MRJ 266

[queensquare]

MRJ 266 is now mailing so should be in your usual outlets over the next few days.

 

Jerry

 

 

Edited October 11, 2018 by queensquare

[Regularity]

Thanks for that, Jerry.

Newsstand is showing October 16, which suggests a slight hiccough somewhere along the line.

[JohnBS]

Jerry,

Got it this morning through the letterbox. Great edition (though perhaps I would say that)!

John

[Compound2632]

Subscription copy through the letterbox this morning. 

 

Good to see more from Don Rowland - as in former years, helping us run our railways in a more railway-like manner.

 

The 2mm Society's Midland wagon kits make me, a 4mm modeller, a little envious - the earlier as well as the later version of the long cattle wagon. 

 

The real teaser is the presumably scratch-built body of a NSR(?) brake van, sitting alongside Simon de Souza's balsa brush rest!

 

Best in issue - Richard Ellis' Midland Railway lighter of course!

Edited October 13, 2018 by Compound2632

[chris p bacon]

It's superb!

[lambiedg]

Arrived today.

A little soggy round the edges - thanks Callum.

Looks to be another great issue.

[Tricky]

Got mine yesterday. Have yet to sit down and have a proper read but looks like a really good issue. Well done Jerry - but whatever you say, I still can’t get my head round doing anything in 2mm!

[Tricky]

I like the brush rest made from a bit of balsa wood. I’ve found myself holding both scalpel and brush in the same hand; scalpel between thumb and forefinger and brush in some other fingers. I can just about get enough dexterity with the brush, especially if the bottle is held in a stand as it’s liable to get knocked over! Saves picking up and putting down the brush though.

[John_Hughes]

Yes, another excellent one, and with a host of niggles addressed. Good to see proper layout plans, for instance, (dimensioned next time, please!) and a broad range of topics. I'll probably never build a 2mm goods wagon, for instance, but it's an interesting article all the same.

 

The next big job is to fix the wretched typos; a magazine dedicated to accuracy really should be a tad more careful in its own back-yard!

[queensquare]

Yes, another excellent one, and with a host of niggles addressed. Good to see proper layout plans, for instance, (dimensioned next time, please!) and a broad range of topics. I'll probably never build a 2mm goods wagon, for instance, but it's an interesting article all the same.

 

The next big job is to fix the wretched typos; a magazine dedicated to accuracy really should be a tad more careful in its own back-yard!

 

Many thanks for your kind comments, I try to get as broad a range of topics as possible. The track plans are hand drawn and dimensions are in the text.

 

We do go over the text extremely carefully but inevitably the odd mistake or omission slips through. I doubt there are many publications out there that don't have the odd typo if you look hard enough.

 

Jerry

[sharris]

The next big job is to fix the wretched typos; a magazine dedicated to accuracy really should be a tad more careful in its own back-yard!

I seem to remember in one of Iain Rice's books 'accurate' was spelled incorrectly. I thought there was a nice irony to that.

[John_Hughes]

Oh, I know all about how typos slip through - a couple of weeks ago I actually found one that the printer had inserted all on his own despite the proof being correct; you can imagine the row that that caused!

 

But some of it is surely down to the technology used - fiuescale would surely have been picked up by any spell-checker. Still, the unnecessary hyphen in demon-strated gave me a few happy moments imagining a chap with horns and cloven hoofs (hooves? - depends on how old you are, I think) showing folks how to assemble kits at our local show.

 

And I should have said how much I appreciate the Norris letters - a fascinating read!

[NHY 581]

Can't wait.

 

Navigation Riad was the layout I kept going back to at Railwells. Stunning.

 

 

Rob.

Edited October 16, 2018 by NHY 581

[Bonafide]

 I doubt there are many publications out there that don't have the odd typo if you look hard enough.

Really!  Possibly the odd one but this issue seemed to have more than usual.

 

For example, the second paragraph of the editorial ended, ". . . it illustrates the point that the level of compromise is dependent on the individuals' goals, not some dictate laid down by the finescale police."   Perhaps it was intended to be, ". . . something dictated . . .", or,  dictate should have read diktat.  Either way, laid down should have been deleted to avoid tautology.

