RedRich

The models that Gareth from Model Shop Belfast had on display at the Wexford show looked nice so you won't be dissapointed Eamonn. By the way was it your birthday yesterday, if so a belated Happy Birthday Sir. Rich,

That's a very generous quote for that service Seamus, well done . Rich,

I have to agree with you there Anto it's great to see someone building the track from the standpoint of a beginner and Alan is doing some great work. Building your own track separates the men from the boys as far as patience is concerned, it has a lot of comparisons to the type of work that you do in so far as some of the work is very intricate. Spurred on by this thread and seeing the fruits of the lads labors I mixed up a solution of my preferred stain and sloshed some sleepers into it this morning. They are still drying out and when they are dried I will upload a photo or two as that is always the way that I start the job as it's best to get that part of the build out of the way first. Building the track in situ on a pre printed template from templot is the best way to go if you are modelling a prototype. Building the track and laying it in sections like you would with Peco set track or flexible can sometimes lead to disaster and lots of headaches. Building a model railway and a model of a railway are two completely different aspects. Both need a fair degree of planning and skill. When you are building track to 21mm S4 standards you have to get the track panels the correct size the sleeper spacings can be a bit hit and miss on the prototype so sometimes you have to incorporate that level of perfection if you want it to look right. I will be installing four bolt fishplates every 17th sleeper as they are in Clonmel Station. The sleepers where a point meets a piece of plain track and where two pieces of plain track meet can sometimes be wider than the other sleepers and that is something that you need to look at as well. I have only talked about what I am about to compose here to one member of this forum and it was in private. I had an accident many years ago and it left me with a disability. I damaged the L5 SI area of my spine. I fractured the vertebrae and tore an 18mm piece of ligament which has left me with scar tissue. I also have sciatica as a consequence and I suffer crippling muscle spasms. The accident also exacerbated an underlying degenerative bone disease which I was not aware of previously. Due to this I cannot sit for extended periods of time and my modelling time is limited. When the family and myself traveled down to Wexford this year for the show at Easter we had to make some stops along the way so I could stretch my legs, this is a common enough thing when I am traveling by car so I don't usually travel by car over long distances, I always travel by rail whenever I can as I can stretch the legs and walk up and down to loosen the muscles and other soft tissue. For my layout to be what I hope it to be I have had to photograph, measure, the complete site of the station over 3 years to compile all the information I need. I will be making my own buildings so exact measurements were required as were photos of windows and the ornate metalwork. The planning stage has been as important to me as the work to come will be. When I start building the layout it will take time, it might not ever get finished. There may be long periods of no progress being made, but I won't let the health issues get the better of me and when I can work on it I will lash into it and savor every minute of the work, well nearly all of it, the butanone can have strange effects on the mind after being near it for to long. This group is a place of learning, it has a club type atmosphere and a very friendly and easy going vibe. I have made some great friendships with people on here, and sure sometimes we may have disagreements and differing views on subjects but the real friendships are the ones that last beyond a row and thankfully all my friendships are healthy with other members bar none. We all have our own tastes and priorities regarding our modelling and we see different merits in our own way of modelling and whats good for one may not be good for the other. I really admire John Mayne's method of modelling from the first inception or spark of an idea, to the research, design, production, of the component parts, the building of the model, and final finishing of a really classy model. Johns methods include everything and in my opinion that's what makes him the best modeller on this forum. There are enough people on here that upload videos of their work or links to their work on video hosting sites. It's hard to see how you could make a video of the various stages of finescale track interesting for people to sit through it without it becoming repetitive. What I would like to see is maybe some video or footage of what Anthony or George do in the weathering process. There is a lot of the skill involved with what we as modellers do in our own field, so how about it you guys that are professional weathering experts any chance of some video footage of the weathering process. Set up a camera on a tripod and show us the out of the box model that you receive to the model that you send back to the client. I am sure that the clientèle would love to see how their model was transformed into the beautiful piece of work that you guys create. Anyway it's getting very overcast here in the not so sunny southeast this evening and the light is very poor at the moment for taking photos under natural light conditions so I will photograph the stained sleeper batch tomorrow weather and bad back permitting and try and get some shots of all the tools and other paraphernalia that I use. Rich,

Alan have you seen the pad locks that Jim modelled on Birmingham New Street. Jim has also produced some nice little etched parts for the Irish modeller such as hopper windows for the MK111 push pull coaches. He also produces some excellent B4 bogie steps and steps for the ends of MK1 & MK11 coaches. Rich,

Your first post Jack, welcome to the machine. Its a fine looking model and one that has been at the top of many wish lists. Rich,

