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Phil Parker

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Blog Entries posted by Phil Parker

  1. Phil Parker
    In the February issue of BRM, I showed a few photos taken last year when I went over to Australia to talk to the British Railway Modellers of Australia convention. After the main event, we enjoyed a couple of days visiting members layouts around Adelaide.
     
    One of the highlights was Tony Phillips model of Nottingham Victoria. This lives in a 40ft by 32ft railway room and is simply awe inspiring when you see it. Reader Keith Dyson from Nottingham e-mailed me to ask if I had any more photos. Well, it's taken me a while to find them, but here are more shots of this amazing project.
     

     

     
    Looking inside the train shed, still unfinished but looking good.
     

     

     
    The builder usually finds himself in charge of the MPD during operating sessions.
     

     
    Coal traffic is important and on a layout this large, you need a big loco to handle it.
     

     

     
    Finally, the man who built all this, Tony Phillips.
     

     
    Thanks again to the British Railway Modellers of Australia. If you are planning a trip "down under", get in touch with them as they are a friendly bunch with some great model railways.
  2. Phil Parker

    Bantam Tugboat

    By Phil Parker,

    There wasn't space on the page in the magazine for the Batam Tug plan, so here it is:
     

     
    The plan isn't perfect as I've had to work using photos and a few known dimensions, but it will give you a start and since all the tugs were hand made, they tended to vary anyway.
     
    The black and white bars should each be 4mm long when you print it out, if they aren't tweak your printer settings until they are.
     
    Feel free to use it for non-commercial use.
     
    Photos of the tug can be found here.
     
    There's some excellent prototype information here.
  3. Phil Parker
    On page 87 of the June 2016 issue of BRM, I've built a little diorama recreating a scene from my youth - a J94 marooned in a park as a climbing frame. Space precluded a full step-by-step build on the page, but we've plenty of space on RMweb, so here we go:
     



     
    The locomotive come sfrom an Airfix kit supplied by the Kitmaster Collectors Club. Apparently this model the fire at Dapol's factory so isn't in the current range. Fortunately, for this project, a part-built kit is perfect and there are loads of those for sale second hand.
     



     
    As with many diorama projects, the base is an off-cut of 9mm plywood. Size isn't important, but flat wood is so no using up warped stuff!
     



     
    While the playground might have been reasonably flat, a model looks odd if the ground is as level as a piece of wood, so some contours are built up using cheap ready-mix DIY wall filler. Once dry, this is painted with cheap DIY brown matchpot emulsion. I find a surprising amount of my modelling materials outside the "proper" suppliers, but if it does the job, I'll use it.
     



     
    Grass is easy enough, normal electrostaic stuff from Greenscene is perfect, although flock powder would also do the job as playgrounds tended to be fairly well mown. Around the locomotive, I recall tree bark intended to cushion the fall of children plummeting from the footplate. This not being (as far as I am aware) available in any scenic range, some improvisation with the dried contents of used tea bags filled the gap.
     



     
    Fencing is laser cut card from the modelrailwayscenery.com range. It requires bending to follow the ground and some weight to hold the posts in place while the PVA glue dries.
     



     
    Locomotives in parks tended to have many of the removable parts unscrewed before the kids got their hands on them. Thus, the clock hands are gone from the smokebox door, cab detail is simplified (much like the kit) and even some handrails were taken away. All easy enough to do on a plastic kit. For real prototype fidelity, I should have removed the dome cover and scratchbuilt the inside, but that would have taken as long as the rest of the model!
     



     
    While installing the fence, one of the bars broke. Instead of repairing this, I added a muddy path from chinchilla sand behind to show where dozens of people had hopped over and damaged the wood.
     



     
    Benches from Metcalf Models complete the scene. The livery is a bit of a guess as the only photos I have are in black and white, but local councils always seemed to go for something gaudy. My childhood memory is that the real locomotive spend quite a lot of time painted pure red oxide but photos show this wasn't always the case.
     
