ThePurplePrimer

This lot are part of a larger commission of 4mm figures

The customer has some buses and a trolley bus ( or trams ? ) on his layout and wanted some figures to go with them. The crew were easy enough but he also wanted to show the electrical pickup being refitted to the wires for the trolley bus. He gave me the dimensions from the ground ( a platform in this case ) and I converted a few figures for him. 

Painting the bamboo was fun in this scale ( 1/76 )

I am lucky enough to have a local modelshop and after some time spent with some books and a calculator I paid the shop a visit this morning with some supplies so I could mock a few things up.

I fancy something with a limited passenger service as well as a goods so I used my Lynton and Barnstaple book for some reference in regards to sizes. Here is a L&B sized wagon on a 00 chassis ( the wheelbase is too short but the Dundas kit I bought its very close to what I wanted ) - I also will need a small coach or two so grabbed a bogie to fiddle about with.

Some of this is falling together nicely - a 4mm 12' wagon chassis scales out just about right for what I want and the 12.6 mm wheels come out very close as well 

Peter might have started something here ...

Sorry for the small hijack Peter - I wont make a habit of it I promise

Hi Peter

I know nothing about tractors but like the older Massey Fergusons and those like it 40s 50s I assume - do you be any experience of the Universal Hobbies tractors ?

Also I have had a quick look at some of the Britains buildings and they look like pretty good starting points - do you know if the plastic is of the glueable type - or is it something polythene based ?

Hi Peter

Love the Fordson and the figure looks just perfect

I am surprised that this scale isn't more popular or am I just Googling in the wrong places

I think this scale has something to offer that GN15 doesn't

Love that Ruston - want one !

Looking at my pile of platicard - hmmmmm 

Hi Peter

That last contraption ( I use the word affectionately ) looks interesting. Is the cylinder at the front ( where a bumper would be ) some kind of coal gas conversion ?

Happy Christmas Peter

Love the new pictures - especially the last one with all the gubbins to look at ( and for )

I got a book today that has a picture of a 'loco' that is crying out to be made in 1/35th

I don't think I can resist it

I don't know anything about old tractors but there is something very appealing about them

When I started to look into GN15 1/22.5 or 1/24 scale I was disappointed that I couldn't seem to find any tractor models in these scales

Just off to look at your tractor pictures again :-)

Here are a couple of the very nice Stadden Edwardian figures in 4mm scale ...

he is pretty small ...

I realised I hadn't posted in here for ages

A few recent(ish) commission pieces in 7mm 

I am just starting to look into GN15 and now have a small pile of books on the Rhomney Hythe & Dymchurch and a fascinating book on Heywood - actually I seem to have quite a pile of 15" railway books now - oops

Peter those pictures still look great for web work to me

You said the track is code 100 - is it all Peco Setrack ? - if so do you have any problem with slow running over the points

Also could you tell us a bit more about those lovely tractors

Hi Peter

I really like your figures actually. They look well painted to me and in my opinion they are some of the best placed and posed figures I have seen on a layout.

I have been mocking up some Gn15 ideas actually but your 32/35th scale stuff has a lot going for it - tempting

I love this layout and those newer pictures look great to me

Hi Martin

That looks great and a pretty clever system behind it

How are you controlling feedback from the points - are there microswitches or something like that to detect the points actually completed their move ?

Hi Richard

Ok - getting a flat finish with a brush is really difficult I am afraid. The first thing is that the varnish needs to be really well mixed. I mix mine by putting a few glass beads in the bottle and shake it really well. I shake for 2 minutes - let it sit for 5 minutes and then shake again for another minute.

Two thin coats will work much better than one - resist the temptation to thin with water as this will often cause the flatting agent to pool and that will give you white spots or specks.

So two thin coats - just brush it out to get a thin coat. At least 24 hours between coats.

If the humidity is high I would suggest waiting for better conditions ( I always bung my de humidifier on or my aircon on when I am varnishing )

Let us know how you get on

Hi Richard

Are you applying it with an airbrush or a paintbrush ?

Also what scale are you working in ?

It's amazing how much better that Hornby model looks with your weathering added - very good

The wall looks great - am also liking the sheen on the loco, just right to my eyes.

That looks really nice - a nice crisp and clean interface

I am guessing there isn't much chance of an iOS version ?

Phew

It looks like I have a lot of research to do but thanks for the replies - it all sounds very interesting.

I thought that JMRi was the obvious choice ( actually its the only choice I know about )

Should I be looking at ( for ) any alternatives ?

Thanks for the information Nigel

It does sound a bit like my chosen DCC system is going to make this a little bit harder that it could have been.

Could you offer any suggestions as to how I could get information from any sensors into JMRI then as I am certainly going to want some detection at some point. I am also interested in the idea of block detection.

The adventure begins

I ordered a USB cable for my Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance 2 and a DCC Concepts solenoid point motor decoder.

So far I have JMRI talking to the command station and I can control a loco with the JMRI on screen throttle

I had a quick play with wi throttle and It worked but I had two runaways that I couldn't stop so I will come back to that.

Next thing for me is to try and work out how to record a simple script - go forward - then stop - go backwards - and repeat

Have no idea where to start so this evening I need to start finding out how to do that

Thanks Joe

They look great in the video - I didn't realise they were Hornby ones at all. They didn't look as yellow in the video.

Do you have a track plan we could see ?

That looks great

Can you tell us a bit about your lever frame please