Giles

I think it will prove extremely popular - it fills the 'factory' and yard function beautifully. If the quality is anything like the 15, and I'm sure it will be - it wil be a smashing little loco. Inspired.

And I think it was one of these that The Little Loco Company announced as their next RTR loco, due out later in the year (7mm). I saw their Class 15 in the flesh for the first time, and beautiful it is... So I'm sure they'll make an excellent job of this!

.... And I think you're getting your wish - aren't you....?

Thank you Rich! If you search 'miniature flanged bearings' you get a lot of choice...... These for instance, is what I use for the front axles http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pack-of-10-F682zz-2x5x2-3-mm-Miniature-Metal-Flanged-Ball-Bearings-2-5-2-3-/281494324685?hash=item418a5e85cd:g:lMMAAOSw1XdUYjq2

If it were me, I should bend a length of the nickel-silver into a 'U', Spring it onto the cylinder end castings, and silver-solder them in place, and afterwards trim the bent end off. That would ensure squareness between them.

Those castings have come up nicely! I feel for you doing eight sets..... If I recall. The motion bracket will need chopping about to clear the coupling rods as well (although it was some time ago, so I may be mistaken!) Looking good!

Personally, I do like mortar, as the process also tones down the brickwork. Today's favourite method for me is to use a solution of fire-cement (!) wiped over the whole, and into the cracks, and then wiped off with a kitchen towel, thus leaving it in the courses. Of course it's important to wipe down vertically, so you get weathered streaking. This also works using ready mix plaster, pre-coloured or not.... Each to his own though! Nice job! (This is deliberately dirty and scummy.....)

First, there are quite enough confused drivers on the road already, without deliberately creating more - and confusion is downright dangerous. That's why they spent decades trying to make road signs as clear as possible for starters...... Second rant - although I am absolutely not against cycle lanes, the way they are being built in London at the moment is dangerous for the rest of us. Apart from appalling killers that only lasted a few weeks (fortunately) in Torrington Place for example - which were intermittent kerb stones in the carriageway, so vehicles (particularly cycles and motorcyles) could hit them unawares, roads are being narrowed dramatically. This is perhaps having an unforeseen consequence, whereby long queues of traffic are now building up where previously it flowed. Yesterday between Buckingham Palace and Parliament Square, this occurred, and as a motor bike filtered slowly past stationary traffic (could just as easily have been a push bike, only that would have likely been going faster), a people carrying mini-cab decided he'd had enough, and suddenly did a U turn, catching him very nastily (hospital job). My initial reaction was bl***y mini-cabs again - but followed by bl***y TFL for making the roads more hazardous for everyone. A great deal of fuss is rightly made of the number of cyclists killed and injured in London, but you never see reported that almost twice the number of motorcyclists are killed per year..... Not all motorcyclists are clots and idiots....

I think I hate buildings - this one at the back has been taking so long, but I'm getting to see the end of it. Even all the guttering etc has been a marathon

Trotec comes from Trotec in Sunderland (I think)

I didn't mean to confuse! This is Trotec (like Rowmark) which is acrylic based, not clear acrylic sheet...!

Not railway related at all, but I also use mine for work. I (amongst other things) design strange things for Theatre - for orchestra pit lifts, flying systems, auditoria..... The RSC need seats that instantly disappear down into the auditorium floor, and I've designed 'boxes' to achieve this. Here are two of the types - just the bare boxes - not the lift mechanisms themselves...... They are in reality fabricated from 8mm laser cut steel, and making a 1:10 model in acrylic is brilliant for first testing that all the components fit as they should, and secondly for communication with the Client and manufacturer.

I've been experimenting for a long time with nettles - which has not proved as easy as it may sound. I suspect these may be as good as I can do . These are all 'large' ones, with other sizes to be added, of course..... although they are fundamentally laser-cut, each plant is two 'profiles' glued together at the stem, slightly off-set, and then each leaf twisted flat and rotated 45 degrees (in opposition.

That's a bit posh!!!! Like it...!

In 7mm scale......

Wouldn't that make them 'Great Tits'?

They're about 3mm beak to tail! (Drop one and it's gone........)

Oh blimey - it's the pre-blended 'for your convenience' stuff....... I frankly won't touch it with a barge-pole - but that's my personal opinion. The pre-blended colours are unfortunate to my eye. I am a very firm believer in mixing colours and lengths, but very much prefer to do so myself, and like to have some subtly about it. I did chat to WWS about possibly supplying the colours 'plain', but a gather that's not what they do. My tuppence-worth - go and get the Polak stuff, now it's on the market again, or Mininatur. (No connection with anyone!!!) Again, just my personal opinion - nothing more - I know of one first class modeller who quite liked the WWS stuff.

Nah....... Meccano... Building cranes, bridges, vehicles with proper steering etc... (Well, 50 years ago, anyway!)

It was one.... Here's two...!

Here's him and his mate - there's a dead one kicking around somewhere that escaped from my tweezers - irretrievably gone..... Enough of birds!

Some bird life is appearing on Denton Brook. This one got a bit smudged when being glued, but has been touched up (since this photo). They're so small I can hardly see them at about 3mm

No trains here...... Just the odd bird

I usually do paint a layer of what ends up being acrylic and that give me no problems. However, after I've applied the grass, I always sieve ash over it to cover any exposed paint to kill any 'shine'. I use a bog-standard PVA. I do find that there is no substitute for a decent applicator, and I use a GreenScenes Flock-It, running at 15v.