David Holman

Clearly it is all in the genes! All power to your elbows!

Stuff like this is what makes this forum so wonderful!

Need I say more?

Currently, on this forum, there are two people doing 7mm broad gauge - Galteemore and me. Is anyone else tempted? Come on in, the water's lovely!

All sounds good, folks! The thing about a Sentinel is there would be no wheel quartering involved, being just discs. Not sure what the axles are, but guess they could be standard Slaters wagon type with the pinpoint ends ground off flush with the wheel. If so, replacing the axles shouldn't be too difficult. The only other issue then is whether all the nice details below the sole bars are far enough out to enable the wheels to be moved out 2mm each side without drastic surgery. Another possibility would be if the wheels themselves are meaty enough, then they could just be tweaked out with some filler in the centre to hide the hole. If anyone gets the chance to have a look at the model, I'd be very interested to know.

The new Railway Modeller has a review of the above and it looks like it might just be possible to ease the wheels out to 36.75mm gauge. Why? The Limerick market branch used a couple of Sentinels and strikes me that this could form an interesting minimal space diorama. You'd still have to build the track and put together a few wagons, but could be a nice way to get into the 'senior scale'. Of course, it may be that Dapol's model is not the correct version, but the arrival of such things always get me thinking. Indeed, could I justify one on Belmullet's harbour branch??

Hawthorn trees, well yes. More like a single hawthorn this afternoon. Had got all seven finished and foliated and was carefully planting in the corner of the field. This involved drilling holes in the ground cover and somehow a stray strand of foliage got caught in the drill and barely two seconds later four of the trees were wrapped round the drill and each other... It was one of those shock horror occasions when you can't believe umpteen hours of work has been destroyed in just a couple of seconds. Since then, have managed to untangle the mess, strip off the foliage and been trying to repair the trunks and branches with a hot glue gun. It then all needs repainting and defoliating. There really aren't enough rude words to describe how I feel!

Weeds & other scenics Baseboard two is progressing: Nettles - proper old school scenics here. I used Woodlands coarse fibres [see pics], cut up into short lengths. Each length is then dipped in PVA and then into some medium crumb from Greenscene, before being put aside [in an old cribbage board], to dry. A couple of hundred of these and next day, it was time for planting! Next up, some work on the joint between baseboards two and three. As before, used clingfilm in the joint, before mixing fine ash ballast with neat PVA and the filling the cracks - ensuring the ground cover was level both sides. Other work on the join involved doing more static grass and foliage cover as below. The front of baseboard two has been causing me a few furrowed brows recently, but as with the rear section, I've decided to keep things simple and mostly go with rough grass, brambles, etc. Hence a layer of mixed foam scatter, with static grass on top of that. Once dry, some extra depth was added with further static grass, held in place with cheap hair spray. Further layers were then added in the same way, but this time using fine scatter, mixed with yellow, white and pink granules from Woodlands. The final touch [thus far, anyway], has been to add brambles using Postiche [see pic if you don't know what this is] with hairspray and fine scatter, plus some other weeds. These are created by carefully wiping PVA over the tops of the grass fibres and then adding fine scatter on top of this, before vacuuming the whole area afterwards to remove any excess. Other work has focussed on covering for the point rodding as per SLNCR in Eniskillen. Meanwhile, seven small hawthorn [ish] trees have been made, hopefully to blend in with the painted back scene across baseboards two and one. The final picture should give an idea of where this is going.

Looks good to me too!

What a fine piece of modelling and creative thinking. Lovely job!

Wow, thanks Ken! Imagineering made real.

Baseboard crates (for exhibition transport)? Storage siding baseboards? Very neat, whatever they are.

Thanks folks. Must admit to have been coverting that shield for the last five years. It replaced the previous 'best overall' club trophy in 2014. The latter was nice pewter cup that we think might have been a golf trophy in another life. In the beginning, this sat on a wooden base, so that little plates with the winner's name could be fixed to. However, over the years, extra layers were added to the first base until the whole thing was bigger than the cup. Managed to win the old one a few times over the years, but not the new one, until now. Club competitions can bring mixed feelings when just as you think you've done your 'best ever', someone else comes along with their own acme which just happens to trump yours - and there are some very talented modellers in the Chatham club! Though really just a bit of fun, with the added intention of getting people making something to bring along and share, it certainly helps improve standards too.

