Pugsley

That acrylic gel medium works nicely. Is it a Liquitex one?

What a brilliant concept! It's going to be a challenge, I think, but one that will ultimately be worthwhile. I'll be watching with interest. If there's no backscene, could you just have a simple lighting rig that swings in an arc from overhead, down towards one end of the board?

I'd agree with that, the later RfD livery with the yellow ends was definitely grey, Executive Dark Grey in fact. Although if Dapol have been looking at a faded one, then I can understand where the confusion may have arisen, as that colour takes on a distinct green-ish tinge when very faded. Again, I agree completely, the green with yellow ends were MOD internal users, although did the MOD buy some of the VEA's after BR stopped using them?

That was the Flockton Flyer, and if you look closely, you will see a fairly well known RMwebber in one of the episodes

I had no idea that it was a team sport! I don't know when or where the next outing will be yet, I guess it depends if the S7 test track is going to be at Bristol in January. If it is, then it may make an appearance there. It might even be painted at that stage! If not, I'm not sure when it will be although I have been challenged to run it on Aberbeeg and see how much it will pull up the hill, which could be interesting

Sorry, I also have some of those, so will be sorting those out first. When that's done, I'll consider it

This is how things are at the moment: I hate electrical fault finding, but with much reluctance I have broken out the multimeter to try and find out why my 37 disgraced itself a few weekends ago, where it made all the right noises, but didn't actually do anything. I've put the first bogie on its 'custom stand' for easier access Fault number one was found quite quickly - one of the connections to the centre motor on the No 1 bogie is a bit dodgy, so that will have to be remade. Soldering in that confined space is certainly going to be interesting! I can't drop the motor out, as a bit of poor design has led to the motors being captive once the torque reaction arms are in place. If I ever do this again, that is going to have to be addressed. Closer inspection of the other soldered joints has uncovered another couple of areas of, shall we say, comedy soldering, which is probably also not helping the cause. Once these have also been redone, things should work a lot better. On the plus side, the pick-ups are all OK, well, except for the one that has dropped off, but we'll gloss over that.

Wellington, Somerset, sounds about right. I recognise that registration, I think that must have been one of the regular vehicles around this area. Andy - is it a standard one, or does it have a longer body than usual?

Nah, just every year we'll have to have an anniversary weekend away to Buckinghamshire

At least yours isn't the same weekend as Railex....

Thanks Peter 8) Sadly the large 37 is not a runner at the moment, but it's not going to defeat me!

Gents WC I should imagine - there's one at Blue Anchor as well.

Thanks Jon. I've been developing techniques for subtle weathering, whilst I'm not totally there yet, I should be with a bit more practice. I've cut the sideframes away from the moulding and then stuck them back on a bit higher up. It improves the look of the model no end, and the act of cutting them away also solves the problem of them being too wide.

After what seems to be a very long time, the heavyweight 37 is finally finished. Unfortunately, I can't say too much about the methods used at the moment, as it is scheduled to appear in a future issue of BRM. So, all I can post at the moment is a couple of teaser pics to prove that I am actually achieving something from time to time: I'll put some more pictures up once the magazine is out. It hasn't turned out quite as well as I'd hoped as some of the materials and techniques used are a bit experimental, but it's still looking quite good, IMO. It has been good practice for the big 37 though, which I really need to overcome my fear of painting, which is the biggest barrier to progressing with it. Well, that and the fact that the first run didn't go so well, but I think that's down the back EMF being enabled on the chip which got confused by the signals from 6 motors. I now need to build a small length of track to use my rolling road on, so I can hook it up to the Powercab and start tweaking CV's. There'll be more of that in a later update.

I think the yellow coach ends only came in with the later stripes livery, but I'm not 100% sure.

Very cool. Can you pass on the advice about sending the files to Shapeways, please? I've had a bit of a problem with some of my parts too.

Nice 8) 706 is a cracking subject for a 'going to town' weathering job, and yours is looking particularly good.

