AyJay

It's just low quality 'eye candy'. Easy and cheap to produce, no skill needed and it easily catches your attention. It's real purpose is to keep you sitting in that chair for as long as possible and staring at that screen, so that you can be bombarded by endless advertising. You are the resource. The only remedy is to switch it off, hide it in a drawer so that you cannot see it and go do something else instead.

Hroth has given me the word that I was struggling with, “logjam”. Yes, ‘The Lark Ascending’ is a good piece, a very British piece that is bound to have a strong appeal; but I do wonder if it is there, because it’s always there. Whereas there are some excellent pieces which I think should have done better. I think that the nature of classical music is evolving; as a child who listened to Radio 1, it was that stuffy stuff on Radio 3. Yet we now see that it refuses to be defined by a time or a style and there’s new stuff being written. I agree that 3 choices is not enough, if we only had 1 choice then I suspect that a few exceptional pieces would peak high above a relatively flat background. If we had 20 choices each, then I think that there would be a more representative spectrum of tastes; although 20 would make counting unmanageable. Well that’s it for another year. As for my choices: Beethovens 9th, that choral makes me feel so happy. The Blue Danube, I have loved Strauss waltzes since there was a series about the Strauss family on tv so many years ago; then Kubrick went and used it. First Arabesque by Debussy because I heard a girl playing it and we briefly dated; every time I hear it, it’s ‘74 again.

Well a slight change in technique and it looks promising. I had previously done the one on the right, strands twisted all the way down and brushed in acrylic paint. The one on the left is today’s work; the strands are only twisted at the top and has been bound with a couple of loops of wire at the mid pint and bottom. Then smeared with hot glue down the trunk and the thicker joints. Finally given a watered down brushing with flex bark that has some black acrylic stirred in it.

I’m quite getting into Einaudi, however the computer game music is beyond me, I think that it needs a genre of its own. Could never bring myself to vote for Wagner, too intense for my liking; every time I hear Wagner, I feel that I’m wearing oilskins and hanging onto the wheel of a clipper in a heavy storm. As for The Snowdrops, was that Chopin, it’s a funeral dirge, I like happy music.

I really like Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’, always makes me think of The Lone Ranger. But I’m disappointed that The Blue Danube scores so poorly. Never mind, Beethovens 9th always scores well, my third choice

Well I have given my tree armatures a second coat of the flex bark stuff and it really does not leave a smooth surface, is it made from Artex? I might try a thin coat of pollyfilla instead. It also did not hide the twisting of the wire strands, so on Tuesday I’ll visit The hardware shop for some fuse wire and try binding the strands with that instead, as suggested by Mr Gravett in his book. Not sure I’m ready to try the hot glue gun yet. I have enough wire for two more but not today, I’m just getting chilled out in this armchair enjoying Classic FM’s Hall of Fame. 🤫 Might open a beer.

I see a problem. We are all told to model the real thing, not copy what someone else has done and even Mr Gravett's book says that one should look at real trees, although it would be helpful if his examples were to say "this is an Ash tree" or "this is a chestnut tree" or whatever. The two UK tree books that I have, give photo's taken if full leaf. You can see the overall shape and the colour of the leaves, but it is difficult to make out the shape of the tree underneath. Modelling articles that I have seen, give nondescript tree armatures, but do not say what they are? I have just gone out with my camera and found a few trees that do not have much leaf coverage on them, their structures are completely different and I have no idea what they are.

I ended up applying it with an old brush that I kept wet by dipping in water between applications, made it flow a bit smoother.

Three trees are mine. Sorry, couldn’t resist it 😂

Good evening all. you can gauge how busy I have been on my layout, by the diversity of what I post. For I am exploring different subjects. After six years, I have now completed stage two, ‘land and buildings’. Stage one was ‘functional operation’. So now phase three is ‘bringing it all to life’; meaning: People, vehicles, interior lighting, miscellaneous detailing and, trees. The first thing I did was to raid my local charity shop, where I came away with a book on identifying British trees. My premise being to model what I see. Then I did an inventory of what I have: sea moss, wire, a pot of flexi-bark,foliage mat, pastiche, green scatter material. Today I bought Gordon Gravett’s book ‘Modelling trees -broadleaf’. So I think that’s everything that I need and I have started reading the book. I want to try the armature construction method first and plan to build about a dozen or so trees in various stages of maturity, to put at the back. See photo. Does anyone have any special words of wisdom, to help me make worthy trees? Thank you

Even though the battery, the black & gold brand, was straight out of the pack, I have no idea how long it has been on the shelf. Neither do I know how quickly the applicator will drain it. Would it be safe to connect the battery terminals to a power supply? I have an old Gaugemaster power unit knocking about that I sometimes use for non-DCC locomotives.

