Giles

A beautiful exercise in etching- I shall have to see if I can fit a fire-escape in somewhere! That is superb....

No problem - the artwork is at the etches at the moment...!

That'll be solid grey clouds down below the mountain tops, unless your modelling 1976 then......... (I'm not sure I got any photos in the sunshine when we lived there!)

I've tackled the (difficult part of) the top point, and the crossing - although not the bit behind, as I need to sort out the narrow gauge to get the levels right.... It all looks very nice at the moment, but the air drying clay has a massive shrink percentage, and it will crack like anything. This happened all along Crane Road. The answer was (and will be) to infill the cracks with more clay, and to emboss these new infills. It doesn't look too bad. If one was going for immaculate, one would lay Slaters sheet, or some such. I believe Das has a very much lower shrinkage, but I don't want to change materials half way through. The point still works (I checked!) and the section with the tie-bar will be covered with steel plate (it was either that or timbers)

..... Don't you just love auto-correct...... (Of course it probably dries faster, and looks much more impressive...)

Thanks Andy! I wasn't specifically after the 'wet' look - only after the polished look they get....... However, it will all matt down a bit after the gaps at infilled with ash or whatever (although I think I will have to fix it with Johnsons Lear, or similar -which of course is gloss! - as I need something really thin to penetrate, that won't float the stuff out of the cracks). Non-the-less, I'm very pleased with the results so far, and with their versatility of the embossing.

Anyway..... Back to the layout..... I've put some paint on the Crane road tramway - there's a layer of ash etc. to work into the gaps, but I'll wait until I've done the rest of the tramwaying before I do that, so it all ends up looking the same. That will tone it all down considerably. The painting really didn't take too long. It was a base coat of aerosol matt black, followed by a heavy dry brush (if that isn't a contradiction of terms) of Humbrol 133, followed by a very light dry brush of Humbrol 128. It may be too dark, in which case I'll work into it a bit more... We'll see......

Another sample of embossing straight onto foam. (With a bit of paint on)

Brilliant!

New latex mould finished (with original master underneath). Trimmed and with talc brushed into both sides, it's now ready for casting with Hydrocal, or use for embossing into Das or clay if one wanted. No release agent was necessary when making this, and none will be required using it.

The embossing tool for Setts will of course emboss different materials. It seems to make a good clean job on very dense foams like Celotex (and presumably Kingspan). I've just done a quick sample to show, just dusted over with black and then grey primer, for the photo - NOT properly painted!

I need to cast bits for supporting walls for the crane road - but my old latex mould is well past its best - so I'm making a new one. The embossed plasticard master is taped down to a tray, and a wall of tape built around it. Latex has been poured on, tapped to clear bubbles out, left a few minutes and poured back off. This will then dry before another layer is poured on ( then poured off again). Several coats will be given. Mnultiple thin coats will dry a lot faster than one thick one, without the risk of finding a wet patch that ruins the job. I will give it a liberal talc before separating, so it doesn't get the chance to stick to itself.

Right you are, Chris!

I've done the artwork for a triple-sided embossing tool, to give 9" x 4 1/2" setts, in 7mm scale. This gives a run of 50mm, 28mm (for the 'four-foot' in standard guage, and a couple of stones worth on the last face for odds and sods...... Each face has the breaks off-set, so you spin the tool round to get the next staggered row. To give an indication, All the embossing shown in the main layout picture, AFTER laying the clay, took under ten minutes to emboss. As soon as I get a moment I'll get a sheet etched. Let me know if you might be interested in buying a tool (no commitment, as I don't yet have a price!!!)

Hi Chris, it's a simple brass fabrication of etch off cuts between sheet, all silver soldered - the shorter side sized for the four-foot. The sett dividers are off set, so you just spin it through 180 degrees for each row.

All the track is finally painted and cleaned off, ready for ballasting - and sett-laying..... So I made a start. I decided to do the setts at the baseboard join in Milliput to make them resilient, and the others are in air-drying clay. The clay works better for embossing. Although it doesn't look it, I did carve the flange ways out before embossing, and I shall do so again when the clay is nearly dry. The clay is bedded onto PVA brushed onto the track bed. The embossing was extremely quick (relatively) with the tool I made

I sympathise greatly - one of the reasons it's so much easier in 7mm! (I use 2mm I.D. Flanged bearings for mine...) Love the trailer...

My first thought was that the castings were for the Wantage tramway loco - but yesterday I went through the video, and the wheels are significantly different - so I'm not convinced.....

Oh yes Chris, but I'll do that after rusting rails and painting sleepers! This was how I got the track below ( although it won't be all like this!)

I've fitted both boards with 1/4" jack sockets for DCC supply - fed from a single twin cable, split at the end with two jack plugs - one for each board. Point motors will be controlled from a Switch 8 (2) on one board, so there will need to be a fly- lead with Din plug from one board to 'tother. Holes are cut underneath for Tortoise point motors. I've been careful to make sure there is 4mm ply where I want it over-head! All (standard gauge) track is sprayed black, cleaned off, and ready for rusting and sleeper painting

This point is going to be tramway'd in (it's the copper pax one....). There is also a lot of air underneath it (between double packed sleepers etc..) in order to get reasonably smooth vertical transitions! I've therefore back-filled it with foam, which I've then cut back to sleeper level. This will then get a layer of air-dry clay, embossed with sets (with PVA to bond clay to foam) The best foam I've found is delightfully the cheapest, at under £6 per can from screwfix. It dries quickly, and is nice and dense, carving well. Much better than some of the more expensive foams I've used...

In all probability, when the graphite goes on! Chris, I think your sedate 1:22 is probably more in keeping with the tone of your environment! - I do like it! I just can't resist working the hell of of the Garratt.... plus I've only got 8' to play with! Still, if ever you need a Garratt to visit the Valleys........

Indeed! I gather a number of industrial sites went to 1:10, with even short stretches of 1:8!!! (steam hauled) Here's things actually moving....

Just for reference, these are the 'normal' cut-off levels for different age ranges (over which your GP will usually take an interest, in my experience....) PSA Cut-off 40-49 2.7 50-59 3.9 60-69 5.0 70-75 7.2 It was carefully explained to me that a higher PSA can be caused by things other than cancer (such as prostatitis). I am no expert - except in my own conditions and circumstances...!

Foxfield at 1:19, Pontypool & Blaenavon at 1:29 But Fawley at 1:13 we've got three places in the country to choose from at any rate - probably more....!