Scalefour Forum

There's really no need for that, Knuckles, there are ways around the Photobucket situation. I've just zipped through the entire thread and i don't think there are any photos I can't see (certainly no placeholders with the Photobucket ransom demand). Hint - look for an add-on to your browser ...

Have you seen this?

Jol Thanks for the 'encouragement', I might at least take another look at the actual etch - although, if Jeremy isn't too pissed of with us for hijacking his thread, I'd still be very interested should an updated supplement became available (I understand the 7mm version has been greatly 'improved')....

Like most products from that producer, "Ballast Bond" seems absurdly expensive. If you want to dry ballast (and I'm certainly tempted by the technique) cascamite from your local Jewsons, ground up finer if you think necessary, seems a lot more cost-effective.

Jol, I've an original Blacksmiths kit at the bottom of my stash. The reason it's there - just beneath some Keil Kraft road vehicle kits which I really must dig out and complete sometime soon - is that I've repeatedly read it is 'unbuildable'. I've also heard that if built it's impossible to get runn...

And the LNWR one?

' Interestingly, having got the crab working fine, it has been put to a one side for a bit too long. Strangely, I had it out on someone else's layout and it was very sticky going forwards but fine working backwards. What is really odd is that getting it home and it is fine again - I can't fathom it...

The 'contraption' by the entrance appears to be a 'stood up' sack barrow. The curved supporting struts are quite unlike the LMS standard (which was based on a LNWR design) but I'm guessing it was maybe a MR style?

Seems really silly to put an over-wide body on a 'narrow gauge' underframe, there must be a reason for it. I can't see that the injection moulding process should cause it, and with a dearth of pre-school modellers even in OO it surely can't be "little fingers need something chunky to get hold o...

Not 'inessential' at all. It's the miniature population (and all the 'odds & ends' of scenic detail) that brings any model to life. I think it is an excellent idea to have at least some of these ready as more basic construction proceeds - whether it is the Guard who is going to hang on to the ve...

Excellent photos which demonstrate just how slow exposures had to be to get the exceptional detail possible from monochrome emulsion on hard plates; even the speed of a slow freight moving diagonally across the shot has produced significant motion blur. Fascinating van at the fifth vehicle in the se...

I never mask 'raw' paint, always apply Klear first. Likewise always Klear over the tape before spraying the new colour. Combined with rubbing the tape edge down firmly with a cocktail stick that should make both runs and lifts things of the past.

Dead easy - no real layout is ever 'complete'!

Cotton has its own problems, particularly an insistence on maintaining unrealistic kinks that seem to defy 'scale' gravity. For working cranes I try to get as much weight as possible into the hook to stretch the rope (easier if it is attached to a moving pulley block, preferably two-reeve) but for t...

I'll see if I can find some foam locally and do some experiments. You may be in for a slight shock/disappointment, Gareth. It does seem that UK prices for foamboard are particularly attractive. I don't know what it's like Stateside, but ici sur le continent it costs three or four times (or more!) U...

Seems appropriate that I keep getting 'tracking error' - probably due to my 'foreign' ISP, but it does give the impression that one of the Guardians of the Internet is taking a bit of interest in content, for a change.

The problem with filling larger gaps is you tend to get a bulls-eye effect. Careful use of gravity (i.e. turning the model around as the KK dries) can alleviate this, but it's hard to entirely avoid the impact of surface tension and capillary effect making a form of lens. I suspect that's why Micros...

Kristal Klear!

The fine gauge version measures .010" / .25 mm - the equivalent, in 4mm scale of three-quarters of an inch! Yes, but not as soon as you stretch it! A bit of experiment allows you to trade off thickness against tension to produce a range of diameters, and in most situations it's relative not ab...

Bit of a circle going on here - have you tried EZline (which I first saw as one of those useful 'odds and ends' at Scaleforum, recommended for telegraph lines and fencing, but have used for the rigging of model aircraft ever since)? I get mine from Little Cars.

Do you have a copy of this ? It's on my 'to buy' list but has not reached the top yet, as it's strictly outside my period. Having said that, many of the photos/instructional booklets Grouping and pre-Grouping companies issued on the loading of wagons should still be relevant for how loads were carri...

With the (even low-level) radiation issue, I presume modern Save Tea will insist the actual layout is contained within a sealed lead-and-concrete sarcophagus with internal movements only revealed to the paying public by a CCTV link. Sounds like an interesting engineering challenge (vague echoes of a...

Hmm, if this is really just a plug for the Society's latest publication I've been suckered by it, but according to my 'original' (third edition) copy of 'Wheel Specifications for the Modeller' the J15/Y14 used 4'10" 15-spoke drivers with an In-Line crankpin and a stroke of 24", and the G5 ...

Here's an off-the-wall thought on the indexing issue. My Facebook feed keeps getting filled by adverts for a toy vehicle system that will follow a randomly drawn black line (apparently anywhere). I haven't succumbed to buying one yet (partly because I'm pretty sure how the domestic authorities will ...

Well, that's a relief - no, no, no, not extra carriages, just good to know all the essential elements were in place for everyone to have a good time.