Hard to believe this is 4mm scale. The close ups really highlight the skill required. Don't let anyone tell you a coach is just a box with windows...

More scenics After a bit of a gap over Christmas & the New Year, action has recently focussed again on the baseboards. Number three, nearest the fiddle yard, was reasonably complete, while the middle, number two board had not really been started. First up then was to try and finish off BB3. This meant waiting until after the Chatham club's annual competition, as I wanted to enter the loco shed, to which I also added the coal stage/water tower. And it was worth it too, as the models not only won the 'Buildings' shield, they won the overall shield too, which you can see from the photo is a rather splendid thing. Anyway, competition over, I could now go ahead and fix the sub board with the shed to the main layout board, while the coal stage soon kick started work on BB2. Work was the usual tedious, but ultimately satisfying mix of scenics: Filling in gaps and creating ground cover with my usual mix of filler, PVA and acrylic paint. Several layers, each one a bit thinner, aiming for a light gravel surface in the yard areas and rough ground for the scenic bits Once dry, the next layer is a mix of slightly watered down PVA into which Woodlands medium 'crumb' is scattered. This gives a nice uneven surface of the sort you might see in rough ground or moorland. While this is still wet, the next step was to hit it with the static grass machine, loaded with a mix of 4-6mm fibres of different greens, keeping well away from the bright ones. This was then allowed to dry, after which further treatment was added ranging from extra layers of fibre [stuck with spray mount this time], through fine, dark green scatter sprinkled on to PVA brushed lightly [& sparingly] on the tips of the grass, plus clumps of Postiche, sprayed and sprinkled with fine scatter, to represent brambles. The final layer has used Woodlands flower scatter, mixed with fine crumb, to represent weeds and flowers. This really brings the greenery to life and is quite subtle - so much so that it shows up less in the photographs than it does on the model. I've included a few close ups to try and show what I mean. So, BB3 really is [mostly] complete, albeit still needing a couple of figures and a vehicle of some sort outside the distillery. It is currently minus its sky scene & in fact I'm not planning to add these until all three boards are finished. The more observant among you will have noticed that the white cottage from Arigna Town is missing. I'd intended to use this as a feature at the join of BBs 1 & 2, but it just didn't' seem to fit in, so instead some basic rough ground is there instead. To this will be added a patch of hawthorn, as per the back scene, to help hide joins and blend things together. I've also hit on the idea of putting a small area of hard standing next to the goods shed, with the suggestion of a harbour wall and pier on the the back scene. Belmullet seems to have two harbours, linked by a short canal across the neck of the peninsula. The harbour on the north east side is deemed to be served by the branch, while the other is close enough to the station for produce to be carted twist ship and train. That's the theory anyway!

So atmospheric!

Must challenge you on not being a painter! The scenes created in those cameos show more than a bit of artistic ability. Didn't know it was called Ben Bulben, but certainly recognised the dramatic landscape from my one and only trip to Sligo. Lovely stuff.

Fine looking model of fine little loco.

Lovely stuff!

Unusual project, but also some lovely modelling.

Try Magnets4U, or an internet search for rare earth magnets will give you lots of options. For electro magnets, Dingham couplings ones are good.

Classy.