Great work on the ground signal Eamonn. How do you find the time to do it. Rich,

Great link Fran, that is some exceptional modelling. Rich,

I might as well Anto, you won't let me play with your's Rich,

Alan that beautiful picture truly illustrates the need to buy a Templot license as you could not create that as a scale model with proprietary off the shelf track. Peterborough North is a smashing model Alan and it shows how hand built track even built to 00 16.5 can look stunning. Jim Smith Wrights Birmingham New Street is a work of pure genius, the track, the buildings, the rolling stock. Adavoyle, Loughrea, and the excellent layout that John Mayne is building are the real inspiration for me at the moment and your work is amazing for someone who is only beginning their journey in the realm of 21mm. Your enthusiasm for the work ahead is palpable, I can't wait to see more. Rich,

No need for apologies Fran. I remember seeing the HXA's in the UK a few years ago on a visit, I thought they were HHA's at first and the closer they got they looked shorter in lenght. I also saw the bogies under an open bogie box wagon but for the life of me I can't remember the clasification code. I might have to check out Gareth Bayers wagons on the web and see if I can find them. Rich,

Tony would a top four finish be regarded as a success for Liverpool fans next season, and build on it from there. Rich,

Are you sure it's just airbrushing that you are getting upto in there Gareth. Rich,

Dave whatever you choose will your decision and your's alone. I wish you the best of luck with whatever airbrush you choose. If you are ever down my neck of the woods I would be delighted to have you in my home for a visit and you could have a play around with my set up. Rich,

Anto me old mate your the only one that has mentioned expensive airbrushes. People were exchanging info on what type of airbrush manufacturer, type that they use. I am not one for luxuries or novelties myself but anyone I have ever known in the hobby, textiles, body repaints, custom repaints of bikes or cars would disagree with you. Look at the guys that do some of the custom paint work for the Tuetuls in American Chopper, they don't use 25$ airbrushes for their work. Artists don't use pound shop brushes for their work. Sometimes the expense and the outlay in a €80 tool can pay you back ten fold in it's lifetime. Tools for the hobby like good needle files drill bits are worth paying that little bit extra for as they last longer, airbrushes fall into that category also. I don't use my airbrush solely for railway modelling, I like to do some art work as well and there is no way that I could get the same level of precision work with a cheap and nasty. Rich,

There you go, uncle Pat will always look after ya, and it's a more than reasonable offer too. Rich,

A drop of Napolean or a Bushmills doesn't do any harm neither Richie. Rich,

One thing I should have added is that I will be using DCC to operate the layout so I will use brass lace makers pins 25 or 28mm. I will file down the heads to fit under the bottom of the bullhead rail, solder them to the rail every 24th sleeper and push them through a pre drilled hole in the sleeper and through the baseboard. The droppers for the bus can then be soldered to the protruding lace makers pin. A chair cut in half can be used cosmetically to hide the soldered pin. In theory it should work so fingers crossed. Rich,

It looks like a side feed airbrush Dave, which can be very useful at times. An all round nice piece of kit. I assume that they are the nozzles in the six containers above the airbrush. Rich,

Richie I have the compressor 7 years and it has never given me any trouble. Plug it in, turn it on, fill up the tank, set the air pressure connect the hose to the moisture trap and away you go. I get hours of airbrushing time from a full tank and you don't have any noise. A nice summers day outside is the right time for airbrushing. I know some people have fume extraction kit but I don't have the luxury of that at the moment. If I am using enamels during the less hospitable months I spray in my brothers garage and use a mask so as not to breathe in any harmful fumes. I also leave the garage door open a slight bit. He lets me leave the models in a room to dry for a couple of days and I come back and gloss varnish them if they need decals. I leave the gloss varnish dry for a few days apply the decals and give them a coat of satin or matt varnish depending on what type of finish I want. I seem to find myself using acrylic paints a lot more now so I will incorporate a small fume extraction kit (just to be on the safe side) into the build of my new railway shed and workshop. Rich,

Dave I got mine from http://www.bearair.com in the USA the model # is Richpen Apollo 113C. It's a beauty to work with and comes with a very fine needle. I think you can get them in the UK as well. Rich,

Brian I will keep my eyes and ears open and if I hear of a kit for sale I will let you know. A big to you for wanting to have a crack at building a kit. Rich,