    If a steam engine doesn't suit your model, I know of an 03 diesel, steam roller and even tiny diesel roller that were found in local parks, perhaps a good use for old and tired models?
  4. Phil Parker
    August's issue of BRM includes a free set of building details from Modelrailwaysecenery.com on the DVD or as part of the download. This isn't a complete kit, but windows, doors, air con units and notices that can be used to aid scratchbuilding or modifying a card building. The details are printed on a colour printer, ideally on to matt photographic paper. You can print as many copies as you need too so hang on to the DVD for the future. For my model, I needed some brickpaper so bought a sheet from the same company, again, I can now print as many copies of this as I need in the future.
     



     
    To give them a go, I decided to try to model the sort of 1950s industrial unit that lives around the railway as it runs through Leamington Spa. The area where my car goes for its service and repair, so I've had plenty of time to observe the prototype...
     
    To keep this a low-cost project, I've used Daler board 2mm thick card for most of the structure and cereal packet card for some of the details. Total cost was under a couple of pounds for all the materials used.
     



     
    For speed, I used a spray glue but Pritt Stick works just as well (use a fresh one as they dry out) and Roket Card glue for assembly. The card glue is very runny so has to be applied carefully, but it sticks very quickly and a bottle goes a very long way.
     



     
    The carcase is made of Daler board with holes for windows and doors cut out based on the printed ones. The main doors are a scale 14' 6" high as I planned to use a large roller shutter door. Size on the prototype varies but do make sure your delivery lorry can go through.
     



     
    As you can see, construction is mainly from offcuts. While sheets of Daler board can be bought from art shops, scrap material is often available from picture framers as they use it for mounting photos and have to cut large, square holes in the middle.
     



     
    Bricks come from the Modelrailwayscenery.com range, downloaded and printed on matt photographic card. This is cut roughly to size and fixed with spray glue or Pritt Stick. Make sure the corner stick down properly, after taking this photo I had to slip a bit of glue behind them. It's not a bad idea to colour the edge of the paper with a pencil crayon or felt tip pen. Be careful with pens though, sometimes the ink can soak in further than you might like so test a piece first.
     



     
    Windows are cut out with a cross and then the paper is folded back and stuck inside.
     



     
    For neat corners, score along the edge with a blunt knife and then flatten the paper around the card with a small ruler.
     



     
    On the brickpaper, there were some detail strips to be used as lintels and along the top edge of the wall. Strictly speaking these should be flush with the brick faces but adding them over the top isn't very noticeable and a lot quicker and easier.
     



     
    A pair of sliding doors are made up by wrapping the printout around a rectangle of cereal box card. This gives a nice double-sided component. If you use the these, the notes with the parts suggest using some old rail along the top as the sliding rail for the doors.
     



     
    Windows and doors were backed with cereal card and then stuck behind the holes in the wall. If you don't back them, it will be possible to see light shining through the paper. Here, I've tried the simpler roller shutter, a more colourful black and yellow safety version is also included.
     



     
    The final option is a folding door. This has to be cut to size and then all the folds scored. Finally the door is stuck to some thin card and then fitted in the doorway.
     



     
    This is a modern building, so it's going to festooned in Health & Safety notices. Plenty are included on the sheet and I'm sure will be invaluable to anyone modelling the current era.
     
    Projects like this are great when you don't have time for a major build. I picked up and put down this one around other work. Since you only really need a knife, pencil and ruler, it could even be suitable for a holiday project. I've built the odd card kit while sheltering in a tent before...
  5. Phil Parker
    In November's BRM, I built the armoured Simplex kit for Owen's Bridge and commented that I wasn't really sure of the colour it should be finished in.
     
    The problem is that there aren't any colour pictures of the real things running around during WW1. A quick chat with Andy Roden, who was writing his latest book “Trains to the Trenches” at the time established that even someone who was carrying out original research couldn't find any.
     
