joppyuk1

I haven't checked all the way through the thread, but has anyone yet mentioned the large layout based on the Isle Of Man railways that appeared in the Railway Modeller way back ? I think it was a club operation.

Just a slight caveat , I have a number of the old Airfix figures on a layout, and while recently trying to replace a 'pin up a leg' that had come away the entire leg broke off. I checked another figure I was about to paint and the same happened. The plastic has obviously got brittle over the years.

Thank you for another set of Madder Valley pictures to add to my collection. I'm slowly building up a full 'along the line' photographic survey for my own amusement. I wonder if anyone has (or will) try to build a version using modern standards?

There is an online company here in the UK called Magazine Exchange, that sells or acts as agents for sellers, of all kinds of magazines. Their model railway selection is extensive, with magazines listed by year and often with a short index of contents. Prices are usually quite reasonable though the issue wanted may not be available at the time. A quick look at the site can lead to hours of browsing.

There is an interesting little thread on the French site "Les Forums de Passions Metrique et Entroite" under the title "Les Confits des Ments" (google will translate into English) nwhere the builder has used the same small setting for a number of scenarios.

I can now better understand my late mother's habit of having a store cupboard full of extra tinned food, flour, sugar etc., of course she had lived through four or five years of wartime rationing and shortages. She never stockpiled loo paper though!

Posted on Facebook by one of my old school chums. No further information to hand.

'The Gun' was one of our reading tasks at school, and we then had to write an essay based on it. I wrote an account of one of the guerrilla's attacks but from the French commander's view. Didn't get very good marks. The film was a bit of a disappointment as the gun always seemed too large compared to the one in the book. Loren appealed though!

Ankh Lesspork springs to mind immediately, and there's a Steampunk layout (details of which I've forgotten) on the rounds recently.

There was a series of articles on a 4mm layout of Horncastle by D.G.H.Pleasance in the MRC in 1955, starting in February, with a follow up series 'Rebuilding Horncastle' in 1960. The two sets included the buildings, signals, locos and stock.

and C.S.Forester's "The Ship".

If you want to see open bridges in operation (albeit for the cinema) you can't do better than watch "The Battle of the River Plate", John Gregson, Peter Finch etc.

I think 'Mort; is generally accepted as the best one to start with, it seems to be a reasonably stand-alone novel even though characters from others appear in it.

There was one of those people label things on the bottom of a telly screen on the news recently, where someone was talking about (I think) higher education in third world countries and the spokesman was from a group called PREVENT. The caption read "Prevent High And Higher Education Spokesman".

Noel Coward could have said "very flat, Lincolnshire" and he'd be half right. If I've managed to insert it correctly, here's my proposed back scene photo, with Boston Stump sticking up in the middle.

I remember reading a science fiction short story years ago, where someone got talking to an old guy on a park bench. Seems this old chap used to be Vice President of a large concern, but the boss got jealous, framed the chap and had him thrown out of the firm with a very bad reputation. As he gets up to leave he introduces himself as Satan.

Not Pratchett steam world, but similar, there was a Noggin the Nog book some years ago called Nogmania. One of the illustrations had a railway with dragon powered locomotives. My copy disappeared in one of our house moves so I can't give details.

Have you checked out the Discworld figures from 'Micro Art Studio'? They seem to be too large for you, but might be inspirational.

I've just watched the final on catch up, with MrsJ, we both had the winner picked out. A couple of comments, we thought the judges were annoying by butting in during the builds with comments to the compoetitors; they are there to judge the final results not make suggestions on progress (it's as if Paul Hollywood goes round saying 'I'd take your cake out of the oven now', and we'd like to see more of the builds. In the final we suddenly had a painted backscene going in place and would have liked to see it being painted, for instance. Will happily watch another series though.

One of my early layouts had an overscale gorilla hiding in the trees adjacent to the line, with a bemused looking white hunter figure looking the wrong way. My current build will have three old foggies from "Last of the Summer Wine" somewhere on it. Many layouts to be seen at exhibitions have some little scenario that can be easily passed over. Indeed, my wife admits that the layouts don't interest her but she enjoys spotting these cameos.

I seem to have misfiled my copy of the old Skinley drawings catalogue, and need to refer to some of its lists. Can anyone let me have copies of the narrow gauge items, the building lists, and the ship drawings? All postage etc. paid . Please PM me. Thank you

Why not pick a suitable figure from one of the ranges and do some work on it with Miliput, Green Stuff or even plasticine. It looks a fairly easy job.

In a rural narrow gauge layout a long time ago I installed a flock of sheep being driven down the lane. Somewhere in the middle was an large dog draped in a (plasticine) sheepskin. Not many people noticed.

A possibility, but I'd have to empty the shelf below the bolts every time. Not that I intend to do that very often, so I'll keep it in mind. Vecchio, thinking of the over latches, how would I access the side against the wall? Too far to reach over without disturbing or damaging something.

Having recently had to revamp my shed working space I've had to remove my old permanent baseboards, and now have old kitchen units around the walls. I'll be building new boards, but with a move of residence possible in a few years time I want to make them removeable. I've hit a quandary in not being able to work out how to fasten the boards together. The usual 'bolts' would not be accessible once the boards are down (solid tops to cupboards), nor would I be able to access split hinges as the one at the rear would be out of reach. How have other people done it? I could fit short, say 6 inch, legs so that I can reach under the boards and get at fixings that way? Thanks in advance.