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djparkins

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  1. I agree. I fully applaud Dapol for releasing this locomotive, which in my opinion will be extremely important in terms of the longer term future of UK O Gauge. However, l still fail completely to see how they will be able to bring such a complex subject to market at anywhere near the prices they are quoting. I do hope I’m wrong though! Also the two main GBRf schemes really need adding to the livery options DJP
  2. I agree with everyone else that it is a really good issue. Though I feel that even with the future layout projects mentioned, they are still very much reflecting about the past. During the time of Tim Shackleton's editorship they were starting to have some more modern features [well not really modern, but post-steam!] in the magazine, but even that has decreased. Perhaps they need to get a little less cliquey in terms of their contributors.
  3. It may be hard as there are so many etched sheets in the kits that are on ultra-thick material, and thus very expensive now, [with the demise of Photo Etch Consultants], that I fear the end-user price may well be beyond what most customers might be prepared to pay, and for the manufacturer to make a profit. I'm pleased I have ten of the O gauge Kemilway coaches in my stash, but getting all the parts was a long and arduous business! It is sad, as the Kemilway originator George Pring was something of a pioneer in the early years of etched kits, as I'm sure many of you will know. Just another sign of the times in the hobby. Fortunately, our purchase of the Cavalier Coaches range from the ABS stable, will enable us to carry on with something comparable. David Parkins MMP/ABS 7mm Wagons/Cavalier Coaches/Classic Commercials/Wrightlines - Blah de Blah! www.davidjparkins.com
  4. That is true in a sense but it also means he cannot reclaim the VAT on his/her business inputs that have VAT applied, and then becomes an end-user where that VAT amount is concerned. So he has to pass it on to the customer in with the price, plus his own mark-up on top. This then comes out at maybe a slightly lower end-user price for a UK customer [as he is not paying VAT on the trader's mark-up] but a higher one for custoimers outside the UK, as the VAT paid on the input element of the sale cannot be deducted from the proportion it forms of the export purchase price. Before I reached the VAT threshold [too long ago to remember exactly!] I was constantly getting castigated by my trade customers, saying [in effect] they were sick of paying my VAT for me. They had a point, and the same applies to the example I've just given. As for VAT registration thresholds in the UK - they seem to have risen way beyond, say, the inflation rate. There are two points of view to this. Either we become like some EU countries and the registration threshold is so low that to be any kind of trader you really have to register. This would give everyone a fair and level playing field to operate from in one sense. But then a local VAT inspector told me that 90% of VAT revenue is gained from less that 10% of businesses that are registered for VAT and he said he would like to see the threshold set at as high as £100-120,000 turnover, He was a little dejected on his visit to me, as he was suposed to collect a minimum of £1000 per day in underpaid VAT. I was short by 1p. I asked him if he wanted cash or would they send a bill? - he said he'd waive it. Really, so very kind! This bit is off-topic I know, but interesting nonetheless, I feel. In the end I suppose it comes down to how much a trader is motivated to keep going. But all these oft-mentioned 'new-fangled' changes really are not so hard, and like many things in life are as simple or as complicated as you choose to make them. I personally moaned for a long time about the introduction of making VAT digital but now it's here and I do it, it is simplicity iteslf and just saves so much time. So I was wrong! I think whatever you are - whether a trader or a customer, the main thing is to enjoy what you are doing whilst you are doing it. Once it stops being enjoyable - then you do have the option to quit. The world will keep turning.
  5. Well even though I was on the losing side, we have left and so that is that - but regarding export we have found no problems. We export most weekdays and what were EU sales are now simply the same as the US, Canadian and any other 'rest of world' sales. They are VAT deducted and post charged as per normal. Customs paperwork for the kind of orders we process are the work of moments if you are set up for it. It really is not very difficult, and that is just as well, as with our military ranges, as well as the railway ones, around 70% of our sales are to overseas customers. David Parkins MMP/ABS 7mm etc.
