I've never looked into it, but I've always assumed that the greens, maroons and browns which were so widespread across Europe until the late 20th century was due to paint costs relating to widely available pigments

They've actually tooled up different sides for really tiny differences that I'd expect to have to do myself with a UK kit!

I realise that, I was giving an example of when I was bitten by buying the cheap option. The other one was Lidl acrylic paints that would soften every time I tried to carry out a weathering wash, weeks after original application.

I bought generic air drying clay once. Once. I've only bought DAS since!

I'm with you there. British TT had actually decreased the number of scales I model in, because I sold my British N in favour of it when it became apparent that the models were decent!

I don't think he was even born in this era. David Maxey or Hagen Von Ortloff perhaps.

An essential detail for any layout!

That's about my favourite version of a V100 West, the ocean blue and ivory being a classy livery with the red of the logo giving a little contrast.

Whether East or West, a V100 is a multi-purpose loco. Good for anything other than express passenger ... rough the last booked passenger turns of West German V100s was IC through coaches to Emden Aussenhafen!

They're prone to the contacts point between bogies and PCB getting dirty, and the commutator builds up carbon during slow running.

I haven't got any exhibition bookings at present. I ought to submit an article about it to Continental Modeller to gain some!

Yeah, I'm steadily upgrading my traction. I started with shunters but these V100s are particularly temperamental so came next. Unfortunately I've now reached the point where every decoder that supports it has one fitted, further upgrades come at higher expense. My Ferkeltaxe will definitely get one.

Maybe, but *I* would know it's there!

I have an Uhlenbrock DAISY II and a WLAN MultiMaus. I much prefer driving with them to using a touchscreen. The DAISY is great for shunting as I can control a loco and eight points without switching screens.

Both valid, and some with all capital letters too.