brossard

I've been painting models for over 30 years in 00, and lately in 0. My methods are simple and suit my needs. If you were painting professionally or for museum use, you might need to get more sophisticated. Painting starts even before the model assembly is done because some areas may not be accessible afterwards, so you need to watch for that. Once ready for paint, I use either grey or red oxide primer as an undercoat. These are widely available at DIY and car places. Use grey for top colours like black, green, blue etc. Use red oxide for top colours like red, brown etc. Leave the primer to cure at least over night. I don't usually use an airbrush for the top colour, but when I do, I generally use acrylic (lots of people swear by enamels so it really is a personal thing). For the top coat of goods wagons, I'm happy to brush paint. My wagons all get weathered so, to me, no need to get fussy about exact shades. Coaching stock is a different matter. You need to get the right colour and will get best finish with an airbrush (although I have managed to paint my 0 gauge coaching stock by brush and acrylic paint to a high standard). I cheat and use lining transfers, which it has to be said are not easy. After you are happy with your wagon or coach, spray on a coat of gloss varnish. Lots of brands out there, I used to use Testors Glosscote but now I find Krylon works for me. Transfers should be applied to gloss surface (matte has microscopic pits that make it hard for a transfer to stick). Once the transfer is on and dry, spray on a coat of matte varnish. John

Looks good, a far cry from what we used to get. Be careful, Gresleys had the vacuum pipe on the solebar. BG's had a Guards Brake mechanism which can be seen on mine. John

I bought these for my Gresley kits. Very useful drawings, however, next to no info on underframe detail. John

Here's my 0 Gauge Kirk Gresley BG with super detailed underframe: Anyone who has done a Kirk kit will know that provided detail is sparse. I did a lot of research to get this result. Apart from the major parts, much of the fiddlyness is scratch built. I used the Kemilway manuals extensively to understand the details. Sadly, Kemilway seems to have gone. I have the manuals as PDF. Warning these are biblical in scope. There are a number of bought in components. When I was doing 00, I detailed quite a lot of older coach underframes, all LMS, using Comet parts. John

Excellent! I do have a soft spot for pre grouping. Looks like the opportunities for stock are getting better. I have built a pair of NBR coaches (62C) with a third languishing until I get more time. There's a Connoisseur (Claymore) NBR J83 on the to do shelf as well. These are not for me but for a friend who is passionate about NBR. John

The internal switch failure is not uncommon. There's a video: I opened all my Tortoises and found several with dodgy switch wipers. I repaired some using small nuts and bolts and others, that were loose, with general purpose glue. John

Thanks Hal and Schooner. That was the vision I had. John

I am excited to debut my Balmoral Road in 0, see link for my thread. John

I have done this a few times. The only thing is the adhesive sheets are quite expensive so you will want to make sure you get the most out of the sheet. Another thing I have done is glue the print to the self adhesive sheet using a glue stick. A good way to use up left over adhesive label. John

Agree with Nick and his work is very inspiring. My layout is somewhat bigger at 21' long. There are many examples of small layouts here. Go for it! By the way, I did 00 for 30 years then switched to 0 when Dapol started producing affordable and excellent models. Best decision I have ever made. John

Two weeks on and I have been manically trying to get stuff done. The show (GBTS) is a month away but the deadline seems to be approaching at express train speed. The street again, this time with the gates open and a J50 going through - iconic. I made the gates openable to extend the shunt from the end of the crossover. I have been wafting paint on my buildings with an airbrush. Very simple, a layer of earth to start, then a layer of black. View of the factory/warehouse towering over everything. To the left is the boilerhouse. I mentioned last time that I was making walls to frame the railway. You can see these here. My wall construction is pretty simple, 5mm foam core with brick paper glued. Posts from double thickness foam core. Capping is from various Scalescenes kits. More walls to complete the framing job. Finally a grotty engine shed. John

When powered by DC, Tortoises are on all the time with the motor stalled out. My layout from years ago had DCC but DC Tortoises and ISTR they were pretty noisy. Using DCC, as I said, they are only on when switching so mostly silent. As for signal levers, this is the next step for my layout. DCC Concepts levers and encoder are on order. Right now, I have green momentary buttons on the fascia on both sides of the layout enabling operation from front or back. You are right, there should be a signalman controlling most of the turnouts. I do have have one turnout, that would have been manually operated, to the cattle dock and coal yard which will retain it's fascia button. John

In my post above I agreed that 3A controller would be fine. However, I don't think one should worry very much about powered turnouts. I have only a handful on my layout. They are actuated with Tortoise motors and Wabbit stationary decoders. These decoders only take power when activated and run for just 3 seconds. The rest of the time they are idle, taking no power. John

