David Holman

Thanks Eoin. Have been using Humbrol Liquid Poly for many years. A bit fierce for some tasks [and smelly], but certainly does the job re microstrip and perspex. Check out Peter Smith's latest book on using printed papers. He's the man behind Kirtley Buildings. Called Using Printed Papers in Railway Modelling; ISBN 9781505358476. Got mine from Amazon & whilst I don't agree with everything in there, it contains much of value & interest.

Realise most of you work in 4mm scale, but in case anyone is interested, here is how I make my own windows in 7mm scale & there may be aspects that work in both scales. First up the glazing material. I've long used perspex, rather than clear plasticard. It does not cloud when it comes into contact with solvent. The station sash windows are approx 6' x 3'6, so i first cut a strip of perspex 3'6 wide and make it off into 6'1 lengths, which are then further divided into 3' and 3'1 [using my scale ruler] to allow for the overlap. Cutting the perspex produces a significant 'cusp', so this then needs paring off with a craft knife. The pretty much ends any measuring, for the frames [40x20 thou microstrip] are all cut in situ. Once an outer frame is on each pane, the one that is to be the lower one is then turned over & two extended vertical sides are added. 40x60 strip is then stuck to this, to create upper frames & the top pane is then added to this, with a slight overlap. Two small pieces of 40x60 are added to create the stop blocks & then 20x20 thou strip is the final touch to make the central glaring bars. Total time - about 10 mins or so, once I get my eye in, though the first of a new batch always takes a little longer. The completed window is then a push fit in the aperture of the building and [because it is a timber framed] an outer frame of 40x60 microstrip then glued round the end with UHU. Finally, solvent is run into the join between this & the window frame to fix it in place. As I mentioned before, the cost of each window frame is about 80p/one euro. That is based on a pack of microstrip now running at £4, for 10 pieces and you use two of them. A York models version is show alongside for comparison. These cost £1.75 each, but construction time is nil. However, you don't get the proper split of a sash window & therefore cannot readily show them as open - as seen in the photo of the station building on Arigna Town. Other photos show the various stages [sorry they are not in the right order - why does that happen?], plus how the windows are then mounted in the model.

The Chatham Club's North Circular layout is going to need scores of buildings for its urban setting, so I'm trying to ensure that we can build to a consistent standard. Step one of this is to use building papers, rather than embossed sheet. The ones we are using are from Model Scene. You pay to download various files & can the print off as many copies as you like, for as long as you like. Their dark brown brick has been the choice for the houses around the main station, but the station building is deemed to be timber, so has cladding made from cereal packet card. Big windows mean that a fair amount of the inside can be seen, so further Model Scene files have been printed and used for walls & flooring, plus things like pictures, book cases, clocks etc. Also tried out CGtextures, a Dutch website which has a wealth of stuff including doors, floors, windows shops & much besides. Well worth a look. At the moment, am doing my usual scratch built window frames - I can do a sash window in about 15 minutes. However, the cost of microstrip means each one can be anything up to a euro [75p], so have ordered some ready made windows from York Modelmaking. These work out at about £1.75 [2 euro] per window, so it is clearly going to cost the club funds a fair bit. Nevertheless, think it will be worthwhile as these features will bring a good level of consistency to our models, no matter who builds them.

Sevenoaks show yesterday [sunday], a medium sized show, with a nice balance of exhibiters & traders [shame no book stand] and very well organised. The hospitality was excellent, with goodie bags both for breakfast and lunch. Sensible opening times too, with a 4pm finish which allowed us to get home in good time for once. The layout ran well, the only issues being a popped window on the bakery van and the driver of the G2 coming loose. However, the most important bit was seeing how my adaptations had affected set up/knock down times. Very encouraging is the answer. Arriving at 7.30am, the layout was up and running by 9am, so set up time [solo] has been cut by a good 30 minutes. With help, the layout was back in the car 35 mins after the show closed.

Two classic buildings. Very nice indeed. That cutting mat has led a hard life!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19151 Those of you expecting something risqué, will no doubt already be disappointed by the picture, but these little jobbies are saving me 20 minutes of set up/knock down time at exhibitions. Mentioned them in my blog, but thought a photo might be useful. Available from your local DIY superstore, they replace M6 bolt and wing nut on my light posts, pelmets etc. Not very applicable for home layouts, where everything is nailed down, but a real boon on exhibition layouts. Will use them on the North Circular layout too - including slotting all the back scenes in place. 16 back scenes would need 32 bolts = around 15 minutes to set up. with flush mounts, the whole lot can be done in seconds.

