AlfaZagato

Theses are thankfully not nearly as bad as Sherman tracks. If I'm careful, I should be able to leave these workable once assembled.

I still haven't gotten that far yet, though I picked up what was a mildly difficult item to scrounge here stateside; Shutdown is partially lifting here, but the shop I'd have liked to pick these up from hasn't reopened yet. I have concerns they did not survive the shutdown.

Well, I finished the suspension; And I managed to set it pretty square. I also started on the tracks; ...ehhhhh. I'll get back you on that. This could take a minute.

Old nuclear tech was safe when used responsibly - i.e. not run as an accessory to weapons development. Modern improvements increase safety further. Y'all also stand on the infamous North Sea, which could be a great source of tidal hydroelectric. I don't know, really, how to tie that into imaginary locomotives. Even with a modern thorium-salt reactor, I don't think Atomic Thomas would be a great idea. Has anyone thought to run an electrolysis job on a condensing locomotive? Split the water, burn the hydrogen as fuel for boiling? Start the electrolysis off of existing overhead or third rail, too.

I think mine might do the same. I remember having to double-head with my Heljan M-W. Almost had a whole good-running engine at that point.

Found it - No. 197 July 2014.

I was going to say, much anything that comes in blue packaging seems automatically disqualified from 'budget' considerations.

I'd have to dig back, but I know Model Rail had a feature a few years ago on a modeller who tackled a lot of the modern plant, including a tracklayer the same or similar to the one you're aiming for.

I finished the 'Gray' Zeta. I just need to make space for it on my large Gundam shelf. Becoming harder, that... I currently have no pics of it finished in robot form. Pain to switch the thing. I had painted in the stripes, along with washing the panel lines. Ended up using sepia, to offset some of the vibrancy of the orange. Still not gray. I picked up a clever little kit on a supply run to the local; The clever little kit is exclusively the arm, lance, and cannon-job on the right of the picture. Bandai's new concept with the smaller-scale kits is compatibility. Any kit released since about 4 years ago uses common joint designs, allowing for easy arm swaps. Backpack mounts are common, as well. As a tie-in to a couple of series Bandai's released recently, there are even 'option' kits that are just collections of parts to add-on to or swap other kits. Such changes are yet to make any significant inroads to the larger 'Master Grade' kits I normally build. Still, $10 for a kit - any kit - is perfectly fine for an evening. The robot itself is a 30 Minute Mission Portanova. No series tie-in, no Gundam tag. I think there is still a royalty attached to the Gundam name on model kits, so Bandai can sell the 30 Minute Mission kits at a discount. They are Bandai's attempt to combat Kotobukiya's Frame-Arms series. Managed to get it to hold the normal arm with the monstrosity. Finally, still in a building mood, I opened another kit. Dragon's 1/35 Sd.Kfz. 250/8 Neu mit 7.5cm KwK 37 (L/24). WWII German armored halftrack. Dragon kits aren't bad, I just hate the inclusion of individual-link tracks. These don't look so bad - they might be workable or working if I'm careful. Better than the stupid Sherman tracks. I haven't touched the tracks, yet. Building up the hull, along with the suspension. Dragon was considerate; they keyed the suspension arms, so that it may be made to sit level. This will probably be the next week's of work, at least. Maybe I'll paint again. We'll see.

Use plastic tweezers? The first-aid kit sort?

I see the Pug, so most definitely.

With the continuing concerns over COVID-19, and additionally the unrest in my neck of the woods, my Gundam club held another virtual build day. I joined, pulling out the Gray Zeta to work on. Now, you've seen the cover image, so this is spoiled, but the Gray Zeta isn't actually gray. That's right, it's cheddar orange. Supposedly the result of the mechanical designer having a form of color blindness. They said Stroudley was colorblind, too... She transforms, too; Doing so is a right pain. This is no Transformer. It waits to be seen which mode I display it in. The stand supports either. I've also seen images of people posing it in a 'Gerwalk' mode akin to Macross/Robotech. Gray Zeta is supposed to have beige-brown stripes. Bandai provided these as stickers. This wouldn't be so bad if the stickers fit the indentions made for them. I've spent the past few evenings painting these in; Yes, the arm's off. That joint doesn't hold well, so I just left the arm off for now. I've made two mistakes with the stripes. My brush has wandered, and I chose a overly dark color. I like it a little better than the right color, though. I also didn't have the right color neat; I've never had luck consistently mixing a shade. I have used some stickers. As here, I didn't think I could freehand such a large stripe; There's also other accessories. Can't store most of these on the model, though. All except the mondo job seen in earlier pics are specific to the normal Zeta Gundam; Finally, I skipped the stream on Tuesday to help my buddy with a little 1:1 scale; Forgive the focus, please. This here is a Chevrolet Vortec 5300. Chevy's Vortec motors are nominally iron-blocked versions of the touted LS family. There is something like 98% compatibility between the two. He picked this motor up for around $650 - not bad for a motor that makes some 200-300bhp with no extra work. I was helping him tear down the motor. He'll be rebuilding it. I've never done so, so he invited me to be involved to learn. Very appreciated. Might help with this Jag I'm looking at... See you next week.

