Search results

  1. Alan Bickley

    Surprise, surprise

    I have stripped down several old car radios in my time. The motors for the cassette players are ideal, as they already run on 12 volts. I have also salvaged LEDs, micro-switches, and many other useable parts from other appliances over the years as well. Many of these I still have in "storage".
  2. Alan Bickley

    I was caught !

    Well I would like to catch HER hiding my tools when I'm not there! Recently I have got to my worktop ready to continue with my latest project, only to start wondering why my craft knives and files have disappeared. She had only gone and put them away in one of my spare parts drawers!!!
  3. Alan Bickley

    All the Youth talk is it true?

    I hit the big 3-0 a couple of months back! I'm always trying to find time to do my modelling, but I have had to sacrifice a few model exhibition visits as I'm getting married in the summer, and have to save as much money as possible. Still, with all the unfinished projects that I have...
  4. Alan Bickley

    scalescenes.com

    I let out a gasp when you mentioned that you downloaded a building in HO! Surely, I thought, that scalescenes.com had all their building "kits" in OO. That was until I took a look at their site and found that they have now done US outline stuff as well. I suppose us Brits that want to do our...
  5. Alan Bickley

    Making Bark Texture for HO scale

    "Hey, son, get down from there before you fall and hurt yourself!" Actually, they look good in either scale. A log cabin in O or a flat car or truck load in HO.
  6. Alan Bickley

    Radio Controlled Planes/helicopters etc

    I was browsing through a model shop recently that sells R/C models only. While I was there I saw a couple of kits for a model airliner that resembled a Boeing 777. I did wonder about the scale when I read on the box that the wingspan was 55 inches.
  7. Alan Bickley

    Question on Scales

    Hmmm, well I had thought about doing a HO scale layout with a miniature railway that uses Z scale track. A model of a model, no less!
  8. Alan Bickley

    Just Playing Around

    Is this what I have to look forward to?! My fiance has been wanting me to move in with her for a while now, and it's proving to be tricky for me as I have no end of projects to complete. I'm not just talking about modelling projects either! So much to do, so little time!
  9. Alan Bickley

    Question on Scales

    Okay then, I'll confuse you even more! Here in the UK, the modelling standard has been OO gauge, or 1/76 scale (Not for me, though, I'm HO through and through!). Recently there has been a shift from using OO (1/76 scale using HO track) to slightly more correct track gauges. These are known as EM...
  10. Alan Bickley

    What to use for road's & street's?

    I have a method that I discovered by accident a few years ago. I paint the desired area in a thick layer of dark grey undercoat and then put sheets of tissue paper down on it, using the same brush to flatten the paper and allow the paint to soak through. When it's dry it looks just like a faded...
  11. Alan Bickley

    Double-heading Locos?

    Personally, I would say that it would be best to have one of the locos unpowered. It's not going to make much of a difference to the size of the train. I made a DRS minimodal trial train using a Brawa megafret container wagon set and a Lima class 33 loco at either end. I decided to remove the...
  12. Alan Bickley

    Justice prevails for the Gauge !!!

    This doesn't surprise me, given the amount of stupid idiots that I have to contend with whenever I am out driving. Funnily enough, I watched a popular motoring programme on TV last night. In it, they conducted a test (I would imagine alongside transport safety officials) where they parked a...
  13. Alan Bickley

    Wal-Mart finds

    This has been discussed at length on the message board on www.87thscale.info Personally I have been looking for the high-speed Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Disovery III models that have apparently appeared at Wal-Mart. Although the nearest thing to Wal-Mart in the UK - Asda - are never...
  14. Alan Bickley

    do you think this will work?

    Hmm, seem to have posted twice! I reckon there's a glitch in my 'puter!
  15. Alan Bickley

    do you think this will work?

    Once when I went to a local railway centre, I thought about doing such a project in their museum section. It would have been a showcase layout for british-outline HO. But when I chatted to one of the staff about it, he directed me to the remains of a layout salvaged from this proffessor's house...
  16. Alan Bickley

    Survey for School - Please Answer!

    1. Yes. 2. Yes. 3. No, but one of my grandparents did. 4. Hmm, occasionally. 5. Mainly Roco and Lima. 6. Absolutely: I model British HO instead of OO! 7. I have a permanant layout. 8. Selling, maybe. Throwing away, absolutely not! 9. It's a toss-up between Roco and Mehano at the moment...
  17. Alan Bickley

    Pros and Cons: Switching from HO to N Scale, and Vice-Versa

    I think that the main reason for me for staying with HO is that I started out collecting HO scale trucks when I was in my teens. I was given a load of OO scale train models and track by my late grandfather at about that time, and it got me into train modelling - going into HO as soon as I could...
  18. Alan Bickley

    How many unfinished projects do you have....

    I daren't think about counting my unfinished projects! The trouble is with me is that I do a lot of road vehicles in HO, and these seem to add up a lot quicker than rolling stock. As for the rolling stock.......!
  19. Alan Bickley

    Pros and Cons: Switching from HO to N Scale, and Vice-Versa

    If the thought of needing more space for a layout is putting people off modelling in HO, I suppose that they could always try building a HOe layout instead. At least that way you'll have the benefit of the availability of all those layout accessories - as well as putting that N gauge track to...
  20. Alan Bickley

    how "complete" is your layout?

    I have a home layout that I started in about 1993. I'm still only halfway through building it! I also have a couple of baseboards nearly done for an exhibiton layout. And if that's not enough, I have been going through the initial stages of another exhibition layout with my fiance. On that one...