Simond

1:43 vehicles try Radley Models. I’m fairly certain they have a Bedford.

Steve, I’ll post the lists on Western Thunder later in the day. atb Simon

Mike, you can sell stuff on WT. I’m sure it would be most welcome. ATB Simon

“Pouncing”. a cotton bag of chalk dust (I guess flour would work, but might get damp and go nasty) banged onto stencils with lines of pinholes, through which the powder passes & provides a dotted line to follow… you can buy “pounce wheels” from dressmakers’ suppliers, or the usual online sources.

Probably not much use to Anthony, but wooden ones are vital for soldering etched brass kits. I usually reverse the spring so the “handles” become the bits that hold, and the rounded bits that normally hold the washing to the line become the bits you squeeze to open the grip. worth noting that it’s perfectly possible to saw interesting shapes into the gripper ends to meet the needs of special jobs. and the “rustless” aluminium hair grips can be bent and arranged for all sorts of special gripping jobs.

Probably explains the scowl!

I’m surprised that they were painting with sawdust & shavings around. I’d have expected a good sweep up, before getting the paint out. I guess the rather wooden appearance of the people might be due to keeping still for a longish exposure. I’m also guessing there wasn’t much banter or discussion about last weekend’s footy, or anything else, judging by the foreman’s happy smiling countenance.

There is some evidence your military FLT should be yellow…

Steve, John, what a horrible thing to happen. Fingers crossed the stock will appear and the police will do a decent job of tracking down the perpetrators.. I’m sure the Folkestone mob will join me in offering our sympathy. I have linked Steve’s announcement to a thread on WT. more eyes… kindest regards Simon

Michael, I looked at the “X & T” thing again, and conclude that the X should be narrower. What I can’t work out from the prototype photo as it appears on here is how the shading works on the lower right leg of the X, as the shading is “right and below”, so I wonder whether it would appear on the RH diagonal face of the X? (it would on the upper right leg, on the lower left leg, and under the both legs) just a thought, hope it helps. Simon

I don’t know. I do see something in the “x” but I can only say that what you have achieved is better than I could, and I suspect many others could too, so don’t be too harsh on yourself. maybe build another one like this and see if you can do better. but don’t be dissatisfied with this one!

Mike, your patience in remaking stuff til it meets your standards is exemplary. I have a number of projects which have stalled due to one issue or another, and require a period of un-making before to re-making begins. This usually leads to a period of frustration, and very little progress in my case!

Rod, yes, entirely clear, those flanges are, how can I put it, “rather generously proportioned”. I can see why they ain’t going down a narrower flangeway. I see your issue with getting them out too. I guess the east solution is new bogies. Frustrating though. birds’ nests? Dried grass clippings? Otherwise, perhaps take the snips to an old toothbrush?

hi Rod, I’d not be surprised at all for seagulls to roost on the station roof, though whether somebody might clear them off, I don’t know. Google “seagulls nesting on roof” on images! Re your misbehaving bogies, do check the BTB and, possibly more important, the thickness of the flanges. You can’t do much about the flanges if they’re too thick, but the BTB can usually be adjusted and a drop of superglue to fix. atb Simon

Massively frustrating, but I do agree that the damage adds an air of realism.

Only Mackintosh house in England. Never knew it was there, and I lived in Northampton some thirty years ago.

Thanks all, your kind thoughts & comments are much appreciated. For all its faults and the whinging & whining in the press, never forget what a good thing the NHS is!

Well, there is some evidence is that catching Covid provoked a minor heart attack three weeks ago, which I’m delighted to say has been dealt with very effectively by the local NHS. Apparently, Covid can cause platelets to become more “sticky” and that can be enough, if you have a pre-existing narrowing of an artery, which I did, not that anyone knew anything about it. I now have a stent, and am well on the path to recovery. I’ve been doing a little gentle modelmaking, I shall post pictures in due course! keep well out there, guys!

Stay away from Covid. Not fun at all.

A lovely thing, as you say. I presume 7mm / 0 gauge? if, as you suggest, it was built in an MOD workshop, perhaps Mr Ficke may have been an instrument tech. the rods are particularly fine. Personally, I think it deserves a set of footplates and splashers. I gather from your comment about tender drive, it doesn’t have a motor?

Looking at the photos, I note that there’s not a whisker in sight, but nonetheless, I feel the term “boy” is being used a little generously. Some of them look like they’d have been conscripts without doubt.

Sister Josephine…

I remember the Rafe Shirley “controversy” - I think if the questioner had asked “is it…?”, rather than asserted “it isn’t..”, we’d have all learned a great deal less!

Ironic, discussing one of the early steps along the chain of long-distance communication, on an Internet forum. How the world has changed in a century or so. I suppose we could go back 2 or 3 centuries to the lad, clad in only a loin cloth, with his message in a cleft stick…

And, not relevant here but if you want a version that doesn’t show so obviously through the paint, use a large-ish grinding disc in the Dremel/Proxxon/equivalent and hold it so the axis of the drill is about 80 degrees from the line of the sleeper, and cut by pulling the edge of the disc across the width of the sleeper. This is difficult to describe, but the result is a very wide but shallow cut, rather than a narrow one.