railroadbill

13 hours ago, JZ said:

Who cares? Modelling is about enjoying what you do, not what others think.

A friend of mine is also a very big Gerry Anderson fan, so I sent him a link to this.

Re Gerry Anderson day, there was a 12 hour (!) live feed on YouTube of various interviews, documentaries and episodes relating to Gerry Anderson's shows. I only came across this half way through a making of Stingray documentary that was the last item. However a recording of the whole lot was then available on YouTube so you could pick and choose what you wanted to watch....it's  probably still there.

The opening segment goes through absolutely everything Gerry Anderson made, some more obscure than others.

F.A.B. Virgil.

1:72nd  F16 AM  Royal Danish Airforce serial  E-191 in Danish national flag display colours.  The actual aircraft  was painted in 2019 to celebrate 800 years of the Danish flag.  The aircraft carried out a tour of Denmark to "show the flag".  I'm told it still had the paint scheme last year at the RIAT display.

The kit is a Revell F-16  (cat. No. 03860). It is retrofitted with Quickboost F-16 block 5-10 elevators (cat. No. QB 72 196) as Danish F-16s haven’t all got the larger elevator upgrade that other F-16s did). The markings came from Syhart Decal 72-118 which also includes masks for the red/white paint scheme.

This is the last of my Covid projects, (not that it's the last of pre-Covid projects of course).  :-)  It had really dragged on, for reasons explained below!

An aircraft with a complicated livery. The Syhart decals and masks made it possible, particularly markings like the tail and you do get an option to use either masks or decals (or in my case both in places) for some of the trim lines. There are a lot of stencils to be applied, some very small.

When the basic airframe was assembled I sprayed an undercoat of Halfords white primer (which became the white coat). I then applied the masks from the Syhart set and airbrushed Tamiya XF-1 red. So far so good, I removed the masks and applied Johnson’s Clear to give a gloss coat for the decals. Some of the lining can be done with decals supplied with the set, and I ended up using a combination of masked paint, touched up in places and in some places the decals. I thought I’d apply another gloss coat over another coat of clear, and used a spray can of Humbrol gloss varnish over it. This is where things went wrong.

I’d used the Humbrol gloss varnish before and had a nearly empty can that had given good results and so I used the new can, thinking it would be the same. Alas, the top coat of Clear didn’t protect the underneath red paint and it started to melt and run in places! The Humbrol varnish (acylic) had obviously reacted to both the Clear and the Tamiya acrylic paint. There was nothing for it but to leave the model to one side for everything to harden. Eventually I had another go, touched up the red and white paint where I could. I then took a deep breath and sprayed several light coats of Halfords gloss acrylic lacquer (the stuff you spray over metallic car paint) and that gave an increasingly gloss coat, without any effect on the coats below. Phew.

Interesting about the silicon tubing with ball bearing.

I've used these from Branchlines but they might be a bit small/short for your purposes here.

A small u/j at the end of each shaft. Thin shaft doesn't show up too much going through cab....

I was given one of those Farish tender drives many years ago, it did in a transistorised controller trying to run it!  A "proper" motor was obviously a better idea, but early Farish is  intriguing though.

Found another photo of the Color Line model.

This shows a conference room where a model of the model is being discussed!

Just as a matter of interest, this is an actual Color Line ferry.  The maritime museum is in the red brick building with a high roof on the right, in front of the dock offices. It was very well curated, very friendly and had an excellent cafe as well. Some small preserved vessels outside it.

Bill.

Been going through some pics. Went on a trip to Germany last year and visited Kiel. There's an excellently run martime museum by the harbour in a building that was an old fish market. Very good at explaining the local history and included some superb models.

This is a 1:100 scale model of the Color Line ferry Color Magic one of several ferries that link Kiel with Oslo. They are built with  cruise ship facilities to attract passengers to the route.

The actual ship is 224m (734') long which makes the model  big at 2.24 m or 7.34' long.

The starboard side is cut away in places to reveal certain decks. The amount and quality of detail is frankly staggering.

The full sized ship has a mock "shopping street" to encourage passengers to spend money.

There were also buttons to press to light up different parts of the interior.  The information given was that the main parts of the hull were CNC  machined and the fittings and details were by 3D printer. Made by a large team of people, apparently.  (I think it said the figures are Preiser!)

Anyway, it was over 7 foot of remarkable detail and I thought I should share it with you.

