David Holman

No expert on the prototype, but that is certainly a good piece of modelling.

Definitely one to watch.

That's going to be a very impressive rake.

Looks very thorough to me. The only thing I would add is to consider drawing out the whole thing full size on wall paper lining, though if ready made track is used, this is probably not so important. Gettting down to eye level to check for alignment is also important

Thanks everyone. If you go on RMweb, there are pictures of yours truly - not for the faint hearted though!

Would be a liar if I said I had no scars (picking up a soldering iron at the hot end is a bad idea too). However, provided the blade is really sharp, then you don't need to apply too much pressure and hence the knife is less likely to slip. Have used craft knives with snap off blades for years. As soon as the tip starts to wear, simply snap off a new one. (Mostly) works for me, though the Olfa gizmo certainly looks good.

Ballasting is undoubtedly a pain, but a necessary evil that just has to be done. Agree re underlay, the sound deadening effect is minimal. Hence for station boards not worth it, but on mainline sections where there is a 'cess' beside the track, underlay lifts the rails enough to create this.

The Ragstone kit of the Clogher 0-4-2T that I bought at the Reading Trade Show on 1st December last year is still in its box, as I am concentrating on buildings for Fintonagh. Apart from when I bought the two Sligo small tanks and one remained in its box for six months, that is a record for me - I've always got on with what I buy straight away. Most modellers I know are the opposite though. A standing joke at the Chatham club is to mention the Pressflow cement wagons. Half a dozen on these 7mm scale kits were bought about 20 years ago and shared among members to build. So far, less than half completed... Mayner is right about the Impetus kits. They were state of the art when Robin Arkinsall was producing them many years ago - probably the equivalent of Judith Edge kits today. Am sure I would not have been able to resist and likewise all those juicy Backwoods Miniatures. Had they been done in 7mm scale, I might well have been doing both Swilly and Donegal instead of the Sligo.

Wills sheets are 2-3mm thick, but easy to score and snap using a craft knife. No experience of laser cutters, but sounds like they come with a few things to beware of. An alternative might be to try York Model Makers. They advertise in the magazines and produce a host of architectural fittings such as doors and windows. High quality and good value. In 7mm scale windows come in under a pound a piece and when microstrip now costs around 45p per 300mm length, it makes you stop and think.

Milton Keynes, Saturday Interesting day in the land of the roundabout and concrete cows and probably the biggest single day attendance of any show I've exhibited at, with around 3,000 people. Not the easiest place to access, but the club worked hard in quite challenging circumstances when even traders were muttering about it being 'too crowded' at times! Challenging for Arigna too, with a broken point linkage and a broken pickup on Fermanagh early on. Nobody seemed to mind we had to change the goods siding point with a screwdriver, while the new Deutz diesel had to double up on both the stores and cattle trains as I have not yet got any new axles for the J26. Never hurts to have a spare engine at shows... Otherwise the day went ok as was topped off by us getting the 'best visiting layout' award. Thanks to all concerned, am sure the club treasurer will be very happy with around £20k on the door!

These are very nice indeed. Am guessing they are to 4mm scale, but the detail and especially the windows make them seem more like 7mm. Love the deep eaves on the signal cabin. Anybody would think it rained a bit thereabouts!

The only real bonus of a continuous run is for testing and running in stock. Not to be sniffed at, but not necessarily essential either. Timetabled/sequence running not a problem on a circuit either, but the terminus-fiddle yard set up very much replicates the rest of the world in terms of giving a sense of purpose to operation. For many people in Britain, it is the only option when only one or two walls are available as layout space. Arigna Town is little more than a loop and two sidings, but at exhibitions we run eight different trains in a sequence that lasts up to an hour. Complex shunting moves can be set up, but actually, we find it more satisfying to keep things simple and make sure they run really well. As others have said, it is all a matter of personal taste.

Two more buildings The half relief back scene is creeping towards the left hand end of the layout with two more structures. The first is just a plain, rendered house, deliberately scruffy looking, while the second is a shop selling old books and paintings, with an art studio on the floors above. The first few photos show how the 'rendered' walls are simply watercolour paper stuck on to the foam board walls, over the window and door apertures, which are then cut through with a scalpel and folded back on the inside. There is also a picture showing how I make guttering, by filing a rounded edge on a strip of plasticard. From most angles [apart from below], the ruse is not noticeable. Another picture shows the roof slates, made from overlapping strips of the same watercolour paper. Both the art shop and the house are inspired by pictures of buildings in MRJ's 'Inkerman Street' layout by the incomparable late Bob Barlow. For me, they perfectly captured the scene in the 1940s. The window displays are just printouts available from the CG textures website, which also gave me the curtains and venetian blinds in the windows. The latter are made up from micro strip on perspex sheet - tedious to fabricate, but it gives a decent impression of the depth with sash windows. In several places, I have tried to blend the low relief into the painted back scene, while eventually a largish tree will hopefully hide some of the issues with perspective. More 'snake oil' than 'trompe l'oeil' though! Just one more building to go on the back scene now & then I can start working outwards towards the front.

Sublime and an object lesson on chassis building. You WILL be taking the thing apart and re-assembling it several times during construction. Even the best kits require some fettling, while the worst can be the catalyst to scratch building. Indeed, am inclined to think that there is less fettling with a scratch build - though you do spend more time making bits of course!

