micked

How about something like an inspection saloon and saying that she's rolled in to town as part of the celebrations of the local King Stephen's School's 500 year anniversary.

Great work Charlie_k. That second photo could easily pass for a photo of the real thing. That rusty crane is outstanding. Mick

What a wonderful idea! I was wondering whether 'low-relief' coaches from old HO Playcraft coaches might work as well? Mind you, they could be collectable antiques these days as far as I know. I'm really enjoying this thread, and will keep a look out for updates. Mick

Thanks for those ingenious flux bottle tips everyone. I'll keep a look out for suitable scraps this week and see what I come up with. Snow and freezing weather kept me at home today, giving me the opportunity to progress with the chassis. Next step was going to be the construction and installation of the Comet gearbox. Everything was going very nicely until I managed to loosen the worm's grub screw a bit too much, which sent it flying away to goodness knows where. Not a disaster, but it did mean the end of work for the day. I've ordered a few more grub screws from Wizard, and construction will continue in a few days' time. Here's a shot of progress so far, and everything is still square and free-running. Must clean out the rest of those filings from the gearbox -- it's amazing what photos reveal. Thanks again Anthony, 57xx, Serron and Mark for those suggestions All the best Mick

Thanks Anthony! That sounds like just the sort of thing I need to make. Liquid flux all over the kitchen worktop probably isn't a good idea. (The reason I work in the kitchen is because it has a good extractor fan, which is handy for fumes. It's also nice and warm, which is handy for December) Mick

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours today, starting a Comet N2 chassis. The Poppy's jig described in the last post seems to have worked a treat, and everything seems to have come out nice and square and solid. Surprise, surprise the chassis with coupling rods even rolls along very freely smoothly indeed, with the lightest prod of the little finger. As feared/expected there were a couple of minor mishaps along the way. I'm either going to have to be a lot more careful or failing that make some sort of contraption to make knocking over the bottle of liquid flux more difficult. Probably the latter. So far, so good and I'm feeling quite pleased with progress so far. All the best Mick (Edited for silly typo)

It's been ages since I last posted here, but this morning I managed to complete my first kit in quite a while. No it's not a crude attempt at the Fell, but a Poppy's Loco Builder Box. I gave in to temptation at the Peterborough show a month or two ago and bought a Comet chassis. I should get around to starting it in a week or two - exciting times! As for the Loco Builder Box; it went together a treat. Assembly took half an hour at the most, and the best part of that time was taken up checking that everything was solid and square. Let's hope that the chassis construction is just as straightforward. Until the next time, All the best Mick

The day's family commitments have fallen through, the event's just up the road (literally) and I've just started working for Warners; so where else could I possibly go on Sunday -- thoroughly looking forward to it! Mick

...and this one was built to take the inspector's saloon around the Metropolitan lines.

Thanks cctransuk. I've had a quick look through your website, and that's quite a mind boggling selection of transfers, and I'll certainly be putting in an order next time I need to letter one of my wagons. Mick

Hi Risdale. The ones I used are from Modelmaster. I think from sheet: MM8055 Parkside PC52 B.R. Conflat A with BD Container for the container. Mick

After cctransuk pointed out that the colour of my container's lettering should really should be straw yellow, rather than white, I set about rectifying the matter. Remembering the generally translucent nature of yellow paints, I painted a yellow wash over the lettering. This had the effect of turning the lettering to a more acceptable colour, while barely changing the darker colour of the body. A coat of matt varnish later you can't see the join (especially in this rather shakey photo). I don't have any prototype photos of the containers as built, so can't be sure that the style of lettering is correct for the early period, but I'm happy enough. Just study what I've done very carefully 57xx, and then do the exact opposite. You won't go wrong. Mick Edited to replace blurred photo with a better one

I remember wondering about different axle lengths a couple of months back when buying wheels for a Cambrian wagon, and came across this on RMWeb: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117242-what-wagon-wheels-are-these-256mm-axle-length/ I decided after reading to use Romfords/Markits on all my wagons Probably not much help, but I found it interesting. Mick

Thanks 57xx. I like your way of thinking! Yup! Fender Jazz. Mick

Thanks Zero Gravitas. It looks as if I've got my brake handles on the wrong sides again on the wagon on the left. Not the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last! Luckily they're the easiest things to detach and swap over.