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Better wheels
The Keyser kit dates from the 1960s and shows its age. While I can live with most of this, it's going to be a layout loco after all, one or two upgrades are required. The driving wheels look OK to me...
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Body fiddling
Why did the previous owner of this kit stop work, put it in a box and flog the thing on a second hand stall for no money? Quite a mystery since they had done such a good job of assembling the parts....
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Boxing Owen's Bridge
Transporting layouts is one of those things that most people don't think about when gawping from the public side of the barrier. Once you've built a model though, it becomes pretty important to you,...
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Off to Warley
Today is all about heading to a little local show a few miles away in a tin shed at the edge of Solihull. I know local shows aren't everyones thing but I like to support these events where I can....
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A feast of classic cars
Off to the NEC...No, I wasn't a week early for Warley. Sometimes I like to do something that isn't toy train related. There was a big classic car show and I had a spare Saturday when I could have done...
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NRM - Australia
While I was in Oz, one of the trips I was taken on was to their National Railway Museum in Adelaide. It's a fantastic place, not unlike our own NRM in blighty albeit a bit smaller. The slight snag is...
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Radial handrails
There's not a whole lot of detail to add to the Radial but you can't avoid the handrails. I wish I could, they are always a fiddly job. Anyway, first I counted the knobs. I needed 8 to fill the holes...
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Replacing a moulded smokebox dart
Right you lot, pay attention. If there is a simple improvement anyone can make to a model steam locomotive, it's replacing a moulded smokebox dart. Yes, I know that a lot of modern ready to play locos...
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Book Review: Create Exterior Finishes by Bea Broadwood
Much as a I love working with plasticard on model building exteriors, I look at the work of people like Iain Robinson and think perhaps I could be trying something a little different. There's a bit of...
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Brass buffers bad
One surprise inside the box'o'bits that contained my Adams Radial kit was this set of natty brass buffers. Ready made and nicely sprung, they are just what we keep being told that modellers want to...
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What makes a good Radial?
Subtitle: Why I can't be bothered to fit lamp irons to this loco.With the Radial now in it's first coat of primer, I've been pondering how I will finish off the model. A couple of months ago, I...
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Warley 2014
Warley = WorkFor the last few years, the national show at the NEC has involved me sitting behind a demonstration table chatting to people. This time it was my first stint standing behind a table on the...
View ArticleAnnoying things about Warley
Reading popular web forums after the Warley weekend, it seems that there are some British Standard moans. Rather than enter into arguments, I thought I'd look at some of these and give my opinion. It...
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Coasters for model railways
Duncan asks: I intend to build a wharf (Medway based) with either a small part of a copper cable works OO9 served and a cement/lime dock OO served. I would like come guidance on building/kit...
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Shepherds Hut
A little queue jumping now. While the Adams Radial awaits a little finishing and then paint, I'm reminded that I promised to build a Duncan Models shepherds 7mm scale hut for the NRM. A start has been...
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A floor in the kit
Duncan's hut on wheels is lovely but while the box picture shows a chimney, I couldn't find one inside. No matter, a brass tube off cut soldered to the roof and then fiddled to be upright soon sorted...
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How green is my hut on wheels?
As far as final colours for the Duncan Models shepherds hut, the box shows a green body, black roof and undercarriage, which all seems pretty reasonable. It also shows a white window, which is...
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What is a bow pen?
John asks: Reading with great interest your article on painting the Speedline Pilot Boat. Sounds very much like me to a tee! The part that intrigued me was your reference to using a "bow pen" to...
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Foam underlay
John asks: I occasionally see mention of railway modellers using foam over their base boards before laying track on top. To me foam is soft and bendy and stuffed into cushions and not very hard wearing...
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Dream winter layout?
One of the benefits of belonging to a model railway club is that the library contains books you'd probably never buy yourself. One such is "Ideenreiche Modellbahn-Anlagen" by Ivo Cordes. Basically,...
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