PatB

To thoroughly mix the 2 part types like Milliput, squash the two bits together and roll into a sausage. Fold in half and roll into a sausage again. Repeat 20 or 30 times (doesn't take all that long) and the average size of any unmixed lump is getting down to the size of an individual molecule of stuff. Beware though, as the very thorough mixing afforded by this method can shorten cure time a bit, as I discovered the first time I used it.

Looks like the Consul's had the inevitable thermostatectomy, judging by the makeshift radiator muff.

The first three episodes, at least, have been on Youtube. I haven't had the chance to look for the others yet.

Just on the DCC being up to date thing, if we take the introduction of Hornby Zero 1 as being the dawn of practical (ie commercially supported and available to the average modeller rather than the advanced specialist) DCC c1980, and the introduction of the Rovex range to represent the same for 2-rail DC, it's noteworthy that DCC is now older than 2-rail DC was when its eventual replacement came along. The main difference seems to be that 2-rail became pretty much universal much more quickly than has been the case with DCC.

Sounds like Bredon. Lovely little layout.

I actually agree entirely. I'm a member of the 2mm Scale Association (although probably not for much longer as I need to be realistic about fat fingers and deteriorating eyesight) and it's not at all an elitist organisation. Nor was the G0G when I was first a member (no idea about now), and nor, I am sure, are the EMGS, the S4 folk or any other finescale organisation or the majority of their members. Some comments by (a minority of) individuals on this and other fora, however......

Those pondering the question of whether "the perfectionists" bear any responsibility for the state of the hobby, positive or negative, will find a rich seam of food for thought in this and all other GMRC threads, especially those not moderated quite so strictly. Whether there is a pattern to be found in those posters most negative about the GMRC and the type of modelling they espouse, I will leave to the individual researcher.

Blimey, yes II remember the numbers ticking over on Job Losses and Job Gains, with, IIRC, (pre-Sir) Alistair Burnett or Sandy Gall providing the commentary. Very depressing. And, of course, there was the ever present threat of nuclear annihilation. A while ago my teenage daughter was obsessing about how terrifying anthropogenic climate change is for her generation (and, I'll admit that it is a bit) and how us old gits can't possibly understand . I'm probably a terrible parent, because my reply was "Well this is what your mother and I grew up with hanging over our heads" and pointed her to a Youtube copy of Threads. I don't know if she watched it all the way through, or if it counts as psychological abuse, but she hasn't raised the subject since .

OT warning. I've long been given to understand that many things often termed "Americanisms" are actually closer to C17th English than is modern "English" English. I've also heard similar about the relationship between Afrikaans and Dutch but, speaking neither, I've had to take that one on faith. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if the principle applies to European and Latin American Spanish too.

Looks OK to me. If I can get the (one day) paint job on the practice Class 50 even half as good I'll be a very happy chap indeed. I am truly crap at masking, primarily due to a lack of patience. Your level of success on a difficult, behandrailed subject gives me great encouragement.

Quite. Having spent some years in vehicle and road safety, one thing that I learned was that, in any given incident, the one thing you could be sure didn't happen was what the media reports said happened.

It was an utterly idiotic decision in the first place. I honestly thought the Kiwis were rather more sensible than that. Still, better late than never on revoking it.

I like the use of different scales to give some forced perspective .

Which has the added operational interest of needing to clear the long siding if you have traffic that requires the end loading dock. A right pain on the prototype, where the object of the exercise is to get the job done, but a significant plus on a small model where we want to add play value.

At risk of being political, I do think it's a little unfair that the Scots are expected to suck it up when a measure is beneficial to Southern England but rather detrimental to them. Seems to have been a perennial issue since James I's time. On time zones, quite apart from the three official ones in Oz, along with the assorted DST anomalies, the roadhouses and other tiny communities of the Nullabor have their own little time zone that noone else uses. Most of the time it doesn't matter much because, for most, you don't hang about on the Eyre Highway. Time is measured in fuel stops and nature breaks. It can be significant if you're doing a night crossing though (not really recommended for a number of reasons) 'cos not all the roadhouses are 24 hour and it could be a bit of a pain getting to the one where you need to refuel, only to find that it closed half an hour before you thought it did.

