Ben Alder

Usually about a quarter inch flat although recently have changed to an angled shader which is basically a flat cut at an angle, giving the option of a fine line on it.

Yes, only picked up on that point after I'd laid all the track. It, however, will be borne in mind in any future project.

Good for you. There's a great feeling of satisfaction once you bully/coax these venerable offerings into a finished product, swearing never to do it again. Then you start another one......

Any chance of photos, please....

Lovely stuff! Please keep the pictures coming.

100degree white metal solder and flux - this one will flow, unlike the 70 degree version. Makes WM soldering fun! Plus a temp. controlled iron, of course....

Sounds interesting- I wish more would examine the possibilities of altering R-T-R- good old fashioned modelling! I never put down anything regarding the wheels, but it involves levering them off the axle and fitting and quartering by eye- it is quite easy if you squint through the spokes and line them up at 90o. I pressed them home by hand onto a back to back gauge and tweaked any irregularities and wobbles till they ran smoothly. Not an engineers approach by any means, but all four run very smoothly now

Just came across this- sorry for delay. Glad you like this product- it deserves more recognition. I don't bother gluing the tracklay and track down- just position it and maybe a light temporary pin or two till the track infill or shoulder is added. Remove pins, and you have a quiet and flexible track bed that gives as locos pass over it.I have achieved perfect running this way and it does allow for alterations if required.

The backscene needs to be spraymounted with Photomount, I have found out the hard way. This is heart-in-mouth work, as you have to get it right first time, but any wet glues damage the printed side or produce bubbles that won't go away. Once down though it has a most realistic effect.

Delighted to see you on the forum- welcome aboard. You were one of my inspirations when I was a lot younger, and followed your articles avidly; in fact went through a spell of narrow gauge modelling until I decided that 9mm wasn't for me, but look forward to more of these postings with great interest.

Modellers Mecca do a similar range to these.

Cheers, Coach- it passes at a distance, I think! I have recently modified the sandboxes and edited the blog to show the work done.

Thought I'd add their contact details- Art Printer- as he is very helpful and can customise to your requirements- I can recommend him - details here-

Thanks- the backscene is Art Printer's Hills and Dales- the 15 " version with the bottom 3" of greenery cut off. I am very pleased with the way it ties the whole picture together. International Models, amongst others, supply this range.

Mikkel- thanks for the comments- I must be getting something right then! 

I do like the blog format- it keeps things compact and easily found, unlike a thread that can stretch and ramble- and I have some catching up to do on the blog.

Very nice, Richard - Logical history too

I seem to have just fallen off the bottom of your map!

Looking good, again.... Your ingenuity in transforming what used to be called proprietary stock never ceases to impress me, and is certainly pointing a way round the lack of ScR R-T-R.

Please keep them coming.

Excellent! The backscene really pulls the whole thing together- v. impressed.

I found Photomount the best for attaching these, but its heart-in-mouth work, with no margin for error.

I like the effect you have achieved with the scenics. Any chance of some more pics?- we do love images here!

Yes, that is something I must try the next time I use Archer's transfers- I did some buffer beams with them and it was a lot easier putting them on red rather than black.

Lovely work- but 3' long that's why I abandoned any attempts at doing it on my setup- even after attempts to condense it by half- it is a seriously large building to try and fit into a "normal" size layout. Your customer must have space to spare.

There does seem to be a burst of Scottish activity just now. Kingfisher24 has his photo gallery full of goodies and Benachie is producing some nice 4-4-0's, and Oldlugger has a lovely J88 on his gallery. I am almost finished a HR 0-6-4T and there could be another three or four yet to come,although I now really have enough for my needs, but the construction bug is still biting and it might be a good idea to carry on while it is still there.

Both 4-4-0's now have chassis with no traction tyres- much to their running benefit-and they both are capable of handling the loads required of them, which isn't much TBH as a couple of coaches and a small freight load is all they have to pull, so the lack of grip of a tyre does not affect this.

As a sideline of this I now have some double tyred T9's that I hope will grace someones layout that does need grip

Superb work there, thanks Richard. I have a Pickersgill and a Jumbo to refurbish, and another Jumbo to finish, and in all three cases the armoured chassis is the main obstacle to progress. So plenty of ideas there, thank you ! As for the tender it looks as though they've packed the tender from either the 66 Class or one of the Dunalistairs by mistake, DJH did both way back when. The standard issue Jumbo has the 'long slot' Drummond tender chassis (or at least both of mine have !).

Well, that explains a lot- I did contact DJH about this and getting another one, but didn't get much of a response, so went ahead and altered what I had. The kit chassis were the main reason they sat unstarted for so long, and are only fit for the bin IMO.

- got sidetracked Actually they are on the workbench at this moment- I decided that it would be easier to do the two at once, and the current plan is to fit Romfords to one chassis and use the spare Hornby wheelset to donate an untyred set of drivers for the other. This is dependant on me removing and replacing the drivers on the axles successfully, so we'll see how that goes- I'll post as soon as it is done.

There is no real load demands on the Ben and no gradients involved so I don't foresee much of a problem from this course of action.

Impressive- "Black" is a difficult finish to replicate well, but you have captured it here.

Thanks for the kind comments- I like to get something finished before I announce it to the world, as too often I can get sidetracked, but feel free to comment or ask if anything needs clarifying. I have also found that most of a modelling evening can vanish somehow if I start looking through RMW