Pixie

Cheers David. Funnily enough, some of my 1/43rd car detail etches are branded as such! I think Greyhound sums up my approach to modelling pretty well; a big burst of energy followed by a lot of lying on the sofa... Another test build is almost finished; this time the Doncaster Prototype Mk.1 W3083, as preserved at the SVR. It’s currently in desperate need of some 2mm wheels, weathering and varnish. I must get around to a proper workbench update and the Greyhound Models listings. Steve

Anytime Tom. Indeed, thank you for the rather excellent 3D printing of the 123 cabs. Good ol’ fashioned bartering at its best. My own Griddle is nearly complete too - looking forward to seeing your green one! Cheers, Steve

What dimensions do you need Justin? I can offer a set of Western walkways. Pix

Hi William, For most of my 'construction' etches (things like wagon chassis, bogie inners, etc) I use 10 thou/0.25mm nickel silver which seems to pretty common in the 2mm world; I am a fan of how it builds up and take solder. The use of 0.1mm stainless steel is only for items that I need the finesse and strength, whilst also being thin. PPD do not offer 0.1mm nickel silver, but if they did I'd be very worried that the roof grilles would just tear. Likewise, the coach sides shown above are in 0.1mm stainless steel - if they were nickel silver I would be worried about deforming the window bars and kinking the sides when rolling. I've never tried soldering stainless steel but I believe it's more challenging that nickel silver. It's more about choosing the right metal for the situation rather than personal preference. Cheers, Steve

I can’t really add much to the debate aside from being an advocate of Autocad, the Hollywood Foundry guides and PPD - no relationship with the latter aside from being satisfied customer. They did seem to to go through a period of occasionally supply a slightly ‘fluffy’ etch but everything I’ve had recently has been razor sharp. The below is 4thou stainless steel with each vent on the grille being 0.1mm wide. I still find unwrapping an etch for the first time one of the the most satisfying elements of our hobby, akin to a metallic Christmas morning. Cheers, Steve

Meanwhile, across the pond... Pix

Hello Julia! How’s things? Congratulations on the Chairman’s Cup, well deserved! I was granted exemption from quarantine through work, although I still limited myself to only going to work and distancing/face-masking at all times just in case I was carrying it. Thankfully, all clear here. The time not spent outdoors certainly gave a lot of time to get some CAD work done, I even spent a little time on Autodesk Fusion which was fun. My other half did have to quarantine; two weeks indoors almost drove her insane. Cheers, Steve

Not quite the right thread but does anyone recognise these - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184443254323? If they are indeed ‘N gauge’, they look relatively vintage and finescale. Cheers, Steve

Hi MHB, The Clayton glazing pushed straight out, it made a nice change not to have to fight with heavily glued in glazing. The main edge you want to paint/cover is the edge that’s an interference fit with the body so it’s important to remove it. The vertical uprights are in unchanged, just painted black. I didn’t remove any material from them or trim them at all. I hope this helps, please let me know if I can assist any further. Meanwhile on my workbench, things have turned very Southern. I’ve had a hankering to model some early 2000s SWT EMUs for a while so I’ve been busy in CAD. So far I’ve finished the 4-CIG, 4-BIG and 4-VEP. And a few oddities to as space fillers. I think the entire world maybe drawing etches at the moment, PPD are quoting up to 6 weeks lead time! Cheers, Pix

You jest, but I got stuck in traffic on the M25 this morning which meant I didn’t make it home in time. Luckily, with the wonders of modern technology, I could still ‘attend’! Pix

There's a lot out there in 1/144 scale Jerry; they're close enough for me. The F-Toys range is very good - I'm not sure what you're looking for but they've certainly done a Spitfire and a Swordfish. They come pre-painted and nicely assembled; I've got a bunch of English Electric Lightnings for formation flying over Parkend. There's some interesting stuff out there in 1/144. Airfix do a SRN4 hovercraft in the scale, that I've quite works out how to include into a layout yet. Cheers, Steve

More of a Scrapbox appeal than a Gloatbox appeal! I'm on the look out for a good number of the old, non-Blue Ribband Farish Mk.1 coach bodies. Either the old-old type with the window inserts or the solid-sided type. The livery is completely irrelevant; as is the roof, chassis, bogies, underframes, box, window inserts, if they're Poole produced or early China produced. It's just the body moulding itself I need - I have a cunning plan. Please let me know if you can assist - remuneration via the usual means is available or a donation to the charity of your choice. Cheers, Steve