 

Also, some of the captions to the photographs illustrating Navigation Road refer to items not in the photographs: e.g. "A small fuel tank added to the side was from a cut-down tank in a Plastikard brick bund surround" on page 244, and the caption on page 245 ends, "The railway overbridge is defended by a scratchbuilt WW2 pillbox", which is repeated at the start of the caption to the photograph on the following page where the pillbox can be seen.  

[Hroth]

Yes, another excellent one, and with a host of niggles addressed. Good to see proper layout plans, for instance, (dimensioned next time, please!) and a broad range of topics. I'll probably never build a 2mm goods wagon, for instance, but it's an interesting article all the same.

 

The next big job is to fix the wretched typos; a magazine dedicated to accuracy really should be a tad more careful in its own back-yard!

At least they haven't descended to the ignominy of spelling the magazine name incorrectly.....

[sharris]

Really!  Possibly the odd one but this issue seemed to have more than usual.

 

For example, the second paragraph of the editorial ended, ". . . it illustrates the point that the level of compromise is dependent on the individuals' goals, not some dictate laid down by the finescale police."   Perhaps it was intended to be, ". . . something dictated . . .", or,  dictate should have read diktat.  Either way, laid down should have been deleted to avoid tautology.

 

Dictate is a valid word as a noun - from the Oxford dictionary website "An order or principle that must be obeyed." - the sentence makes sense to me.

[bgman]

I suppose it deepends wot your skooling wuz lyke .....

 

[Regularity]

For example, the second paragraph of the editorial ended, ". . . it illustrates the point that the level of compromise is dependent on the individuals' goals, not some dictate laid down by the finescale police."

 

Not having full context yet, should that be a singular “individual’s”, or is it correct as “individuals’”?

 

Anyone seen any of these “finescale police”? Since almost all of us aren’t even sure what “finescale” means exactly, seems hard to enforce, even were it enforceable.

[NHY 581]

Anyway, are the trainsets any good in this months Modern Reading Journal?

 

 

Rob.

Edited October 16, 2018 by NHY 581

[sharris]

Anyone seen any of these “finescale police”?

They're the ones with 18.83" long truncheons.

Edited October 16, 2018 by sharris

[Andy Y]

Anyone seen any of these “finescale police”? Since almost all of us aren’t even sure what “finescale” means exactly, seems hard to enforce, even were it enforceable.

 

There are several topics positively teeming with them; whether they are police or just some angry villagers with torches and pitchforks I can't say but I suspect the latter.

[Regularity]

There are several topics positively teeming with them; whether they are police or just some angry villagers with torches and pitchforks I can't say but I suspect the latter.

But these pitchforks, how accurately dimensioned are they? If to 1:76.2 scale, then the tines will bend so why worry?

(You can’t scale fire: it obeys physical laws that operate on a 1:1 basis.)

 

I think the only thing one can criticise anyone for is purposely failing to model to their own defined standards* and tolerances** for accuracy.

Assuming they have shared them.

Assuming they have set any. (If not, then personally, I would argue that it isn’t really “fine” scale, but scale.)

 

* Level of detail, e.g. must have brake rodding on steam engines - or not.

** Degree of measurement fidelity, e.g. brake rodding must be to scale dimensions even if it’s very fragile - or not.

These are neither mutually inclusive nor mutually exclusive. They are orthogonal (independent of each other).

 

But surely, as in early editorials, MRJ is intended to be finescale and for the finescale modeller, i.e. for those concerned with trying to move their models closer to the prototype, about setting targets for (self-)improvement? On this basis, MRJ can only expect to be critiqued (not the same as criticised) against its self-proclaimed standards?

 

And that’s good, for it means it does high standards (which also applies to spelling, grammar, caption checking and proof reading. Or should).

 

High quality journalism about high quality modelling is what MRJ was created for. Are we wrong to expect this?

[NHY 581]

I now have my own copy from W.H Smiths in Cardiff.

 

 

I have allocated time this evening to look at the trainsets therein.

 

 

First impressions are that this is a top issue but I am less troubled by gramer and smelling than otters.

 

 

Rub.

[Captain Kernow]

Anyone seen any of these “finescale police”?

My wife and I once saw one of those old Fiat 500s from the 1960s (?) parked up in Victoria Park, Bath. It was painted in blue and white 'panda car' colours, with a large key in the boot and the legend 'Lilliput Police Department' on each door.

[BR60103]

The previous issue has just appeared in our bookstore.

There seems to be a grievous lack of articles on collecting Tri-Ang.