mercig studios

I visited 'Scale Model World' show in Telford a few years ago and that was a real eye opener. 

It was a genuinely international show with traders from as far away as South Korea and Japan. There were many European small traders with interesting products that I have never seen before. It would be interesting to know if they have a different philosophy to the way they treat their traders as opposed to the model rail world. 

They also did a fantastic job of giving space to modelling clubs from all over Europe with a really kid friendly approach. Just simple small things like selections of sweets on each stand that they gave out were great small gestures that got kids involved with the stands and the models on display.

Now I know it is a bit like comparing apples to oranges but I couldn't help feeling that this is what our premier show, Warley should be more like.

M

13 minutes ago, njee20 said:

I’d much rather you were diligently painting my 90 Ian 

 

 

Well silver linings and all that, you can be assured that by not attending this years show I will be getting to those at least four days earlier than if I had attended the show 

As Njee pointed out, I have nothing to sell so this is just a pure advertising exercise as well as connecting with customers so even at the best of times it is debatable whether it is worth the expense. Phil sums it up very well in his post, the stand fee is one thing but once you factor in travel expenses as well as at least 4 days of not working then you get a considerable outlay. So in the current climate, it was not a hard decision to sit this year's show out, I will be back next year.

Having said that I do agree with the general sentiment that Grahame makes but the question is how do you encourage small traders with interesting and unique products to attend when they do not have any hope of even covering their costs.

M 

Hi 

I am trying to find some good quality photos of the class 68 roof fan and grill as I would like to do an etch for the 2mm Dapol model.

So far I am not having much luck, so if anyone has a link to a photo then it would be greatly appreciated.

M

Is this new? Their class 20 has something similar, and I haven't heard of any issues with them?

 

Cheers,

Alan

The ones on the 20 are larger and more robust where as the 70 has thinner versions as the running plate has a smaller width.

Roundhouse has explained very well how to fix the problem. Very simple fix and all you need to do is push the copper pickup up with a micro screwdriver.

It is very irritating and just the act of turning the loco upside down will often move the pickups away from the chassis..... I wonder how many returns Bachmann has had from customers thinking they had a dead loco.... would perhaps have been a good idea to post something on their website as it takes only a few seconds to push the pickups back up.

M

I think elitist attitudes like that are a real shame, and far more damaging to the hobby than incorrectly profiles noses! Whilst I was being slightly facetious about not being able to see the differences I really couldn't tell if they're not pointed out. Hence why I'm happy to pay.

 

I'd never post my work on here for fear of it not meeting the exacting standards certain people (and Carl I'm not singling you out) choose to judge everything by. Enough people get put off and it's fairly irrelevant whether the nose is correct for each sub class of whatever you won't have a manufacturer making them at all! You want to encourage people to the hobby so it prospers? Telling people their layouts are unrealistic and poor won't do that.

 

But anyway... We digress. I'll happily have a Colas 56 and enjoy it in my naïvety of the detail inaccuracies.

Hi Njee

I may well have tweaked the cabs on one for MD but could live with the roof grilles given the p!$$ poor farish version. Is Dapol planning on a later version 56 do we know? with correct roof grilles (it was an odd decision to have em that way in the first place tbh)? I am also still not convinced about the depth of body below the cab windows to bottom of the body either if I was being picky. Looks awfully deep. Of course thats nothing to do with your excellent work.

 

 

Dapol are releasing a Doncaster built version which will be much more 'correct' than the Romanian version which was pretty much an amalgamation of both Doncaster and Romanian with about the only thing right being the rounded front cab windows and some nose end detail.. However it still looks, from the pre production photos, that all the releases will only have the later cantrail grills. The grills are a relatively easy fix but you will need another bodyshell to hack up for the extra grills...some photos of the conversion here:

http://www.mercigstudios.com/gallery/39/class-56

M

Hi

Just a quick bump for a new product from Shawplan that I think makes a big difference to the loco. The etches are extremely fine and prototypically correct.... on the Farish model the top part should actually be under the grill and not on top.

I haven't seen the review either but since Dave brought it up I will repeat my question regarding the fragile parts raised in the review.  What are they and on the model what are they made from and how are they attached.

 

Cheers

 

Jim

I would say that there are no fragile parts on this model, Of the 4 four models that have passed my way I had no problems with the brake rigging and for me they were very robust with none of them falling off despite removing the side frames from the model....... but admittedly I do tend to see things from an N Gauge perspective.

M 

The Dapol version is a representation of the Romanian built locos that had a different window arrangement to the later Doncaster built locos as represented by the Hornby model:

Romanian:

http://www.martinbray-ukloco.com/images/class56/56028-gwentdemo-280195.jpg

later built:

http://www.martinbray-ukloco.com/images/class56/56045-margamd-191097.jpg

Are you referring to the current 47 or the previous Poole original?

Hi

Yes it's the latest version

M

If anyone wants to do the buffer cowl on the Romanian version then it is relativity simple to use the ones from a Farish class 47...... pretty good fit with only around a margin of 0.5-1mm short.

