DavidH

If someone had a spare copy you could play the game I played using undergraduate/professional textbooks a while back ... List at a slightly lower price. Wait for them to undercut you. Repeat. See how low you can get before someone buys the book ...

Dealing with railways in a time when there was no such thing as pantones, where different works on the same railway often used slightly different colours, where the amount of varnishing/revarnishing (on the Southern) and weathering affected the colour ... Why would you want all the colours to match perfectly?

A retailer can charge what they want for the items in their shop.

Coincidentally, the same train leaving Quorn, photo hurridly captured after driving the van at a breakneck 5 mph across the field "car park".

"Shouldn't the cab steps line up with cab door?" (Lofty1966) "And what's with the "mini" splashers?" (Lofty1966) "They do look odd" (John Isherwood) "Very disappointing" (Lofty1966) "Very sad if they are splashers as its a major error, on what is otherwise a lovely looking Loco" (Micklner) I must have missed the temper tantrums and hissy fits. I guess the moderator has been busy removing some intemperate posts overnight. David

Thanks! I'd forgotten the other one. I get a "risky website" warning on that link, although it seems to be ok once you click past the warning and no firewall alarms went off.

Phoenix don't appear to be selling anything at the moment: http://www.srg.org.uk/phoenix/ "The SRG is in the process of reviewing the stock and tooling for the kits over the winter of 2015/6, prior to a re-launch of the range in 2016."

Indeed, the ever-present danger of HO radicalisation ...

Time to move on, of course. But it's strange that my post questioning what looks like online bullying is removed (presumably to avoid provoking people), yet certain other members appear to have carte blanche to pick on posters like miles above; and he backs down and their posts remain. His initial post saying he reckoned a few months was unrealistic was not in any way rude to Ian, yet Ian chooses to interpret it as such. I call on Ian to also remove his posts, in the interests of all-round fairness.

Ben might have been referring to this promise of an update?

On the other hand, to me, your first picture looks as if the plate has been melted into the cab side, rather than being mounted on it. Of course, it is an extreme close up, but it's the sort of detail that, once spotted, stands out.

Yes, updates. Not answers to questions posed by, e.g. Norman. And not just Norman, other questions have been left hanging. You seem to be attacking people for asking questions on the Ask Dave thread, and I'm puzzled as to why you're so angry about it. Mr Jones does in fact have my email address, but I'm sure it wouldn't be appropriate for me to demand special treatment.

Unless ill? UK shutdown? But Dave has posted and is posting elsewhere, including the end of year report, and has responded to others elsewhere, not to mention that this thread is the "ask Dave" thread, so it's a question that's hardly hidden away where no one is likely to look. So ... I think norman is well within his right to ask about the promised 48 hour reply. It certainly didn't require "FFS" in your reply.

I think 7007 just proved Wheatley's point! (And if you're going to quote someone, and reference back to their post, you need to quote them correctly!) Happy Christmas everyone. ps The 14XX looks quite nice.

But the Q6 on that chart has been cancelled, so I wouldn't take it as gospel regarding cancellations (or indeed anything, as the class 71 is at least one step further on)

Was it a big apple?

Did you ever do this Q&A?

Which is easier to remove - four small cab vents or a lengthy rainstrip?

I have found on an old external storage disk a few "I did earlier" - nearly 10 years ago, before I moved house and went into model hibernation for about 6 years. With a pending house sale and embryonic layout being packed up, it might be a while before I can do more. Both were done following Martyn Welch's ideas. I'm not 100% satisfied with either wagon, yet, but this gives an idea of the results I was trying to achieve in 2007, and the methods I hope to use again, in time. (If I can remember what I did!) I particularly admired the work of JWelleans and Tom Foster, which I saw examples of last weekend at Hartlepool, and will be attempting to use their methods next time. Will I learn from the techniques in this thread? - yes, definitely. Doesn't everyone learn from other people, on the way to creating their own work? (Apologies for the poor lighting and quality of the photographs. I hadn't yet learnt about close-up photo lighting, and the flash tends to make it all look lighter than it really is.)

Oh dear, we've gone all formal ... Mr Oliver. Yes, I have done some weathering, a while ago, and I did it with reference to Martyn Welch's book and plenty of prototype photos. Rest assured that when I have some new work that I'm happy with I shall share photos, and certainly will be willing to listen to well-argued criticism and advice from people who practice the art. You are welcome to comment then. However, we're talking here about your work (this is your thread not mine). You appear to have fixated on the date of the photos, and then used this as a reason to reject the point I was making - I've said I accept some are condemned, but not all. But I laid out my reasoning in the post above and won't repeat it here. I have looked at the photos you mentioned, and all I can say is, you and I seem to be seeing different things. Assuming I have the correct pages, here are the wagons in the photos: (Photo sources: Pg 39 of London Midland Steam in Colour (Hugh Ballantyne) and Pg 55 North Eastern Steam - Steam Portfolio 5 ( Maurice Johnson). Small portion of both images used to make sure we are looking at the same photos. Copyright: original photographers, see books for details) Note, I wasn't attacking the rest of your work, and I wasn't attacking you, I was simply saying that the 12T van chassis below looks nothing like I've ever seen:

Oh, a lovely part of the world, I'm very jealous. It's on my bucket list ... one day! Picture please!!

Hi Barry, just as a postscript, I've now seen the photos on the pages you are referring to ... and I don't think we're looking at the same images. The complete vans in those pictures (one Southern, one BR plywood) appear to have the same oily/dusty/dirty finish that Paul Bartlett's photos show.

Hi Barry, I see what you're saying, but I don't agree with you - we're talking here about wagon designs that hadn't changed much in decades. I wouldn't insult your intelligence by pointing you to a picture of a modern air-braked wagon that had never operated in a steam-and-soot-filled world, and try to compare like with unlike. I propose that oil-staining and the pattern of wear/dirt for a humble, planked, 4 wheel, 12T van in 1976 (the date of the photo) is not going to be much different from those on a wagon in 1966 or 1956, except that the wagon in question won't be picking up soot from steam engines anymore - but no one is going to have cleaned all of them post-1968 so a new type of weathering can arise. The only really likely difference in 1976 is more rust on withdrawn or internal user wagons. Paul's pictures I agree do include some withdrawn wagons, but not all of them. I have other colour albums, not the ones you point to sadly, but I do have Robert Hendry's book (British Railway Goods Wagons in Colour), and various others of more Southern-specialisation, and many, many wagons in these books have the distinctive smear of oil in the places I mentioned. The rust/dirt brown covers all of the frames as well in many of these photos (albeit overlaid with oil in places mentioned). I accept your word on the photos you're working from. However, for me, the van you've painted simply does not look like a typical 12T van of the type I've seen in many pictures, and what I am aiming towards: dirty, unloved, a bit rusty, and oil-stained. David

The BR(WR) one, as the one without the sheet doesn't have any apparent "rust" on the underframe. It does have a couple of glue marks, however, but I'm sure you've spotted them and covered them up - I always find enlarged photos so cruel. On the other hand, the comments could equally apply to both, as Paul Bartlett's pictures show wagons in various states or decrepitude, but many of the ones in colour have very similar areas of oil staining, particularly around the brake lever pivot and axleboxes.