sjp23480

@relaxinghobby this is an interesting comment. Allan Downes spent a lot of time on the roofs on his buildings - his view was that, given the birds eye view perspective we have on our models, that the roof was the most important part of the model. If I recall correctly, Allan used to lay individual tiles, later did he used strips of tiles (per Scalescenes) but he then scored in between the tiles on each strip. Steve

@Peter Kazmierczak I applied mine per the Scalescenes recommendation. But, I did mount them on light card to give the slates more depth. Scoring the sheets if they are on light card might help give a bit more relief? Good luck Steve

Is the same outfit that they previously in the covered market in Hythe? Do they have pre-loved stock?

@teeinox singular items are not worth much, but in aggregate the value can quickly creep up. I don't think I have a large collection, but was very surprised when I totted it all up! I will certainly be adjusting my insurance on renewal next month.

@Coldgunner I use Excel and I keep it really simple - see below. I have four worksheets: steam; diesel; coaching and parcels stock; goods and engineering stock - adjusting the headings on each sheet accordingly I use the notes field to capture features like Weathered, renumbered, etc... I base my values on (realistic) ebay prices - as most of my stock is no longer available new, it has to be an approximate replacement value for insurance purposes. Steve

Richard, I have had Bunsen on the workbench for some time, yours looks great for the changes. Can I ask what paint you used on the dome to match the Hornby green? Thanks Steve

I am going to add another "please" - very interested to see more. Please also consider setting up your own thread, Wright Writes is so popular it is difficult to find specific stuff, even with the search functionality. Thanks Steve

@Iain.d those coaches look great, you could give the former coachman a run for his money! Do you have your own thread on your coach building? I would love to see more on your techniques, especially the painting and lining - given all the practice on the D1720A! Thanks Steve

Should be okay if you are building in 00 gauge, I would assume the kit was designed with EM or P4 in mind

Its interesting to see just how substantial the slide bars are, esp when compared to RTR and some other kit manufacturers - where just a sliver of brass/nickel silver suffices. Great Work Dave - coming along very nicely indeed.

@hayfield I agree, we are with Eon Next and I am over £700 in credit at this time, yes my October costs will be higher due to the tariff but I hope the solar will offset that a bit. But, any attempt to get the DD reduced has proven futile - all sorts of ways to make a one off payment or increase your DD but zero interest in offering any kind of reduction. I'd like to move to Octopus as they seem to be a fairer provider, but they are not taking new customers at the moment. :-( Steve

With the help of a surveyor, it should be possible to model different scenarios based on your investment and current consumption to calculate your break even point. As has already been mentioned in this thread, to maximise your return on investment you need to minimise reliance on the grid. The rate for exporting power to the grid is so poor at the moment (unless you are with Octopus) any return will take significantly longer. I guess is also depends on what you can afford and how the return compares to your other investments. Steve

Hi John, Even in the "sunny" south east my system is limping along at 42w right now. It has managed 116kwh in October, vs 236kwh in September. It only went live at the end of August, so history is limited. Looks like it might get to 170kwh for the month if we are lucky. As the sun gets lower our panels, which are ESE aligned no longer register the sort of gain we were getting in the September mornings, by 3pm it is generating minimal power. We are shaded by trees on the other side of the house - lovely for privacy, not so good for solar panels. Now, where did I see that article about wind turbines? Steve

You see, I knew RMWebbers would have the answers - apologies for missing the earlier thread! Thank you all! Steve

Saw this in my news feed today from the Daily Mirror: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/long-abandoned-steam-train-found-28259466?fbclid=IwAR0vcXzq6Sea-WG7Hz4CsAjmMDVzWqMiUPhPyW_qJXbQHpJFY5TD_sFr_uU Not sure what to make of it, doesn't look like a British loco to me, not that I am an expert. Anyone got any theories? Steve

Dave, Like you , I had one of these kits in my stash for many years, like you I opened the box many times, admired the quality of the components, studied the diagrams and instructions and closed the lid. Then one time I opened the box, got the camera out and photographed the etches, considering how I might tackle the kit I decided to sell it to someone that could make a decent job of it. Good luck - I shall watch with envy! Steve

Gosh! I have never seen track ballasted this way. When you add ballast, it will be almost impossible to stop your chosen adhesive bleeding on the the sleepers and causing the ballast to stick to them? Also, if the ballast is higher than the top of the sleepers, it may look a little strange and cleaning up the sleeper tops will be very time consuming? Steve

Model Railroader posted the following Iain's passing: https://www.trains.com/mrr/news-reviews/news/in-memoriam-iain-rice/ I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I am more than familiar with much of his inspirational writing - which got me into building loco kits, having lured me into the false sense of security that anyone could get Walschaerts valve gear to work in 4mm scale! Steve

Very sharp scissors are also useful, I also use an old sharpened chisel resting the plates on a hard, smooth (metal) surface

@Moxy, Well I cut and pasted the italic text from their brochure.

All quite exciting, but did anyone spot this statement in the brochure: "Introducing Hornby TT:120, a Table Top model railway format that uses an internationally recognised scale of 1:120 or in simple terms, 1” to 1’ and is a perfect scale for those of all ages who maybe limited for space" Correctme if I am wrong, but 1" to 1' is 1:12? Isn't TT:120 - 1" to 10'? Sorry to be pedantic, but little things do seem to bother me! Also noted the statement on the last page of the brochure says: "New releases This catalogue shows items planned for introduction in 2022. Delivery periods may be subject to variation. The illustrations of such items show Hornby prototype or photo enhanced models which may not conform exactly to production versions." Steve

Angle poise lamp and 4x ready readers for me, I order them on line and they are reasonably cheap and decent quality. I have tried to cheap ones from B&M but I found the lenses distort things, so I don't bother. I think Boots (Opticians) do quite a good range if you want to try them out. Not sure of the cost, but the last pair I bought were about £12 per pair. I have one of the wearable magnifiers, but I find them awkward and uncomfortable. Steve

You can often find a bargain lurking on the BVM site. DCKits also have a few Bachmann, Hornby, Heljan and Dapol bargains: Bachmann: Deltics - £100, Freightliner 08 - £99.50 Hornby Brit (Owen Glendower) - £140, Drummond 700 - £75, LMS 8F - £90, J15 - £60, D16 - £75 Dapol: Bubble car - £85 Heljan: Cl33 - £90, Cl128 - £65 There is more, but these looked like highlights to me. Good luck: https://www.dckits-devideos.co.uk/index.php?route=common/home Steve