James Hilton

This is looking fantastic - I really look forward to seeing it finished

Hi Stu, I've posted a question on your ballasting blog...

How did you get on with the clay? Sounds interesting and is something I want to try!?

That's looking great so far!

Rich how do you join the sections of Exactoscale track together!? I hope to be able to get some track laying done in the new year and coming from an OO background am used to just using Peco fishplates!Sounds good so far, the part finished retail park sounds interesting. How about a row of trees on the front to act as a viewing boundary too?

I've been keeping this one a secret for nearly 6 months... Ever since members day in the summer I've worked on this model and finally this month I can show you guys on here how I created it! Not until the next issue of Model Rail is out though so for now enjoy this teaser snap taken on Paxton Road on a summers day in 1998. 09007 shunts the MOD vans whilst 33019 brings in some wagons for a weekend possession on the mainline. Keep your eyes peeled on my Workbench thread between Christmas and New Year for the full story and in the meantime head down to your local newsagents and pick up the December issue of Model Rail!

Is that Pugsley's 09?

Wow I guess we forget how lucky we are over here! The gantry crane is worth trying to get your hands on, it's a lovely kit

It looks fantastic Do you have a layout?

422 does look lovely on the viaduct - I've always had an issue with the VItrains nose shape for some reason but the quality of finish on your model lifts my critical eyes above that and just sees the huge potential for realism that this bridge will allow you when it's finished!

We await some progress - it is funny how many projects you can have on the go and progress becomes so slow you loose a bit of enthusiasm - that's what I find anyway This looks a nice quick one though?! Look forward to seeing it progress...

Funny, the topics get muddled with others comments and distractions - whereas the blog allows these comments and discussion to happen, whilst keeping the presenting the pure story at the high level. I guess people are not confident with posting up short updates and feel a blog should include more substance.

That's a shame - I think the blog format is perfect for a developing project or layout

Peter I think I would keep the layout as a terminus. I can definitely see the attraction of watching trains round and round, but it would really drastically change the feel of Llanbourne, something which I think would result in you loosing your way a little. Focus on getting the extension finished and see how you feel then

Great job - these look fantastic. Expensive little addition though, npowered scrapline locos - especially with the wheelset cost on top!

Jon some fantastic angles possible on there obviously! Hopefully I can pop over next summer with the Paxton Road fleet for a photo session - might be DCC by then!

I think a point kit is on the cards for January... I may well end up P4'ing my new sound loco and build something small, industrial and gritty with just a few points I must say the support from other modellers on the P4 stuff is fantastic, and so far I'm finding myself heavily leaning in the scale direction. Must finish Paxton Road (if just to sell it) and Rose Hill first though

I found some interesting stuff on the ScaleFour Society website http://www.scalefour.org/ I'm not sure I found anything you'd consider a write up, what is it you want to know? I can take a few photos showing construction? Basically the sleepers are in short sections (8 sleepers) and you thread in the rail into the moulded chairs - it's that simple. I believe Exactoscale also do point kits - that's my next plan - try one of them out!

I've been keeping a project under my hat since Members Day this year where I picked up a model of 09006 from the Bachmann trade stand for a bargain price... Over the following 8 weeks I transformed her into a model of 09007, complete with my trademark step modification and scratchbuilt hi-level brake pipes. I faded and weathered the bodywork and took step by step photos. After I approached Ben Jones at Model Rail, I wrote it all up for an article and today, I finally saw the fruit of my labour this morning stood in WHSmiths!! 4 pages in the December issue, I ended up buying 4 copies so I can distribute them around my family... The title page of my article - proud - hell yeah! So that's fame - here's the next step... You've probably read about my 2010 challenge layout, Rose Hill - in P4. Well the trackwork arrived today and along with the P4 Easytrack bases, I ordered some OO ones to see the differences between P4, finescale OO and Peco Code 75 so this evening I built up a set of each. Left to right - OO Easytrack Code 83 flatbottom concrete sleeper, OO Peco Code 100 flatbottom wooden sleeper, OO Easytrack Code 75 bullhead wooden sleeper and P4 Easytrack Code 75 bullhead wooden sleeper. Visually P4 blows OO out the water, and the Easytrack does the same to the Peco track. Move round from end on though and the difference becomes hardly noticeable between the Easytrack P4 and OO. Peco still a poor relation. So the next step? Is it a wholescale switch to P4? No I don't think so - yet. The likelihood is Paxton Road Mk2 will use Easytrack and stay OO. Hmmm, maybe... or maybe not... What have i started!!

An exciting looking pair of parcels arrived this morning, just after I got home from town rather chuffed to find my article in Model Rail (see my other blog)... A long thin tube and a big jiffy bag nicely labelled up from Exactoscale! My P4 track components (and gauges) plus some OO stuff to compare as well! Then I had to go out so I spent the whole day itching to read my article and put together a few trial sections of P4 track. I finally managed it about 6pm this evening and after a quick check of the Pacer's back to back I connected up my controller for an inaugral run... and success! The Pacer moved from one end of the 0.5m section to the other!! Excellent. The Pacer and progress on Rose Hill to date - slow but steady. This end on shot will be possible on the finished layout thanks to the plan to be able to view on 3 sides, including the bufferstops. The track goes together very easily. I opted to try steel rail this time, which seems ok so far, and a lovely realistic colour to it! The Exactoscale components are well packaged and nicely moulded and a 0.5m section like this goes together in about 5 minutes. I could build all the track I need for Rose Hill in under an hour! Here are couple of other shots just to show how excited I am - and impressed with the increased fidelity for virtually no increase in pain. Mind you this layout doesn't need any points - so that's a bridge left to cross before I throw myself completely to the finescale wind! Hopefully over Christmas I'll put together some base boards to allow progress to start on scenery. Before then I should really work out how much I'm compressing the plan by! Oh well. Mustn't be distracted by the myriad of other projects on my workbench!

The seatbacks are a little higher than the prototype as I think really I should have carved off the thin bit at the top of the mouldings - however they will be lower than what you see hear when the glazing is back in as this holds them down. I'm tempted to get a coat of white primer on her this weekend and paint the chassis all black to see how she looks! I've also just realised I'll need to split the exhaust pipework to remove the body! I glued it all together in my excitement last night - only a small job to put back once she's finished though Must remember to add the lamp bracket before I spray her.

Wow the roof looks great - similar effect to my model of 33019 also in dutch It's amazing this is 2mm! It's also great to see this as a workbench blog - I think it's a great format for workbench posts!

This is looking lovely so far Rich!

Wow - that certainly is going to be impressive

Thanks chaps! It feels slow to me - maybe I'm comparing myself to Jon!! Funny when you take photos you notice things - the front lamp iron has fallen off!! I'm probably going to have to mix my own purple I think - I'll be using Humbrol oil paints - I'll let you know how I get on and what colours I need plus rough proportions for the mix. The BSI couple is plasticard sanded and filed. It's laminated up from several layers cut to shape as I built it up. The exhaust pipe is a plastic cocktail stick - I was struggling to find anything in the house the right diameter! I heated it over the hob to put the kink in. It's got a length of regular layout wiring wire attached to the bottom, and the support is again just plasticard. The brackets are microstrip superglued to the cocktail stick. Hope that helps!