David Holman

Thanks Ken - if only! Considering it is a photo of a photo on a tablet screen, it works pretty well.

Sublime!

Tunnel Vision Still flitting about, as the muse takes me and decided it was time to 'block in' the left hand side of the layout, where it exits into the fiddle yard, so that means a tunnel mouth. An internet search of Irish railway tunnels found me the tunnel at Downhill, which suits my situation nicely as it goes through a headland, with very steep sided cliff faces around it - ideal for my limited space. First job seemed to be creating the actual portal, a fairly straightforward task, using grey and mounting board, which was then covered in DAS and scribed for the stonework. I used grey DAS, which gives a decent base colour and applied it in fairly thick, uneven layers which I left as a rough finish in the hope of giving the walls a bit of texture. However, after scribing the stones, they still looked a bit flat, so added further small blobs of DAS to thicken them up a bit. The model was then given multiple light washes of acrylic - a mix of greys and browns, followed by a further wash of 'null oil', a wonderfully named Games Workshop tint, which is essentially black. The topography is built around a few blocks of expanded polystyrene [forgotten how messy this stuff is] which were then overlaid with a cardboard weave, make from strips of cereal packet. All those of a certain age will have done this in primary school, including a fair few unfortunate souls in my own time as a teacher. In this case, I used a hot glue gun to fix the strips in place, starting with the verticals, then weaving the horizontals in afterwards. This gives a reasonable structure on which to apply a shell, which is a stiff mix of powdered filler, PVA and black acrylic. Several thin layers of this are needed, but hopefully the photos will give an impression.

Very much the way to go. Start small and create something that satisfies in a reasonable length of time. And enjoy, of course!

Looks a bit like that round here. Storm Eunice the culprit and very much 12" to the foot. ...

Might not be my scene, but not difficult to recognise the skill and effort that has gone on here.

Railway modelling is clearly good for you!

If Irish models are niche, where does that put GT3? Well done with the A - there is something almost indefinable about it and there are few, if any rtr models of this quality.

Wonderful stuff John. Converting the A class to 21mm really has gilded the lily. Love the pragmatism too - if it works, don't fix it. The track work just looks splendid.

Great stuff Sean, I think. Just wish I understood it... Well out of my league, but will do my best to follow, nevertheless.

Years ago, pre DCC, there was the Pacific Fast Mail system. Locos had a cam on the axle to create synchronised chuffs. While there were on board speakers, some folk used tweeters for this and had bigger bass woofers fixed under the layout. No doubt as an audio engineer, you'll know that the human ear doesn't pick up direction from low frequency sound. The best example I saw of this was on an American outline layout at a show in Holland. It was 0 gauge and just had two locos - a Challenger 4-6-6-4 and a three unit diesel, each of which had a PFM unit. These were hooked up to the mother and father of HiFi systems, which included two, two metre high speaker stacks. Needless to say, when either loco moved (and especially the diesel), the earth and many of your internal organs moved! Richard Chown's legendary Castle Rackrent system used PFM units in a more conventional way. Food for thought perhaps? Try an internet search for more info.

Don't know much about the prototype, but the model looks great!

If you like the challenges of programming and running multiple locos, then DCC is great. I tried it because it seemed to offer better running qualities and simpler electrics - neither of which are necessarily true. My layouts are all one of two trains on scene maximum, so the multi engine thing isn't necessary. Fine control and the introduction of braking, coasting, sounds etc seemed very tempting and was interesting - for a while. However, I soon found that simply turning a dial to move a train was all I needed. My locos are all kit or scratchbuilt in metal, so need fine tuning to work well. A DCC chip introduces an extra set of variables to knowing why something isn't running well and will certainly not compensate for dirty track, poor pick ups etc. Brass loco bodies and DCC chips are not good bedfellows either. The chip has to be fully insulated or it is all too easy to fry it - been there, got the T-shirt. Several of them in fact. Sound is great, but again has its limitations, I found. Cost to begin with at over £100 per loco, while the downloaded manual for a Tsunami sound chip runs to well over 100 pages, a lot to learn. At exhibitions, have heard too many steam locos with sound that is little better than sand paper rubbing together and/or the model does not behave like a steam loco which only puffs when the regulator is open. Diesel sound seems to work best, not least because the lack of smoke/steam is less noticeable. However, well remember a 7mm scale diesel depot layout, where the owner had something like 20 Heljan locos ticking away on idle, at full volume, creating what was best described as white noise and doubt if any self respecting shedmaster would want to waste all that fuel. All in all, I spent several hundred pounds only to find DCC is not for me, hence my cautionary tale. If you like tinkering with electronics and programming the features, then it will be good fun, but it is not a universal cure all and requires the same attention to detail as any other branch of our hobby. As with anything else, you pays your money and makes your choice.

Superb in any scale and hard to believe it is in 2mm. One of Angus's 5p pieces maybe? Well done!

First of all, suggest you try and find someone with DCC (e.g. Visit a club or show) to find out if it really is for you. I've tried various systems and owned both a Lenz and Prodigy. They all have their merits and foibles! In the end, decided DCC is not for me, because I found it all a bit of a faff, so try before you buy, because you may find it is not for you. Don't forget, you are adding in significant extra costs to every loco (plus points and switches too), especially if you want sound. DCC is definitely not plug and play either. To get the best out of it, every loco needs fine tuning and if that is part of the fun, then great. However, it can get frustrating at times. In my experience not systems will work with all chips, which can also get expensive. Sometimes, the simpler way is best.

