14Steve14

Once you get to work out the resistor value, could you not use something like a preset potentiometer with a similar value. That would allow further brightness alteration if required.

Get yourself a scale rule in 2mm and 4mm. They are available from many sources for free as a download, or you can buy metal or plastic ones. I use them when converting scale plans. Whilst they are not 100% accurate, the do the job.

I use a thinned matt varnish that i brush on to the card model before making, and once complete. The first light coat prevents finger marks, and the second seals all the edges. The tin has been used for years but I never have any problems with colours fading. Saying that the layout is in the roof of my garage and never sees the sun or natural light. I have several superquick cards that were made 30 odd plus years ago, and they still look good. I have tried all types of spray varnishes and inkjet fixatives and most seem to work to some degree or other.

There are many LED resistor calculators on line. I generally use http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz for single leds and http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz for multiple ones. You do need some basic info, but you should have that from the person you bought the leds from.

Even Sketchup is not free for commercial use, but many still use it thinking that its fine to do so. What ever you use, just be careful.

I think what you could be offering could be of benefit to many who scratchbuild. There is a great gap in this market. Laser cutting has improved it and things like various windows and doors are easily available, I have often thought about doing something similar to compliment a range of planned card kits that I was once thinking of producing, but never really find the time to complete. If you could get the pricing right and the items right, you could be on to a winner.

I have been experimenting with the range of Railwayscenics brick papers and printing on textured paper. The results are different if using a laser printer, but I would imagine that most home printers are of the inkjet variety, which I think gives the better results. I have tried on hammered and linen papers so far and have a felt type paper to try also. The different weights of paper seems to make no real difference to the results. I will post some photos later if i get time.

Why not try to build in a feature like a raised path, a flower bed/border, a marked pathway of a different colour tarmac. Go have a look at a real carpark and see what they add. You should be able to get a good butt joint, bit if you cant get it as good as you can, and add a black line along the joint to represent a join in the tarmac. A real joint is covered with a fine strip of tar just to cover the join and also add a bit of glue to the edges.

Hopefully all those from here that have recently bought shares in Hornby are now seeing a return for trying to help save the company. Share prices are on the up.

I sell literally thousands of the scotchlok type suitcase connectors and apart from operator error, I have never received a complaint from a customer. By operator error I mean not using a pair of pliers press the connection in place. As others have said just make sure that you use the correct size connectors for the wires you are using. Its also a good idea to support the wiring under the baseboard correctly so no little hands can go under and grab wires.

Try again. It seems to be running properly today.

Now its finished it looks really good. Well done.

It is also possible to use a different texture sheet to those supplied in the kits.

I have just read on another forum about using wax crayons to make piles of rusting STUFF. The article can be found here http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/22124 Seems that by using this thread and the other one I have found a use for all my daughters old broken and forgot about wax crayons. Lots of flowers and rusty stuff coming just to clear some long forgotten drawer space. Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Although this is a good idea, does it make building the model harder. Once you start messing like this surely the rest of the parts no longer fit as the model is now smaller than it should be. I must say that the idea it self is brilliant and makes the kits look so much better. I assume that the same can be done on the superquick card kits.

On the old stapled style magazines I used to remove the advert pages and keep the article pages in an old binder. Its not so easy to take the new style mags apart now, I now scan any pages I feel I may need again, and box them up. I put a whole box full on eBay the other month and sold for 25 quid collection only. Buyer came and took the lot away, I even got requests for missing mags from others copies and collections. Those that don't sell I ask the local model railway clubs whether they could do with them. Failing that I just recycle them.