RJS1977 Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 If that's Rolf in the middle, does that make Mimmo and Tony the "Two Little Boys"? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain C Robinson Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 I can just imagine Allan getting partway through building a model and asking any onlookers "Can you tell what it is yet?" They never knew what they were even when he'd finished them! Such are Allan's legendary powers of persuasion! Seriously though, I hadn't seen these pics of Harlem Steel, they are superb...kudos to the master. I'm up in Aberdeen just now making models of oil rigs and this has brightened up my evening. Allan, you might be right about the cast figures...my Missus, (OK,,,the person who actually builds the models), always gives me grief for putting figures on the dioramas, so you have an ally there. cheers from windswept Aberdeen, Iain Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 I don't know - there are a few interesting garden centres around. Poynton and Pulborough spring to mind... And of course, Poppleton! (Why do they all begin with "P"?) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 5, 2013 Author Share Posted July 5, 2013 (edited) Two more illustrations of how to kill a good model off. The first shows a carthorse straight out a Hammer horror movie, "The Curse Of The Man Eating Plough Horse" and trees from a Kindergarten toy box. The second, and with a stately, and I'm sure well meaning, spread of the same species and, by way of entertainment for the viewer no less, one sheep showing another sheep his full repetoire of arobics while a cow that could be a horse, or even a dog, looks on totaly unimpressed. Edited July 5, 2013 by allan downes Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
halfwit Posted July 5, 2013 Share Posted July 5, 2013 Allan, you might be right about the cast figures...my Missus, (OK,,,the person who actually builds the models), always gives me grief for putting figures on the dioramas, so you have an ally there... Some scenes are so well executed that figures would only serve to spoil the effect. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 The sun's out, there's no action on RMweb, Robinson's either down a hole somewhere, or up in Scotland ripping an oil company off, so I thought you might like a few more shots of Harlem Steel Mk 1 and Freestone Model's brickpaper. Then I'm goin' swimming in the Humber... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brass0four Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 Allan, I first came across your work many years ago in the 'Modeller - a huge brewery that utilised a number of party-poppers. Good to see you are still enjoying the unique freedom that is so prevalent in your models. Tony aka Brass0four. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Hi Tony. Could that have been this factory as kindly scanned and put up bY LNER4479 ? Cheers. Allan. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 Going back to the tree issue, although I accept getting the people right is almost impossible, I do believe some people out there make very good trees, the problem often is that good trees still look their best in clumps, and often buying in a modelled single good tree costs. I had to take a bunch of pictures to get the bark in focus, but I do believe we can get the trees right, not that I am claiming these are right, just showing that a better person doing a better job than me will be able to get it right There is no photoshopping, but I had to let the back ground go a little as the light this morning was not particularly helpful and an iPad is not the best way of getting good close ups. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted July 6, 2013 Share Posted July 6, 2013 Also are we sure he's secretly Rolf Harris? I thought Ricky Tomlinson, The Royles Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brass0four Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Hi Tony. Could that have been this factory as kindly scanned and put up bY LNER4479 ? Cheers. Allan. post-16151-0-19534900-1371748160_thumb.pngpost-16151-0-56222900-1371748198_thumb.pngpost-16151-0-82865300-1371748102.png Thank you! That's it. I was a Leading Fireman at a North East Fire Station at the time. A fellow enthusiast came out the closet when I found him reading that copy of the 'Modeller. Sadly, there were some in the job who'd give you a life of misery for being involved in such a hobby. Otherwise, while I know you can and do model after the prototype with accuracy, especially when commissioned to do so, it is the creative flare I admire in your larger pieces. As someone who is so pathetically hidebound to the rivet, that I actually get very little done, this failing of mine is just plain stupid. It's meant to be fun after all. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Hi Tony, thanks for the kind comments, but I'm not so accurate as I've been trying to make people think I am over the last 40 years !! The fact is, the prototype can both slow you down and leave you open to criticism and that's why I used to dread it when some one would ring up and say "I'm building Carnforth and I was wondering if you could......then when you've done that, take a look at Swindon, and the wife would like Tetford..." Below, and probably for the nine hundreth time, I've put up a photo of a town scene that took about two months to build, but had it been an actual town and the customer wanted it replicated stone for stone, brick for brick, then I'd still be building it ! cheers. Allan. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brass0four Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Hi Tony, thanks for the kind comments, but I'm not so accurate as I've been trying to make people think I am over the last 40 years !! The fact is, the prototype can both slow you down and leave you open to criticism and that's why I used to dread it when some one would ring up and say "I'm building Carnforth and I was wondering if you could......then when you've done that, take a look at Swindon, and the wife would like Tetford..." Below, and probably for the nine hundreth time, I've put up a photo of a town scene that took about two months to build, but had it been an actual town and the customer wanted it replicated stone for stone, brick for brick, then I'd still be building it ! cheers. Allan. IMG_0176.jpg Yes, I've always thought you enjoyed a free canvas most of all. More power to your elbow! As for me, I'm so very limited time wise that I simply must get some order into my work rather than pottering here and there. My layout is specific only in so far that - like many others - I'm thinking of my boyhood in the late fifties/early sixties (before adolescence and The Sixties! ) a time which I view through rose-colour specs. My main issue is acre upon acre of squalid terraced housing without resorting to Metcalf. Hell, one day I might have some pictures to show for it. Don't hold your breath, though. Tony. