David Holman

It's the colours for me. A lovely muted palette, so subtle, so effective.

Superb buildings and scenery. The stock ain't half bad either - love that wooden wagon.

I've certainly been called worse! Maggie will be making her debut at Sudbury, Suffolk on 1st October, afterwards travelling to Cultra on 12th November.

Plenty of gentle filing today has resulted in Maggie looking a lot more goat like. I also added some small blobs of PVA to thicken the hooves and build up the area around the eyes. Horns came next - small lengths of 1.5mm brass wire, filed to a point, bent to shape, then fitted to holes drilled in the top of the head. Decided not to worry about making the figure hairy. In fact, by using fairly thick acrylic paint and a short, hogs hair brush, managed to create a bit of texture. Started with matt black, then dry brushed white and grey on top to highlight the coat, eyes and hooves. Couldn't resist posing Maggie looking threatening, in front of a departing train, though she will actually live under the big tree. Making this little model has been a fun distraction from other tasks. Overall, it has probably taken me about 6-8 hours over 3-4 days. Had their been a suitable figure to buy, then I would have definitely gone along that route. However, making one myself certainly means I now appreciate how much effort goes into making the masters for figures like this.

Just be careful with the con rods on the S class, because they are outside the front drivers. On the real thing, clearance could be pretty tight, which on a model often equates to fag paper thickness. The good news is that, with a semi freelance model, nobody is going to notice of you move the cylinders out a bit. The other modelling dodge is to bore the cylinders slightly off centre to create more room.

A layout of the Antrim narrow gauge is long overdue, methinks - so it will be great to follow progress. One thought about 5.5mm scale on 16.5mm track is that the rail height might be a bit big. Peco NG track used Code 100 flat bottomed rail. Not sure, but seem to remember bull head track was used on some of the Antrim lines. From my own experience 0n16.5 is a nice format to work in. There are any number of second hand wagon, coach and loco chassis available cheaply second hand, while in the larger scale, 00 mechanisms seem to run better. Being inside framed, there are no outside cranks to worry about, though those four coupled locos all had outside valve gear and all had outside cylinders - am sure this is a reason why we rarely see them modelled. You could always start with The Bruiser, I suppose - I did an approximation of it once using a Lima GWR 2-6-2T chassis, minus the rear wheels. You could go the whole hog and do 0n21 of course, but this means making your own track too. Another option would be to model in 1:48/6mmft, where there are still lots of figures and road vehicles available. 16.5 track is not far off, while EM is spot on of course. Gauge 1 (10mmft) on 0 gauge track might be fun too if you have the space!

Thanks Mark, had been thinking about that, but getting the fibres to fall the right way could be difficult. The model is only 3cm long and there's a danger of over doing things! Worth a try though.

Stage two of the model goat has been to add a layer of DAS clay, along with a piece of wire [passing right through the head] as a frame for the ears. An initial bit of sanding to shape has taken place, though still a long way to go, as at the moment, it resembles a sheep - just like my cattle models. Strange that... Boris has also undergone a sex change, as looking at the photo, Maggie's goat was clearly a nanny. Far more useful to her when you think about it. Am probably now going to call it Margaret, after another robust politician who was never going to change her ways either! Maggie's goat looks like it was a fairly long haired specimen, so am currently pondering how I might represent that. Haven't used teddy bear fur for years, though still have a piece, but, with the model being so small, it may be better to just scratch a representation straight on to the clay. We're having a bit of a family gathering over the weekend, so unlikely to get much done for a couple of days.

Only if it is ready to run!

Maggie Coulter's Goat Students of the Clogher Valley Railway will no doubt be aware of this infamous animal. EM Patterson's history of the line says: "Approaching Fivemiletown, you pass the spot where drivers were often confronted by Maggie Coulter's goat, standing resolutely on the line. The goat was rarely intimidated by the approaching train, or by the whistles, but would shift if live coals were thrown at it. Local wags claimed that Maggie deliberately placed the goat on the line to get coals for her hearth and that she never wanted a heart for her fire!' I've had a goat on my wish list for a while, but apart from a couple of cast figures from Duncan Models have not been able to find anything suitable - especially given that Maggie's one has a real 'Don't mess with me, sunshine' look about it. Therefore, decided I had no alternative but to make one of my own. Did this with some cattle a few years ago for Arigna Town - mainly because it was a lot cheaper than buying 20+ cast metal ones! Ultimately, it is a simple case of making a plastic sub-frame, to give the general body shape, then add DAS clay to flesh it all out. Seem to remember that at first, the cattle all looked like giant sheep and suspect this will also be the case with the goat, so a fair bit of judicious filing will be in order. Given that the goat was clearly a bit of a feisty character, completely averse to the following of rules, but happy to indulge itself at others' expense, have decided he will be called Boris. No prizes for working out why...

