readingtype

Remembering the excitement and optimism in that time, just a kid in front of the telly as I was, sends a shiver down my spine. If we'd known back then...

Thanks for these kind comments. Either (1) I am not the star photographer I would like to be or (2) mugs are harder to photograph in tea breaks than previously thought or (3) all of the above :-) Ben

I posted another batch on Friday. The ones not going to the other side of the planet should arrive soon. Let me know!

Thanks very much indeed for the delivery reports! Glad you like them. Would suggest you drink from them frequently, taking due note of course that the contents may be hot. In other significant news I have just made the first donation of £230, the funds raised so far from sales of the mug. As advertised this has been given to the Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal. Thanks to all who've supported this so far. Ben

Thank you to those who have ordered already. I am at the packing stage for these orders. I do have more mugs: if you are contemplating an order, please do. All proceeds will go to the Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal, and you can order here: Help Ukraine Fundraiser Mug

Righto. Busy weekend with Globalrail on Saturday and the rest of life today. Here are photos of the finished mug.

And a nice detailing job :-) Are other parts there from AMF87 too?

Quick update, mugs delivered! Photo later...

... and delivered tomorrow (Friday) ...

Answering my own question, I just heard that the last of the mugs are going to be fired tonight. Ben

I guess that's the banner sorted then. What was the other thing?

It's really encouraging to hear (and see) these orders. Thank you. Good news from the mug decorators: this evening I heard they should be able to deliver the mugs by the end of the week. In which case I will be bringing stock to Globalrail on Saturday for sale (see above). On the strength of that possibility, I have just ordered a pull-up banner to act as a good clear advert on the day. Even better, my colleagues in the GRS have agreed to take payment for the mugs on my behalf electronically. So: here's hoping for banners, mugs and a good turnout on Saturday. Oh, and the mailing boxes arrived today so postal orders are not neglected. Ben

Here's the fundraiser mug web page. I'll add a photo of the mug at the very earliest opportunity.

I'm working on a web page to collect orders. I'll post details here as soon as I can. Also I am hoping that I will have mugs to sell at the German Railway Society show, Globalrail, in Didcot next Saturday (18 June). Note this is a MAYBE as I don't have a delivery date yet. Regardless, everyone should come to the show which should be a gem. Globalrail 2022 full details. Disclosure: I'm a GRS committee member!

I think that's a Deutz loco (fairly obviously perhaps, West German produced). Photos most welcome! There's a good Eisenbahn Kurier special currently available, Züge der Alliierten, which covers many of the vehicles owned or used by the British forces. I liked the 1980s(?) Andrew Barclay loco pictured in it which seemed to have been "fattened up" a bit for the more generous loading gauge. Plenty of other oddities too. Look forward to more on this thread. Ben

Invoice paid ...

I must stop referring to 'mug printers' -- they are not printing the mugs. They are hand-decorating them.

Proof approved. We're in the hands of the mug printer!

I've now adjusted the artwork for the final mug dimensions (for some reason it took a while to find out what these were). That's meant a bit of tweaking to keep the loco facing one way and the text the other. We are now moving towards production: the artwork has gone to be assessed to check it's technically OK and I am expecting a proforma invoice so I can pay and get the kilns warming up. I welcome further support of course! I'll post details of how you can donate and receive your mug here as soon as I can. Ben

Thanks for comments/likes on the (second) colour revision. The yellow will be paler than it probably looks on your screens I'm afraid, but (as noted) the change to black lettering means we will be able to read the text! It's been interesting to learn that when I send a colour spec. to the mug producer, he looks it up in the colour reference and then goes to his store of glazes to see which is the best match. There is no possibility of exactitude. Glazing is the right way to make something that will last well and keep its colour (witness all the amazing multicoloured ceramics from hundreds of years ago) but it's not computer-age button-clicking flexible.

New colour samples arrived this morning. Here's the pragmatic design revision, with the text on the sunflower half in black -- Ukraine's yellow is very lemony. Comments welcome of course.

Spoke too soon. Colours thought too far off by a Ukrainian. I must defer to that opinion, as without a credible flag we have no project. More colour samples, requested last week, are on their way...

I've just got the glaze sample chip in the post and I'm inclined to think the colours will do very nicely. So we move on to finalising the artwork...

@Michael Hodgson Thanks. I agree on the subtleties of the effect of the colour change, as they relate to the legibility of the text. I did have that in mind when choosing the new colours. And I'm hoping not just the print but the entire mug is dishwasher-proof... On that point I'm expecting colour chips to arrive at the end of next week to confirm those two colours. Then we can press the big green ceramic screen printing button, I hope. Here's the current, hopefully, final, form of the artwork. I now have the approval of the mug printer that this will (a) be practical to produce (with a total of four tones, it needs three screens) and (b) come out looking nice and even: the halftones should, he thinks, look alright. Cheers Ben

Now there's a question :-) Perhaps it was Roco's T3109 017? http://www.modellbau-wiki.de/wiki/Datei:T3109_017_Roco62861.jpg Many, many more colourful varieties are at http://www.modellbau-wiki.de/wiki/DR-Baureihe_130 Meanwhile here's an update. Testing out the 'official' RAL blue showed it was probably going to come out impractically dark, so I have found some new colours using my trusty Pantone swatch book (this entailed a bike ride as I have lent it to a friend...). I also talked to the mug printer today and he feels colouring the different parts of the loco will look bad because the halftone screens he can use with the solid colours will be fairly low-quality. I'm experimenting with some shading using only the black -- you can see work in progress on the driver's side buffer (our left). Ben