David Holman

Beg, borrow or steal because static grass is a huge improvement over scatter in 4mm scale or larger. The Flock it is the top of the range machine and superb. However, smaller, cheaper versions are not to be sniffed at while the Noch puffer bottles are extremely good for tight corners.

Arigna Town uses code 100fb rail in 7mm scale. The usual bullhead stuff is code 124 I think. It was solder construction on PCB sleepers. Guess I could have tried to replicate chairs or spikes, but even in the larger scale, on a 12 foot scenic section the lack of them is not really noticeable, so unless a very small, highly detailed diorama, would think the same applies in 4mm and following Mayner's suggestion seems the best idea.

I am sure you will be fine, Keith. I just used the card kit as a drawing for all the dimensions, then photos to get the details, plus a bit of guesswork on the interior. What scale are you planning? Even in 7mm scale it is still a very small model, so am sure anything bigger will not only make like a bit easier, but allow a fine model too. Keeps us posted!

Super work, as ever Nelson. The late, great David Jenkinson used all sorts of dodges where stuff wasn't easily seen. Eg his coaches rarely had brakes, underframes were only what you could see and many had little in the way of interior detail - but the looked fabulous and ran well. You are in good company methinks.

When I did my 7mm scale version, I used the Alphagraphix card kit as the starting point, Keith. Cost the princely sum of three quid, so just used it as a drawing to build mine from nickel silver and plastic sheet. Made the Howden Meredith patent wheels by adding a slice from a Corgi Classic road bus wheel. Alphagraphix advertise in Railway Modeller, but do not have a website. You have to send postage stamps in return for a catalogue.

If you go to RM Web's exhibition pages, on the Canterbury show pages there is some video footage of Arigna, after some views of Sanford & Bamwell. The sounds are not mine, they were dubbed on after. By the by, well worth getting hold of the latest Model Railway Journal. Martyn Welch has at last been persuaded to share his latest developments in the art of weathering. Lovely stuff!

Somehow managed to book myself into four shows in five weeks, with Canterbury last week and Southampton this weekend. The former is a nicely run local show, where there was a good selection of layouts, the latter very much more ambitious. Twenty odd layouts in a collection where you wouldn't mind getting 'worst layout' award, such was the standard. As it was Pempoul got the nod from the judges, just ahead of St Merryn [P4 gem, based on Padstow] with Arigna not far behind I was told - which will certainly do me! However, one of the best bits was being next door to Andy Cundick's proper Arigna - and very good it is too. Even had the 4 wheel bicycle based track inspection trolley, as seen in Portillo's Railway Journeys a couple of week's back - though he did get a bit of gentle teasing for it not being motorised. Quite how you'd do that in 4mm scale is anyone's guess... The Southampton Club also lay on a fine array of demonstrators, including Tony Wright [locos] and Jeremy Clifford [2mm timescale]. Took very little persuading to join them, their wives & the Gravetts for a curry on Saturday night & very fine company they were too, with conversation ranging far & wide. As usual, met several people who knew Leitrim well so it was lovely talking to them. However, am thinking that there is a bit of an omission on my figures, with no priest or nuns, so must look out for at least one of each. Re the latter, remember on one of the early appraisal courses run for school staff, found myself with two secondary school headteachers, one of whom was indeed a nun. We had to go off and practice what we had been taught. The room we were sent to was a bedroom, complete with a video camera on a tripod. We had to record our discussions and review after. As we were packing up, we heard a noise outside and on opening the curtains found the window cleaner outside. He however, was looking in a a room with a kingsized bed, two men, a nun and a video camera. How he didn't fall off the ladder I'll never know, but his face was a picture. Our nun thought it was hilarious too. Packing up after the show was a nightmare as it was chucking it down with rain - probably the worst conditions I've ever done this in. However, back home, everything seems ok, but some checking needed before Doncaster in two weeks time

Looks pretty damn good to me - the flow of the track work is splendid and am sure must contribute to good running. Re platform surfaces, in 4mm scale or smaller, a painted surface may well be all the texture required. If a little more is wanted, try talc sifted on to GLOSS paint - either grey or black, depending on the colour you want to represent. Chinchilla dust [fine sand, not freeze dried rodents] on gloss paint works well in 7mm scale - did Fintonagh's platforms that way.

Hey, not bad at all! Only the track gauge stops it being utterly Irish and that is more than forgiveable because it reeks the right atmosphere. Nice one.

It is also possible to buy 'transfer rivet strips' , Tony. Not sure who makes them, but guess someone else will be able to post that soon and I'd quite like some too! From what I have seen, the kits are very good, but well done you for wanting to scratch build too.