    All the black and white pictures seem to show relatively light colours, hardly the dark green that most of the preserved engines seem to be painted.
     
    So, I made a guess. The wagons were delivered in grey as were many tanks, so is it unrealistic that the loco would be shipped this way too? Grey is a popular colour in the forces and it would blend in with the background and leaden sky's. A note with the article asked readers to let me know if they had any evidence for the correct colour, but this garnered no responses.
     
    At Warley the loco was running around and suddenly people were full of suggestions. Most couldn't provide anything other than a gut feeling but a couple mentioned the Channel 4 TV programme from 2003, Salvage Squad, where they restored a protected WW1 Simplex. Apparently the team discovered some original paint under the petrol tank, which everyone assures me must be the correct colour.
     
    Digging up a copy of the show on YouTube, I could see their point. However the colour on the tank looked very dark and it certainly wasn't the colour the loco eventually ended up (Stickily speaking, neither colour as early shots show the inside painted with a blue-green paint) and even this isn't ideal as the colour changes in the light. Some screen grabs sampled for colour gave me the chart below:
     



     
    See my problem? In the light, the green looks very different than in the shade. Could this account for the light photos? Film emulsion wasn't great back then so many pictures will have had to be taken on bright days. Add in heavy weathering from all the mud flying around, some locos are really caked in the stuff, and you see how difficult it is.
     
    Worse, the loco restored on TV was a very late model. Too late to actually run in France as the war ended before it was shipped. Did the colour change over the production run? After all, those early tanks arrived in the field painted grey but later ones were green.
     
    Anyway, I think I'm convinced that green is more likely than grey so before the next show I'll re-spray the loco with some khaki drab and then chuck some miniature mud at it. After which, someone will turn up conclusive proof that they were really painted pink.
  6. Phil Parker
    Take a look at the Warley 2014 thread and you'll see that if there is one thing that unites railway modellers, it's a need to “see something moving”.
     
    Never mind how much effort goes in to a layouts scenery, if there isn't a train operating then visitors won't hang around. Some will only pause to make their exasperation clear to everyone within a 40 foot radius before moving on.
     
    This means that I approached the show with some trepidation. Although Owen's Bridge wasn't billed a layout in the conventional sense, it's model railway and people expect it to work. I knew it did, but worried how long this could continue.
     
    My problem is a lack of rolling stock. Total number of locomotives available = 1
     
    As any layout owner will tell you, operating at a show is very different to operating at home. The model has to work for 8 hours a day without pause. If a loco fails, you really need something to replace it with straight away or the crowd gets restless. Poking around and fixing things isn't an option – it's not what people have paid to see.
     



     
    Well, I'm pleased to say that my worries were unnecessary. The little Meridian Models loco with it's oddball rubber-band powered chassis and heavyweight whitemetal body ran like a Swiss watch for over 9 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday. Apart from being turned around occasionally so the motor could spin in a different direction and a few short stops to allow the taking of photographs, it didn't miss a beat.
     
    Mind you, this is just one show. The layout has at least three more weekends out next year and I don't care how well engineered this little mechanism is, that's a big ask so I need to build some spare motive power.
     
    Obviously I don't want another identical loco so I'm wondering if any 009 fans have suggestions for a second suitable loco. I'm wondering about the Langley Hunslet but know nothing of the Minitrix N205 it requires other than this will have to be acquired second hand.
     
    Suggestions welcomed.
     
    Oh, and there were many discussions about the Simplex paint job. I'll write these up next week.
  7. Phil Parker

    Packing for Warley

    By Phil Parker,

    It's nearly Warley weekend and I'm busy packing Owen's Bridge up for the BRM stand.
     
    With the fragile wooden bridge out front, I don't want to chuck the layout in the back of the car without some protection so it's now got a wooden cover. Just in case I can't remember what's in there, I've stenciled the layout name on the top in a suitable military style.
     



