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The enforced layover is encouraging me to finish off numbering various coaches and wagons. I have plenty of pressfix transfers, but they are all individual digits used to make up the final number. And they are so very tiny, 4mm scale. Any advice on how best to tackle this so that I get a final number with all the digits level and evenly spaced? Thanks

So the old grafar bass van has had a makeover. Sorry collectors. New underframe, Repaint, lettering and a light weathering. Hope this meets with approval. Not an exact scale model, but suits me!

This looks to be bad news... BBC News - Coronavirus: Mass gatherings could be banned in UK from next week https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51882897

Well West Camel and North Camel for a start....

Meanwhile, last year in the USA, 35 million people caught flu and 50000 died from it. Nothing different expected this year. So quite why the panic about coronavirus?

Thanks. I think what happened is that handing made the sides greasy from finger prints which the thinned water-based paint objected to. Rubbing off the new paint with IPA removed the grease and applying the thin coats as you suggest worked well.

Ok. I just tried by brush and it was ok. Maybe washing it all off with ipa helped.... I'll try again.

I am repainting some triang mk1 coaches into Caroline and cream. I have rubbed down the coaches and primed with a wilko rattle can primer. I don't know what this is but it says that it contains acetone and xylene. So today I tried to spray humbrol acrylics, thinned with acrylic thinner. What I got was a puddling, clearly the primer repelled the acrylics. Horrible result. I have now cleaned off the acrylic with isopropanol. What next? What can I use over the wilko primer to allow me to spray the acrylics?

Haha. I wondered if that would be spotted, Shades of my old granny's broom with its three new heads and two new handles......

I have a box full of unbuilt kits! No need to add anymore. This grafar van I found in my parents loft from my train set days and therefore I have a certain attachment. I also quite like refurbishing/repurposing/upcycling ( whatever the current term is). Let's see what it looks like when done. I will replace the chassis and I might scratchbuild a new body too.....!!

Yes

100% sure. Marked grafar on underside.

I just found a suitable underframekit in the kits box so I will use that instead. Looks much better. Thanks for the info.

One of these... https://zenfolio.page.link/sAozX

If you Google "Bass wagon" then there are lots of different types of model wagons with the same livery, including a 009 one. So i guess the livery may not be authentic. I imagine that it could be just a generic wagon with no particular prototype. Thanks for the research, I'll check it out.

I recently found this old grafar 00 van, as per the pictures. Not sure if this is a prototypical livery, but I am tempted to repaint into railway livery. Question, what diagram is the van? Is it based on any prototype? I guess it's LMS manufacture, but it's only a guess.

Or something else I have done, is to just invent your own using a drawing package. I swear by coreldraw which i have used for years, but other free packages are available.

Just Google for enamel signs and you'll find loads of pictures. Download the ones you want, open them in Gimp (free) to square them up and just print. I have done this for some and if you want them, juyst pm me.

Thank you!

Just resurrecting this one. On my test track, I tried spray mount and it's ok. Not the cheapest option if doing a large area and repositioning can be tricky, but not impossible. On the real thing, I am going to try pva brushed thinly onto the underlay. Then just gently press the (dry) template down on top and leave. I don't anticipate much distortion. I have then used double sided tape to attach my copperclad sleepers, but after a few months I am finding they are coming loose in places. Maybe it wasn't good enough quality.

100% agree. I think a good principle is that there should always be something running on their layout somewhere....

Quite obviously dcc versus analogue is a complete red herring. I have seen some awful running on dcc layouts and my own analogue layout runs well, I call it the "no nudge" layout but i only get this through clean track and wheels. I should also say that the vast majority of exhibition running is very good and I value the time that the unpaid volunteers put in to stage the events. Having been to many exhibitions, I think poor running is a minor issue

I think this all comes down to what you like doing. It's a hobby after all. If you like playing with real track then just buy some and see how it goes. If you enjoy drawing things out on paper then do that. I happen to really like computers and so I do that. I use templot a lot, often just for fun. Also I have used anyrail and I use a vector package, coreldraw, an awful lot for all sorts of things. I'm currently planning a new layout. For me, I drew it up in coreldraw first to scale as I enjoy doing that and it works well for me. I then imported it into templot and drew templot templates over the top to get the right transition curves and point vees etc. This showed me that some of my coreldraw stuff wouldn't work in reality. So its up to you. The most important thing is the thinking process. Use whatever tool you are happiest with as that will always give you the best results.

Just a quick positive endorsement of trackshack. First class retailer, highly recommended. I also support my local model shop and will be there on Friday for purchases too. Both online and local have their place.

Having read a lot about this, I became very confused, hence I have done some research and set out here what I now think is the case. Just doing this for my own sanity... 1,. In 1948 BR adopted a couple of experimental liveries, one of which was known as "plum and spilt milk". This did not last. 2. In 1949, crimson lake and cream was adopted for gangwayed stock. The crimson lake was to BS381C, 540, crimson. The cream did not equate to a British standard. Precision paints P116. 3. In 1956 the cream upper panel was discontinued because of the difficulty in keeping it clean and because the crimson lake could fade to an almost orange colour. A darker maroon that was much nearer the LMS livery was adopted as an all-over livery. Probably it was BS381C, 541, maroon. Precision paints p108. At the same time, regions were given permission to adopt local schemes and the western and southern began to use chocolate and cream and green respectively for their main expresses. 4. In 1965, rail blue and grey was introduced. There are many variations on these colours due to undercoats, fading, weathering, photographic emulsions and the fallible human memory and these variations have generated many miles of comments and discussions.... Does this make sense?