Bucoops

Thanks - I've not had any experience of resin at all yet (obviously any experience I have at present it limited anyway). I've seen PDK do a few kits that catch my interest. I think i'm right in saying the Crownline range evolved into PDK?

It;s taken a while to pick up the courage to fit some brakes. The middle set are a bit too far away from where the wheels stop but the other two aren't bad. The castings are soft enough that I'm hoping to be able to tease them a little closer to the wheel when they are on permanently. It's a shame the rigging rod things were produced on the body etch rather than the chassis which is a smidge thicker. They are very delicate...

I'm more interested in the rake of varnished teaks in the background, now that's refreshing to see for me I "need" a B12 or two at some point. And some D16s. When it's described as a Coopercraft kit, was that bought in from a range such as Mallard or was it a true Coopercraft kit?

And that was just one incident. They were fortunate to produce something that no one else did and was in demand. To give a clue as to the scruples, that design was "borrowed" from another company who hadn't registered it properly, then they sued the original people. I didn't stay long!

I used to work for an electronics company. We used to use a specific motor controller that everything else was built around. It went obsolete so the company bought the entire global supply. Enough to build new machines for about 5 years and sufficient spares for existing machines. A year later they took on a new purchasing and stock control manager. Trying to be keen it spotted that we had a huge stock of a part that we used relatively slowly so decided (without checking) to liquidise most of the stock to free up funds for other purchaes. We then had to buy them all back when someone spotted it at grossly inflated prices...

And the didn't bother painting it for ages afterwards.

Hi Frank, Thank you, that's most kind of you to say so. I do know I've "started" with a couple of kits, especially the Jamieson one, that were probably not the best idea...! I know Mr Wright has built a few Jamiesons - I've got a couple of pages of this thread bookmarked for inspiration of a V2.

edit: managed to lose the quote - this was in reply to Mr Wright's request for pictures of work. Happy to put my money where my mouth is as it were, for what it's worth I'll bite These are the first kits I've attempted this century and the first ones I've tried to solder - two previous ones were white metal and glued - and looked awful I'm building these ones in quiet time at work. I don't seem to get much quiet time so are taking forever Stelfox N7/3 - To be LNER number 2600 - first of the Doncaster built batch. And I'm also building a Jamieson A1 using Comet valvegear. This one is feeling a bit neglected at the moment - next time I hit a snag on the N7 I've promised myself to get back on it. I've messed the boiler up a bit, and still need to think of a way of rectifying that. I have brake gear to fit now as well.

I will add I would prefer to use Romford style wheels - it's why I persevered so much for my A1. The N7 I'm building came with Gibson wheels so trying those.

Hi Tim, Bill Bedford - https://eileensemporium.com/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=2571&name=buffer-height-jig-4mm&Itemid=189&category_pathway=1286 Simple but effective.

Curious. I've found another Stelfox kit - a J17. And it has this in it: Now I don't know which kit they produced first but there's the correct standard. Looks a similar build to the N7 (not that I have any intention of starting it yet!) with the obvious addition of a tender.

I started trying to order some A1/A3 wheels (and other bits) in about September last year. After a couple of answered calls and several unanswered, and several unanswered emails I eventually received them a week or so ago (about a fortnight after finally getting to talk to Mark properly). I even tried ordering through a few suppliers of Markits parts who all said they struggle to get anything. Mark (and a couple of others) did say that there are supply issues with some of the die cast wheel centres - J50 is an example. Everything I received was top quality, even if the quantities weren't quite right. Like others have said, Mark has an interesting phone manner ("Hello, is that Markits?" "Unfortunately"!) which I don't mind. I'd rather a bit of mildly sarcastic grumpiness over gushing "How can we help you?" you get from some places. Makes life more interesting.

If only Markits wheels were readily available

Mental note - you're obviously too tired to be wielding a soldering iron when you try and use an unfolded paperclip as solder... Meanwhile, I'm getting there with the roof. Still needs some gentle tweaking but fits better. The elastic band isn't putting much compression on - just stopping it falling off.

Alternatively, has cloning technology moved on sufficiently since Dolly?

Best of luck I only came across the Mainly Trains name after it was too late so happy to see it being carried on.

Only thing I've found is a blow torch for soldering. I have absolutely no doubt that the day after they close I'll think of loads of stuff...

Hi john, Yes I realised that after posting - I was going by the E6 part number

I just noticed you say E 6 6-wheeler - do you mean E7?

This says C10 - http://www.cometmodels.co.uk/data/Catalog/pdf/E6.pdf Until a couple of months ago I had an unbuilt kit but sold it as not my era. It had standard Gresley bogies IIRC?

Sorry PAD, didn't mean to offend.

Can we swap wives?

Why use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice?

In zombie mode today, having been awake since 02:30. My brain hates me sometimes. So rather than anything fiddly, I realised from Gobbler's carriage building thread that I hadn't done any checking of the ride height of the loco. Whilst it's a kit rather than scratchbuilt like Gobbler's fantastic achievements, you obviously can't assume anything. However, I think I'm OK - Excuse the screw - it's being used as a counterbalance as there's not much metal at the front compared to the back.

It was a typo but I thought it was mildly amusing so left it The N7 reminds me of my childhood, being behind 69621 on the shuttles it did when it was actually running on the mainline in preservation. I then also went behind it in the quadarts at the north Norfolk a bit more recently.