ROSSPOP

Aha! Once you really start it`ll be the end of your 4mm stuff.... I sold all of mine through Ebay on those `only sell for £1` offers for a surprisingly large amount of dosh !!! and never looked back..... ...and right now you can pick up a DCC ready Dapol 57XX for less than £200 with working inside motion from Rails of Sheffield !! and I can swear that it is a railway modellers model..... Cheers John

Nice work with the replacement chassis Captain......... ....but of course later in the year Dapol will have a 7mm 48/14XX with a proper RTR chassis and if she follows the same standard as their 57XX....... Come on sell up and go 7mm.... and get a proper RTR loco... :-) John

Well recovered Jamie.... a great job. I`ve been airbrushing for years and still get it wrong.... thats life !!! The thing is, take your time , dont do things in a rush and keep your spraying area clean and dust free. In my younger days I lived in the country . I got up early to gloss paint all the windows and doors of my house o a sunny warm August. When I had just finished all the local farmers used all their combine harvesters to bring in the harvest. The paintwork was ruined!!!! Cheers John

Nah!!! And also during the war some of them were only driven from one single axle John

First choice. Modelu Second choice Modelu Third choice. Modelu. Happy new year John PS. I would have the driver facing the front and the fireman ( without a shovel in his hands) facing back.... you can select different poses from the Modelu range

Thanks Grahame I agree about those plastic colours you mention. I shall at some stage lightly waft some black etch primer with an airbrush to tone it all down. However, the decision is do I pre- order their 14XX LOCO ?????????? jOHN

So, got her out of the box for her first 10minute test run along a length of track. Rails Of Sheffield had fully tested the quality of the model at my request before dispatch. As an experienced loco kit builder over many years this Dapol Pannier has the best running mechanism out of the box I have ever had in both 4mm and 7mm. I`m using a Helmsman pure DC controller

Having really faffed around with doing individual panes of glass ( that should be pains of glass !! ) for the rooflight the Goods Shed is now complete. I wanted to make the rooflight more flush with the slates which I hope adds to the realism. Well to recap... I`ve gone from this........ To this........ Next to complete the overall project will be a bit of cheating........ I did`nt make this one. T`was bought of ebay back in 2010 for a very good price She just needs reverting back to 1930`s GWR building colours................ Bye for now..........

hi Jamie Did the same as you recently on a pair of 7mm coaches. leave all alone for at least three days for the paint to fully cure. use a very fine abrasive and gently rub the problem areas down so that the `under coat` is just showing through. ( at the same time you can gently rub down those bits of debris you have got in your paint finish). Clean up and give a blow over with your airbrush minus paint of course. Then re-airbrush the whole coach side using carefully thinned paint ( should be like milk consistency). dont hold you airbrush too close to the model and and dont pause your airbrushing as you travel down the coach side or it will happen again. Then if you can, a final finish with a satin varnish ( but dont go anywhere near Humbrol products) Cheers John PS see if you can find the runs on this one I had to rescue in the same way with two colours!!!

Well I`m a very fussy loco kit building miscreant with a very dubious attitude towards current RTR chassis mechanisms. And I have avoided Dapol products since the 1980`s. However, since moving over to O Gauge I have been particularly impressed with Dapol`s 7mm Terrier 0-6-0 and their 08. Today I took possession of a Dapol 8750 Pannier in 1940`s GWR livery, having asked Rails of Sheffield to thoroughly check it over and test run before dispatch. I am very impressed with it, particularly with the quality of mechanical performance and quality of build and livery. Above all, the price !!! £169.99 for an O Gauge loco. I am a great fan of Richard Webster and his Lionheart products but the finish and running performance of Dapol`s Pannier is better than his Pannier tank IMO. I did all my pre-purchase research online so I know about the Minerva version . My final decision was because Dapol produce better profile footplate edges. There are some very very fine 4mm and 7mm RTR locos but the RTR giveaway for me is the scale 3" thick footplate edges.... told you I was fussy. If I`m going to but a RTR loco they must match up to my kit built models footplate edges..... This is the Dapol pannier footplate edge next to my brass kit built Dukedog....see what I mean? My Dukedog is also 1940`s GWR loco green using Phoenix/P enamels and so I`m very pleased with Dapols rendition of this darker shade. I`m also very pleased with Dapol`s chassis design for this model and their rendition of moving inside valvegear and the correct profile ash pan Body detailing is very crisp and there are very very few `moulding lines and pips` The only `damage` are slight scuffs on the top of the pannier tank fronts caused by the `protective` hard foam packing. This particular loco entered BR still with her GWR livery hence the smokebox number which will be removed in the fullness of time. As already stated she runs very quietly and is an excellent model in all aspects....... ........................................... well done Dapol !!..................................................................................