Vintage Airfix Aichi D3a1  VAL Type 99

Made this when I was at school.  For some reason this has survived over the years packed away with various modelling parts.  It wasn't a type of aircraft I was particularly interested in, probably bought the kit because it was a new Airfix release.  This was first issued in 1965 and again in 1967 so I probably made it around then. Would have stopped making kits around then with all the other stuff of life coming along. 

So it's got to be at least 57 years old if not 59.... reassuringly the paint (and glue!) has lasted well, may well be finished in Humbrol 49 enamel matt varnish so that's protected it ok.

Airfix has recently re-released this one again.

Er, what now, back in box for another 57 years?  Ouch.

(So what do people do with old models?)

That radio interview is amazing.  He is obviously very articulate and a very good communicator. I didn't know there had been a Channel 4 program about him either.  Here's someone who played a recording of a class 37 on national radio and had the presenters hanging on his every word.  Streuth!

I've seen him on platforms waiting for various unusual trains while I've been out er, trainspotting and that's only because my mate recognised him. I've  seen railtour train crews taking selfies of themselve with him so he's obviously very well known and popular. As he's selling an interest in trains to a generation much younger than myself and associates, he's doing a  great job and good luck to him.

Thanks Phil.  Seeing more 3d printed parts on modelling forums now, interesting technique. The more you know....

The other thing on your pictures of your diorama is that the lighting adds to the realism,  looks like a bright sunny day. That's another project for me...

9 minutes ago, PhilH said:

Some more progress on the little diorama. This hopefully will depict one of the Belgian Minervas captured by the Germans in WW1.

I printed the lampost in clear resin, masked and painted it. The cobbles and paving stones et cetera are individual items cast in plaster using diorama debris moulds and various pigments.

Next step is my least favourite of all modelling activities, painting the figures.

That looks very realistic,  particularly like the coblestones and the paving.

I've never tried 3d printing, but is there any disadvantage in using clear resin, like it's less strong perhaps, compared to the different grades of the grey stuff?

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

It only gets better when running on your layout, looks like it is gliding above the rails. 

Still photos of them in action at speed in C19th show an eruption at the top of the chimney, which flattens out very rapidly. The exhaust volume in the attached vid is of the right scale, but she isn't going fast enough for the full effect.

 

 

But essential when in regular operation. A plentiful coal and water supply was necessary to deliver the sustained power output.

 Very entertaining video, the speed of the driving wheels is fascinating!

Having missed out on the single last time. I've ordered the large tender one from Locomotion, I'll have a timeline of East Coast locos from the Stirling to HSTs when it turns up, should look great running round the layout.

There was a cartoon in I think an American model magazine years ago where the model railroader sits behind his layout which is separated from the room door by a large pool full of sharks. The punchline was OK Mable, you can send in the kids now!

Pete Waterman's Leamington Spa layout was interesting to see. He made a comment about it being good not to be able to see all the railway at once. Just like the real thing. 

Also the 3d printing and laser cutting being used for the big WCML layout for Chester cathedral was interesting. An hour well spent!

Royal Danish Airforce  DH Canada T. Mk20 Chipmunk

The model is from the Airfix 1:72 scale kit which has been around for some time now. I added instrument panels from plasticard and seatbelts from thin Tamiya tape. As per previous discussions on this thread, they are details that are difficult to see on this model.

I used Lima November decals from sheet LN72-D11, good sheet with lots of stencils as well. From Hannants.   More unusual markings.

I found some pictures on Britmodeller of 2 RDAF Chipmunks in the Danmarks Flymuseum at Stauning airfield in Ringkoebing. They are P-143 and P-147. I picked P-143. It has dayglo orange markings. Mine is based on the museum example. The main silver colour is Halfords aluminium. (The prototype has a painted silver finish, like RAF high speed silver, a typical 1950s finish, rather than bare metal).

The dayglo orange was brush painted with multiple thinned down coats using an old Humbrol tin of enamel.

The finishing coat is Humbrol gloss varnish from a spray can. I’d had that a while but tested it first and it gave a smooth surface so I used it on the model. Museum aircraft often appear very shiny!

The RDAF had 27 of these used as primary trainers from 1950 to 1977. When they were withdrawn they were sold off at auction and a lot of civilian register Chipmunks came from these ones.

P-143  was in flying condition on  the Danish registry as OY-FLV from 2003 to 2008, and it’s been a static exhibit since then.