     
    To make the stencil, I printed out the name in an appropriate font on a sheet of paper and cut out the letters with a sharp knife. The paper was then stuck to the woodwork with masking tape and then painted by splodging emulsion around with some coarse sponge - actually an old fishtank filter.
     
    I think it looks pretty good and best of all I'll know which way around the box goes over the layout. Anything for a quick getaway at the end of the show!
     
    Now, as well as the layout, there is space for a few older projects on the stand. Anyone got any they'd like me to bring along?
  8. Phil Parker
    In the November issue of BRM, I've shown how I built a couple of wagons to accompany Howard's Road-Railer. For anyone who fancies doing the same job, here are a few more details.
     
    First, you'll want a plan:
     



     
    A full size version of this can be downloaded from here. This shows the skip wagon but if you prefer the flat version, just leave the sides off.
     
    When I built the models, the closest I'd managed to get to the real thing was the wrong side of a chain-link fence at my local station. A few weeks later though, I found just the thing at a preserved railway and took pictures from all the angles normally unavailable.
     



     



     



     



     



     
    As I say in the magazine, these wagons seem to be similar to each other but with many detail differences. My versions are generic and would be fine for most layouts, however if you want perfect, with a bit of luck these photos will help.
  9. Phil Parker

    St. Simon at BRM

    By Phil Parker,

    In August, as part of putting the RMWeb issue of BRM together, guest editors Stubby47 and St. Simon joined the team for the monthly planning meeting. We asked them both to write up the day to give everyone a behind the scenes view of how BRM is planned and put together. Last week we enjoyed Stubby47's view of events, now as the magazine arrives in the shops, it's over to St. Simon:
     

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    I was invited to visit the BRM offices in Bourne, Lincolnshire, to view the process that makes the magazine, as part of the RMweb Special October Issue. I met with Stubby47, my fellow guest and RMwebber, Ben Jones, Andy Y, Howard Smith and Phil Parker, who are a great bunch of people, who are real modellers and are passionate about their work.
     
    For the morning, Stu and I were show how each issue of the magazine is put together. I’ve always thought that it was just bung a load of articles in as and when they come in, but no, some quite intricate planning goes on to get a balanced issue so all the articles work together and are not too long or too short. Plus it was quite clear that they listen to the readership and try and sort out problems and take in suggestions.
     
    There’s an incredible amount of work that goes into each issue, by a relatively small team of dedicated people, but it gets done in a very effective manner. With this, we took a look at the design process, which is handled by one person. Stu and I looked on (and gave the odd suggestion) as Ben, Andy and Phil made changes to articles to ensure the right ‘look’ for the magazine. It is not until you view this process that you realise it’s actually quite a hard job to get the pictures balanced with the text and working together on the page.
     
    We moved onto the Cover design, this is where I was out-voted, a steam loco it was to be (but it was a lovely photograph!), despite my preferences to Modern Image. But this is where Ben told me, what I thought, was slightly discouraging, Diesels on the Front Cover don’t sell.
     
    This made me think, unless we the readership change this attitude, I don’t feel that younger people will want to enter the hobby as much, as the fact is that more and more are diesels ‘in fashion’ for Young modellers. I’ve been to countless exhibitions where young people have asked to get models of the trains they travelled to the exhibition on, but there is still a significant proportion of the hobby (which is shrinking slowly) that still thinks ‘nobody like that modern rubbish’.
     
    Having decided on the front cover design, we had lunch and watched the Vulcan and Lancaster’s on Flight Radar, as well as being able to see Stu’s lovely (?!) toilet diorama, which, in the best compliments is really filthy!
     
    Next we got to sit in on a planning meeting, for issues three or four months ahead! I thought that the next issue was only dealt with once the previous issue was put to the public, but now I’ve seen the amount of work that has to go into each issue, it’s obvious that some prior planning is needed! It was fascinating to see how the team work out which bits fit together well or where which articles need to be placed, as well as working around problems like having no words to photographs for certain things, as Ben said, “it’s a 3D jigsaw puzzle”, much like the real railway, I thought.
     
