Noel

Given the 'alleged' black overspray and 'alleged' variability of the black panel positioning around the windows, would spraying the IE/IR white stripes above and below the black panel correct most of the problems? Ok decals would also be needed for intercity logos on the lower panels, but if these couches can be got for under €30-40 such an inexpensive modification could make sense for folks looking for IE/IR orange roofed mk2ds.

Looks like a few brand new super train coaches may be going for a keen price on ebay. The photographs being perpendicular in the box make the black panels look parallel unless you look at them right way up. Might be a good deal for those who wish to respray tip-pex white stripes on. http://www.ebay.ie/itm/131464071319?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648

Yes I did, well it was looking that way after their staggering points difference win against Italy. Never been more delighted to miscalculate probability.

Yes and they did a river dance haka just before the trophy presentation SCO 3 - IRE 73 Well done ladies

Wonderful atmosphere in there served with a perfect portion of Black and Tan.

Some really nicely composed shots with excellent lighting. Love the 1st shot where the footbridge frames the railcar.

Aye-may-zing. What a stunning day of rugby. Yehaw Ireland way to go.

Wow. I'm going out to cut the grass. My heart can't cope with watching the Eng-Fra match.

Wales have won the 6N

Thanks Dave. Did they post enamels as well as acrylics to NI? Noel

Thanks David. I have a large stock of Humbrol paints which years ago I used to mix by eye to get the colours I was looking for when painting by brush. After receiving some excellent advise from folk on here and UK forums I have decided to try Acrylics for spraying which seem somewhat easier to work with in terms of vapour, spray gun cleaning and uk vendors will post to Ireland. I've been advised to use only Acrylic thinners rather that distilled water for thinning and mixing. Will try the 'The Art of Weathering' book despite my lexdisic slowness reading text. I generally prefer visuals and videos. Noel

Wow thats amazing. Looks like the first wagon was in trouble before it came into shot. The speed looked a bit high for crossing a double slip!!! Another railway using Black & Tan for locos! Don't understand how the loco didn't derail unless the weight helped or an axel failed on the wagon. It seemed to run on into the distance after the pile up. Hope nobody hurt. Thanks for posting.

Looking good Richrua. Nice job on the card kits too. Love the wagons and black and tan mix. Most LMS & GWR wagons look right at home behind 141 and 'A' class B&Ts. All that needed to convert many is CIE roundel decals. 'Imagination' is a great way to compose a layout. Look forward to seeing this one develop and running.

Amen. Nice PP Kirley, and you didn't even have original RAW files. There are some on here with really top class modelling skills, but their photography skills may not be quite at the same high level. At least these two pics of models are sharp in-focus unlike many others posted on the forum. My two bug bears are 'soft focus' and upside down images - giving me a headache. Tongue in cheek!

Looks more of a problem with the trailer beam loads rather than the axle loads. Metal fatigue or insufficient strength, or something else?

That's an expansion joint. (ie rails shorter when cold, longer when subjected to the heat of the sun, winter v summer, etc).

Now that's precision scratch building - class job.

Yes it reminds me of the dumb media who report a near miss instead of an air miss. Near miss = collision = crash = deceleration = g-forces = friction = heat = jet A1 in flames

Do you mean for shorter rolling stock? I was primarily thinking of the 1960s and early 70s when coaches were only 57-62ft compared to 78ft now and 2 axil un-braked loose coupled goods wagons were 1/3rd the length of a container flat. Goods wagons that size were pretty much the same from 1900 until about 1970. I'd love to have a rake of 12 open sugar beat wagons which were also used for coal and general goods freight (i.e. corrugated side panels). 12 of these would be nice at the right price

Well its not a particularly high speed train as it doesn't have interlaced bogies joining the coaches. The French and Germans are decades ahead of the rest of Europe when it comes to modern high speed intercity rail.

On a practical note, perhaps earlier era stock generally being short lends itself to the space restrictions of model layouts. Long modern coaches such as mk3/mk4/22k and long bogie freight stock take up a lot of space on a layout, need large radius curves and long platforms to look right.

Cork

Well when I was a child the definition of a train was an "engine" pulling "carriages" or "wagons" with a brake van at the end like a full stop completing a sentence. No engine, no train! ICRs, DMUs, Darts and Luas are just bland boring bendy buses stuck on rails.

Yes thats interesting, I also found myself leaning more towards black CIE era 141/181s than others. I never travelled behind IR/IE livery 141/181s, only super train and CIE black/tan, yet I ignored the 'supertrain' livery models just because I preferred the look of the later IR/IE tippex liveries - strange but true. The CIE black (&tan with white band) livery 141/181s look great hauling loose coupled goods wagons that I collected to run behind GWR/LMS steam locos before MM era.

Well it's a looooong time since I was at school, but I vaguely remember you can't create one wavelength of light from another (i.e. different colours using filters from a single wavelength on the spectrum). But I could be wrong. That's why so many low energy LED lighting system emit cold colours and cannot be corrected to warmer light colours using filters. Their colour tone has improved a lot in the past five years but you can't beat a few non-LED light bulbs for nice mood lighting at home. The first lot of LED spots we put in at home years ago had such a blue tint I replaced them after only three months. I noticed some model locos have nice warm colour spot lights whereas others are like blue lasers and don't look prototypical. This may help explain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_spectrum