Brian is cash the biggest stumbling block for you in regards to having an 071, or is the challenge of building a kit more important to you. If it is the later then you are probably looking at anything between €90 and €100 for the complete unmaid kit and a suitable donor chassis, and there is also the question of what era you want to model as that will dictate the type of kit you want IE,IR, CIE. If it is the former, then Seamus Graham is offering a savings club for the 071's and it may be a good idea to contact Seamus and work something out. My fellow Mod and entrepreneur Dave (WrennEire) Bracken may be able to assist you in locating a kit, so why not drop him a pm. HTH, Rich,

I wish I had the time mate and the space. I am hoping to get the man shed started soon and once that is finished (hopefully before the winter) I will start building the track. When I design the template for the layout I will print it and piece it together and lay it out on the baseboards. That way you can begin to lay the sleepers in situ. I thread all the chairs onto the rail and bond them to the sleepers as I go along as this way it gives the track a more prototypical flow. A lot of people are happy to use copper clad sleepers and flat bottom rail and I will use that system myself for the off scenic areas. Planning and executing a 21mm layout takes a lot of time and patience to get it right, but that is one side of the layout build that I love. I am waiting on a jig for filing the C & D type vees and crossings as they are in short supply at the moment. I also need to get some axles, wheels, and bogie subframes as well some some axles and wheels for converting the locos, the 201's should be interesting. I should have some free time in a few weeks and I will be building some plain track and a B8 point for testing locos and rolling stock and I will take pics and post them as I am building it. I know that a lot of people say that they are just happy to watch trains go by and the OP has mentioned that also. The thing is, is that you can still do that with 21mm track. My own preference is to have the track look the correct gauge. Different people use dcc sound as a way of getting closer to the prototype and I think that the final outlay for sound chipping loco's is far more expensive than converting rolling stock to the correct gauge, mind you I might add sound to some locos in the future as I do find it does add a different aspect to a layout. The most important thing for me in railway modelling is that it must keep you interested, focused, and it must never get boring. Building my own track fulfills all those needs for me. I think that the track gauge is a little less obvious if you are modelling BR and there are some great UK layouts that use 16.5 track and they are fabulous layouts, Widnes Vineyard is one example. Anyone can begin to start building and laying 21mm track with all the bits and pieces that are available from the trade. If you don't fancy filing switch blades or building common crossings, all these are available to buy from C&L Finescale. I think that time and space as John Mayne has suggested in another thread are the main limitations for most people modelling the correct gauge. There are some lovely little stations on the network like Carrick On Suir, Thomastown, Muine Bheag, Cashel, to name but a few that could fit into the spaces that the majority of us would have available for building a layout to 21mm. Thomastown was one station that I considered as a possibility as a layout set in the early to mid naughties. You could have MK111, MK11, Cravens, a s**tload of freight including Beet trains, as they were re-routed over that line after the Cahir Viaduct collapsed. I also thought that the beautiful viaduct on the Waterford side of the station would have made a stunning addition to the layout, but Clonmel won me over as I just love the Station building and I feel it is one of the finest pieces of Architecture in the country. I have the vision and when time and space are available I will have the fun. Rich,

Keep at it and in a few weeks when you get your mojo working you will fly through it. I exclusively use chairs from P4 Track Co as they produce all the special chairs for point work that C&L don't. Once you start getting the soldering right you can cut the chairs in half and fit them cosmetically to the sleepers. I use Templot myself and although it can be difficult at first to get your head around it once the light switch goes on you will be fine. I gave up using ply and rivet construction a few years ago and now I exclusively use P4 Track Co chairs bonded to the wooden sleepers with butanone and they are solid once bonded. It might be a good idea to stain the sleepers before you start building the track as it is harder to do it when the rail and chairs are there. There is no doubt that once you see the converted rolling stock running on 21mm track it just looks right. It also makes you up your game concerning the scenic side of things and the architecture. I think you are doing great work and I can't wait to see more, excellent . Rich,

Dave Richie has given you some good advice in his reply. I use a compressor with a 2.5 liter air reservoir tank it's better if you are going to be doing a high volume of airbrushing and you don't want the noise of a smaller compressor buzzing beside you when you are working. I have fitted mine with a moisture trap so it catches any moisture or water before it reaches the airbrush. I use a badger 200 airbrush for spraying locos, coaches, wagons, scenery etc and a Richpen Apollo gravity feed double action airbrush for finer work such as weathering and fine lines. Some people are happy with the results of using a cheap airbrush and I have had a few people over to my house for a demo and once they have used the gravity feed double action brush they are converted. A chap that I know who airbrushes fuel tanks on motor bikes recommended the Richpen to me and I love it. Spares are readily available from Europe, Asia, and the USA. I have a few cups that I use for the badger and I would never use the glass jar that I have in the photo below as it's easier to change over the cups when you are changing color. Rich,