Nice track plan and some excellent landscaping...... well done ...let see some videos of it all in action please...... John

Hi Chris I prefer to use Fox transfers , but despite following all my above rules, I get a silvering episode....... Try as I might I could`nt get Fox coach lining to stay in place on gloss finish, tried microset& sol and they fell apart. I did have some Transfix but did`nt use. I used HMRS pressfix linig instead which is yellow/black rather than gold/black.... hey ho !!! The other GWR roundels look fine ........ its just this rogue one on a two coach set I also discovered that Testors Dullcote destroys transfers as well.... John

Fox transfers DO NOT like micro set/sol they disintegrate !! How do I know ?????? Sounds like Transfix might work but test first. you do need a gloss surface and then firm even pressure over the transfer. I spray or hand paint gloss varnish just where the transfers are to go, but leave the varnish to dry at least 2 days ( I only use enamels) and then a nice satin varnish to finish. AVOID all Humbrol varnishes. Railmatch and Phoenix are fine. John John

Well...... There`s this one... ...and this one.... and this one...

However, it seems to me that the sounds emenating from steam locos doesn't match the rotation of the wheels - its out of sync. There should be 'chuffs' in time with the wheel rotation, different for 2, 3, and 4-cyclinder locos. Has anyone attempted to fix this syncronisation problem? How difficult would it be? If you're a diesel buff, then you'll be laughing by now. This all depends on:- (a) the quality of the sound file and decoder (b) The quality of the operating system © the ability of the owner to be able to do it (d) observation of the real thing. IMO the majority of `inhouse` DCC sound is`nt much up to it. It really is very easy to do with quality products. I do it purely by`eye`....... John

Ha ha I know that..... I`ve been looking forward to running my locos for the past 40 years and when I get close...... there`s another brass kit I fall in love with. now I`m retired I`m a little closer........... I learnt to solder making a Jamieson 57XX back in the late 70`s..... but I can`t remember what happened to it !!!!! John

Very very nice brass model making that knocks the spots of this 3D printing `stonework` `Bleedin` well done.... Cheers John

Thanks again Graham. I have noticed the roof rafters Ian, but so far the kit`s accuracy might prove a problem fitting them, even though I think they would look good. I shall be assessing the situation this evening. John

I`ve done all I can with reworking the stonework which seems to have been more challenging this time. One of the shed cast end pieces seems to have `soft` cast and my dental burr bit into it and nearly pierced the casting. I`m sure if I had contacted Chris at Invertrain he would have replaced it. However I`ve percevered....... Photos of the original shed are not that common and I`ve wondered whether the shed actually had a skylight. ...but I found this and something is there....... so... I was hoping to build a removable roof to help with painting later on, but first I wanted to reduce the roofs all round overhang and to use my slitting disc to produce a much finer edge to the roof tiles particularly at the barge board ends. Also, I wanted to position the soffits and fascia boards so that they did`nt encroach on the stone arches front and back. So, orf` I wented..... donning a face mask I `milled` down the roof edges around the tile moulding and chamfered the top edges after reducing the overall size of the roof to give a better looking profile. Then it was an easy task to superglue it all together using the end barge boards to get the roof angle square... so easy infact that I then wasted half an our slowly removing my thumb from the inside surface of the roof... very painfull.... But, mission accomplished..... I`ve reworked the stone as far as I can but still need to Milli it up.... I`m generally quite pleased with progress today.......

Thanks Graham The stone work has been more of a challenge on this kit, but I have become quite impressed with how resin can be worked, especially with my favourite tool `the slitting disc` Tonight`s chapter will be the roof........ John

Being pleased with the William Clarke style station based on Portesham..... I`m having a go at his Portesham small goods shed........................................... Invertrain resin kit again but this time no replacement parts, just as it comes but with a lot of reworking. The stone work casting is in need of some re-doing. I like the all the parts that make up the see through roof but the whole roof needs changing...... ...much work in progress......

Thanks Still hav`nt made the door knobs........................ ....but a matching goods shed,,,,mmmmhhh