Airfix/Dapol Kits - real life inspiration

[28XX]

Apropos of churches, I was sent to PAT test

Bromsgrove Church a few years ago, and was inspired to buy the Metcalf offering. This too is desperately underscale, as I discovered given the chance to compare some principle dimensions.

[Compound2632]

Signal Box kit is that of Oakham 

 

... but too wide. Oakham is a standard 10' x 15' box; the Airfix kit is, I think, more like 12'6" x 15'. Most Midland boxes were assembled from standardised 10' panels, like the Ratio kit, with the 15' panel used for some boxes with short lever frames. I suppose a  reasonable model of Oakham and other 10' x 15' boxes could be made by mixing and matching components from the two kits, along with some of the aftermarket etched window frames that are available.

[Gordon A]

Any suggestions as to the prototype for the travelling dockside crane?

 

Gordon A

[Fat Controller]

Any suggestions as to the prototype for the travelling dockside crane?

 

Gordon A

I've just had a skim through 'Great Western Docks and Marine'; whilst there are some cranes with a passing resemblance, most are considerably bigger, both in overall height and jib length. The ones that resembled the Airfix kit most closely were some examples that only had one side travelling on the quayside, the other resting on rails on a canopy built out from the first floor of the adjacent warehouse.

[Il Grifone]

The 'booking hall' looks like it is based on a GWR 'Standard' station building, which were quite small buildings but it's certainly under-scale, much like the contemporary Tri-ang railway buildings.

 

I used one for my Tri-ang TT layout back in the day. It didn't look out of place!

 

The mineral wagon kits mix together quite well I find (as they should). I've used the Parkside and Cambrian ones for variants, but most of mine are the Airfix kit. It needs a bit of work on the brake gear to correctly portray the Morton brake with which most were fitted. two sets of 'left over right' brakes are supplied giving one spare and a modification to one of the brake levers gives the clutch. fretting off the lever rack finishes the job. (It's fiddly so I haven't done all of them!   )

 

 

Here's a couple I made earlier.  A standard 1/108 (still to be weathered) and a 1/106 with bottom doors. Apologies for the missing white stripe and buffer heads and the H0 track. A little tidying of the decals (carrier film) and brakes wouldn't hurt either. (When I get round to it....)

Edited June 15, 2018 by Il Grifone

[Robin Brasher]

The signal box was based on Oakham which has now been restored and the church was based on Bonchurch in the Isle of Wight which I have visited and taken some pictures of. A youth vandalised the church. When he grew up he gave the church a generous donation to repair the damage he had done.

 

I made most of the Airfix trackside kits as they were much cheaper and possibly more realistic than the Hornby-Dublo and Tri-ang versions although the latter were more robust and have stood the test of time.

 

I had a lot of problems with derailments with my train set. For a few years I lost interest in the model railway and made a huge collection of Airfix Kits. The aircraft, tanks and figures at 1/72 scale were not far off 1/76 scale for 00 gauge so could be used as part of the scenery for a model railway layout. The picture shows my Airfix Fokker triplane.

 

Has anyone any ideas about what to do with my collection of Airfix kits? They are not worth anything but are too good to throw away.

[PhilJ W]

Any suggestions as to the prototype for the travelling dockside crane?

 

Gordon A

I've just had a skim through 'Great Western Docks and Marine'; whilst there are some cranes with a passing resemblance, most are considerably bigger, both in overall height and jib length. The ones that resembled the Airfix kit most closely were some examples that only had one side travelling on the quayside, the other resting on rails on a canopy built out from the first floor of the adjacent warehouse.

I read somewhere that the 'dockside crane' was not actually a dockside crane but a shipyard crane of the sort found in dry docks or ship repair yards.

[Vespa]

The cottages look like those at the start of the TV prog "A place in the country"

[The Johnster]

I read somewhere that the 'dockside crane' was not actually a dockside crane but a shipyard crane of the sort found in dry docks or ship repair yards.

 

This sounds right.  As a dockside crane, for cargo handling, it is far, far too small and has insufficient height or jib reach to be of much use loading or unloading a ship the size of a 'traditional' ocean going freighter of 8.000 tons or so, and does not have the lifting capacity to deal with such a ship efficiently; much bigger and more powerful cranes are needed.  As a dockyard, or dry dock, crane for the removal or loading of machinery to a vessel, with no need for much in the way of speed of operation or lifting capacity of more than about 10 tons, it is ideal, but next to useless for commercial cargo handling with even small vessels.  You need something about 3 times the size.