Yes and Yes. Cheers, Steve

Hi John, I've got some that are in use on Parkend to make up 2-3 wagon 'clusters' with DG's on the outer vehicles. They're very nice and it's quite pleasing to take up the slack when hauling a train of them. My only criticism is they're a permanent coupling so a long rake would be a big of a pain to handle; if I ever get around to building the 'mainline' layout I sometimes threaten to build then I would probably find a way of mounting them with a magnet so they could be separated. I don't think there's anything available now - I bought a big bundle from the chap behind Mathieson Models which remain unused so not really been in the market for them. I seem to recall someone on here (or perhaps the VAG) has been making some 2mm 3-links so it may be worth checking with them. Cheers, Steve

Hi Justin, Thats looking good; certainly dropping it down is a marked improvement. I’m looking forward to seeing Dailuaine in full early-70s mode, I think it’ll look very at home. I had a look at mine this evening and the normal approach for the Hymek and the 22 wouldn’t work as you suggested, there’s just not enough chassis block for the springs to make contact with and they would end up somewhere in the gear tower. For mine, I’ve nipped the paddles at the corner of the chassis block so they were flush with the chassis block. I’ve then added the slightest of ‘humps’ in the middle so the paddle is not inconstancy with the bogie upright. The spring on the bogie upright then makes the electrical contact and allows for a little height tweaking. It seems to have worked, my Clayton is currently trundling around my Unitrack circle without much fuss. Assuming it’s all fine at the weekend then I’ll solder the springs in place. Height-wise, I’d call it close enough with this Farish Mk.1. For reference and as promised, here’s the what I do for the Dapol 22s and Hymeks. It’s pretty basic but solves the problem well. Cheers, Pix

These look great Julia - there’s something very appealing about not-the-norm point work and I have to keep reminding myself the narrow gauge is only 4mm! I hope they spawn a layout in time. Are there any examples of a double divergence point? In other words where both the standard and narrow gauge go in both directions. That could be a interesting next step. Steve

My sincere apologies Paul, I’ll be in touch! Morning Justin - good choice on livery. My next one will be the same to model D8658 in its final BR days; it’s a great machine in preservation that makes a very satisfying noise! For the bogie/pick-up arrangement I retain the uprights on the bogies and use them to mount the coupling springs onto vertically (the bogie uprights fit into the ‘bore’ of the spring), fixed place with a little blob of solder. The vertical springs then make direct contact with the chassis block for electrical continuity and provide just enough uplift to provide the required spacing between the gearing. It looks a little like Flexicoil springing but with one spring either side of the gear tower. This means that flappy paddle system can be completely discarded, which pleases me greatly as I’ve had no end of issues with it. I’ve used this system for years on my Hymeks and D6300s and I’m pleased with it, it also seems to solve the body-moving-before-the-bogies-do issue that plagues Dapol stuff. I’m currently in France* but I will get some photos when I get home - it’s a lot simpler to photograph than explain. The only issue with the Clayton I see is that chassis block is only as wide as the nose but the principle should still work. One thing I have been musing it’s putting a Judith Edge cab onto the EFE body, it would certainly add some finesse around this area. Cheers, Steve *where I seem to have acquired a helper... who helpfully deleted attempt one at this message!

Hmmm, in that case, I think CF would Really good in early 70’s mode. Let me know how many Deltics you require. (Excellent and inspiring work as ever Tim) Pix

Hi Paul - easy enough. There’s 4 little screws to remove, bogies pop out in the usual Dapol manner and then the bonnets unclips from the running plate. I’m not a fan of the pick up ‘flaps’ which come down from the chassis block to the bogies and can see they’re going to be a bit of a pain to put it all back together again - I will replace these with coupling springs mounted on the bogies in due course. We’re you able to order more Tamper transfer by the way? I really must finish mine and would be verY appreciative if you have any spare. That’s wonderful and hard to believe it’s almost 120 years old! Hi John, sure. It’s nothing more scientific that giving all the edges of the glazing which I don’t want I be transparent a coat of Matt black or, where there’s a friction fit between body and glazing, a coupe of coats with a black Sharpie. The main area of improvement for the 17 is the inner ‘window sill’ which disappear as when painted black. Thanks Justin. I think it’s a case of sending them off to Gordon; none of the drop ins are a real starting point. I think the wheels move on the axles so it shouldn’t be a major job. Which livery did you go for? Cheers, Steve

Looking at this whilst considering a 2mm fine scale conversion - the prototype has 3’ 3 3/4” wheels according to the CLAG Wheelbase data which scales out to 6.8mm in 1/148. Measuring the EFE wheels measure 7.45mm so there’s a 0.65mm gain in height there which goes along way to the 0.8mm discrepancy discussed above. The final bit could easily be lost by tweaking the ‘flappy paddle’ pick up arrangement or replacement with springs as I plan to do. It’s still an excellent basis for taking the model further; I’m well up for a couple more of them. Pix

