Shaper sheets are a material used to create self-supporting hills or terrain on a model railway layout or other dioramas. Depending on whether they are used in conjunction with a hard top surface they can form either hard or soft shell landscapes....

A stay-alive capacitor (also known as a keep-alive) is a component that can be fitted to DCC model locomotives to temporarily maintain power to its electronics and motor should the main source of power be interrupted due to dirty rails or...

Paint comes in many types of pots, cans and eye dropper bottles. You should shake paint for at least two minutes but longer is better. When you read the back of an aerosol can it recommends at least two minutes. If you are using pots of paint...

A trailing goods yard was a type of goods yard commonly found at many country and smaller stations during the days of pick-up freights. The feature that makes it 'trailing' is a track layout that meant trains had to pass the yard and then reverse...

When using an airbrush, there are a couple of reasons why modellers use thinners. Firstly, if they are using paints that are not specifically designed for an airbrush, they will likely require thinning to pass through the fine nozzle without...

Most airbrushes will come with a pressure regulator built-in, but what is this facility for, and which pressure setting should you select?If you are new to airbrushing, both these questions can be a little mystifying (excuse the pun). As a rule of...

Generally speaking, an up line travels towards a major town or city and a down line away from it, on main lines in England this is usually London while in Scotland it's Edinburgh (except for Scottish mainlines to London which remain in favour of...

There are lots of figures available concentrating on the 'Big Four' and early 'British Railways' eras, this often leaves figures specifically catering for earlier periods such as 'pre-grouping' left buried and undiscovered, however, with a little...

During a trip to your local model shop, you may have noticed what looks like N gauge model railway track with unusually large spacing between the sleepers and wondered what it's used for. In fact, what you have discovered is 009 gauge track which...

Generally, plastic model plane kits do not come with plinths supplied. Nowadays, the majority of kits are designed to be built with their undercarriage down to be displayed on shelves or in cabinets. Although there are numerous model planes...

There are several ways to construct hills on your layout. The 'hard shell' method consists of making a hard, hollow, hill-shaped shell that can be decorated with grass scatter, trees and bushes. The resulting model will be both lightweight and...

If you have never constructed a plastic model aircraft kit before, the subject of scale may well be far down on your list of priorities when shopping for one, a more probable factor determining which model you take to the checkout is likely to be...