Make haste slowly. It is not a race and is supposed to be enjoyable!

Sharp, neat, clean as always! Must remember the lamp casting trick in future.

I think the answer is essentially it's a bit of a minefield, JB. There are indeed quite a few folk out there who will build stuff for a fee, but from what I hear, price and quality are highly variable, with the former not always a guarantee of the latter. In addition, where locos and coaches are concerned, the paint job can be a further added extra. Perusing the small ads in the model press may help and from there you could make contact and ask for references. A while ago, a general guide for building a loco kit was around 2-3 times the original price, so a £100 kit would end up as a £3-400 model. While that might seem a lot, £200 to built a kit which may take 50-100 hours is a long way short of minimum wage! I well remember the look I got when doing a buildings demo at a show a few years ago. The man asked if I did commissions. No was the reply, but when I commented that the locoshed on display represented over 100 hours work, you could see the cogs going round as he worked out it was potentially a £1000 model, even though the materials probably came to less than £20.

Splendid - as usual!

Arigna Town likewise has no chairs or fixings, just code 100 rail on copperclad sleepers and 36.75ish gauge for 7mm scale. Re 21mm gauge and Templot, the website include templates for 'IrishEM' points at 20.2mm gauge and 1mm (finescale, not P4) flangeways. On my new Fintonagh project (3'gauge,7mm scale), I printed a left and right point, then made the gauge up to 21mm on the photocopier. Using Peco Code83fb rail and Marcway copper clad sleepers, a point took just over an hour to make, including filing up the blades and vee. Note, this was the first point I had made in at least ten years and trackwork is something I normally avoid where possible. Really proved not at all difficult or unpleasant. Given the low cost, would suggest anyone thinking about it should at least have a go. Not much to lose in time or money if it doesn't work and could be the start of something special.

While the grass mat should be fine as a foundation for your scenery, it could look a bit plain after a while. I find the first bit of greenery always lifts a layout, but try experimenting with a variety of materials and textures. Study the real thing and do it a bit at a time. Feel sure you will find it both enjoyable and satisfying.

Didn't Kenny Rogers once do ' You picked a fine time to leave me, Loose Wheel'?

Model T Ford Tipper Truck This was my Christmas present to me - in other words, the missus gave me some spending money for the Reading Trade Show back in early December. It is a Duncan Models white metal kit. I started it on Boxing Day and have been faffing around with it ever since, mainly because I'd forgotten what a pain white metal kits are to put together. The castings are ok, though the very nature of them makes things rather chunky, with overthink edges. The main problem I find with white metal is that nothing much wants to stick to it, apart from 5 minute epoxy. Yes, I could have used low melt solder, but I don't have a temperature controlled iron, while superglue really doesn't like it at all - something to do with the release agent on the castings. So, clean up a piece, mix & apply the epoxy, find a way of holding the two pieces together for 5 minutes & repeat an nauseam... Life would have been a little easier had some of the parts fitted better, the front mud guards being especially awkward. The instructions were a bit basic too and although there was an exploded diagram, it wasn't completely helpful in telling me where to put things. So, constant referral to Google was needed to get a better idea. However, Model T Fords came in a huge number of varieties and were subsequently altered by their owners to suit their needs, so in the end, I rather made it up as I went along. For example, the kit comes with a rather open cab [no side windows] & I'm guessing it would not have taken too many soft days to add a more enclosed version. A bit of work with plastic sheet sorted that out. The front end gave me all sorts of angst - at one point, I was going to make up my own springs and steering arms from brass, but in the end, just added a few bits from wire. As for the hand cracked mechanism to make the tipper work, I really have no idea how the castings provided would work. Suffice to say, the vertical column with a screw thread was replaced with a 10BA bolt after the casting broke - another issue with white metal - and the other bits stuck in place as per instructions. As for painting, though it seems a lot were indeed 'any colour you like, as long as it is black', though many got 'improved' by their owners. Given that this one will be at least 15-20 years old [Fintonagh is set in the late '30s], more than a bit of rust and dirt has accumulated. The tipper section and roof are Ford Laurel Green, while the rest is the usual spray can matt black. Thankfully, it doesn't have to run [!] being just a static model that will probably end up at the front edge of the goods yard, collecting builders sand/gravel from one of the open wagons.

Good stuff. Got the Boyd boon not long after it came out and found it a really enjoyable read. Scary to think that Irish narrow gauge steam finished nearly 60 years ago, so memories like this are precious. Likewise photos of the period.

When I rejoined the hobby in the late '80s, the majority of RTR was so lacking in both detail and accuracy, that kit building was often the only way to get anything that wasn't aimed at the toy market. It was also the only way to achieve decent running, so dire were some of the chassis/mechanisms. Nowadays the opposite applies to some extent. Yes, there are some superb kits out there, but a degree of skill and experience is needed to put them together, plus you still have the paint job as well. Most current RTR is aimed at the adult market, with fabulous detail and superb running. There are 7mm scale RTR locos coming on stream with working inside valve gear for under £300 for goodness sake! An etched brass kit will cost about the same as RTR, but probably involved 50-100 hours work. Fine by me, because that is what I enjoy doing. But if I was starting again? No way, I'd still want to build things, but am sure it would be buildings and scenery, with locos being RTR.

Exciting times, go for it!