 

A 'dockyard' is really a Naval, military, sort of place that has no relevance to commercial shipping, and a 'shipyard' is an American term for a shipbuilding yard, with slipways and facilities for constructing and launching ships; again not really part of the world of commercial shipping or cargo handling.  A dry dock is a facility in a commercial port for ship repair or refitting. 

 

Docks, ocean going ships, and dock equipment are big, very big, and need very large spaces to model convincingly.  Ships larger than around 120 feet in length, about a 1,200 ton coaster, are not really practical for most layouts if modelled to scale; harbour or river wharves are more practical to model than most enclosed docks, which are simply too big for most of us.  Don't forget that if you model an enclosed commercial dock, it must be entered by a lock at least as long as the biggest ship the dock is capable of handling, say another 800 feet or so.  The really big ships berth at wharves, not in enclosed docks, like Southampton or Felixtowe; few docks have locks that can cope with them.

 

I would venture to suggest that modelling large bulk carriers, container ships, and cruise liners in 4mm, or even 2mm, is not a practicable proposition in the spaces that most of us have to work in.  A ship of over 1,000 feet in length is the length of about 20 mk1 coaches, without the loco, and ships this size are not uncommon these days.  Go back to the 70s or earlier and your typical ocean going cargo vessel was much smaller, but might easily still be over 600 feet in length; trains are dwarfed by them.  It is little wonder that the Clyde Puffer crops up on so many layouts, despite being not common outside the Firth of Clyde and inner islands in practice; typical coastal trade vessels are 3 or 4 times the size, and scale out at several feet in length.   

 

But the Airfix/Dapol/Kitmaster 'dockside' crane looks the part in a restricted space, and is a very effective little model; I won't take that away from it.   It is an easy kit that can be adapted to a lot of situations, and can get away with a lot if it is judiciously placed.  I have built several over the years and even motorised one (not a spectacular success if I'm honest), and enjoyed them immensely.  I just think it's important to know it's limitations.   

[andyman7]

The signal box was based on Oakham which has now been restored and the church was based on Bonchurch in the Isle of Wight which I have visited and taken some pictures of. A youth vandalised the church. When he grew up he gave the church a generous donation to repair the damage he had done.

 

I made most of the Airfix trackside kits as they were much cheaper and possibly more realistic than the Hornby-Dublo and Tri-ang versions although the latter were more robust and have stood the test of time.

 

I had a lot of problems with derailments with my train set. For a few years I lost interest in the model railway and made a huge collection of Airfix Kits. The aircraft, tanks and figures at 1/72 scale were not far off 1/76 scale for 00 gauge so could be used as part of the scenery for a model railway layout. The picture shows my Airfix Fokker triplane.

 

Has anyone any ideas about what to do with my collection of Airfix kits? They are not worth anything but are too good to throw away.008.JPG

They may not be valuable but made up kits can be sold on ebay. There are one or two sellers that buy collections and make a steady income from selling. Individual models made to a reasonable standard can be sold as such, or you can make up a lot. All such sales are made on the buyer's understanding that small bits might fall off in transit. They main purpose of selling is not monetary but as you say to avoid chucking them in the bin. Personally I find it hard to turn down a dusty box of vintage builds, there's always one or two that can be salvaged and I have a few that are other people's rescued builds rather than my own.

[hayfield]

Airfix building kits of that time either found smaller prototypes or scaled down the sizes, both the cottage and supermarket kits come to mind. Most modellers at that time had table top train sets plus it was a period of coming out of austerity.

[Steamport Southport]

I read somewhere that the 'dockside crane' was not actually a dockside crane but a shipyard crane of the sort found in dry docks or ship repair yards.

 

It possibly also depends on what people define as a "dockside".

 

I was looking at ideas for a small layout to justify a J70 tram and looked at the docks they worked in. I was expecting something like Liverpool with giant warehouses and mammoth cranes, etc. but they were little more than large canal basins served by small boats and barges.

