D869

Whats 18" between friends... "Tolerance,"

 

Chris

Hopefully the difference between needing just a single baseboard and having a board joint half way along the quay

Hi Pete,

It's not so much 'feel' but just a question of whether the trackwork 'flows' in a railwaylike manner and whether it looks kinda like the real thing in spite of my having chopped six inches out at various places (including the 'town' end of the loop). I think that other people seem to be able to get this sort of thing right without making quite such a meal of it.

I will probably just have a fiddle yard at the 'town' end. The tracks carried on along the quay to the power station coal stockpile area but I suspect there was not too much interesting rail activity there - the coal came in by ship from Barry, was unloaded by four socking great travelling cranes  and then reached the power station by conveyor belt.

I doubt that milk tanks would have been on the quay branch (but the station, yes). Plenty of other tanks over the years though - Esso class A and B, chlorine, bromine, ethylene dibromide and sulphuric acid. The bromine works closed in 1973 so class 25s would have had only a year or two in Cornwall by then. There are plenty of photos of class 25s working to the Esso depot though - this was open until the early 1980s.

Regards, Andy

Thank you Jez.

Thanks Mark.

Great to see you yesterday Pete. Thanks for bringing Kyle - I've seen so many photos but this is the first time I've seen it in the flesh. It's a great little layout.

Glad you enjoyed yourself - I think that Association events tend to be rather more relaxed than the more usual exhibitions with plenty of emphasis on nattering rather than pressure to keep something moving all of the time.

Regards, Andy

the rake looked superb out of many many quality models they at least for me stood out 

Congratulations on the trophy!

Thanks both for the comments.

I liked the laser cut things that you had on show Nick. Shame I didn't get to have a chin wag with you yesterday.

This looked amazing - a very deserving winner! Will you be making the kit available? I'd love a few!

That is my plan but at the moment I need to get some advice from a few folks before I can do that. One question is whether to stick with 3d printing or to use the 3d print as a master for resin casting. First though there are a few issues that I found while doing this build that need to be sorted out - nothing major but it's not quite ready for wider distribution just yet.

Whatever happens, building one of these will never be a simple job - the knitting will always be pretty fiddly and painting is more of a campaign than a quick job. Looking at the pre-WW2 liveries (such as Pratt's Motor Spirit) even these have complications like lettering across the hold-down straps. I doubt whether we will see too many long rakes of these tanks, kit or not

Cheers Pete, likewise.

Looking forward to catching up with you next Saturday Pete.

Regards, Andy

Thoroughly enjoyable exhibition and good to meet some of the operating team on this excellent layout seen for the first time "in the flesh".

Thanks. It's also good for us to meet the peeps of RMWeb for real.

What do you mean, rather noisy lot from Wiltshire......!!

 

A cracking weekend, Struth was a joy as usual.

 

cheers Jerry

Must have been just the Cornish contingent then

Good to see you as always and I very much enjoyed St Blazey.

a quality bit of modelling well done

Very nice, top work

Ah, so it is pointing away from the viewing side of the layout and will only be seen by the operators? Pity. Looks great though.

I'd expect that his position means that he has an interest in every scale.

Plus I suspect that Tutbury is not a million miles from Chez York and it was a jolly good day IMHO.

Regards, Andy

Pity you missed it. It was a good day out.

Regards, Andy

Thanks David, Yes the couplings between the coaches are magnetic. They are very simple and quick to make - on one coach there is a 3mm dia by 1mm thick rare earth magnet and on the other a small square of thin steel. These are attached to an arm made from 15 thou black plastikard that sits on top of the bogie and is drilled to fit over the bogie pivot (a 10BA screw). Some more bits of plastikard at the outer end make a simple right angle bracket to mount the magnet (or steel).

On the Maunsells I also needed to step the arm downwards a little to clear the bottom of the buffer beam.

Regards, Andy

Thanks Ben, glad you enjoyed my ramblings.

