carltonf

Hi, great to follow your progress. I've sort of stalled with my layout of Mallaig. But thought I'd share these with you - I made my curved platform from 2 layers of XPS insulation board - 10mm and 6mm. They are light and easy to cut to curves, for example. The top layer I cut a chamfered edge to it to try and simulate the platform faces on the West Highland. I actually made these before my first ever visit to Mallaig last year, and maybe could have done better. But they are ok for my standards. I've used bought card pavings for the edge, and I plan to fill the gap for the platform surface with Woodland Scenics snow, which is easy to smooth and level. The station laps are the closest I could find to the 1970s version, cheap LED models from ebay, painted in appropriate colour. And the oil depot is a mixture of Knightwing and scratch built. The large tanks are plastic drain pipe, with plasticard top, all painted silver, awaiting weathering. Well, everything on the layout is awaiting something or other! My plan for the station was to have a removable roof, and retaining wall in 3 sections to represent with roof, without roof, and current day. I may have been a bit optimistic, and that has stalled too!

I was in two minds about whether I wanted the new Hornby Rocket or not; I think I can do without it though now! I received two emails from Jadlam with the Rocket set for £162. When I clicked on the link later that day, it was showing as £179. So I emailed them asking for clarification, and they claimed the email was sent in error, and it was £179. That was yesterday. Today, it's £199. £20 ABOVE RRP. That's not what I expect from a model shop - it's what you expect from ebay - yes I understand capitalism, and supply and demand, but that's just greed. I sincerely hope Hornby cut back on their quota. I shall certainly not be back to Jadlam in a hurry.

I am (sort of) with you russ p. Austin Metro, Maestro and Montego are way overdue, but in 1/76 00 scale. The Metro in the 80s was a huge seller, alongside the Escort. I sometimes wonder about the Oxford target market and their marketing in general. Surely OO gauge modellers are their main buyers, (or maybe not), but to see a Hong Kong Police mini in the range, but no Metro is very odd. And there were the van variants for the Metro (and Maestro to a lesser extent) which could be adapted easily. One other thing I note, are the colours chosen - cars in the 70s were very drab, greys, dark green, dark blue, and in the early 80s, beige was a very popular colour. I well remember the first time my dad brought an Austin Princess (in Brown!) home. Less common by far were Jade green. I guess collectors don't want brown cars, but I reckon modellers do.

I love the A4, but have just realised with this post, that I have never owned one. Need a K1 next, but I really should get myself at least a railroad version at some point. Think the TTS sound version is amazing value.