  6. Just an update on the various ex-Adrian Swain Ranges + stock availability. 43-two-1 Wagon kits - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=348 Both the remaining Wagon Kits and Accessory Packs are dwindling fairly rapidly and many subjects have now sold out. We now have no BR wagon kits left. There are one or two ‘stickers’ left that we do have some quantities of – mainly the ‘boring’ open wagons, that you actually need most of! So we have reduced these subjects still further and offer even greater discounts for multiples of five [or four and three in some cases]. Some Accessory Packs have similarly been reduced. Cavalier Coaches – https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=351 We have reduced still further the prices for the remaining Bogie Kits that are left – not many types remain now. Some are now only £4.00 per pair – Ridiculous prices I know, so get them whilst you can. We have discovered a few more Cavalier Coach Accessory Packs and have added these to the web site. This puts some sets back into availability. Once again prices have been reduced still further on many items, whilst we keep them available. Wrightlines - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=352 The remaining Wrightlines items are selling out fast and we have very few locos and coaches left. We still some of most types of the Talyllyn wagons available at very low prices. To the future! We are now preparing the first batch of re-tooled subjects from Adrian’s ranges, for release throughout the Autumn of this year and the 23/24 winter period. This involves some 25 standard gauge wagons from the 43--two-1 range , all the Wrightlines coaching stock and wagon kits plus all the smaller packs and accessories from the Classic Commercials range - https://www.djparkins.com/home.php?cat=353 - together with FOUR variants of the much-missed BR Scammell Scarab kit. All these subjects and those that follow will be virtually unrecognisable from what went before! More wagons will then follow in batches, plus loco kits on a one by one basis from all the ranges – both ABS and Wrightlines. As regards Cavalier Coaches. Our purpose in acquiring this range was never to keep available the bogie and accessory packs as previously and currently sold. We wanted these masters to form the basis a new range of coach and non-passenger coaching stock kits – but more of that anon. So there it is – an update for those interested. And for those of you who are fans of Adrian’s kits as he traditionally sold them – this is your final call – get all you think you will need at these current ludicrously-low prices! They won’t come again – or last very long. Happy Modelling DJP
  7. No - its the secret path to The Dark Web.
  8. So your A4 arrives at the head of a train using buckeye couplers, as per prototype, and on the layout you pick up a ten coach train from the track in order to uncouple the loco from the first coach?! And you can't lift the coupler enough above the horizontal with everything on the track, as there is very little clearance below the gangways [if your coach is accurate]. Sounds great. The hook won't drop or raise up enough. I've just tried it on a Darstead Thompson full brake and it won't work, so no chance on our own Mk.1s, with much tighter tolerances. It is a shame as in many ways, as stated above, they are otherwise well engineered. I would order many more sets if they would simply drop from the horizontal.
  9. I bought five sets of these but am seriously debating now whether to buy more. I cannot understand why you would want to raise the coupling. I can't really think of an instance why, on gangwayed stock, you would want to do this. But even so, the much more important function is to be able to drop it from the horizontal easily and bring it back up again to that position - and the method suggested above to do this seems very far from being either easy or convenient. Apart from the ability to join two pieces of stock together via the sprung knuckles with the couplers in the horiziontal position [which I agree is nice to have], it is much easier to raise the couplings on the buckeyes in our own Mk.1 kits for example - simply by sliding through a locking pin, attached to the coach buffer beam via chain [as per prototype], with no lifting of the coupler head above the horizontal. David Parkins, Modern Motive Power
  10. Yes they were. I built an LMS jubilee for a customer in the early ‘70s. Another nightmare!
  11. Would that have been the kit for the Egyptian Railways 'Asp' Class, one of which was named 'Elizabeth Taylor' as I recall!
  12. Can anyone get before our first CAD etched kit in 1993 [in our Flightpath range] - for 1:32nd scale F-4C/D Phantom Jet Pipes. I'm sure they probably can!
  13. I bet fretting out those clerestory side panels was fun!
  14. This is developing into a real trip down Memory Lane! Yes I remember that green coating all too well. I had to build two rakes of Cambrian stock from those TC sides. I never thought that the window cutting, drilling of door handle/handrail locations, and the removal of that coating would end, and I could actually begin any real construction work and earn some money! And to think there are still modellers who cannot handle today's 21st century etched kits! They don't know they are born. Thanks to Barclay for the pics of the Sayer 'kit'. It looks utterly horrendous. So possibly we can still say then that the first fully etched kits as we know them today were the George Allan ones!
  15. Ah l think l recall someone mentioning these and had completely forgotten. Can you post a photo of the contents? That would be really interesting. Thanks
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