7 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

Not quite. Neddie built the aeroplane in a garage of Lisle Street (hence wanting to take off from there). Grytpype-Thynne sold him the air to fly it in!

Brilliant! Thanks for that, I've found the episode, got it on tape, "Wings over Dagenham" 1957, and found the script on thegoonshow.co.uk.    There's some good gags in it!

Going to have to listen to this later. 

1 hour ago, Dorkingian said:

 

The Izzard bits seemed to lack quite a bit of model railway detail though, not least how they made the snow.

I've just caught up with this episode, which had a lot of interesting history in it,  and I also wondered what they made the snow from.  Anyone have any ideas?  It looked very good. However I didn't realise the second layout was N gauge for a while, it is to a very high standard.

Re The Goons, I spent a lot of my childhood repeating lines like "he's fallen in the water" and "you dirty rotten swine" etc etc due to the Goons being a significant influence.  It was a long time later that I realised that the show contained a lot of dubious old army style jokes.  Grytpype-Thynne (Sellers) sells Seagoon a useless aircraft that Neddy for some reason wants to fly from Lyle Street in Soho.  The punch line being  "If you can't get off in Lyle Street, Neddy, you can't get off anywhere".   And a notorious gag where Eccles is fired from a circus cannon, having been told "it's your turn in the barrel"  - OK I'll stop there.  

Milligan was absolutely brilliant , his book "Puckoon" is worth a read if you can find it.  imho.

Finally, a very funny Eddie Izzard sketch is "Death Star Canteen".   Darth Varder tries to get lunch...  it's on Youtube, watch the Lego version!!

  Also there were some good trains in the program. I'll stop now.

It's a nightmare!!

There were some dinosaur models on here recently.  So for a bit of light relief  here's RoboDino! It's difficult to tell what the scale is....

Nearly 2 years ago we took our grandchildren to a "meet Santa" event on a local preserved railway. It was very well run, you met Santa then had a train ride to Santa's warehouse where they picked a present. Our grandson, who was then 5, was taken by this RoboDino kit, made from pseudo-Lego type bricks.  So far so good.

When we got it home and opened the box there were many small bags containing lots of even smaller components. The instructions had 15 sections printed so small that you needed an electron microscope to read them properly.  :-)

Well, grandson stared off gamely, then with help from (guess who) me. Then it became increasingly obvious who was going to be finishing this project....🤔

It took me a week.  Unlike Lego, the very small blocks didn't clip together very well. It was a strange type of plastic.  I had to use various glues after increasing experimentation.  I drilled and tapped it, used various bolts and screws.  I managed to get the tail to swing.  I think it looks, roughly at least, as intended to be.  I just had to keep going, didn't want to lose my reputaion of being able to fix anything..🙂

Grandson did have it in pride of place on his bedroom shelf. Don't know where it is now, daren't ask. We definately don't encourage him to get anything with lots of parts that needs assembly....

Bill

Also I liked Jools Holland's story about buying a model of Victor Hugo's house for his layout in, er, Victor Hugo's house. Presumably the house in Paris rather than Guernsey. Coming back into the UK, Customs officials couldn't work out what this was and why he was bringing it in and got the sniffer dogs out...

But it didn't contain anything it shouldn't.

Really glad this series got flagged up on this thread, just seen the first episode via Channel 4 app.

When Jools Holland's layout was featured in both Railway Modeller and Continental modeller I had to get both mags.  The different eras of personal history it covers was very interesting.  Both Pete Waterman and Jools Holland are very entertaining of course.

The layout also incorporated a very important philosophy for lofts, have the layout run round the sides and stand in the middle so you can't see everything at once!

Also great to see a serious program on model railways.

Thanks, Tony and Darryl, I knew this would be the thread to post  the question on!  The A2/1 roof being the same as the V2 is just what I needed to know.  Some excellent models there!

The lubricators on my Nu-cast model are in line on the right hand side, but that is how Nu-cast moulded the holes for them!!

I can now press on, having got back into this one after a long time.

Got the Hornby A2/2 and A2/3 models which you mentioned, which I think are very good. (Plus the usual A3s A4s etc.) and a early  Bachmann V2 I'll measure the roof from, and a Jameson V2 I built in er, 1978...