3D printing has much to commend it in many areas, as we are seeing. However, would argue it is not yet the answer to everything, so would emphasise to keep requests to what works and is worthwhile. Arguable that platform walls are easy enough to make from card or plastic, so why not save your money for something more challenging to make? Steam loco bodies maybe? As with etched kits, once drawn in one scale, they are fairly easy to do in a different one, but beware because there may not be enough room for a chassis and mechanism, while you will also need plenty of weight over the driving wheels if the model is going to perform. A 3D print is never going to be ready to run, because it will need wheels, motor, couplings etc etc. so will certainly make some demands of your modelling skills, which is great because it is all about self improvement. The moral is therefore think about what you can do now and what you'd like to see available that matches tbhis. There are already thousands of unmade kits around already without adding 3D prints to the collection. Robert's stuff, above, seems exactly what is wanted. Everything in the picture might appear to be simple, but try making a chair from scratch, let alone a dozen of them! Lovely stuff.

Hello - that is rather nice! Are you sure it is 2mm scale??

I've been tinkering with the crane, on and off, over the last fortnight and thought I was getting on quite well. Unfortunately, in trying to work out how the cables and hoist gear was rigged, I came across a lengthy thread on RMweb, which shows that the Airfix/Dapol crane kit is, well, wrong... It is all to do with luffing, apparently, which to the uninitiated like me, means the jib needs to be able to move up and down via a supplementary set of cables, separate from the ones to the lifting hook. All to do with the angle of the dangle when lifting cargo from a ship's hold. Anyway, for me, it was a case of 'do I scrap the whole thing and start again', or persevere onwards? Given that Northport Quay is very much a cameo and the crane is really just a view blocker, half hidden behind the warehouse anyway, I decided to plod on. There is another issue though, because am fairly certain this type of crane would have been powered by electricity, so a model isn't really appropriate for the early 20th century. 1950s should be ok, though by all means tell me I'm wrong! I won't mind, because it has been an amusing little project to adapt and reconfigure the old Airfix mouldings. After making new legs and a larger cabin, it was obvious the platform needed some safety railings and this meant raising the cabin on a piece of tube made from several layers of 20thou plastic sheet. Inside the new cabin, I fitted part of the Airfix one, to act as a kind of engine room - maybe diesel power? I also added some white metal levers from a signal box kit, together with a seated driver. The outside of the cabin has been clad in Slater's corrugated iron sheet, some of which also forms the roof. Thus far, the model has been sprayed with rattle can primer and given these things seemed to be mainly grey anyway, it could be that some weathering coats on top of this are all that is required. By and large, it looks the part, though far from prototypical - but as I said earlier, the layout is very much a cameo, so liberties are most certainly being taken.

Not sure anything exists in the larger scales, unless custom built. The nearest to 'off the shelf' I can think of are the Alphagraphix Tyrconnel range. They do a good selection of 7mm scale, etched brass, six wheel coaches, plus several ex MGWR locos such as a J26, J18/9 and G2 2-4-0. However, Alphagraphix also do card kits, which are really cheap [less than £5], of the 6w coaches, plus one or two locos as well. An online search will take you to the website.

True, though a back scene should work just as well, if you have the space.

Not bad at all, JB! However... Below are two of my three cameras. The Coolpix is what I use for general 'proof reading' photos of models and for this forum, where minimising the megapixels makes for easier uploading. Equally, with a 6x zoom and 16megapixels, it dwarfs my first digital camera for little cost. Pretty much automatic though, so for more detail work [and holiday snaps], I use the Panasonic Lumix. 20x zoom and 15 megapixels, it still fits in the palm of your hand - unlike my beloved Canon SLR 'film' camera which sadly lies unused in the drawer. Note the magic word 'Leica' on the Lumix though - a proper piece of glass for the lens. Do mobile phones have such things? The third picture is of the control on the Lumix - a dial which allows you to stick with the all too good automatic settings, or be more creative by varying aperture and speed settings. An SLR it ain't, but am almost ashamed to say it will nevertheless do pretty much all I ask of it, though it did cost me £200. One more thought - given that a one megapixel photo will still look ok blown up to A4, you have to wonder about the other 15 million AND how on earth do they fit them all [and hundreds more] on a memory card little bigger than a postage stamp? Amazing....

At a show a few years ago, someone asked if they could leave one of those little cube video cameras on my layout. It was placed at the end of the platform and filmed several trains over about 15 minutes. As for cameras, the ones in mobile phones seem to get ever more clever. However, though the processor can make up for a multitude of sins, ultimately, a piece of glass (ie the lens) is crucial. Would have thought a proper camera, even a cheap one, will have a better lens than most phones. My Nikon Coolpix cost me £50, while mobile phones with decent cameras cost ten or twenty times that and can't help thinking that choosing a dedicated tool for the job will always bring better results.

All the more remarkable!

Impressive! When were these models built?

Yep, that's a Wow alright.