Warehouse Wednesday: Chris's mower repairs
Regular readers will know my enthusiasm for corrugated iron, or wobbly tin, buildings. This beauty is found on the edge of the posh Midlands town of Knowle. Sitting on what must be prime building land...
View ArticleHandy sanding sticks
For months, I've had some handy sanding sticks knocking around. Each is around 3mm wide and on top and bottom, has some abrasive material. Each packs contains a variety of grades of abrasive. The...
View ArticleI've got an E-type!
Thank you eBay. I don't remember how this happened, but in recent months I've been watching out for plastic kits by the firm Scalecraft. Railway modellers will know them for producing a OO gauge...
View ArticleScaleforum 2016
You know you're in the right cue at the station when everyone at the bus stop also looks like they are going to Scaleforum. Let's just say there wasn't much designer wear or backward baseball cap...
View ArticleI'm no good at scale shows...
My purchases from Scaleforum included a couple of books - Rail Preservation in Australia and the Gauge O Guild's second book of small layouts. I picked them up mid-afternoon after presumably all the...
View ArticleFind the Fieldbahn
Warley is approaching and I need a reliable locomotive to run on Owen's Bridge. The"proper" Simplex is pretty worn out and I'm not sure it can be revived for a couple of days worth continuous running....
View ArticleShepherds Hut
One of the projects I've had kicking around for months is a Trenarren Models shepherds hut kit for the garden railway. Much of the basic construction was carried out in the gardens of a stately home...
View ArticleWarehouse Wednesday: Back to the 80s with Cornwall House
Right Move describe this building as "a detached modern office building arranged over 3 floors with 2 suites per floor. A central entrance at the front of the building leads on to a staircase that...
View ArticleSteradent stove
To furnish the inside of my shepherds hut, the manufacturer provides a bench. I suppose this gives somewhere to sit and possibly even kip, but it's going to be cold in the winter. There is a hole in...
View ArticleMassage the resin
The curved roof for the shepherds van was a very different profile to the top of the ends. Fortunately, resin can be softened by hot water, so it took a bath in the sink. After a few minutes, the...
View ArticleHut ready for the garden
Ready for the garden. I sprayed the hut with primer followed by car aerosol black.This looked very clean and lovely, but not the look I was after. These things probably never looked new!Out with the...
View ArticleIs video really a good thing?
A few weeks ago, I spotted a tutorial on YouTube covering making model roads. It was well filmed and the end results looks impressive, but I was struck by the duration - 17 minutes.As a well known...
View ArticleNo flies on me
Spotted at the railway club last week - a clever clamp for holding small circuit boards. Attached to a desk, it provides provides a steady board for soldering, but the PCB can be flipped over while...
View ArticleWooly ideas for abrasive
As my dad continues his Bismark build, he's reached the stage where wooden decks need to be treated. The instructions say to spray them with matt varnish and then smooth with fine wire wool. It works...
View ArticleWarehouse Wednesday: Charlestown garage
Down by the docks in Charlestown, Cornwall, you find this garage/tiny warehouse. I like the rubble stone side wall combined with the pale brick front and weathered wooden doors. While not a big...
View ArticleLoco fiddling, DCC making and a new layout in BRM
Just in time for the weekend at Peterbotough, the latest issue of BRM appears in the shops. My main feature is the first part of my N gauge layout in a box build. Much of the work was carried out at...
View ArticlePeterborough bound this weekend
This week, I've had Ruston Quays on the workbench for a little fettling in time for our trip to Peterborough. Over the weekend, I plan to finally have exhibition visitors operating the layout so...
View ArticleGETS 2016
Last Sunday, I trundled 8 miles down the road towards Banbury, to visit the Great Electric Train Show (GETS) at the Heritage Motor Museum, Gaydon.Always an excellent show, this year there was a special...
View ArticleCollecting rubbish
Let a modeller loose in a cafe and what happens? He doesn't leave the tiny jam pots or used coffee stirrers to be thrown away like any normal person. They go in his rucksack for washing out to be...
View ArticleAnother reason to hate DCC...
Needing to chip a locomotive, I stuck a note on a forum asking for recommendations. Since I know little of the world of in-chuffer electronics, it seemed the sensible thing to do. A suitable device...
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