Modelu Figures & Component News

[Modelu Chris]

Seems like its been a bit or a whirlwind in the office this past week but with us being out on Friday for our work Christmas meal I have ended up later than planned getting this email in. Please see the below from Alan:

 

 

To all our customers at Warley who had 3d scans with our new scanner, thank you for your patience - your orders are now begining to ship this week.  

If your order is being shipped direct to you, you will receive a fulfillment email with a Royal Mail tracking link.  If your order is going direct to Dan, your order will still show as unfulfilled until Dan is able to post it to you.  For an accurate status please get in touch.

 

 

We are really excited to announce that Antic's will be a new Modelu stockist in the new year! With Antic's being our local model shop we are really pleased to be working with them.

 

 

Thank you to everyone who entered our Photo of the Year competition - we had over 120 entries and some fantastic photos.  Submissions for our Photo of the Year competition have now closed and our judges this year are Dan Evason, Nick Willcox of the SVR and the team at Modelu. We've had the extremely difficult job of shortlisting 5 entries for you to vote upon. 

⁠⁠JUDGING & VOTES⁠

Congratulations to Dale West, Paul Field, George Williamson, Paul Chana and Fritham Junction who were shortlisted!

You can now decide who's image is the winner - simply vote on the image in the gallery. Voting closes on the 21st December ⁠

 

The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve!⁠

⁠⁠PRIZES

The winner will receive a £150 Modelu gift voucher, 2nd place receives a £75 voucher, and 3rd place a £25 voucher.⁠

⁠⁠IMPORTANT DATES

21st December - Voting ends⁠

24th December - Winner announced!⁠

 

 

We've expanded our range of specials to include two new figures seen on our TV screens - British Railway Historian and presenter Tim Dunn and Hornby: A Model World's Simon Kohler.   Tim was 3d scanned at Warley and kindly let us add him to our range.  Simon was scanned in Margate during filming of the second series of Hornby: A Model World last year.

To complement these two figures we've also added a new camera man to film them.

 

 

These figures have always been popular individually, so to give a little discount we've bundled them into a set.  This set of three figures includes a bus driver, conductor and workman. We feel this is a lovely cameo pack that would look great on any road or bus depot scene.

Look out for more long overdue figures for buses and trams in the New Year!

 

 

Another popular pairing, these two workmen pushing a load were posed for by Modelu customer Chris Cox some years ago.  We've bundled them with an impatient looking foreman and are now available at 20% off the individual product price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Modelu Chris]

Newsletter continued:

 

We have expanded our range of farm animals to include horned and dehorned dairy cattle and bulls. Cows are available with 3 varied or 3 standing poses for cattle wagons. We also have a bull available as a single product. These are the first of a new range for farm yards and livestock traffic.

 

 

Another item launched at Warley was this new bundle pack of shed detailing parts. This set contains a slide jack, loco oil supply cans, sandbox filler, oil feeder can and loco & cylinder oil cans. This is another cost effective way of detailing your loco shed without purchasing the individual products.

 

 

I recent years RTR carriage design has seen advancements to include magnetic roof fixings making figure installation easier than ever.  To recognise this we've created a new pre-cut version of our modern image passenger packs at 50% off the full size figure price.  Now it is easier than ever to populate your carriages.  Available in packs of 10 at £18.00 in OO and £30.00 in O gauge.

Thanks to Heljan for the loan of the Mk2 coach EP - it was a very simple task to install the figures with the magnetic fixings.

 

 

And there we have it for this newsletter. I  would just like to let you all know on RMWeb that the office will be closed from Wednesday this week. We reopen again on Tuesday 2nd January, I will still be coming on here in that time personally so I will try to respond to any questions. 

 

 

[Modelu Chris]

With today being the last day of the office I am sneaking this up now for you all so you don't miss out.

 

Please see the below from Alan (Honestly I haven't paid him for the comment):

I'm really proud to have such amazing staff at Modelu - they've worked their socks off all year, especially since Warley/Black Friday and in the lead up to Christmas. 

I'm also really happy to say that every order placed prior to December 20th has been shipped which is no small achievement considering this is our busiest Christmas since I started Modelu, off the back of our busiest Warley and busiest Black Friday!

Hopefully Royal Mail will now do their end of the process and get your orders to you in a timely manner.  If you would like an order update, please send us a message, though note we'll be closed from Thursday 21st-Tuesday 2nd January for a well earned rest.