Hello Marc! How's things? Hope South Wales is treating you well during these strange time. I'm alright thanks - going through a bit of a period of contemplating what I want to do with my professional life but outside of that, all is well. It would be good to catch up properly sometime once things return to normality, perhaps at a show or even for dinner somewhere? Whilst I'm here, a few updates from the workbench. I recently picked up the new EFE Rail Clayton from Kernow - it's nice to see another dinosaur diesel available in 2mm on the RTR market, even if it's one that's waaaaay out of region for anything I'm planning. It's a nice model and I'll bet my first-born that it's come from the same factory as Dapol's 22 given the similarity in construction. It even has the slightly misshapen BR double arrows that the D6300 carried. My plan for this one is to model 8598 in it's RTC days - I understand that it visited Swindon once to collect Test Car Hermes after conversion so I'll use that as a vague justification for bring on the Western Region. I've not done too much so far; just given the chassis a coat of matt black, filled in the headcodes, changed the arrows and tweaked the glazing slightly to try and remove the prismatic effect. Before... After! I could be quite tempted by a little shunting plank based around Edinburgh - a couple of Claytons and a few other early 70's diesels would be neat. Outside of the Clayton and Hermes seen above; I've barely touched 2mm for a while. A batch of 7mm Cavalier's are slowly coming together - from the A-pillar backwards they're a Schuco diecast model with some home-brew resin fronts grafted on. The idea is to build a model of every car that I strip for bits to keep mine going; I diecast shrine of sorts I guess. YKB 348W was the first car stripped in a scrapyard in Bordon on a scorching hot summers day a few years back; whilst LBH 78V was found in a yard near Evesham last February where it rained and snowed for every moment we were there. I think both cars have features on this thread. The headlamp lenses on the above two aren't quite right - they're a bit too square and missing the chamfer that blends into the shape of the bonnet. After a lot of messing around, I've found casting them in clear UV resin works well. Normal casting rubber moulds didn't work quite right as it seems to 'scratch' easily which was carried over to the UV resin moulding - in the end, I made a polished master and pushed it into Blu-Tac to form a one time mould. It worked really well and something I will experiment more in the future. My other half recently told me I needed a book end as my books on one of my shelves kept toppling over. So I've been busy creating the below - I don't think it's quite what she had in mind; but I like it! Some friends and I have spent a fair bit of time in Wuppertal as a base for visiting Intermodellbau and doing various Germany railtours - there's a top brauhaus in the old art-deco Swimming Pool there (between some very sketch parts I should add) and it's become a bit of an adopted home-from-home. Probably it's most famous for it's Dangle-bahn suspended tramway. A few years ago at Intermodelbau, I picked up a laser cut kit for a section of trackwork and a model of one of their new units that were being launched at the time. I've never really known what to do with it but after a bit of thinking it's become a bookend. The Wuppertal book is false - it's pages have been glued together and a slot cut to support that end of the trackwork. Inside the book is a more traditional metal bookend which then sits under the rest of the books. The original plan was to have a book on elephants as the left hand support as a nod to Tuffi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuffi) but, much like Tuffi, it was much to big to work! Finally, miles from 2mm, but rail-related. The only piece of furniture I inherited from the previous owner of the house was a set of dining room tables and chairs - they've had a hard couple of years, being covered in dust, paint, beer and take-aways as I'd planned to throw them away. However, I've slowly become attached to them but I've never had much love for the worn, cigarette-burnt brown fabric on them. A little head-scratching and some inspiration from a friend pointed me towards some BR Trojan moquette as a hard wearing idea for recovering them. After a couple of days of beavering away, I'm pleased with them! More soon. Take care, Pix

HI all, I picked up an example yesterday from Kernow in Guildford - it's certainly a nice model, a few little tweaks to make here and there but I like it. It certainly has Dapol-esk elements in the design; taking the bogies apart I recognise that flappy pick-up design and bogie construction from the D6300 immediately. Ben A mentioned the headcodes looked a little strange - fairly happy it's the right shape and size but the 'insert' is slightly chamfered which gives it an odd look. I've filled mine in, put correctly sized numbers in and given it a very thin coat of UV resin which I think has improved it no end. The other little tweak is applying a little black around the glazing - as they come there's a prismatic effect but it disappears fairly well. Here's the before: And after. I'm still toying with the idea of filling in the two roof ribs as they seem a bit overstated but we'll see. Cheers, Pix

You're on. Top work John; watching with interest. For the 'track grass' on my Parkend, I used the uncoloured 'straw' static grass and dry brushed it with Humbrol 150 to give it a natural tone; it was a bit long in 2mm so I used my beard trimmer to reduce it back. If you want a sure-fire way for your loved ones to think you're losing it; stating you're off to shave your layout is a good starting place. Untitled by Steve Nicholls, on Flickr Cheers, Steve

The man himself!

Great, thanks Paul! Cheers, Steve