spikey

Thank you very much indeed, ozthedog. I tried a couple of experiments yesterday and found that for me, what works well is to saturate (as opposed to "wet") the ash then use Ballast Bond. I don't know what the magic ingredient is in that stuff, but it sure works better than washing-up liquid does in dilute PVA! I'm only left with two small problems now. One is how to eliminate the white bits from our wood ash, and the other is finding out what's the best way to arrive at a flat area of wood ash without it looking like it's been steamrollered. How did you you it?

That appears to be exactly the effect I'm after, ozthedog. Do you happen to have another shot or two of that area please?

I'm experimenting with different powdered stuffs like crushed slate dust, coal dust, various ashes and suchlike to use as ground cover in my goods yard. These I'm spreading in thick layers over PVA then pressing them down, and I'm currently waiting for my first trials to dry. I've read that the once they're dry and I've hoovered off any excess, it's a good idea to spray the surface with hairspray in order to protect it. What's a (hopefully cheap) hairspray brand that works well for this lark, or would I in fact be better off investing in some kind of proper fixative spray? Also, one material which so far looks very promising is the sieved ash from the smokeless fuel we burn at home, but it has a horrible pong to it. What's the odds on the hairspray or whatever sealing the finished surface well enough to contain a smell?

Thank you, gentlemen. Problem solved

I'm building a short platform which is slightly curved, in that it's bowed about 1" in 34", and I'm almost ready to apply the embossed Plastikard to the front face of it. It's on a baseboard which is hinged against the wall, and unfortunately the platform is close to and parallel with the hinge line, so the plan was to make the station buildings removable for when I need to get at the underside of the layout However, it's.just occurred to me that it would be well handy if I could instead lift the platform off complete with its building, fencing and whatnot when required, but there's a problem. How on earth can I ballast up to the front face of the platform without the ballast sticking to the embossed Plastikard? I can't think of anything I could apply as a release agent that won't either cause problems if I use it prior to painting or mess up the finish if I paint first

Remember this? https://fineartamerica.com/featured/desiderata-by-max-ehrmann-on-fossil-paper-desiderata-gallery.html If so, you might like Deteriorata ... http://web.mit.edu/~yandros/poetry/deteriorata

Quite so. Most of the ones in Lincolnshire and Kent with which I'm familiar seem to have been sited by people who thought they were still fighting the previous war. Even allowing for camouflage, changes in the nature of the surroundings over the years, realignment of roads and so on, it often strikes me that many of them would have stood out like a doggie's danglers to the approaching foe.

And whether or not the surface has been properly degreased prior to painting?

Thank you, sir. I'm only concerned with using the paints on structures and to some extent on scenery, so at least I won't have to get into varnishing. OK that's make, type and suppliers sorted, so all I have to figure out now is what colours I need to kick off with when (a) I need to order sight-unseen and (b) the Model Color names don't exactly convey much about the colour (at least they don't to me). If anybody can give me a clue about a few handy colours to start with from which to mix myself a range of greys suitable for stone retaining walls and platform walls, I'd really appreciate it

Forgive a new-to-acrylics dumb question, but why do you do that? And would that be airbrush or aerosol?

Hmmmm. So you don't stir them. Wonder why not ...

I am persuaded that I will be a happy boy if I go to Vallejo acrylics for the structures on my railway, most of which will be plastic (scratchbuilt and kitbashed) and all of which will be brush-painted, but I have a couple of questions. Am I correct in assuming that Vallejo Model Color Acrylics are matt? And can anybody recommend an online supplier who normally holds good stocks of these at a good price and who usually gets orders out the door in a timely manner. ETA a third question - what's the difference between 001 "White" and 002 "Foundation White"?

I can never see the word "harmonium" without instantly hearing "Abide With Me". I wonder if playing that on the harmonium was compulsory in the same way as every child who picks up a recorder has to sooner or later play Three Blind Mice. Be that as it may, mention of the early Xerox machines brought back happy memories of being an acneous 15-year-old in his first job, sent to the typing pool with a document to be copied. Queen of the Xerox was a teenage trollop called Winking* Wendy, who was apparently the only one in the typing pool allowed to use it, on account of her having been on A Course, which allegedly necessitated her being accompanied for the weekend by her boss ... * Or similar

I used to deal with a firm in Hastings who were still sending out typewritten invoices in 2007. We could always judge the mood of Maureen The Accounts Lady by how many of the letters were see-through in addition to the full stops. Anyhow, I'm quite surprised that we haven't got round to blueprints and whiteprints yet ...

I too grew up with foolscap, quarto, octavo etc but I don't recall lever-arch files in anything but foolscap and a size that was about the same width (8"?) but shorter, so my guess is what you remember seeing is foolscap paper filed in the smaller/shorter-sized file.

But it wasn't, was it? It only became "non-standard" when we went to the A sizes. Bring back octavo, that's what I say ... Anyhow, thanks gents

It was about as big as a typewriter, it was cranked by hand, it stank of meths and the printing on the copies was a fetching shade of purple. What were those things called?

Now why didn't I think of that? You're right, it does stick like the proverbial to a blanket, and I'm bound to have enough left over to give it a whirl. And even if it doesn't stick well enough, at least I'll have levelled up the backs of the separate casts

That's what I was thinking, but I've never actually used the stuff. I've been a bit cautious about modern adhesives ever since I first saw Gorilla Glue advertised as "incredibly Strong, 100% Tough, For The Toughest Jobs On Planet Earth". Then I picked up a bottle of it in Homebase and read what it says on the label - "Not recommended for structural or load-bearing applications". So it's "tough", but not that tough ...

I'm in the midst of casting sections of a 00 retaining wall, which I want to assemble permanently onto a length of 6mm ply before finishing off and painting it. This is so I can do it on the bench rather than having to lean over a baseboard to get at it. However, the castings vary slightly in thickness, so the plan is to line them up face down, apply some kind of gap-filling adhesive to the backs, then squidge the strip of ply down onto them. This is uncharted territory for me, though, and all I can think of is No More Nails. Anybody know what the odds are on that working? Is there something more suitable?

Indeed. I don't mind any firm having problems as long as they don't billshut me, but I do get majorly miffed when Hatton's help desk staff say something will definitely happen and it doesn't. That's happened twice to me in recent months, so as a consequence I can't now rely on what the helpdesk says.

Thank you, sir. I was puzzled by the fact that I remembered them being unloaded, but I couldn't recall any associated installation or tackle.

What facilities would a small factory with a private siding need in order to offload gas oil and suchlike occasionally from a 14 ton tank wagon? Period is 1945 - 1960. I can remember seeing the odd tank wagon in a factory I worked in years ago but I can't recall what the setup was, and I've got nowhere with a Google image search ...

In particular, the ones bearing a picture of the old "live" TV camera in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the BBC?. According to the interweb, those were released on 13th September 1972. That's 47 years ago. And there are four of them on the package I received this morning from Holt Model Railways, along with four later "first class" ones of the Scots Greys at the Battle of Waterloo ...

(Dons ex-moulding shop foreman's hat to say) Shouldn't be. As long as a mould tool isn't simply too big to go between the platens of a particular injection moulding machine, the adaptation of it to work properly in that machine is rarely any big deal as these things go. Then once the tool's in and set up, getting decent shots off it should actually be easier on a modern machine.