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Thanks very much Jerry, I'll see how the araldite does. How critical do you find the gear meshing by the way? I asked a question about colour matches for LMS crimson lake on the Painting bit of the Skill Centre and got somre very useful replies, thanks to Pete Harvey for one. I also discovered a thread by Mythocentric about real life colour matches where he posts a link to a web-site that does it for you. Brilliant. Here it is. http://scalemodeldb.com

Thanks Jerry. It is a rather nice little piece of kit.How do you attach your motors to the chassis and what sort of gearing do you use? Regards Simon

Right, ha ha! Resistor mounted on little block of PCB and various wires attached in true Frankenstein manner. Motor stuck down with araldite, and it works. Hurrah! Some fiddling and fine tuning to go, but getting there!

Marvellous Ian; thanks very much indeed. While I gird my loins for battle with the resistor, here's how the rolling chassis is taking shape. I've used a spare Farish pony truck with the correct(ish) size wheels fitted. The cylinders have been filed to a more cylindrical shape for added clearance and the cross-head doctored to make it as single barred as Adams intended. The rear truck is a simple bar and tube. Goodness me is N gauge fiddly... The chassis needs some cosmetic work and then...the motor. Exciting!

Thanks Ian, that sounds really good...very achievable! Does it not matter which way around the resistor goes? Ta Simon

Hi folks: A question: I know the thing on the right is a motor 'cos I've seen those before. I'm pretty sure the little blue thingy on the left is the "dropper resistor" because it was in the packet. The instructions say "the resister must be connected in series to the motor and away from direct contact with the motor". Could anyone tell me in very simple words and or pictures, how to connect the two without the sudden explosion of either? Cheers Simon

Hi Rob: Thanks for the colours, I'm going to have to start a list! I was interested in using Vallejo because I too have found them excellent to spray. Also it seems more easy to get acrylics through the postal system.I did find an old, and still viable pot of Precision Crimson Lake enamel in my paint pot pile yesterday so I'll have something to match against any Vallejo colours I can get hold of. I'll let you know the results. Cheers Simon

Hi: Having recently discovered Vallejo acryliccs I was wondering if anyone has come across a match for LMS crimson lake? Or indeed any other railway colour matches for acrylics in general? Regards Simon

Cheers Ian; a fine selection of locomotives, thankyou. And some more interesting thoughts about finishing stuff. I'm going to need a checklist on the wall of my workshop. I'd be very interested in seeing a step-by-step guide on making boiler fittings the next time you're in the mood! I've recently aquired a small (tiny) lathe and may eventually get around to making something on it but I'm not sure where to start (that'll be a matter of confidence...). Simon

Ian, I've found your comments about unfinished projects really intriguing. If I look at my stalled builds many have something in common; I've hit a problem and stopped. While this is not neccessarily a bad thing, it gives you time to think and hopefully aquire the skills and experience to go back and tackle them successfully, they all show a sudden lack of confidence. Interesting! So, applying this to the Tilbury chassis, it struck me that I haven't modified an N Gauge chassis before and was lacking confidence to do something a bit more drastic to it, (and it's not my chassis!). The real difficulty is that I would have normally scratch-built the chassis to fit to the loco body, so the solution, after some thought was to be courageous and adapt the chassis to fit the body in a similar manner to how I would have built my own. So, out came the files and piercing saw once more and I had a good old go at it! Hah! (Horrible cloggy metal it's made of...) Anyway, it's beginning to look like something much more familiar to me. It bolts nicely to the loco body and it's going to have top wipers which I prefer to the originals. All very satisfying, thanks Ian. Back to the body and I've cleaned up and balanced on top, these beautiful boiler fittings from NBrass. Sigh, all happy now. Fine wines beckon. Cheers Simon