    We stopped for cream tea and scones provided by Cornish and escorted to Lincolnshire by Stubby47 with great pride. Although I didn’t partake, the rest of the team were pleased as punch!
     
    That was really it for the day, I found the whole day extremely interesting and the BRM team friendly and great to talk to, when reading the magazine, you have to remember that these guys are railway modellers as well, so they want to produce a great magazine for people to enjoy, and they do.
  10. Phil Parker

    Stubby47 at BRM

    By Phil Parker,

    In August, as part of putting the RMWeb issue of BRM together, guest editors Stubby47 and St. Simon joined the team for the monthly planning meeting. We asked them both to write up the day to give everyone a behind the scenes view of how BRM is planned and put together. The electronic version is released today so we'll start with Stubby47's view of events:
     

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    First off, I must say a big thanks to Ben, Andy, Howard & Phil for their hospitality and making the day so enjoyable. It was great to meet the team and see where the magazine was produced from, both in the location (deepest Lincolnshire) and the office itself (top floor of an old malt warehouse).
     
    As was suggested in Andy's original post asking for guest editors, the issue under discussion was the RMweb Special, with content supplied by and chosen by members of the RMweb community. This issue is due out just before the RMweb Live event at the Rioch Arena.
     
    The day started with a look at the four suggestions for the RMweb Issue front cover. The example black & white front page prints were handed round and we were asked to pick our favourite. Ben also informed us of the different challenges in using certain types of image on the cover and how that affected sales. For example, my suggestion of actually using a black & white image was so much of a no-no I was almost thrown out !
     
    Planning
    With that decided, Ben explained how the magazine content was planned, not only for the next issue, but all issues for the next 12 months. The idea is to provide a balance between the scales and eras of the layouts, then interweave supporting or contrasting other content to ensure there is something in the magazine each month to interest the readers. Not every article will engage every reader, but there needs to be a wide enough range of subjects so that there is something for everyone.
    The layout content is arranged month on month to provide a balance of interests, but this is often limited by what material is either already to hand or can be obtained (photos and/or text) by the time the issue is due.
     
    Photography
    The art of the photographer was also explained - it's not simply a question of taking nice shots of the layout, there needs to be some thought to composition so the photos will fit the format of the intended article, for example a mix of portrait and landscape shots, with areas of blank sky or scenery where the caption can be added. For those potential shots for the front cover, more thought is needed as to how to compose the shot to provide more spaces for all the extra images and pieces of text which highlight further content.
     
    Issue detail
    Once the longer term planning has been done, the team then consider the page-by-page content of the next issue. A large diagram shows an outline of each page and the content it will have. There are certain items which are in every issue, such as Ben's editorial or the Letters to the Editor, so those pages are pre-allocated. Then, depending on how much advertising space has been sold, there are a set number of blank pages left in which to add the content. As well as the layouts, there are the Practical BRM pages, the News and Reviews slots and any special pages advertising forthcoming BRM events.
     
    Page Layout & Design
    Once each article is decided, the text and images are bagged (yes, really) and passed to the designer to fit them on the allocated pages in the most attractive way. At this point, Andy usually interrupts the process - asking for changes to the images, swapping items around and generally causing chaos. The pages are then printed and passed back for proof reading, before being signed off, or passed back to the designer for changes or corrections.
    Once every page is ready, the whole lot is sent to the printers to be made into finished magazines to be distributed to the subscribers and retailers.
     
    Interfering...
    After the detailed and fascinating explanation, we stopped by the designer's desk to see the actual process. True to form, Andy decided he wanted images for Bacup altered - "Just make the border a bit wider and taller". We all chipped in with the October issue's front page, making helpful suggestions about the position of the image and the references to this one being an RMweb special edition. My suggestion of changing the BRM masthead to BRMweb was my second strike - another definite 'No!' from Ben.
     