A good dozen or so anyway! To which can be added a bit of sea foam, some postiche, a static grass machine, a Noch puffer bottle and some PVA glue. Been busy today with the above, starting with the sea foam to try and bridge the gap between a 2D back scene and the 3D background. Sea foam tends to be a bit fragile, but it does produce low relief [indeed full relief] small trees in quick order. Working forwards, had a go at a patch of nettles, a few much scraps of sea foam for low growing shrubs & then moved forwards to start adding grass & weeds to the two sidings at the front of the layout. Various types of scatter were added to give some extra texture & depth to the grasses, though this left the platform looking rather clean and stark. Have so far added a flower bed and some weeds, though it still lacks details like figures. Coming on nicely though.

Have said before that in a small layout in a larger scale, a back scene is pretty much essential, both to frame the scene and to make up for the lack of actual depth. Given Fintonagh is only 50cm deep, I'm sure you can see what I mean... Started with a coat of emulsion for the sky, then sketched in the buildings. For me, the difficulty has always been getting colours muted enough, particularly for anything in the distance. However, in this case I want the buildings to crowd in on the scene & make it appear that the tram station is right in the town centre. Used acrylics for the larger areas and artists spirit 'brush pens' for the details, along with pencil crayons & pencil. Once done, then painted the foreground tress on top, using acrylics and my 'stippling' method to build up an impression of foliage. Then couldn't resist adding a little 3D foliage in front, though more needed here. Am thinking that some 'sea foam' pieces, suitably foliated and fixed behind the fence will help link the 3D ground cover with the 2D back scene. Need to buy some first though!

Couple of pictures for you DB, showing how I incorporated an addition of Glenfarne goods shed on my Arigna Town layout. Did the stonework using Wills 'Random' embossed sheets. Intended for 4mm scale, they work just as well in 7mm. The rails also began life via the Alphagraphix kit, though only as a 'drawing'. It is scratch built - plasticard body on a simple nickel silver chassis. The Howden-Meredith wheels are just slices of Corgi Classic lorry tyre stuck on to Slater's disk wagon wheels

If you are continuing the Sligo theme, what about Glenfarne goods shed? Ralph a graph x do a kit and even if you don't use it as intended, it certainly provides a starting point.

I always keep my eyes shut at the dentist - even though my current one is a rather pretty young lady! Given many of the tools they use are the same ones as in my own tool box, I'd rather not know what they are doing...

This 'new' adhesive was mentioned in the December Railway Modeller, but it took me a while to track it down. The glue is a gel, which only sets under ultra violet light. Hence we have a tube of gel with a 1mm via dispenser at one end and an ultra violet LED at the other. Use the applicator to put the gel where you want it, bring together whatever it is you are joining and then shine the UV light on the join for 3-5 seconds. While the join isn't as strong as say 5 min epoxy, it is certainly good enough for all sorts of things and I am finding it very useful. Sold by 'JML' in Britain, the likes of Wilkinsons & The Range are stocking it. About ten quid, but a worth addition to the modellers toolbox I would say Apparently, it is used by dentists too...

So far, have not found cracking to be a problem, Paul. The DAS is smeared on really thin [no more than 1mm thick], on a base of PVA, which helps it to stick and may well stop cracking too. However, as it dries overnight, it is easy to make any adjustments next day with the odd extra patch here and there. For random stone, I find leaving an uneven surface works well. For dressed stone, block and brickwork, I sand the surface smooth before starting scribing. Have just put DAS on the building that will go behind the loco shed. The three sides took less than two hours, including the window rebates. They need to be filed flat/square once the clay has dried.

Over a dozen or more exhibition layouts, rail soldered to screw heads works best, but ALWAYS lay the track over the join first, fix in place and cut after. Should ensure perfect alignment no matter how often the boards have to come apart.

Will look forward to seeing you there, Andy!

