PhilH

Finally finished the Minerva diorama, including my kryptonite, the figures. Supposedly depicting a broken down example with a soldier getting mucky trying to fix it underneath with everybody else stood around taking the P. As always a true victim of all conflicts walks past wondering what the hell is going on.

To me this is totally in line with the current propensity of news vendors to only broadcast or print bad news/ doom and gloom. I think it's an absolute given that if the headline had been '1,000,000% increase in model rail enthusiasts in the UK' it wouldn't have even made the last 10 seconds of a broadcast or the next to to last page of the newspaper. Again, to me, it's just another symptom of the really weird world we live in at the moment.

In my experience of decades volunteering on the MHR there is no such thing as a heritage railway that 'others have completed'. There will always be projects to improve, upgrade or simply keep the infrastructure up together, more than enough to keep people with myriad interests and skills involved even if those people have no interest in the operations side of things.

When I was involved in Hosking's organisation before 'the people' bought FS he was definitely interested in adding it to the LSL stable and I believe made an offer for the thing. It could therefore be a possibility that LSL could take over stewardship of it in the same way, I believe, they now run 60007, or have run it, on behalf of the owners of that machine.

Alternatively I use Sunlu ABS like resin (not water washable) exclusively and when cured properly it's just fine, not 'rubbery' in the slightest. I do pay a lot of attention to support placement, tip point size, density etc. and, unlike others, I only remove my supports when cured and have not had any problems with distortion. I find standard resin much too brittle.

This was my first attempt with it. I am a big fan of SunLu ABS like resin finding it less brittle than standard type. So consequently I bought the Sun Lu ABS like clear resin, and didn't change any settings or anything, just went for it and it seem to work fine with no apparent difference in any of the properties compared to the grey stuff I normally use.

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.

Perhaps the answer would be to try and mount a campaign to reinstall a modicum of common sense into an increasingly stupid population coupled with a degree of self reliance instead of relying on everybody else to do everything for them.

While we're on the subject of totally unimportant things to get annoyed about I get annoyed that I have to go to all the bother of pressing the uppercase key for the RM in RMweb, so much easier if it was all lowercase. For us old people any little bit of energy we can save stands us in good stead.

Before I lost the urge (hohum) I flitted around between starting different models to see if I could rediscover my enthusiasm. Unfortunately this didn’t work so I have a few started kits to finish. This is the first of those, although no means certain at this point I would hope to finish this one too. It’s a Takom 1/35 King Tiger with loads of detail. Unfortunately most of what can be seen here will not be when the hull top etc. is fitted.

After a lengthy complete loss of Mojo during which I have not done any modelling at all I have managed to complete a copper state models Minerva kit which I have depicted as being one of four captured by the Germans and modified by them. What did surprise me was how hard I found it to actually make the kit.The old adage use it or lose it certainly came to play on this one!

That's unusual, they are closed on Sundays and Wednesdays. Obviously they're also shut on bank holidays but be aware their opening times are 10 am to 4 pm.

Paperwork? Try verbal agreement....

Would that not depend on a) if you have the money and b) where that money comes from, whether borrowed or taken from other, arguably more important, budgets?

I don’t quite see where anybody is disagreeing with you. Every volunteer is vital to a railways success, where have I said that one is more important than another? Tbh I’m not now interested in continuing this chat, it’s got right away from the OP so if you want to carry on fill your boots as my old granny used to say.

You really have got an axe to grind haven’t you?

Seriously? I will humour you though. As far as I know on the railway where I volunteered at litter picking is not a stand alone role being part of the wider duties of, for instance, station staff where the qualities I’ve described are needed, rules have to be followed and you definitely don’t go straight in as stationmaster. Happy?

I’m assuming nothing. I used my journey as an example to illustrate my other points which apply to any role on a heritage railway and necessary to first and foremost keep everybody safe there.

Thanks Neal, much appreciated

Aptitude and commitment are in most cases the qualities looked for in volunteer roles rather than perhaps a single interview. Don't forget in most roles one has to start at the very bottom and basically prove yourself, your ability to learn, your ability to function correctly in your chosen role. I spent nearly 20 years as a driver on the Mid Hants railway but prior to that spent 10 years learning how to be a member of a footplate crew starting as a cleaner basically learning the mechanics of being a member of that crew, proving that I could take instruction, had the aptitude for the job, was reliable etc., etc. After four years as a cleaner it was six years as a fireman before finally taking quite arduous written and practical exams to become a driver, as you can see it's a long road and sometimes you wonder if it is worth it .This is perhaps where a lot of volunteers fall by the way side, wanting results quicker than the place they're volunteering at can give them.

So often in modern life it's a minority who seem to have the loudest voice. You have to set these cases against the overwhelming majority of volunteers who enjoy what they do, are happy to do what they do and get a hell of a lot of fulfilment out of it. Of course there will always be reports of bad volunteering experiences but believe me some of these come from people who are just not cut out to be a volunteer, to be told what to do, and to have to do it in the way they are told to do it, which is essential in a safety critical work place such as a working railway.

In a lot of cases I think that the friction comes from the evolution of a heritage railway from a volunteer make do and mend operation into, in some cases, a multi million pound business. I suppose the older volunteers have to realise that the world has changed whilst the full time people running the business have to realise that they are standing on the shoulders of these older volunteers without whom there would no business for them to run.

I have only just stumbled across this thread and congratulate you on your efforts, superb. I have a couple of resin printers and an fdm one too but am limited in what I print to very simple stuff in Tinkercad and downloads as I just cannot get my (ancient) brain to wrap itself round any other cad program. So my question to you is did you draw up all of the designs in this thread in Tinkercad? If so that is a great encouragement to me to really get to know this program better as previously, as you alluded to in your post, most seem to dismiss Tinkercad as little more than a child’s toy leading me to believe that only the most simple of designs could be accomplished with it. Thank you.

6<>half dozen

As I said before you don't print from the STL file that is just a carrier for the information which you then have to slice to be able to get that information into your printers. If a designer makes a high res stl file then that's what is downloaded, and of course apart from one's own designs files are downloaded from the Internet so they are from online servers anyway. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by very crude. I have an FDM printer and two resin printers and the results I'm getting especially off the resin printers could not in anyway shape or form to be described as crude. I'm intrigued to know how exactly an online server would slice an STL file any better than the slicing program I use on my imac. I have printed a great variety of objects ranging from fantasy figures to 4 mm scale loco lamps to training aids for the British Army, the detail on them is high so I cannot understand why you would describe the results as very crude. Also can you point me in the direction of the online servers that you refer to? An STL file is an STL file. A download is a download. I don't understand your point about 'using online servers'. For what purpose? Are they an online slicing service or what are they? If they are online slicers I would like to see if they offer a slicing service superior to the program I have or indeed what services they do have.