Before we close for Christmas I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all of our customers.  Many of you have been on our journey since right at the start back in 2015.  We are so excited for 2024 and we'll be conducting another New Product survey in January to see what you would like us to produce.  Have a great Christmas and here's to a successful 2024. Cheers!

Alan, Harrison, Chris, Pam, Sophie and Alex

 

 

If you haven't already cast your vote please do so as today (Thursday 21st) is your last chance!

⁠⁠JUDGING & VOTES⁠

Congratulations to Dale West, Paul Field, George Williamson, Paul Chana and Fritham Junction who were shortlisted!

You can now decide who's image is the winner - simply vote on the image in the gallery. Voting closes on the 21st December ⁠

PLEASE VOTE HERE - SELECT THE PHOTO AND CLICK VOTE

⁠The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve!⁠

⁠⁠PRIZES

The winner will receive a £150 Modelu gift voucher, 2nd place receives a £75 voucher, and 3rd place a £25 voucher.⁠

⁠⁠IMPORTANT DATES

21st December - Voting ends⁠

24th December - Winner announced!⁠

 

 

Caption Competition Time! With the recent release of cows and bulls we couldn't resist setting up a bit of a different scene with them. Give us your best caption for this scene and win a Modelu shed scene gift box in N, OO, HO or O scales. ⁠
⁠
The winner will be announced on 23rd December⁠.  To enter, please email your caption or comment on our social media post.

 

 

Have you had a scan done by us at Modelu? For the rest of the month you can get 15% off a reprint of your scan, across all scales. ⁠
⁠
Please enter the code REPRINT15 to claim your discount (you can also click this link to auto apply the discount https://www.modelu3d.co.uk/coupon/stl15/). Offer valid until 31/12/23.⁠
⁠
If you had a scan with us at Warley these have now all been posted.

 

 

We are delighted to share with you all our brand new class 20 crew packs. We have wanted to release a set crew for these for a while and now is the time to get your figures for this iconic locomotive.

This set of two figures comes in two period options. 1968-1996 & 1996 - Present day and is priced from £7.20 for the pair.

Our thanks go out to GC Weathering for their help producing these sets, why not go check out their website?

 

Still not sure what to get your loved one this Christmas? We have gift vouchers available on our website starting from as little as £10. The perfect gift for any fan of modelling.⁠
⁠
Want to get something a bit different? We even have vouchers for 3D scans so they can have themselves shrunk down to miniature from our Bristol office or various shows we attend.

 

[Modelu Chris]

Newsletter continued:

We have some more brand new releases of farm animals this week. We have a set of 6 sheep, 6 lambs and a ram. These are available on the website now and would look baaarilliant on any farm scene!

 

 

 

 

For those of you with 3D printers not treat yourself to 15% off our downloadable figures? Just use the code STL15 to get the discount (you can also click this link to auto apply the discount https://www.modelu3d.co.uk/coupon/reprint15/ ). This offer is available until 31/12/23.

These have previously been available as part of our Patreon subscription.

 

[big jim]

Quick question, what can I use to remove paint (enamel and acrylic) from your prints without them melting or being damaged? 
 

made a mess of painting a few and want to start again with warhammer paints
 

 

[Modelu Chris]

On 28/12/2023 at 17:02, big jim said:

Quick question, what can I use to remove paint (enamel and acrylic) from your prints without them melting or being damaged? 
 

made a mess of painting a few and want to start again with warhammer paints
 

 

I don’t know if you would have any luck getting enamel paints off, do you want to send me a message and I am sure we can sort something to help you.

[big jim]

3 hours ago, Modelu Chris said:

I don’t know if you would have any luck getting enamel paints off, do you want to send me a message and I am sure we can sort something to help you.

I had a few older prints I could sacrifice so I tried one in cellulose thinners and the other in IPA, neither melted but the paint barely moved too and the figures became brittle with arms and legs easily snapping off when attempting to rub the paint off with a paint brush so I didn’t bother trying to strip any more 

 

 

[jwealleans]

Have you tried Caustic Soda, Jim?   I use it on models of all materials and it hasn't melted any plastic or resin yet.

[Modelu Chris]

Good morning everyone, I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and ready for lots of modelling in 2024! I have the yearly roundup from Alan below, we hope you enjoy and thank you all for your kind words over the last year. It is much appreciated. 

