Several weeks ago I attended the Exeter Garden Railway Show with a demonstration table, trying to spread the arts of scratch building and low impact modelling in 16mmNG fraternity.

The purpose of my display was to produce a cardboard mock-up of a loco body that would eventually be made mostly from scrap and recycled materials, the main source being the high quality tinplate found in Golden Syrup tins. "Out of the strong came forth sweetness."

Whether the resulting card body is "sweet" is rather in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps it would look better if it had rounded shoulders on sides of the bonnet.... that were made 'square' on the mock-up for speed of construction. I do have a couple of pieces of brass tube that could be used as a jig for soldering up the fore and aft bonnets, keeping everything nice and square with a good round corner, before cutting the tube out of the space for the cab.

As can be seen in the picture above, the model is based on the L&B Rly 'Pilton', with a simple outline drawing produced from the picture but modified during the cardboard cutting stage. Easier to cut card board than tinplate.... and it produces a set of patterns fro cutting around.

Despite no further work having been done, it did manage to get its picture taken as part of the proving trails for "does it look right?", before the frost, wind and rain did for the rather lovely red sedums.

The brown card that represents the radiator panel proclaims the ethical nature of the products sold by a high street speciality tea shop. All rather appropriate.