Valid to UK only - excludes oversized items
One of the trickiest tasks when model-making can be the positioning of very small or delicate parts. In most...
The reason for test fitting before gluing is simply to make sure the piece will actually fit into place. One example...
A wagon's solebar is the outer longitudinal beam of its underframe or chassis.Solebars are an integral part of a...
Vacuum pipes can be seen on the front and rear of many older railway locomotives and rolling stock. They are usually...
There are a couple of reasons why railway signals are oriented upside down compared to road traffic lights:...
Everything you need to know to build great kits
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A laser-cut kit is a regular kit that is put together the same way as any ordinary kit, and it's made from the same materials too (plastic, card or wood) but the difference is in how it's made.Traditionally, kits have been manufactured by either...
Fortunately these days there are special products to help you remove any little super glue (cyanoacrylate) mistakes such as Deluxe Materials specially formulated Glue Buster, but historically super glue removal had been a bit of a sticky...
This really depends on what it is you plan to glue, most things can be glued straight from the bottle, but this will give you quite a large bead of glue on application, which may be more than you need and cause an over spill on your model leaving...
White metals are bright metal alloys made to possess varying qualities depending on their intended use. Some white metals are particularly suited to being cast with fine details and are also highly polishable making them a perfect material to...
The concept of putting together a white metal kit is very much the same as with plastic ones: you have sections or parts that need removing from sprues, followed by a spot of sanding before sticking them all together and painting. So if you fancy...
There are several glues out there on the market for gluing plastic kits. The most commonly used would have to be a poly cement and it is probably the best glue if you are just starting out in the hobby. Poly cement contains a solvent that melts...
Painting a white metal kit involves pretty much the same processes as painting any model, or a real-life metal object for that matter.Firstly, the surface to be painted should be prepared, this is done by thoroughly cleaning the surface with a...
That would really depend on your point of view. If you are making a military model such as a tank for wargaming, resin kits have the bulk of the model already cast and it is just a case of adding the ancillary parts, whereas plastic models have...
As the topic of "What type of oil should I use in a smoke generator?" involves mixing oil, heat, electric and your favourite expensive locomotives, the advice would have to be - a purpose-made one! But for argument's sake, what else could you use...
Building smoke generators are different from locomotive ones in two main areas, size and voltage.Smoke generators that are designed specifically to operate from within a locomotive's bodyshell have a distinct disadvantage: they have to fit into an...
Parkside wagon kits are a large range of 00 gauge plastic wagon kits from Peco. Some of the kits have been re-branded from Peco's popular Ratio range.The kits are fairly easy to construct and a good place to start for modellers new to kit...
Mortar lines are the mortar or grout filled gaps between rows of bricks, stones or other types of masonry. Mortar lines are often replicated on scale-model buildings and structures to help make them appear more realistic, but are they the correct...