Thanks very much folks. Glad you liked the book Jerry. It's one of the reasons that I have so many unfinished modelling projects. Your work is superb and I intend to (eventually) finish the X6 in 2mm finescale. As for N Gauge, I'm suprised at the unavailability of really good N gauge driving wheels, in fact the only source seems to be from butchered ready-to-run locos. I'm going to look into that. Ian, thanks very much for your kind comments, I must say that I do enjoy the detail adding but it does seem to take forever sometimes and while I am very patient I do also seem to have a low boredom threshold...deadlines and/or offers of money generally spur me on to finish stuff. I fully intend to work through my present projects, starting with those that come into the deadline catagory. I occasionally find that I lose confidence too and have to take a step back and do some hard thinking or drinking...I spent all day managing to not work out a good way of attaching the Tilbury chassis to the body so will attempt the problem from a different angle tomorrow. And OzzyO, my apologies for the mistake. I learn from the master! (Both the spelling and the modelling.) Ch33rs Simon

Hi Jerry: wonderful inspirational modelling and cat pictures, that's what the internet is for! Thanks for showing the workings of 766, I'm fascinated by the solutions involved in getting the motor and drive into those tiny jewel-like locos. I hope to get to see Tucking Mill sometime soon and saying hello. Cheers Simon

Made a start on the details. The steam pipes for the cylinders are a pleasant curved shape and I made the pair by soldering a small block to a larger piece to use as a handle before shaping, separating and aralditing them in place. The coal rails were a bu66er (I've learnt how to swear on RMWeb thanks to OzzyO I think...). These were from 0.5mm wire held down with masking tape, filed flat in places and soldered. Goodness does solder get to places you don't want it to. Tank fillers are 10BA bolts filed thinner with 0.5mm brass wire soldered on and shaped. The beautiful turned buffers from the 2mm society (thanks Steve) were given circular bases by adding 16BA washers. The holes were (naturally) slightly too small, so the washers were soldered to thin sheet scrap and drilled a bit larger... And there she is, with blu-tacked chimney and dome. (Blimey, Blu-tack is so much bigger in 2mm!) Cheers Simon

Cheers Andrew: Excellent information on improving Slater's wheels, I'll have a go at some axles for my next 7mm build, which after looking at your beautiful Duchess will probably be one of those! Many thanks again. Simon

Hi Andrew: That's a beautiful build, thanks for the added information. Could you expand a little on your Slater's wheel upgrades? With pictures? Where do you get the telescopic axlesand do you turn the wheel profile at all? And, if you were building an LMS Duchess do you have a method for at least hinting at the hollow axles? I'm asking that because I will eventually get around to building my "City of St Albans" and I do like a hollow axle... Cheers Simon

A few photos of progress on the 2mm Tilbury tank. The other loco is an LSWR X6 which is somewhere on the "to finish list" but a bit of a way down... Cheers Simon

Hi Rich: I was going to get around to resin casting in my next book but I ran out of space! The stuff I use is from Sylmasta.com and I find it to be a very simple system. The rubber is strong and flexible and the resin seems very durable though it does become stiff quite quickly so you have to work fast to introduce it into the mould. (I've not tried anything big yet, though I plan to try casting some early Great Western 4-wheel coach sides.) As you can see from the photos you can get nice fine detail. I met the guy who sells it at Warley Exhibition last year. He's very personable and will show you how to do everything with great enthusiasm. The perfect salesman! He may be there this year or try this address: http://www.sylmasta.com/acatalog/Casting_Kits-1.html Cheers Simon

Thanks for your kind words Peter, I'm going to use the original on the model. I was interested in whether I could mould it, as it was so small, and as I'm inherantly lazy I thought it would be a short-cut if I had to make any more! Cheers Simon

Hi EKR: when the kit arrives I'll put it up on this thread! On with some 2mm resin casting. The only problem here was to make sure that the resin went into the detail areas and that's pretty much the same whatever scale you're casting in. Any "undercut" on the items to be moulded is filled with plasticene (and smoothed off a little better than this picture shows). I use plasticene as it's easy to remove later. I use a plasticene moulding "box" with the items to be cast pressed gently and firmly into the inside base. Tea-spoons and mustard spoons are great for mixing and measuring the rubber and setting compounds. The setting solution is a bright blue colour to help you see how well everything has been mixed and is an excellent indicator of where you've spilt any on the carpet... The mould usually takes about a day to cure. The resin compounds are measured using spoons again. You can use pipettes or such-like, just be careful you don't dip any of the fluids into the wrong container...And also spoons help you make up very small amounts of resin, handy for small components. You have about 30 seconds to mix the fluids gently as the resin begins to set almost immediately. It stays reasonabky liquid for about 3 minutes and after that isn't really workable. (If you mix it too roughly and for too long you get a lot of air-bubbles that set in it and the result is as fragile as Aero chocolate.) I use a cocktail stick to gently work the resin first into the smaller detail areas and poke out any bubbles before filling the remainder of the mould. The more carefully you drip the resin into the mould, the less flash you'll have to file off later. After about 30 minutes the resin is strong enough to gently remove from the rubber. It may still be a little flexible so it needs to be handled withcare until it fully hardens. And: Ta Da! Magically created duplicates of your scratch-build skills. It does take some practice, with air bubbles and poor mixing and measuring being the greatest contributers to disappointing mouldings and is very satisfying indeed when it works.

