Black Marlin
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This is a fortuitous conversation, as I've just spent the day in Mr Wright's (literary) company: my copy of "Modelling the ECML in the British Railways era" arrived. And very good it is too: I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would have said that the content is timeless, but 2020/21 has thrown something of a googlie at that. You see, Tony refers to trimming the hanging-basket-liner embankment grass with "a cheap self-haircutting set", and after repeated lockdowns I can assure you that there is no longer any such thing as a *cheap* self-haircutting set...! As for articles I would like to read, and
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After seeing last night's total insanity on the other side of the Atlantic, I have a modest proposal: for the sake of the salvation of Western democratic norms, Twitter needs to appoint Andy Y as their new global moderator.
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Don't forget he's a Knight of this realm! You couldn't make it up......
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Is there an explanation somewhere of what differentiates the Hornby Dublo range from the main Hornby range?
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Hey ho... Back into lockdown we go...
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Managed to find an old pair last night. Will crack on today!
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Well this is irritating. After getting everything together to solder some droppers to some track, I discover that my wire strippers have gone walkabout. The downside to knowing exactly where you left something is that, when it turns out not to be there, you are utterly bereft of ideas for where it might be...
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There are 1/72 barrage balloon kits available on eBay. (No connection, etc) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scale-model-Barrage-Balloon-kit-1-144-1-200-1-300-1-350-1-450-1-600-1-700-/192826835734?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
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Very late to the party, I know, but for me the best names for the Peppercorns and the Gresleys were: Gresley A1/A3: Hyperion Gresley A4: Quicksilver Peppercorn A1: Silurian Peppercorn A2: Sun Chariot I like 'Sun Chariot' in particular. It puts me in mind of Andrew Marvell's great poem, 'To His Coy Mistress', which contains these lines - "But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; [...] Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Through the iron gates
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The lacerations of 2020 continue into 2021. It has to get better at some point... doesn't it?
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Well that's my order placed... In whose company could I better start the new year than Sir's?* *lingerie models specifically excluded from this thought experiment.
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Hello all. After a pretty horrendous year that has seen me almost entirely devoid of modelling enthusiasm, may I share my first ever attempt at a coach bodge? I wanted something a bit more reminiscent of the Silver Jubilee than Hornby's own coaches, but being unable to afford much more than a bit of paint and some plasticard, here's what I was able to do. I know it's still hideously inaccurate, but I think it's a wee bit better than the starting point.
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Finally I made a card template for the sideskirts and used it to make the skirts from 1mm plasticard. Once they'd been neatened up with a rotary sander in my dremel, I glued them in place and painted them. Tamiya XF-77 is a reasonable match with Hornby's choice of grey for these coaches. Here is the final result, and I must say I'm very pleased with it. I know it's not accurate, and I know the purists may very well howl in derision, but for a modeller on a budget I think it's not a bad approach to getting something that looks a lot more like the Silver Jubilee than what Hornby offers!
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With the articulation taken care of, it was time to turn my attention to the streamlining. Again, I'm not looking for scrupulous scale accuracy here - the nature of the coaches I'm using precludes it - but something that gives at least the impression of the Silver Jubilee. So I decided to use what was already provided on the coach as supports for the streamline skirts. I cut a pair of shims for each side of each coach - one 1mm thick, the other 0.5mm thick. Sandwiched together and glued to the truss rods, they gave me a backing that a 1mm thick skirt could be affixed to.
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The next task was to modify one of the bogies to become articulated. This was very easy. I simply cut off anything that protruded above the top, and cut off the coupling. I then marked and drilled two 2mm holes for the new pivot pins (15mm brass nails obtained from a set of picture-hanging fixtures) and glued them in place with two good blobs of Loctite 'Power Flex' superglue gel. (I love Power Flex, by the way: it's so thick that it supports small features as it sets, which makes it ideal for gluing crews and headlamps on locomotives).
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A project I completed yesterday was to hack Hornby's Silver Jubilee coaches into something that looks a *little* bit more like the prototype. Obviously there are kits available for those who want an actual model of the thing, but I wanted to convert the coaches I had (three that came in the Silver Jubilee train pack). Apart from anything else, it's a damn sight cheaper - all you actually need is some paint, some plasticard, some glue and a pair of 2mm x 15mm brass nails to make the new bogie pivots. I decided to do nothing more than articulate and streamline the coaches. More talented mo
