Barry Ten

Bad Rabbit - I don't have the Dapol mechanism to hand, but with the Hornby one, the motor intrudes into the cab quite a lot. I reckon you could saw the white metal backhead in half and fix it to the top of the motor, which might look convincing from most angles, especially with a crew in there. The MT instructions do say that you'll need an etched chassis otherwise - Comet do indeed do one, as do MT themselves (according to the kit instructions) and I think there's another one out there as well. I find the Hornby mechanism to be a big improvement on the old one though.

As Brian points out, the kit is an Iain Rice design, with the instructions bearing his characteristic drawing style.

Mikkel: I think you've swung the jury in favour of black!

Jamez - I've got one with a Dapol chassis (although an old Airfix body) lurking somewhere as well. I bought the chassis when Dapol were selling them off for a tenner.

Brian - in my spares box I have 1440 as a number - was that a Welsh engine by any slight chance?

Gwrrob - I'm open to persuasion; don't mind a bit of green but my auto-coach is currently in crimson so I reckoned black would be more appropriate for the motive power. Personally I think black locos show off weathering the best, but that's a personal thing.

I was watching a program on art history once, where they were discussing the precise period of a painting (I think it was a Manet or Renoir) - they had an expert on Victorian fashions who could date it to a very specific few years, if I remember rightly, just by some detail in the costumes. When you stop to think about it, it's obvious, but it was a bit of an eye-opener to me - not only that Victorians had fashions that changed that rapidly, but that those fashions were documented.

Marvellous.

Sorry not to have seen this before - glad you had a good time, and took some nice photos - thanks!

Good luck with this build; it does look challenging but the end result should be well worth it. Kenton is right about the soldering tip; I've had one set of frames turn banana shaped due to differential expansion. Fortunately it was fixable but I've learned not to risk it happening again.

Hi Chris - I've seen one or two similar approaches over the years so won't claim any originality but it works well for the room space I have. One thing that struck me last night is that I might even be able to get four seasons in there, if I do a summer to autumn transition along the length of the longest module. Not sure if that will work but I might give it a shot and see.

Late in the day, but just to echo what has been said by others - remarkable modelling!

Exactly, Chris - the model itself is pretty ropey, but it's the feeling of continuing with something I started way back when that is very pleasing. Plus, I'm a tight git who never throws anything away

Max - this one is 12x11 which is not too far off 14 x 8 in area terms, is it?

Magic: I like your snow scene, very nice! Did you glue the Woodland Scenics snow down, or just let it lie?

Hi Max - it's just one module out of three on the whole layout; I don't think I'd have the guts to do a whole layout with snow as like you I enjoy the variation in the seasons. By dividing the layout into linked dioramas I can have my cake and eat it, so to speak.

Kiwinewt - yep, and it'll give me a chance to test my ballasting before tackling the bigger modules.

Not only have I not ballasted C+L before, but I'm going to be using dilute Copydex rather than PVA, in the hope of keeping the sound levels down. At the moment the layout is amazingly quiet and I'd like to keep it that way, as much as possible.

Hi Rob - yes it is the Hornby one, and it has no problem with this relatively short rake (just 6 coaches). I'm sure it could easily handle a few more. My Comet conversions are running on the old Hornby/Airfix bogies and while they've ended up being heavier than the RTR versions, due to the white metal bits on the underframe, they're still not particularly heavy.

My only suggestion would be to get rid of the four straight bits between the curves, and then tilt the whole layout at a slight angle to the baseboard edges. That would give you a bit more room around the outside of the track for scenery, and get away from the train set look a bit. But only a suggestion

Peter: pretty much! Although there's a watercolour picture in a book of paintings I have that has been very inspirational - it's a book of railway pictures commissioned for the GWR 150th anniversary, with a lovely depiction of a snowbound Reading - snow on the ground, signals stark against a pink-tinged sky.... superbly evocative.

Unfortunately the card sheets I used for the sky are not long enough to do the whole scene without a couple of joins, which I'd hoped would be less obvious once the lighting rig was in place. Perhaps I will investigate finding a longer sheet so I can do the whole thing in one piece.

Cheers, Chris!

Kiwinewt: the bridge is the Wills kit; I'm not sure if they do any N scale kits?

Devondynosaur118: ta!

Pic of pub added to original entry.

Have to charge my camera up first! It's the old Superquick "Swan Inn", by the way. I've added a lighting pelmet to the module today so the pics should be a bit less fuzzy from now on.

That does look good. I wonder if there are any issues with long-term usage?

Mikkel: thanks again! The Revell model did not have much in the way of historical information (although I was missing the box) so this is very welcome. I am ashamed to say that I did not realise the Danish connection until you noted it.

Mikkel: that's a fascinating story. The model had two decal sets - I was committed to using one over the other, as the original builder had already made a choice regarding the wing tips. I was fascinated to see the photo of the replica at Tangmere (not far from where my sister lives - I must pop in next time).

Brian, Nick: yes, you don't forget it, do you? I saw the Caroline Grace Spitfire a few years ago and the noise made an indelible impression. A few months later I was in the garden at a friend's barbecue near Slough when we heard that same engine sound, gradually approaching. One cue a couple of said: that sounds like a Spit! Indeed it was.

Olddudders: that's a marvellous (if tragic) story...

Just set it as my background, cheers.

Hi Mallard

No - this is my first Chivers kit, although I've got the pigeon van to do as well. I think I bought both at Warley last year.

The Centenary is the comet sides (and white metal and brass bits) on an Airfix/Hornby donor model. A skilled modeller could probably do a quicker (and certainly tidier) job by building the complete Comet kit, I suspect, but I'm happy enough with mine - it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, but it will be fine as part of a train.

cheers!

Woke up this morning, decided I couldn't live with it - so out with the knives and the plastikard! Rather than attempt to fill the window recess, I'm simply fixing a rectangle of thin sheeting over the entire door area. Once this is blended with the existing profile, and painted and lined, it should look of a piece with the rest of the model. Some lining came adrift with handling, so that's another thing to fix...

Ah well, I'm getting there and this was always going to be a slow one. I can't wait to see it finished and running in a rake - and then I'll crack on with the diner.

Hmmm... had a bit of shock tonight. I've been gradually readying the Centenary for its varnish coat, before final finishing and installation of glazing, when I decided I needed to refer back to the reference photos to check for the correct treatment of the drop window frames. I spent last week doing the interior (tedious! I One thing I learned, if I didn't already know it after doing some Slaters kits, is that I didn't get into this hobby to do coach interiors!). Anyway, tonight I looked at the prototype photos again and had a bit of a facepalm moment: there shouldn't be a door on the left side of the coach as seen in the top picture - just a plain panel where the body tapers back to the ends.

Eek! How I didn't spot this before I don't know, but now I'm unsure what to do. It's no fault of the Comet parts, of course, just my failure to pay due attention when applying them to the Airfix mouldings. I think I can correct the error without damaging the rest of the paintwork, only requiring local repainting, but I'm going to sleep on it first.

It's not the first time I've referred back to a photo only to see something I'd missed a million times before, but it's always a bit of a shocker when it happens, especially this late in a modelling project.