    Detailed planning...
    After a quick bite of lunch we joined in a session of arranging the content the next few months' issues. Ben and the team planned and re-planned the layouts until they were happ(ier) with the balance, ensuring a fair representation of region, era and scales was included.
    Further planning sorted out the additional items to be included, in some cases over several issues with a themed content linking the articles together. Each of the team was given a list of articles to write, models to build or layouts to photograph.
     
    One surprising aspect was the large boxes of 'stuff' that arrive for review; tools, rolling stock, scenic items. These were handed out with the instructions to 'do something with it' - the something having to include preparation of a 2 or more page article.
     
    Conclusions
    By no means is producing a magazine a simple job. It takes time, patience, an encyclopaedic knowledge of layouts and their merits and an ability to understand the readership's wants and needs, as well as meeting the budgetary constraints and sales targets. On top of that, there are the additional tasks of arranging photography sessions with layout owners who can only arrange access for weekends, buildings items to order to meet issue deadlines, attending exhibitions as BRM representatives and still finding time to be enthusiastic about model railways as a hobby as well as a job.
     
    All in all a fascinating day and one from which I have some inspiring and humorous memories....
     

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    Thanks to Stubby47 for bringing along some of Cormwalls finest products so we could enjoy a cream tea in the middle of the afternoon. We'll post comment from St. Simon next week.
  11. Phil Parker
    In the September issue of BRM, I've been painting some little people. While the step-by-step guide covers the painting part, I've set them in a little scene with the two hikers asking directions from the passing cyclist. Here's how I built the model - it's in 7mm scale but everything would work in 4mm:
     



     

    The base for the scene is an offcut of plywood 16cm by 14cm. My plan involved a gateway on to the country road so household DIY filler was used to build up the grass verges and camber in the road surface. A coat of mud coloured emulsion paint seals everything and gives a nice base colour to work on.


     



     

    A whitemetal gate casting hangs on gateposts posts of real wood, but not the ones supplied. A single length is intended to be cut in half and I reckoned that this wouldn't leave enough to bury in the ground so I substituted bits of basswood. The road surface is from the
    Geoscenics pothole road kit using the grey powder on the road and browner shades in the gateway. This is laid on to PVA and then swamped with the same glue watered down. While sludgy, a toy tractor was run in and out of the gate to model the rutted surface.

     



     

    The hedge is rubberised horsehair dipped in PVA glue and then rolled in flock powder.


     



     

    Even for the countryside, it's bit untidy. I think my model is set in the 1930s when farmers would "lay" a hedge properly instead of flail cutting it as they do now. A little tidy up with some curved nail scissors (a very handy tool) smartened things up.


     



     

    Finally, a bit of electrostatic grass finishes the scene. Spraying this with hair spray then sprinkling some yellow flock provides a few dandylions for our rural location. After this, the people are fixed in place by drilling holes in the base to accpet the pegs cast in the bottom of their feet.


  12. Phil Parker
    Thanks to Chrisf for prompting me to write this post based on my beer festival project in the current BRM. Obviously the model came about after lots of careful research carried out at my own expense.
     



     
    As Chris says, “I had been wondering how Phil Parker would set about modelling a beer festival. Most of those that I visit are held in old town halls, corn exchanges and marquees but his village hall looks positively idyllic!”, lots of beer festivals are held in slightly grim conference centres (London, Birmingham) but others take place in rather more interesting locations.
     



     
    To give a few examples; both Warwick and Stratford festivals are held at racecourses. Long Itchington covers a whole village with all 6 pubs taking part erecting outdoor bars and barbecues in the car parks and courtyards. Several preserved railways also have a go with stations bedecked in bunting and a beer tent in the car park.
     



     
    My model is based on the Harbury event held in the village hall at the end of August. While the beer and bands are inside, on a bucolic evening, many of the visitors enjoy their drinks outside where there is a small car park, children's playground and large grassy area with benches. It's a simple formula that could be configured to fit an odd-shaped space on any layout.
     
