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I always wanted to do something with my collection of 1950’s car models. Garages and showrooms are very useful to create a nice diorama. On the website of Kingsway Models I found a collection of useful items. I ordered his new Main Dealer Car Showroom. The showroom doesn’t have signs for Austin. And I wanted to build an Austin showroom. When I ordered my kit, I asked him if it was possible to create some Austin signs for my showroom. He kindly made some nice signs and a garage name. When I got the name of the dealer for my showroom. I asked Internet of it also really existed. To my surprise it did. It was a main dealer of Austin in the 1950’s in London and had already a long pre-war history. Here it is: Next step to find a correct range of models. That was the hard part for me. There are a lot of model available, but to get the right time frame was not as easy as I thought. Finally, I found a website with an overview of the models that were available in a certain year. After trying several options, I came out on 1954. Unfortunately, not all models are available in 1:76. I have seen some more than excellent models in the 1:43 range. The cars in the showroom will be a mixture of Pocketbond, Oxford diecast and John Day Models. I will make my finally choice if I have built the showroom. The John Day Models I have to paint and put together. I also did some further research for some scenic items, for instance posters or brochures for on a counter. After the research I started with the kit. The kit is kept neutral. For my Austin Garage I have changed the background walls with an Austin slogan with BMC sign and some posters. If you are surprised by the Dutch text in my pictures it is easy to explain. I publish daily on Facebook in My Story to inform also some Dutch interested friends. There are also some English speaking/reading people that follow me on Facebook. Will be continued. Any information, comments etc. are welcome. Greetings, Job

What goes through a modeller’s mind? 'Very little', my wife would say, and she’s not far off! Am I the only one who enters a Zen-like state of mind when operating the layouts? It begins like this. You decide to run some trains, forget all the worries. Get the gear out, set up on the dining table. The engine purrs into life, pulls a train off the traverser. You get down to eye level, begin to dream. What if there was something else behind those windows? Distant spires maybe? Lots of spires! Then even that melts away, and you enter a world of dreamy blue skies. Floating freely… …in an uncomplicated world… …where time… …stops… …and the light… …is mellow. Peace, man. Then reality kicks in. It seems I’m expected to lay the table. Ah well!

Part 2 of this particular saga will, perforce, be shorter than my usual wordy waffle. Basically, I've been messing about with some etched brass DC1 brake gear parts from Masokits - I've had them all of twenty years! Now, one of the main reasons why I've done so little modelling in recent years is that I allow myself to become bogged down by obsessing over the minor details, instead of going for a more broad brush approach and actually getting things built and enjoying them! Everything is a compromise, of course, but I thought I'd actually try one the Masokits etches and see how much of a faff it is. Will the end result be worth the expenditure of time and swearing? It is a bit of a faff and the jury is still out on whether its worth the effort, of course, as until the van's axleguards are packed so that the buffers sit at the correct height, I can't do much more with the brake gear than I have already: http:// Cheers, Mark

He's actually building something! The subject of this entry is the start of a GWR Diagram V5 Mink, to be completed in as-built condition. 325 of these vans were were constructed between 1902 and 1904, so they fit perfectly with my "early period" project. The kit is of course CooperCraft's offering, and it is a nice, finely-detailed kit that goes together fairly well straight from the packet. However, I want to add a few refinements by way of etched brass axleguards, improvements to the brake gear, sprung buffers and the like. Like the majority of CooperCraft's kits, this one has High Floor Syndrome. This Syndrome is all too apparent if you have an unladen open wagon, but being a van, its' not so much of an issue, and I chose to assemble the floor in its' intended location. However, I did turn it over in order that the flat surface faces downward to make fitting the etched axleguards a bit easier. One thing that I don't remember being an issue when I last assembled one of these kits is that the floor was too narrow - you can see the light coming through the gap in the photograph - so to prevent the sides bowing inward, I inserted fillets of plastikard. To provide some weight to the finished van, three large nuts were superglued to the inside floor. If anyone is interested in which thread, let me know The weigh of the van body is now about 95 grammes. I've also added a couple of braces across the van at the tops of the sides, again to prevent bowing inward. http:// http:// The etched axleguards were folded up as rigid units, and as my soldering is messy, small dobs of Roket Gel Cyano were used to fix their corners. The pinpoint bearings were also superglued into the axleguards for the same reason, one side at a time to ensure the axles turn freely but without sloppiness. The solebars were stripped of their moulded axleguards and brake hangers, sanded smooth on their backs and, after ensuring that the etched axleguards would fit between them without futher thinning, were assembled to the floor. A small amount of Squadron Green filler was needed at the ends of the solebars where they meet the headstocks. The holes in the floor are to make sure any solvent fumes can escape! http:// http:// The axleguards will obviously need to be packed to provide the correct height, and to that end, I've cobbled up a buffer height gauge that I can use to set this and all my subsequent builds. Unfortunately, I'm a bit disappointed with the sprung buffers I've got. The whitemetal housings are quite badly flashed, not at all like the lovely clean cast housing of the unsprung units I've got from the same munufacturer. I've ordered some Gibson lost wax brass ones, so I'm hoping they'll be rather nicer. But until they arrive, I can't do much more as the running gear all depends on the wheels being correctly located. Cheers for now! Mark

Well, I've been asked over and over to feature Thomas, but I wanted to lay down some groundwork first, so here's No.301's predecessor on the Ffarquhar branch, TK&F No.5! I've included a bit of info on my version of the TK&F, which deviates heavily from Awdry's original.

