David Holman

Not just a maker of fine buildings then. Not surprised! Evergreen strip has got very expensive of late - about 50p per piece/£5.00 a pack. Potentially cheaper to buy laser cut windows than make them yourself in 7mm scale. Trouble is, you can't always get what you want, as Sir Michael once sang.

Thanks chaps! Next outing in a couple of weeks at Fareham, then High Wycombe and Warley in November. Warley probably it's last show for a while as new layout, Fintonagh, makes its debut at Uckfield in October. Can I'll afford to have two layouts doing the rounds and Mrs H would not be pleased either!

Most of my stuff is with enamels, but if you have one, the airbrush method is best. Quicker and doesn't ruin your brushes

As above, but with Humbrol 53, gunmetal as well. Study photos, as rails vary according to location: oily where locos stop (and on fishplates), more rusty (because of brake dust) where trains slow and stop, darker in sidings etc. I do much of the above with weathering powders. If you can get it, a spray can of track colour (Humbrol or Precision), makes painting sleepers easier. Weathering powders and/or airbrush good for local colour as for rails. Colourpoint books great for fine track details.

That chimney was a bit of a give away! Glad I'm not the only one... Great to see things running.

All looks good to me. One piece of advice I was given in my early days of modelling was to always buy the best tools I could afford - something I'm afraid I haven't always kept to! Where I have been lucky is in acquiring old tools from modellers who have given up the hobby. My current favourite is a gauge for measuring thickness of wire, metal sheet etc. Dimensions are read from a clock like dial and it measures down to 0.1mm. Not sure how I ever managed without it.

Interesting. Many thanks chaps.

On both Fintonagh and Arigna Town, I've long fancied having a push button diesel horn & steam whistle, just to add the extra dimension of calling the signalman to change the points for running round. Seems nobody does one, unless it involves DCC sound chips and I do not want to go along that route. Mylocosound used to do something, but were expensive and seem no longer available. Maplins once did a rather cheap and nasty sound kit, but they have gone to the wall too. Any ideas?

Only the sixth floor?! Thank goodness I only have room for three! Splendid, as ever.

Been there, got a drawer full of T-shirts! A pain, but necessary for future enjoyment. Sounds like it's going well though.

Fairly sure there is no 21mm rtr out there DC. Be good if it was! Worth giving Marcway a call (advert in Railway Modeller). They do custom track in all gauges and at reasonable prices. Points will be 30-50% more than Peco, but if you made plain track yourself, it could balance out. I've been very impressed with their service.

Presume the point motors have their own internal switches for directing track current? Peco points have always been poor at directing current, even O gauge ones, so the extra shove from the motor will no doubt help keep blades in contact with the stock rails. Always good to have a couple of spare motors, as they will go wrong - they can lead a hard life! Nice story in the Gauge 0 Guild manuals. They made test machines to check the capacity of various motors. Most were pretty good, even the cheap ones, but the Tortoise motor actually wore out the test rig! That is not to say they are perfect though, internal contacts can get dirty and fail, while they are expensive too and need about 10cm vertical space below the baseboards. Stick with what you have, then when you start your next layout in a few years, you will know from experience if any changes are needed. Who know, everything could be holographic by then!

Enjoy some running to check, check and check again that all is ok and have some enjoyment after all the hard work. Suggest painting the sleepers and rails before ballasting, though it will all need going over after ballasting as well. On Fintonagh, have spent the last week fettling and still not completely right. Wheel back to backs v point clearances always a potential problem with handbuilt stock and track. Then just when you think everything is sorted, a loose wheel nut causes problems. Another problem can be when stock gets turned round and doesn't always run as well in the other direction! So extensive testing before ballasting always a good idea, but don't expect it to work perfectly afterwards, there are always a few stray grains around to gum up points and details stock! Life is complicated, which is why it's fun. Allegedly!

So, when and where can we hope to see this opus?

Scenic modelling at its very best.