Did this show last week. A small affair, but very friendly, though not many punters, which was a shame. Just the one day [saturday], so decided to 'fly solo' and did the entire show on my own, mainly because my usual operators were all 'otherwise engaged'. All in all, everything went well, with no issues re layout or stock - just as well with no back up. However, one thing that solo exhibiting focuses the mind on is setting up and knocking down. Without help, the number of trips to/from the car double, while setting up/knocking down the layout inevitably takes longer too. Several parts of the layout are held together with M6 bolts and wing nuts. If any of these are too long, the twirling soon starts to grow wearisome. The light posts, pelmets and tea shelf require 18 of the soandsos, so this week have been working on replacing them with flush mounts. These are small steel brackets, which are screwed to each item you want to join & then setting up is a simple matter of slotting them together. At around 30 seconds per wing nut, reckon I have saved 10 mins, while the purchase of a folding sack barrow has cut the number of trips to/from the car from 12 to 8. Hence around half an hour of setting up/knocking down time saved. Not bad methinks.

13-14th June at Mid Kent Leisure Centre, Gillingham. 30 000 square feet of halls & nearly 100 stands, 30 of which are layouts, including the splendid 3mmFS Ballyconnel Road - worth the entrance fee on its own. Chatham Club's developing 0 gauge layout there too. By all means come and say hello.

7mm scale definitely worth considering. Ariana Town is just 3.6m long on the scenic section. Track not a problem, with C&L parts or copper clad. Alphagraphix catalogue contains several etched brass kits of the E class 0-6-0T and G2 2-4-0, plus etched brass and card kits of the 6 wheel coaches. Not difficult and VERY addictive!

Nice to see this has created some interest, though in this Workbench thread, will aim to concentrate purely on building techniques, though may well post a few more photos etc on the 'English' section of the website. However, just to answer a couple of questions, at the moment, we have no plans to add extra rails, because the inspiration for the project is the Tottenham & Hampstead line. This was never electrified [and does still exist], but carried pretty much all BR regional locos, with the exception of the GWR outside cylinder locos, which were just too wide. Hence we have licence for all the early BR diesels, plus LMS suburban and freight type, all the LNER Pacifics ran through at some time or other, plus their were plenty of SR types on transfers too. Have attached a couple of pictures of the baseboards. Built of 6mm birch ply, they are very stable, very strong, but also very light. The only fixed surface is the track base [also 6mm ply]. The scenery is using the 'jigsaw' concept, with removable sub sections for an area of deep cutting. These use insulating foam board as their base. Being curved, the boards need to be kept fairly thin for economic transport [this is designed as an exhibition layout], so several scenic sections have been made removable & easy to slot in place once the main parts are erected. Hopefully the photos show the idea. There will be a lot of brick work on the layout, so we are standardising on brick papers for this, which I think can be surprisingly effective. There is a new book on the subject by Peter Smith [of Kirtley Models], which is full of ideas and well worth reading. The other photos show a bit more of the station area, in particular how I've started the road over bridge. The surface is properly cambered and uses 400 grit wet and dry paper to replicate tarmac.

