C&WR

Thanks for the tip, but I ordered the Fox pack earlier today. Ho-hum!

Agreed if going to all the bother, but I am adding about three pounds worth of cosmetic embellishments to each of mine so I think they're still quite a bargain, especially for the enjoyment factor. At least when I say enjoyment factor the flaming annoyance of trying to hand paint a I on some of the doors, finding it had run a little and then cursing and swearing as I try to strip it off again...

Gosh I like that. Makes me want to try and build a little Rock of Cashel:

It would be like one of those £3.99 coaches. Only fifteen hours work, a few pounds worth of underframe detail, a tenner's worth of decals, another few pounds worth of flush glazing, new buffers, new bogies, proper wheels & all and why bother spending twenty notes on a Bachmann one?

Thanks very much, Al & Jaz. While not indulging in false modesty or fishing for compliments I do still have a way to go! My key issue is impatience as for the last year or so my modelling opportunities are few & far between so I end up rushing a bit with knock-on effects on the models. With regard to the pub I am really quite pleased with it. When I say it is a mock up that was the original plan, but as I started working on it I thought it a pity to start again! Essentially I had been sitting in the garden one lunchtime & thought it might be fun to make so took four photographs, paced out the front and side & then just drew it in 4mm scale. Were you to see the original you would notice that there are pen lines at various edges where I had drawn the outlines of the wrappings straight onto the printed sides of the brick paper. What I would do if building this again (and I still have photocopies somewhere of my construction drawings for the main walls which could be traced onto card/paper, so I wouldn't be starting from scratch & it may well happen) is the following: Build the whole structure so the angles of walls are covered by the textures. If you look you will see each wall is covered with brick paper folded over the ends and the resulting walls then stuck at right angles. This doesn't matter on the hanging tiles above The Planetarium as that's how the real thing looks. See the square tower by my walls for how I wrapped the corners & further disguised with stone! Pay more attention to the joins betwen roof & chimneys. The "lead flashing" works OK, but it would be nice to be able to make the thing a bit neater. Build the chimney caps up by another couple of layers. Look again at how I built and mounted the central chimney. Make the windows and doors out of styrene & transparancies rather than card and also recess them a little. Weather the roof a bit more convincingly. Otherwise as I've said it was a fun build & I'm quite happy with the result. It's also found a rather suitable place on Wallington.

Aye, farren. I remember when tha couldst buy an 08 and still have change for a poke of chips and the bus fare home

Not technically a curlicue, perhaps, but the best way I could think of of describing the funny round bits Still, it's a term used in architecture, so appropriate I think. Here's an example image: Not too much exciting on my thread, just how I built the model pub.

Most impressive. Particularly like the curlicues between the main deck supports and the uprights underneath. The way you have applied the bending method is really attractive too!

Ah, rose hips. My grandmother & mother used to pick them to make the syrup, I used to to get the scratchy seeds out to put down unsuspecting people's necks, mainly that of my poor little sister...

I would, but Bono is all shy with strangers.

Yes, but for that kind of money I'd expect it to be hand delivered by Fiona Fullerton in a bikini abseiling from a helicopter while the Red Arrows flew over & U2 were playing in the train room...

Random Scratchbuild - The Best Pub In The World Right, I despair of getting any real work done today as I keep getting disturbed. Therefore a quick teatime update with some pictures I retrieved of a scratchbuild of one of my favourite places, The Bell Inn at Aldworth in Berkshire. I made this part way through the Scalescenes signal box build, having picked up some techniques from these kits, I also think I had got hold of John Ahern's buildings book by this stage. The only purchased items here are the card, the texture papers, the lichen and flock, and some chimney pots from Langley Castings. Unlike the other builds which took an age I came home from an afternoon at the pub, started drawing out some rough outlines on brick paper then realised it was a goer & started sticking it together. The bulk of this was completed that afternoon & the following day. First a view of what I was to build: A view round the back: The basic wall structure put together: Slightly ropey picture with the roof on: Adding the back extension. I chose not to model some bits from post war: Developing the back. Because I wasn't doing the newer extensions some of the doors & windows are a bit of a guess. Doors were adapted from Scalescenes ones and windows made up on the PC with MS Word: Because I hadn't made a great job of the way the roof sat round the chimneys I added some lead flashing (made from tinfoil & brushed with Humbrol Gunmetal) which isn't actually there on the real thing: The porch is a key feature of the real Bell and a pleasant place to sit, even when my jalopy is parked outside: The porch roof supports were carefully cut from card & coloured with HB pencil: A key feature of the place is the gents', open to the sky & known as "The Planetarium" to locals. Happily I found some blue plastic to represent the splashback: Finally complete, less a bit of weathering: The finished article. I feel I have messed up the roof a bit with the flock, but this was only supposed to be a mock up for a proper model: |I am still to put the lantern in the porch and the pub sign on the front. I was quite pleased with this for my first real scratchbuild since I used to make things for wargaming as a youth, though!

