Noel

For washes do you favour enamel wash/powder mixes, acrylic/powder or water colours? I've often wondered if watercolours fixed when dry with matt varnish would work. It might give loads of time to adjust and get it right doing things like highlighting panel lines, brick work, etc. Does anybody ever apply powders dry and then fix with either varnish or even hair spray? I've seen some you tubes with decal fix mixed with powders. Some interesting videos here on washes http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/76775-product-spotlight-humbrol-enamel-washes-weathering-powders/

A pity alright but it will happen in time, and Dublin will eventually have a carrier operating A380 from here. I was lucky enough to have been on the ramp that day when Air France Concorde visited Dublin the first time. I had just landed, we parked up, waiting for fuel tanker, and watched her take off on the old RWY 23. Hundreds of airport staff airside including every engineer in the old maintenance hangers walked to the edge of the ramp cheering as she taxied out, took off, and then returned once to beat up the field in a low alt flypast before heading for Paris loaded with the press. The noise was deafening and it felt like the ground was shaking when the after burners came on. The smell of A1 lingering after like an after dinner liqueur. Earlier on our finals we noticed the amazing bird on the ramp and were rather excited she was in Dublin. After landing we had an interesting interaction with GND (atc) when directed to taxi right behind her on route to our stand. We noticed from visual heat distortion that her engines were running and politely refused to taxi behind her for obvious reasons. She had just completed her start up and was parked in an unusual ramp location. Four Olympus engines even at idle is enough thrust to damage anything behind her. A short discussion with GND and we were told to hold position and standby. A few minutes later we could hear her get taxi instructions and the visual heat haze behind increased as she spooled up moved forwards a bit and turned 90 degrees and then stopped (i.e. so no jet blast now on our path), GND cleared us to our stand and then on the VHF in a very French accent we heard "helo (our call sign) zis is AF 4521, vie hav moved out of your vay little one, haf a gud day", followed by a friendly French chuckle. She waited there for about 10 mins and luckily for us we had enough time to park, shutdown and get out onto the ramp to watch her take off. I'll never forget the noise. Made a tornado sound like a sparrow in comparison.

Well semi-self drive cars are only a few years away so intercity motorway driving will become a very relaxing way to travel, and mass market fully self drive cars perhaps only a decade away. Adaptive cruise control will continue to evolve into an auto helm in the mean time.

Well in fairness by 1982 the railways here had very much rationalised to the 'modern image era' (whatever that means) with fixed rake coach formations, fully fitted freight trains, liners, air con, just about the end of loose coupled wagons, very few brake vans nor mixed pick up freight, instead containers, fork lift truck loadable freight, or piped/suction of liquid freight, hoppers for bulk aggregates, colour signalling, CTC, CWR, DART, intercity, waiters and stewardesses on Cork & Belfast trains, fax machines on city gold, etc.

That's clever and very neat. Your progress is impressive and inspiring. It seems only a few weeks ago you were asking for advice on track planning software. Enjoy watching your layout progress.

Thanks David. Your dead right about not rushing. I've taken a breather today (literally). Cheers JB, your very kind. It was your encouragement and suggestion these Hornby's would pass as Bredin's that set me off Absolutely - a huge relief. I spent ages on the masking tape and used the shaft of the lid of a bic biro like a soft blade to stretch and push the tape down over relief features on the body such as door handles, door panel lines, etc. Thanks John. Glad you found my beginners walk useful. More than anything I'm really enjoying the beginning of this journey of discovery, adventure, and even a little mis-adventure. The other night the airbrush started pulsing when I switched to the 0.5m needle/nozzle for wider spray because I hadn't cleaned it properly after the previous spray with thicker paint. And doing the white on a loco body I had the air pressure too low and it spat and blurted out blobs of paint, but was able to tidy it up with a cotton bud soaked in water - another advantage of acrylics is tidying up mistakes. My biggest gaff of the last few days was spraying black when the air brush became so clogged up no air was coming through it at all - bummer I thought I must have completely bunged up the entire innards of the airbrush - BUT, no it wasn't clogged, I'd forgotten to turn the compressor on and I had started using the air left in the bottle from a previous session - air ran out and i though brush was blocked, flick switch on and I felt a twit when the paint started flowing again. You are right John, I spent months avoiding 'give it a go', but finally jumped in. No matter what goes wrong nobody will have died after all! Btw, a 'thank you' is due to Richie (glenderg) for his advice and demo two years ago. It demystified a few myths as you said John, and Richie is a master with an airbrush.

