millerhillboy

I guess oils/greases could have a blue tint to it under certainly lights and angles so I suspect your visual perception is probably pretty accurate.

Hi David Good luck with the golf, a more frustrating pastime you could not have chosen but yet somehow perversely addictive and enjoyable. I've been a member of two clubs over the 30+ years I've played (man and boy) and both have had mainlines running through or beside the course which always helps distract from bad rounds!! Anyway, I'm glad you took my comments in the way they were intended, I was worried it sounded a bit critical. What you've got is superb and will continue to get better. I guess I'm just used to seeing the normal real background over the (recent) years. I don't envy you or anyone needing to shoehorn in a prototypical background on any layout. Moreso when its from the past and not to mention when having a large rugby stadium somewhere in the vacinity. What I was thinking that even an urban background would make much more sense for you even if it wasn't prototypical. The other thing I had in my mind is that there is noticable populated urban hill area in the background of most of the pictures you are posting. Think its Murrayfield/Ravelston area. The following picture represents what I would regard as the notable background https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1039025 Great work as I say, and keep posting. I'm enjoying seeing you progress. I was too young for steam in the Edinburgh area but am familiar with local railways since the 80s onwards but I've developed an interested in both 64A and 64B as well as the various sub-sheds. regards Craig

blues an interesting one Duncan, but certainly effective.

Golf you say ....you lucky %$#@&€ , spare a thought for us in the vicinity of your layouts prototype. I've taken to walking round the course layout sans clubs of course as my exercise. Best I've played in years it was, didn't loose a ball or three putt!!! Love those steamy pictures which made me wonder how possible would it be to get a more appropriate backdrop picture (hope that doesn't sound critical). If you had that that it really would take your excellent steamy photos to a new level for me. I guess the tricky thing would be fitting in the rugby stadium into any backscene, if indeed you wanted to go that far.

Agree with those above, the shed clutter is superb, a genius touch.

Great work Atso, always interesting to see what you are producing.

Finished the bogie bolster coupling gap project with new oval buffers from N-Brass and the short shank couplers. The wagons still easily navigate 10” radius curves. The gap has came down by 4mm but looks much better than that alone.

I thought it was hard work putting passengers into N gauge stock, and you've gone and put sandwiches on :-) :-) Joking aside those are quite superb.

really like the colours of your greenery, not something people always get right IMO

bodging I think is a tad harsh, lovely work and interesting stock as well.

Been fiddling about with shortshank couplings, both NEM and original rapido variants. I'm finding that on a lot of stock there is a lot of room for manouevre. Especially on NGS society kits I'm using 3D printed couplings from 3DR on shapeways, https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace/miniatures/trains?tag=3dr they offer rapido style couplings in a variety of shank lengths and a tester sort of pack to try different lengths. Trying them on N gauge society build bogie bolster D kits The gap between the buffer beams even with the short shank rapido's is still 12mm. You'll note I'm missing buffers, as a few of them came off whilst I was fiddling so I decided to buy some finer oval buffers from NBrass, they should be 3.3mm long when fitted so I should still have a 5-6mm gap between buffer faces which is still loads TBH. FWIW I'm using a test oval with 10.5" radius curves which is the minimum I will have on the end layout (if I ever get there) and 6mm between buffer faces is still loads.

going to be superb that once settled down and matted a bit a very unique and realistic wagon

So once you figure out the optimal print configuration for a certain model if you just keep those settings do you get the same ( or as good as) the same quality each time thereafter?

some absolutely cracking stuff going on in this thread. The graffiti looks superb IMO, I've seen it done often before but for some reason this looks much more realistic, I guess cos its based on the real thing. Do keep posting your work, its great to see.

Steve I don't see any lines at all on this latest print, is that a reflection of improving materials and printing techniques? regards Craig

:-) Count me in, I've got a lot of St Margarets roster and I'd love a chance to run them. Genuinely please count me in irrespective of where you are showing, I'd like that a lot. Great work on the V2 sideskirts, as you say its an old model now but at the time I remember it being the pick of my bunch compared with Farish A3s, A4s, the fact it had seperate handrails seemed amazing I recall!! Yours will look superb in due course, although I do wonder if the model is an easy candidate for a refresh by Bachmann and bringing up to date with a tender drive etc. Bahcmann do have a habit of doing that kind of thing to me, I recall putting the finishing touches to a Foxhunter models kit A1, just as the Bachmann one came along!! I too was going through the spares box trying to find a spoked front wheel for the V2, the solid one looks so awful now. I was trying I think it was either B1 or A1/A2 wheels but everything seemed to foul the spring loaded system which is why I was interested in your approach. Alan actually lowered this V2 which was a great boost. I hope you don't mind but I'm going to attempt to cement my invite by posting more Waverley stuff

Good work and nicely timed as this just popped into my stream.... So this might be of passing interest but I thought I'd snap it as its literally lying right in front on me in the workbench which is now the home office these days. I was actuall looking into replacing the front pony wheel with a see through one and also adding draincocks which are quite significant on the V2 Interested to know how you went about getting rid of the awful skirting actually, never seen that done before. Mines is also lowered which I knew was a well known mod to these. Also on your black one how do you have the space above the front pony, my one has a block there which a springed mechanim sits in that keeps the front pony on the rails I assume.

The one on the right in particular is a spot on colour choice for that era!! A nice bathroom beige you could say maybe? Nice work though, must be difficult to get things sanded nicely.

once painted and blended in those will look superb

I'm glad you agree on the quality, I too find painting them a joy, a tricky joy, but a joy none the less. I think they bring something extra to N gauge modelling for sure.

Lovely Tom, its great to see people pushing stuff in 2mm/N gauge with regards to 3d printing. I for one will keep a close eye on what you are producing with interset. The standard of print these days is really very good.

Good to see some progress on this one, it'll be a cracker. I've got some of the locos you might well end up with, as I'd originally built a layout set just south of Edinburgh on the WR. All N gauge, not 2mm of course. 76049,60052, A1s, peaks etc etc.

Well done Janet, I can feel her pain from here!!

yes the peco one is fundamentally flawed in terms of length but I think you can get away with that if you run them in a peco only rake. Plus I believe they are based on a slightly rare variant, certainly the end doors are different.

Definitely a lot better than the peco ones, I should know I've just re-weathered a rake of them. How does the 2mm version stack up against the farish one? Ah right, I thought that somehow you would have wheeled them to N standard rather than 2mm. Would that be possible? I know some of the 2mm kits can be done that way, like catfish etc?