OldSeaDog 1707821252

Replying to @rallymatt, you won't, of course, be aware of the Great Greek Stash. This started off as three cardboard removal boxes exported in 2012, and added to locally at increasingly rare opportunities. There are now only 12 kits left, shock horror, and I don't really want to build any of these (except for an Eduard Profipack Lysander) but they're always useful as trade goods e.g. an Italieri Sunderland for a pile of olive wood. I've already started packing my boxes for this year's trip, mostly tankettes, biplanes and motorcycles, so yeah, I'll have lots to do. No trains, though; they're not a thing over there.

Thanks, Peter. It's been horrible having to put everything on hold. Currently we're looking at: TT layout 1/72 towed artillery project Assorted Airfix vintage classics Electronic ignition for the MGB Full restoration on a 1970s river boat. I don't think I've got enough life left, sometimes!

Hi, all. I haven't been around here (as a poster) for months, having been a fairly prolific contributor in the early days. And, you might ask, why not? Well, I was in Sainsbury's car park on a stormy day back in April when the wind caught the car door as I was getting out. My left index finger got in the way. It literally burst. (You can unclench your buttocks now). All my modelling activities have been on hold, as well as the majority of my 1:1 projects as I've basically been one-handed, but finally I have something that looks and works a bit like a finger again even though it's numb and feels like it's filled with jelly. In the meantime I've bought all the locos and rolling stock that I'd planned to, just a bit hacked off that there's a green 08 coming soon and still waiting for news on the HST. So, nothing's really holding me back any more. Except we'll be in Greece for the next two months.......

Roundhouse? Gorblimey, strike a light Mary Poppins! Just thinking rationally about it, there's a Scalescenes building that might possibly work for this. It's a boiler house, but it's been designed with a trapezoidal footprint, so if you join lots of them together they should form a circle, with a bit of messing about. There is also a big door at both the front and rear and it should be a doddle to extend it to a loco length. The model number is TO24b

@Peachy I hadn't realised that you'd posted a picture. You've made an excellent job of that; you need to move straight on to the large station terminus! I used this kit to build a chicken shed, using the clapboard walls and a tin roof.

@Moccasin I agree with everything you've said. I'll just add my two pennyworth here because I'm waiting for paint to dry and I haven't really got anything else to do. I love the way Hornby have done all this. It's a bold move for a traditional toy company, and all power to them. The world's changed. We shop differently, especially after the pandemic, and customers have different expectations. I do lots of modelling: plastics, wood, card, metal, you name it. Just about every hobby shop I use is a disappointment in some way, so 95% of the stuff I buy is bought online. I'm selective about the suppliers I use: I'm looking for a great range of products, good prices, fast and free delivery. I can easily achieve this by using certain eBay suppliers, Jadlam at Glastonbury and Hornby. I've moved on. Okay, I'm happy now to wait three days for things to arrive, but I'm not eight anymore. Hornby's approach to selling TT120 really appealed to this current version of me, which is why I started with it in the first place. Yes, they do have supply problems and I worry sometimes about using China as a base for production for reasons that I'm sure you all recognise. There again, I might just as well worry about where my next Volvo's coming from. I really want this TT project to be a success. My paint is now dry.

Hmmm, that 25% off certainly makes up for the slight price increase John Wiffen has had to make to the Scalescenes range. Pity that I've already bought every download that I'm ever likely to need! I think the best thing about Scalescenes is how adaptable the kits are. They're designed for kit-bashing and when you've got a few downloads available, along with some texture sheets, the possibilities are infinite. I'm currently building a brick Methodist chapel out of a 13th century stone church. Conversion from OO is dead easy when you're designing, too, as we're basically talking about reducing to two thirds the size.

This is good news. I'll be treating myself to an 08 once it's been released and the intended liveries are a bit inappropriate for the era I'm modelling, so I was planning on an airbrush job myself!

