richard i

Glazing a plenty That is all the non LNER stock and the LNER parcels stock. Difficult to tell as it is just clear sheet. However i needed to be done. It's also why i have restricted the number of shots. No need to see all done. This one is different though as it was the cinema car so had the back of its glazing painted black including on the door, i was in two minds just use black plastic or glaze and not paint, but went for it and did it properly. Like a lot of things it is hard to tell but it's knowing it is there. Richard

I try and use all paints from the same manufacturer in consecutive layers. Even then does not always work. Try then only filing back top surface. They have already reacted, sometimes I find then a second coat goes on fine. Not a chemist but perhaps all the reaction has happened.

Temperature of the room or was it a foggy day? Both have orange peeled paint on a loco I have painted. Hot and humid would do it too. Was the dryer going? Richard

Done by the USA to deliberately bankrupt the U.K. So they could complete their transformation into a world power. It was a continuation of Wilsons policy of breaking up the European empires after the First World War . His policy of self determination and freedom of the seas was not altruistic. the special relationship has not always been both ways. In fairness the U.K. Did burn down the president's house in 1812.

I have to agree on the coke being difficult to tell apart from coal. Have googled "coke coal" and third picture is a comparison of the two. Perhaps use matt varnish to take the shine off coal. Coke seems to have a flatter greyer look to it.

And in terrifying close up! However, considering it was only the sides and ends and the rest has been scratched together. Now a complete cct. Sides and ends ironically are the easiest part as they are flat sides. So more push to scratch build more stock. Richard

And an original horse box!

For my age coke is either in a bottle or a white powder. Never seen a color image of coke in a coke wagon, but I have a couple of empty coke wagons labeled up on my layout. I will be interested to see if anyone has an image of coke in colour.

Cleaned up and a pair fitted to the cct. Has the one it is hoping to mimic next to it. Paint it up and it can join he fleet. Richard

Pushing on with the casting. One of the LMS CCT came only as a body. So made the roof, scratched up an underframe. And am now casting from green stuff the more complicated shapes of he springs etc. The spruce off cut I the roof was put in to give me something to hold whilst painting it. The first casting of the Gresley bogie is lucking in shot, why do I feel it is going to be spot the bogie side frame in all my pictures from now on. Thanks for the advice on lead casting. I will look in to it. Richard

All food for thought thank you gentlemen

I have used resin as a casting material, but not lead alloy. Now where do I get a ready supply of that in the states?

six years away he has to imagine some things had changed. My grandfather came home to find a new young boy he had never seen calling him Dad walking round the house.

This sounds interesting, do you not find the green stuff too flexible? have i mixed it poorly. I might give it a go. Best to have several options to chose from. Thank you Richard

We can pick up Marmite but have to travel 45 minutes to get it. Closer to the big smoke than the rural area we are in. It is the water container for the acrilic brushes cleaning.

I want to say it. Is complete. The really shiny paint is supposed to be dull black from prescision paints. all other of their paints have been great. Is this from a duff batch? I will continue to tone it down . Have started to do so with pastels. Richard

Cleaned up. Sanded down on the back. Drilled to accept the bearings. Photo with the original which I was loathe to file the back of so I could reuse it. Besides I thought it would be easier to file back epoxy putty rather than white metal. However, how to get a flat back to an open cast without lifting it away from the inside of the mound? Richard

There is already a model done in the BR era, so you will have to go earlier. Go pre grouping the number of liveries would have looked fantastic.

Much better results this time. The green new ones on the right look so much more promising than the cleaned up milliput ones on the left. Now to clean them up. Sand them back and fit them to the parcels stock. Richard

Now the casting phase. I have in the photos the new attempt using green stuff this time. If this does not work I might try resin, as that will flow, but if it gets hot it might melt the imprint so I end up with a blob of resin rather than a bogie. It says green stuff sticks to everything, but the blue stuff. ( their actual names) says nothing sticks to it. Let's hope the latter is true. One other thing on the mat is the only milliput casting that vaguely worked. I cleaned it up to convince myself this was not a complete waste of time. If you turn over the work you can check if it has gone into all the parts. One advantage of it being clear. Now wait five hours. ( read overnight) to find out if it has worked. Richard

Don't worry didn't feel you were having a go. I fight against Americanism every day with language too.

Round two Went for single sided version as they are only cosmetic sides. Lest see how these turn out after I have got the epoxy putty this afternoon. Richard

The result of the casting. One came out okay. The rest were poor. I should have pressed the more important detail side down first as on this print the backs are nearly perfect. The milliput made a mess of everything and it all, needed a huge clean up. Having said all that it shows huge promise and so I will go out and get epoxy putty and try again. Never got anywhere by giving up. Richard

Blast! I try to give most of mine a load. Rethink on that one.

God knows I have severe dyslexia and so resigned myself years ago that I would never be sure. If spell checker does not pick it up, I leave it alone. I even had to use spell checker to get the spelling of dyslexia correct. Probably why I model rather than write books. To make things more complicated I have USA spell checker now which vomits Zs on to the page. I know they are "wrong" so I try and hunt them down at least.We all have our crosses to bear. I am just grateful mine is only that my brain reverses letters in my head sometimes and does not tell me it is doing it. Richard