Great clip, thanks for posting. 1982 in terms of railway history is not really that long ago, yet the atmospheric cine film flicker and colour tones gave the impression of 1950/60s era. Interesting coach behind the loco at 0:49s, almost looks like a TPO - on that line?

Thanks guys. Here's a better pic in daylight. It was a relief when I pulled the masking off. Wasn't sure what to expect, but was anticipating the need for some touching up, but alas model masking tape seems to have good sealing properties. Used 2mm tape for the white strip as its closest to 6" scale height. Was careful to try and keep the airbrush perpendicular to the masking tape edges so as not to blow paint up and under. On 3rd and 4th coats I risked a little upward spray to get the underside of the window edges covered and underside of the roof drip rail, but thankfully the 1st and 2nd coats seemed to have created a nice little seal with the edge of the masking tape preventing bleed upwards. If there is one thing I personally have had to learn more than anything else, it is 'patience'. All my life I used to run up and down stairs, across car parks and down corridores rushing to get things done. Not with model painting. I'm dying to pop this on the layout, but will have to wait for weathering and varnishing, new wheels, and passengers.

The level of detail is absolutely sublime. Hat's off to you Gerry. I really enjoyed following this layouts progress.

Hornby Bredin!!! Ok first coach respray attempt into Black'n'Tan livery. Last time I did this it was 1972 but used a paint brush! Decided to use some old Hornby Stanier coaches as training guinea pigs and if it went ok they might pass off as Bredin look-a-likes for hauling behind my B&T 141s. Lots of experimenting with test sheets of plastic, different thinner ratios, trail mixes for a passable tan colour, and a whole load of mistakes, and paint all over the place, but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs first! I don't know why but I was rather nervous beforehand about wreaking the coaches and/or the airbrush. Anyway its a first step . . . Dismantle old Hornby ex-LMS Stanier coach A doze of Halfords plastic grey primer Airbrush area behind where white strip will be then reverse mask Mask ready to airbrush black on window level and roof Black airbrushed on Remove masking to reveal white stripe - "Brandenburg Division" livery - ready for tan/orange band Masked up for airbrushing tan/orange band below windows - Tamiya orange + brown mix Masking removed with a degree of trepidation and anxiety - wondering would it have worked? Ready for light weathering, then re-install glazing, under frames and bogies (already painted and weathered), some numbers, and then seal with a matt varnish spray can. Loads of stuff went wrong along the way, and made some big boo-boos, but really loving the early learning process. Next - attempt weather a B&T 141 PS: Used Tamiya acrylic paints and Tamiya acrylic thinners

I really like that track plan. Looking good Stephen. Loads of operating potential. I re-read this great thread only month or so ago. Really looking forward to following Amiens street's evolution as it progresses in time. Noel

There clearly is a market for occasional fools.

Very good Eoin. I think my air brush skills are a few decades away from being able to do that!

Ah memories of the RTE newsroom in 1965, which was broadcast in B/W, but had it been colour that is what it would have looked like. Bizarrely it also reminds me of some of the 007 'Diamonds are Forever' sets

In fairness the 60s Aer Lingus livery was visually attractive, bright and sharp, by contrast the original super train livery was rather depressing and dull. The later tippex white lined 'IE/IR' livery was a vast improvement visually.

You've just given me a great idea for my 'orrible Hornby Mk2a 'Slainte Express' coaches (i.e. that I ruined a few weeks ago).

Don't tempt me, I have a possible donor in the form of a silver and black livery 071 that I can't stand the look of, but I think I'll have to keep one in that awful livery for historical purposes. It is a bit of fun. Now a GM 201 in B&T Livery would be fun.

Tony your layout progress is most impressive and the ongoing work looks great.

LOL - I got stuck there in the station for three hours back in 1998 on the 10th of July when the enterprise broke down returning to Dublin. I put on a German accent as the place was rather busy with weekend visitors! But est vas perfektly ok und pepol ver fury nic to mich fur ze duraton ov my delay. Ze replacment lokomotive und zug vas a relev van it inso ze stazion kommen. Ze ozer kaput zug was avay taken. On a serious note how many proper model railway retailers are left on the whole island north and south?

Refurbished Bredin Coaches (Hornby Stanier) for running with IE 071 Freight Grey locos of the imaginary "Brandenberg division" European Irish Sea tunnel service direct to the continent Seating and glazing to be installed in due course

Superb model buildings. They look so realistic and the weathering looks top class.

Looks great Richrua

Very tidy work. Like the colouring.

Hi Tony Just buy one of the Murphy model 071 class models from a retailer, or eBay. (Eg marks models) Noel

Massive performance.