M

Replacement square grills are available from TPM. Just tried a fit and they match perfectly to the Dapol model:

In the above photo they are not glued in place so may look a little bumpy,

M

26015 as modelled by Dapol is in it's mid to late 80's early 90's guise (although it received it's tapered bogie steps quite late on):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martin65/5966920564/

If you want to do a renumber from the model then you are on tricky ground. As Bernard says it is a 'minefield' and just a variety of the things you have to watch out for are bogies/bogie steps/rubber surrounds/headcode box/position of cables/buffers etc etc. Two relatively easy renumbers are 011 and 001 but again only from around 1986-89ish

A good site for class 26 info can be found here:

http://6lda.wordpress.com/

M

Mercig looks to have added very nicely to the model in his post above, although the black around the front windows does look a bit "panda eyes" - compare with the real thing:

http://www.martinbra...epot-240592.jpg[

This was a tough call to make. Dapol have moulded the rubber surrounds onto the loco and should be given credit for doing so....at this scale the moulding is probably about as good as the tolerance of the process can take, which means it is slightly too thick to be prototypically spot on. A good picture of the rubber surrounds can be seen here:

http://www.martinbra...erth-050584.jpg

and then compare to this which is roughly the size of the loco to normal viewing (dependant on your monitor settings):

So you have the option of either painting the moulding black or leaving yellow.... or you could get rid of them entirely which would not be easy as well as leaving you with no surrounds. In all these aspects you have to remember that this is a 2mm model and at normal viewing you probably would not ever notice. On the flip side of this Dapol should be given credit for getting the handrails the correct thickness as well as the bag of bits which are incredibly fine and prototypically correct.

Like with any model, in any scale, if you look long and hard enough you will find faults but this is a great little loco that I would heartily recommend and both examples I have run superbly.

M

Did anyone get hold of a blue one at TINGS?

 

Would love to see a few more close up fotos / quick feedback as getting impatient waiting for Hattons to get their preorders!

 

Thanks in advance...

Here you go Pete some photos of the lovelly new 26 (with some added detail):

(bar across battery box and speedo cable are not on production model)

It is a great model with a real finesse of moulding that I have rarely seen in this scale.

M

This could be a watershed moment in UK social history and it us up to all of us to make it one for the 'better'.

AndrewC put the twitter feed up earlier in the thread and it now has almost 70000 followers, can I encourage everyone to spread the word:

https://twitter.com/#!/Riotcleanup

Off to Lewisham with my broom!

M

numbers for the power cars are 43048 and 43049 (W).... just the photo being a tad blurred that makes it look like 11.

M

The loco given me was effectively a dummy unit so I would imagine that the bogies and wheels will be different on the production run.... the wheels on the photo are just plastic versions and the oversized numbers and livery errors will be fixed before production.

Hope that helps

M

That looks quite nice - subtle as opposed to the rather brutal state we saw on many of them (and I do hope the Chinese don't take it as a signal to carry-on using oversize numbers). BTW wouldn't the weathered version be a Kernow exclusive?

Your probably right about it being a Kernow exclusive. The weathering has been deliberately kept relatively simplistic in order for it to stand a good chance of being copied to a high standard.... they seem to have done an exceptional job with the weathered wagons so I have high hopes that this too will come out well.

M

I have posted some photos of the class 22 on my website which will be used as the master for Dapols production run of the weathered version:

http://www.mercigstudios.com/news

Hope it is of interest

M

My problem is I feel I've read too many postings like that allude to potential issues but I take your point that perhaps I haven't heard from the vast majority who have bought totally reliable models.

Hi

There really has not been a better time to move to N Gauge as the quality of the latest releases is superb. As regard to the aesthetic qualities of the Britannia and other N gauge locos it actually says quite allot about how N Gauge has moved on that people are complaining about the shape of a screw head. Although I would count myself as also a pedant when it comes to things like that, it is useful to put these things into perspective of just how small an N Gauge loco is..... particularly for those who are used to modelling in a larger scale. Photos of N Gauge models can be very cruel when blown up and I think it is sometimes difficult for those that are used to 00 and larger scales to appreciate the level of detail that is now the standard on N Gauge releases..... have a look at the latest 3mt from Farish next to it's 00 brother and it is very difficult to tell the difference.

As somebody who is keen to get started with a layout and N being the only practical option for what I'd currently like to do I'm still loathe to start spending money on the project. I don't know if its just my perception of the current situation but its seems as if every new release is some sort of experiment in improving the technology. I don't quite understand this. Is it really so hard to design and make these models to a given standard consistently? Are they not carefully tested before production?

 

I'm under the impression that by and large that most OO RTR models work very well but if buying an N model you are faced with pot luck. I hope I'm wrong in my impression but this model that promised so much seems to be a somewhat regressive step from an aesthetic perspective.

 

Rant over – frustrated potential N gauge convert.

As with most things in life it tends only to be the bad things that get reported..... I have worked on 100's of N Gauge locos and I could count on one hand the number that have had to be sent back.... that's not to say that quality control could be improved but the main niggles tend to be such things as pickups wrongly aligned and so forth that take very little time to fix. On the whole diesels from both Farish and Dapol work superbly from the box and Dapol seem to have now settled on a very good motor and mechanism which is now fitted in all their latest releases. Steam locos are inevitably more problematic but all I can say is that the Britannia I received is a superb runner. Forums will give a distorted view of the running qualities of locos as it tends to be the people with problems that will post.

N Gauge Farish class 60.

60081 as it appears on the scrap-line at Toton at the moment, with a photo used as the back scene.

Group shot of N Gauge Farish locos.