Scalefour Forum

A few years ago, the American Passenger Transport Association were evaluating a proposal to adopt a different wheel profile for LRT trains, one with a greater flange-contact angle. The idea was to allow higher speeds on sharp curves. Makes me think that a less-prototypical profile might help our ov...

A few years ago, the American Passenger Transport Association were evaluating a proposal to adopt a different wheel profile for LRT trains, one with a greater flange-contact angle. The idea was to allow higher speeds on sharp curves. Makes me think that a less-prototypical profile might help our ov...

A few years ago, the American Passenger Transport Association were evaluating a proposal to adopt a different wheel profile for LRT trains, one with a greater flange-contact angle. The idea was to allow higher speeds on sharp curves. Makes me think that a less-prototypical profile might help our ove...

The clearance between blocks and wheels in resin-printed brake gear can be whatever one wants, given that the prints are dimensionally accurate. Shapeways prints seem to be accurate. I've tended to larger-than-scale gaps to accommodate variation in wheel sizes (e.g. AGW are slightly smaller than Exa...

The problem part of this brake hanger, from the point of view of printing, is the 0.75" flat bit. Everything else can be brought (just) above minimum thickness for resin-printing, or is invisible and can be left off: 0.5" flanges that wrap round the middle bearer: invisible, leave them out...

... but as a side note, how do you adjust buffer height? For most stock, you need packing between the floor of the wagon and the brass of the axleguards. For most plastic kits, where the bottom of the floor is sitting at the prototypical height w.r.t the rest of the model, you need 0.5mm packing. T...

These look very nice indeed. I've just been reading the instruction for the Fox bogies, which may suit some of my SECR coaches. Concerning those instructions, a few points remain unclear to me, even after a second reading. [*] Are the pins one which the coach body bears included or not? At one point...

An Exactoscale back-to-back gauge (17.75mm back-to-back) has just come up on ebay, in a lot with some track gauges.

If prototypical accurate door and commode handles can't be printed as separate items, then can they be printed attached to the side but with the relevant air gap behind the handle so that they look more realistic than the moulded on handles on plastic moulded coaches? Or is that asking too much? II...

But it did make me wonder about proper layouts - steam age stations would have been busy busy, but a terminus layout where an 0-6-0 sorts out coaching stock doesn't really exist does it? Rakes of coaches don't make for shunting puzzles and what's the point of your mainline locomotive only appearing...

What are the options for 3rd-party door furniture these days? I seem to remember etched T-handles and loop-handles being available back in the '90s. Personally, I would have no problem gluing in etched door-handles, but filing up a train's worth of handles from pin heads would be a bit daunting. I n...

A LURS article on safety devices suggests that the tripcocks first appeared on MDR A-stock in 1903 and rapidly became standard. Therefore, one would expect them on GWR 633 class and Metros working over the inner circle to Smithfield from c.1905. AFAIK, the Widened Lines were not protected in this wa...

The OIS regulations must have been pretty strict even on goods-only lines. I recently re-read an article on the working of the Glasson Dock and St Georges Quay branches from Lancaster: these were parallel, single-track branches from Lancaster no.4 box down to the lower reaches of the Lune, and only ...

I recently tried to use Dullcoat to seal some Fox waterslide transfers (which had been allowed 24 hours to dry as recommended btw). Unfortunately a second or two after spraying them the lovingly applied bespoke transfers proceeded to crinkle and disintegrate before my very eyes! ... I should add th...

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,...