railroadbill

Terrific picture!

Airfix 1:72nd F22 alongside one I did much earlier, 1:32nd Revell (ex Matchbox) F.24. VN485 is the one at Duxford, in the main display. I'm Spitfire'd out now...

A lockdown project, 1:72nd scale Airfix Spitfire F 22. I managed to lose the windscreen, so set it aside otherwise complete for quite a while then as the screen hadn't magically turned up, I bought a replacement vac-formed canopy off e-bay. That let me finally finish it. The hanger is from a laser cut card kit reinforced with wood strip. It's sitting on a board painted with a concrete-ish coloured paint that a nice lady in B&Q mixed up for me. The 2 Spifires at the back are a PR Mk XI (MPM kit) in Danish markings and a PR XIX (Airfix kit) in Swedish markings. Also lockdown projects and the theme was post-war Spitfires. All these were still flying in the early to mid fifties.

Excellent! Thanks for info, a worthy project to keep.

Just went back to your original post having seen your latest one on the finished C3PO and I noticed that the parts are on a Lister engine of some sort - diesel boat or small auxiliary farm engine? - I'm intrigued, what is it? (looks a great thing to have in the workshop!)

That's - er, enormous! The one piece hull looks a good starting point. Also, liked your Snowberry video on Youtube, ship came out well.

Just come across this and learnt the sad news of Rob's passing. Condolences to his friends and family, I'm sure he will be greatly missed. He produced a lot of very innovative photoshop images that really brought back the flavour and soul of steam railways by enhancing model pics, enjoyed his work on this and other forums. Always great to exchange comments with him on here as well, a very knowledgeable enthusiast. His determination to overcome his physical problems was a real encouragement. RIP Rob. Bill.

Cracking photography !

Deliberately really old-fashioned O gauge. These are Omen figures. (got them quite some years ago so no idea if they are still made, there were a reasonable number of figures in it's day). Lee Miller's story is well worth looking up, if you don't know of her, not just about her war time photography but her life in the 20's/30's art world, with Man Ray, Picasso, Cocteau etc.

Sunny morning on a grey background....I've looked at various BR green locos I've got and this Grange comes closest to the H-D Bristol Castle. I sprayed the Grange (originally an ebay non-runner but OK now it's refurbished) with Precision Paints P101 BR loco green post 1954 (satin finish). The Rover brooklands green sprayed locos look a bit too bright to be a good H-D match, although close enough to BR green for running round the loft. The current Hornby green locos are rather varied in greens used... Sooo...P101 might be close enough to patch up H-D paintwork. When loco green came up on another occasion, I suggested that the Hornby Dublo colour was likely to be authentic as the full size locos were running around when the models were produced. You could put your H-D loco in your pocket, go to Paddington or wherever and compare it to the full size!

I do like that!

You prompted me to find this Jamieson 2P that I started eons ago (then built a Milholme 2P cast kit instead and never got round to finishing this one). It has the square sectioned footplate angle (as Michael Edge said, a Jamieson feature). Johnson044's loco has midland boiler fittings unlike the 2P here. However, 990 (number on model) was the first of the Deeley Midland 4P locos built 1909. Kind of an alternative to the Deeley compounds. I have a feeling they were built for use on the Settle and Carlisle, but can't find a reference at the moment. Jamieson price list for December 1978. (VAT was 8% then!). There isn't an inside cylindered 4P there (990 class) but there is a Compound. So a possibility is that this model is a Jamieson Compound kit, but built without outside cylinders as a 990. The 2 locos were very similar above the footplate. Back a while ago on the Great British Locos thread, one contributor (sorry can't remember who) motorised and converted a GBR compound into a successfully working 990 4P. So - did the OP's model start out as a Jamieson compound (body kit a mere £7.80 in 1978)? ps as there were only 10 990 4Ps and many more Compounds, it looks like the compound was the more successful 4P loco for the MR and later the LMS.

