rue_d_etropal

Notbeing a fan of air brushes I tend to only brush paint, the only exception being when I use Halfords primer aerosols , which is said to be one of the best acryllic primers around and used by many military modellers. I used to use grey ayllic paint as a primer , hand brushed. Not sure if it was same as the Deco range but it was being sold off cheaply. Oddly I have found grey paint adheres better than other colours. Not sure why , but when I could not get the grey paint, I switched to household white primer, which works OK but is not as good. Mind you I don't tend to clean surface as well as I should which does not help. Now having primed surface I now use any water based paint, ususually emulsion test pots which go on very well, are cheap and can be bought locally to me. Oddly some greens are not in range , but easy to mix blue and yellow! Emulsion paint is not as hard wearing, but then for most of my models I am not planning to handle them much. As the emulsion paint is mostly only available in matt, if I want a shiny finish I use household acryllic varnish, which is also useful to bond transfers, and degree of gloss can be changed a little. For brush painting, I usually add a bit of water, so the paint becomes more a stain than a paint, much thinner, and layers can be built up, so less chance of small detail being lost. As with any act=yllic paint , it touch dries fast, but drying process continues I think for at least 24 hours. This can be useful, as a smallamount of blending can be done. My methods are definitely not conventional, but they work for me. I tend to use cheap paint brushes, and wash them off n jars of water I keep, building up a collection of mucky thin paint water which I then use for weathering, wet style, not dry painting for me, as it replicates the way water gets into surfaces and causes discolouration etc.

more LSWR gatestock and a SECR suburban coach, all being requested. Just starting on some Metropolitan 1904/5/6 electric stock.

it might have been the inspiration for Gresley, but the shape is actualy a lot less complex than on the A4s and the beaver tailed observation coach, which I found far more difficult to design. I think Bugatti had designed the aerofol design a few years before. First thing I noticed about design was how similar it was in shape(front end ) to railcars introduced in recent years. They were a very successful design. Main downside, on safey grounds might be using a petrol engine, and they were looking at a steam generating plant, but WW2 stopped that development.

After a distraction to play round with some ideas for a modular staircase and walkway system, backon track with District Railway B stock. Not that I am finished with stairs designs as I will use what I have learnt to do some complete ones for specific buildings, but in smaller scales, so not wasted time, but do find railway railcars and coaches far far easier.

Just changed thread title to cover allFrench railcars/autorails. Also just completed design for a Bugatti autorail. As I have book with drawings of most of the types had to chootse which to do. For size I would have done he shortest, but they were all conveted to remorques after WW2, and I remembered some discussion here about an old Bugatti that had been dumped in south of France. In my research I have found out more but sadly it was scrapped. http://www.bugattirevue.com/revue56/taconetti.htm But that persuaded me to do one of these ones, which were the longest of the single unit variety.As I already had one of the Jouef models , which were the earlier design with 3 front windows, this was another difference. Almost gave up on design though. In most ways it is alot simpler than most of the designs I have done, in particular the other French autorails, but software objected to logical sequence I did design. It is simply a rectangular block, with end and side profiles simple cuts, with no merging. Quite common with 19430s designs(Bulleid did it with some of his electric units). Luckily I found that just changing sequence of instructions(it is more like writing a program), and it worked. These autorails were big, over 83ft long, too big for single piece in 1/32nd scale so have had to leave that off my list, but have still managed o resize from N up to O. Might consider doiing one for Z. 4 axle bogies would be fun to make, but still easier than building a chassis for some steam locos, one reason I prefer railcars to design.

I think the Mantua loco chassis would be too big for British HO. I know of it being used in O 16.5, and would probably be useful for 5.5mm/ft as well,talking of which there is a lot of new interest in modelling 3ft gauge in 5.5mm/ft, helped by the large amount of items availablefor 28mm wargaming which is virtally same scale. I have a long term project to stretch it to modelling metre gauge as well, and have resized quite a few of my designs into 5.5mm/ft.

it is same as Electrotren version, which can usually be picked up here easily. Various versions, just different bodies. The different spacing of rear axle can be useful for some locos but for many an equal spacing would be better. Also as it is a model of a Spannish broad gauge loco, it is nearer to 4mm scale width, so cylinders are further out., but I think buffers are spaced for standard gauge not broad gauge, but that might be correct for Spannish stock. As with many continental locos, therr might be a problem with height of motor for British HO. Wheel size is 14mmso ideal for lococos with 4ft wheels. Front to middle spacing is near enough for a Terrier, pity the rear axle to middle is not same, but gven low price might be worth it.

it sort of worked for me yesterday, but not today. I found another copy of that drawing via google

using that as a search helps. found this rather nice posting showing construction of a typical building. Would probably also make a nice station building as smallest versions were similar. https://modeliste17.forumactif.org/t51-construire-un-batiment-de-a-a-z-une-maison-de-garde-barrieres and this one just needs printing out, but could be easily used to design model http://lignefictive.blogspot.com/2010/09/maison-de-garde-barriere-po.html

had not thought of that. would be more complex to do, and I think just having curved non tapered steps would suit most people. Just not sure about radius. I wonder how much the radius changes as it goes up a light house, as it might be possible bend steps in slightly .

image of updated modular spiral stairs. it is a long prosess, as I keep thinking up new combinations, and finding design flaws, which once fixed make a big improvement.