@Mikkel If you sign up to twitch, then subscribe to my channel, twitch will send a notification when I go live. I think it would be the wee hours of the morning for you, though.

Sorry I didn't post last week. Culmination of excuses led to no work done at all. Shameful, but I suppose this is a hobby. Modelling is neither my job nor my life. Sometimes, I need to realize that. Anyways, I've started streaming! I figured, should I be able to drum up enough interest, I might turn a buck or two doing what I do anyways. So I started a Twitch. New laptop for it and everything. I'll link it below. With the energy I've found from having a reason, I pulled out another kit to build till prime. An oddity I found at a flea market, a Union 1/24 Renault 8 Gordini. I thought $6 was a good deal, as I've seen it listed for $50 or more on eBay. Not a good deal, terrible kit. Just completely atrocious. The seats, pedals, and exhaust manifold are all soft vinyl. Superglue seems to stick, but I can't trim or cut it cleanly for the life of me. Quality is dodgy, too. Mold lines everywhere. The tires are especially bad. Engraving and surface detail is pathetic. Some weird, at least to my experience, engineering decisions, too. Like those fenderwells being separate. I don't know why. Errors in the directions don't help. I can't say anything either way about the body tooling. Lots of mold lines here, too. Shape may or may not be ok. Admittedly, I've never seen a Renault 8 in person. Honestly, I think I've only seen three Renaults of any nature, two Dauphines and a 4CV. All rotted severely. Didn't buy the one Dauphine that was for sale. Thankfully. So, yeah, the stream. I tend to stream at 7pm CST Monday to Thursday as of now. See here for the channel - https://www.twitch.tv/alfazagato/ - the schedule should adjust for your time zone. I hope you'll join me. If not, next week?

Honestly sounds like dealing with an old Airfix or Heller kit. Sharp knife and whatever brand of patience you subscribe to.

Always thought Bloaters were neat, for some reason.

Well, you seem to take all your photos from the left, so just paint the LMS side and corresponding end lake, and no-one will be the wiser.

I know Ted Polet has something that looks very similar, though I think his is built from an Irish van.

Neat looking van. Single identity?

My 1366 will run well for about 3 minutes, until an axle binds. Sadly, I don't have access to any layout or test track at the moment. I can't work the trial-and-error needed to get the keeper plate right. Whoever screwed them down at the factory seems to have read the torque specs in ft-lbs. instead of in-lbs. I will say, every 00 gauge loco I've bought new has been Heljan, though that is more due to subject matter than quality.

As Johnster says above, my understanding was the 4-6-0 was held to start the often-inclined exits from GWR stations better than a Pacific. Also look to the fact that Churchward went straight to a third driving axle, instead of fiddling around with Atlantics like any company northwest. Speaking of the other companies, I believe any Grouping Pacific tested in the Exchanges was found to slip horrendously out of Paddington. I can't source that, though. Been years since I read it. I think the GWR would have electrified before they adapted a Pacific. A nice, heavy boxcab does what the GWR was looking for better than a Pacific would. I believe, much earlier in the this thread, a GWR idea for an electric was discussed.

Do you know if those drawings are floating around? That could be a fun build.

To be fair, the principles set by Churchward were rather more progressive than his contemporaries at the MR, whom I understand drove LMS engineering much until Stanier took the reins. I will admit, though, that Collett seemed to lack originality when it came to locomotive design. His 'new' designs were evolutionary, and his rebuilds focused more on crew comfort than performance. Collett had a better eye for coaching stock. I think his bow-ended stock was influential.

Build a wagon kit.

Fair. I personally adore the LB&SC B1 class. Maybe stability? Many 19th-century concepts seem to preclude commonly accepted practices.