Chris Higgs

Reading this again, has led me to ask the question - does the 28XX firebox also differ from the Hall? I think I would have glued the 28XX boiler to the Hall firebox if the latter is correctly sized. I assume needing to shorten the boiler is another of Dapol's inaccuracies as a Swindon No1 boiler should be identical on both locos. Chris

Rolling stock wheels, and by concidence I want to 'P4' them but leaving a deeper flange depth than the standard. Just looking for tips on mounting them in the lathe efficiently as I have more than a 100 potentially to do. I seem to remmeber someone was using a piece of tube in the tailstock to support the pinpoint at that end, allowing the wheels to be turned on the axle. Chris

Can anyone quickly point me to the magazine article(s?) where it is described how Gordon Solloway does the whell turning to 2mm standards. I have some 4mm Dapol wheels I want to turn down to a finer standard, I think the principles involved will be the same. They are nice metal wheels and only cost me 50p an axle! Chris

61, 62, 63 and 65. According to the article, four invitations for the same layout to the MRC exhibition was unheard of.

The flares on a GWR tender I managed. By making the corners a separate part done by rotating the flare profile through 90 degrees.

Anyone worked out how to do the flare on a dome in OpenSCAD? I rather suspect it is beyond its capabilities. Chris

Rendering with wireframe set seems to just about make it not run out of memory. The Belpaire firebox needed a lot of tricks and was painfully slow. With my software development hat on, both Blender and OpenSCAd are open-source and so I shuld be able to modify them if I don't like what they do (warning: don;t try this at home unless you are an experienced C++ nerd). Chris

I am not moving away from it. I don't have the time to learn anything else given the limited amount of my life devoted to 3D-Cad. OpenSCAD is fine for what I do, which is mostly 3D extrusions of 2D shape (like coach roofs) or recilinear objects (like wagon bodies). But it would never manage a BR Western, as an example . For such shapes Blender looked great. OpenSCAD can just about be persuaded to do something like the dome on a Gresley coach roof, buts its capabilities are being pushed. Blender is like Concorde, looks like a lot of training is required to fly it! It could probably draw Concorde, come to think of it. Chris

I attended a demo of Blender at a Shapeways training evening with one of their experts, it was hugely impressive. I just don't have the time to learn how to even scratch the surface of its capabilities. Chris Chris

If it's 1948, I'd bet on that being an H.B.Whall loco. According the the Association handbook, 1948 was the year he set up in business building 2mm scale locos, although he had been involved in the scale since the 1920s. I doubt if either of the Groves are the people in the videos. They didn't get involved in 2mm until the late 50s. Before that H.H. (Pop) Groves built steam powered model aircraft! There is a photo of both Groves operating Rydes Vale in MRJ 89. The age of the crowd at Central Hall contrasts starkly with what you would see at a model railway exhibition now. Anyway, surely the one on the right is Mr Cholmondley-Warner? Chris

I should have said shipping dates. Delivery times are indeed unpredictable at the moment. A number of things I posted to the UK took two weeks to deliver (two days is the old normal) and one parcel sent to me ended back with the sender after three weeks as (supposedly) having the wrong address on it. Reposted without amendment to the address which was correct it took 2 further days to finally arrive. Chris

I agree. Their delivery dates are just scaremongoring as far as I can see. Chris

Don't make your box solid. That will certainly up the cost consdierably. I loaded a set of coach roofs recently and the came out at under 10 euro each. Which is not much different than they were several years ago. Shapeways did themselves no favours at all by randomly messing with their pricing algorithms (seemingly on a daily basis at one point) but the end result did not increase their prices by as much as some think. As far as I can see you sometimes have to delete and reload models to get the current pricing quoted. I have two accounts and in some case identical models have different prices in the two. Also it is very important to set the orientation of your models correctly, which almost always is with the bottom at the bottom(!) You didn't make it clear that the 75 euro was for two? Shipping costs may seem high, but believe me postage costs here in the Netherlands are exorbitent (before the current situation I routinely drove to Germany to post stuff internationally) and the likes of DHL et al don't seem particularly bothered about trying to undercut PostNL. Chris

yes, but which journal size?

This is on my to-do list as well. Unfortunately I only have one spare 28XX boiler and several candidates for its use - Hall, Grange, Saint, Star. Next up is lining it, Keith. Chris

Me too. I have a small and a large. Not that a good bench vice is a bad idea, far from it. But there are quite a few things it could never do that the hold and fold can. Chris

OP = original post

The body is actually quite a bit too wide - M7s were very narrow. Not sure why they did this as there was plenty of room for the motor and it didn't need the body widening. Lengths are not bang on either - its like the model tanks were to 1:152 scale with an extended front footplate (which some M7s did have) When I designed an etched 2FS chassis for the M7 body I ended up doing the chassis to 1:152 scale and it fitted well enough. Chris

Provided you have a grinding machine, you can turn them into D shaped reamers.

Amongst all that chaos at least something is progressing. A Bulleid BTSO with shallow window vents. The etch on the right turns into the sides on the left, in an attempt to simulate the joint lines that appeared on Bulleid coaches late in life remeding deficiencies in construction. After several attempts to solder the lower body panels in place - 6 thou brass half-etched just dents when you bring a soldering iron anywhere near - and one disasterous go with superglue, it seems that Loctite 601 is the answer to the quandry. Chris

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brplate A few photos of plate wagons with loads tied down (and showing there are points to tie to). Even a couple of photos of the interior.

I wrote D63 on Shapeways but I think it is actually D64. Chris

Schoolteachers really do have too much time on their hands... Everyone knows pedantry has to be carried in a van, in an open truck it just blows away. Chris

yeah, and the pilgrim trail from London to that other place is named The St Alban's trail. What gives?