Scalefour Forum

Two things I've learned for tracking escaped parts: always double the search radius from your first guess, and use a UV torch. Small things bounce much further than people expect and shiny NS sometimes shows up brighter in short-wavelength light.

Work out the circumference of your turntable and base the speed of rotation on the walking pace of the man pushing the turntable? Yes. I suspect that tangental speed was even slower than that, but walking pace is an upper limit for a model; anything faster looks wrong. I've seen films of full-size,...

Amongst the Loctite retainers, it looks like 603 is better than 601 anyway. Advantages: - 50% bigger maximum bond-gap; - lower viscosity, making it easier to distribute in Exactoscale wheels; - high oil tolerance; - bonds imperfectly-cleaned surfaces; - good at bonding non-smooth surfaces. (informat...

One advantage of the proper retainers is that they expand on hardening, centring the wheel on the axle.

You could also try and assess the smoothness of ride from the vibration spectrum. You'd need to know, or discover, the signature of a lurch in the frequency spectrum, and you'd need an on-board accelerometer to obtain the spectrum. Small accelerometers with wireless connection are available. I sugge...

The trackholding experiments published previously in MRJ all involved a vehicle free-wheeling down a plane through various types of pointwork and imperfect track. One hundred runs were done for each vehicle configuration and the number of successful runs tabulated. I see two improvements to that. On...

Interesting. I need a wagon traverser for my eventual layout, and I'm wondering whether that above-ground kind would be better than the kind that moves in a pit. The sprung flaps at the entry and exit points might be a bit hard in 4mm scale. I can't see why Curzon Street would need a powered travers...

Shapeways have recently got themselves some DLS machines and are offering prints in urethane methacrylate and rigid polyurethane. These sound like suitable material for wheel centres. I'd expect them to have better structural strength than Shapeways' "detail plastic" and much better finish...

It looks very interesting. The combination of three different electrifications is attractive. How high is your staith above the river? IIRC, the RL Harton High Staithes were quite high up, certainly too high for a bank down to dock level. The latter - which I like, BTW - is more like Harton Low Stai...

The capacity printed on the battery is interesting. Probably enough to take a loco through an exhibition day.

Thanks Noel, that's a reasonable assessment and I'll darken my handrails in due course.

More immediately, I need to fix the roof being on the wrong way round and put the chimney is over the cabin.

For the AA7s, there are no early photos at all, so it's tricky. The livery on this van is an extrapolation from a later style. Dunno about the handrails, I can't work it out from the information I have. On GWR Toads generally, I see white rails where there are large initials, but there may well be m...

The Toad finally got finished, or as near as. IMG_5707.jpg Having decided to represent the parts of the body stanchions parallel to the body, I'd bottled out of actually making these parts for years. In the end, I did them from plastic strip with rivet decals and it was very easy. I can see the shad...

One set please. Either size of axle is OK, as I haven't bought the rest of the chassis bits yet.

As to white metal sprung buffers, I was an early adopter here too and I agree turned steel buffer heads, fine springs and solder don't mix, but surely the buffer shanks get fixed to the wagon during basic assembly, and the buffer head and springing are practically the last job be done long after th...

Previously I have made the wheels a tight fit in the tyre with a bit of glue so they stay put. I have used Gibson tyres in the past but if I can get tyres CNC machined the I would design the tyre so that the centre has a more positive location. The fit I can get on an axle is similar to that of a G...

For internally-sprung buffers, I prefer to assemble them separately from the vehicle and then to fit them with glue. For me, this is easier than trying to set the buffer throw and secure the ram when a buffer guide is fixed to the headstock. I use a very small amount of CA glue applied to the buffer...

If you go with the CDC print there are a few issues to consider. First, you have to choose the printing material. Choose between "versatile plastic" and "smooth fine detail plastic". The former has poor surface finish and needs lots of work with filler and sanding to make it read...

Andy, have you considered wheels as shown, but with inserts to represent Mansell wheels? A shallow recess turned into the front could hold an etched or printed insert.

I hadn't done those particular brakes, but I've done them now. They are a sprue of 10 assemblies, rather than 8 in the previous products, to get best value from the printer and avoid SW's price-floor of $7.50 per print.

Bizarrely, Deluxe materials Card Glue also works for sticking acrylic glazing to hard materials. I suspect that it works better on painted brass than bare metal. But I shall switch to the Everbuild product if I can find where where to buy it.

Going back to the track layout as modelled, and assuming that the loop is used as a running loop or refuge, what is more likely for trains passing from the loop to the next section: a dummy at the loop exit and an advanced starter; or a running signal, level with signal 8, to enter the section and s...

I often wonder about the economics of getting better components. Bearings for coupled axles are a good example: the cuboid kind that slide in hornguides. If the bearing blocks were accurately machined, then they could just slide in slots etched in the frames, without the hornguides, and it would be ...

steve howe wrote:Out of interest, I did a bit of searching and found this supplier on Amazon:
I think Tamiya thinners is basically isopropyl.
Steve

Yes, but there's some butanol in it too, possibly to stop it drying too quickly when airbrushing.

Some switch cleaners dissolve plastics, particularly polystyrene. Does the WD40 contact-cleaner do that?