 

2023, where to start! On a personal level within the team we've had a birth and two weddings to start with! August saw the arrival of our second daughter Sylvie and in September we had two weddings - Chris and Coretta and later in the month Harrison and Ellie.

We also had a few changes - Ed moved on to a new design role and we had Sophie and Alex join us bolstering our production and order fulfilment roles. 

Both Sophie and Alex have been able to free up myself, Harrison and Chris to continue building other areas of the business.  

 

FULL COLOUR 3D PRINTING :Working with Accurascale and Rapido we continued to produce new full colour prints including figure packs for the Accurascale Class 37 and Manor, and of course who could forget the Titfield Thunderbolt Vicar, Bishop and Squire for Rapido.

PRINT COMMISSIONS: Harrison has continued to push the boundaries of what we can 3D print, having produced some unbelievable engineering prototypes for Accurascale and Rapido, including the Accurascale Class 50 and J67, Rapido O1, Port of Par tanks, Y7, J52, E1 and Class 44.  We also reintroduced our 3D Print Commission service.

PATREON: Harrison also launched our new Patreon STL subscription service where we have over 75 monthly subscribers, many of which shape the content they receive each month with a monthly release poll.

STOCKISTS: Chris has been single-handedly expanding our network of stockists to include North America, The Netherlands, Australia and an additional 10 UK stockists, many of who he has personally visited in his own time.

PRODUCTION: Alex has expanded our 3D printing capabilities to include new faster 12K printers which have allowed us to reduce our order completion lead times from 10 days down to a few days.  Printing throughput is nothing without the packing though, and Sophie and Pam have been working hard to keep orders flowing quickly.  Key to this has been a new automated label printer which includes details of the customer order and order bin on the label to help with packing issues.

 

INSTANT 3D SCANNING: Lastly, an by no means least as it took months of calculations and projections, we invested in our new instant 3D scanner.  This was deployed at Warley for the first time and performed fantastically.  

NEW OFFICE, AGAIN! These advancements have set us up perfectly for 2024 and the only thing we are now lacking is space... so surprise surprise we are moving workshop again!! We'll be back in Easton Business Centre in February in a new 1100sq foot office which should see us for another year at least when we'll no doubt need an industrial unit!

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful new year and we'll see you with new ideas and new projects in 2024.  Cheers!

 

To kick off 2024 we have our second release of new Victorian themed figures captured at the Ffestiniog Bygones Weekend in October 2023.  These include a twin pack of maids and 3 new triple packs of Victorian people.  These include women with baskets, British Army Officer on leave and a selection of female figures in fine clothing. 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations go out to Steven Draper from Terrific Trains for winning our AR competition. By placing Chris on his layout he has won a £25 voucher to spend with us. 

For those of you that have your own AR figure we would love to see them!

 

 

Congratulations to nse_latchmere on Instagram for winning our Modelu caption competition! With the comment "It's FRESIAN in here... Get me a JERSEY" he has won a Modelu box of goodies that will be sent when the office opens on 2nd January. 

Thank you for your entries, many of them amused us in the office. 

 

Congratulations to Fritham Junction on Twitter for coming third in our photo of the year competition. A surge in votes for his entry on the final day of voting means he has won a £25 Modelu voucher for this delightful scene captioned "A GWR 2-6-0 is prepared for work as a pannier sits idle under the shed lights."

 

 

 

[Modelu Chris]

Newsletter continued:

 

Congratulations to Dale West for coming in at a very close second in our photo of the year competition. He has won a £75 Modelu voucher for this great diesel depot scene. Well done Dale!⁠

 

 

Our winner for this years photo of the year, as chosen by you, is this great scene from George Williamson. This 009 layout was captioned "The Corris Tattoo works its way up the valley to collect slate from the quarry." George has won a huge £150 Modelu voucher. ⁠
⁠
Thank you to everyone who took part, with record numbers entering. We really love to see your work!⁠

 

 

 

[Fair Oak Junction]

Very nice to see some late Victorian figures! The early/mid Victorian era is well covered by Stadden figures, and the Edwardian era has always been well catered for.

But that later 1870/1880s period has been non-existent, up until now 👍

Edited January 2 by Fair Oak Junction

[jaym481]

15 hours ago, Modelu Chris said:

STOCKISTS: Chris has been single-handedly expanding our network of stockists to include North America, The Netherlands, Australia and an additional 10 UK stockists, many of who he has personally visited in his own time.

