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justin1985

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  1. Several retailers have been selling Dapol N gauge Maunsells really quite cheaply, and I got tempted ... I've always had a soft spot for this design of coach, especially in olive green. But I've always felt there was something a little 'off' about the Dapol model. When they were so cheap, I bought a set of 3 to try and see if I could get them looking in a state I'd be happy with. Seems like the main problems, to my eye, are: - Highly prismatic glazing - Ultra matte bodyside finish, which always seemed glossy on the prototype. - Glossy self-coloured black underframe - (white roof - may be prototypical - but weathered incredibly quickly) So I tried the following: - Painting the edges of the flush glazing moulding - I found Tamiya flat dark brown worked best - Covering the glazing moulding with Klear - I initially tried the aircraft modellers technique of dipping it in, but the 'punched through' design of the moulding trapped far too much on the inside! So on the other side I just painted the outside with it, and got a good result) - Varnished the body sides with two coats of Klear for a semi-gloss finish - Painted the underframe with Tamiya rubber black - Weathered the roof first with a dark enamel wash, then a light airbrushing of Vallejo German Grey, and finally plenty of AK Ultra Matte varnish. I'm pretty pleased with the results! Before and after Implausibly posed on my work in progress 2mm distillery layout. It now feels to me like a model that feels plausible, and can stand up against the Farish birdcage stock! Justin
  2. Hi

     

    Did you ever find a convincing 2mm scale chequer plate? I am currently looking at a project that has significant surfaces of it and am wondering if decals might be the best approach.

     

    Les

     

     

  3. I'm not sure how many people might have noticed, but the first of the final production J50s made an appearance on Copenhagen Fields for a few hours at the Bristol Thornbury Show at the weekend. This was brought from China personally by Mr Sonic himself, who explained the production batch are on the boat as we speak, and should be on their way to customers late June / July! The CF team agreed it looks exquisite, and it ran beautifully. We're also confident that the bearing design is consistent with e.g. Farish Jinty, so 2mmFS conversions should be quite simple.
  4. I'm not sure how many people might have noticed, but the first of the final production J50s made an appearance on Copenhagen Fields for a few hours at the Bristol Thornbury Show at the weekend. This was brought from China personally by Mr Sonic himself, who explained the production batch are on the boat as we speak, and should be on their way to customers late June / July! The CF team agreed it looks exquisite, and it ran beautifully. We're also confident that the bearing design is consistent with e.g. Farish Jinty, so 2mmFS conversions should be quite simple.
  5. Did you hear anything back from them? Or has anyone had any luck ordering (presumably paying via PayPal)? I'd bought several of their products years ago and concluded they were far and away the best short fibres, fine foams, and fine ballasts I'd ever seen - and want to buy more!
  6. Ballasting and track weathering done, and the first of many, many trees ... I'm trying to go for a mix of generic fir trees and autumnal beeches towards the back of the layout. These are (mainly) Busch bog brush firs, thinned out a bit, but then static grassed with very short dark green fibres to give some texture. The background beeches are sea foam with a dusting of foam flock, ground extra fine in a sacrificial coffee grinder. The foreground will get some finer brass armature trees - eventually. Small (330ml) beer can for scale. The container wagon pair is the very nice Rokuhan JR KoKi type, which I'm experimenting with "Europeanising" by removing the raised brake lights and walkways, and printed Japanese text, and adding buffers. They'll then get an extensive weathering. The Rokuhan containers are WAY better than any of Märklin's offerings, not least in that they're actually modelled on recognisable modern types, rather than modern liveries on very early toolings of very early container types!
  7. This was described as having been announced by Dapol at Ally Pally, but despite spending quite a bit of time looking in their display cases, it certainly passed me by at the show! It seems a bit odd that the press release type announcement just has livery diagrams and this description of the new features. There’s not even a hint of what the improvements to the body moulding will be? You’d think they would have at least released some CAD renders of the new design … Probably fair that the reaction to the announcement has been a bit of a metaphorical shrug when Dapol haven’t really given us any detail to get excited about …
  8. I might not have used RMWeb much recently, but I have been making some progress on this layout ... Some first pass scenics added, including kind of 3D backscene, with an RGBW LED strip behind it as an uplighter - in a kind of sunset colour here. Pretty pleased with the effect. Painting the track has transformed the look of the thing too! Lots of bedding in and scenics to do, and many, many trees to come ... Also a rather fun, if not strictly appropriate, new arrival:
  9. Possibly a silly question, but am I right in understanding the 3-car "add-on" set is also motored, and therefore could be run on its own? The wording on the shop pages is a little ambiguous. I understand they might be prototypically only run as 4 car, or 4+3 sets, but in the interests of a train that takes up less space, 3 car sets are appealing on their own ...
  10. Here's a direct "before and after" comparison of the Colman's mineral wagon (old wagon weathered and loaded): The differences in proportions are really striking! And with a (rubbed down for weathering) Mathieson wagon: The sides of the new PECO wagon are definitely thinner than the Mathieson, but I still feel the (prototypically slightly smaller as a 1907 wagon) Mathieson has detail that feels a little more refined, or 'balanced' overall. Definitely shows how far away the old PECO "minerals" were from the real look and proportions though! I'm sure we'll see the prodigious range of liveries, and retailer specials etc, appearing on the new moulding wagons - which has got to be a great thing!
  11. I remembered this excellent post and tracked it back down, but alas the images still seem to be missing. Is there any chance @bluebottle or (as it doesn't look like they've visited the forum in quite some time) someone else who might have a copy, could re-post? cheers Justin
  12. Apologies - these were taken soon after the original post, but I've been incredibly busy with other parts of life recently, and only just remembered to login and update this.
  13. I've seen quite a few videos reviewing Anycubic's new Photon D2 DLP printer (i.e. resin with mirror projected 'laser' rather than masked screen). The results as shown on wargaming / fantasy miniatures look amazing, and the technology itself seems intuitively more efficient than the masked types. e.g. Has anyone tried railway type models with printers using this technology? All the demos I've seen have been printing fantasy type models, with intricate patterns and organic shapes etc (which can help obscure layering etc). So I'd be interested to see what results look like with the more flat sided type shapes we tend to print for wagons etc. I haven't actually used my original Anycubic Photon for about a year, mainly just because I've been distracted onto other things, but now feeling technology might have moved on enough for it to be time for an update? J
  14. Thanks so much for posting these Mike! I'm tempted to try printing them scaled down for Z - any thoughts? (did you work to a particular minimum wall thickness etc?) Justin
  15. I really think you'd be surprised. @Stefan88 has posted several times in this thread relating how much interest there has been in this announcement from German language forums. You'll also find that Railway Modeller, and sometimes also BRM etc, are stocked in a surprising number of Presse & Buch shops at German stations. DM-Toys, the N gauge box shifter to the continent, stocks all new releases from Farish and Dapol, regularly making them the main focus for their weekly newsletter. They've even commissioned special editions of Dapol A4s (BR experimental purple blue, if I remember). More broadly, just take a look at broader rail enthusiast social media in German and French, or broader European rail enthusiast social media in English. Views are often more nuanced and positive than you might expect, e.g.: I've even stumbled across an interesting Japanese YouTube channel reviewing British N! The fog in the channel might not be as thick as you imagine...
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