Valid to UK only - excludes oversized items
Stripping enamel paint from a model can seem like a delicate process, but with the right tools and techniques, it's...
Servicing your model railway locomotive is an essential part of maintaining its performance and longevity. Regular...
Fixing warped plastic parts on a model can be a bit tricky, but it's a manageable task with some patience and the...
The UK railway scale is called 00 gauge (pronounced "double-O") due to its origins as a smaller alternative to the...
For decades, British Rail (BR) was a symbol of national unity in transport, linking cities, towns and villages across...
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Ballast comes in varying degrees in coarseness, fine medium and coarse. For OO scale the most realistic would have to be medium. OO gauge is 1/76 scale so measure a few ballast stones and multiply the size by 76 to check whether it would be...
Yes, you can use a black undercoat if you are painting something white but ideally you should look at using a white primer. If you have to use a black primer, you may need to give the white a few coats to achieve a pure white colour as the dark...
This depends on what type of figures you are using for your layout. If you are using white metal figures they often come with spikes on the bottom of their feet, so it is just a case of sticking them in to the base. However if you plan to put...
Yes, you can use water to thin acrylic paint as acrylic paint is a water-based paint. When you are using a brush to paint your model, water is the best thing for the job. When you are thinning your paint use just a small amount of water to start...
P4 (also known as Protofour) is as true to the scale of 4mm to 1ft (1/76 scale) as you can get, giving a true representation of a properly scaled OO gauge railway. This is what OO gauge should have been in the first place rather than manufactures...
A ballast spreader is a plastic box about two inches square. On the base, there are two grooves that sit on the rails. Inside the spreader there is a slanted piece of plastic with three slots in the base, one in the centre and one either side and...
Crackle medium is a weathering agent in a bottle, it has the appearance of a varnish. When you have primed your model and added the base coat of colour, simply paint on the crackle medium and leave to dry. You will see that the paint now has a...
The purpose of a varnish is to protect the paint of your model. This is especially true if you are using your models for wargaming as the models are being handled frequently. Without the varnish the paint will start to fall off with constant...
The main thing to remember about primers is that the brighter the primer, the brighter the topcoat. So if you want your model to really stand out when using bright colours, use a white primer. For example, if you were to paint a post box red, if...
The purpose of signals is to let the driver know if there was another train on the line, pretty much the same as traffic lights on the roads. These are vital to avoid collision, before the days of signals it was done by telegraph and hand, there...
It goes back to the old saying: you get what you pay for. The more expensive locomotives out there have slightly better detailing when it comes to paint and overall finish. You can feel the quality when you hold them. They are also usually...
Voltage drop is the decrease of voltage in an electrical circuit. On a model railway layout and it layman's terms, it is when the current can not make it all the way around the track. This is mostly caused by the resistance of the track and...