Curious about the North American stockist(s). I don't see any on your website yet.

[Modelu Chris]

On 03/01/2024 at 00:39, jaym481 said:

Curious about the North American stockist(s). I don't see any on your website yet.

 

I will be updating the stockist list on our website today. Our stockist is Yarmouth Model Works. 

 

Kind regards, 

Chris

[Modelu Chris]

Happy Friday everyone! 

 

Here at Modelu your opinion really matters, we have a new survey just released and we would love for some of you fantastic RMWeb users to take part. There is a little reward at the end for those that take part. We would really appreciate your answers. The below is from Alan:

 

 

Innovation is at the heart of Modelu, and using our new instant 3d scanner we have many new ideas, but we’d love to know what new products and figures you’d like to see from Modelu. They could be more variations of what we produce already, completely new ranges or eras, or something else such as more bespoke crews for new locomotives.

We’d like to ask a few questions which will help us prioritise our development for the rest of the year. Thank you for giving us your time, you’ll find a little bonus at the end of the survey!

 

https://us10.list-manage.com/survey?u=6043a89b810c1f6a184374c55&id=157a1b55ae

 

[Ramrig]

A really good Survey. Well worth the time to fill in. Thank you.

[Bucoops]

I've done the survey, thank you - one thing I did ask about some time ago was lamps for Class 04 shunters - I think also used on 03s. Is that possible please?

 

thank you

[Mol_PMB]

A good survey - thanks. I hope some of my suggestions are useful.

 

One more general comment I couldn't easily put into the survey response. I ordered a couple of lococrew recently, one is ideal but it turns out the other one is too tall for my cab. Not a great problem, I can use him on another project. But would it be possible to include the total height of the figures on the catalogue pages? I appreciate this varies by scale so it's not a single number, but it would help in choosing figures that need to fit inside any sort of vehicle.

 

Cheers,

Mol

[MattR]

I definitely voted for the platform seating. Lots of companies make the simple GWR-style benches, but I'd love to see the LMS style with the curly arm rests and legs. Very delicate, I'm sure, but would look beautiful.

 

 

[gazzaday]

I would like to see Modelu fill the gap in the Town & Country section i.e. 1968 to 1998 (preferably pedestrians and shoppers).

 

Other suggestions for products: Location cabinets, various railway company platform benches, signal and signal box finials, platform trolleys (including BRUTEs), architectural cornices and corbels, letter boxes.

[GWRMember]

Anyone know which flavour od superglue works best when trying to repair damage when removing the supports from figures. I typically tend to lose the end of spades, brooms and my trombone player lost his entire slide in one fell swoop!

Even my carpenter lost part of his saw and the milkman lost a foot although I hope my locktite gel glue has avoided him being an amputee!

 

Is there a favoured way of removing the supports? I use a sharp scalpel, pair of sharp side cutters specifically designed for plastic kits as well as a pair of fine tweezers. Oh and this is all done under a lighted magnifying glass on an arm.

 

Thanks Ken

[Mikkel]

I also use Loctite Gel, but agree it isn't as effective as I'd like for this particular purpose. I haven't found anything better yet though.

 

Edited January 14 by Mikkel

[drduncan]

Just done the survey and I thought I should point out that the era 2 1875-1922 pregrouping option at 47 years covers a huge societal and fashion change. (For comparison the grouping period is only 25 years..) So while I said era 2 any products covering that period may actually miss my real modelling interests: the period between 1885 and 1892 or 1900 to 1914. 
 

Fashion being what it was (and railway staff uniforms too) perhaps more granularity is needed than the rather blunt instrument of the era catch alls.

While any subdivision will be imperfect for everyone, rather than era 2 I would suggest:

1875-1886 mid victorian

1887-1901 late Victorian (eg golden jubilee onwards) 

1902-1914 Edwardian 

1914-1922 WW1 and after.

 

Hope this helps peoples thinking.

 

Regards

 

Duncan

[2ManySpams]

Did the survey and used the then given 15% discount code on ordering some bits in 7mm from the guttering range to add to what I already had.

 

Now a question for @Modelu Chris, I've just tried to I sett the recommended Evergreen 2mm dia rod (ref 212) into the O gauge 3" holderbat. It seems miles to big. So I've put the calipers on the rod and and it is indeed 2mm.

 

Even after chamfering the tip and running some wet and dry around the road it still doesn't fit in the holderbat. A 2mm drill bit won't fit in the holderbat either. 

