Glenderg

I realise that I am "IRM" currently, but many of you will recall I used to be just plain ol' Glenderg, missing delivery deadlines and such, but at the same time I produced a kit for the weedspray MK1 and sold quite a 4 of them, along with weathered and pristine "Ready To Run versions". Having spend many many hours researching and designing a kit, and then to hear that you, Noel, think the Silverfox version is perfectly acceptable....yet you say "I call a spade a spade, my models are toys, and in our house everybody calls them Dad's toy train set." "I play by making and driving my toy trains, and happy as a bunny when doing so, call it modelling, or play I care not. " It's the contradictory nature of this regular narrative, like a bowel movement, that prevents me from sharing my experiences, thoughts, findings from elsewhere, as a modeller on this forum any more. R

Quite impressed, and I'm a picky hoor at the best of times! R

@WaYSidE I think we'd all be grateful to hear of this auction, so there's no stress there. Just as long as you're not going to be at the top of the room with the gavel thing on the day, that might be totally dodgy..

Some books (and some are very recent) appear in multiple auctions..?

Weathering, for the expected effect, like a lady of loose moral, is mostly about what you take off, not what you leave on. Weathering powders as a medium for a wash is seriously expensive and doesn't sit in the grooves as it should. Even thinned enamel paint will do the same effect that can be reactivated later. Get that layer on first so you can see the details, then dial it back by reactivation. Powders should be used sparingly, they only infer a hint of rust / grease etc. There's a subtlety to them that I'm constantly amazed by Weathered Models group on FB. Anyway, to butcher my opening analogy a bit further, there's a heaviness to her upper quarters which needs restrained. The second last photo, to me, was the perfect foundation for some gentle airbrushing, and it's maybe a wee bit overcooked on the roof and panel joints. Leaps and bounds you've come, so please don't see this as critical in a negative sense. R.

There's a couple of issues here - the luggage hall is still present, albeit missing it's first floor to the rear on Sherriff Street, not the vaults themselves - They may have been for bonded goods like rum & tobacco. Anyway, this should clear things up. There are 8 minor ventilators shown on the roof and a much larger one centrally. R

Visually there's little between B4 and B5, an extra torsion bar, especially if you apply the "duck test" that you're so fond of. R

Fair enough Leslie, I'll trawl the attic in the morning, but nobody was more shocked/tickled/bemused than I to see it. The track layout had all the hallmarks of a traditional British terminus layout you'd expect in a sleepy hamlet, sort of fare you'd see at shows and exhibitions. At the risk of excitement, it was a particularly British format, without forethought to the loop line, yet to come. As for sheds, I'm sure, had I the time, I could regale in print the vagaries of "English garden wall bond" brick as an aesthetic and structural choice for GNR sheds, but twould bore the arse off everyone. (the GNR work, was, and is the zenith of railway architecture in the UK and Ireland, despite what the GWR think!) R

Sadly it's the plastic. Some of the "clip pins" are designed only to go once into the hole, and if you remove them any way robustly, you'll see the joint goes white where it meets the bogie frame. The lima plastic was the "hobnob" of bogie mounts, to butcher a Peter Kay sketch. You could whip those bogies on and off without stress. Also, neither of the suggestions above would be appropriate for a craven - you'd need a B4 Bogie, (a B5 isn't available, I know lads... ) Some of the older MK2 coaches on ebay have them underneath, but it's 1 in 50 sometimes with other variants. I've never thought about transplanting an Airfix bogie onto a Craven Coach, and it may not even work, but I'll check it out next time I'm in the workshop. R.

Back in 2015 the good lady wife bought me a book called a Portrait of Dublin in Maps and I spotted an early plan of Connolly. Curiosity got the better of me, so I rambled down the following day and took these. Book is in the attic, somewhere, I'll try and dig it out over the weekend. It was when Connolly was just a terminus and the loop line had yet to be built. R

Connolly had/has one. Base of it remains if you go down sheriff Street. R.

Aye styrene gives off arsenic or some other victorian poison.

Emc / Eoin Murray - scale unimportant to that man. Makes conservation look easy. R

Has something happened to JB?

On behalf of myself only, I'd like to thank all of you who voted, for giving me work to do! As Rónán ó Gara once said, "pressure is privilege"! R.

