TheCuckoo

So far, so good. What scale are you working in? You might like to take a look at the Games Workshop range of paints, particularly the washes they make. They are designed for figure painting, and they really are good. You can almost get away with putting base coats on then applying a wash. Human nature is to concentrate on faces when looking at figures, so they can make or break a good miniature. Try a basecoat, a wash, then dry brushing a very delicate highlight on the top. Also consider 'blacklining' - this is a technique where you seperate out different areas of the model by a fine line of black. It's considered old fashioned by the figure-painting community, but personally I like it. ray

I reckon I've spent quite a few holidays camping under skies like that one! Brilliant stuff.

Thank you Stefan. Very kind.

This a general view of the work. The chip is hidden under a wrapper of insulation tape. The Hornby chip will fit without any modification to the loco. The motor end. You need to remove the tiny springs that touch the motor terminals, solder wires to the terminals and make sure that the bare wires do not short out anything. I used heat shrink and insulating tape. Solving the split chassis problem. Loops of wire were soldered to the shortened ends of the chip wires. These could then be held in place by the plastic chassis studs. The sequence was then chassis half, 'black' loop, cardboard spacer, 'red' loop, chassis half. This assembly replaces the plastic washer that is normally present. Any questions, just ask.

ok... I'll take it apart and show you some pictures. Give me a while.

Spent pretty much all of yesterday afternoon converting a Bachmann 43xx to DCC - what a horrible fiddly job. To make matters worse one of the decoder wires decided to part company with the chip (Hornby) - and those soldering pads are tiny! The split chassis meant that it wasn't an easy thing to do, and I had to be reasonably 'creative' with the solution but I got there in the end.

pm'ed you

Well the idea was that you use it to create masks 'in-situ' to aid the painting stage of a coach side. For example, a GWR 4 wheeled coach has some serious livery to paint, so, paint on a brown undercoat to the main coach side, add masking tape and cut out the mask for some of the lining. Remove the cut outs, paint on the yellow/gold lining and when dry, remove mask and overlay with a separately painted black 'lattice' of panel trim (no idea what the correct term is). Actually that sounds clear as mud - hopefully you'll understand what I'm getting at?

Stupid Question: If you were to paint a piece of, say, 20thou plastic then stick masking tape on top, is the cutter capable of cutting a shape from the masking tape without damaging the paint underneath?

I contacted Hornby through the website, here http://www.Hornby.com/contact-us/ My replacement wheels arrived very quickly and are now gracing the front end of my star. I have to say that despite the niggles, I will be getting another - the WWI Princess Alice train pack is definitely on my shopping list... but when?

Today I had a confirmation email that my replacement bogie wheels will be sent out sometime in the next week...

Mine runs beautifully - forwards and backwards - very smooth, very quiet. Lenz silver decoder, tried with both my Hornby Select controller and my new Hornby eLink. Edit: Mine is "Knight of the Garter"

No, I don't think that follows. For example, I have mild red/green colour blindness (very common in males) and frequently ask for help with colours from my wife. I will show her a photo and ask her "I'm after this colour here - is this it?" and show her what I think is the right colour only to be told that it is a mile out. In a nutshell, Green Shade A and Green Shade B both look identical to me, but not to her. Hence the problem. Clearly I am unable to correctly judge the subtleties of greens, reds and browns... Indian Red, anyone?

Excellent

Would it be possible, do you think, to print card(?) laminations first, then cut them, then laminate together to form a pre-printed coach side? It might only need three layers. I'm in awe at this. Edit: There's a very nice four-wheeled coach in Russels GWR Coach book (part 1 I think) - all hand cut from card treated with shellac and held together with gum-arabic I seem to remember.

I totally agree - but he isn't me

thanks guys - i'll pass that info on

Assuming that the P2 does eventually turn up... My brother has decided that he quite fancies one of these beautiful engines, and some suitable coaches to go with it, but he isn't much of a 'modeller' - so the question is, can you make a prototypical train for the P2 using just RTR stock? Or is it a kit-building exercise?

Yes, it's bl@@dy freezing isn't it?

This was my initial reaction tbh - so much so that I think I've convinced the wife that she would like a cutter for her card-making hobby! Time will tell. Seriously though, what has been achieved here is absolutely fantastic. Organised into a standardised, free, open, library of parts drawings - everything from platform benches and station nameboards through to coach sides and bridges - this will revolutionise the hobby. Combined with the falling price of 3D printers we are perhaps witnessing the dawn of a new age of model making. And no, I'm not kidding.

My Knight of the Garter had a nice running-in turn around a train set oval this afternoon - looks great, runs very smoothly and (with a lenz decoder) is pretty much silent in operation. Only one thing fell off - the screw that holds the tender drawbar in place.