ROSSPOP

...... but in ` Abbots HellStone` it had one rear gable window, new doors and a roof vent.......

It was inevitable that I would also need a stone built Engine Shed to match what has been completed so far...... I should mention that I used the Invertrain Models Abbotsbury kit as a base model. The kit as supplied will not make up into the final assembly described here. I used the same method to begin by re-engraving the resin moulded stonework into a more pleasing appearance and used some reference material to make a more convincing looking GWR structure from photos of the original shed. Bearing in mind the original shed was taken out of service not long after it was built and had the roof windows and doors removed. It was therefore a dilapidated shell in the 1930`s and no one knows so far what the roof style looked like back then. I used Slaters stone moulded plasticard to add some rudimentary detailing on the inside walls and I decided to remake the shed doors, sill and hinges from scratch. Careful attention in squaring up the sides and end mouldings before final assembly was required. And I re-sized the overall roof and vent to give a more finer look which was made up into a separate stand alone unit to aid painting and interior detailing later on. Much thought and use of the trusty Milliput has been essential in changing the stone work to hide the corner joints and making the windows more prototypical. The guttering parts of the kit and the external chimney stack were replaced with scratch built parts. some of the roof vent parts were used but have been suitably re-sized to suit the new roof shape. A coat of Halford`s Acrylic Primer hides a multitude of sins....... To be continued..............................................................

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CREARTEC-Professional-modelling-concrete-500/dp/B071WQ5WV1 Cheers John

Nuttinc !

Blimey! you must be a dab hand at balancing bits of solder on your projects........ so where do you balance the solder on a handrail???? ....I suspect you use both methods......... I bet the solder on the tip of the iron is the most time efficient......

.............. R. Butt. ................... Now ya see it...... Now ya don`t..........

I have no experience with Concepts flux as I don`t need to...... ...but I have done a load of droppers in all gauges over the years..... So if you have tarnished rail I would find a cheep small screw driver and file into a scraper tool... then use a really strong, disolve your skin away, allergic to the touch acid flux...I use Carrs Green label or mega strong Bakers Fluid which will bite through the tarnish and facilitate the solder to flow.... then plenty of heat 40 to 60 watt..... with a leaded solder get you self some of these.... ........as a heat sink either side of your soldering to avoid damage to surrounding to the track..... and away you go with just a quick in and out with the soldering iron ( put the solder on the tip of the iron first.....) Cheers johnny rosspop

What flux are you using??

No not in this instance, My Dapol Pannier was DC only with no decoder just the PCB and had the `annoying` flicker. I hard wired my own decoder (Zimo MX645)without this function and removed the cheap looking PCB board so it could`nt be a possible source of running issues in the future. John

Well, the dye has been cast...... the through Station is no more....... Track work has been uprooted and a base for the engine shed is in situ...... GWR water fascilities have been carefully fettled from an old whitemetal kit...... The long awaited cattle dock at the front has been made..... A replacement signal box, not made by me, but snapped up on ebay made by a longstanding regular seller was snapped up and is fully detailed internally and fits well at the end of what will be a new platform.. The new detailed platform will be fabricated platform in the next few weeks using 422 Model Making products....

Hi I use Slaters plunger PU`s and their sprung hornblocks they are very easy to use using very simple processes. A sprung (or compensated) chassis will always produce and maintain better electrical contact with the track in any scale and is of great benefit running with DCC a few simple tricks.... unless you are an engineer with a complete workshop!!!! Gets some old fashioned graph paper to help match the frames up and keep everything square. I use a good old slitting disc to cut out the frames etc. make sure you have established the kits inbuilt axle ride height and assemble one hornblock to work out the positioning. make up and use the coupling rods very early on as a jig and use a simple axle jig to solder everything in position. save your pennies and get a quality motor and gearbox. Make sure you use very flexible and thin wire for the pickups to enable free movement of the plunger. (DCC wire is ideal) position the plungers if you can at the driver axle centreline and be aware of Slaters plastic pyramid on the backs of the wheels. Then comes the excitement of fitting the decoder etc..... Cheers John

for a quality decoder (Zimo) MX645 and Zimo double dumbo speaker £120. I removed all the Dapol 21pin gubbins as I don`t like flickering lights in a cab. and did a similar job for the Lionheart..... Youchoos and digitrains do very good sound files...... This is the Youchoos...... and this is the Lionheart.......

