richard i

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

Less we forget, war is similar to sport where lots of people have to make decisions under pressure based on imperfect knowledge of what everyones is going to do. It is just that in sport it might lead to a missed goal, but in war the consequences are profoundly greater and the pressure is alos magnified. It is easy to reflect at a distence what should have been done knowing what the other side endded up doing. However, in the heat of it, these were only humans. No one consciously wants to lose, so i always try to consider they were doing the best as they saw it with what they had. Both sides cannot win in a battle.

Really Clive we are British, we don't do praise.

Trying my hand at casting with blue stuff. Cut into chunks and put in hot water. After a minute take out and make the mold In this case some bogie sides which are difficult to get for pre grouping stuff so I thought I would practice on ones for the Gresley stock. No loss if they do not work. Make the second half of the mold just a couple of minutes after the first. I have a feeling making four smaller molds here may have been a better idea, we shall see. Then put together And now wait three hours to see if it has worked. The guide on you tube suggests expo you putty is better than milliput as it has no mess. I had some milliput to hand so tried it. It is messy so will head out and get expiry putty for the second try. It certainly is easy and has a lot of potential. Richard

Plywood / metal. The important thing is you were dedicated enough to make it subtly different. The Thompson is the MTK kit. I actually really enjoyed building it. Does that make me weird?

The last of the transfers! The BR livery southern van Fewer transfers than the earlier versions. Then the guards vans I need to tone down sides with weathering. The CCT transfers made up from off cuts from others. I am putting on record how much of a fight pressfix transfers are. They are not my friend. How does anyone put them on neatly? Lastly the Thompson brake. Lining on an unmarked side by eye, avoiding the handles was a fight. Just got to make bogies for it. Richard

The images of the gwr stock came out poorly so in better lighting Then thought I had not posted the set number added to the quadart . It adds a touch of realism to the end Richard

Might be working but have kids off my hands so progress has been quick. How people without kids do not produce a model a week I do not know. LMS stock Can't seem to find 12T transfers to go between the LMS and the number. Then the GWR lot Can't find a suitable number for the beetle, anyone know one off hand. Also can not find a monster transfer so might have to make my own. The southern started What I appreciate is that these look the same, but Clive had made sure one was same planking, one different sized alternate planking and one metal sided. Great attention to detail. One post war LNER piece Bogies to go. I am working on that. Lastly the NER pair. Correct numbers but the 4 wheeler should have motor and carriage truck on its side. Again I need to think how I am going to replicate that.......without ruining the model with a poor rendition of it. 5 more need transfers then on to glazing. I dread to think how many. A quick maths sum worked out ther are over 100 separate transfers on the quad art alone! How many windows on all the stock here? I am trying not to think about it. Richard

I had found banks webpage, I did also know of mike's offering, but I thought that as I only wanted two and it would have to come to the states it would make them very expensive. On looking again they are about ten bucks, five dollars a piece . Tempting at that price. Thank you for the advice.

Kind words, but always up for constructive advice, it is amazing how a tweak here and a tone down there can make such a vast difference to a model. The finish of my builds has vastly improved by taking an extra couple of file strokes to clean up each join. Came from some advice. Only way to get better. I will look at them again, though the camera never quite shows what is seen in the flesh.

Change of subject. Modeling question. Does anyone know the dimensions for the square roof ventilators on LNER coaches. I am converting a Kirk kit into the cinema coach for a bit of variety. They look to be similar to the ones on restaurant cars or kitchen cars, I could be wrong on this. I want to scratch a pair up. Many thanks Richard

I assume you were most drawn to the two without bogies? They were my playing around to get a heavily weathered, long in the tooth look on a couple of carriages. It is supposed to be dirt rather than the teak. Still too much? I could have a go at taking it back more to the edges. Views? Richard

Trying the camera on the new I pad work forced me to swap to. My old one worked fine and I understood it....a bit. Now have to learn a new one. Any one brave enough to do a quadart in lner teak needs his head examining. First in teak so painting and then transfers for every door. Enough to send one round the bend On the plus side set78 was photographed in Nottingham Victoria on an excursion to skegness, so we can have it. Just have to build the j6 which was pulling it. The others are transferred up too. The last is numbered 4140 as I have decided to convert it to the cinema coach. Black out the windows, boards on the roof and some extra rectangular vents on the roof and we are all set. Now just the other companies stock to do. Richard

I think we all hark back to a golden age. America has done a lot over the statement "make America great again" I do not want to get into its speaker's politics, but the discussion has gone along the lines of when was the USA great? The 1960s? but there was civil rights issues. 1940s? War. 1930s? depression for a great number. 1920s? the Klan, and so on. There is no age that is totally golden, we just have to find the bit we are most comfortable with. For me GCR 1910-1920 fits the bill with a litle LNER 1930s thrown in which is why my layout is a through the ages affair. Richard

GCR chimney were also changed as they were too large to fit snifting valves behind them. So when they werefitted some got a new pot.

After doing the picture, It is now on my to do list so photos once it is done.Richard