Heather Kay

Same here.

I’ve been a bit preoccupied with paying work this past week or so. Truth to be told, I’ve sort of lost the mojo a bit for the Hippo. Work has been the steady process of painting four 0 gauge coaches. They’re in British Railways Southern Region green, with no fiddly lining, which helps. Although not a great deal will be visible inside, I’m still detailing and painting the interiors. These are the compartment dividers, which were finished in various types of varnished wood and wood veneer. Mad fool th

I have a copy. Bear with me and I’ll get them uploaded this evening.

The European Broadcasting Union is far more than just the song contest. https://www.ebu.ch/about

I've been trying to find out if they should be reversed. The internet is not helping today! The Wikipedia entry states the upper arrow always points to the front of the vessel, which is why one side looks wrong on a ship's funnel. I think some Google-fu for pictures of period Seaspeed SR.N4s is needed here. EDIT: And, sure enough, I manage to find images that show I am completely barking up the wrong tree. As you were, with apologies for the sidetrack.

Don't bother. The logos were reversed for shipping. Check out photos of the Sealink ferries, where you'll spot the logos reversed on the funnels. I was a bit wrong. Logo reversed on one side of the ship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealink#Livery

Thankfully, some of the parts are optional. The kit covers almost every variant of the machine over several decades in service. It has options for the control panel doors and the radiator covers being open, complete with all the interior detail. It would be fantastic if I could find a clear image that shows where the Houchin was connected to XR219, but some images show such a mass of cables and pipes from various machines and monitoring stations, I rather think I shall just keep it simple! I only have so much patience. My diorama will be shortly after the aircraft had been towed to the testing

You would have thought I might have learned my lesson with the Flightpath Humber kit. Oh, folly! I thought I’d build the Houchin kit as a quick diversion before getting bogged down with the fuel tank part of the Leyland build. Now, at best, this little thing will be seen over 30 centimetres away from the viewer. I rather feel there are too many microscopic parts here for something barely the length of my thumb. (I checked. My thumb is actually longer.) I mean, fair play, there's silicone stuff for cabling, some transfers, and a bit of acetate

Another image which I found somewhere. Usual disclaimers, etc. It must have been ruddy chilly at Boscombe Down in September/October 1964! Anyway, this exemplifies the kind of clutter I wanted to try and recreate in model form. I think my build will end up being an interpretation rather than an exact replica. Of interest here are the two trailers. There’s one far right in the distance, and another foreground left. They look like the back ends of 1950s American pickup trucks. I haven’t been able to identify their use, and I can guarantee there isn’t a kit available for them

Thank you. Glad it was of help. You know that thing when you think you know something, go and check to verify you know it, and find you didn’t actually know it at all? I can’t recall where I found this image of XR219 being prepped at Boscombe Down. If anyone claims it, I’ll happily take it down, etc, etc. Anyway, it may not be all that clear, but you can see the refueller sitting to the port of the aircraft's nose. It’s got a large door propped open. It’s a different refueller to the one I’m building. There are, essentially, three types of pres

it is for O scale, but it’s spot on for British O Gauge. That’s 1/43rd, 7mm to 1 foot.

And back to the build. You can see the cab parts have come together quite quickly. Everything here has been soldered, as you'd expect. That box in the passenger footwell, though, isn't attached. Why's that? Clear? These are the "small toolbox unit" parts I found. I have no idea which is the right one, but the only one that even came close to fitting was the one in the earlier shot, and it would only fit standing on end if it wasn't to foul the cab body. With no further information to guide me, I have left the "small too

Sometimes, though, the kit beats me into submission. There is a fair old box full of partially built kits of various stripes in my shed. I doubt many will ever be completed now. Right, about this soldering lark. Soldering whitemetal Many still consider soldering a black art. It’s not. You just need the right tools and some knowledge. I would suggest soldering whitemetal is easier than soldering brass or nickel. I cut my teeth soldering Langley Miniatures lorry kits together. My first Langley kit had been superglued together. I still have it, some quarte

Well, that’s exactly what I do! I’ve heard of folk playing a gas torch over the file and scrubbing with wire brush, but I’ve never got that to work for me. A tip I did pick up, and have tried and used with some success, is rubbing chalk into the file before using it. It fills the valleys and helps prevent the metal clogging. I was hoping to work out a basic tutorial on whitemetal soldering. I’ve got the text I used on another forum, but I haven’t taken any really useful images. Bear with, as they say.