Completely OT, but what I remember of the drill staff at Sandhurst was that they were sadists, but in a most humorous manner. How I laughed when sent on a show parade to show dust removed from beret only to have to reshow because I had removed the dust but not kept it for the CSgt to look at. Anyway, worst sound in the world isn't the treble soled, heeled & tapped ammo boots coming down the corridor. When truly on my chinstrap even that wouldn't wake me. It's the three or four little dinks as a striplight fires into action at 0-my-God-it's-early...

Perhaps there'a a ROyal visit and someone's been out to paint the grass & tidy up?

With a blowtorch, by the look of it. Mind you it's not that much worse than my first attempt at doing up a loco. I didn't know a toy train could get cellulite!

Ah yes. As we called it in the Army, John Wayne paper...

I had nine, and I'm only 41! Reminds me of the story of the little boy watching the man collecting the horse manure in the street. "What do you want that for?" he said. "I put it on my Rhubarb." "Oh. We have custard on ours!"

Crikey, I'm only just getting back into modelling. I have enough bother with letters, numbers, loading gauge stuff & the like without trying to do a whole train body!

Remind me again why Bachmann won't release a Class 166 in FGW livery? Oh yes: Blast, could someone from Margate please lend some kit to Bachmann?

I am surprised that something described with the words "all items are in mint condition and look to be unused" should have such evident scrapes on the power cars, but perhaps that is an accurate representation of "the prototype".

It's a cliche to say "but surely that's the real thing" but your final picture in #28 would have caused me to check and check again if it hadn't been flagged as a model. Fabulous stuff!

Apologies, meant whitewash. This post was, however, a reference to a picture I put up (subsequently removed by a moderator on copyright grounds) which suggested that on certain railways it was company policy to whitewash cattle trucks after every use. It was also somewhat tongue-in-cheek as Al's modelling doesn't need any assistance from me! All the best, Al, & hope to see you back soon!

Thanks Jaz. I looked up Glaze n Glue & when I saw it could make windows itself ordered a bottle! The frustration is that time is tight (I'm off to work shortly) so this setback means I probably won't achieve anything else on this until October. By the way thanks for the tip about the Humbrol Clear, Reece. Sadly I had cut out & binned the bits before I saw it. Anyway, I had promised myself I would only post complete build threads, but just for one here's The Skins last night while I was on the case: I'm really pleased that, in the right light, the varnish coats have hidden the imperfections in the bodywork except from close up!

Going OT for a bit, but it does involve eBay purchases! I have an H&M Duette and with the exception of a new Bachmann Class 220 and nearly new Bachmann Class 166 my Lima stuff runs the best. Of the original stock my Western (new in the late 70s) ran perfectly after 25 years in storage, albeit chucking sparks about & with a horrible smell which I gather is prototypical; the Prairie (second hand in about 1980) needed new brushes, but went beautifully once these were put in. Meanwhile my Hornby Pannier Tank (new 1980-ish), King Class (new 1980-ish) & HST (second-hand 1982-ish) have caused nothing but problems & needed constant servicing & lubrication, although to be fair to the latter I am running fairly long rakes of coaches behind them. I've since had Lima a Class 37 and Class 47 from eBay which both run superbly, although they did have a quick service. The 08 as I said is one of the best runners straight out of the post with no work on it. The GWR Railcar No 22 and Class 117 DMU are a little temperamental, but I have not dared take them to bits to service after reading on here the old plastic is a bit frangible, so all they've had done is a quick dab of sewing machine oil on the bits I can get at. The Mainline Class 45 I'm working on has had a quick test run on the makeshift track in the garden. Even that doesn't live up to the poor rep of the motors! In short I find the Lima stuff very reliable. It may not be hugely accurate, but it does for my needs & I'm not frightened to start hacking the newer eBay purchases about so that's a good result in my book!

Thanks, Reece. I think it was a case of RTFM which did say use impact adhesive. As The Small Controller is on School sleep patterns again after the holidays we were woken at 07:00. The Long Haired Controller & I managed a bit of a lie in but eventually his visits to demand breakfast meant I have got up as I need to go to the office. Blasted audit time of year! I've had a quick bash at the other end of the locomotive using GS Hypo cement (thanks to Geoff Taylor of Gresley Beat renown for that tip) and the results are slightly better in terms of the glue. Sadly the glazing plastic is so fragile that it can bend, leaving white lines where it has done so. Ho-hum, it's my fault not the kit's! I'll do a better job of filing down the inside of the window frames when I buy a replacement set. May attend to soldering the lights in the window etches of my goods shed kit this weekend instead, if I get the time!