Another rainy Saturday, another FCAG meeting. One with a difference however - members frae a' the airts (well, Kilmelford and Aberdeen) and a show-and-tell session in the afternoon, which we have not done for a while. Alistair, Alisdair, Alastair, Angus, Simon, Chris, Graham, Tony, Stuart, Justin and John took part. 'Flu kept a few more away.
Tony had brought some DG couplings parts with him, aiming to delegate assembly to idle hands. Simon and John stepped up (or failed to step back quickly enough) and were soon hard at work.
Mearns Shed was in evidence. Richard's recently-added joiner's workshop has not featured in the blog so far, so here's a general view. It's yet to be bedded in.
Justin had brought his 57xx chassis - the new Association design in which the motor sits on a 3D printed mount, the position of which governs the worm's mesh with the worm wheel.
James had his 57xx project also, using the earlier Association chassis with the fold-up gearbox which can give meshing problems if it flexes under load.
James has made a little platform to hold the loco body above the chassis during testing using lengths of studding into the body fixing points. This is better than the blobs of blu-tac and random weights the test of us use, since it assures correct distribution of the body's weight during testing, and doesn't fall off..
Alistair was working on a cutting board.
Stuart had started a FiNeTrax turnout.
Alastair had a design for a fold-away layout - the board splits in two and folds down either side of the legs for storage. Perhaps Irn-Bru aids creativity.
Angus was hard at work assembling Association bogie kits. (Chris Bentley has a more systematic approach using a simple jig, which he describes in the current 2mmSA magazine). Angus just uses a smile (or perhaps a snarl at the pesky photographer?) and a soldering iron.
In the afternoon each of us showed and told an aspect of a project we'd worked on in 2025. Since there is a projector and screen in the meeting room, we experimented with using a camera on a clamp to let the assembled multitude see what was going on without stirring from their seats. This was partially successful and may be used again in future for demonstrations (another thing we've learned from the North East Area Group).
Alisdair was first up, describing his travails with his Highland Railway "Big Goods" (a 4-6-0 with very close wheel spacing). The positive points were to use subassemblies, and to stock up on Hobby Holidays 0.2mm nickel-silver wire, which is just right for making loco handrails with compound curves around the smokebox.
Simon described the Caledonian Railway 49' bogie coaches he'd made from Worsley Works etches. Although easy to assemble, using solder balls in his case, the tab-less "scratch aid" style can be tricky and requires a bit of forethought. In some cases floors have to be added. He'd also added detailed interiors. Since he's modelling the West Highland, where Caley coaches were certainly not to be found, he tackled these coaches just for fun. In the event they were thoroughly enjoyable to build.
Chris took us through his experiences in trying to get a dead flat finish when painting his 4F tender. Multiple attempts using high magnification failed, and eventually he realised that he needed to pay more attention to process. He became scrupulous about removing dust and muck from his brush; he made a simple power paint stirrer to fit a Dremel tool; and he changed paint from Phoenix Dirty Black with Phoenix thinners - which smeared rather than going on smoothly - to Railmatch Weathered Black with a drop of white spirit. Having got a dead flat paint surface, he then found that using Micro Sol to soften the (Fox) transfers destroyed the smooth paint finish, possibly because the bottle was 6 years old. However, a good finish was finally obtained (which the photographer unfortunately failed to record), and he can turn his full attention to his next loco.
Alistair described how he'd made the very long backscene for the ESME club layout in a limited space with an attempt to keep costs down. He primed a long roll of decorator's lining paper with artist's white acrylic undercoat, by rolling it up like a scroll and working on two-foot sections, each time letting it dry then moving to the next two-foot section. Once the front was complete he repeated the process to prime the back. This made a stable base on which to paint the countryside, using artist's acrylics. He recommended obtaining materials from an art shop rather than a hobby store: the artist's materials are more expensive but have more pigment and less filler and thus better covering power, so are more economical in the long run. Mixing paints to get a shade which can be bought can also be a false economy - quite apart from the time, extra paint is used in testing and adjusting the mix, and it may save time and money just to buy the correct colour. Otherwise, pairs of each basic shade are sufficient: cerulian blue and ultramarine for the sky, Hooker's and chrome green, orangey and crimson reds, lemon and cadmium yellows, and yellow ochre and burnt sienna browns. Inspiration came from "trains in the landscape" picture books. Finally, mounting the backscene so it is dead flat and wrinkle-free adds greatly to the illusion.
Tony talked about bridge supports and walls on Dunallander, and also explained some of the information-gathering and planning techniques he uses. He marks up individual plan copies to show locations of specific features across the layout. For example, relay, battery and phone cabinets:
Stuart described the flight of locks he'd made from three J&M Models kits, on the right side of this view. The canal runs along one side of the mill with a railway siding snaking down between it and the mill building. He found the build very rewarding.
Angus had brought the Templot plan for his Callander module and took us through his thoughts regarding possible tight radii in access to sidings. Trains were split and joined at Callander so it's important propelling moves work smoothly. He talked about the need to foresee difficulties like this, as far as possible, at the planning stage, particularly for a large layout where easing curves in one area may have consequences elsewhere. The result is that many planning iterations are needed. The gentle curve of the prototype will be brought round to a full 90 degrees in the model. He's aiming at having two running periods: directly before World War 1, and at the steam-diesel transition on the line in 1962.
Graham talked about 3D design and printing of buildings for Simon's "Glenfinnan" layout.
James talked about his experiences with the fold-up gearbox chassis design referred to earlier. He plans to experiment with a straight-cut worm wheel since he thinks the skew-cut design causes oscillations in the gearbox, contributing to problems. He is a convinced user of DC Concepts' NoClean flux, which he finds much preferable to Powerflow, and recommends applying it with a syringe with hypodermic needle, and use of an ultrasonic cleaner. He also ran us through some of his recent AliExpress successes: a nice lamp withe two "arms", and a decent small machine vice, both for £5.
Alastair showed us some of the North British wagons he has 3D-designed and printed for his South Queensferry project.
He prints body and underframe separately, assembling with superglue, and painting with acrylics.
To push the limits a bit, he's working on printed drawhooks (shown below) and buffers.
And that was that for 2025 - fortified by Simon's Christmas tray bake, which apparently contained most of a bottle of rum, we picked our soggy and dark way home. Thanks for reading this far! The Forth and Clyde blog team wishes everyone a very cheerful Christmas, Hogmanay and a guid New Year. See you in 2026!