This one kept getting put back in the box because of it being 2 steps forward one back all the time (or seemed like the other way round!) For example  I had great difficulty in getting the smokebox castings round, so made a smokebox out of brass tube which was nearly the right diameter...etc etc. 

Thanks again.

Thanks for that, looks same roof design as V2.

Thanks for info, Tony.  This kit has been going on for a very long time....

While it came with parts for the 6 wheel tender, I'm doing it in later condition (with lipped chimney) and I have a current Hornby 8 wheel tender chassis, plus a number of  8 wheel tender bodies to choose from...60507 had a tender from an A4 but the others were new ones (according to the RCTS book) so a bit more research there...snap headed rivets?

I do think I've got the right number of lubricators on it though!

 **Just noticed you'd already mentioned the streamlined non-corridor tender for 60507!  And thanks for the other detail differences between the 4 locos.

Bit of advice requested. I've recently dug out a partly finished Nu-Cast kit of an A2/1.  When (if?) this is finished I'll have every type of LNER  pacific available for the layout.  My problem is the cab roof has disappeared.  Now as the A2/1 was a sort of lengthened pacific version of  the V2, the cab is the same (according to the RCTS 2A book).  I can use one of my V2s to trace a template from the roof to make a new roof for the A2/1 etc.  However, I can't find any photos  of an A2/1 looking down and showing the top of the roof.  Normal lineside pics don't show this.  And I haven't got any drawings (have for the other classes).

So my query is, does the A2/1 roof have the same ventilator layout as the V2, is it completely the same? 

I used to go the Alexandra Palace exhibitions, both model railway and model engineering (now gone)  regularly pre Covid.  I'm now going back to a few exhibitions again. I can get to AP both by car or public transport because of its location.  When I went on my own I used both ways at different times (might depend on how much I thought I might buy there!).  It's usually quicker by car (I would still have to drive to local station to get train to London, now £7 a day to park).  When my wife accompanied me to the AP railway one,  a show she really liked, it was cheaper by car for the 2 of us, AP having free parking.  OK, a 46 mile journey according to Google maps,  92 miles so say 1 1/2 gallons of diesel for my elderly small hatchback. At present diesel around £7 a gallon so that's £10.50.  Call it £12.  That would be my marginal cost to get there by car. 

A one day travel card is now around £20 so for 2 people that's around £40 (with railcards).  And it takes longer. 

A further hassle is that one day travel cards are likely to be withdrawn next year, making public travel in London more complex (we have got Oyster cards).

Another point is that driving a 15 year old diesel car, despite doing 64 mpg (measured over a year) is that I would now have to pay ULEZ charges to get to Ally Pally.  My friend with a petrol SUV doing 33 mpg isn't affected buy ULEZ.... although his car produces nearly twice the Co2.

I used to go to some small and medium exhibitions within say a 30-40 mile radius that I couldn't have reached by public transport so had to drive.  Most of those have gone and not returned post-covid. 

I do use the local bus when I can, plus the train being an enthusast for them, but local bus routes are being increasingly cut back.

This was on BBC 4 on Tues 10 Oct at 9pm.  Looks like it was made in 2014. It covers the BR Modernisation Plan and some of its results. Lots of clips from British Transport Films, Blue Pullman, prototype HST and APT, production APT,  50s/60s steam and so on. 

Also some interviews with people involved in developing the APT (recruited from the motor and aviation industries) and the HST (experienced railway engineers)  and a journalist who had to experience the APTs initial passenger runs, which did not last long of course. The HST on the other hand was rather more sucessful....  

Whether you think the Modernisation Plan really did lead to a golden age or if it was a excuse by road lobby pressured Governments to shut down a third of the railway network, there's some interesting train footage here! 

Inside K166. Ply bulkheads and hardwood beams to strengthen the hull. The hull comes in 4 pieces and the seams are reinforced with epoxy resin inside.  MFA 385 motor (others have used a bigger motor but this has more than enough power for a scale-looking speed).  Standard 7.2 volt battery pack which I just happened to have but hull has plenty of room for say a lead acid battery and needs ballast anyway.  The steel decks were sprayed with Peugeot steel grey (Halfords), the camo colours are airbrushed Revell acrylic (with matt varnish over them which has lasted well) and the wooden decks are planked with very thin wooden strip I got from a dolls house shop (run by a lady who has a unit in a local craft centre).

Lots of other fittings painted and kept in plastic bags but there is a danger of them falling  off while transporting/operating the ship so for the moment...