Mick Bonwick

I don't use water on its own to thin acrylic paint, but I do use acrylic thinners, either from the paint manufacturer or from Ultimate. If I'm going to dip a paintbrush into an acrylic paint pot it will either be completely clean of paint or have that colour of paint on it already. If the paint pot is not actually having a brush dipped into it, the lid will be firmly attached to prevent air getting in. When a paint is finished with (as in end of painting session) the lid and the rim of the pot are cleaned of all paint, wet and dry, and the airtight seal reinstated. I have had the occasional pot (three in total) of acrylic paint go hard and unusable but in every case the fault has been mine because the airtight seal was not there. I apply these principles to all the acrylic paints that I use, Vallejo, Humbrol, Revell, AMMO by Mig, AK Interactive and Lifecolor. It might be irrelevant and it might be coincidental, but all three failures mentioned above were Lifecolor paints. It is true to say, though, that by far the majority of my acrylic paints are Lifecolor and the three colours affected are those that I use most - Track Dirt, Roof Dirt and Weathered Black.

Does that mean checked visually or checked with a multi-meter?

Getting better all the time.

Looks OK to me. Your tool needs adjustment.

It could be an adaptation of this - an enclosed overhead conveyor.

????????????????

Rearrange these words into a well-known phrase or saying: Medicine Taste Own His Of

The straight lines have been disposed of and I now have a somewhat more curvy track plan. Is it a good idea to have the exit to the fiddle yard so close to the front of the layout?

A short while ago I decided to try out AnyRail as a planning tool. It was used to assist another modeller to establish a baseplan for his new layout and has since sat on my PC doing nothing. I brought it into use to try out formations for Pindale Road and have printed out a 1/4 scale track plan to see if it works on my foamboard models. To my amazement (about my capabilities, not the software's) it seems to have worked. The next step will be to change the track layout to get rid of all those straight lines, although that might prove difficult given the restricted space. I have to think about coupling and uncoupling on curved track, where to place magnetic uncouplers if necessary, which couplings I could use and all those other things that are important and need to be planned.

Some progress to report. Three 1/4 scale baseboards completed with which to test out the track plan and building placement.

I know how concurrency works, so you have my sympathy, if that's the right word to use. I continue to be impressed by your rate of work. I have been in the workshop all day (unusually) but have nothing much to show for it. That steel van looks interesting . . .. . .

I think that I have found the colour combination I need for Easton. Railmatch Sleeper Grime for sleepers, Vallejo Brown Beige for railsides and Woodland Scenics Gray Blend for ballast. Areas of discolouration from oil, brake dust, coal and ash (where appropriate) will be achieved with washes and pigments. This piece was done in too much of a hurry (excessive excitement) so the ballast scratched off the paint from sleeper tops and rail sides. I think that the former could have been prevented by using enamel rather than acrylic and the latter could have been prevented by simply waiting longer than 2 minutes for the paint to dry.

Many books have been studied in order to find a suitable colour photograph thst shows ballast and track colour at Easton. The contents of several books showed something that might be useful, so I marked the pages accordingly. When I put the books to one side so that I could make a start on the airbrushing of the length of track laid for experimenting, I turned one of the books over . . . . . . . . . and found just the thing! Somebody else has recently mentioned things hiding in plain sight. First person to mention the P word gets excommunicated. Oh! That's the remains of the grey mess, on the left, after the abortive stone colouring exercise. I suppose the mortar course could be that colour.

I think you missed the point. You were supposed to read it and realise.

That's important! You're obviously coping well with this recovery mullarky. More power to your elbow, whatever you use it for.

Trust you to think of that.

With respect, young man, I don't think that a Victo would fit into that diminutive container. It was quite a hefty beast even though it was compact for its time. However, I'm not a rivet counter, so I'm not going to cast doubt upon the view that the long bag contains his ahem, nor mention that it is a scale 3" too short for that. It also seems that he has mislaid his padded bag of glass slides. Maybe he's just going fishing. Maybe I'm not entering into the spirit of things. Maybe he's just a model and we're all being fooled into thinking otherwise.

The next test. 5mm foamboard with 3mm closed cell foam Copydex-ed to it and Peco code 75 flat-bottomed track Copydex-ed to that. It'll be airbrushed with a track grime-ish colour, then the (newly acquired) ballast laid and, finally, the rail sides painted. Might be slow progress, but at least it's a plan. No more coloured pencilling just yet.

I like the way you've concentrated on the train rather than the locomotive.

There's quite alot of information here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/35-permanent-way-signalling-infrastructure/

Thank heavens that electrification didn't reach the Isle of Portland.

I have spent this afternoon using coloured pencils on a sheet of Finecast embossed dressed stone blocks. I was quite pleased with the variations I had achieved and sought to take a photograph to show off. Clearing up and reaching for the camera I tipped the dish of white spirit (used for thinning the mortar wash) all over the aforementioned sheet of dressed stone and obliterated all the colours, ending up with a uniform grey mess. Ho hum. Maybe I should have been doing more ballasting today. Or felling trees. Or washing the car.

Ignoring the wrong colour of ballast, I've applied a few brown colours to the rail sides to see which might be suitable. Undecided. There are many more to be tried, but these seemed to be fairly close. I'm sure many people have their own favourites . . . . . . . . . . . . .

All of the products advertised for using with static grass might be thinned PVA with the occasional additive, but I have never had a problem with either neat PVA or thinned (with water) PVA. I have always used the cheapest PVA I can find and simply brushed it onto the surface being grassed. This is the method that is used by Pendon Museum workshops, as well. If you are about to do some work with static grass then try plain PVA first. If it doesn't work to your satisfaction then try other materials.

AP4 toolbox, for those who've never seen one.