*Dusts off the cobwebs in here Last Christmas Day 2018, I managed to make a hames of putting two ice cubes into a glass, which resulted in a severed artery and tendon in my left thumb, and any right handed modeller will know that it's the "clamp" hand. In the middle of it all, the London North Western Railway Group announced a competition on RMweb mid way during the year, and since one of the primary parts of the layout is the LNWR station (latter called the LMS Building), I thought it a fine excuse to jump in with the same gusto I had with the two ice cubes. Once the hangover wore off, I realised that there was a minor issue of making loads of plastic things, and I'd have no time for it, but the odd half hour here and there in CAD saw things develop a bit, to the point that I think I might have designed the whole thing in N, rather than 00, as the buildings are substantially larger than my original sketch. Uncle Arthur gets the blame on that front, once more. So the only true "downtime" for modelling arrived just after Christmas, there was nearly a week of quiet, and the physio said if I didn't start to use the thumb properly, I'd be stuck with a stuck hinge for good, so it made sense to make a start. The central part is the lynchpin to the whole thing, with LNWR clock tower above, so I decided that would be the best start, and I chose to avoid that evil material Wills' Sheet as I like having working fingers. So it's all card, printed photos of the real brickwork, warts and all, along with grey mottled card for the stone.. One of the things I should have done in some buildings before was properly spend time reinforcing it internally, so plenty off cuts were put to good use. Apologies to anyone upset at the mangled plough, I did that in a professional capacity! There are multiple levels of card used to build up the various stone details at each level, particularly as they go around corners... Excuse the fuzzy and the bits of buffers...banana for scale... It's pretty tricky to see the various levels of stonework, but the joints need to be expressed and the front weathered with charcoal and chalk dust to make the detail pop... This is where she is at the minute and she'll go into cold storage shortly until next year. I'm going to try to get the last of the stone detail on before then, and it's been a great bit of fun, even if aul thumby is sore as frig, but the Physio insists... Richie. (P.s big thanks to @warb for the inspiration to get started again, and I missed the deadline for the competition! )

For those not fully convinced that this is beyond sublime in it's construction and design, take a moment of solace to consider the amount of work in CAD making up all the base data. In fact, I'd recommend a wee dram of yer favorite tipple and start the thread from the beginning... Were I to wear a hat, twould be suitably doffed. R.

Hey Joe. Was sceptical at first, but the adjustable nozzle would make for a great starter unit. The only downside being that you have to put a fair bit of paint into the pot each time. A middle of the road airbrush will set you back about €40, so to get a compressor too is a bargain. Then again its Parkside, about as reliable as a sunroof on a submarine.. R.

https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/search/?q=lisduff&c=photos#i=12 R

Tony, Print this off on A4 - no scaling - and you should have something to get started on. 12" stone coursing on the pillars or 4mm in scale. Am sure Wills et al have something suitable. R GNRI_Bridge.pdf

Have you any photographs of it, or a similar structure ??? Most of those cut stone structures were built in either 12" or 16" courses, usually to suit a secondary brick layer, but without any reference material it's impossible to say. R

David, As a relative new user when it comes to weathering powders, Humbrols powders generally get panned for being a bit "aggressive" and some times just plain wrong in certain shades. If super subtle is what you are after, ground down chalk pastels are the business. You really need to work the dust to get any real connection. Mig Ammo's weathering powders are similar to this, and work a treat on military models for subtle shading. I like to use them on areas where, say, the background is very light, and the weathering a vast difference, such as rust. There is another range by AK Interactive (Mig Jimenez of Mig Ammo made that range too, but there was a bit of a falling out so he made his own company.) The AK Interactive powders are a bit more aggressive, but can be soothed much easier and I'd favour them any day over the rest. That said, the cheapo in me likes sanding down a charcoal stick on some sandpaper and using the resulting powder for roofs, shur it's the same material as the real thing for kettle work? Richie.

Interesting idea JB! Knowing the cost of high end 3d printing, your best bet would be to make the parts and cast them to try and cover costs. Looking at about £500 for a 6 wheeler, I'd imagine, but very much dependant on how many parts. Seating, cabin, W irons, brake gear, any underside bits, any roof bits, any pipes. I'd avoid the likes of shape ways as the plastic they print in is impossible to fettle to a decent finish. R.

It's not all bad, as days go. Jus' sayin'... R