TangoOscarMike

Curtains: These are made from crepe paper, glued to the inner frames and then trimmed once the glue has dried. I'm using Revell glue, which is pretty thin and soaks through the paper. It seems to have done the trick, although perhaps in three years they will all suddenly fall off. That sort of thing happens. I hope these colourful curtains (or any curtains) are not anachronistic for the period I'm modelling (which is "olden times"). From the inside they are far too gaudy: But from the outside it's quite hard to see them, which was my intention.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I wonder, does the missing emoji depict a man being chased by an angry anti-punning mob? Actually, it was a bit of a trial. I'm not sure what this plastic is - polystyrene cement works on it, but it isn't as soft as plasticard. Twice during the turning I applied too much pressure, and the top ring became un-glued. I was in a freezing cold shed, using my left hand to hold down the drill, my left thumb to push the trigger and my right hand to hold the tools. Under other circumstances I might have persisted a little longer!

Using the hand drill as a lathe didn't work. I had better luck with my electric drill, and some files and sandpaper to shape the chimney pot. I'm a little bit worried that it might be too big, but apart from that, it'll do. As ever, I just hope that it looks better when the whole thing's assembled, and in normal light!

The back wall. The door is dark green, although that's not clear in this poorly-lit picture. I carved the hinges a little bit more with a knife, to make them resemble those of the front door. I've been using the same off-white for all the windows, so for a little variation I used a different off-white for the two windows either side of the door. Recently painted, perhaps. I think my daughter has some crepe paper from an art project, so I might ask for some of that for curtains. Meanwhile, I've been considering the chimney. This won't do as-is. So this is the start of a chimney pot attempt. I'm going to try using a small hand-drill as a lathe.

The parts for my 00 Crampton have arrived, and I am very happy with them. I've started a construction thread here: Progress will probably be slow.

Many many years ago, aged about 12, I had an extremely vivid dream in which I unwrapped a Christmas present and found inside a model locomotive. It was something old-fashioned, having a single pair of enormous driving wheels with delicate spokes and intricate coupling rods and valve gear. Such things were not at all to my taste at the time, but nevertheless I was extremely happy with this present, even after I woke up and realised that it wasn't real. This is not the fulfilment of this dream, but it is something similar. These are the parts of the Newman Miniatures 00 LNWR Crampton: At first glance I am delighted with these pieces - considering the limitations of Shapeways' "White Strong and Flexible" plastic, there is some awfully fine detail here. I'm a little out of my depth with this (and I have plenty of other projects on the go) so I don't expect to make rapid progress. But I'll post pictures here when I do. The first step is to order wheels, I think.

I knew he used hair. Did he really describe it like that? Zounds - it really was another century. I'm not planning to deviate from the basic materials - the roof will be the original moulded parts, painted as in the first picture in this thread. The ends of the straws are completely smooth in the moulding, and I've experimented with a little stippling. This was not a serious attempt to depict the ends - I just wanted to break up the smoothness. But mostly I'll rely on the murky colour and normal viewing angles.

Here is the front wall, complete unless I add curtains. I think that careful painting of the door, followed by a dirty dark brown wash, has been rewarded. But the camera and its flash are cruel.

On reflection, I don't think the timbers are all that good either - a bit too spindly, and not enough diagonal bracing. Although I am by no means an expert. I can't be the only one who had to ask adults for white spirit so that I could clean my brushes. Normally I would get a jam jar maybe 1/3 full, although for a while I had a puddle of the stuff in a tobacco tin, for some reason. When the white spirit was utterly filthy I would go cap in hand to beg for some fresh stuff. The sages who wrote in Railway Modeler would recommend several coats of thinned paint, but from my point of view they might as well have advised me to use unicorn tears. I was delighted by Tamiya acrylics, which freed me from my dependency on grown ups. The only other Airfix lineside kit that I had was the water tower (green paint, gloss as you say!). At the time this seemed pretty realistic to me, although this might merely mean that it has lots of over-scale rivets. I mean to revisit this kit one day and find out.

Very nice detailing. And I like how the design gives a clear view of the "inner locomotive".

I had to relinquish the modeling table for a few days, since it's also the dining table. This is the glazing, held in the inner frame, and this is how it looks from outside. I might add some suggestion of curtains, but apart from that this end is finished. It could be worse, it could be better. The front door has hinges, which are perhaps the finest detail in the kit, and a handle. The back door has neither. I've added crude representations - there might be more more whittling before I apply paint.

