Margate? Hornby

[john.wishart]

I was at a car boot sale and one stall had quite a lot of "Hornby England" diesels.

I couldnt identify some, but there were Warships, they all seemed lightweight and some had garish colours and the body mouldings were basic.

I know I am spoilt bt the current Chinese production, would the Margate kit have been any good?

[Barry Ten]

Hornby never did Warships, so these must have been someone else's models. Lima, Mainline, Trix and Fleischmann all did Warships at one time or another.

[James]

Could it have been a Hornby Western?

 

Some earlier productions repay careful detailing work, such as the class 25 which is superb shapewise. Just a case of carefully comparing the particular model with its prototype and deciding if you're happy to put the work in really.

[craigwelsh]

Apart from poorer quality printing much of the old Hornby models still being made in China is pretty similar to how it came out of Margate. The super detail stuff we are now used to on new releases has only been there since the move to China though.

[Pete the Elaner]

I agree with James. It vaires considerably depending on the model concerned.

 

25 & 86 can be made to look very respectable with some effort detailing & maybe repainting.

I have an issue with spraying a new £100 loco, but will happily attack a £20 S/H one.

 

The 08 & 37 have fundamental flaws which require major surgery to sort out. Most of the others lie somewhere between these 2 pairs.

 

Drive mechanisms of older models are significantly inferior to the new China models.