“Hi Al, thanks for all the wonderful comments about the ship chandler write-up.

Attached are a few teaser photos of my next project for the harbor just to keep everyone interested in my harbor project build.

The Sailmaker is nearly finished (needs lots of detail and weathering) and the building that will be alongside it, a restaurant.

Instead of doing a how to on each one singularly, I will do the how to on both of them with photos of the build.

All the best till next time.

Brian – the HOn3 guy.”

A huge thanks to Brian – if you missed his last post, with his stunning night time pics, they are here.

Brian is a Hall of Fame member, and now that club is growing because yesterday we welcomed Bill, and today I’m very pleased to say ‘John from Baltimore’ is added to the ranks.

John first got in touch with his bridge build and I’ve been looking out for his updates ever since. Have a look at his page and you’ll see why – it’s here. And welcome John!

Now on to some other stuff.

Yesterday, Mike showed us how he makes his shipping containers.

Some of you have asked where to get the prints he used. The prints for all three containers are free at the moment – they come with the Beginner’s Guide, which is just $9 right now.

Every now and then I run a sale, and when I do, I like it to be a ‘proper’ sale. So not only do you get the shipping containers free, you get a load of other stuff too – have a look, it’s here.

And that brings me to another thing. Some of you have asked ‘how it all works’.

The Beginner’s Guide and the print-out-scenery are all downloads. After checkout, you get sent emails with all the download links.

The great thing about the print-out-scenery is you can print as many sheets as you want, so you can make, kit bash and experiment.

Course, I’m biased, but they are a lot of fun.

Every model in the store is made from the print-out-scenery, and that includes these houses.

That brings us to the thorny issue of scale.

All the prints are created in HO scale. However, adjusting the scale is easy.

HO is 1:87th scale and 1:1 printed.

So you simply take 87 and divide it by the desired scale.

N=1:160, TT=1:120, S=1:64, O=1:48, G=1:32 alt. (1:29)

So for G scale HO / G

87 / 32 = 2.72.

Just increase the document size by 272% when your print.

For N scale HO / N

87 / 160 = 0.54

Just decrease the print by 54%.

So if you’ve been mulling over the Beginner’s Guide, now is the time to get it.

It’s just $9 and you get loads of freebies – including the shipping containers.

But this sale ends shortly!

And if you’re still not sure, here’s what John, the latest Hall of Fame member has to say about it:

“I recently got and read “How to Create A Breath Taking Model Railroad for The Complete Beginner.” Even though I’ve been modeling for some years and consider myself pretty knowledgeable in the building of miniature railroad worlds, I still learned new things.

The logical layout of the book and the background information was easy to follow, made good sense, and if done will save many hours of reworking mistakes. Every chapter has good information, is easy to read and understand. I particularly enjoyed the scenery tips, and how several different types of scenery building was discussed.

The numerous tips collected from Al’s website printed at the end of the book are a great addition to the knowledge contained in the book. Many I’ve tried myself!

It occurred to me that this book would be an ideal gift for someone we know who looks at our layout and says, “I’d love to do something like this, but I just don’t know where to start.” Haven’t we all heard this from friends and co-workers? Give ‘em the book, and be available to assist as they take saw and screw-gun in hand!

I recommend this beginners guide for all of us in the great hobby of Model Railroading without reservation.

John Frye”

Please don’t pass on the silly sale if you’ve been mulling over the Beginner’s Guide.

I know some buy just for the shipping containers and other freebies, and that’s fine, but please remember this sale closes soon.

That’s all this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

Best

Al