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Armstrong440

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Posts posted by Armstrong440

    How long have you had those unbuilt kits?

    in Kitbuilding & Scratchbuilding

    Posted

    Here are a few of my stock of kits and bits:

     

    IMG_20171030_124429979.jpg

     

    All of these came from Kingston's Models and Toys in Taunton, sadly long-since defunct, and from JC's original shop on The Bridge which he left a good twenty years ago.

     

    If memory serves, they were bought between 25 and 30 years ago. The Cooper alternative van ends were faded like that when I bought them, so who knows how old they actually are, while the relative prices of the van and opens, bottom-left, is indicative of the rampant inflation in the late 80s/early 90s!!!

     

    Cheers,

     

    Mark

     

    Is that an O5 4-planker?  And could I convince you to part with it?

    The Brown, the Red, and the Grey

    in GWR Rolling Stock: model and prototype

    Posted

    Had a quick look at that. The holes in the solebar for mounting the G.W.R plate are visible. With this print, it's easier to believe one is looking at a vehicle painted in a dark shade but standing in bright sunlight. Also, it's clear that the letters M S L are not painted on but cut out and, presumably, screwed on.

     

    Discussing the cast plate issue with a fellow club member, while returning GWR Goods Wagons to him, he suggested that the discarded plates might have been used as ballast for brake vans - apparently they were loaded up with any scrap metal that was to hand in the works.

     

    I'm wondering at how new the wagon is.  The exterior seems very clean, almost glossy, with not a trace of limewash.  The interior however looks a little pock-marked.  I believe that limewash was applied to the full height of the interior, so I would assume what we're seeing is rather knotty wood that has never been disinfected and hence a brand new wagon.  Similarly, I would assume that the holes for the GWR plate would have been drilled as a matter of routine during the course of construction, for the plate to be affixed at a later stage.  So their presence should not be taken as evidence that the plate was ever actually fitted.

    The Brown, the Red, and the Grey

    in GWR Rolling Stock: model and prototype

    Posted

    On page 417 of GWR Goods Wagons (1998 edition), there is a photo of a GWR W1 Cattle Van, built in 1904 (the year of the change to 25in letters. It has the large "GW" but on the end the cast plates have been retained, and the side number is on the solebar (on a cast plate I assume, although the photo is too small to be sure).

     

    Whether this one is also in red livery is an open question. The caption states that in the original print, bolt holes can be seen on the solebars for where the small "G.W.R" cast plate should have been. The wagon was built in 1904, so could have been turned out in red with cast plates, then later the same year had the large "GW" added and the plate removed. The lack of a shadow could be explained by the red livery still being new.

     

    Alternatively, the wagon may have been progressing through the works during the livery change, and so was painted grey with the large GW at the last minute. But then why use the cast plates? Because they were already on order?

     

    Oh boy, this is nerdy stuff  :)

     

    There is a larger and better-exposed print of this same photo in MRJ 24 where Martin Goodall builds a selection of GWR cattle wagons from various kits and bits.  The article extends into MRJ 25, but contains no discussion on liveries.

    Removing printed decals with Sharpie permanent markers

    in Weathering, Painting & Transfers

    Posted

    As the chances of getting BR blue or green coloured Sharpie marker pens over here are somewhere this side of infinitesimal, would black, (which cunningly I have in stock), do the job and wash off afterwards do you think?

    I may bite the bullet and see what the Chino Supermercados have in their generic marker pen range, what's the worst that could happen?!!

     

    Mike.

     

    Whereabouts in Spain are you?  We live in a small fishing / tourist town in Andalucia, and I know of two academic supply stores that sell Sharpies.  Maybe not all the colours of the rainbow, but the basics are there.

    Buy back items lost in the post

    in Ebay Topics

    Posted

    Was there a return address?  If so, then I find it highly unlikely that both address labels could have fallen off / been damaged to such an extent that the parcel couldn't have been delivered somewhere.  Are RM under any obligation to open the parcel and see if there's an invoice inside?

    Inclined sidings - how to stop wagons rolling?

    in Layout & Track Design

    Posted

    Would sidings ever be on an incline so that wagons could roll away?

     

    GW practice (and I presume elsewhere too) was that sidings were below running line level precisely to prevent runaways so they at most should incline away from the running line to a buffer stop.

     

    It was also GWR practice to have larger coaling stages at the top of a slope, where the coal wagons would frequently need to be pinned down while they were unloaded.  The solenoid-operated pin between the rails, bearing on a wagon's axle, is both simple and effective.

    Cooper craft - Cautionary notes for customers - Its fate and thoughts on an alternative

    in Smaller Suppliers

    Posted

    I have little experience of building Slaters' kits, but have worked my way through a good fifty or more CC kits in my time.  Yes they were groundbreaking when they were first issued, and the detail in the mouldings is still good by today's standards.  But the opens lacked interior detail or full interior depth, and the vans represented relatively uncommon wagons.  Many improvements - both aesthetic and functional - could be made, with varying degrees of difficulty, to produce models which would eventually satisfy even the most demanding of tastes.  So they were good, but certainly not without their flaws.

     

    And now Coopercraft and Slaters 4mm are moribund.  A great loss to the hobby.  It seems that the time has come to draw a line under this episode of modelling history and to look to the future.

     

    Can we do without the kits we've lost?  Or will there be a move to replace them in some form or another?  If so, and assuming the old moulds are life expired, or otherwise unavailable, and development needs to start anew from square one, will the kits be whitemetal or resin, etchings, injection mouldings or 3D prints?   What do people think should happen?  What would you like to see happen?  What do people think the market will support?

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