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Yes, I've always thought you enjoyed a free canvas most of all. More power to your elbow! As for me, I'm so very limited time wise that I simply must get some order into my work rather than pottering here and there. My layout is specific only in so far that - like many others - I'm thinking of my boyhood in the late fifties/early sixties (before adolescence and The Sixties! ) a time which I view through rose-colour specs. My main issue is acre upon acre of squalid terraced housing without resorting to Metcalf. Hell, one day I might have some pictures to show for it. Don't hold your breath, though. Tony. When I first started out in the hobby Tony, I fell into the trap of getting all the track down and up and running and spent more time 'playing' trains' than getting on and finishing the buildings and scenery. So I reversed the order of build, I built loads of loose standing buildings, station buildings, cottages, whatever, then when I though that I'd built enough, then I would start on the layout proper, lay in all the track, get it working, ballast it then start getting serious by working from one end, completing a section at a time until I reached the other. Then go back and detail it, write about it, photograph it and flog it! Cheers. Allan. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 And this is it, the first layout I ever built and actually finished ! - the very questionable 'Pipers Mead' ! 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Brass0four Unfortunately when we could have taken an interest in trains it never occurred to us, all those missed years ;( a couple of years ago I bought my other half a Hornby train set, it went in a glass cabinet, then 2 and a bit years ago I bought a couple of buildings from Modelzone, and we went a little mad............... Allan I was thinking we did that (do track no buildings) but now do that, (get buildings and lay them out with some thought of how they Should go together.) although we buy in a bunch of buildings we like, then think ummmm how can we gel these together. We then add the detail, write on forum about it, photograph it (lots) so it would have been like or agree, then you said Flog it!!! We only know how to press the 'buy' button!!!! Oh and Allan I have a serious complaint, I have a very serious addiction to post 583, I do not seem to go past without perusing a wagon, a building, looking at what might be used in the pipework...Iain come back and save me................ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Oh and Allan I have a serious complaint, I have a very serious addiction to post 583, I do not seem to go past without perusing a wagon, a building, looking at what might be used in the pipework...Iain come back and save me................ You should have asked Petra, she's the expert ! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Does she post? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Does she post? Yes, but she use a pseudonym - Iain C Robinson. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brass0four Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 (edited) And this is it, the first layout I ever built and actually finished ! - the very questionable 'Pipers Mead' ! IMG_0271.jpg Pipers Mead! I confess I'd forgotten it. Not that it is forgettable, more that... yes it is in the traditional *mainline through station with all-the-facilities* genre - more railway than buildings. Its funny you should mention your latter approach 'cos that is exactly what I've started to do. Because of the quantity involved I'm using Metcalfe plus Scalescene papers, etc, to find a method of mass-producing middle ground terraces without too much time involved. Also, major buildings. eg: six-road shed, are to be finished for the emotional "lift" of it. I'll add another quality of yours: you give out your time, experience and personality to one and all. Some don't, unless you're at their level/clique... I appreciate that more than you can know. Edited July 7, 2013 by Brass0four Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 Here's a few shots of terraced houses and shops scratchbuilt using standard 4mm brick papers. Hope this helps. Cheers. Allan. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted July 7, 2013 Share Posted July 7, 2013 Allan, I first came across your work many years ago in the 'Modeller - a huge brewery that utilised a number of party-poppers. I know of one model brewery occasionally "on the circuit" that goes even further and uses a breathalyser tube as the chimney! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted July 7, 2013 Author Share Posted July 7, 2013 (edited) ..... Also, major buildings. eg: six-road shed, are to be finished for the emotional "lift" of it. Here, engine shed/workshops combined. Auxillary buildings, coaler and signal box - all 4mm, commercial brick papers. - all second hand and lifted from a model railway in a cold, damp loft - hence brick paper lifting in places, and superficial damage. Get 'lifting' ! Cheers. Allan Edited July 7, 2013 by allan downes 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted July 8, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 8, 2013 How to ruin a good layout in two stages. Stage one -Trees. Stage two - Figures. [snip] Quite apart from the superior modelling and motive power, I've been wondering all morning what the bloke in the foreground is doing. Feeding the chickens? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted July 8, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 8, 2013 Quite apart from the superior modelling and motive power, I've been wondering all morning what the bloke in the foreground is doing. Feeding the chickens? Notice the lack of point rodding ? He's changing the point by telekinesis. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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