MattStevens

Yes Mick this would work, but the drying time would be really long - probably have to leave it overnight. You'd also need lots of supports are braces to stop it falling to bits before the glue dries. If you have the equipment and the time, PVA is best for this - Roket Card glue is a form of PVA I think but it dries to quickly for this.

Deluxe Materials, the producers of the various glues I used, have a full chart on their website showing what glues work with what materials. In theroy, the card glue should glue wood. The issue I found with the kit was the lack of bracing with whole building relying on end to side joints. I also wondered whether the burnt off edges of the laswer cut pieces were causing an issue. I was suggested that sanding them down would be good, but wouldn't defeat the whole point of laser cutting. I'm not much of a kit builder. Most of the buildings I produce for my layouts are scratchbuilt. There is a belief that kit building is easier - I'm not so sure. I would recommend having a go at a little scratchbuilding project if you haven't already. Matt

Hello everyone, Matt here I've been doing work experience at BRM (see my prototype article forum started by Steve Cole). I've also built a nice 7mm wooden kiosk. I just thought I'd show how I use powders and washed together for weathering. Thier are some pictures demonstarting the build at various stages, and a video of me blending the powders with a wash. This is the KS Laser Designs Wooden Café Kit. I hope to demonstrate that wood can be an excellent material for building because of its robustness. It’s also an ideal surface to paint onto and weather. Laser cut kits are possibly the best kits, because they are perfectly square and smooth and are guaranteed to join superbly. The problem with some of these kits is that they are made from card, which deforms and bends quite easily if you’re not careful. No such issue with wood. The biggest benefit thought is that this is a model of a wooden structure and kit is made with wood. The point being that no buildings are made from card board in reality. However, it proved to be very difficult to assemble. I tried first using Roket Card Glue, but this seemed to just evaporate and soak in – and not bond! Next I tried the thicker Glue n’ Glaze with its slower drying time. This might have worked, but the building would just fall to bits before it dried properly. If you have a whole 48 hours and a huge array of braces and clamps, this might work for you. I settled for a 10-20sec drying cyano glue from the same company. This worked well for bond with tab and slots but for face the side joints it still wasn’t effective. The card glue, in theory, should work, but the reality is different. Another issue I found with the kit, being laser cut, was that the sides weren’t absorbing the glue like you would expect (possibly due to some chemical reaction or something during the laser cutting process) and it would just evaporate off the surface. I’m not saying that the kit or the glues don’t work, but there’s a reason why card is still the most popular material – it’s a lot easier. Kits are supposed to enable novices to construct a building easily. After a day with this kit, I don’t think this one will. This actually requires a lot of skill and experience, and to be honest, if you have that skill, you are probably better off with a scratch build. It’s technically a good idea, in reality not that easy. I've posted the pics below. I'll upload the You Tube link to the video in a bit if I can.

I don't see why we need so many different types of EMU in this country. Surely something like those used on the WCML (class 350 I think) would be suitable for every route. The class 323s are OK. I've driven them on a simulator (OK so only in the dry) and their performance was good - but I've also been a passenger in a real one and the ride leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not sure how old they are, but they feel quite old. As far as multiple units are concerned, the best interior on a regional or suburban type train is probably that of a 158/159. I think 323s would benefit from an interior makeover. Matt

Quite right Phil I would never consider filming from a train on the national network. Heritage railways are more interesting anyway, my favourite is the Great Central, with its double track. Modern stock isn't any narrower. The vegitation has simply grown bigger, and been maintained and cut back less often than it used to be. Compare any archive footage of a location to an image of it now and almost certainly there will be more lineside vegitation. When the coaches their scratches, they were probably in service on some little used line where the weed and plants hadn't been maintain for a while. Matt

hello Jeff Some one else mentioned the Sulzer engine error, and I think I corrected that on the improved version I uploaded. I wasn't aware of any of the other uses you mentioned. If you can feel free to edit the article (as Chris P Bacon did) and highlight any issues. Matt

Hello Kelly I'm afraid I can't comment on your first point, but yes the peaks are in essence a revised version of the original LMS locos.

Yes, Richard - My camera has a screen but it is not movable so it was difficult to see it. To be honest I often just put it out of the window, knowing it was pointing roughly in the right direction. I wonder if there is a special apparatus or tripod for doing this sort of thing? Matt

Yes this is true, although because you are looking in the direction you are filming, you would probably see if you were approaching a tunnel of bridge that was too narrow. Matt

Yes, Richard that is possibly the case. When I searched for all three classes on Wiki, I always ended up on the class 45 page. I do believe though that 45s are the dominating of the three.

I expect that those routes that are little-used probably aren't that complex so don't require a huge amount of knowledge.

I've been to a number of heritage railways and filmed journeys by sticking my head out of the coach window with the camera in my hand. Has anyone got any different ways that they do it?

Matthew Prototype Inspiration.docx Thanks again to Chris for the comments. I have amended the article and am reloading it here.

Thanks Jim Appreciate the corrections and comments. Yes, the Class 40s are also very closely related to the peaks, but I believe that the peaks were built first - I might be wrong. Perhaps it would have been better phrased " at the time they were seen as similar to the LMS 10000 and 10001". MATT

Thank Chris. The list of preserved locos probably isn't comprehensive, because it was obtained from Wikipedia and is likely to be outdated by now. I have to agree, I thought there was more preserved than that. Matt