Pixie

Warships are ace! ;-) If you get the chance it's well worth experiencing D821 up on the Severn Valley - we had a storming with Chris Guntrip back in the some when they had their unofficial diesel gala due to shortage of steam. Cut of power just before the tunnel, then notching it right up with load 8. Marvellous! Not sure - it's more of a test of principle than a direct need. However, the master for this was one of Trevor Hale's 2mm items that I bought off him (Splitter!), which was dolled up as D806 in MFYE complete with the early side grilles, Spanner Swirlyflow boiler port and no middle shoulder grille. I dediced to keep it as D806 but by my era of Summer '71, it had gone BFYE so I decide to strip it down. Sadly, the paint stripper and scrubbing affected a lot of the filler so I had to re-do a lot of the work. Because it was quite a tedious affair, and I quite fancy also having D804 and D803 in my fleet, I thought it was a good oppourtunity to try out casting again. I'll probably knock up some etched bogie inners and also cast the skirting to make some dummy units up - Farish kindly supply a spare set of bogi frames with the Warship which makes life easy. If my one-day South Wales mainline layoute over comes to fruition it'll give them somewhere to run, although really I'd only need one or two at most. PS - Have you tied the knot yet?! Sure thing. :-) Cheer Iain!

In my best 'Jesse's Diet' tone - this week I have mostly been resin casting. Over the last couple of years, I've had three or four stabs at trying to successfully produce two piece resin castings of body shells without the aid if any vacuum gear. Whilst the first few trials proved good learning experiences, they never yielded any real results that were usable - often being misaligned, full of bubbles, misshapen, etc, etc. However, a flash of inspiration and trip to Tiranti's in Theale has resulted in some new casting materials and very promising results. The below mould was created utilising the methods that Jon Hall has outlined on this forum - essentially building a Lego cell and taking it from there. Adding to this Guy Molineaux's idea of using the Lego bricks for alignment has worked superbly and is inspired genius. The only tip I can add is to pour the rubber from as high as possible - when it leaves the pot, it's forms a very thin bead that forces any air out of it. For materials I used Tianti's T28 rubber and their new all-in-one catalyst/dye/catalyst booster that works a treat, giving a curing time of about three hours. For the casting itself, I've been playing with Axson F31. Beautifully viscous, cures in about 45 minutes, no perceptible shrinkage and capable relatively thin wall section. When pouring I tend to fill the female cavity by about 3/4, then use a brush paint the resin into the little details and remove any air. This will completely write-off the brush so I'd recommend using the cheapest ones you can find (or getting a job with a company that has a brush making facility and a limitless supply of seconds!). I then push the male part of the mould home which will force the excess resin out. I'm certain that this way is uneconomical on the resin, but I'm using the logic if the mold is already mostly filled its resin then there's very little air left to get trapped and form air bubbles. Results are below - really pleased with the detail, especially around the grilles and roof top detail. Sorry if the above is a bit brief, I'll prepare something a bit more in depth once I've had a bit more practise! Cheers, Pix

Hi Dave, Schwing! Any chance of the BSYP version coming along in 2mm? Pix

This is tip-top Simon - serious boundary pushing! Now, what's a man got to do to get his hands on a couple of those 25/3 shells in 2mm??! Pix

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/22170-parkside-southernsecr-pmv-and-by-vans/#entry220869 Looks like it's already been done, and superbly well! Wonder if there are drawings out there.... ...no, I must finish everything else first!

I think the similarities stop at the wheelbase length sadly - brake gear, W irons, solebars and wheel sizes are all different. To be honest, from what I remember the Chivers chassis wasn't bad - certainly one of the finer plastic ones out there. Perhaps it's worth giving these a go with just some replacement brake shoes and a simple etched inner frame to be it all square? Ps - if you fancy a challenge, there was also 10 plastic bodied PMVs. I dont think they lasted into your era, but there was at least one clinging onto life in 1971. Odd looking things!

500g bags of dust are available - please PM. Maybe second hand and collected from all the unfinished projects on my work bench. ;-) Good to see some more of your work Pete, your mojo is certainly in full flow at the moment! Who does the etched chassis for the CCT? I had this on my to-do list! Pix

Has the chance to give mine a run last night - by far and away the smoothest and most sure-footed Farish loco I've got. I'm not sure what the tweak they've made is (Lower gearing? Larger motor?) but it certainly feels a lot nicer. Couple of tweaks can be made - I think the buffers could do with some turned brass ones and theres a cut out in each bufferbeam to allow for the Rapido couplings, easily sorted with an insert and filler. Lights are a little bright but this seems to be an issue with a lot of locos in all scales, perhaps driven by the market rather than prototype? Easily sorted anyway! Pix

I'm not quite sure what it was doing there, but here's the green version fresh off the plane from Taiwan. Very nice model and certainly head and shoulders above the model replaces - I'd say the weakest spot is the plastic nose side ladder and the fan grill on the roof. It's see through but a little chunky.... I'm sure some nice etches can worth that out!

Well I never, you learn something new everyday! Cheers for the heads up Brian! Pix

Just slipping my moderator hat on briefly, there seems to be some tension in a few posts on this page. Can I ask that all posts are kept constructive and friendly please? At present, Julia's test etches appear to be a technical exercise to see if the idea is workable. I'm sure that if they reach the stage of being turned into a saleable product then the correct boxes will have to be ticked regarding copyrights and patents to avoid any of the difficulties that Chris has described. Pix

Brian/Brian, Belated thanks for the as-always-excellent information, a recent trip to Bovington reminded me that I'd very rudely not thanked you for your input. My apologises! Cheers, Pix

That nice Mr Kempenfelt has a few from RailEx, 2mm show and a few others... Eh Paul? *hint*hint* Pix

Hi All, Thought I'd start a central place for people to upload photos and images of 2mm layouts when they're out and about at exhibitions .All are welcome to contribute on layouts old and new. To get the ball rollings, here's a few off me' phone. Highclere at Abrail 2012 Pannier trundles along with a loaded train of minerals. Quiet moment in the goods yard. The transition between layout and backscene really is seamless! Andy Hanson's 24 rumbles around the new fiddle yard with a long unfitted freight working... ...and later returning with another mineral train. A variation on one of the above to try and get a bit arty. And finally, a little video! There's a little method to the madness of the banking loco here as all the wagons beyond the two fitted 16t minerals didn't have any couplings. So a little skill and co-operation was used to keep the 24 pushing the rear vehicles to keep them them buffered up to the coupled vehicles in front - too slow and there will be a huge gap, too much speed it'll derail the lot. Good fun! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sFZapWF5ak Many thanks to Missy for letting us play - it's going to be quite a layout! Cheers, PIx

Out of interest Dave, has the subsequent work required from the inital 3D scan been because the scan doesn't have a high enough resolution or because the human element had 'corrected' bits that required 'un-correcting'? Or are some details lost in the conversion from the co-ordinate cloud to virtual model? Or perhaps something else? There seems to be no doubt it's a real head start for the drawings but it doesn't seem to be the instant means to a finished drawing that it's sometimes made out to be. Cheers, Pix