Bruciethefish

Regretfully a reissue of this kit is a complete non-starter, particularly as the original tooling was destroyed by the etchers & my hand-drawn artwork is no longer suitable for today's production methods.. Model rail kept repeating the ad despite my efforts to change it..

Absolutely dismayed at this sad news. Best wishes to Derek & Co, you will be missed...

I've recently redesigned the Adams '0395' kit to fit the Hornby J15 loco & tender chassis. The revised kit is available now. Also nearly on the point of production is the B4x 4-4-0, designed to fit a Hornby 'T9' chassis. This will feature resin loco body & tender, with cast metal detail parts. I'm still trying to get the website updated with the help of a computer-literate friend, so enquiries are best directed via email

Good evening everybody, I'm looking for a little help;- the etchers I've been using have gone into administration, & it seems I'm one of the last to hear about it. Everone I know in the trade has already been to their Walsall, West Midlands premises to retrieve their tooling. I have only a single photo tool there, & will have to drive all the way from the south coast to the Birmingham area to recover this unless I can find another solution. I'm wondering if anyone else is likely to be going there, & if so could rescue my filmwork & post it to me? The firm of liquidators were of no help whatsoever.. Grateful if anyone can assist.. Chris, 'Golden Arrow'

I too have only just heard this really sad news. Jeff was a lovely bloke who will be really badly missed within the hobby..

Attempting to order some of these wheels, but in certain cases there's only a single set left, which is little use to man or beast.. I think they're just running down the existing stocks, rather than new production, but I sincerely hope they prove me wrong!

Wooden fence posts usually weather to a greyish brown tinge when they've been subjected to sunlight for a few years, while concrete posts start off as basically light grey, but then get colonised by lichens, which can be pale blue-grey, greenish yellow, or even orange or red. A good way to reproduce this is to paint the post grey, then lightly dip an old toothbrush in a suitable weathering colour paint, point it at your parts, then pull a coffee stirrer or similar towards you so that tiny spots of the paint are flicked at the job.. This can look quite effective with a little experimentation, but beware of flicking paint where it's not wanted!

I'd suggest removing the printed detail;- another way of doing this is to flood the area with microsol decal setting solution, then rub away with a cocktail stick. If the resulting surface still looks a little lumpy, you can lightly rub with a little 00000 grade wire wool. A specific plastic primer spray can be used as a barrier coat, & this will reveal any areas still requiring attention before you apply the final top coat. Incidentally, the phenomenon where previous work done on something shows through the eventual finish is known in the trade as 'witnessing'...

A recently departed friend chose three helpings of unintelligible scandinavian heavy metal which had most of us looking at one another in utter confusion, then as the curtains closed we got the goon's 'Ying tong song' to walk out to... I bet he was laughing....

Just out of interest, the stock at 'Golden Arrow is quite good at the moment. Most of the pens in stock will draw at the worst a 0.15mm line, while the best will go down to 0.05-ish.. I find that even Haff pens straight from the factory can be improved with a little careful work...

I just worry about the orangutans;- these are special creatures, & it's appalling what's being done to them. Any initiative which gives them a better chance of survival gets my backing...

I had trouble believing this, - not that I'm complaining... item no. 152884719003

The focal length of the lens through which the photo is taken will also have a significant effect on the perceived proportions of the image. A wide-angle lens producing a much greater distortion than a telephoto one. This is one of the reasons you need more than one photo, & preferably more than one known dimension to work from. Given that it is generally safe to assume that solebars, running plates etc are going to be parallel to the track, one can extrapolate height if a vertical dimension is known. Similarly, buffers tend to be spaced at a fairly standard distance apart as stock has to be compatible with anything it's likely to be coupled to... While whatever method one uses is likely to introduce at least some minor errors, if no reliable period drawing exists & your effort looks right, then it probably is!

This is a lot easier to do manually if you're able to obtain photos taken from a long way away from the subject, where the image will exhibit much less distortion than in a close-up or angled view. It does help a lot to know a couple of main dimensions, such as wheelbase / diameter, distance between buffers, etc...

I'm pretty sure a light pacific took us on a school outing to Romney marsh from Ore, some 50-odd years ago, but the details are somewhat fuzzy..

The only real way of proving an item has been collected by a buyer is to ask them to bring proof of identity with them, (take a copy or photo of same) & then get them to sign a receipt, saying that they have approved & taken the item. This really cannot be argued with.. The young lady in my local corner shop was scammed out of an expensive laptop by some unscrupulous scoundrel using exactly the method mentioned, so it pays to be careful...

Virtually all mains-powered fan motors will be induction types, i.e. brushless, as these are the norm for low-power applications, having a low current consumption & long operating life. Motors with brushes are more generally used in domestic appliances such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, & refrigerators where a much higher power output is required in order for the appliance to function effectively. I've been using an 'Xpelair' fan (fished from a skip) on a regular basis for 20-odd years, & just knock the dried paint off it every 5 years or so when it starts to lose its suck, or the shutters start to stick... I've used just about every kind of paint or solvent you're likely to encounter, & have never, ever managed to cause anything to ignite. The real problem with volatile solvents or gases comes when they exist within an unventilated or confined space where vapours can build up to a potentially explosive level. In an 'open' situation such as a basic domestic spray booth operating in free air & discharging outdoors, these circumstances are highly unlikely to arise... Let's enjoy our painting & try not to worry, shall we?

Maybe I'll have to stock up on some more, then... I really don't know what's got into folk.... ( But I'm not complaining...)

I don't either, except hurrah! I really don't know what's come over them;- maybe they think there's gold hidden inside?

There can be a problem using varnishes, or indeed other paints over the Halford's spray finishes, which is due to residual thinners not having fully evaporated before the other coat is applied. The original spraycan thinner slowly leaches from the surface, but is prevented from evaporating by the layer over it, which softens instead. I've found that it's best to leave the job for at least a fortnight in a warm place before attempting to apply an enamel based coat over the top.. There can also be an issue with bubble wrap, which I've found can affect seemingly dry paint finishes for several weeks after painting. Whether this is due to residual thinners, or something like plasticisers present in the wrapping I'm unsure, but worth knowing.. I like what you've done with the model thus far;- an excellent job coming together...

Looks like a page taken out of the 'Railway junction diagrams' book, especially as it has a page number....

The L1 body was a fairly decent representation of the prototype, & can be turned into a good model with some extra detailing. I cut away the awful 'skirt' ahead of the leading splasher, then filled the void under the boiler with a slice cut from a suitable plastic tube. The only trouble with the original chassis, apart from the overscale height, is that the XO4 motor protrudes into the cab..

Considering where I live, some of my main interests are LBSC & SECR, Though I'm also modelling pre-group Isle of Wight & early Somerset & Dorset, with a little LSWR thrown in, all of which then go through into SR & a little BR as well. I particularly enjoy painting the early liveries, though after more than half a lifetime in the business, I still haven't managed to build a layout...

Not exactly in revenue-earning service, but a rake of 3 Maunsell restriction 'O' carriages could be found inside Tunbridge Wells west shed up until the 80's, along with a 4-wheel utility van fitted out with a generator. This supposedly 'secret' train had been stripped internally & fitted out with offices & communications equipment, the intention being for its use as a mobile control centre in the event of nuclear war. I seem to remember they were painted a drab brown when I saw them.- No doubt other regions of BR had similar trains stashed in out of the way places?

Roxey do a quite extensive range of coach kits suitable for IoW use, including LBSC Stroudley 4-wheelers, Metropolitan 8-wheelers, plus LBSC & SECR bogie stock. All kits prototypically accurate for the island are labelled with 'IOW' within an island outline.