Next up: glazing. I had originally decided on using Deluxe Sceneics' Glue N Glaze but after using it for the bay windows and not being overly impressed by the results, I figured I'd go back to doing it the old fashioned way. Applying a piece of clear plastic to the reverse also had the added effect of holding the windows in place without the need for glue around the frames which could have damaged the paintwork. I hadn't intended for a modelled interior, so it was important that no one would be able to see in, especially for areas that would later be lit. I tend to employ a lot of net curtains. These are cut from an old LCD screen wipe which has dried out. I stumbled on this by accident and I enjoy the effect. For the upper windows I simply made some curtains in Microsoft Word, scaled them down and printed. With the dormer windows fully prepared to be encased I started on the roof pieces. I worked out the angles by test cutting a spare piece of plasticard until I was happy with the fit and overhang, then made 5 identical copies. I glued them together at the ridge and used a piece of mdf to help form them. An angled piece of plasticard formed the bargeboards and helped to keep the shape. Some smaller pieces of plastic rod were attached underneath to give the impression of projecting beams. These needed test fitting and trimming to make sure they didn't foul the walls and impede the fit. The roofs were painted underneath and given a coat of SR cream to the bargeboards. Next, the roof tiles. I printed this framework out from Microsoft Excel; the larger squares would form the visible tiles, the smaller ones were for the overlap. I scored the vertical lines with a biro to give some relief to each tile without the need for cutting. Then each strip was applied to the roof in lines. This took some time, particularly around the dormer windows, and required a fair amount of patience! Every now and then I cut a small diagonal off a tile to simulate broken tiles. Once complete, the whole roof area was masked and an overall coat of black paint was applied. This is where the hard work starts to pay off. I wasn't entirely sure how effective the biro lines would be. Starting with darker colours and working up to lighter ones seems to work well for painting roofs. After that, a dry brush of a dark grey... Finally, a light coat of a light grey for some colour variation... The terracotta capping was completed in the same fashion. I also added some lead flashing around the base of the chimney stacks. This was achieved with pieces of paper cut to size and sprayed with grey primer. All was painted before being applied to the model in this case. The fencing at the rear was achieved by cutting down some simple picket fencing I had lying around and gluing it to some 2mm square rod. I added some rust marks to the corrugated iron roof above the utility room. In reality I don't know what type of roofing material was employed here, but this feels right. Finally I added the guttering. I hate this part because it's always fiddly getting the elements to attach cleanly and there's always glue over-spill, plus I know it won't look right until it's all done! I painted the guttering first and then touched them up afterwards where the glue affected the paint. The actual configuration of the guttering and associated pipework isn't quite accurate, but I think I have the overall feel of it down. The long diagonal pipes either side of the building were essential and I'm pleased with how they look. The complex pipework falling down the scullery isn't 100% clear in photos but it's certainly similar to what I have here - seems unnecessarily complex to me! Finally the Stationmaster's house is complete! It could do with some more detailed weathering, certainly to the roof. But for now I am happy and more than ready to move on to a new build. Final photos of the finished (for now) build below. Next up: The station building itself! All for now, Jonathan

Sort of started this one as a live blog last week while at he very Great Dorset Steam Fair but my dodgy phone scuppered my plans. More of this in a bit as must tell you that the layout is at the O Gauge Guild Telford show this weekend for what is it's last scheduled appereance. I am not saying it will be the last as I am sure some more will crop up but have had to scale back opperations quite substantially due to life just getting a bit too hectic. Anyway, back to last weekend and I can really recomend the Great Dorset Steam Fair - such a variety of stuff with loads of stuff working all the time pulling a variety of loads including a real Black 5 - at least I think it was as standard gauge is not my thing! Not only were there imaculate engines but quite a number in barn find or unrestored condition which was really facinating. The First World War display was amazing and will warrent a post of it's own at some stage. I would have no hesitation to recomend it and will most certainly be back next year although may bea bit too soon for wife and child!

Here's the third and last instalment about my recent trio of horse drawn wagons. This is yet another GWR "dray", as they are commonly known. GWR drawings generally use the term "trolley", which I understand was the original and more correct term for what is today popularly called drays. The wagon was built from an old Pendon kit, picked up on ebay. There is no mention of the prototype, but it resembles a 7 ton trolley drawing in the Great Western Horsepower book. An illustration of the variation in length and width of three kits for flat drays/trolleys – nicely reflecting how the prototypes varied too, as vehicles do of course. On the left is a Dart Castings offering (see earlier post), and on the right is the Slater’s kit which really is quite large. The Pendon kit is the middle one. The only structural modification I made was the addition of the rear flap (is there a proper name?). These are usually in the down position, held by chains. The main part of the project involved modifying the horse, the carter (aka carman) and "van lad". The horse is from the Dart Castings stable. The photo above illustrates some of their range (no connection), with the measurements as stated in their lists. I like their 1:87 draft horse, which has the bulk of a strong horse but isn’t visually overpowering, as I think some horses can be in a layout context. I had a couple of these horses so modified one of them by raising its head. The neck from a discarded old Langley horse helped achieve this. On the left is the original figure by Dart Castings (as used on my “Ratkin & Son" wagon), on the right is the modified one. Similar work was done to make the carter, using a Dart Castings body and an Andrew Stadden head. Period photos and show that on flat drays like these, carters very often sat on the left side, like this. Presumably it is the safest and most practical position when you have to get on and off frequently, as they did. The van lad was made by modifying an Andrew Stadden figure, as seen here. He has not yet reached the grade that allows him to wear a uniform. A load was made using surplus items from the goods depot, e.g. my DIY cotton bales and crates, and various kits and ready-made items. I added some indicative roping from EZ line. Just a couple of ropes, as too much of this sort of thing tends to distract the eye in my view. In any case, the roping and packing practices on horsedrawn vehicles seems to have been more relaxed than on the permanent way. Two examples here and here. The other side. I tried to avoid colour clashes when building the load. And finally the wagon in place on the layout. That concludes this little series of horsey updates for now. Keep on trotting!