Campaman

If the extension is purely scenic you could do it with Kingspan, cellutex or one of the other insulation boards, just glued on with a thin ply skin on the outer edge.

Hi Your method for the windows sounds about right. The finished birds look a bit like an Alexandrine and a Quaker.

A lot of tender locos have two different mounting holes for the drawbar, maybe the previous owner has moved it to the close coupled one if it has one.

Hi A lot would depend on the type of road its crossing. There is some historical information on level crossing towards the bottom of the page in this link http://www.igg.org.uk/rail/3-sigs/sigbox.htm

Chris Nevard used DAS on one of his small layouts, Catcott Burtle I think. He used it on the goods siding as compacted ash ballast, its was pushed into the gaps between the sleepers after the track was laid, I assume with a coating of PVA first.

Another option similar to the wrapping idea is that you can get coloured and patterned rolls of Duck tape from Hobbycraft

The WWS applicator can do tufts fine, I use a piece of greaseproof paper, apply blobs of neat PVA then apply the fibres (4mm & 6mm) using the applicator, leave it all to dry, tip of the excess fibres then peel of the tufts.

Leave some wire wool or a used brillo pad outside in the wet in a container to rust, turns into a nice rust coloured weathering powder.

I don't really find the Ratio kits fiddly, but then I have been building plastic model kits since I was a wee one. The best advice I can give with the Ratio kits is to replace any of the plastic shafts with thin wire, makes them much more durable.

As Ian, I still use flock along with static fibres

Another satisfied customer here, I made my own using a fly swatter, then purchased a WWS one earlier this year, can really recommend it.

A couple from the John Ahern miniature building construction book, but built similar to the Pendon way. A village pump Harbour Office Cottages in a scenic tray The Outhouse

You could colour the wire using a magic marker or artists markers before assembly, its a very thin covering so you can still slide them through.

Full sized rope comes in many sizes so it will depend on what you are trying to depict, ropes for mooring small ships can be around 3" diameter so 1mm cord, and normal cotton thread for any smaller diameter rope.

I coat the armature with PVA then sprinkle on sawdust, gives a rough bark texture.

I have used the tutorials in the past and am quite happy producing templates when needed, it was just reading about how templot was written as Phase 1 and Phase 2 and the ideas behind the storage box, has to me made using the software easier by understanding how the software was designed, maybe its just me being a programmer my self.

Anyone considering using templot should read the origins post first, I have been using it to create single templates but having read that post the design of the software now makes far more sense.

May as well add my 4mm scale one. Mainly produced from card.

I got the book last year of Amazon for around a fiver, you just have to wait for reasonable price ones to come up.

I have cut many green cutting mats in half just using a brand new blade in a Stanley knife, takes a few passes but it does go through if you don't give it time to heal, these mats are usually made of 3 layers, two outside green/blue self healing layers and a middle white solid plastic layer.

I would go for the second option but move it towards the station building and rotate it clock wise so that you can see the front and the back, then at the road side opposite your shops and houses I would build up the pavement to include an entrance through the archway, and then maybe create some form of frontal forecourt using bollards and chain type fencing. That way you can have your roadway straight and any diagonal created with the position of the hotel is taken up by the pavement / forecourt area, I would then do something similar with the actual frontage of the hotel facing the station and create you rear forecourt / beer garden.

You don't have to buy a puffer bottle, an empty washing up liquid bottle works the same, you can also replace the nozzle with something with more holes if required. And this may sound daft, but get a pack of cheap balloons, blow one up and rub on the wife's cardi or other suitable surface to get a static charge on the balloon then pass it over the applied grass to make it stand up, it does work....

The other problem we have as modelers spraying is that on bigger items you would usually flat the primer back to give a smooth surface for the top coat, this is not easy or always possible on our models so we can end up with a rougher finish.

You can also melt the sprue from kits in liquid polly to make your own filler, and you can make it as thick or thin as you like, just need to be kept in a sealed jar, I use an old liquid polly bottle.

I fix all my decals with Johnsons Klear floor polish, then use matt varnish over the top if required. If they have only partially lifted Klear or another varnish should fix them down again, if applied with a fine brush.