Hal Nail

it might start small....

seeing right through from the guard's end reminds me I have also done this:

Just out of curiousity I had a look at the report function and you have to pick specific issues, none of which apply. There is no facility for anyone to type why something is a problem. Suggests eBay dont really care if a listing is innaccurate or misleading, which I suppose doesnt surprise me.

The replacement wipers in place. Not a perfect fit but better than the originals. Dab of yellow, overhead warning transfer and ready for weathering. Will just leave the headcode blank for now and wait for spare rooves before I plate it over, as I might still revert to slightly earlier.

This appears to be an n gauge pannier sat on an o gauge instruction sheet? Could be ignorance rather than malicious I suppose. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195069984867?hash=item2d6b13c063:g:YicAAOSwDGJih-dG

The Dapol mounting is quite large so will probably have to live with that or remove it and have to touch up the yellow but I think it is worth it. I'd meant to buy 3 one way and one the other for variety but realised I was ordering class 53 by mistake and then forgot and got 2 of each.

Class 121 bits have arrived so have renumbered mine today (Railtec) and working on the destination boxes. The top and bottom strips are slightly chamfered so I can slide in alternative names. Some Heljan class 50 wipers are much finer than Dapols although rather get lost against the thick edges of the glazing.

I'm staying in Southampton so have seen Saints quite a lot this season and, at least in the middle part, they looked really good. Have ended up one point above Everton. Its a funny old game, son!

i generally find cutting and pasting most queries on here into google returns the previous 5 identical threads! Admire the patience of the same people answering every time rather than referring to the previous one! As to people being increasingly lazy and almost totally reliant on internet and apps, these days, (bearing in mind the one thing every place I've ever worked had in common was the the IT department were utterly useless) I am convinced future historians will regard this as a period of decline similar to the post Roman step backwards! On a brighter note, from childhood ive always been a grumpy old git and increasingly find I'm in my element. Every cloud :)

I am as guilty as anyone in being riled by things on eBay at inflated prices but away from the extremes, if a new 7mm Dapol loco is, say £199 in most places reducing to £175 as the box shifters need to sell them, average eBay new price will still be £225. What I always wonder is do people ever actually buy the stuff that's on way above easily found retail prices elsewhere?

Thought this photo worth linking as shows the destination box really clearly. https://christrerise.smugmug.com/DMUs/Class-121-Bubble-Car/i-hdkN6m7/A

Classic RMWeb.

I'd instinctively* feel that nests would be tucked in next to the skylight rather than by the canopy edge. *I feel I should perhaps qualify this assertion as i am not actually a gull. edit: I've just remembered they are only there to point out magnets. How about strategic white bird sh&£?

Or on the sea.....

Is that 4 now or was this one of the pair that we've seen before?

I have several Dapol 7mm models which seem to have turned out pretty well even without my input and I doubt having updates would have speeded up delivery, so I'd rather not pay more by way of passed on cost.

They seem to have sorted out the shape concerns that were widely discussed from the early images. They've had a lot of flack for not doing so in the past so credit where it is due!

Bit of a result today as have found that although half the Dapol spares disappeared from DCC Supplies website a while back, they do still exist. So have picked up a spare 57xx topfeed and pipes which will go on my Dapol rivetted pannier tank. Meanwhile I've got some Heljan class 50 windscreen wipers from Gaugemaster as they look finer than those on my 121 and I hope they are about the right size.

I hadnt realised we'd met!

As I have pointed out many times before, when asking a question on RMWeb, it really helps if you already know the answer, then you can more easily skip all the guesses and irrelevant stuff :) Have just painted a scrap of shiny plastic in Vallejo primer, gloss and matt varnish out of curiosity. Suspect none will stick very well but i'll let you know. Edit: results now in. I had a scrap of very shiny plasticard that just happened to come supporting some etched parts the other day. I didn't attempt to clean it but did a quick patch of Valejjo acrylic resin matt, and gloss and grey surface primer. The matt varnish was probably the thinnest coat but scratched off very easily with a fingernail (although I'm impressed with the quality of the matt finish!). The grey primer is tougher but does mark a bit. The gloss i cant move at all although there is less key for a finger nail to grip. Anyway for what its worth I'd degrease them then waft gloss on first then matt or satin as desired on top.

Aren't the yellow ones Western region lamp brackets? Just Google Heljan 37 and there are photos of them on models.

pretty sure they abandoned this one quite a while back.

1451 progressing. Its amazing how the green changes with weathering - I wasn't totally convinced by Dapols shade out of the box but it improved for light buffing and then the dirt colour (variations on roughly 4 black to 1 frame dirt - in fact basically the smokebox colour) has warmed it up a bit. I put on as little wash as possible all over the relevant area then dunk the brush in white spirit, wipe off the excess and use the clean damp brush to work the paint back off again, trying not to end up with it flowing everywhere. You get a more even finish than just wiping it off with a cotton bud or tissues which can take the lot off sometimes. Its had a few goes, a little at a time, trying to keep consistency. Half the battle is knowing when to stop fiddling! The top photo is how it looks to the eye just before the sun came out and looks rather harsh! I've separated the smoke box darts, drilled through, threaded onto micro-rod and fixed back at a different angle. Very fiddly but I'm very fussy about darts and decent ones are hard to come by. I bought some very fine lost wax ones by GWR castings at the Dorchester show maybe 30 years ago which were superb but I doubt are still around. Dapol's are very good for plastic, so I bought loads of spares but of course they are all the same if left alone.

Are units technically coaches for numbering purposes? The W differentiates them.