I was always taught to push the release button when applying the handbrake, both by my BSM instructors and by my father who was a disciple of the IAM. I don't seem to wear out ratchets. I did like the fly-off handbrake on my Spitfire. Very sporty . As to the OP, I'm a bit late, but I have had cable controls suddenly develop much longer travel because some, but not all, of the strands of the multi-strand cable have parted. My Beetle's clutch was particularly fond of this trick, probably because off the cheapo Brazilian cables I fed it. Suddenly the clutch biting point would be with the pedal a couple of microns off its stop and I'd have an anxious trip home doing clutchless gearchanges and trying to avoid stopping whenever possible.

Or to look at it another way, that's roughly 2 Hornby Railroad range locos. Whilst such riches were beyond the reach of the 9 year old that I once was, I doubt if quite as many eyebrows would be raised here about such a thing these days. On topic, it seems to be a perennial whinge by various professions and trades that new starters are a bit useless. Certainly has been for as long as I can remember. Funnily enough, none of said professions or trades seem to be doing any worse a job now than they were a few decades ago. So I tend to put such things down to a modern variation on the old Socratic quote about the young. As far as practical skills taught (or not) in schools is concerned, I think their importance is rather overrated by some. I'm old enough to have done woodwork, metalwork, sewing and cookery at school for greater or lesser amounts of time. Know what? I was rubbish at all of them, giving up 3 out of 4 ASAP, and just scraping a GCE pass in metalwork. I don't think I could be said to have acquired any worthwhile skills from the exercise. However, I was simultaneously becoming a competent mechanic from the need to fix the family vehicles (we were poor and lived in the country so it was that or walk a lot), and an adequate practical seamstress from repairing my own clothes from quite early on. Since then I've also become a competent joiner and an acceptable cook, also by reading the instructions in a book and then having a go. Basically, I consider myself a reasonably practically competent individual and have become so because of either a necessity or a personal desire to develop a particular skill, not because I was taught any of it at school. Whilst it's not necessarily a route that would suit everybody I do think it gels with the view that, when you need/want to do something you learn how.

He reprised it in a 1967 issue too, and in that article he gave a full explanation of the "tiddlywink computer" that later formed the basis for the operation of Inglenook.

Just paint it blue. It'll look at least as much like a 956 as it does like an Arthur .

And, just to complicate things still further, some of the states which do implement daylight saving change on different dates. Or used to anyway, if I remember the notes in my desk diary correctly. Here in WA the population has, sensibly, repeatedly rejected daylight saving when asked to vote on it. A few years ago a "trial" was implemented anyway for three years, after which opposition to the measure, if anything, strengthened. The main voices in favour are the business community who consider the three hours of the afternoon out of contact with the Eastern States to be time wasted. Everyone else rather likes the fact that after 2pm in summer there's not much to do but surf the net, make paper planes or duck off early to the pub or the beach .

Interesting, but the article I remember was definitely from the 80s as I didn't start buying car mags until early 1981. At the time, although populations were dropping rapidly, the Mk2 (and even Mk1) Cortinas were still around in sufficient numbers to make the article fairly relevant. One mag, whose exact title I can't remember, but which started publication in lateish 1981 or 82 (I forget which now) ran a monthly article entitled Secondhand Performance which I remember featuring the Mk1 GT as a bargain buy, amongst others, so there must have still been reasonable numbers around.

I seem to remember an article in one of the performance mags (Hot Car?) in the early 80s on fitting rack and pinion steering to the Mk2 Cortina. Don't remember details but i suspect it used either Escort or Mk3 parts, both of which were cheap and plentiful back then.

Great photos. I particularly like the clay wagon with the freshly replaced planks, for that knotty pine effect.

l must confess to liking model villages, tweeness and all. Probably something to do with having been raised on Ladybird Books and Dalby era Railway Series, all set in a happy, sunlit, 1950s world that, even then, I knew had never really existed, but which it's nice to imagine might have done somewhere.

My point was not specific to the Missenden team, or even the GMRC, but more to indicate that mentoring is not for everyone, whether as mentor or mentee.