Well, that escalated fast! I've just looked at your shop and seen the 00 version, so I will put my money where my mouth is and buy one. And then spend at least 3 years putting it together, I daresay. I'll probably go for WSF, since I'm not one of those billionaires that we hear so much about these days.

Please don't. I daresay your intention is to be jocular, but jocular casual xenophobia creates an environment in which real casual xenophobia is acceptable, which in turn encourages serious xenophobia. And serious xenophobia is part of the mess that we're all in now.

That has inspired me to place the windows temporarily on the inside as a guide for making inner frames to hold the glazing. And I also used the windows as guides for cutting out appropriately-sized pieces of the glazing material. In this picture they are just sitting in their frames. Once the kit windows are painted and glued in, and once the outside has a coat of matt varnish, I will secure the glazing in place with wider pieces of polystyrene strip. This seems a bit over complicated - I'm doing it to avoid using glue on the glazing, which I think could lead to problems.

I'm plotting a fairly haphazard course between "models that look realistic to me" and "revisiting my childhood toys". On the one hand, I don't want to have off-the-shelf Hornby station buildings on a flat, featureless baseboard. But on the other hand I don't have any objections to Hornby tension-lock couplings or their toy 4-wheeled coaches. There is neither rhyme nor reason to my tastes! But this window, upstairs at the end of the cottage, will not do. Even after my whittling treatment, it looks to me like a factory vent, or part of a livestock enclosure. I hope that this is an improvement, but I won't be able to tell until later in the process.

Hello - I haven't posted in this part of RMweb before. Many years ago, aged 10 or thereabouts, I was given the Airfix thatched cottage kit. As I recall, I painted it crudely, sloshing black and white paint around, and giving it a bright yellow roof. This time round, with the Dapol edition, I'm trying to do a little better. I've used a very dark brown for the timbers, and washes in various shades of cream and brown in between, for a gingerbread house effect. The roof has washes and drybrushing in browns and greys, and the chimney has stones picked out in a few different colours. The window frames are extremely crude, so I've been carving out the central portion, and making the transoms and mullions (please correct my terminology, if necessary) thinner, as shown in this blurry picture: I've made glazing material from plastic packaging (it's horrifying how much of this stuff there is). The diamond pattern is a home-printed waterslide transfer. It isn't very transparent, but that's fine, since I have no intention of making an interior. I'm off work for a couple of weeks now. Hopefully I'll be able to make a bit of progress.

As the designer of those two I can say: If you're after something realistic they won't do. But as something representative of the general shape and size, or as a placeholder for something more realistic, they might suit you. I'd be delighted if you used them as scratch aids. I'm willing to make variations of the basic elements - inside cylinder with a curved firebox and a high dome for example. I have for a while been tinkering with a design for a round-topped-firebox engine with an open cab. Cheers Tom

A live-steam funicular railway, perhaps? In addition to your basement line.

After a period of reflection, and watching the video, I'd like to upgrade my upvote to a message: Yes, I am interested in a 00 version. Cheers Tom

My Grandfather used to say "life is not a race, it's a reliability test".

I found this picture This the underside of a 6-wheel coach, made from two of the toy Hornby 4-wheelers, with a Brassmasters Cleminson chassis. The advantage of this arrangement, I think, is that it can cope with very tight curves. I have some Fleischmann HO curves which I believe are a tighter than Hornby's smallest radius. I added NEM pockets (made from brass channel) to the end wheel assemblies, so that the couplings are articulated.

Nice. Fleischmann HO Anna? That counts as a pugbash, in my book. Likewise nice. What chassis?

Well, that's extremely pleasing! I imagine the design meeting: "Gentlemen, this is a grievously hugeous motor for such a tiny locomotive. How can we make the situation worse?" "What about a big cradle for the motor, that makes the whole thing a third of an inch wider?" "Ooh yes, and then we could have a fiddly wire clip that extends out even further!" "Excellent!"

Very nice! I've done a lot of work along these lines, and your saddle tank is much better than mine. Also Tom

Well, that's very gratifying! Perhaps I don't know all that much. I was pretty successful with the Brassmasters kit, in spite of my sketchy soldering skills. Perhaps this will give me the incentive to reinstate some of the pictures.