I don't think there is a specific controller for O gauge. Some locos that take a lot of amps may require a large decoder. Most modern O gauge locos (from Dapol, Minerva, Heljan for example) will be happy with standard 00 decoders. All my locos have sound and all have standard decoders. The type of controller you need boils down to the size of layout. If your layout is as you say then the controller you describe will be good. My controller for my 21' long O layout is NCE with 5A smart booster. Overkill I suspect. John

I've been busy titivating the layout and continuing with the industrial building project. First off, I finally got around to making gates for the Goods Yard. These are only installed loosely at the moment. Construction was Evergreen. Main structure is 0.040" sheet, scribed for planks and sandpapered to get the grain. Framing is also plastic strip. Bent 0.090" wire for hinges along with split pins. I applied Tamiya Panel Liner enamel wash and when that was dry rubbed most of it off with white spirit. Still need to straighten my lamp posts. A representation of a boiler house using Scalesenes Workshop from the factory set. It was made more challenging because I had to change the brick finish. Chimney is tricky to get right and I had to face it twice. Ultra low relief workshop. Same kit but the other end essentially without doors. I did try to make the window from the print provided but I'm pretty useless at that. I made it from scratch with Evergreen strip. Next phase of the project is to construct walls to frame everything and separate the railway from the industries. John

Did that, see the relevant post. HTH. John

Interesting you say that, I have one Loksound decoder and, when installed, the loco performance was poor on start up. I discovered Autotune. At the time I had a very good explanation but can't find it now. Here is a concise procedure: "Running Auto Tune Set CV 54 to the value of 0 (zero) (Load Control Parameter "K") Leave programming mode. Press F1. The locomotive should begin travelling down the track: It will launch at full speed in the last direction of travel, so ensure it will go the right direction before beginning the process." Pretty alarming to see the loco takeoff, make sure you have enough track, at least 3 ft I recall. It got my loco running properly. John

Functions tend to mostly the same on sound decoders, and up to 20+. Make sure your system can access all these. Like Peterm, I have standardized on Zimo although my locos are 0 gauge. I have bought my sound decoders from Digitrains. John

I make a lot of Scalescenes buildings in 0 gauge and foamcore is ideal for the structure. It is easy to cut and if you make a mistake, fixing it is relatively easy. I get the foamcore and regular card (1mm and 2mm) from an art supplies store because the quality is good. Foamcore can also be obtained from office supplies places and maybe even Walmart. My most recent project (Scalescenes T026/T026a): The platform structure is also foamcore. John

Lol, yes, me too. When I started, I built a lot of kits, Slaters and Parkside mostly. Even the few RTR I bought have been upgraded. Haven't done a kit in a while although I have a couple of friends kits on the shelf. I keep hoping he will fire me and take them on himself. John

Just went through this thread. Pretty awesome wagon modelling. The micro layout suggestions are good. 0 gauge does require quite a bit of room and a roundy roundy is usually precluded. The G0G manual says that 4' radius is minimum (think 2' in 00) but, to me that is pretty unsatisfying. Mine is 21' long including a 5' fiddle yard and sits diagonally in my basement. No curves to speak of. Exhibited at Exporail last August. John

I added some 3d printed chain link fence that I got at a show. A disappointment really. Very fragile and it broke in several places. I'll probably replace with brick wall. I cut out an indent on the board and added the factory: I put the BG in the bay to prove that there is clearance. Quite impressive I think. Shame about the Sharpie. John

The building is as good as done: Parapets from the T026a kit have been added. Windows were fixed from the back with canopy glue. Note the base. The back really looked nasty so I made a back plate and painted it black. Note the shadowy interior. I have been preparing some chain link fencing, so I'll do that next. John

I've been busy making parts for the parapet and buttress caps. One thing that dawned on me was the lack of complete corners. The older kit doesn't consider these as far as I can tell. This shows the incomplete corner and it needs beefing up. Some quick sums and I produced a new partial buttress. Double thick 3.5mm foam core. This is covered with brick paper leaving a flap in order to cover the join. This is one I did earlier. The buttress is fully square. A piece of sad news, I visited my art store last week looking for additional 3.5mm foam core. The sales guy did some checking and announced that it appeared to have been discontinued. I don't know if the manufacturer has stopped making it or whether the store chain just stopped carrying it. These things are sent to try us. John

Oh dear, I have one of those thinking it would be a good secondary controller (well it does do the job). However, nobody likes it in my group either. The major drawback is the lack of screen I think, so, yes, a slave powercab is going to be better. Sigh. Another thought, our club standardized to NCE eons ago. Most members have their own Powercab kit. John