Daniel W

Agreed, very informative. The book is only let down by some formating issues. I assume the next volume will be about Open Merchandise Wagons, since that is the biggest field not covered yet.

It was good to see you again on Saturday, Tony. Thank you for taking a look at my kit built Locos. I was happy with the feedback I got: "Your craftsmanship is good, but your pick-ups are rubbish." Now that I have a couple of Saddle Tank kits to build next, I would like some advice on the subject of rolling boilers and saddle tanks. Will the mouse-mat and broomstick method suffice, or is it worth investing in some rolling bars (if any can be found)?

It looks like Volume Four is up on Crecy's website, expected release date is April: http://www.crecy.co.uk/the-acquired-wagons-of-british-railways-volume-4

Very interested to see what these are like. It looks like they are going for the pre-coloured plastic route. If so, they will have a real job on their hands matching the gold standard that is the Bandai Star Wars kits.

What a lovely new look to the website. I'm sure online ordering will be appreciated by a lot of people.

I enjoyed Twilight of the Goods, and am always excited for more rolling stock books. Looking forward to recieving my copy of Acquired Wagons Vol 3 in the post too after the delay in publishing. The reference pictures of post-nationalisation PO wagons alone should make it worth the price of purchase.

I have a quick question. What time period are we talking here, Tony? The LMS had a design of boxy wagons for carrying Soda Ash that usually ran sheeted. These likely would have been replaced by Covhops in the late 50's and early 60's.

I think there was some mention of overhauling the tooling to some degree, but don't quote me on that.

As some other people have said, Tinkercad is the best starting option in my opinion. It is designed for children, features some easy tutorials and allows users to produce something that they can then print without losing interest. You can produce more complex designs using Tinkercad, but i've found that it tends to struggle once you hit a certain number of concurrent objects. Hence why I really need to get round to learning Fusion 360...

I also would like to heap some praise on Andrew. Any orders have always arrived quickly. The way that he took over the Comet brand with minimal fuss and disruption was very impressive and something that other suppliers could learn from.

If you are looking for specific brands, I have had good result with DCC Concepts solder on the two loco kits i built recently. It's not cheap, but seems to flow well. Flux of choice is the Barry Stevenson type available from Eileens or Slaters. As a relative newcomer to soldering, these seem to have worked well for me after trying a few different brands. Regards Daniel

Thanks, Mike. Sending a PC now.

Hi, Mike, I have a quick question about your 'under the table etches'. I know you produce an etch to model the Fowler 4P with the later Stanier Cab, but I remember reading somewhere that you also do an etch to model the tank rivets that are missing on the Hornby model, or did I just imagine that?

It looks like the book has been pushed back to february next year: http://www.crecy.co.uk/the-acquired-wagons-of-british-railways-volume-3

I think I mentioned that i was working on a CSP kit for a Hudswell Clarke canal class. The body is more or less finished now, and I am awaiting a gearbox to motorise the chassis. It all went together fairly well for a first attempt at building a steam loco after my Diesel Shunter build. I defnitely needed to fit the cab front a little higher though and this caused some issues down the line. I could have done a better job on the smokebox too. Most of the whitemetal parts were epoxed on. I replaced the whitemetal smokebox dart with a metal one for obvious reasons. I also added a whitemetal lamp and electrical generator from RT models for a little added variety. Daniel

That Kirtley is a thing of absolute beauty, Mike.

Thanks for the advice chaps. I've not 'viced' the Hudswell Clarke ones yet, so i shall try using the needle files instead. Tony, it may be that only the smaller patterns of Markit wheels are affected by these issues. I'd imagine the diameter of the average wheel you are using is signifcantly greater than the ones used on industrials.

On the subject of wheels, I have had issues with the Markits wheels I used for my North British shunter and also for the Hudswell Clarke tank I am building at the moment. Many of the wheels simply would not fit properly on to the axles, resulting in a serious lack of squareness. Putting them in a vice helps somewhat, and thankfully damage has been avoided so far.

I'd also like to thank Mike for his help whilst I was building one of his North Brititish shunters as my first attempt at loco kit building. He answered my questions patiently, despite no doubt looking on aghast as I made a complete hash of his lovely kit!

