Phil Parker

Sorry, this is a typo, as explained over on the magazine thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/105316-brm-january-2016-free-dvd/?p=2125734

But if you are happy, IMHO, it doesn't matter.

Those who saw the layout at Warley will have seen the part-finished station canopy. It's now all done and looking, well, tatty. Full details in a future issue of BRM.

Because there aren't enough pictures of cats on the Internet, look what I found in the RQ fiddle yard earlier today. That's what you get for leaving some foam rubber in there!

Dan - I think you might have more luck in the DCC sound group with this one.

28cm long.

It's a bit basic, but worth a look: http://www.sarikhobbies.com/product/o-gauge-canal-butty-boat-kit/ I built the 4mm version on my blog a few weeks ago: http://philsworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/vac-formed-barge-kit.html http://philsworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/painted-barge.html

Looking at your model, my only suggestion would be to make the viaduct a concave curve as viewed from the front. This opens up the shunting yard a bit and gives you a better visible to hidden ratio. All of which proves the value of building a model of the model. A lesson I should learn for the future...

Don't worry, I have that effect on small children. And lots of other people actually...

You don't have the evil Andy York fiddling with your words from his bunker? Seriously - I started my blog in 2005 as an experiment while working on early web sites. At the time blogging was the latest thing and the news was full of people who had blogged about work and got the sack. I fancied having a go but decided even if I was happy to risk my job, writing about the workings of an IT department in a vegetable research centre probably wasn't the most exciting subject. So, I decided to write about my hobby (OK, not much more exciting). Anyway, at the time, the options were: Blogger. I don't think the relatively new RMweb offered the facility and even if it did, I could mess around more with Blogger. The options, if you know a bit of HTML, are generous and it's both free and without adverts for the hosted service unlike the slightly simpler to use Wordpress. With several thousand posts now, even if I wanted to move anywhere, it would be a world of pain. More to the point, if working within RMweb, I'd feel that I ought to stick to model railways. On my blog, I write about all sorts of projects from boats and plastic kits to classic cars. My most popular post covers fixing the indicators on an early Peugeot 206! Blogging is a subject I'm quite passionate about - setting yourself a target of X number of posts a week gives you a focus for the topic and can avoid interest waning as you have to progress just to have something to write about. This has helped enormously with the novel I've written with a friend as even when we are too busy to work on the manuscript, the blog readers mean we can't just forget about it for a while. In my case it makes me practise both writing and photography. The results provide a useful "notebook" for eventual magazine articles sometimes too. Anyway, to answer the question. I prefer an external blog because: It allows me to write about anything. I can mess around with the design to make it my own. If I put adverts on (I have 1) then the derisory income is mine. However, if you are writing about a model railway project and don't want to mess around with the code in to set a blog up then I still recommend doing something in RMweb. Show off your work and be proud of it, whatever the standard. There is always someone who will be inspired by your efforts and the day they get in touch, you'll be pleased you bothered.

I'm pondering several ideas for the backscene: Plain white board Misty painted (sprayed) shilouette skyline Peco industrial town Photo backscene Building "flats" My plan, if I get time, is to try (or at least mock up photographically) several of these and compare the results. My favourite option is the second one but that's because I haven't tried it yet. Paul's painting onf the model suggests something like this. Photo backscenes can be a lot of work. I tried an early one on Flockborugh and until the lights were on it, the image dominated the scene. More acomplished people now knock the colour back quite a lot to give the impression of distance. In photos they usually look excellent though but I'm still not that convinced when I see the results in real life. Another issue picked up over Warley is access to the back of the layout. At once point the hidden area was stuffed full of locomotives we'd borrowed to photograph on the layout. I'm not sure how much removing this fascility is a problem. Finally, how tall should the backscene be? Again, at Warley I found myself operating from behind the model rather then the end due to the crowds so I think I need to be able to see over it. Hmmmm.