Thank you for that Nick. The applicator is as close as I can get without ploughing, so yes close enough. It does not seem to make a difference how much grass it is loaded with; I have tried lots, I have tried a little . Should I be able to check continuity between the earth terminal and the battery terminals?

Today I did some static grass application and it was not satisfactory; I don't think that it has ever been good. The applicator I use is by Greenscene and the 'grass' is the short static grass either from Greenscene or from A.N.Other supplier. Now I don't know why it's going wrong. The PP9 Battery is fresh, checked with multimeter. The earthing wire is connected to a pin that is bedded into where the adhesive is brushed. The adhesive is also Greenscene, Static grass cement. Sometimes it is PVA. The light lights. The anode can be heard to 'crackle'. So it should all work. I apply the grass by giving a vigorous shaking at the wrist, as demonstrated. So why is it that instead of sticking up as it should, the grass lays flat?

P.S. I also note that the instruction manuals indicate that the CV for quick set volume level in each case is specified as being set to 0 to 8. However, upon reading, this CV is set to 255. Strange?

Thank you for that information. I have now gone through all my TTS locos and gone into the CV's to turn down the whistles and running sounds. All except my 6006 King George I. For some unknown reason, the decoder cannot be 'read'. Also I notice that this loco does not appear to be in the Hornby catalogue as being issued with a sound chip, so I suspect that this decoder is from someone else.

I have the NCE powercab and, sorry to say, never got my head around cv's. Four of my locomotives, all Hornby's, have sound chips fitted; either manufacturer fitted or dealer fitted. What I would like to know is, is there any way that I can turn down the volume? Their sounds are all too loud. Thank you, Alan

All sorted now. I visited Hobbycraft and came back with 6 rolls, a scalpel and another pack of das clay. Plus a big bag of loose earl grey and another of French earl grey from T2. Plus an Easter egg from hotel chocolate. Got to keep The Wife happy.

So mid-project, I discover that I’m on my last roll of modroc and I have a big area of insulation foam still to cover. The nearest available source is Hobbycraft, but with the price of fuel I cannot justify a drive just for that. Also I have no desire to add to the wealth of any internet shopping billionaires, space faring or otherwise. So, what have I got that I could improvise with? I could raid the first aid kit for a crepe bandage and coat it in Filler (pollyfilla). Has anyone tried this?

“Your call is important to us” “A game of two halves”

With the original, there is a complete curtain wall from the gatehouse towards the corner. Also the remnant of a wall starting from the nearest corner of the residence, but the rest is long gone. Think I’ll leave the visitor centre out though.

Well here’s the progress so far on my 4th corner. I wanted a ruined castle and what a beauty did I find. Well I only intended to build the gatehouse… But then I liked it so much, that I just kept going and built the residence as well. Now that I look at it I just have to wonder, did I go too far? It’s gradually growing on me, but I still look and wonder, is it too crowded? Just ignore the yellow sheet, I still have to landscape it. The original also has a smaller tower, which sits where the far corner is, but I think I’ll leave that alone.

Short of a clean room with HEPA filtration and environmental suits, not a lot you can do really. Just make sure that a vacuum cleaner and a soft brush are your best friends, communicate with them every day.

Cannot speak for this business, but generally the lifecycle of a product is big upfront costs that are recouped over the selling life of that product. It reaches a point where there is little more profit to be had from it, fashion changes, more up to date alternatives etc. The only option is for the company to try and tart it up a bit and call it ‘special edition’ to scrape the last few sales before withdrawing it. I have seen this with motor cars, jazzed up upholstery, an eye catching name on the boot, dashboard toys and it’s ‘Special edition’.

I have just been preparing my shopping list for the long awaited visit to Alexandra Palace this Saturday. When I got to a quantity of OO gauge wagons that have their original plastic wheels, this caused a bit of a problem. There are a number of Graham Farish coal trucks, their wheels are 12mm dia, and looking on the Alan Gibson website (yes, i know it has changed ownership), I see that 12mm spoked wheels are listed. However, the problem is with my Mainline trucks, their wheels are all 12.8 to 12.9mm. Should I replace them with 12mm, or do I choose the next size, 14mm?

I have taken an idea that I heard and added a thought of my own. I didn’t have a join on the corner, instead, the first sheet wraps around the corner and the second sheet overlaps it slightly. Also, instead of cutting, I tore the edge of the overlapping sheet, so as to not have a straight edge and then coloured the edge before gluing in place.