Barry Ten

Are you setting up on Friday afternoon/evening. Dave?  I can drive down if needed. I'll do Parkrun saturday morning, so will be down around 11 ish I imagine. Can you keep put of mischief until then?

My first digital camera was a Lumix FZ30. After the slightly upgraded FZ50 came out, I gave the FZ30 to my dad. My FZ50 was later stolen

but I liked it so much I bought a second hand one from ebay. Wjhen my dad passed away my wife got the original FZ30 back and now I must

admit I grab either one depending on which has the full battery load.

I later bought a Lumix G with interchangeable lenses but I still tend to grab the FZ50 or 30 as I know I'll get reliable results each time, whereas

the G - probably because it's more powerful - isn't quite as user-friendly.

Great pictures, anyway, Dave. Will we be seeing two bogie clerestories at Cardiff?

I'm away from home, but if I'm remembering rightly, and belatedly, in his book on painting and lining, Ian Rathbone says that you can sometimes fix the orange peel problem by immediately straying the model with pure thinners, which softens the paint layer and encourages the dips and bumps to flatten out. I've run into ye olde orange peel often enough that I'll give it a go next time.

In my case the whisky is often the cause of the modelling catastrophes, not part of the solution...

1 hour ago, BRIAN T said:

Looks great Al ,I really like the safety valve cover is it a replacement

 

Hi Brian - now you mention it, I think the top of the safety valve was missing on the black one, so I transplanted a replacement from some other loco body. I think on the green one, it's just the Lima original.

Tonight's homework was to strip down the chassis of this one and fit a Bachmann decoder:

This was an old split-frame chassis but it's always run well and when I got it all in bits, I was pleased to see no sign of any

axle muff splitting. The only tricky bit, after isolating the motor terminals from the frames, was persuading it all back

together. There turned out to be enough room to fit the decoder on top of the chassis. I'm always a bit wary of these

hardwired installations so was careful to test it all on the program track before applying full power. 

Definitely adds a nice bit of depth.

Avert your eyes, Wenlock - such modernity may bring on the palpitations.

Great weekend, a fine layout, some good laughs and probably too much beer into the bargaiin.

2 hours ago, Job's Modelling said:

Some beautiful pictures of your layout. Nice story about the way managed to get your pub in the layout again.

Thanks, Job!

On 29/08/2019 at 19:36, down the sdjr said:

I love the wire on the telegrath poles, what did you use? Ratio poles i presume.

Yes, Ratio poles with EZ Line. Not to everyone's taste but I like the effect.

19 minutes ago, wenlock said:

Good to see the Swan has found a new home  I like the way that you include models with sentimental value back into the layout, the pub looks very much at home nestled into the hillside.

I'm a sentimental old fool, really.

3 hours ago, BlackRat said:

Used to build those kits on a Saturday night whilst watching the Generation Game.

Can still smell the Uhu glue now!

Saturday nights? Generation game? Smell of UHU? Jumpers for goalposts?

Well worth the trouble!

Many thanks, I'm not a regular user of that website but I'll have a look.

Very nice, it's not only pleasing to see a halt modelled, but to get that rising scenery from the low ground at the front, is very effective.

My dad was born in Shillingstone (and my great grandfather worked on Blandford station) so my layout was originally going to be

based on that part of the S&D, like yours. But it gradually mutated into the GWR - but still in Dorset! It could go back to an S&D layout

in the future, though, as all the platforms, buildings and signals are removable. I'd be pleased if I did as good job as you've done

here.

Hope this is of some help.

I've just taken it out of its box for the first time in about five years and II can see some areas that need attention, such as the finger marks

on the side tanks, not to mention the steps and other detail parts still needing to be fitted.

I think the weathering was all done with dry brushed enamels - I would be more likely to use the Lifecolor acrylics now as they dry quicker,

are very matt, and nice to work with.

The 4MT tank is an excellent model as you say. I did some light weathering on mine when it came (mainly dry brushing I think) out so I'll dig out a photo later.

The weathering on these locos was all done with brushes by the way. I brush on this stuff straight from the pot:

and then almost immediately take most of it off using cotton buds, leaving just a residue in corners, around

boiler bands etc. The stuff dries quickly so layers of weathering can be built up very easily. If you put too much

on, or decide you don't like the finish (even if it's months later) it comes off quite easily with acrylic thinners

or alcohol. With some of my locos, I cut back the weathering a bit after living them with a while. 

No, it is blue green! I mixed up some acrylic paint to try to tone down the long grass in the field behind the loco, which didn't work very well, and in the process dropped some of it on the foreground. and then tried to blend it in. It was a poor choice of colour to begin with, far too blue in tone.  That whole embankment begs to be retreated.

Fittingly, perhaps, the lighting tube just over this bit died this morning, so no more shots of this area until a replacement arrives.

Well worth the trip over to see it, Colin - unless Dave can swing an invitation to Melbourne!

Yes, there's definitely something a bit psychedelic going on with that grass!

Hi Dave, good to see you at the weekend. With the lighter fluid, do you use a particular brand? I seem to remember being told that only Ronson fluid works, which might be why I didn't have much joy using the Swan fluid I was able to buy locally. 

I also wasn't sure whether you're meant to use the fluid in the paint jar, or just in the reservoir of the pen.

It is very satisfying, yes.

Getting things straight is a bit of a preoccupation of mine now as I've learned the hard way, having to do remedial work on kits after I'd built them, because they looked OK as they went together, but then further examination showed things to be amiss. It even happened with the Bird class, which I was cross with myself for as I'd taken a lot of time in the preparatory work, but then rushed one of the critical stages - and then had to spend a day fixing something that needn't have happened.

I've done a fair bit more on the E1 so I'll post another update later. 

Thanks, Jon - glad it hits the spot!

I didn't fancy tackling the De Glehn right now so I made a start on a simpler loco, a DJH SE&CR D1 class 4-4-0. So far so good although being white metal, it's much more nose-heavy than the Bulldog.

Thank you - much appreciated.