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Very nice, what did you use for the lettering? We've got loads of these to build up and that's a potential sticking point

How about soldering a wiper pickup direct to the frame and mount it so it bears on the back of the wheel or the tread?

The key word in Paul's post is 'building', not selling on at inflated prices

This is where I've got to with the farmhouse The ground floor windows of the house this is loosely based on all conveniently have shutters, I have finished fitting these and I am now working on the doors. All of the farm buildings at this end if the layout are based on real structures in Acq, just outside Arras. The barn is an almost completely faithful copy, with a few slight tweaks, the farmhouse has a different style of roof to the building it is based on. Making sure the style of building is appropriate for the chosen area of France has been made a lot simpler by street view. Mike

Very nice. What period will you be going for with these?

Here's an update on progress. I've managed to finish a large part of one of the farm buildings Apologies for the poor photo, I ran out of light... This will be placed between the loops and the road. Still do do are the sliding doors at the right hand end, a pair of double doors in the centre and windows. Then on to painting The farm house isn't too far behind, the main shell is fabricated and scribed, it now needs a first floor adding and then doors, windows and roof. Mike

The pontoon is built entirely (so far) out of plasticard sheet between 5 and 20 thou thick to a plan in a WW1 bridging manual. There has been a fair bit of trial and error with it and cutting bits oversize to start with, then trimming down to fit. I'm pleased with how it's going so far but I'm not sure I'd like to build another.

A little bit of a rolling stock update. I'm in the process of converting a batch of wrightlines E class wagons into F class wagons by cutting the sides down to the solebars. Then they'll need stanchions adding and a few other details. So far I have most of the body of the first wagon soldered together. After I've got the first one built there should be a batch of another 7 to do, some of which may get brackets added to carry field guns. Mike

A long bolt with a nut fixed part way up would be a better solution, effectively a piece of threaded bar, at the time I had a few bolts to hand but none were long enough to do the job in one. I had to remove quite a lot of metal from the backs of the cylinders as well to get enough sideways movement for the bogie.

How have you fixed the bogie on the hunslet? The one I've built to O14 will go round a 2'3" (scale 30m) radius curve, there is a bit of side play in the rear axle and I soldered 2 bolts together head to head to make a threaded bar, this both holds the front of the chassis to the smoke box and attaches the bogie, which also has a spring pressing on it, since there is so much weight so far forward this was the only way I could balance the loco (along with a bunker full of lead) I didn't like the etched bar supplied in the kit to attach the bogie, it needs to carry some of the loco weight which also helps the pickups http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/12881-on-mikes-multiscale-workbench/&do=findComment&comment=419604 Mike

Cooking lager? (I believe that was the term Jason used)

Did anyone pick up the piece of paper with the number of times we were asked about the backscene on it? Had a cracking weekend helping operate BCB, I'd gladly do it again. Thanks Mike

I've had two of these, both bought when they were on offer. For the price they are really quite good, you do have to be careful with white metal at times though. The first iron I have like this now only has full power and off as options but is still ok for brass and nickel silver, it doesn't owe me anything at just over a tenner!

Very nice. I have found the drivetrain on one of these to be quite noisy because of the reduction ratios involved, have you found a way to quieten it down at all? Thanks Mike

Very nice Paul. What time period are you aiming for with it? It's a bit early for Greyscroft isn't it?

Hi Charles, It could be a less common design, although I am working from a dimensioned drawing which also includes the A frames used to both space the duckboards off the bottom of a trench and hold boards in place to stabilise the sides of the trench. They scale at 7' by 18", although that is over the timber runners length wise, the boards cover between 6' and 6'6" of that. I agree that they would have been made locally, there were some fairly extensive forestry operations going on and a number of sawmills to try and cope with demand for timber. I have made a bit more progress on the pontoon, I am now at the detailing stage: Thanks Mike

A bit of an update on the pontoon. By the end of last night I had largely completed the framing for the end of the pontoon. This evening I managed to get one side covered, the other shouldn't be far behind. Then its on to detailing it. Mike

We haven't got very far with wagon loads yet, I think the latest plan is to get some shells turned and then resin cast them, for ammunition boxes we might get them 3d printed. You must have a lot of patience making the duckboards up like that, that's why I got ours laser cut! They weren't all that cheap though, but if you price the time saved I think it was worth it, its a lot less fiddly as well. I think I may have to give your sandbag method a try, it looks very effective.

My first order of duckboards arrived yesterday, so far I have managed to assemble 40 of them Only about another 45 of them to go from this batch... If we end up loading wagons with these we're going to need more than 100 per wagon Mike

The camouflage is close to one used by some units on Salisbury Plain, although there are a couple of extra colours added. I think it was likely made up by a previous owner, probably the one who put the diesel engine in. It was a very close nearly....

The car That was about the only trip I did on the road this year, its thirsty, needs a tax disk, insurance etc. etc. Worth every penny though, the looks on people's faces are priceless. I did nearly succeed in remodelling an Audi for someone who wanted to play chicken with me that day...

They do.... This one prefers diesel instead though. All things considered it was the most expensive ice cream I've ever had. Most enjoyable drive to get an ice cream ever though.

My other hobby... A teensy bit more pricey than a loco kit... (I took it out to get an ice cream - earlier in the year) Mike

A couple of photos of the mostly completed first pontoon section Hopefully I should get a fair bit of the first end section done tonight Mike

Thanks, Both of our copies have now arrived We're fairly sure the photo caption was wrong. I have all but finished the first part of the pontoon (a week ago....), I'll try and post a photo later, the next section is an end piece and is going to take a bit longer to make. (Curves in 3 directions rather than 1.....) Mike