 

Is the recommendation of 2mm Evergreen rod incorrect (3" in 7mm scale is 1.75mm)? Have others got it to work? Have the holderbats shrunk??

 

Any help or advice welcomed.

 

 

[Modelu Chris]

A big thank you to all of you who have done the survey, it is much appreciated and we have some plans already for some of the products that are coming out of it. I will do my best to reply to all the questions below.

 

On 12/01/2024 at 14:26, Bucoops said:

I've done the survey, thank you - one thing I did ask about some time ago was lamps for Class 04 shunters - I think also used on 03s. Is that possible please?

 

thank you

 

This should be something that is much more able for us to do now. We just need to get some pictures and dimensions sorted for them really. 

 

On 12/01/2024 at 14:55, Mol_PMB said:

A good survey - thanks. I hope some of my suggestions are useful.

 

One more general comment I couldn't easily put into the survey response. I ordered a couple of lococrew recently, one is ideal but it turns out the other one is too tall for my cab. Not a great problem, I can use him on another project. But would it be possible to include the total height of the figures on the catalogue pages? I appreciate this varies by scale so it's not a single number, but it would help in choosing figures that need to fit inside any sort of vehicle.

 

Cheers,

Mol

 

I apologise for the height issue you had, some of the early scans that Alan created the figures would be taller than usual. But now we have a wider range of people willing to be scanned this is not the case with more recent releases. This is also the reason that we are doing more custom crews to make sure that this is less likely to be an issue. The issue with having the size of the figures on each item is the range of scales we are providing means that it would be a huge undertaking. 

 

On 12/01/2024 at 15:12, MattR said:

I definitely voted for the platform seating. Lots of companies make the simple GWR-style benches, but I'd love to see the LMS style with the curly arm rests and legs. Very delicate, I'm sure, but would look beautiful.

 

 

 

I don't want to put a time limit on this, but I took a trip to Barrow Hill in December and may have had some fun with scanning some items. 

 

On 13/01/2024 at 16:30, gazzaday said:

I would like to see Modelu fill the gap in the Town & Country section i.e. 1968 to 1998 (preferably pedestrians and shoppers).

 

Other suggestions for products: Location cabinets, various railway company platform benches, signal and signal box finials, platform trolleys (including BRUTEs), architectural cornices and corbels, letter boxes.

 

Platform trolleys is a good suggestion and is something we were talking about in the office last week. I will discuss your other suggestions in the office.

 

On 13/01/2024 at 18:20, GWRMember said:

Anyone know which flavour od superglue works best when trying to repair damage when removing the supports from figures. I typically tend to lose the end of spades, brooms and my trombone player lost his entire slide in one fell swoop!

Even my carpenter lost part of his saw and the milkman lost a foot although I hope my locktite gel glue has avoided him being an amputee!

 

Is there a favoured way of removing the supports? I use a sharp scalpel, pair of sharp side cutters specifically designed for plastic kits as well as a pair of fine tweezers. Oh and this is all done under a lighted magnifying glass on an arm.

 

Thanks Ken

 

Can I ask what scale you are working with? I pair of side cutters should work really well in most scales and we tend to cut the supports off in the office on any larger figures. Feel free to drop me a message with the effected figures and I can do some tests in the office. We generally use Delux superglue if there have been any issues in the office. 

 

19 hours ago, 2ManySpams said:

Did the survey and used the then given 15% discount code on ordering some bits in 7mm from the guttering range to add to what I already had.

 

Now a question for @Modelu Chris, I've just tried to I sett the recommended Evergreen 2mm dia rod (ref 212) into the O gauge 3" holderbat. It seems miles to big. So I've put the calipers on the rod and and it is indeed 2mm.

 

Even after chamfering the tip and running some wet and dry around the road it still doesn't fit in the holderbat. A 2mm drill bit won't fit in the holderbat either. 

 

Is the recommendation of 2mm Evergreen rod incorrect (3" in 7mm scale is 1.75mm)? Have others got it to work? Have the holderbats shrunk??

 

Any help or advice welcomed.

 

 

 

If you could drop us a message. The holderbats you have there are very old version and may have had an adjustment between then and now. 

 

[Bucoops]

Thanks Chris - I can't help with dimensions (yet) but there's two types by the looks of things. I wonder if the rounded ones are the same as on 08s?