loco detailing is`nt really the same as Dapol 87XX and 57XX are the only Panniers to have a fully detailed chassis including an Ashpan, correct double brake pull rods around the rear drivers, correct pattern wheel profiles including the characteristic GWR tapered spokes and axle `dimple` and a semi working valve gear between the frames and better detailed brake hangers. The weight is just fine. Dapol have clearly upped their game with the involvement of Richard Webster (The Lionheart King)

No Sir Captain Your just in the wrong scale......... `ere b` a Dapol 7mm....yes Dapol.. straight out of the box on the day it arrived..... the quietest , smoothest, RTR chassis I`ve ever purchased in any scale...and all for less than £200....... and a bucket load of detail...... Cheers johnny Rosspop

A little more progress this week. A dose of Clostermans grey etch primer from their quality rattle can.... Then airbrushed with a 1970`s tin of Precision GWR wagon grey......... A recent stock of the same GWR grey is a darker shade.......

Same for me on Opera Deleted the current bookmark and started again

I was hoping for that Richard I have been very impressed with the `open frame` look of your Pannier tanks under the boiler so hopefully the Autotank will have the same between the main Drivers ??? looking forward to snapping one up to complete my set........ Regards John PS You see, some of us smaller scale Autotank affectionados still having nightmares over these............. ...we know who we are.........

So... as a 7mm GWR Dapol RTR loco fan.......... Which axle on this great looking 48XX loco is the motor attached to please........

My `Rolls-Royce` DC controller is a Helmsman .....but Gaugemaster are good all - rounders without being too expensive. The bestest ever controller has always been the ECM Compspeed Rambler minor that still occasionally come up on Ebay as does my second best the digitol Gemini from the 1970`s

My dear old dad bought me a Duette and a Clipper way back in the mid 1960`s when I first started Railway Modelling. They were crap controllers back then and IMO are no better now. Triang locos and Playcraft Diesels coped with them because as model electric motors they were themselves crude. When you operated on `half wave` control the motors would heat up , rather like the feedback motors we`ve had since the late 1970`s Of course, back in those days we were happy belting the trains around a circle of track, trying to control things to a more realistic manner was impossible with these old ¬Dreadnought` controllers. i would never use them on todays modern motors. I would say Gaugemaster Products are the way to go...... John

In between a few projects recently so, this weekend, I enjoyed a stress free few hours assembling this ABS Models GWR Shunters truck. Sometimes kits can be a labour of lurve and tribulation and this kit is no exception. a bit of a struggle from start to finish. instructions are the equivalent of `jottings in the columns of a comic` and take some fathoming out. not a lot of image info of the real things. A lot of pre clearing of flash from parts before assembly. I opted for a super glue assembly using Gorilla Glue Products with just a smidgin of soldering for the handrails and stancions which are very large split pins. I even made the sprung buffers using the supplied drawing pins........

For me RMWeb has been fault free and faster.....( tempting fate here) for the past 24 hours on Opera with chrome as backup. I could`nt sort Firepox so I have pressed the uninstall button and I feel FFFFrrreeeeeeeee !!!

To promote a little bit of balance here Andy... Could I have a bigger Gold Medallion to match the same size as my Avatar circle... It just does`nt look right to me.........

RMweb remains unusable on Firefox for me despite clearing cache, adons etc (never liked Firefox that much anyway!!) I`ve gone back to Opera where the internet world is pure and untainted!!!

YEP First thing this morning all was well with Firefox, but now only the info drop box functions and access to the forum ok, but cant send messages . perfectly functional using Opera .