 

 

 

Jason

[The Johnster]

Airfix building kits of that time either found smaller prototypes or scaled down the sizes, both the cottage and supermarket kits come to mind. Most modellers at that time had table top train sets plus it was a period of coming out of austerity.

 

They also wanted to keep the kits simple and small so that they could sell at the 2/6d level (12½p to you).  The market was kids spending pocket money to improve train sets, and was very successful; they flew off the counters in Woolworth's on a Saturday morning!

 

Many of my generation owe a debt of gratitude to Airfix, for teaching us how to build basic wagons and buildings.

[Steamport Southport]

It was still the same when I was a kid in the 1970s. I could walk to my local Post Office/sweetshop and pick up a cheapish Airfix kit for what you would think of as pocket money prices (sometimes other makes such as Matchbox depending on what stocks they had).

 

But the best thing was they also sold Humbrol paints and glue. I can't even think of a local stockist for Humbrol now apart from Hobbycraft which is a train journey to the other side of Liverpool. I asked in a local art shop and the rather rude girl said "We don't sell hardware goods". Trying to explain to an idiot that 14ml tins of enamel paint aren't exactly hardware was pointless.

 

 

 

Jason

[alastairq]

They also wanted to keep the kits simple and small so that they could sell at the 2/6d level (12½p to you).  The market was kids spending pocket money to improve train sets, and was very successful; they flew off the counters in Woolworth's on a Saturday morning!

 

Many of my generation owe a debt of gratitude to Airfix, for teaching us how to build basic wagons and buildings.

Nothing whatsoever to do with the unintentional sided effects of kids spending hours in close proximity to polystyrene glue fumes, then?   

 

[Plastic kits?  Keep the kids happy for hours?]

 

Harking back to the Dockside crane issue...I discovered the thread below, which might stretch things on a bit?

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/105106-the-toplis-level-luffing-crane-a-mathematical-quandary/page-1

 

PS.......would the below work on the Airfix dockside base? Is the jib really long enough?

https://www.osbornsmodels.com/model-power303-mwalker--son-sand--gravel-rail-crane-building-kit-42706-p.asp

 

https://www.osbornsmodels.com/ekmps/shops/osbornsmodels/images/model-power-303-m.walker-son-sand-gravel-rail-crane-building-kit-42706-p.jpg

Edited August 22, 2018 by alastairq

[Fat Controller]

I used one for my Tri-ang TT layout back in the day. It didn't look out of place!

 

The mineral wagon kits mix together quite well I find (as they should). I've used the Parkside and Cambrian ones for variants, but most of mine are the Airfix kit. It needs a bit of work on the brake gear to correctly portray the Morton brake with which most were fitted. two sets of 'left over right' brakes are supplied giving one spare and a modification to one of the brake levers gives the clutch. fretting off the lever rack finishes the job. (It's fiddly so I haven't done all of them!   )

 

IMGP0225.JPG

 

Here's a couple I made earlier.  A standard 1/108 (still to be weathered) and a 1/106 with bottom doors. Apologies for the missing white stripe and buffer heads and the H0 track. A little tidying of the decals (carrier film) and brakes wouldn't hurt either. (When I get round to it....)

The other minor mod that improves these kits no end is to remove the 'hinges' at the bottoms of the doors, and trim the lower ends of the stanchions. The real hinges were much less evident. These kits, even at their current price, are useful material for weathering practice; not just paint jobs, but physically distressing the body. When working at BSC Landore, I saw many prototype ones with bulges where the electro-magnets used for unloading had hit the sides- I replicated this by careful application of the round end of a ball-pein hammer, that had been heated.

[tomparryharry]

Slightly off topic here, but the tin tabernacle in Llantwit Fardre had more than a passing resemblance to the church we had there. Ratio produce the kit. In real life, chimney is too low, so in real life it wouldn't pass the tests, but it's not beyond the whit of modellers here to put that right. Any Welsh model would need 2 kits, being 'big on the chapel'.....

 

Cheers,

 

 

Ian.

Edited August 23, 2018 by tomparryharry

[Gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

 

I very much like the Airfix / Dapol kits and have just ordered another ten Presflo wagons to go with the six I have just built, I think twenty two of them will be a good number to finish on. All will be finished in BR bauxite and will have minor livery details altered such as white or bauxite ladders, black or bauxite buffer beams etc., with transfers from Railtec.