So, suitably replete - farctate even - what's in this new project of interest generally? Each baseboard is one twelfth of the original circle. This will include two 'bitsa' stations [as coined by Iain Rice], now separated by the storage loops on one side of the full oval. A 'bitsa' station is what it says on the tin - just a section, rather than the full thing. In 0 gauge, even a platform capable of holding a six coach train can be well over 3m long and, when you think about it, not much in the way of action happens at platforms. Trains stop & depart & that is about it. The real action happens in the goods yards [or did in the past], so that is what the main scenic section of the layout concentrates on, together with scenic bits to join them up. The pictures show one of the stations [no name yet - need to find a suitable London street]. The main building is on an over bridge, flanked by brick built houses & with single storey, timber commercial premises opposite. The station is timber too, to reduce the weight on the bridge girders. The design is fairly free lance, though I confess to some GNRI influences, with access to the platforms being via staircases. Rather than model these in full, going down, externally, to the platforms, they copy the design of Chatham's station in that they reach the platforms under the road bridge - which helps reduce the amount of detail modelling required. Stairs ain't easy things to model. The building is in skeleton form thus far, being just a frame of 5mm foam board. This has decent thickness, without adding much weight. It will be clad in lapboard and feature a full interior, so I'll try to report on its progress. Likewise the buildings around it. The whole scene sits on a large sheet of foam board, which at the moment is not fixed down, so I can work on it, away from the baseboard. The double track you can see is C&L flexi, enhanced a little by super-elevation. this was done by packing up the outer edges by 3mm with card, the ballasted on top. Subtle, but very effective, especially when trains pass one another. Ballast is from Greenscenes. It is crushed walnut shell, I believe & though effective in appearance [especially when toned down/weathered], it doesn't always take well to the standard PVA/water mix and we have had to patch up several areas - with some still to do. Platform surfaces are 400 gritty 'wet and dry' paper, with plasticard coping slabs, while the platform walls are all brick paper, of the sort you download from the Web and print yourself. The next jobs will be to create the stairs down to the platforms & add some supporting pillars. Watch this space...

There is unlikely to be much re the Irish scene for a while - so my activities are turning towards the Chatham Club's 0 gauge project, for which I am 'gaffer' for my sins. This is BR 1940-60s, so hardly applicable for this forum, however, there are aspects of construction which may be of interest. I won't bore you with the full details, suffice to say that it is called 'North Circular', aiming to depict a North London avoiding line, which hosted pretty much any of the Big Four's stock & therefore ideal as a Club project. The Circular bit comes from the fact that it started as a 4m diameter circle, but is gradually being extended into what will become a 10m x 4 m oval. Small it ain't! We have got the basics completed, with me actually using some ancient O level geometry and algebra to calculate the dimensions of the 12 baseboards which make the circle. These worked out so well that, even when we added 2.4m straight sections, everything still lined up. The boards are good quality 6mm ply, built from a jig we made to ensure all were pretty much identical. What will come next [sunday dinner is nearly on the table!] will be some of the innovative techniques we are adopting. So back shortly!

As the saying goes - 'quality always sells!'

Couldn't agree more Eoin. Can be just as satisfying as finishing a new kit or scratch build. Not sure why, maybe it just comes from making a older model work again - especially if you can make it better than it was before. Once managed to drop an 04 diesel shunter. A white metal Vulcan kit, it simply broke back down into its major components. Restoring it no problem but the fun came from adding extra detail and doing a better paint job.

Just been re-reading E M Patterson's history of the Clogher Valley Railway, where there is a section on extensions - including the fabled Ulster & Connaught. Seems both the Clogher and Cavan & Leitrim were keen to link up, with the former also interested in extending eastwards to the Bessbrook & Newry tramway, thereby providing a direct link to the coast for Arigna coal. The GN branch to Keady & the south eventually scuppered the coastal link, though they did build a tunnel to enable the 3' gauge line to cross beneath it. Still exists too! Hence, even if the U&C extension to Galway and Clifton had not produced a trans Irish narrow gauge 'mainline' [over 230 miles long!], a C&L/CV/B&N link would have produced the scenario of the first two's engines & rail cars sharing tracks and working with each other's stock. 'Tis a basis for a 7mmNG project I've often pondered - not least because of the variety of modelling it could offer. So far, cannot decide if it would be best in 21mm gauge/7mm scale, or 32mm gauge/10mm[ish] scale. One day...

By way of a change, I've recently been tinkering with one of the Chatham club's 0 gauge locos. It is an interesting model, being a precursor of the current Ixion type industrial locos - in this case a 16" Hunslet 0-6-0T. These ready to run engines were produced by 85A models [presumably Worcester] and were mainly plastic injection mouldings. Cost was around £150 if I remember rightly, though it must be 15 years or more since they were last made. A very nice job the made of them though. The Hunslet is a fairly simple engine, but there is plenty of detail, while the chassis, though also plastic, features a Mashima motor, with flywheel and split axle pickups. It runs beautifully, the only downside being the connecting rods were also plastic, as were the crankpins. Hence, the latter eventually broke and the loco has been out of use for some time. When I found it in a box, decided to have a go at repairing it. The solution was to replace the plastic crankpins with a set of heavy duty ones, sold by Derek Mundy, plus make a new set of rods from nickel silver and small brass washers for the 'ends'. The brake gear needed repairing too, as did the regulator linkage, but it proved a pleasant weekend's work, plus a bit of touching up of paintwork. Will also give it a name - Hornet - using one of the spare set of plates from the Tyrconnel J26 kit. If you ever come across one of these on Ebay, then can certainly recommend them. Beware only the fact that 7mm scale is very infectious![ATTACH=CONFIG]

Is that a model for your own use, or a kit???