Sorting Fintonagh As some of you will have read, Fintonagh was misbehaving at the weekend, with four main culprits: The turnout to the turntable The turnout at the entrance to the yard The turntable Uncoupling magnets The first two were covered in the Layouts thread, but the turntable has needed a complete rebuild, while the magnets remain work in progress. The turntable is a Peco N gauge one, with a wider deck to take 21mm track. Its 15cm diameter is just right for the Clogher Valley locos, while to many visitors' surprise, the railcar fits on too. Just. However, its operation is far from prototypical in that all the weight of the loco is born by the centre 'boss'. As this is where the sprung, plunger pick ups are located as well, what happens is that my heavy CVR tanks make the deck drop down about 2mm as they drive on to it and also tend to skew it sideways as they drive off too. Not good then... I've lived with this for a few shows, but wear and tear has started to cause problems, mainly a very stuttering rotation, especially when it is cold for some reason. The weight of the loco should be born by the single 'rail' in the well. This is simply a raised, moulded line on the model, with four, moulded, none rotating 'wheels' under the deck which rub on the rail and therefore simply hinder progress. A solution came to me from building the new South East Finecast table for Belmullet. Here, four ball bearings act as carrying wheels for the deck, so the weight of the loco is taken on the outside of the well and everything is thus better supported. You can see what I've done from the two photos, which show the underside of the deck. First, I cut two pieces of 8mm brass strip, to act as carrying arms for the four new outer wheels. At the outer ends of these, I drilled four holes and reamed them out to take Slater's loco axles. Working in 36.75mm gauge, I have plenty of spares of these. What I did, was grind off the squared ends, still leaving enough of the tapped hole for the wheel nut. A section of each axle was then soldered into the holes in the brass strip, leaving about 4mm sticking out, to make stub axles. On to these have been put a Slater's brass wheel bearing, to act as rollers on the deck bearing, with these being held in place with wheel nuts. All that was then needed was to use a junior hacksaw to cut a slot in the underside of each end of the deck, just inside the former dummy wheels. Finally, I bent the brass strips to match the curve of the rail in the well. Hence the deck is now supported where it should be, at its outer edge and there is no drop when a loco drives on or off. Happily, the plunger pick ups in the centre boss still transmit current to the deck rails! The real test will be at the weekend, when Fintonagh is operating at the Canterbury show, so cross everything, as they say. However, thus far, I'm rather pleased with the result, which owes a little to good engineering practices than my usual bodging techniques, with special thanks to SE Finecast forgiving me the idea in the first place. The magnets are a different story though. I use [mainly] 5mm diameter, 10mm long rare earth rods, in holes drilled either side of the track centre line. These attract [most of the time] the dropped wires on the Kaydee No 5 couplings I use. However uncoupling can be erratic at times, with in the worst scenario wagons failing to uncouple when place over the magnet, but actually coming undone when pulled across one. Very annoying, and more difficult to solve on Fintonagh, where wagons get turned around after each sequence because I have a turntable fiddle yard. Hence, no matter how much you practice/test, there are a great many combinations of wagons pairings, some of which, for whatever reason, do not work reliably. Talking to one of the Burnisland crew at Stevenage, it seems there are a few issues I hadn't considered: Apparently, it can help to have the rare earth magnets slightly staggered, rather than opposite each other, as this helps stop the dropper wires being pulled in the same direction It is important to make sure that all the magnets are pointing the same way. Not sure which is best [all north or all south], but one way gives a wider magnetic field for some reason. Perhaps somebody out there can enlighten? It helps if the magnets are as far apart as possible, though even if your track gauge is 21mm, using 5mm diameter magnets doesn't allow that much space. Interestingly, I put 3mm dia magnets in the train shed and these work fine, as do the 5mm ones in two places further along the platform. The 5mm ones in the end loading dock have thus far foiled all attempts to get them working properly, so am going to replace them with two of the 3mm ones, to see what happens. Otherwise, it has been a case of sticking rigidly to the same wagons on each train and with each train shunting a single siding [exchanging just a single wagon each time], hopefully I can eventually rule out the 'rogues' and put them aside for future fettling. If it sounds like Fintonagh is not running well, fear not - generally derailments only occur through operator error and the couplings are around 80-90% efficient. However, when stuff is working well, it is a real pain when it doesn't as the whole illusion is spoiled. On these occasions, all I can say is that it is a good job any children present don't know what I'm thinking!

Great to see you at Stevenage!

Many thanks folks. For those of you who like the green I've used for the water tank, it is Humbrol 131.