Graham T

It already has been! I ordered some SR transfers from H&A; I’ve already got Pressfix sets for the rest of the Big Four.

Don't mind at all Herr W. Like you I thought buying a single pot of Railmatch was too much faff - and it's always something of a gamble whether paints - or indeed anything else - will make it here from the UK. I got the idea from the "maroon" downpipes on the station building, and used the same colours but with much less red in the mix. I'm also working with the theory that, apart from the day they left the paintshop, no two wagons are going to stay looking the same colour for long!

Meanwhile, the painting of wagons at Chuffnell R continues "at pace"... Slowly, in other words! The LMS fish van and one-plank wagon have had an initial coat of Railmatch BR early bauxite, Vallejo black grey for the GWR open, a mix of Vallejo leather brown and a touch of red for the ex-LSWR van, and Humbrol acrylic RC402 (basically, rust) for the NE cattle wagon.

Don't mind in the slightest. I'd be tempted to offer my own services, such as they are, but am not sure I have the time!

Just leaving smoke and carnage in his wake...

No doubt von Wolf will be along in due course 🙂

I agree with you, but my concern is that they will lose custom due to having websites that are difficult to use, and so ultimately we might see those suppliers go under, which would be a great loss to us. I wonder if there's someone on RMweb who is capable of revamping the sites for them, for a suitable fee? I have built my own website which was fairly easy to do, but it's a simple site and most importantly doesn't include any e-commerce aspects, which obviously would be a must-have for people like Lanarkshire Models et al.

Thanks Ric, I’ll order some of those then.

Perhaps a pair of these instead of the boots?

I've seen Ambis stuff before (online), and it does look useful, but as you say the website is awful and that really puts me off. If I remember rightly both 24/7 Developments and Southeast Finecast could also give Ambis a run for their money in the crappy website stakes...

Thanks very much @Tortuga, the 51L items look like the ones for me I think. Do you know whether it was the BLGVA or BLGVB etch that you used? They look very similar to my inexpert eyes!

That was of course said with tongue very firmly planted in cheek Bill! I always appreciate people taking the time to contribute to my collection of ramblings and waffling. It was lovely to spend some time with the boss, as we don't get to see much of each other. She has now flown back to her own nest though, so it's time for me to paint some wagons.

Blimey, I leave this thread alone for five minutes and people start filling it up with all sorts of useful and informative posts - what's the world coming to?! Actually, the boss has been visiting so we've been having a very pleasant time eating and drinking, putting the world to rights, and watching some nonsense on TV. A few random thoughts on the recent posts. I've used Lanarkshire models once or twice and was impressed (bought some buffer stops from them, amongst other things, if I remember correctly). But I'd agree that their website needs some work. Like @longchap, I find it doesn't fill the screen on my monitor. Similarly, I find trying to browse sites like that on a phone more or less impossible; even the sites optimised for mobiles are less than great to navigate. If I'm doing any serious searching then it has to be on a proper full-size screen. With regard to wagon buffers, I will replace the plastic heads with turned metal ones, and I think will also start on replacing the brake levers with brass ones (on which, if anyone has a good source for those I'd love to hear about it please). But I'm not into the accuracy enough to go sourcing the exact correct shanks for individual wagon types. That might change in the future, but as I've said before my goal is something that looks right to my eye, rather than being prototypically accurate to the nth degree. If I was after that then logically I would have to think about going down the EM , or even P4 path, and life is too short - in my opinion - for that!

Thanks for those. I was aware of lime being phased out, so won't be showing any on my wagons. My timeframe is a bit flexible, but let's say from the 1930s onwards!

That’s what Cambrian suggest in the destructions, so I was lazy and just daubed on some flat earth, as it will be pretty much impossible to see anyway.

Here's a sitrep on the wagon situation. The two new opens have had lead strips glued to the underside of the chassis, which hopefully will prevent any misbehaviour on my shoddy trackwork. All but the fish van have had a coat of Vallejo primer. They all still need couplings fitting, I need to steel myself to make up a new batch of three links... Roof still needs to be fixed on the NE cattle wagon, once I've painted the inside. And the brake lever on the LMS fish van is now about as close to vertical as I think I can get it, without breaking the blasted thing! All the wagons on this siding are kit built, all Cambrian apart from the Cordon. It's been a bit of a learning curve!

I was thinking the same as I was going through my wagon building binge; the plastic levers really don't look that great (nor do the buffer heads).

Here's the finished fish van, complete with wonky brake lever that I only spotted, of course, once I looked at the photo. Will have to try to fix that...

The only snag I can think of with using snippets of coloured insulation is that it will look glossy - as Tortuga said, it'll look like what it is! I'd stick with what you have.

Nicely done sir!

Mine's finished 🙂 Even managed to catch a window in the weather earlier today and get a squirt of primer onto it. Will post some pics tomorrow, just putting the final touches to a Cambrian LMS 6 ton fish van at the moment (I've no idea why I bought that, maybe the local river is stuffed full of trout or something...)

I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have to join in with this Metro tank business at some point 🙂

I shall try to give that a miss; I have enough trouble with their mother as it is. That'll teach me to marry a lawyer...

There are some really impressive N gauge layouts on RMweb, I have to say. It doesn't really appeal to me, as I struggle enough with 4mm scale, but I can see the appeal of being able to do a lovely "trains in the landscape" layout, where it's mostly empty countryside...

I bought some heavy duty magnets for my girls a while ago, to teach them about science. The things are lethal! (The magnets, I mean...)