mercig studios

I visited 'Scale Model World' show in Telford a few years ago and that was a real eye opener. It was a genuinely international show with traders from as far away as South Korea and Japan. There were many European small traders with interesting products that I have never seen before. It would be interesting to know if they have a different philosophy to the way they treat their traders as opposed to the model rail world. They also did a fantastic job of giving space to modelling clubs from all over Europe with a really kid friendly approach. Just simple small things like selections of sweets on each stand that they gave out were great small gestures that got kids involved with the stands and the models on display. Now I know it is a bit like comparing apples to oranges but I couldn't help feeling that this is what our premier show, Warley should be more like. M

Well silver linings and all that, you can be assured that by not attending this years show I will be getting to those at least four days earlier than if I had attended the show

As Njee pointed out, I have nothing to sell so this is just a pure advertising exercise as well as connecting with customers so even at the best of times it is debatable whether it is worth the expense. Phil sums it up very well in his post, the stand fee is one thing but once you factor in travel expenses as well as at least 4 days of not working then you get a considerable outlay. So in the current climate, it was not a hard decision to sit this year's show out, I will be back next year. Having said that I do agree with the general sentiment that Grahame makes but the question is how do you encourage small traders with interesting and unique products to attend when they do not have any hope of even covering their costs. M

Hi I am trying to find some good quality photos of the class 68 roof fan and grill as I would like to do an etch for the 2mm Dapol model. So far I am not having much luck, so if anyone has a link to a photo then it would be greatly appreciated. M

The ones on the 20 are larger and more robust where as the 70 has thinner versions as the running plate has a smaller width. Roundhouse has explained very well how to fix the problem. Very simple fix and all you need to do is push the copper pickup up with a micro screwdriver. It is very irritating and just the act of turning the loco upside down will often move the pickups away from the chassis..... I wonder how many returns Bachmann has had from customers thinking they had a dead loco.... would perhaps have been a good idea to post something on their website as it takes only a few seconds to push the pickups back up. M

Hi Njee I think 'elitist' is a bit strong and I would say it was more a sense of frustration that Dapol have chosen to do two types with neither being correct. They could have done just the Doncaster version and produced the perfect model and then everybody would have been happy but instead we have a hotch potch model that suits no period or prototype. Most things can be modified and altered but the one area that is very hard to do is the cab side windows which are incredibly difficult to do in a way that blends seamlessly.....in fact it would be allot easier to have modified Doncaster windows to Romanian. M

Dapol are releasing a Doncaster built version which will be much more 'correct' than the Romanian version which was pretty much an amalgamation of both Doncaster and Romanian with about the only thing right being the rounded front cab windows and some nose end detail.. However it still looks, from the pre production photos, that all the releases will only have the later cantrail grills. The grills are a relatively easy fix but you will need another bodyshell to hack up for the extra grills...some photos of the conversion here: http://www.mercigstudios.com/gallery/39/class-56 M

Hi Just a quick bump for a new product from Shawplan that I think makes a big difference to the loco. The etches are extremely fine and prototypically correct.... on the Farish model the top part should actually be under the grill and not on top. Takes around 3-4 hours to complete but well worth the effort for such a prominent feature. M

I would say that there are no fragile parts on this model, Of the 4 four models that have passed my way I had no problems with the brake rigging and for me they were very robust with none of them falling off despite removing the side frames from the model....... but admittedly I do tend to see things from an N Gauge perspective. M

The Dapol version is a representation of the Romanian built locos that had a different window arrangement to the later Doncaster built locos as represented by the Hornby model: Romanian: http://www.martinbray-ukloco.com/images/class56/56028-gwentdemo-280195.jpg later built: http://www.martinbray-ukloco.com/images/class56/56045-margamd-191097.jpg

Hi Yes it's the latest version M

If anyone wants to do the buffer cowl on the Romanian version then it is relativity simple to use the ones from a Farish class 47...... pretty good fit with only around a margin of 0.5-1mm short. M

Replacement square grills are available from TPM. Just tried a fit and they match perfectly to the Dapol model: In the above photo they are not glued in place so may look a little bumpy, M

26015 as modelled by Dapol is in it's mid to late 80's early 90's guise (although it received it's tapered bogie steps quite late on): http://www.flickr.com/photos/martin65/5966920564/ If you want to do a renumber from the model then you are on tricky ground. As Bernard says it is a 'minefield' and just a variety of the things you have to watch out for are bogies/bogie steps/rubber surrounds/headcode box/position of cables/buffers etc etc. Two relatively easy renumbers are 011 and 001 but again only from around 1986-89ish A good site for class 26 info can be found here: http://6lda.wordpress.com/ M

This was a tough call to make. Dapol have moulded the rubber surrounds onto the loco and should be given credit for doing so....at this scale the moulding is probably about as good as the tolerance of the process can take, which means it is slightly too thick to be prototypically spot on. A good picture of the rubber surrounds can be seen here: http://www.martinbra...erth-050584.jpg and then compare to this which is roughly the size of the loco to normal viewing (dependant on your monitor settings): So you have the option of either painting the moulding black or leaving yellow.... or you could get rid of them entirely which would not be easy as well as leaving you with no surrounds. In all these aspects you have to remember that this is a 2mm model and at normal viewing you probably would not ever notice. On the flip side of this Dapol should be given credit for getting the handrails the correct thickness as well as the bag of bits which are incredibly fine and prototypically correct. Like with any model, in any scale, if you look long and hard enough you will find faults but this is a great little loco that I would heartily recommend and both examples I have run superbly. M