Caley Jim

Do any of the 2MM Mag's previous editors have a business? Stewart Hine, Geoff Balfour,Mick Simpson to name but three? One of them would seem appropriate for a newsagent. Jim

Never seen that done here, but then I drink proper beer, none of your mass produced dishwater! Which reminds me, I must order another mixed case as I'm down to the last two bottles. Jim

Nah, Ah'm frae Glesca! Jim

You buying? Jim

The windows have now been glazed and fitted and the surround of the front door made up in styrene. Despite the fact that the building will be at the back of the layout I decided to go to town a bit on this as I wanted to see what I could achieve and use later on some of the buildings which will be on the other side of the road from the goods yard. The two pillar faces have 'fluting' down them and I've put the date on the lintel. The numbers for the latter being cut from 5thou styrene. Unfortunately what I have of both that and 10thou is probably over 50 years old and a bit brittle now. The two '8's are the best out of four I made. The surround is just sitting slotted into the opening at present, prior to painting it, and the front step will be partially set into the pavement. i think I have discovered a mix of paint, CR wagon oxide + white, which is a close enough match to the quoins and window surrounds. Work on the front door itself has started. Jim

I would suspect that there would be long timbers set diagonally, but , when it comes to narrow and mixed gauge, like Manuel, 'I know nothing'. Jim (not from Barcelona)

Seeing the uncoupling position is more important than seeing the turnout. Also, putting the building at an angle adds visual interest and takes away the 'regimented' look of having all the buildings parallel to the front of the baseboard. Jim

What's going to happen if they start to breed? Jim

Clearly you, as a member of staff, should not have been try to post on here when your boss was requiring your services! Jim

Now there's a man who was flushed with success! Jim

For various reasons progress on the hotel building has been slow, but the basic shell is now made up. I decided to give it a bit of extra character by putting raised stone surrounds to the windows, which is quite common on buildings around here. It's not going to be in the same league as the York Road Station over on CF, but it will serve its purpose to fill the area at the end of the bridge. The etched windows are assembled and painted and are about to be glazed. Jim

This topic is rapidly going down the toilet! Jim

Now you'll need to fit laser cannons on the roof to shoot these aliens coming towards you! Jim

I have usually soldered mine to a separate pcb spacer which sits across the chassis in a recess cut in the frames and is then bolted to another spacer below it. The the case of my 'Crewe type' 2-4-0 ( which is the type Don is referring to), I only had the slidebars attached to the chassis, via double sided pcb with the outside frames and cosmetic part of the cylinders part of the body. See my article in the February 2005 Magazine, p13. Jim

Thanks for that David. The font I used (arial black) was just a 'placeholder' until I found something better. It's now been changed to Bahnschrift semibold, which looks a lot better. The height is restricted by it having to fit between the pediment above the front door and the upper floor window sills. I did look at putting 'THE ALLANMUIR' and 'HOTEL' either side of the door, but I didn't like the look of that. Jim

I recall a large Dutch layout at Model Rail a few years ago which not only had a set of dockside sidings sliced through, but a couple of wagons on them also 'sliced'! Jim

Wonderful stuff as always, Mike. They just get better and better! Jim (a fan of unusual wagons)

Some folk will do anything for sympathy! Jim

Reminds me of the English football commentator who grew up thinking there was a team called 'Partick Thistle Nil'. Jim

Thanks, Don. In fact they were to make it easier for the horses by providing a smoother surface than the setts for the cart wheels to run on, especially on hills. Jim

I would say these are a bit OTT IMHO. Why not get something like these https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/18007801618 to try out, without spending too much and see how you get on. They seem pretty much the same as I have except mine have their own legs and have the LED, which I rarely use unless I'm trying to see something under the baseboard. Jim

Using magnification needs some practice and can take time to get used to. You fingers and the tools you are using appear to be moving much further than they actually are, so need to make adjustments. I too have a set of dental loupes which I used for most of the working day for around 12 years, prior to which I use a headband magnifier, so I suppose it comes as second nature to me. The ability to look outside the area of magnification as Nigel has described is useful on a number of counts, which is where the 'flip-up' type score over the headband style in my experience. Using cheap reading glasses is OK for those fortunate enough not to need corrective lenses. I have an astigmatism (my lenses are not spherical) so that type are no use to me. I would recommend getting some fairly cheap ones to start with and see how you get on with them before investing in anything too expensive. Indeed you might find, as I have, that they are perfectly adequate. Jim

The parts for the building have now all been drawn out and a start made on creating the texture paper for it. I printed out the drawing with the texturing on it, cut round the outline and tried it in place. I'm quite pleased with the way it is looking, but I hope the shallow steep roof won't be a problem visually. There won't be the black line around the quoins and sills and the pillars and pediment around the door recess will be built up in styrene. I just hope I can create a mix of paint to match the quoins. Jim

I use a set made by Lightcraft which sadly appear to be no longer available. They are like a pair of spectacles without the lenses or lens holders and with a magnifier mounted in front with an LED light also. They came with three sets of magnifiers, x1.5, x2.5 and x3.5. I find the x1.5 perfectly adequate for most work, though I have used the x2.5 once or twice for lettering. The higher the magnification you use, the closer you have to be to the work. I would recommend that, rather then using magnification with your varifocals, you get a set of cheap frames with your reading prescription in them and use these. I find it difficult to work with the magnification with my varifocals on as you don't have the full field of vision at the same focal length. Jim

While looking for something else, I came across this article I wrote for the 2MM Magazine on the jig I devised for mounting AJ couplings. AJ Coupling Mounting Jig.pdf Jim