At the moment I'm waiting on the postie for some fresh supplies - I decided that my bag of 'summer green' wasn't going to see me through to do the whole of the embankment at the back of the layout so rang up Mr Green Scene to get some more. Rather a hazard of the way we do things these days - relying on bumping into traders at shows rather than the trusty local model shop... although to be fair my LMS (when there was one) had an annoying habit of never having what I wanted.

I have some more experiments planned but for the most part I'll probably stick with the technique that I've already tried - it seems to be doing the job.

Regards, Andy

How about a WW1 protected Simplex?

You can pretty much stick whatever chassis you like under that because nobody will see.

Ian,

 

I'm looking forward to seeing this in the flesh at Tutbury next month.

 

Incidentally, you will be very interested in one of the articles in the latest '2mm Magazine' (which should be with members just after the bank holiday weekend). Mike Raithby has written a series of articles on painting backscenes for 2mm layouts and the first part is in the latest mag.

 

Andy

Excellent timing!

Glad the paint job is going better now.

One small comment on the backscene... You've gone to a lot of effort to curve the backscene and avoid sharp corners. To my eye though that patch of trees on the horizon rather creates the illusion of a sharp corner, at least from the angle that the photos are taken. Probably because it has a sharp angle both on the horizon and at its 'front' edge.

Regards, Andy

Good luck with that one Ian. Armed with the good advice from MRJ I tried my hand with Acrylics and found them rather tricky. I suspect it's a matter of practice because they do behave very differently from other paints. I must have another go some time.

Might I suggest starting with something smaller like an experimental vertical 'slice' on some scrap board until you are happy with the colour mixes?

Don't underestimate the need for bluish-grey in the far distance - it's pretty counter-intuitive but very effective when done well (and I don't count myself under the 'done well' heading).

Regards, Andy

Yes I do have an old piece and yes the colour has lightened. This is probably a combination of fading, the pre-Christmas snow and also the film of dust that liberally coated everything in the house during the building work.

However, even the unused piece isn't a brilliantly intense green.

Looking at photos of the real thing, I'm thinking that June looks similar to the green of the static grass. It's definitely less vivid than the stuff outside the window just now. Putting the grass down first and then deciding on the intended data is probably the way to go here.

I'm not really seeking an idyllic summer scene but I suppose that summer does happen even in rather grotty backwaters.

I just noticed that your blog doesn't appear in the RSS feed on the 2mm website. It really should.

If you drop a mail to info@2mm.org.uk (Nigel) then he will add it.

Looks good. How many etches did you get through in the end? I lost count.

Resistor... me neither.

Maybe a nice simple pannier next?

Nice work Ian. I can imagine how much effort it took to create that 3D model.

How big was the file that you sent to Shapeways in the end and how many quids did they require to produce the print?

Regards, Andy

Thanks Malc. We look forward to seeing you.

Regards, Andy

Great shot!

 

Seasons greetings to you too Andy!

 

Merry Christmas,

 

Mark

Thanks Mark.

Merry Christmas, Andy!

 

Kendal in January. Hope the waters have receded . . .

 

David

Thanks David.

They have been suffering with the weather in Cumbria. Last time we checked things were still going ahead, so all being well we shall be appearing as planned.

Very evocative Andy.  Merry Christmas to yourself and family.  All being well I'll see you next week.

 

Ian

Cheers Ian. Same to you. We should be there to play trains as required.

Assuming that the downpipes are hollow just in case it rains?

Nice work.

Regards, Andy

Hi Pete,

Surely it should be 'the force awakens'?

I like the new loco and trust that you'll be very happy together. Sorry I didn't bump into you at Warley.

I've done some tinkering with DCC myself but haven't got much beyond (CT) chipping a couple of D800s which were later unchipped when required for service on St Ruth. They do run very nicely - either with or without chips.

I've also found that not all chips are as good as the CT ones, so don't assume that they are all created equal.

I enjoyed the magazine article too. Well done!

Regards, Andy