murphaph

Medium term I would not rule out an IRM J15 given how numerous they were.

Hi all, I have a surplus to requirements MM 210 River Erne bodyshell, with the full yellow ends that I would like to swap for either a 203 or 220 bodyshell (original 201 livery, without the full yellow ends. My one is in brand new condition. Your one needs to be in reasonable but not necessarily perfect condition as it will be renumbered and weathered anyway. Obviously it should not be cracked or in bits altogether. We can exchange pics beforehand if there's any interest in the swap. I am in Germany but you can post your swap shell to an Irish address or hand over in Dublin area if you prefer. I will post my shell directly to you using An Post on your end and cover the international postage. Any interest reply here or by PM please.

Nice one Adrian. Fair play.

Hi all. I have been asked by a couple of people to write a more detailed "how to" on my IFI Net Nitrate transfers for the IRM fert wagon loads. So, here is exactly how I do it. 1: Apply microsol to the degreased wagon load. If you haven't been mauling them they should be fine out of the box to be honest. The one in the pictures here was not degreased as I had not handled it. 2: Cut out the transfers by cutting right down the middle line between each column & row decal design, leaving all the white border material attached. 3: Soak one transfer at a time in cold water and after about a minute it will release from the backing paper. Remove it from the water and slide the decal off the backing paper onto the top of the double pallet stack load. 4: apply some microsol (microset would probably work too) around the overlaps, even the undersides and fold the flaps down at one end, then the longer sides, then the other end, tucking the corners in like wrapping a present. It will stick to itself.then smooth around the edges with a wet finger. apply some microsol all over and let the whole thing dry. 5: Optional: After letting an hour or so, you can work on getting the transfer to sit down into the crevice between the two pallets. It would be ok to pierce the transfer in this crevice in a number of spots with a sharp scalpel or needle and apply more microsol, to get the transfer to "pull in" to the crevice. It's not really necessary though, but I think it's a nice touch. 6: Optional: Apply a protective coat of clear varnish if you expect the loads to be handled much. Some pictures to illustrate the process. Remember, this is just how I do it. As long as you are happy with the results your way is fine too Once more, a big thank you to everyone who has bought one or more packs from me. Thanks especially for your kind words of encouragement. If you would like a set, which is enough to do 4 of the IRM wagons with a few spares for mishaps, feel free to message me directly. And then optionally the crevice line can be pierced or even cut aling with a sharp scalpel and decal softener applied along it and the result is the following once dry (The gloss finish can be left or matted down according to taste): Other decal softeners also seem to work ok, though decalFix could maybe do with a little dilution:

Pack F sold out now too. Less than 50 units of the other packs remaining. They'll be gone by xmas.

Thoroughly agree. It seems to be another one of those colours that looks much better in real life than photographed. I am glad I grabbed a pair. I don't need Taras per se on my intended layout but they don't hurt so I decided to pick up some blue ones for a bit of variety and they are well worth getting.

Maybe it was just the unpainted ply silvering that gave me the impression it was metallic.

Yeah the pics I mean are from much later Mark. Perhaps the ply was itself substituted later in life, at least in individual cases? I'll have to dig out a couple of the pics but they have all been posted on here I am sure. It could still be ply with just an undercoat applied maybe.

Where the doors always plywood? I have seen pictures where the sheeting looks suspiciously metallic. Like galvanised sheet steel.

You should ask Chris Dyer if he has any A30's left.

Do they cost twice as much if you do it that way Noel?

Fert wagons rapidly becoming an endangered species now. Only about 50 units remaining in total across the range with some already sold out or about to sell out. Great sign for the future of the hobby.

Why is there import duty on model railway items? Should be zero rated.

What does An Post charge in handling fees? Here in Germany they charge €6 to collect the VAT for the customs.

That's true Noel but thanks to that same duopoly a flight to London was about 200 pounds minimum. That was a huge chunk out of an average salary back then. The best thing Thatcher ever did for Ireland (possibly for anyone) was breaking the duopoly. The Irish government did not want to let Ryanair get off the ground. Pardon the pun.

That's a really lovely layout with equally charming rolling stock.

I suspect the number of people doing 21mm in P4 is signifigantly smaller than the number doing it in 00 or EM standards. Personally the overscale flangeways and tyres of 00 do not bother me at all. It's only the 16.5mm track gauge that I find jarring, so I am happy to use the more forgiving standards and of course save money on wheels. I joined the Scalefour society mostly to get access to the stores. I am still a member as I like reading the journals but I think as time goes on, a 3d printer is going to replace all the track making tools they sell. I am glad I only bought one lot of copper clad sleepers because I will be either laser cutting mine out of ply or just fdm printing them all. The pointwork I will definitely be printing.

It's a no-brand chinese diode laser, 40W input power, unknown output power lol. It's mounted to a 3018 cnc machine, again a no-name Chinese thing with the most questionable instructions. I did originally look at Cricut machines a couple of years back but personally I think for most applications we are already beyond them with laser cutters. The primary advantage of a Cricut I would say is that you can cut PVC materials without releasing chlorine gas, which is what happens when you burn it (as a laser does). Chlorine gas is highly dangerous obviously. Nice one George. I did consider overlapping my 10mm stuff but I thought it might be tough to properly burnish it where it overlaps so I have just ordered some wider tape from a local supplier. Should be here in a couple of days and then I can see if the whole idea is folly or not. Probably handy to have anyway. I think Tamiya actually does A4 sized sheets of paper backed masking tape, for exactly this sort of purpose.

And now for something completely different.... As some of you may know, I am (for the longest time now) repainting 3 086's into NIR 111's, in mid 90's condition. I wasn't entirely happy with the large NIR logo transfer so I decided it was finally a good enough excuse to buy a laser cutter to see if I could cut out my own masks and airbrush the logo on instead. Well I'm not quite that far but progress has been made as the laser cutter arrived and has been assembled and tested. Using plain copier paper I can achieve a very crisp mask. I am hopeful when I get wide enough Tamiya masking tape that it will produce a very decent mask and I can forget about getting transfers to sit down into all the unevenness of the side of a 111. Interestingly I believe the MM logo is slightly too rounded, when I compare it to the mask I have cut out and when compared to the real thing. Side on Flickr image for comparison: Even the prototype looks, well, a bit off if you ask me. The bottom strokes of the N and I are not parallel. I guess it was hand painted after all. It's not a vinyl sticker by the looks of it.

Do you think I could use the same excuse for Guinness Kegs??

Thanks Stephen. I'll keep an eye out for the next one.

How does the review process work again? We should get a link to review an item once it has been shipped, right?

Really nice job Darius. You must be pleased.

Jesus I really was expecting them to hang around for a couple of hours at least. What vultures we are!

2 rakes ordered. Super deal. Took a blue Tara pack E as well. I don't need them (out of era, largely out of region apart from ones and twos passing through to Limerick wagon works) but at that price and with the 10% bundle discount applied because I was ordering the dickies anyway, it works out at a very nice price for a very handsome pair of wagons. Weathering those is going to be tough! Thanks IRM. A genuine Black Friday deal once again. No BS.