Hello, all. I thought I'd better update this project as you might be thinking that I hadn't been doing anything. I've put the track down four times now, simple as it is. Cork ballast is in place, everything is running smoothly. I'm working on landscape this week. It's all built with a combination of 5mm styrene sheet, pop bandage and Stonecast. It was originally intended to be flatter than it is, but you can't have a train set without a tunnel so I needed to introduce some high ground. There will be a feature built on the summit to lead your eye in to the layout. I'm just waiting for the pop to dry so that I can get on with blending it all together with Stonecast. Here's a boring picture. It looks like Winter Wonderland at the moment.

David, Scalescenes do a nice selection of narrow boats both commercial and leisure, as part of their canal lock download. Just print at 63% of the OO kit.

That looks great, Matt. Love the weathering. I'm working on a pair of Zvezda 1/100 trucks at the moment. A bit overscale, but not horribly so.

@Rallymatt I will be also needing a flock of sheep at some stage, Preiser certainly do some but they seem to be about 22 quid. Langley Miniatures do them too but I don't know what actual size they come out at. There's not a lot in the Langley TT range unless you need sheep, cows, ducks, swans, seagulls, dogs, cats or rock climbers. Honestly.

@ntp3 Their website is ttmodels.co.uk and appears to be fully functional. You don't seem to be able to order online, though.

I've just noticed that 3MSR at Sheerness have stocks of both Preiser and Noch TT120 figures at a very reasonable price and, of course, without mind-boggling postage costs.

I'm trying to be as succinct as I can with the title of this thread: I don't want to get into trouble with @Fishmanoz for being obtuse! As various peoples' layouts are progressing nicely and getting round to the stage where we need to start thinking about populating them, the issue of suitable figures for TT120 keeps cropping up. At the moment you can find reference to this all over the shop and I thought it might be a good idea to create one thread where we can all share information. There are so many variations in size between TT120 and TT100 figures that you don't know if you're coming or going. For example, there's been a discussion in the last couple of days about the Chinese-made TT figures on eBay: no-one has any real idea what scale they are, but they're certainly too big for TT120. On the other hand, I bought a little fellow on a bike from an architectural modeling supplier, listed as 1/100,and he fits in fine. I think it's time that we share our experiences here, listing those suppliers we feel make figures with the right "look". I'll start: Smart Models; 4D Models.

Hey! I've got the same people! I will get round to painting them any year now. You're right, they look massively overscale when you compare them to, say, Smart Models or 4D Models. My strategy will be to pass them off as a race of giants who arrived on the No. 9 tram from Gateshead.

Goes without saying, @TooTall! Mind you, a couple of coats of Vallejo matte kind of helps......

@Artyp thanks for mentioning Wordsworth Models, I hadn't heard of them before. Just tried to download one, but the file won't let me open it. I'll try again tomorrow.

@Peachy Try printing on to an A4 sticky label, works brilliantly and you don't have to wait hours for the glue to dry. You can get them on next day delivery from a company who I shan't name but sound like they're based on a South American river.

Very good advice.

You might find that a texture sheet would do the job, there are loads of suppliers of these.

Careful here, @Rallymatt! You could very easily mis-hear that name...........

I'd agree with @Rallymatt about the Rokit pva glue. It sticks like nothing and quick about it, too. I've been card modelling for about 60 years now, and it's one of the reasons I started with TT120 so that I can get some serious architecture done! As Matt says, your craft knife is a very important part of your modelling kit, but be aware that your blade goes blunt very quickly. I'll probably use 3 or 4 blades for each building; I now buy the snap-off blade type - Hobbycraft do a good quality one - but they are, to be honest, a bit more dangerous! Which is why I've not been making much progress this week because I've sliced off the top of my left middle finger. Oh, and get yourselves a Maun Safety Ruler!

I decided to give up entirely on waiting for track packs and just bought the pieces I needed. I did a cost comparison and, yes, it is a bit more expensive doing it that way, but not hugely so. I'm using Peco flex for long straights and the custom bits that I'll need to build as my layout progresses.

I think I probably got a Mallard today, since DPD sent me a picture of a cardboard box on my back doorstep. Trouble is, I'm about a thousand miles away and I'm hoping that the cats been able to drag it in through the cat flap. She's managed that before, but that was a moorhen not a mallard.