David C

No problem as I've spent the last few days stewarding and building/demolishing barriers at Ally Pally, so no modelling time! Thanks for letting me know what you use - I'll have to check out The Range.

David C

Can I ask what you used to spray the base carmine colour of your autocoaches? Did you use Halfords? The reason I ask is I've sprayed my coaches and ended up with differing shades! Both look right, but different!

Nice modelling!

David C

Interesting idea. I assume you're working in 4mm. What size baseboards are you using? I'm also intrigued by your idea of a loco works

David C

I agree that Humbrol ain't what it was, but I don't have problems with the stuff myself. If a new tin is "sludge", then it has to be stirred until it is broken up and dissolved completely. I then add a small weight of some kind (a spare screw or nut or similar), replace the lid and then shake for a minuter or two. The theory behind this is that if it works for aerosols, then it should work for Humbrol - and it does! It may also be necessary to add a drop or two of thinners - cheap white spirit will do. All of this does take a bit of time, but no more than 3 -4 minutes or so.

You could try other paints - Phoenix/Precision or whatever they are called now are quite good. Revell is pretty awful - I avoid it like the plague - and I don't like acrylics very much either. I haven't tried the expensive stuff like Vallejo or Citadel.

You should be able to redeem your orange patches by subjecting your tin to the above treatment and applying a new coat over the old. 

Hope this is of use.

Regards

David C

Fair enough! Interesting to discover your modelling background bears some similarity to mine. I too spent most of the last 40 odd years modelling narrow gauge, mostly in HOe, 009 and 0:16.5 scales, albeit with a brief excursion into German N in the early 1980s. All involved a great deal of scratchbuilding, which I finally got bored with, so my current effort is an 00 gauge ex GWR BLT, "Woodstowe" - there's a thread on it in Layout Topics. I'm now planning another BLT, this time another German one set in Bavaria - the only scratchbuilt stuff will be the buildings (which I still enjoy making), but all the locos and stock will be bought in.

Incidentally, are the cottages behind the bufferstops based on prototypes at Orford? I vaguely recall seeing a row like yours the last time I was there. 

The weathering of your teak Gresleys, by the way, is extremely realistic.

Regards

David C

Nice layout! The one thing you seem to have missed out is the church - I got married there almost 25 years ago!

David C

Looking forward to seeing your posts. I visited Prague last year and spent a short time watching trains at the two main stations there - but only for a short time whilst my wife was shopping!

David C

Very nice work. I look forward to seeing the finished diorama.

Do you mind telling me where you obtained the chain? It looks like jewellers' necklace chain - if so, how did you colour it? Metalblack or similar?

Thanks

David C

Thanks for posting the photos. I've never been to the exhibition but have been to Cologne many times in the past. I can even remember seeing steam on the Hohenzollern Bridge in the late 1960s ....

I agree about the architecture of the city, although if my memory serves me correctly (it probably doesn't!), there is a rather picturesque square of old (and presumably rebuilt) buildings not that far from the Hauptbahnhof ...

Best wishes

David C

Fascinating film. It reminded me of when I used to travel around Germany in the 1970s/early 80s riding around various branch lines in Umbau or silberfisch coaches behind V100s and V160s. The modules when attached altogether make a huge layout. Amazing stuff!

Thanks for sharing the video.

David C

Very nice - how did you do the stonework? Its clearly not Wills or Slaters and doesn't look like DAS or other modelling clay ...

David C

Looks very nice - I don't know why, but black seems to suit BR standard designs better than green, at least to my eyes. I'm toying with the idea of investing in one for my WR BLT, so I will watch your "Westernisation" of the loco with interest.

One question: how does it run? The few I've seen at exhibitions seem a bit lumpy - but maybe its a matter of luck as to whether you get "a good 'un" or not. Reliability of Bachmann locos, even of the same type, seems pretty variable. I've got 4 45xxs, one of which runs superbly, two reasonably well and the last is a pig and rarely, if ever, makes it out of the stock box!

David C

That's an amazingly ambitious station you're building! I found it fascinating to read your blog and look forward to seeing it when complete. I also found the cut and spliced coach building sequence interesting, too. Now my WR branch terminus is almost complete, my thoughts are turning to kitbuilding/bashing suitable stock.

David C

Not sure if using ply is the answer, either, as I had a banana baseboard made of this material a while back.

Wood of whatever variety seems to be inherently unstable, so I suspect we need to deal with our boards in a different fashion with more bracing. Diagonal bracing either of conventional 2" x 1" softwood or ply strips might be more effective.

I'm not a scientist, but I suspect the real problem is the amount of moisture content in the wood, both the board and the bracing. Given the amounts of liquid we slosh on our layouts (plaster, dilute PVA etc), its a wonder any of the baseboards stay flat. In an attempt to avoid future problems with my current layout, I splathered the ends of each baseboard where the tracks cross with wood hardener and then painted the whole lot with a couple of coats of white primer. The two scenic boards incidentally have 6mm ply tops supported by 2" x 1" softwood braced diagonally.

Until we moved last May, the boards were kept in the house. Now, they are in the garage - which is very cold at the moment. So far, so good with no sign of any "banana-ing"!

If the boards do "banana", I may look for alternatives in the future. Dense foam maybe one answer .....

David C

The oth