Quarryscapes

Guitar strings are defined by their string gauge - which is simply their outside diameter in thousandths of an inch. If you can measure your pipe you can find a replacement guitar string to suit. You want Roundwound strings. They all have a piano wire core with normally a Nickel wire wrapped around the outside*, but you can also get stainless steel or various different coatings. https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/collections/electric-guitar-single-strings?filter.p.m.specification.brand=Ernie Ball&sort_by=manual& *The very fine gauge stuff does not have a wire wrap, it's just a singe strand of piano wire with a coating.

Beta 1257 series or Wera Kraftform Micro series - well worth paying for good quality in small sizes, especially when the difference between 1.27mm and 1.3mm hax can be the difference between a rounded off screw or a successfully assembled wheelset (Slaters Wheels, crankpins etc).

Yep, not even so much as a renumbered oldie. Surely Bachmann can't have that much stock of steamers on their hands they can't throw out a few new running numbers?

Indeed, and some things just don't look right to me on theirs either. OK there are things that don't quite look right on the Dapol ones too, but on balance they bother me less/are within my skill set to fix.

Well I caved. DC Supplies had graded Manors at £80 a pop, so I've just been running in Lydham and Hook Norton Manors around my set track loop. This loop has never been cleaned since purchase some 7 years ago, yet Lydham ran faulessly and after initially presenting a strange stumble so did Hook Norton. The stumble was odd, It ran perfectly in reverse, but forward it would pick a section of track to cut out as if it had been suddenly grabbed. I'm not sure what the cause was, but after picking it up and turning it to face the other way it started behaving as flawlessly as Lydham. I look forward to adding Hinton and Foxcote to the stud as funds and releases allow.

There used to be a Jordan on my street in Oswestry, back when I had a relatively boring MB4 (5 door hatch). Anything old and Nissan will just have rusted into the ground. I used to have an N15 Almera GTi, a rare non bodykit facelift one in Tropical Green. Sadly It was pretty rotten and I got rid before having to put it through an MOT! Lovely car, would love to find a good one again but may as well go hunting unicorns!

It's virtually endless if you allow for innacuracies or go 'generic'. The 4 Penrhyn Hunslets are available from existing tooling. 3 Pen yr Orsedd locos (quarry condition) need only a little mixing of existing bits (and ideally a retooled cab with no coaling doors). Irish Mail as delivered could be achieved from a similar mixing of bits. The Dinorwic locos are all a bit unique so would need much more work for accurate models, there is as yet no early frame style for example. All require Sandpots as an option.

Proper Modern Classic that, basically a limited edition version of the EK4 VTi to celebrate the Honda Jordan F1 team. Not as aswesome as the EK9 Type R of course, but the yellow wins for me.

Flux are just brokers, they don't care about your modified car, I ditched them a while ago when the horror stories started to emerge. Our IT guy at work rolled his heavily odified Land Rover a couple of weeks ago - insured through Flux on an agreed £17k valuation. The track rod broke, which was a standard item, and they refused to pay out because it was not upgraded. They have also written the car off as Cat B, so he's got no payout, and no car, well and truly dumped in it.

I like the Vallejo putty in a tube, can be squeezed out into crevices with the supplied nozzle, and can be thinned into a finer filler using airbrush thinner.

Balance paid with Derails on my 78000, hope it's worth the 3 year wait!

Been using these since I was a kid, so 20+ years. I've had precisely 3. One died when it developed a leak (although it carried on wrapped in masking tape until it was empty), and one I made an unfortunate decision to refill with Contacta from a tube which is thicker and doesn't flow through the needle. The secret to not clogging I've found is simple , wipe off the excess from the end of the needle after every use. This also stops the needle sticking in the lid and being pulled out of the bottle. These are the best dispensers for Poly cement out there IMO.

You'll probably find that this is a service offered by the courier Hattons use for international shipments rather than Hattons registering in several countries for VAT. Getting stuff through customs has become a nightmare for international sales, and many couriers are now offering these brokerage packages where they manage the tax on everyone's behalf, the customer pays it upfront and they just receive their items with no further interruptions to service or fees to pay on landing.

I am attempting to turn by plain black A1 into S&M 'Dido'. To do this I need to add the westinghouse brake and some extra pipework. Can anyone show me some close ups of the various westinghouse components on a model so fitted? Trying work out what I need to order as spares and how it all attaches! Also trying to find some larger buffer heads to suit as well, any ideas there?

Yes, straight swap

I'm working on some marketing pics at work.

There is a second smaller engine on 4415 used to start the main engine, might have had it's own exhaust?

Depends what finish you want to clean up. The Nylons don't need anything, the Polyjet stuff can be soaked in pretty much any thinner and scrubbed up to remove both wax support residue and any oil Shapeways have already tried to clean them up with.

The only halfway decent Nikon is the FZc, which is Nikon's attempt at being a Fujifilm X-T series. Fuji has got the retro film camera body handling with modern tehcnology thing nailed. I use X-T1 and X-T2, the X-T1 I've had since it was released - longer than I've owned any car or other piece of 'tech'. I also use an 80s Olympus OM-4Ti for 35mm, only because I couldn't find a reasonably priced OM2-SP, my preferred Olympus body. I'd also put the Pentax ME down as a contender for the best all round 35mm SLR thanks to it's massive bright viewfinder and pure simplicity of operation (it only does aperture priority with a simple LED indicator of shutter speed). Of course if we're expecting EMP death to electronics then an Olympus OM-3 would be on my wishlist.

That settles that then, thanks Will

This photo came to me labelled as Cambrian. It's photographed on Cambrian track, certainly, but it is not a Cambrian vehicle. Over to you GW experts. It's number appearas to be x131x the last maybe a 3, 6 or an 8. Might it be Dia S18 No. 1313? If so, this is part of the the Tanat valley set of the late 40s, along with E40 No. 7248 on the right.

The old ones from the 90s look a bit suspect, but the modern ones since 2000 all look OK to me at a quick glance. Sams trains does a comparison...usual trigger warnings apply!

Translation is incorrect it actually says "An example plan of a model railway next to...."

Poor effort on the wishlisting folks, only 5 pages and the announcement is in 13.5 hours. I'm going to suggest a new livery Quarry Hunslet in 009, and go for something small and 0-6-0 in 00, like a 2F, J10, Cauliflower Goods or the like as new tooling.

Ooooh one of my favourite locos and a regular in Port Dinorwic, might have to make a sneaky purchase.