT. 2 Nice BIKE. 3 Great layout. Regards Lez.Z. P.S. Is your work bench still tidy?

Yup it worked. No charge LOL Regards Lez.Z.