I'm calling this one done for now. I have the sandboxes to epoxy on at a later date and the buffer heads will be added after painting. All in all, for a first loco kit i'm pretty pleased with it. Adding the coupling rods was fairly easy, but the jackshaft was somewhat trickier. One of the cranks is still a little bit out of angle, but its not noticable. Frankly i'm just pleased that i managed ot build a loco kit that works and looks decent at a glance, even if there is some wonkyness. Next kit is an Agneria kit for a Hudswell Clarke canal class. Edit: The front headlight is an RT models one, which i think matches the industrial ones better than the etched ones in the kit,

Thanks, Mike. I'm loathe to interfer with the pick-ups now that i have them working decently,but i'll bear it in mind for future builds.

I've managed to get back to work on my North British Shunter. Firstly, i used the dodgiest dodge and soldered some brass strip behind the gap in the cab, which manages to trick the eye a little. I certainly feel as though i did a better job on the engine casing though. I still need to add a couple of sand boxes usimg epoxy yet. I still have quite a bit of work to do on the chassis. Thanks to the Poppy's woodtech jig, the chassis is nice and square. I managed to build the High-Level box without problems (sorry Tony, the DJH one wouldn't fit!), which says something to their ease of use if a ham-fisted novice like myself can put it one together. Together with one of High-Level's new motors it runs 'sweetly' as Sir might say. The pick-ups are definitely the weak point. They needed quite a bit of tweaking, but i've managed to get running to an acceptable standard. This is definitely an area that i need to work on. I used the pick-up kit from Eileens, but i might need to find some springier wire. I've left the adding of the coupling rods and jack-shaft until last, mostly because I am mildly terrified at what sort of effect adding the rods will have to the running qualities! Still, for a first attempt at a loco things could be a lot worse. Daniel.

I've been looking for a program with more power than TinkerCad to go to the next step of 3D designing for printing. Fusion 360 was top of the list, but that has made me think twice.

For what it is worth, I just thought I'd add my two cents to the discussions that have been had over the past few pages. -Younger modellers getting stuck in: I find it strange that at the age of 30 I could be considered 'young' anymore, but by modelling standards, I suppose I very much am. However, one of the things that I suspect acts as something of a barrier to entry is the somewhat vintage method by which small suppliers operate. The ability to order through a website is going to become more and more vital as time goes on. This might be somewhat controversial, and perhaps overly critical, but the need to send in cheques or phone up is almost certainly causing a loss of business to smaller suppliers. I know that quite people's experiences trying to obtain directly from Markits have been rather variable, to say the least, and as they are the primary source of loco wheels for those new to kit building, this is far from ideal. The question is ultimately this: Is it financially viable for smaller suppliers to employ someone in a customer-facing role to allow the owners to focus on design and manufacturing? Or indeed, would some smaller suppliers be better off not selling directly to the public at all and sell through third party suppliers? -The mental health benefits of modelling: For a number of years, I struggled with anxiety and stress so severe that I developed an overactive thyroid. This, in turn, lead to depression, more stress and anxiety, along with all manner of physical symptoms. Only once I finally admitted to myself that I had a primarily mental -rather than physical- illness did I agree to be medicated. After many years of accumulating them, I was finally confident enough to work on my pile of plastic wagon kits, which in turn lead to me attempting some etched wagon kits. Now I am in the middle of building my first loco kit, something I never thought I would be doing a year ago. Even though my attempts are far from amazing, the sense of satisfaction that i have gotten from learning to solder and build things is quite unique and something that perhaps people my age are missing out on too often. I have also dabbled in 3D modelling and taught myself, CAD, for the times when I feel like putting the iron down for a while and doing something less noxious and hazardous to one's fingers! I even have a test etch for a sprung wagon subframe that is in the production queue with PPD. The mental health benefits of learning new skills are fairly obvious, and railway modelling provides near-endless opportunities to do so. And that is without getting into the ability of modelling to stave off Alzheimers in the older generations. I apologise for the wall of text and talking about myself overmuch, all I have left to say is: Long may this hobby continue! Daniel