No reason why it shouldn't work. Gordon Gravett's seminal work, Pempoul, is built on foam board foundations. Plywood sides [6mm birch] protect the edges, with 12mm ply at the ends to the baseboard joiners. No More Nails, or similar, used to hold everything together. Mr G insets blocks of plywood [top or bottom], to hold anything that needs a firmer foundation [eg servo or point motor]. Recently, he showed me his new project [details in latest Model Railway Journal], where he has clad lengths of 50mm x 25mm [2x1] foam board, with one sixteenth inch thick plywood. The result looks just like a standard piece of 2x1 timber, but weighs almost nothing. Uses them as longitudinal beams, beneath the foam board for extra strength. Works extremely well.

Check out the Alphagraphix catalogue GSR. He advertises in Railway Modeller & you need to send him some stamps, as it is all by post. There is a wide range of model building kits for Irish prototypes in both 4mm and 7mm scale. Cheap too - often 5 euro or less. They can make into decent models, or if you prefer [like me], you can use them as a plan for your own scratch builds. Note too that signal boxes in Ireland were often 'off the shelf' jobs, mainly from Saxby & Farmer. Wizard Models do many fittings.

Ariana Town worked well again at Epsom, though less can be said of its owner. Saturday morning was very wet and with the halls not opening till 8am, this left barely two hours to unload and set up. Unloading in the rain is never a good idea, though the scenic boards are last out of the car, so it had actually stopped by the time I got to these. Other boxes & stuff did get wet though, as it was about 50 yards from car park to front door. At least there were plenty of sack barrows available to help move things. my stand was end on to a wall and [very stupidly], I set up the sliding/rotating fiddle yard to close to it. Ten minutes into the show, it dawned on me that there was not enough room to turn the train table at the end of a sequence. I'd left myself about 5cm too close... By then, there was already a large crowd in front, so could only suffer in silence for the rest of the day. Eventually, had to dismantle the lights, pelmets, drapes [and move all the stock], so I could separate the boards and move them, one at a time, a bit to the right. Sunday was much better, as a result! The only other issues of any note were a loose wire on the LED lights which required re-soldering and a broken socket on the tender of the G2. The former fixed in situ, the other had to wait until Saturday evening when I got home and could fit a new one. This [and the lack of a train turntable], rendered the excursion train out of action for the whole of the Saturday, partly because of insufficient pick ups to make the loco reliable & also because I didn't fancy turning the loco by hand at the end of each sequence. Everything else worked well, none more so than the rail bus, which runs much more smoothly now that its gearbox is firmly screwed to its motor. Hence, a very small 'to do' list before its next outing - a one day show in Gravesend next month.

Serious paint job. Well done sir!

Can only agree it is a fabulous subject for modelling, though dare I say that, if you are going to model something that will require so much scratch building, hopefully you are doing it in 21mm gauge? Like JHB, my saliva glands are already working overtime. Wolf Dog has to be there!

Getting ready for a weekend at the Epsom show now. Always a good range of layouts here and the venue is exhibitor friendly, being all on one level. The to do list has been worked through, so hopefully all will be well for Saturday morning. Was tempted to set up Friday pm till I realised that would be two trips round the M25 in the rush hour. So, an early alarm for Saturday instead.

The Ulster and Connaught! One of my fantasies too JB. Probably completely bonkers, but manna from heaven for the modeller. Many times have contemplated doing a scene/section, for [as you say] a great excuse to run the larger Swilly locos alongside smaller stuff such as the Clogher. Yet to make my mind whether it would be better to do in 21mm gauge/7mm scale, 18mm gauge/6mm scale or 32mm gauge/1:29 [Gauge One-ish]. The latter especially appealing because of the size. One day...

Classy