The end of January is always the Chatham Club's model competition & I tend to use this as an excuse to get something finished. However, it this case, in order to have anything for the buildings and scenic sections, I actually needed to get something started! Decided that the loco shed and water tower would make a good project and have been working on these over the last two weeks. DAS clay was pressed onto a foam board shell to give a thin overall covering and then, once dry, stonework was scribed in with a pointy thing. I'm fairly sure it was part of one of those screwdriver sets you get in the better quality sets of Christmas crackers. I'd tried DAS before & couldn't really get on with it, but it went better this time & has the advantage that you can scribe the mortar lines round corners, rather than try to match up embossed sheets. I left the [hidden] rear wall blank as a rendered surface & did the same with the interior walls, which I've just painted white. Indeed, only the entrance wall of the shed has been done in natural stone. However, the water tank is stone all round. The floor of the shed is also DAS, scribed to represent stone setts, though there is a cut out between the rails for an inspection pit. Windows are acrylic sheet, with glazing bars added by putting a self adhesive address label on top and cutting out the glazed sections with a scalpel. Inside is a work bench [plasticard] detailed with the only ready made items on the scene. This is a set of workshop etchings made by Severn Models, which comprise a set of tiny tools, tool box, a set of spanners on a wall rack and a set of steps. Fiddly and not especially much fun, but absolute jewels once completed and well worth the effort. The water tank is plastic sheet and is awaiting both some of those rivet transfer sheets and an etched ladder. Other work has focussed on the track, with much time spent on the ballast and rail colours. There are also two home made point levers awaiting painting. Apart from Woodlands Scenics fine ash, the ballast is a mixture of weathering powders, talc and chinchilla dust - the latter forms the platform surfaces too. The whole process was getting a bit stressful for a while as it was becoming well over 50 shades of grey. However, it is interesting to see how even simple things like brown paintwork and brightly coloured advertising posters lift the scene & am hoping that weeds etc in the sidings will do the same thing. Nothing is fixed down yet by the way, as I still need to pain the back scene. [/ATTACH]

In pre DCC days, Pacific Fast Mail did an analogue sound system, with synchronisation of the 'chuffs' coming from a cam on one of the loco axles. You had a small treble speaker in the loco and a fixed bass speaker [much bigger] under the layout. As I understand it, the principle is that the human ear can only attach direction to higher frequency sounds. Hence a mobile tweeter and a fixed woofer. Saw the absolute ultimate in this at Utrecht back in the '90s. There was a 7mm scale American outline layout run by a German guy which comprised a station [or depot], about 30' long, which included a 13 storey tower block above the platforms. Nicely modelled too. There were just two locos - a three unit early diesel and a 4-6-6-4 'Challenger' Mallet. It only operated for 15 minutes, on the hour, so a crowd tended to gather as per these animated clocks on churches etc. The guy appeared, magician like, from behind a curtain and the country and western music which had been playing for the previous 45 mins was replaced with the most humungous sound show & certainly one I've never seen bettered. The two locos were simply shuffled up and down the line, BUT, the 'woofers' were two 6 foot tall stacks of [very] hifi speakers, while the locos were big enough to hold decent tweeter cones. The earth did indeed move and the diesel in particular was utterly mind blowing. After 15 mins of this, everything stopped, the C&W music came back on & the German went back behind the curtain, to do whatever it was he'd been up to with his girlfriend...

Just got my copy and very interesting too. Burtonport has long been a favourite and managed to visit a couple of years ago. An amazingly bleak area & only government subsidies got the line built. But what a railway! Hubert Casserley's photos inspirational & I could just about fit the same track plan as in RM in my workshop... Not going to happen though. However, something derivative one day maybe. Temptation has always been to do it to 1:48 on EM track, to take advantage of 4mm scale extended axles for the outside framed locos. Also further info on the vast Carlisle Citadel project. Many of the buildings produced to commission in Ukraine of all places.

Coming on nicely!

On Arigna Town, all the points are operated by wire in tube, Tony and thus far have done 20+ shows without any problems. Mine is narrow bore copper tubing and steel 'piano' wire. As I'd used cork tiles on the baseboard surface, it was easy to cut a channel for the copper tube, which I soldered to countersunk screws set in the baseboard top. The piano wire is bent upwards at the baseboard edge & another short piece of copper tube soldered on to this as a small 'handle'. However, the other methods described about all work just as well. The only minor problems I've had with this method is [very rarely] the wire can become stiff/tight in the tube. Should this occur, it is a simple matter to replace it with new wire. The only disturbance to the layout is where the wire joins the tie-bar - in my case a piece of copper clad strip, which just needs re-soldering. Cheap and simple, especially if your points are already self isolating, as no other wiring is needed. Alternatively you can drill a hole in the head of a sliding microswitch and [with suitable bits of small tube either side, use this to both move the points and change polarity at the same time - particularly useful if you use Peco points, where the contacts have never been particularly robust or reliable, in any scale.

Am sure you will get good value from your birch ply. I only use 6mm, but it is quality stuff and has survived numerous exhibitions without problems. Not sure if cork tiles are worth it, though certainly better than sheet as nice and flat to begin with. As for painting, find that a coat of primer on the underside of baseboards helps with wiring etc as gives a clear white background to any work. Top surface less important, especially as scenery, glue, filler are going on anyway.