Artists acrylics work best for me. Cheaper, large tubes work fine, but they also mix well with specific colours from the likes of Tamiya, Vallejo etc. Martyn Welch's seminal book - The Art of Weathering [Wild Swan] also advocates Humbrol enamels.

Sorry to read that, Patrick. Am very much hoping to see a few of you folk from the other side of the water.

Photography is all about capturing the moment - sometimes spending hours in one place, waiting for something to happen, others simply being in the right place at the right time. As model makers, I guess we spend hours actually creating that space ourselves, so it is rather nice when it all comes together like this.

Another local (for me) outing for Fintonagh this weekend at the Faversham Show. Faversham is also a very pretty town that is well worth a visit. After than comes a one day show in Sudbury, Suffolk on the first of October. However, the big date for me, in more ways that one is going to be 12th November, as Fintonagh has been invited to the model show at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra. Took Arigna Town there a few years ago, so certainly looking forward to visiting again. Less sure about the near 1000 mile road and ferry trip, but there are certain invites you just don't say no to!

Subtle colours, careful lighting and a generous bit of imagination all come together rather well, methinks.

Well, it's been a while - getting on for six weeks in fact, which must be a record for me. However, a combination of the hot weather and catching up on travel [post Covid], put modelling on hold for much of the summer. I did do a bit of other modelling work - no, not the catwalk - as at the Chatham Club, we managed to set up our 0 gauge layout in full, so some of my BR engines and stock have been going through the works so they can run for the first time in quite a few years. Anyway, back to Northport Quay, which has proven a bit of a pain this week, as I attempted to paint all the setts and sea walls of the quayside. Originally, I'd thought to do these grey, though not sure where I got this from, because subsequent research has shown such things to be more of a beige/deck tan colour - at least as far as recent pictures I took at Chatham and Portsmouth dockyards are concerned. So, I rubbed down the dark grey setts, nicely leaving the mortar lines and set about painting each stone individually. As you might expect, that didn't last long! Salvation came from remembering how to paint brickwork: you paint on the brick/stone colour, ignoring the mortar lines, then when dry, you hold the work at about 45 degrees and run in a dilute solution of [in this case] dark mortar colour. This meant tilting the whole baseboard and then, once half dry I gave the areas a hefty dusting with weathering powders, which adds a nice bit of variety. Still not sure it it is right yet, but it certainly feels better. The photos hopefully illustrate the changes, while I've also added more wooden posts to the quay wall. Another small change has involved painting out the rearmost hillside on the lefthand baseboard, to give more sky. It is the late 1950s, with SLNCR Railcar B on scene. Felt duty bound to include this following Galteemore's splendid recent Sligo models - not that I really needed an excuse!

Beautifully captured. Love these vans - prototype for the shortest mixed train? Whatever, by the end of their days, they mimicked ancient timber framed buildings, with barely a straight line or right angled corner anywhere, so getting that look is no mean feat.

A fine combination that epitomizes the Sligo - straight out of the Neil Sprinks photo album. Indeed, for such a small, impoverished railway, the SLNCR is remarkably well served for modellers in 7mm sca!e with kits of the Small Tanks and all manner of stock and buildings in the Alphagraphix catalogue. Ok, ready to run it ain't, but the results are very convincing and definitely something to be proud of!

Templot lets you print out templates. Have used the 3' radius ones to make copperclad points. Another alternative, if you want 00 track is to try one of C&L's point kits, which come with the vee ready assembled and blades machined. You slide the chairs on to the rails and use Daywat solvent to fix them in place. A fairly easy way into making your own track.

As above, though I guess any complex, solid shape could be useful, especially if several of them are needed for a project. So, for locomotives and rolling stock, things like buffers, chimneys, domes, safety valves etc. For buildings and scenics chimney pots, doors, lamps etc A lot of the above have long been available as castings of one sort or another, but these can be hard to get hold of, especially post covid, while suspect that 3D prints are lighter and therefore cheaper when it comes to postage.

Going to be one very happy customer, methinks.

Love how all the weights have been cut and fitted - must have another look at some of my Clogher locos!

Beautiful model of an iconic loco.

Love all the scenic work, buildings and so on, specifically the quayside area. Really need to adjust the colours on my own layout on this evidence!

Well that has, rightly, caused a stir! Remarkable....