Giles

Worms are typically 25 - 35% efficient, with only very well designed worm and gears gaining significantly higher efficiencies. This crane has a whole lot of lead in it, so it's a fair weight, but this 6mm diameter gearmotor can shift it with no problem, and push and pull stock with ease. It's fundamentally down to a) gearing right down and b) using high efficiency gearing all the way.

I use the 100rpm version of these gearmotors, and useful they are too...... they are generally happiest when fed with 60 - 100 Hz, but like all these small motors, unnecessary load is the killer, and worms are generally the worst, impacting on (lack of) slow speed performance. I generally use 0.3 or 0.4 Mod brass bevel gears, which are pricy in comparison, but set against the overall cost of a model, well worth it. I usually have to open out the bore of the bevel gear out to suit both the gearmotor and the axle. I run these off Lipo 3,7v (actually 4.2V ) with no problem. The benefit of bevel gears is that all your reduction is done in the highly efficient planetary gearbox, and your final drive is over 90% efficient as well. Below is a 40rpm version powering a heavy EM gauge steam crane (radio controlled) which it does with no problem at all (The battery and receiver are in the crane body itself, with the two hoist motors and slew motor)

Yes - Receivers consume power when they're turned on, whether they are in action or not..... You may find slow speed (if you can get them) 6mm gearmotors driving through bevel gears provide the most efficient drive. micron Tx 22 transmitter will allow you to control up to 12 different locos with the one transmitter, as long as you use Receivers with the -22 suffix. You can get a very wide variety of batteries, and if you choose a wide flat one (4mm thick); you may very well get a full day's work out of it (600mAh say.bearing in mind the main load is the receiver!) You know know they're running out when they suddenly become a bit unreliable! I wouldn't bother using recycled toy car stuff - the proper stuff from Micron is very much better and simpler, and probably very little more expensive.

I'm sure Martin Evans published something very useful...... LBSC is excellent for the smaller sizes up to 5", but no bigger than that. Henry Greenly is very sound and wrote a very useful book on miniature locomotive construction on 71/4 and larger

This is my current project using Sunlu ABS like resin - a 16mm scale 'Tattoo' building on a Mars 2 Pro. It is getting almost no cleaning up , apart from support positions of course. Note the safety valve springs, printed in situ.

Superb! I too use the Elegoo settings......

Painted cloths are a practical problem in all sizes. I come from a theatre background where this is our bread and butter. Cloths may be canvas (rather too heavy in this scenario) , filled cloth or gauze - all of which have variations of weight, weave, attributes and uses. When painting, whey are stretched out battened to a paint frame or floor, first for a coat of primer, and then for painting. If one paints a cloth loose, it will shrink erratically and will never be a flat surface again. Only when the cloth is fully painted and fully dry is it freed. It will then be very carefully rolled on a batten or pipe for transport. Cloths will normally have ties at the top to tie them onto a flying bar, and a pocket at the bottom to slide in (nowadays) steel electrical condiut tube to act as a weight at the bottom to give an even, gentle pull, giving a nice smooth cloth. The sides may be pocketed for more conduit, or just seamed and cyclorama stretchers used - wooden clamps that grip the cloth with sash cord attached to gently pull the sides out into the wings to get rid of the inevitable slight vertical wrinkles that you get at the sides of a hanging cloth. If, however you are thinking of bringing the sides of the cloth downstage to cover the ends of the layout, it becomes more complicated, as a cloth on a curve (unless loose, and with associated wrinkles) does Odd things. Curved bars top and bottom are the thing for that, but this leads to lighting complications as well!!! For my last layout, I got a backcloth photo printed to my own artwork of a cloudy sky, which gave me a flat non cracking, non shrunk material that behaves itself. It came with pockets ready-made top and bottom (at my request) and survives being rolled well. Mine is 10ft x 5ft if I remember correctly, and came from one of these on-line banner making websites. The material I think would be either a heavy gauze or a light filled cloth - I can't quite remember

I built a 7mm radio controlled Aveling Porter, by converting a Duncan Models white metal kit. This has working motion. At some stage I would like to do one with flanged wheels!

Holy War will be along shortly.....

Thank you! This is the other end, which shows some individual clumps, done in exactly the same way of course. One of the key things is the shorter the growth, the darker it is, and the longer the growth the more prone it is to be lighter (depending on the time of year). But it does work aesthetically.

This is 16mm scale, and in consequence, the length of fibres and density is far more than even my souped-up Grass-master will cope with. In consequence all the grass is laid by hand. The fibres (between 6 and 20mm long of different greens) and mixed thoroughly, and a small handful taken and rolled into a cylinder to align the fibres, the end pinched off and the pinching placed in the glue, ad infinitum....

fully grassed up, but of course there will be additional stuff. Meanwhile I've got a couple of other things I really have to get on with!

The grass is nearly all done now having taken two weeks, having been applied pinch by pinch (for want of a better term....). It now needs nettles and whatever else I can figure out how to make!

I remotored this with a cheap N30 gearmotor, as the supplied Slaters unit was far too fast for what I wanted, and the one time I approached them about swapping it for the slower speed version, they said that it was the slow speed one without checking... The N30 is a bit more powerful, much slower, and 3v, so I can use it straight off a 1S Lipo battery which simplifies things. It is however , much noisier, but I will live with that! Using 1S means that I'm using a smaller battery (comparatively). In theory, with motor and steam, I should get 8 hours out of it. However, I expect it to be a little less. TPH - thank you!