one of my favourite designs for 3D printing is my design for a spiral staircase. Not something that can be produced in one piece in any traditional way. It was based on a real example in Accrinton market hall, and had 14 steps. Notsure if this is standard as most model I have seen only have 12 which is a lot easier to calculate! Some small issues with Shapeways recently, so I thought it was time to redesign the model, which would also allow me to alter height and number of steps. I then wondered if I could developa modular system for bigger scales. I set standard height to orespond to 9ft floor to floor, and only 12 steps, so it would divide up easier, Then things got more complex and I wonderd if I could then do a straigt staircase in sections and a walkway system to link them all. This modularsystem woud only be practical for larger scales. Smallest I recon would be 1/24th scale, with another at 1/19th(16mm/ft), 1/12th and 1/6th scale. I started with the biggest one . Having noticed that many of the diorama type pieces for 1/6th scale were pretty expensive I thought 3D printing would be reasonable, especially as not much would be required to fll a small diorama. I have seen small stone type step modules priced at over £130 from China on ebay! It is very much a work in progress, and currently module system is only on display, and I have done the spiral staircase and straight staircase. http://www.rue-d-etropal.com/3D-printing/Buildings_and_Furniture/buildings-modular-stairs.htm I have started on the walkway sections, and plan to do straights and curves, as well as curved steps, with bigger radii, so they can go round outside or inside of builds(eg lighthouse) Certainly makes a change from railway carriages! And yes I do know people who have built narrow gauge in 1/6th scale. Not sure if I should upsize some of my narrow gauge models now!

Couple of Swindon related designs, one steam)my favourite), one diesel(aequest) Collett Goods now done, a loco I have been wanting to do for a while, classic GWR tender loco. Swindon do love rivets! I still have my old Mainline model I have had since originally pre-ordering in all those years ago, then not being able to get one,, and eventually getting it at Hamleys! Other loco was a request, why do 1950s diesels have to be so complex? All those curves in all directions at once. Almost forgot. Also done a request class 23 Baby Deltic.

it is very addictive. Not done any proper modelling since lock down.

I will have a look at the drawings I have. Certainly something, just not sure on quality.

I would doboth versions of the 303. It usually does notinvolve too much extra work, and I try to do complete sets/variants/ if possible. Trouble is when I find far more ersions than originally thought! All my designs are done in 7mm scale. Nothing definitely planned, I tend to bounce around, as I have a broad rangeof interests, and variety keeps me going. Just about to start on a D600 Warship, hopefuly all the curves wont be a problem this time. Open to ideas, but apart from mods to original designs, put 1970s as a cut off period for new builds, in effect 1st generation.

collett goods now finished. Done it with Collett tender, as they were best drawings and had Mainline/Bachmann to compare. Will do a Churchward tender at some time. Had a look at drawings for 44/45. Probably will do the 44 as there is only one version , possibly 2, a I think original bunker was smaller. One thing about GWR locos I had not appreciated was the number of rivets. I think rivet counters must have originally come from Swindon!

I have nothing against the finer rail, but I prefer Peco insulfrog(I have my own mod which cures 99% of pickup problems which would not work with electrofrog easily!) and that only comes in code 100 rail.Also my inset track system works better with code 100 rail, but if I could get a manufacturer on board I have something suitable for finer rail track.

considered doing them, but need decent drawings Also I need definite interest, as I have a lot of designs in pipeline.

The 45xx had bigger wheels, wheelbase is the same though. There were 2 versions of the 45XX , one with and one without sloping tanks. The 44xx only had flat topped tanks. Would have to do comparison of drawings to see how differnt they wre though.

Just started working on some designs for GWR locos starting with my favourite the Collett 2251 goods. Easy to fit tender drive and then build a simple unpowered loco chassis. Also considering a 14xx autotnk and either a 44xx or 45xx(which might fit an Electrotren chassis).

I like the idea of different sizes of rail being used for different grades of track, but would not go asfar as building my own track, unless it was for something very special or different. I also think it is differeces in size that are more noticable than actual size. If I was really concerned and was to build my own track, probably would go for 4mm scale(EM) as there there are a lot more accessories available. My reason for going British HO is simply the gauge. I can disguise thickness of rail with careful ballasting etc. Far more concerned about rest of model building, such as actual buildings(bricks!), and prefer to go for an overall look that looks OK. Maybe it is me, but I notice differences more than actuals.

From my own experience of model shops and having run one myself, they are very rarely crowded. Large shops could be the ones with a risk. As someone said outside one of the currently open stores, in a queue waiting to go in. There might only be a certain number of customers in the shop but they are not spread around evenly, and it would be difficult to do so. So small shops, a couple of customers, probably go in , have a quick look around, chat to the shop keeper , hopefully buy somethng,then go. They might hang around, no problem, and if anyone else comes into the shop and it now looks busy, they can step out , and if they want to can come back in when the other customer leaves. On the whole I have found many of the small shops I use locally are never that busy, but have a constant flow of customrs, otherwise they would not keep going.

for 4mm scale it depends on how big the design is and therefore the price. as a modeller I have had no problem cleaning up rough surfaces, and it is far far easier to paint with any water based paint. I have found that detail such as rivets actually still leaves an impression(possibly better than original) which shows up when painted.

I can set any available option on . If you mean Smooth Fine Detail Plastic, then that is always set for N scale items.