Thanks Pete: While I've been busy in the Tempest and not having much time to model I notice that a short discussion of my scratch-building book (among others) has appeared on Pete's (N15class) excellent scratch-building thread. Having just received a very fair review of the book in the Scalefour News I thought I'd get a bit of a plug in for it. Anyone who hasn't quite taken up scratch-building or just begun to start might want to have a leaf through it in the bookstalls at Exhibitions. I've also had a little time to make a very little sandbox for the 2mm Tilbury. Being very tiny, I thought I'd have a go at casting it in resin along with my smoke-box door. I haven't made any castings of such small pieces before, so I'll let you know how it goes... Cheers Simon

Thanks for your comments folks. I decided to shape the delicate front frame extensions in situ. Firstly soldering on some over-long fret waste strips and cutting to length. The smokebox acted as a jig to position things properly and was protected from soldering up solid with Rizla paper. Then the strips were shaped with tiny fine files. And the smoke-box replaced. I really should have done this before soldering the front pillar handrails in place as I kept knocking them. The large sand-boxes, which I'll put on next, should protect them from further damage...

Had a bit of a break for line learning, I'm Stephano the drunken butler in The Tempest. It's not too difficult, just the research that takes the time... Moving swiftly on to the 2mm Tilbury, I found the superb casting by NBrass for an LMS smokebox door to be just a little too big so decided to build one up myself. Out came the trusty lathe (a venerable Heath Robinson) and I turned the door front from a piece of nickel silver soldered to a length of brass tube. (I did do a risk assessment for this but it was too scary to read.) Various bits and pieces were soldered on, NBrass do some lovely little hand-rail knobs and very useful D-shaped wire. And the door temporarily Blu-tacked to the smoke box. I'm rather chuffed with that. Cheers Simon

Hi John: That's looking very good. I'm itching to have a go at one myself having nearly bought the kit a number of times. I've used Archer rivets on both bare, clean brass and nickel silver with primer over the top, or on top of the primer. Both seem fine as long as you leave them time to dry hard to the surface. I would check first by having some practice runs on scrap metal pieces and also check that the paint you intend to use doesn't affect the transfers. I don't think there's anything wrong with a bit of rivet counting now and then and am also perfectly pleased with achieving an impression of the rivet pattern if time, difficulty or matters of scale get in the way. The photo shows Archer rivets applied directly to the smokebox wrapper and spray painted with Vallejo black primer, on my 4mm J15. Cheers Simon

Hi John: try this www.archertransfers.com/AR88091.html or go to the website and look for 0 Scale rivet starter set. The website has some excellent information and fascinating products including eye-ball decals for model figures. Marvellous! They are also very helpful and the shipping costs are not too onerous. Various model shops and companies sell them in the UK. I usually pick mine up at exhibitions. Try googling Archer Transfers. There is a very nice drawing in the combined edition of "Locomotives I Have Known" by J.N. Maskelyne. The scale is a bit ambiguous and I don't know how accurate it is but it's very pretty and has lots of rivets showing. Cheers Simon

Hi John: That's looking very nice, I do like a Southern tank loco. It's a fascinating arrangement, having the front wheel bearing and springs attached to the crosshead bars. Perhaps you could file a certain amount of metal from the bearing surfaces and replace it with nickel silver if you're worried about the white-metal wearing away? As for rivets, I very much like Archer resin transfer rivets. I find that they go on pretty easily and once left to dry for a day or so, don't come off again. I'm quite partial to a dab or two of Araldite Steel epoxy too. Cheers Simon