In an old Gauge O gazette (Aug 2000) [left over from a galaxy far far away] there's an article on using Halfords acrylic spray cans which suggests Ford Laurel Green for Southern green (I'm guessing that's BR southern green, haven't tried it but I've no idea if that paint is still available). Might be worth a look in Halfords. The article also suggested Vauxhall Burgundy red for BR maroon, and Rover Brooklands green for BR green, both of which I have used, quite a lot actually, look the part imho. The Halfords paint does give a good finish, also matt black (indispensable) and red primer for bauxite is good. I do have a bottle of Railmatch BR southern green #314 which would do the trick. That's probably the cheapest/most accurate solution. Brushes/sprays well imho. Re the annoying weird "advert" on tablets you mention, I couldn't get rid of it either and look at RMweb only on laptop or (android) phone both of which are fine.

Wonderfully imaginative - my grandson would love the dinosaur..(and the rest) ... the "triple track double loco" is great as is the steam punk A4.... seen your first layout at shows and you always had a large audience so popular subject - hope to see these one day.

Thanks for that, I've been having problems rigging a 1;72 tiger moth with EZ-line, fiddly in that scale. Did once build a large scale Sopwith Camel, a Keilkraft rubber powered one when I was a teenager, a rather tail heavy design to fly properly though. :-)

Very impressive wood effects, and also the metal effect (cowling, engine etc) looks very realistic. What did you use for the rigging, or does that come as, say, moulded rod? (You said you'd added the turnbuckles from tubing).

Agree completely about what they were like, Chris. When LT introduced them where I once lived, they replaced Routemasters (which of course had conductors). The Leyland Nationals had less seating capacity so a lot of people ended up standing, they were one man operated, so journeys took longer due to the driver having to take fares at each stop, and they were unreliable. It just made the whole business of traveling by bus (on those routes at that time) much more unreliable and unpleasant. If Rapido's model is as good as their Canadian "new look" bus then it will be a very good model, but perhaps a sound fitted version should have the voice of a stroppy bus driver telling off an elderly lady for not having the right money and making her get off the bus. 🥴

All unbuilt kits? I'm so shocked I'll have to have a lie down for an hour or two...how can these things be? This is not physically possible in one lifetime...I can't understand the concept (etc. etc.) .🥴 I do have some Lima diesels from back in the day which get a run from time to time, actually run ok, especially the later ones like class 40 which had better pickups.

Thanks Andy, just what I needed to know. (And as I feared).

You're right Rob, it should be really good. Hopefully won't be too long to arrive.....my layout needs it!

We've received a couple of parcels from relatives in Denmark, summer of last year and just before Christmas, that contained various presents, ie children's toys, clothing, books. Got delivered with no further tax/duty to be paid. So far so good. We sent a personalised mug to a nephew in Denmark, value £10, eventually he was contacted by Danish post office to pay equivalent of £18 duty... by the time he'd contacted us to find out what the item was, they'd sent it back to us. This is now happening with a parcel of Christmas presents we'd sent, calendar, chocolates, couple of small craft items, value around £40, to family members before Christmas (beginning of December) and again it's on it's way back as the amount asked was high. Now when we sent these parcels we attached the customs form we'd been given by the local post office, listed the items and their value. I can't find on Royal Mail web site any codes for items sent as gifts from one person to another, ie not a commercial transaction, although there are codes for use by businesses selling goods. So - does anyone know how sending gifts person to person should be done (if it's a VAT issue then we would have paid VAT when we bought the items in the UK anyway). Somewhere I've seen a code GB PR which looks like it might imply present but not sure. Just can't find the official answer. Help!

Thanks, it actually looks bigger, very good effect.

Better running Pugs I bought a Caley Pug some years ago when Hornby had a black Friday sale. I was expecting it to run very quickly, but it actually ran well, capable of running slowly, with a reasonable top speed. Much more realistic than the older ones. I later bought another one on ebay but that had the older mechanism and ran very fast indeed. So I bought a replacement chassis as an experiment, from Lendons of Cardiff, (£8.99) and that runs slowly like the newer loco from Hornby. It's difficult to tell any difference, the replacement chassis is in the front. The motors are the same size, gearing seems the same. Latest motor must be wound differently. So now have 2 pugs that run the same, nice and slowly (and have a good finish). Keeping these for when the grandchildren are phased in to going up in the loft - they can have one each to run, and it will be a good idea to have locos that run the same! (Suppose they ought to be different colours....). They can have fun away from all that "14 years and over" stock...

Excellent! Particularly like the sunken barge and the weathering on the corrugated shed. What are the baseboard dimensions, please?

That's great. Trip up there later in the year called for.