Hal Nail

Might be easier to judge after a waft of primer? Different colours often makes things stand out.

Wasn't entirely clear what the question was but in terms of whether particular locos carried green at all, rail online, colour rail and the transport library are all good sources of photos, albeit many in black and white which makes it hard to tell if the loco is grubby and you cant see any lining.

Slightly being held up waiting for bits at present - I've had a run of being sent the wrong parts which happens sometimes. Probably as well I don't attempt to spray in snow though. Are there any options for decent etched smokebox number plates other than Severn Mill? Narrow Planet plates are excellent value but their smokebox numbers at 3.5 x 10mm just look really small to me - all my locos with pre printed ones are nearer 4 x 12. Severn Mill are excellent but pricey, especially if its only the smokebox plate I need from each set.

There are more spares being produced, according to Ben elsewhere on here. I'm not defending the situation but making a batch of anything is dependent on getting a production slot. To be honest, even though I am irritated by this as I have one of the models and am similarly affected, i'm surprised after 10 years or so they are actually making any more spares now.

Perhaps in assessing if something captures the key characteristics, most people don't focus on a tiny part of the roof (or the cab doors)?

Just read in the 7mm modelling thread Improving Heljan Mogul slow running, Simon D mentioned pressing a piece of paper down to test stay alive and run it over that. If it gets most of the way across it's working!

Given it is rare (at least in my experience) to connect so well that one lusty blow is sufficient, perhaps a better analogy here would be to point out that hammering away unnecessarily risks damaging the surrounding surface... Based on this recent photo and the earlier head on shot, I'd be interested to see the improvement in the face from filing a bit off the bottom of the cab which would make it look a bit less long and thin. This would open up the gap above the buffers which is fine as there is scope for that. I think you might be able to get away with only moving the lamp irons up and the rest of the detail would still work.

I'd normally use tissue - the thinking behind card was to purely to overcome the kinks in the brass you mentioned.

Just a thought on the roof, as they were covered in material, I think, could a solution be to trim the brass to be a tight fitting support and cover with a false card overlay?

Tower state 200 of each livery.

This is on Towers home page. Dapol Class 122 DMU update Latest news from Dapol in regard to the long awaited Class 122 is that they have now been completed and are ready for despatch. Dapol hope to arrange shipping from China before the beginning of Chinese New Year on the 12th of February. So long as they can get them off before Chinese New Year they should become available around the end of March if everything goes to plan.

https://images.app.goo.gl/q9qr6qYtpXHFLQD98

Well you cant see its lhd in the box

Ah but that would be cheating! IPA repeatedly wiped on with a cotton bud and wire wool once the paint softened did the trick

https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/adding-sound-to-Heljan-class-20s.6731/ This any help? Googling "sound fitting a Heljan 20" comes up with quite a bit.

4505 is progessing slowly. I've spent an age fettling the safety valve/top feed to fit. Some pros on here build a whole kit in the time it has taken me. The smoke box saddle is slightly too far forward and this showed when I lined the steam pipes up with the chimney. I've added a small extension at the rear of the saddle to cheat the eye. I managed to strip the side tank and bunker with IPA. I started with a cotton bud, then a brillo and finally ended up grabbing wire wool! I wont mess about with the other side!

I'm not! Surely you've seen the frothing on here every time something is announced. Do you really think every purchase gets used?

Rails have listed a load of 7mm stock today at between 25% and 50% more than the usual going rate (eg £100 for a Dapol brake van that were £70 brand new until recently). They may well be fairly generous with offers but clearly they are experienced enough to know what they can get away with and since there is always someone prepared to pay, that then validates it and drives up expectation for next time.

For my A33 I've been using the spirit of these taken at Didcot. I don't have lighting inside so aim for the right fleeting impression rather than strict accuracy. That earlier GWR N coach has been sold on to help fund the conversion I'm doing into a 70 footer. CPL appear to do triangles, not sure about the smoking. https://www.cplproducts.net/transfers--prints.html

Tell me about it. On my "Cooper Craft" china clay conversion I shaved all the extras off a donor then glued them back on. As a result my rake of 8 stalled after the first wagon! Mind you I bought a scratch built 3 plank off Dock Green and Chaz had drilled every bolt and used plastic rod.

So you are saying DMJ produced better models than ancient inherited stuff that's been rehashed a couple of times on the cheap? A rare bit of praise for him!

The ringed parakeets were conspicuous by their absence. No doubt having masked the extent of their world takeover by avoiding the survey, they will be back in numbers today. Actually on a serious note I have hardly seen a Goldfinch this year. Will be interesting to see how their numbers are holding up.

I'd be happy with that. Most of the time I get very little going on but occassionally several groups of species all together. I'm not sure if they attract each other or just means conditions were good generally.

Shared paths work infinitely better with a line down the middle - its not foolproof because you will always get peolple who ignore it, but it does help the issue of people panicking over which way to go. I think pedestrians often dont hear the bikes coming from behind until they hear a sound very close at the last second and instinctively flinch away from the noise, which usually means leaping straight into its path. Thay happens less when there is a line. In terms of e scooters, for me the big difference between them and bikes is that while they are both dangerous on pavements, scooters are also a monumental menace on the roads. They accelerate and can go far too fast to be safe and are nippy and unpredictable compared to a bike, let alone a car, so very unpleasant to be around. I would welcome mandatory proficiency for cycles - it would benefit other cyclists just as much as anyone else. I'd probably ban scooters but with better speed limits and similar training they might have a role.

33, 35, 37, 47 all mentioned here. Heljans announcement that spares were moving to Gaugemaster mentioned 26, 33 and original 37.