Giles

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!

Thank you! Its a Deltang Rx41 that's actually in the ashpan. The 1800mAh battery is in the firebox/boiler, with the front 2/3rds of the boiler and smokebox containing the water tank/smoke unit

Devcon in the big bottles.... 5 minute..... if I want more strength, I mix talcum powder in with it....

Slater's included some nice nameplates for its original name, but I wanted to build the loco as Holy War, and although etched plates are avaliable, I wanted deeper ones. I therefore tried printing ones with this result. I had to edit the typeface to match the original plates It is these on the loco.

These are the wagons - side tippers printed on my Mars 2 Pro with Binnie wheels.

I forgot to add that this has to be finished for Uckfield in October!!!

Some years ago, Di bought me a Slaters kit for a quarry Hunslet which I just got round to building. But during the build, it occurred to me that it would be fun to have ago at fitting a steam generator in the form of an ultrasonic mister - which works very well. This in turn means it has to have a layout - albeit a very small one - 6ft x 2' 8" plus small and simple fiddle. The baseboard is timber-framed foam to keep the weight down, and the track is Barker's. Point motors are my own design, self locking with un-used frog switching, and led panel indicators. Grass is starting to appear - but it's going to be a massive job, as there is no way even my boosted grass-master can give me anything like the density I want with the long fibre (mix) I'm using (4mm, 6.5mm 12mm and random cut 12 - 30mm horse-hair. A small palm full is taken and rolled into a sort of cylinder, the end pulled off, and the remaining flattened end pushed into the pre-glued surface and torn off - rinse and repeat. It takes a very long time and uses LOADS of fibres. When the glues has dried I then hoover 80% back off and reuse it....

My profuse apologies - you are quite right! I can't read my own diary! Excellent!

Sadly, this clashes with Uckfield which I am committed to (and looking forward to!). I very much hope this isn't a one-off, and I would very much like to come next year!

Hi, no - rather a generic model I'm afraid! This was just an itch I wanted to scratch - I thought it should be possible to make a small fully functioning self propelled crane in 4mm, so I did. I have yet to find a use for it!

For information, this is a Slater's 16mm kit, fitted with a little Deltang Rx43 Receivers and 1800mAh battery. Remotored with an N30 gearmotor, and Steam is provided by an ultrasonic 'mister' disc, driver board, triggered via a 4 beat disc on the leading axle.

First class work!!!