murrayec

Excellent Noel It looks great and done very neatly Eoin

Hi Candle wax is the best, preferably paraffin wax type- if you run out of spit! I keep a block of it on the bench (i've had it since I was about 9) and drill into it before drilling the hard stuff, its also deadly when used to lubricate the piercing saw.... also my experience with the Expo Drill Sets is not good, I found on the really small ones the factory grinding to the business end was hit n miss- but replacement bits from Expo are excellent..... Eoin

Hi The ICR looks great I'm amusing the 121 is a white metal kit- the door panels and joins can be marked out with a scalpel and and then with an old blunt school compass point to make them a bit deeper, the lovers are another problem! I have wiped them down and am replacing with plastic cast ones.... Plastic cast louvres ready to go on to the valance Here are the windows with extra frame detail added with the dividers from the same school compass set Eoin

Hi JHB Incorporate a section of standard track into the layout for visiting locos, and keep a bit of stock to run with it, it could be an automatic straight shuttle section?? Layout just below eye level is right, but do keep in mind it's nice to be sitting down when running trains.... Eoin

Hi JHB Your existing J15 and the 141 should convert relatively easy, the 141 as far as I know has bogie sides that allow the wider wheel sets! Any new build can allow for at the onset..... C&L Finescale, Marcway, etc do parts to build yourself or build to order- although C&L are in a slow down with ownership change! and it costs a lot more.... Edit; Actually I'm told C&L are back up to usual speed You should talk to baseboard-dave on this he builds C&L layouts, there maybe a solution there! Eoin

CM I'd be in the switch box! there is a stove in there.... Eoin

Excellent David Classic little model, I see the driver has weighted down the front end with the sacks of spuds.... Eoin

Yes definitely trains on the other planets! - back in early days Lowell was convinced he could see through the scope, canals and high speed railway tubes on Mars Eoin

Hi All Dark and cold winter nights setting in at Greystones..... Eoin & CM

Hi David Lovely chassis, love the chain drive Where did you source the chain and sprockets? Eoin

Hi All Don't forget the Train & Model Fair is on this coming Sunday;- Info about the show can now be found on facebook @trainandmodelfair

Hi David Can you post or pm a link to the photo of the control desk? Thanks Eoin

Excellent David I think the smaller windows are correct, when the larger ones were installed it lost a scale quality.... Almost my favourite loco, have a few OO but must get doing an O Eoin

Hi david Also look out for the windows, see popeye's first photo of an early one- smaller windows to front and 3 of the same size across the back. Not sure if the Worsley Works 7mm etch has this if you are interested? Eoin

Hi David We had a discussion about livery on these lovely machines some time back and JHB gave livery info throughout, see link below- I was also caught out on that Tom Ferris photo, it's silver! the negative is old style and its colour is going off and it was printed as light blue..... Eoin

Hay Wrennie I think the gyro is a bit off on that drone Nice old bubbles though..... Eoin

Vernier Callipers. This I find the best dial calliper to use on plastic models- Marks Models usually have these in stock. It's a €10.00 dial calliper with a shortened beam- to fit in ones pocket, and a tapped in M2 screw to lock the free leg to the beam to hold a measurement. The plastic ones are user friendly to models as the metal ones are quite sharp on the edges and I found they mark models very easily where one does not want a mark! Dials are better than batteries for the obvious reason. One point on this unit- I found the fingers are not perpendicular to the beam so as long as you know this and allow for it, its fine.... Eoin

Today's job on the Cameo Here is a basic example of what can be done, Class G replacement cabs for a Worsley Works etch kit with the old style windows This is the mounting of the .5mm styrene sheet on the carrier sheet The sheet is cut several times, each time deeper, scoring is done at a depth of 4 and then for cutting the parts in incremental depths of 2 until 10- 10 is the deepest cut which is more than halfway through the sheet Then out with the scalpel to cut it out- X's in the windows to push them out and then run the scalpel in the deep cut lines to aid cutting corners and curves Done, needing a bit of sanding on the edges and light scoring on the back to bend it into a cab Eoin

Hi Noel The plastic sheet is best mounted on the sticky carrier sheet, there are two pressure wheels on the drive shaft that put pressure on the sheet, but the knife pressure can twist the plastic in these and then its a mess. As well as the carrier sheet I use masking tape as the carrier looses its tack over time especially with styrene. Reg marks are only required if you want to line the machine up with pre printed stuff that you want to cut out, cutting plain plastic sheet does not need this as long as you mount the plastic on the carrier sheet in relationship to the drawing in the software. There is a grid in the software and on the carrier sheet to aid on this... Do remember you need some CAD skills to prepare the drawings, the Cameo software is not great for this! I use Autocad and then import it in as a DXF- the latest version of the Cameo software had bugs in the DXF import- coming in at the wrong scale, so I went back to a version that does work! Eoin

Hi Noel Get out your vernier and measure it, it will cut plastic/acetate but the edges are harder to clean up because you don't want to score the glazing- I use a nail polishing stick to do this Eoin

Yes Noel, I use one and its very handy It will cut plastic card up to about .3mm after that it can score it for snapping, 1mm card is about the max that will fit under the tool. Its great for scoring detail on the surface of parts. The parts do need tidying up and they can be slightly distorted by the pull of the blade- some lines may not be parallel as intended! The blade lasts a reasonable time depending on how one uses it, there are a few different suppliers other than the Cameo one and they are cheaper but from the US or on Amazon I have used it to score or mark out thin brass sheet with a diamond tip tool- very handy, it will score deep enough for folding. The Cameo cutter is in the cost range of €300.00, there are other machines far better but come at a higher price, an entry level Laser Cutter for plastic will cost around €2000.00 the last time I looked and that is a basic one! Laser is not low cost alternative to a Cameo cutter. The majority of the parts for this project were cut on the Cameo, including the window mullions;- Eoin

Hi IANG That sounds like something got into the works or the works are jambed somehow! Take a close look around the wheels and see if anything may be stopping the mechanisms from turning, push the wheels back and forth with the fingers and see if there is play in the gears, hold it up-right while doing this and see if anything drops out. Check also to see if the bogies fell free to rotate and wobble from side to side Try it on the track again after doing all this and see what happens- watch carefully and see if it budges and then stops- if it does move slightly and stop, this will tell you its something mechanical locking up Eoin

Hi Popeye It looks absolutely amazing Eoin

Nice one Dave I'd like or share that, but nowhere to put it Eoin