MikeOxon

Nice pics - I like the 2nd and 4th best. The inclusion of the green signal 'makes' no.2 and you have handled the exposure for the bright metal reflections very well. The misty morning shot is very atmospheric and I like the silhouette of the signalman in the box. No.1 is too cluttered for me and I think a vertical crop of No.3, to select the key elements of the flowering buddleia, and the indicators, might be a good idea - the pipework on the right is a bit ugly but that's just my taste - I tend to take the 'less is more' approach. Suggested crop on your original That's some rat -i thought it was a cat at first glance! Mike

Since retiring, I have a strict rule "Never work to a deadline" On the other hand, it is a great way of ensuring that you actually do get on with things Mike

...but only one 'proper' one Mike

I think B/W is very effective for shots like this - especially as you have kept the red signal light!

Perhaps time for a compressor for the price of a few cans of propellant e.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Performance-Professional-Airbrush-Compressor-As18-2/dp/B00BG9MTQC/ref=sr_1_19?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1394211182&sr=1-19&keywords=airbrush No inflammable gas either.

How long before these images appear in someone's book?

Ah -but I have a secret photo of the trials Derived from images by Phil Sangwell licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Hi Jason, I seem to have been fairly lucky with colour matching to GWR green but it does need a bit of trial and error, with small patches first. The transfer film is very 'floppy' and, although it can be 'teased into position with cocktail sticks (blunt), it's quite hard to get it completely aligned - you can see some droop towards the ends of my tender pic (though I try to blame it on the camera and it's hardly noticeable in practice) If you are doing a complete flat panel, then photo paper is better, since it is more rigid, but you do have thicker white edges. No problem if it's inset into a panel or a splasher, for example. That is why I took to over-painting the edges afterwards and, with thinned paint, even over the face of the panel as well. Hope that helps. Mike

I've tried something similar, as shown on the tender side at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-12657-cheats-lining-lettering/ I used the inkjet printer to provide the base colour, rather than paint, though I have tried over-painting with a brush and applying a very thin coat, after printing, to get an exact match. One advantage, if you make laminated sides with the cutter, is that you can paint the layers separately, so you don't have to pick out panels individually. .

There was some discussion of this machine, earlier in the thread at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1313362 I notice it is already discontinued by the supplier mentioned there. Also,another member (Andy Vincent) mentioned haveing one at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/?p=1320697 You could try contacting him for info. Mike

I agree, Mikkel, that these kits have a delicacy that suits their subjects. The way the main body folds - a bit like origami - is clever. Some tabs to lock things together for gluing or soldering would make a lot of difference to ease of assembly.

I have the 'Portrait' version. If you look at the specs for the two models, they use the same cutter heads, have the same maximum cutting force of 210gf, and the same maximum cutting thickness of 0.8mm. The 'lighter' part of the product description merely refers to the weight of the unit and has nothing to do with cutting performance. The Cameo has a wider bed, which makes for a larger, heavier unit, just as A3 printers are bigger and heavier than A4 ones. Mike

In my earlier post about the 'Scale Link' kit for a horse bus, I mentioned that I had another of these kits to make a 'Victoria' carriage, which I've now constructed. The 'Victoria' was an elegant 4-wheel vehicle, with a low and wide entrance, suitable for use by ladies wearing the voluminous skirts of the period. My example is destined to be loaded onto an open carriage truck, for the use of the local Lord of the Manor, on his annual trip to London for the Season. His wife and daughters will enjoy seeing and being seen in the Park in this handsome vehicle. Like the previous kit, this one is very delicate and somewhat fiddly to build. The first task is to identify the various parts on the fret, as the main body has a very complex outline and some of the links look more like sprue than component! The main body is designed to be folded to shape but is completely devoid of any tabs to facilitate holding the thing together, when formed. I decided to hold the parts in position, by hand, and then run a little superglue, with the aid of a cocktail stick, along the various joint lines. There's a choice of two hoods on the fret, one raised and one folded. Amazingly, the raised hood has a couple of tabs to help hold the top of the hood to the sides. Unfortunately, the appearance is nothing like a real hood, seeming as though it is made of plywood rather than fabric. Since my carriage will be a wagon load, I thought it most unlikely that the hood would be raised in transit (like an open umbrella in a strong wind), so I was happy to discard this part and used the folded version instead. Similarly, I discarded the rather skeletal lamps, deciding that these would be removed for travel and stored safely in the groom's compartment of the accompanying horsebox. . As with the horse bus, there are some extremely delicate parts - the steps, for example, are held by a 'thread' of brass, whereas the real coach seems to incorporate these as part of the flowing mudguards. Having learned from my previous encounter, I assembled the wheels onto their axles before fitting these to the minute slots in the hyper-thin springs. I used a dot of superglue to secure the wheels and their washers to the flat strip 'axle'. Alas, I got some excess glue on the hub and, in trying to remove it, seriously bent the hyper-thin spokes on one of the wheels. The real coach had pretty delicate looking wheels but I hope they were stronger than these! I think the angular mudguards also need replacing, to create more flowing lines that would reflect the elegance of the real carriage. I suppose that, for transport, I should throw a tarpaulin over the whole carriage but, even if the model is far from perfect, I intend to leave it exposed. I removed the shafts from the fore-carriage, for transport, and will lay these under the coach, on the bed of the carriage truck. That is the next vehicle that I have to build but that is another story.... Mike

