Scalefour Forum

I use Tamiya "IJN Grey" to represent LNWR goods grey. Ah but that begs the question "which IJN Grey?" The Naval Arsenals at Maizuru, Kure and Sasebo used different greys in ascending order of darkness. In addition the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal used a fourth gray which has been said...

I use Tamiya "IJN Grey" to represent LNWR goods grey. I used to darken it with a little black, but now that I'm using a black oil-wash for weathering, I find that the base colour can be lighter. If LNWR grey is equal parts black and white pigment, I don't believe that it can be the colour ...

I thought that Posca pens had been discussed here, but I see that it was on RMWeb . As Paul notes, they dispense dilute acrylic paint with, apparently, fine and dense pigment and excellent covering-power. The black paint comes out matt; I haven't tried other colours yet. They put a lot of paint onto...

Lest I be accused of never finishing anything (wot me guv?) here's the end-state of the Ashford coal-wagon, as featured in primer earlier in this thread. (Yes, the one with the sheet rail for protecting wussy southern coal from weather :D ) The weathering is a simple wash of black oil-paint and it's...

IMG_6078.jpg Another week, another wagon. This one is nothing special ... except that I realised something rather wonderful while building it: it was an entirely relaxed and enjoyable process with no worries about messing it up. There are rather a lot of things that can go wrong in making a fine-sc...

I wonder why the outer flanges of both hinged plates have been reduced in height towards the hinge. Pontypool_up_side_goods_yard.jpg I guess that the cut-down flange allow a road vehicle to approach with its wheels slightly skew to the rail vehicle. One wheel rides over the cut-out in the flange un...

Also, Gavin's blemish-removal technique is very, very good. Any chance of getting this demonstrated at a show sometime? I must switch from Squadron green putty to Humbrol for this kind of thing, as I've recently made a right mess of filling and smoothing some wagon prints. Which brand of primer is it?

The Photon printed items look very good. One of the issues I have with Shapeways is that the Digital Representations shown for many items give no indication as to the likely surface finish. Given their prices I am not willing to take the risk purchasing a model as a friend has done, only to get som...

CCDs, in general, respond to a wider range of wavelengths than the human eye. I don't know the response curves for the ones in the iPhones. It's entirely possible that the new lamps match the old in the visible range but less well outside it, and that the camera can see the difference.

11ft and 12ft brakes, plus their baseplates, are now in the shop. Enjoy!

I can certainly do the brake-gear for those wheelbases. Also the baseplates if they are wanted. FWIW, the brakes and the baseplates are parameterized by wheelbase (and also by wheel size, although I would need to bodge the height to suit different wheels), so coding a new length is quick. Compiling,...

So, on a full-size, locomotive, with the front-end weight resting on the bearing pads of the bogie, how does one tune the weight balance between bogie and coupled wheels?

What's wrong with well-thinned paint? Spirit-based acrylic paint sounds like it would do the same job as the wood dye and can more easily be mixed to vary the colour.

Were mill engines always horizontal cylinder or did some use rotative beam engines? I only ask because I am working on an inglenook project at the moment which features a Pennine mill in the background and the engine house is quite tall with a large arched window. There were a lot of rotative beam-...

... The best compromise is surely EM (Sorry again!), it’s most of the gain for about half the pain. But note I said compromise. I like the appearance of P4 wheels and track, and I can make them work without compensation etc. to save me time. ... If you are using rigid suspension and building at lea...

Can the fixed-buffered wagons not be fitted with a "leaf" spring for the drawhook, made of a length of spring wire across the back of the headstock?

I tried respruing the baseplates and the price actually went up as I made it more compact. I'm afraid we're stuck with those prices.

Brakes and baseplates for 10ft wheelbase are now available. I've done both reversible and non-reversible brake shoes, as separate products. The 10ft baseplates have come out rather expensive under Shapeways' new pricing-model. I may try to find a different spruing-arrangement that makes them cheaper...

For the 10' w/b brakes, would you prefer reversible or non-reversible shoes?

https://images2.sw-cdn.net/product/picture/710x528_25396721_13796340_1540470675.jpg Brake assemblies are now in the shop. These are for modellers who want to see daylight between the hangers and pushrods for each brake block, but don't feel like soldering up the assemblies from etches. The photo sh...

On the tightest curves, will the stock be hauled or propelled? If it has to be pushed round the worst curves, then side buffers probably aren't going to work well and you need a coupling that takes the buffing forces. At that point I'd look at DGs.

Given the postings in various threads on this forum pointing out the deficiencies of chairs and rail available for P4, it is a wonder that any P4 modeller has ever managed to achieve decent running standards. If I was a newcomer thinking of adopting P4 and read these posts, I think that my my next ...

Two additions today to the range in my Shapeways shop . 9' baseplates for Bill-Bedford axleguards is now the mark-2 version with pegs to locate printed brakes (the brakes themselves should be available by next Wednesday). This product now provides three baseplates per print (previously two per print...

That's looking seriously impressive now. I particularly like the painting and weathering on the brickwork: neither too clean nor too dirty. And it looks purposeful.

If it were a proper stub turnout for double-flanged wheels, it would have a pivoted section of rail in place of a common crossing. This one cannot have that as there are too many other rails in the way. It's a theatrical fake* of a conventional turnout when only one road is supposed to work. * My fa...