Glenderg

We think it's very nice! Hardly 4mm? R.

Colour blindness is very common in men, especially telling the tonal differences between blue and green, so perhaps more ladies are in need of recruitment?

This is not the case, in my humble opinion, and my argument is borne out by BSGSV's comprehensive contribution. Essentially, my theory is that the initial green applied to early Bredin MKII's was this lighter apple green, a direct descendant of the earlier DUTC colour on the colour chart but completely different, and that the brilliant green was added for the Park Royals onward - three shades of CIE green. Thank you BSGSV, I thought I had completely lost the plot. Richie.

What's he charging for the 15 ml tinlets, and what's he looking for the larger tin? And can they sell them in Hawkins st. too lol? R.

I think i'll pop down to the IRRS some tuesday that suits JHB - put some resolution to this "green" issue i have! Matching paint to scale is a really difficult thing. I have one of PMs 201's here, and i,m disgusted with the salmon hue off it. Not how i remember them, nor how they match my photos, but that's a relatively easy fix. Recent experiments in respraying show that if you were to respray a bachmann corridor to match the flying snail set issued by PM some years ago, and the most recent Dapol set, you'd find the dark green paint colour is identical to bachmann RPSI set some time later. Tamiya x5 + 5 drops of blue cartridge ink, for anyone interested. Somehow i doubt that the current green rpsi set and dark green 1946 cie colour are the same? Jhb? :-) And as for golden-brown cie, toughest colour i've ever had to match. Five batches of paint before i got to the good stuff, and when i put it on a tpo, i was fully convinced it was wrong! Wrenneire even witnessed the mixamitosis. Four of the colour shades were applied to a coach and it was nearly airbrushes at dawn. Games workshop fiery orange with tamiyas xf-68, ratio 9:1, before it colour matched a broken buffer beam on b141. Weirdest of all is mk3 orange. Most lads whack on ral 2011 and all is good. But heres the thing. The top coat applied always yellows, so if you look at one dead on its orange. If you look at it obliquely it has a yellow hue. Look at it from afar or in poor light and its brown. Throw diesel fumes, brake dust, track crap and whatever, and you may as well pick the colour that suits you recollection. I made up a batch of "my" cie 50's green recently. Cadmium yellow, x5 tamiya green, humbrol lime green, tamiya brunswick green,games workshop snot green, and every time i look at the coach, it has all of those attributes, depending on time of day, and amount of liqour ingested! Richie

Yes they were experimental/display coaches for BREL, but didn't get any sales with continental punters. Paddy was starvin for converts so took them of their hands for a fortune. Bargain all round. The cool thing about these was (nerd alert) that to scale they were a little over 4mm longer than the other mkIII 3's, so are you planning to cut up a spare mk3 and add the missing bit? I doubt anyone has modelled the Cu na Mara ladies....R

David, Can i say two things - please get a moderator to merge all the threads, just so i can rate the thing 5 stars. Secondly, the quality of the photography is astonishing. It picks out the detail, gives you a sample of what may beyond the layout, and i'll be mighty upset if none of the big three publications come knocking on your door. Thirdly - i lied - i robbed some books from wrenneire last week and your railbus was expertly shown in one of them. I was astonished at the accuracy and finish. Your 4mm cousins, myself included need to up our game. Just bloody gorgeous....and as for the buildings, perfectly vernacular, the Shaffreys would approve. So well captured, particularly the choice of building names, the arrangement around the rail head, and the backscene.. god it's good....richie

Having scratchbuilt one of them goddamned dutch gennys not so long ago, hat's off my man. She looks very tidy indeed.Getting those roof ribs perpendicular is a skill in itself! Most impressive Barl/bart/karl (lol for the last two).

Jhb, i think a distinction of the greens really needs to be made. All CIE greens, be they busses or rail based, at their beginning, were all yellow toned as seen in the signs the barber shop in enniskillen. Imagine brunswick green with a lump of yellow in it, it has an earthier more "applegreen" tone, reflected in colour photos of that period. It's also backed up by the colour of the paint as it faded and weathered - UV light has a desaturation effect on enamel based paint. The colour gets darker like a douglas pine if left long enough neglected.This can be seen with tattered depatmental wagons on ernie bracks flickr page. At some point in the mid fifties it seems the new dieseasesls contracted a brighter hue of green, imagine a brunswick green with a nice lump of blue. This is evident from the tattered park royals at inchicore and the tpo at downpatrick. The detioration of the paint to a turquoise hue shows their beginnings, from a colour perspective. It appears to be a more "Malachite green" technically. This colour transferred to the park royals and has seemingly become "the green" to the rpsi et al. With respect, i stongly disagree with their interpretation of the colour as it applies to the earlier laminates/bredin mk2's as "authentic early cie" Now i'm only a young pup, and you may castigate me accordingly, but i was always told in college that the "worst sketch is better than the best memory" and all the books and colour photos provided by yourself, tom ferris, des coackham, barry carse, ernie brack, colour rail and many others,tell me there were two definitive greens. I'll happily tart up a few models in my version of the two green colours, along with photos of the time, if it helps the debate. I'll even pop down to the IRRS, models in hand to clarify this. Ask around, this is really really sticking in my craw. Richie.

Top quality stuff. The lighting is superb and the whole vibe of the layout has a smell of diesel and grease about it, without being too grubby, if that makes sense! The finish on the ballast is inspired. Richie.