Brilliant I'll remember that phrase for my own layout! Mike

indeed it does. The problem seems to be that RMWeb adds stray characters on the end of the link - delete those and the original link works Mike

Many thanks for the link. I was amazed to see the similarities to my own 'design', which was loosely based on American practice. I like the idea, described in the article, of running back to the depot with two sets coupled together - totalling 3,200 hp. Quite something for 1908 It was interesting to see the interior too. I bet those resistor grids got hot at times! Mike

I didn't hit your problem with the W-irons, since I folded the long tabs first and, when I subsequently folded the sides, they seemed to mate up quite well. They also ended up slightly further apart, so not as splayed as yours but still not parallel. I agree about the under-size holes but, from comments I received on my blog, I was given to understand that this is pretty usual -still annoying, especially since opening out the holes in the very fragile brake shoe assemblies is b.... awkward. On the second chassis I made, I opened out all the holes while still on the fret, which was very much easier - see my diagram at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-13324-six-wheelers-wip/ I also agree about the screw heads not fitting in their recesses - the instructions say they are cheese-head screws but those supplied with mine were CS, that didn't fit as described. If you've not found out already, you'll also need to open out the slot in the centre carrier for the 0.9mm rods from the end units to pass through - not easy, either, and should not be necessary! (the slot is in the foreground in your last photo) I gave the kit a 'thumbs up' because it does its job (when completed) very well, and covers a wide range of different wheelbases (which I needed). I do, however, empathise with your irritations over the fit of some of the parts. I came to this kit from a 'Scale Link' horse bus, which was extremely fiddly to build, so this kit seemed very straight-forward, in comparison! Mike EDIT: corrected name of source of horse bus

Give us a clue If you had crouched down a little, you could have missed out that horrid debris, showing above the platform edge. Otherwise, nicely observed. Mike

Photographs can be painful! I make something that I'm really pleased with and then take a photo and see all the mis-alignments,out-of-square bits, etc Fortunately, it seems that other people's eyes are more like mine than like my camera Mike

I always enjoy reading 'work in progress' reports - so long as you have the time and energy to write them. Your attention to detail is way beyond anything I do (yet!)

Great modelling, even if it's a depressing scene of devastation. It must be a very strange feeling to 'finish' something Mike

May thanks for your very detailed exposition on coach building. I have found loads of great ideas in this thread, which I hope to put into practice myself, soon. I found your analysis of the styrene warping issue very revealing, and your experiments with D-Limonene seem to be proving your point. On my own, similar, seat units, I added side members, which have reduced the problem very considerably but not so elegantly! The whole subject of glues is a thorny one, especially when one uses several different materials in construction. The ability to 'weld' plasticard with solvent is an important factor, when choosing this material, so anything that reduces side-effects is very helpful. I am currently investigating adhesives for attaching card to plastic and am experimenting with some book-binders' glues, which seem promising. Mike

i should have realised that you would have got it right - I corrected my earlier comment Mike

Strange coincidence! I don't like centre cab designs very much. Mine has roots in a Pennsylvania LVDC design for New York in 1909 - but heavily modified to capture something of Crompton's locomotives and Dean's liking for curves and clerestory roofs. Mike

According to Alan Peck's "The GW at Swindon Works", Dean wrote to the electrical engineer, Crompton, in 1892 that he had been instructed by the Chairman to discuss the subject of electrical haulage through the Severn tunnel. It seems that Dean showed no enthusiasm for the idea - perhaps he saw it as another potential 'atmospheric railway' type of disaster - and the correspondence fizzled out. Instead, Dean went on to build the 4-6-0 'Crocodile', to haul heavy freight trains though the tunnel. But what if the line had been electrified. What might a Victorian electric 'crocodile' have looked like? There's an article in 'The Engineer' dated June 13th,1890 (I like to keep up to date with my reading), which discusses the potential for development of main line electric traction and suggests some design parameters. (see: http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/4/49/Er18900613.pdf ). Crompton designed small 4-wheel locomotives for the London underground but these would be inadequate for main-line use. The Engineer article suggests that a heavy six-coupled locomotive, with 6 foot diameter driving wheels, each directly driven by an electric motor, might provide sufficient adhesion and power for main-line haulage. In view of the need for heavy freight working on the gradients in the tunnel, .then a double unit would seem appropriate, given the motor power available at the time. Six 150hp motors would provide 900hp and an overall weight of, perhaps, 70 tons, which should do the job fairly well. Possibly, the biggest issue at that time would have been the design of the power station itself - a state-of-the-art requirement, to match the engineering of the tunnel itself. It could also have been used to power electric pumps, anticipating the modifications eventually made in the 1960s. So, I give you the Dean/Crompton electric 'crocodile': Mike