Glenderg

Bang on for the above advice. As for products - once you've the surface varnished and ready for a decal, you can use Micro Sol and Micro Set to apply, or Vallejo Decal Medium and Decal Set - it's a two stage process that will take about 24 hours for your decals to disappear into the surface of the model and leave no raised carrier film. One helps it adhere to the surface, the other makes it melt into the surface. When complete, you should have no silvering or shinyness under the decal. Once done, give it a blast of Klear/Varnish as Riversuir rightly says and any different surface finish will disappear. Noel, you only need to gloss the area you are applying the decal. When you are finished, you will respray over it. If the finish doesn't match or stands out from the rest of the loco, it's only at that point you'll need to consider re-varnishing the entire piece of stock. ...and tip of the week here. If you don't have access to a model shop that has all of the above in stock, pop down to your local shop and get a bottle of clear vinegar. Same stuff as Micro Sol. Couple of cap fulls in water, in your mixing bowl, all you need. Try it on some spare first though. R.

I'd say that unless you are working in the bigger gauge or getting something published, 3 link is over the top. A cosmetic one on the front of a steam loco is fine, but to the rear I'd use a conventional slim line coupler, or even a small brass bar for the wagons/coaches to couple up to. Choices here. Photos should self explanitory. http://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/Smiths_couplings_for__OO_.html

Super news shem, he'll be loosing his marbles any day soon....oh hang on a minute.... All the best squire :-)

Those grab handles will come off with a tweezers/flat faced pliers easy enough. It would also be a good opportunity to square off the rounded yellow panel and respray a shade deeper of yellow. A nice little project actually.. :-)

Lovely work sir. Aside from the shade of green

He must be bored of registering as a different user, getting caught, and banned. Our collective state of happiness, I submit, is not regulated by the stock in that collection.....

Just divide 76.2 by 3 and you'll never get it wrong. 4mm is a foot in my world...

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/2705-link-to-massive-collection-of-Irish-railways

There should be a sub forum/support group here for the bubble/121/A class crew, just feed em a bottle of polystyrene cement every week to keep them sedate

good folk like you who hate the stuff, need to stop hatin' on us "dapol-gluin" types.

There is a reason I am who I am, may not be to everybody's liking mind. I'm all for fumes instead of snapchat. Have you seen my magic snake?

Truth be told I didn't intend doing it. It was an accident of sorts. It took a fair bit to work out the order of painting and how to do it. I made the pattern in Cad and then cut a template from clear plastic. I clamped it to the side and traced the outline onto the silver grey body. 1mm masking tape to follow the lines and tuck it into the vents and gaps. It's actually a very satisfying job to do and the livery looks powerful. A big thanks to Messrs Marshall and dinner for their photos on Flickr. I'll post up more info next week with the template if anyone else fancies a crack at it. r

Everything is possible

Ha ha! To retrieve the bible and the shotgun by the sounds of it

superb work john. I have a client who wants to emulate the early eighties in Connolly and I think this is the way to go. Will pm you if its a runner, which it should be. :-) R.. Edit - it'll be a mixed rake with park royals and wooden bodied stock, so I reckon 4 would be the potential order.

railer, I think Dave is trying to take the piss put of me rather than Dave kavanagh, and rightly so. I take my time getting things right. This is not something against Dave k, either.

As someone who makes stuff, I probably have the smallest stock collection here! Time is the enemy. That said, I know folk who have collections of stock valued in the higher margins of 5 zeroes. They don't see it as a fabergé egg investment for their dotage. They just really get a kick out of the hobby. I wouldn't trade places with any of them!

Fair dues tom, nice bit of work.

He must have got the gig doing the mk2 super standards for pm! :-P

All the interior shots in that brochure are 3D visualisations/renders, by James Park Associates. They have a superb design bureau, so here's hoping they do the external livery design too.

It's a motor from a desktop CD/DVD drive :-)

In like Flynn, please JB!

Very tidy indeed. They the bizness. Are they real dayglo panels at the end or decals? Very convincing certainly. R.

Tut tut. They took on a load of youngfla's (apprentices). You should watch Nationwide more often..