Crikey rich, that's a tall order. 90% or more of stock has to be bashed or scratched but when you say CIE, is that a particular timeframe, the applegreen flying snail era, the black and tan era, supertrain of the 80's or the later periods of IR and IE? The simplest answer is that mark 2 and mark 3 coaches by lima, hornby, and bachmann can be resprayed and a few decals added, and bob's yer uncle. Earlier park royals and laminates have to be kit built from brass etches, not an easy convert as the coaches wwre significantly wider than Uk types, 9'6" for laminates and up to 10' wide for park royals. Modern MK4's are generally made up by filling in a few windows and respraying UK MK 4s, but the DVT is a sculpting exercise. Recent freight is a bit of a nightmare, and there are few wagons available to quickly repaint. Some of the lads have converted hornby flat wagons to timber wagons which look great. Get a hold of stephen johnsons book on modelling irish railways, it has loads of info on converting Uk stock to suit. Richie.

You and me both Rich, but for different reasons!

Thanks lads but i cant and wont take credit for the wagon. Thats mr anon in the sunny south east. All i did was add some dirt and detail. A fine piece or work it is .The donelli cranes would make a nice simple addition to dessies 40 ft flats though! (Listenin Des?)

Rua, there isn't a member here that doesnt have a Smokey Joe or a Lima Class 37, or some other BR piece of gear. The trick with BR stock is to admire it for a while, then get a surgeons saw, chop it up, bit of cut and fill, and a lick of orange/tan. It worked for CIE after all! R

Welcome back to the forum bosko! Busy much?

Ridley, welcome aboard. You're best off asking here for advice as there really is no such thing as an impartial model shop. If you ask here the lads can save you squids in the long run, and avoid some of the pitfalls of rushed purchasing. I've the code 75 slips to prove it. Richie.

Ahem, let me pop in here and clear away some bloody cobwebs...cough....cough... Hunslet, this must be the longest I've ever taken to reply to a post, but send me a pm, and I'll send you on the plastic overlay's for Des' brass. I've trawled through the styrene drawer and cannot find the sheet I used. Even better, I found an SSM Brake Van brass kit the other night by accident, so I might just make it up into a 20 ton, it's been that long! Anyhoo, currently afflicted by plantar fasciitis, means I'm restricted to computer, I thought I'd post up some stuff from August. Yes. When it was sunny Wrenneire acquired this beauty from some chap in the sunny south east, and asked me to "have a look". The only reason I'm posting this, is because this is one of the finest bit of scratchbuilt PW gear I've ever put my paws on. The original build looks great, in need of a few decals perhaps, and some weathering - PW equipment is never clean. But it's a credit to the original builder. I added a few wires, decals, and repainted it, but I'd love to meet the author of the original. Top stuff. So I've left everthing pretty much as is, and decided to weather it. This is using an acrylic wash of gauche paint heavily laid on. Mucky bird, eh? I let the watercolour dry and let the paint seep into the nooks and crannys. It looked proper awful when dry.(gauche never dries) I took a wet clean brush to the paint on the right hand side, and wiping it on a towel, took off lots of the dirt. The one on the left is still "full on" the one on the right, "CIE clean" for want of a better description! Going in the right direction, says I, and I give it a spray of Warhammer Space Marine Teenage Angst Spray Sealant, or plain old sealant from Games Workshop. The stuff is expensive, about €15, but it dries in 10 seconds. The downside being that you have to pretend you are painting a dwarf in order to get the **** from a spotty 14 year old. A quick spray locks in the watercolours - they will never budge. I added a second layer so pick out the detail, but no airbrush was used at all. I'd love to have this wagon for myself, I think it looks unique and wonderfully dirty, and I'd like to think I did the original builder justice. Over the weekend, I'm hoping to do a post about how to/not to screw things up. I've done it so often, it may be of help to scratch and kit builders. Binman is sick of carting failed projects away, and I've the photos to prove it!. Richie.

A strapline of "Dictatorship" and a photo of a youngfla with a H0 engine suggests the editorial team haven't pro skills at publication. I reckon you dodged a bullet George by them not advertising! Goes to show that ISM can do it without print support.

No! I've said too much. Must dash to board up the front door. Them shadowy characters are coming to the light!

I could tell you, but a dark shadowy figure would arrive at my door. It'll be worth the wait. R

Love the contrast of the old ballast against the shiny new auto's. I'd be old skool all the way. Is that the longest pw train on the circuit? Enjoy the few pints lads, well deserved.

How apt Killucan!!!

True Minister. This is the "arrangement" at Carrick-on-Shannon, which may be more appropriate for Clonmel edit: Hey Krose, thanks for those photos! Great link. R.

May be of use? Very modern though.... http://www.pumpsandfuel.com/Content.aspx?ncontentid=77&nSectionid=1 http://www.pumpsandfuel.com/Content.aspx?nSectionId=1&nContentId=91 http://www.fehilytimoney.ie/docs/kent-station.html

Thin on the ground but there is one http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway%20Stations%20L/Limerick/IrishRailwayStations.html#Limerick_20111001_002_CC_JA.jpg. There is a loco stabling point with oil wagons further on up the line, but I've yet to locate a photo Kieran. I have a feeling Scahalane may have some of refuelling areas in Cork, or Finnyus on Flickr also. Busy tonight but will have a snout around tomorrow. R.