 

They run just fine with the wheels they come with although fitting metal wheels and bearings can be done it doesn't seem worth the trouble and expense.

 

My latest project is to motorise a Rocket kit which is looking tricky but possible. No doubt it won't pull the skin off a rice pudding when it's finished !

 

I still look out on eBay for the old Kitmaster stuff as there are few kits that I haven't yet built but there is no rush having built all of the Airfix /Dapol range still available.

 

The best bit is the satisfaction that when built it is another train of stuff that I have made and not just from an opened box.

 

Gibbo.

[figworthy]

Nothing whatsoever to do with the unintentional sided effects of kids spending hours in close proximity to polystyrene glue fumes, then?   

 

[Plastic kits?  Keep the kids happy for hours?]

 

Harking back to the Dockside crane issue...I discovered the thread below, which might stretch things on a bit?

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/105106-the-toplis-level-luffing-crane-a-mathematical-quandary/page-1

 

PS.......would the below work on the Airfix dockside base? Is the jib really long enough?

https://www.osbornsmodels.com/model-power303-mwalker--son-sand--gravel-rail-crane-building-kit-42706-p.asp

 

https://www.osbornsmodels.com/ekmps/shops/osbornsmodels/images/model-power-303-m.walker-son-sand-gravel-rail-crane-building-kit-42706-p.jpg

 

It might be usable, it depends on what you are discharging.  Not sure if they are still going, but there used to be a company in York called Walkers who dredged sand and gravel from the river using a barge.  If they didn't use the crane on the barge to discharge it, some thing like this would do the job, although I suspect it might be a bit elaborate.

 

Adrian

[Kylestrome]

How about the service station?

http://www.airfixrailways.co.uk/TracksideServiceStation.htm

 

Is there any prototype for this and, if so, is it still there?

 

David

[hayfield]

How about the service station?

http://www.airfixrailways.co.uk/TracksideServiceStation.htm

 

Is there any prototype for this and, if so, is it still there?

 

David

 

 

I would expect its based om something, as this type of structure was quite common especially during the war and plenty of surplus huts were available after ww2

[alastairq]

The frontage was once common, IIRC?

 

I always thought one such building had remarkable similarities with the Airfix style.....located in Woodmansey, just outside Hull...on the bend in the road, opposite the Warton Arms? [Tucked away in the corner of what is now a layby on the outside of the bend?]

 

[i used to drive for EYMS at one time or another...the service 121 used to pass this point.....back in the time when buses could do 50 mph all the way to Hull...not now, of course.]

[PhilJ W]

How about the service station?

http://www.airfixrailways.co.uk/TracksideServiceStation.htm

 

Is there any prototype for this and, if so, is it still there?

 

David

I would expect its based om something, as this type of structure was quite common especially during the war and plenty of surplus huts were available after ww2

A very useful building for kit bashers, along with the Airfield control tower. (Which was based on an actual prototype, the standard WW2 RAF type.) As for filling stations for inspiration there's a very good group on Facebook, 'The golden years of the great British petrol station', its a closed group so you have to join up to view but its well worth it.

[John Tomlinson]

The signal box was based on Oakham which has now been restored and the church was based on Bonchurch in the Isle of Wight which I have visited and taken some pictures of. A youth vandalised the church. When he grew up he gave the church a generous donation to repair the damage he had done.

 

I made most of the Airfix trackside kits as they were much cheaper and possibly more realistic than the Hornby-Dublo and Tri-ang versions although the latter were more robust and have stood the test of time.

 

I had a lot of problems with derailments with my train set. For a few years I lost interest in the model railway and made a huge collection of Airfix Kits. The aircraft, tanks and figures at 1/72 scale were not far off 1/76 scale for 00 gauge so could be used as part of the scenery for a model railway layout. The picture shows my Airfix Fokker triplane.

 

Has anyone any ideas about what to do with my collection of Airfix kits? They are not worth anything but are too good to throw away.008.JPG

 

Great you've still got them.

 

I'd suggest you find a shelf somewhere and display a few of them by rotation, say changing each month.

 

John.

[Legend]

I always thought the booking hall was based on Killin Loch Tay ( the one with the gravity shunting) . I’m sure I’ve read that somewhere and there are , or were, certainly similarities