I'm told I'm not allowed any more boat modelling in the mag for a while. Got to go back to railways now! :-)

My feeling is that the problem is worst on a portable layout which needs to run all sorts of loco including kits and those under development. Keep the servo leads short, place the circuit boards somewhere other then directly under the track and I reckon you'll be fine. When these work they are very good. Also, talk to the manufacturer, he's very helpful and keen to make this work. If I'd had time to experiment then we might have sorted them for even the weird requirements of RQ.

Sorry, yes, RSH. It's in the article, I must have had Barclays on the brain when I wrote the post. Probably arguing with my bank...

No paint is safe from liquid plastic solvent (Meh Pak or similar) although if I'm careful, I can usually get away with it. The mortar paint will craze and lift slightly but if you are careful, it will dry again. If using plastic cement from a tube, the problem is reduced as it doesn't run around so much. I prefer to assemble the model and paint the bricks later where I can. Drainpipes and other details can be stuck on afterwards but you need to unse the minimum amount of glue and don't move them around much once glued. That way the paint softens and then hardens without disturbance. Sometimes superglue is a better bet than plastic glue for detailing as this doesn't affect paint or pencil colour. Finally, a dose of weathering powder covers a multitude of sins.

As you've found out - 1:76 - but they look good enough to be bigger. A trip to http://www.wdmodels.com/ is well worth it. The layout is 4mm:1ft - "Owen's Bridge" which appeared in BRM this time last year as a 3 part series.

I'll admit I was surprised how well this worked - I knew it would be fine but it went better than expected. For more inspiration, Iain Robinson is the master at this sort of thing - check out his blog: http://iainrobinsonmodels.blogspot.co.uk/

That's what we love to hear. Anything we can do to get people modelling! Please post progress on the layout - it's always great to see what people are up to. Thanks

OK, if I want this layout to run for Warley, I need to sort out this DCC malarkey. To date, all my layouts have been controlled using proper DC via a Gaugemaster hand held controller. Personally, I've always been very happy with this but I'm told it's the 21st century so I must move with the times. The current issue of BRM has a piece by Ben paying a visit to Digitrains so it's there I headed for advice. The current stock list is: Bachamann 03 Heljan 05 Electrotren chassis The advice received was to buy 36-558A 6 Pin back EMF chips. Ordered lunchtime yesterday, 2 arrived this morning, all they had in stock. Anyway, this is what the chip looks like. I'll dig out my test track, fire up the Dynamis and let you know how I get on.

I like to uses a base of Humbrol flesh followed by a dry-brush of Revell. How much dry brushing depends how pasty the colour should be as the Revell is lighter. Games Workshop shading inks are great for adding shadows but odly, look great in real life but less good in photos, at least when I use them. And there's nothing wrong with the Dapol figures, very nicely sculpted if a little tall. Try WD Models for excellent military people.

The colour change depends on the ballast. Granite does change slightly so if this bothers you, try something like Greenscene's ballast made of crushed nuts (I think). We've used it on Ruston Quays and it looks great. Not so fussed about the hard track bed. Modern RTR is so quiet that it makes little difference. Decoupling the track from the baseboard is also very difficult and takes a lot of planning. Basically, you need to float the track on foam or rubber, use no pins, very fine (flexible) dropper wires and make sure the ballast doesn't extend past the rubber/foam. It can be done but is (IMHO) more work than it's worth.

I like both Greenscene and Woodland Scenics static grass. Try mixing in up to 50% beige for the summer look.

It's in last month's issue (November 2015). Basically, Skytrex parts supported by a wooden box. There's more on painting bricks in that issue too.

Spoke to Howes at the model boat show today. Railmatch will continue, as will the Heljan and DCC work. All this is selling well. It's general model railways they are getting out of.

There wasn't space on the page in the magazine for the Batam Tug plan, so here it is: The plan isn't perfect as I've had to work using photos and a few known dimensions, but it will give you a start and since all the tugs were hand made, they tended to vary anyway. The black and white bars should each be 4mm long when you print it out, if they aren't tweak your printer settings until they are. Feel free to use it for non-commercial use. Photos of the tug can be found here. There's some excellent prototype information here.