-missy-

Hello Thank you guys Chris, its a DG coupling. Missy

Hello Today has been a good day. Firstly I went to the Basingstoke show and met a few nice people form here and the 2mmSA. I also picked up a some paints and things from Squires and finally after a couple of years I can now paint things with my airbrush again (which is really really cool). I spent this afternoon giving the Oil Tankers I built last weekend a coat of gloss black in readyness for the transfers. While I am on the subject of transfers I also managed to apply some to the Tanker I had painted a while ago to see how easy it would be... First of all earlier this weekend I drew in Corel Draw the transfers I needed for the wagons. I then sent these to John at precision labels to be printed in white on waterslide transfer paper. John did a fantastic job and returned the transfers to me in a couple of days. I then applied them to the wagon using the famous Klear floor polish stuff which surprised me to be honest how well it worked. I tried to get some Micro Sol at the show today but unfortunately I couldnt find any. It went well although the numbers were a bit fiddly, the transfers are a bit delicate though as they needed to be printed thinly to get the detail (hence the 'E' missing from the 'Esso' text) Anyway here are the results... The wagon now needs a coat of matt varnish to finish it off and seal in the transfers then a splash of weathering but I am pleased on how it has turned out. Missy

Hi Pete Sorry, yes it was. It was Jim Allwoods 'Welton Down' Missy

Hello Thank you Pete and Michael. The first three photos were taken before the show opened on Saturday morning, the final photo was taken during the lunchtime lull, it wasnt because no-one was interested. When I was sat at the table I didnt stop talking to people at all! The tankers arent hard to make at all, the toughest bit was folding up the brake levers. I made the mistake of folding half of them the wrong way and when I tried to fold them back they all broke. Fortunately there is a spare lever on each etch. Missy

Hi Tom Yeah, sorry about that. They do look really good though. Missy

Hello Thought I should put a post together to show what I got upto this weekend just gone. Firstly there was of course the Abingdon show organised by the Abingdon and District Model Railway Club which as I am a member I kinda went along with a few bits of mine from Highclere. As it is the 50th Anniversary of the 2mm Scale Association we all made an extra special effort this year with lots of 2mm FS stuff going on. As I was taking the photos thankfully I am not in them but you get the idea. At the show I made a start on another one of my many tank wagon kits like the one on my old postings but as expected I didnt get much done, so this weekend I also tried out a bit of batch building and the results are below. I have loads more of them to make but its a start. Missy

Hello That sounds like a interesting little project. Particuarly intersting to me because I was thinking of doing exactly the same with my little 2mm kit so I will be following this one for sure. Missy

Hello Neb Those laser cut drums looks fantastic, good work there in finding them. Are you going to let us in on what company produces them? The whole layout is comming together really well. I like keeping up with what you are doing over there. Missy

Hi Pugsley Of course it will work. It looks like alot of fun to me. Missy

Hi Pugsley Of course it will work. It looks like alot of fun to me. Missy

Hello Thank you Guys for the comments, its really appreciated. I think I will draw a line at working lights for this one though! Although that dodgey headlight is still bugging me Hello Andy Yes I have moved the wheels out. I have just stuck them to the wings of the car as I dont really need them to turn. Not the neatest of solutions but at the time I was getting a bit fed up of it trying to get the lights all to work! Ironically it was the wheels that prompted me to take it to bits in the first place. Missy

Hello Rich I will make sure I bring it along to the Abingdon show this Saturday. I am doing a demo there pretty much all day so come and say hello. If there is anyone else going then come and have a chat, its always nice to speak to other people from RMWeb. Mark of Witney Euston fame will also be there working on stuff for his layout too. Missy

Me again I thought to myself this weekend instead of doing more electrics I would carry on with a bit of 'fun' modelling and figure out how to improve the little morris minor as mentioned way back in the old forums. I thought to myself it will be a quickie and I would finish it in a day but here I am now, Sunday evening and now thinking thats enough.... I wanted at least one car on the layout with lights as it would fit in with my plan of being able to run the layout in the dark. As the moris minor needed a bit of surgery to fix the wheels I decided to fit lights to this. The idea was quite simple, in the middle of the car there is a bit of double sided PCB with one of my favorite mini LEDs soldered to each side. These are then covered in a bit of plasticard and some fibre optic is fitted where each light is on the car going through a small hole in the plasticard. The red rear lights are done by simply colouring in the end of the fibre optic with a red felt tip pen. The whole thing took me all weekend to do in the end, much longer thasn I really wanted plus its not perfect, the front headlights are not quite the same brightness but the idea is there and no doubt I will get back to it again oneday. Missy

Hello WOW! Thank you guys for all those comments. Its fantastic because it really gives me so much encouragement and confirmation that I am going in the right direction. Hopefully it also shows that anything should be possible to model. People just need to get past that initial 'I cant do that' stage and start thinking of ways to do things. Once you are past that then the only way to find out if it works is to try it. Never be scared to try anything, if that signal didnt work out then I would only loose a few pounds. I am always thinking of ways to do things, its just annoying sometimes that things like work get in the way! Thank you again. Missy

Hello Pete Stick with the pointwork, I know you will figure it out soon. 75 days? Cripes! I know how you feel about that! Its more than a bit scary when you put it like that! Missy

Hello Tom Thank you. Yes the LED is directly behind the disk. The LED is a small surface mount warm white one, I get mine from this place and Im sure there are other places too. Missy

Hello Im back! I have been a bit stupid! I was kinda holding off posting anything until the blogs were 'fixed' but didnt realise that I could just upload the pictures to my picture thing then link them here! Anyway. 2mm realistic ground signals, are they possible....? I think they are. Below are a couple of pictures of the first one out of four for Highclere. Its been made in a much similar way to the other signal I have made earlier on. It will be operated by a servo as with the other ones eventually. The disk and balance weight are from a MSE etch. I am hoping that now I have done one I will loose interest doing the others. It was a nice little break from the layout electrics anyway. Missy

Hello Nick There is more information on page 7 of my old blog now it is back up and running. I have a few more things to post on this blog but I am waiting for the ability to post pictures once again. Hope that helps. Missy

Hello As the title says, I am getting a bit bored of these electrics! The whole thing of wiring the layout up seems to be endless at the moment. I am not the fastest of people by a long way but this is just going on forever and ever! Apart from a couple of fuses and cables I think there is now no real reason why I cant get the thing working, the 2 boards should now work. There are still things like uncoupling magnets and signals to fit and wire but I guess the bulk of it is done now. I have found out though that I might have to re-do the point mechanisms as some of them dont seem to be working right now. Hmmmmm. Missy

Hello Bryn Woohoo! Fantastic progress I knew this laser cutting stuff would catch on, the brickwork and tiles look brilliant. Missy

Hello and Welcome Graham Thank you for the post and advice. I can see your point with the mains stuff but I still think I am going to try and figure out how to do it with 12v stuff. I have ordered some 12v 13W tubes which hopefully will be enough. If not I might have to come back and rethink the mains stuff. The problem is that with my design it will have to pass through 4 connectors to get to the tubes. I will post an entry once I have the bits so you guys can tell me what you think. Thank you. Missy

Hello Rich Its nice to see some progress. That trackwork looks fantastic, Im getting a bit jealous! Missy

Hello Don Thank you. Thats the closest so far and I have now placed an order for 2 of those tubes to see what I can do. Hopefully they will work out ok but at that price if they dont then its no big loss. Missy

Hello Don Thanks for the tip although I think I am going to be safe and try these 12v tubes. I have spent a little time looking online for some but most of them seem to be a cold light. There must be something around! Missy