There's two ways of perceiving these 'sharks', either as critics (which seems to be your opinion), or people that are interested in your potential product and are trying to help to make it the best it can be. How many 'sharks' were involved with the Dapol Western? If I was in your position, I'd put images of the CAD work up for all to see and welcome any feedback, to make the product the best it could be within the commercial limits.

Thanks James 8) I don't know if I have said what the chip is, in previous instalments. I'm using a Zimo MX695 with the Digitrains multidrive 37 sounds, and a QSI 'High Bass' speaker. I've built a custom 'infinite baffle' enclosure for it (effectively a sealed box, at least it will be once glued into the roof!) which should enhance the bass further, apparently. Sadly the Visaton one you've got is too big for the 37. Hopefully I should see if it works on Saturday! If it does, I'll see if I can post a video of it at a later date, although I am going to have to get a bigger rolling road for that to happen.

Actually not that kind of resurfacing, more a stalled project bubbling back to the surface for a little more attention. this happens from time to time, and frequently they sink back again, still incomplete, but I'm hoping to actually have this one finished by the end of the year. Yes, the 37 has made a comeback, now that the distraction of the IZA Ferrywagons is over for the time being. Actually, a fair amount has been achieved since the last update, with most of the wiring in place, the chip installed (although it can be removed for painting) and the speaker enclosure built. This is how things stand at the moment: I never thought I'd be pushed for space in a 7mm loco, so how crowded it's starting to look in there has come as a bit of a surprise! There is a mini DIN plug to go at the number 2 end, which will transfer the power to the body for the radiator fan motor, cab lights and speaker. Unfortunately it is only a 6 way plug and socket I have, so there will be an extra connection for the cab light common feed, but that's not the end of the world, just slightly less tidy that I would have liked. The miniature connectors on each end of the chassis are for the tail/marker/head lights at each end, so again the body can still be removed completely from the chassis. One of the reasons for the stall was that I hadn't quite worked out how I was going to secure the bogies, as well as saving up for the sound chip. The real thing uses steel rope to stop the bogies detaching, so I thought that I could possibly use the same sort of process. The first experiment was with stainless steel microbraid from Eileens, which really just is miniature steel rope. It soldered beautifully to the little tubes i bought to represent the crimped joint, but was too inflexible and would have required some form of springing mechanism inside, which wouldn't be easily hidden and seemed like bloody hard work. So came the revelation: Elastic thread! It's a little thick in original form, but I found that one of the cotton layers came off quite easily, leaving one layer of cotton and the rubber core remaining. I figured that the remaining sheathing would be rough enough to glue nicely to the chassis, and the rubber bit remained springy. So, the final solution is as shown above, which seems to work quite well and engages the etched hooks quite nicely. When the bogies are complete, there is another metal part to be glued to the bogie, under the hook, which will stop the retainer dropping out, which it will at the moment if everything is compressed enough. Whilst they don't retain the bogies quite in position, they stop it falling all the way out and keep it nice and level when it does drop, if the loco is lifted other than by its bogies. It's not a perfect solution, but it's better than nothing! It also doesn't look too overscale, although I think it is slightly. A close-up of the miniature connectors for the lights. The connection to the decoder will be soldered to the Veroboard and run under the chassis and into the main body thorough the gaps where the motors should be, if the kit was built conventionally. The plan is to have it running round the S7 test track this coming Saturday, so I need to pull my finger out, although I only really have the speaker to mount and wire in before connecting everything up to get it running. The lights etc won't be installed until the body is painted, so I have a fighting chance at least

Yep, I can confirm that is a definite risk of 7mm scale. Wibble. That's stunning attention to detail on the shock wagon 8)

Seen on here before, but this made me laugh on a couple of different levels:

I'm looking forward to seeing how the sheet looks when it's painted, it looks like an extremely effective method.

I admire your bravery in tackling something like this, as a 3D design novice, and I'm looking forward to see what turns up from Shapeways. That's quite a challenge you've set yourself!

Yes, US stuff really is that much bigger!