    If you really fancy something different, a couple of years ago, one couple held their wedding reception at the festival so among the drinkers there were some smartly dressed people and of course a bride in her wedding dress. In model from it would certainly be different from the traditional scene outside a church!
     



     
    Festivals, carnivals and fetes all make interesting an attractive subjects to brighten up a layout. You could even use them to firmly set the period of a model – Olympic rigs would tend to suggest the summer of 2012 or Scottish modellers could be bang up to date with some Commonwealth games posters. Heading back in time, who remembers Silver Jubilee celebrations from 1977? Streets full of bunting and parties would be really eye-catching in miniature form.
     



  13. Phil Parker
    When I started writing for modelling magazines many years ago, authors were able to remain safely hidden behind our word processors. The more gregarious might be found at exhibitions, happy to engage in banter over the barrier, but generally, readers were spared the sight of our ugly mugs.
     
    All this has changed.
     
    First, in common with much of the popular press, our faces started to appear in the magazine. We're not in an ivory tower, we're real people and real railway modellers too. At exhibitions, the BRM team can be found talking about the hobby all day.
     
    Now there is another development – BRM TV.
     



     
    The August issue of BRM is available in two forms. The standard magazine or a special “Premium” edition that can be purchased from branches of WH Smith. This special edition includes a DVD with features on the layouts Monk's Bay and Glendower plus Tony Wright looking at the Hornby P2, Howard Smith fitting a Train-Tech sound chip and me planting grass fibres.
     
    Filming yourself for these sort of things is possible, but we are determined to make this the highest quality possible. To that end, Howard and I met our cameraman, Chris, in a photographic studio just down the road from the Wimpy bar in Peterborough. To be on the safe side, I'd had a hair cut and wore a nice clean BRM polo shirt.
     
    The studio was set up with a white background and enough lighting to warm the place up faster than the air-conditioning could cool it down. Our plan was to film practical features, so we were weighed down with boxes. Chris had a mountain of expensive camera equipment as he does this work for several Warners titles.
     
    After some set-up time involving one of us sitting behind a paper-covered table while Chris fussed around with the lighting, we got started. I volunteered to go first and gathered my equipment together.
     



     
    It quickly became obvious that filming wasn't a simple job pointing the camera and telling us to get on with it. Every few seconds we stopped so things could be zoomed in on or shot from a different angle to provide the best view. Pretty quickly we learned to remember which hand we'd done something with or where a tool had been laid down so when the close-up looked the same as the wide shot (You'll note that I'm getting the lingo).
     
    One problem I found pretty quickly was that all the heat makes PVA glue dry in a few seconds. My plan involved painting a small board with glue and firing grass at it. While the camera was moved it dried clear. Anticipating this, I had brought an identical spare board which was duly painted and grassed. Keen to do more than the basics, I then added more texture to the grass with fibre and flock.
     
    Another issue was the green fibres getting everywhere. Not being the tidiest worker in the world, the nice white table soon looked like it was covered in green fur. It's a good job that part of the process requires a vacuum cleaner or the photographers who use the studio would still be picking bits of nylon grass out of their equipment now.
     
    All in, my section took around an hour to film and the end result is just over 9 minutes long.
     
    Howard then worked through his project while I made trips to a vending machine for enough cold drinks to keep us going. By the end of the day we'd been at it for just under 4 hours.
     
    Chris then took the footage away to edit – another long job – and turn in to a DVD. As soon as these came back from the duplicators, he stuck a copy in the post and I watched it through my fingers. How do actors and TV presenters watch their performances?
     
    Thank goodness for expert post-production, there's no badly fluffed lines and we both sound like we know what we're talking about. In the end, there are some things that are simply easier to explain by demonstration than explanation on the page so BRM TV gives us a way to cover those topics.
     
    Happy viewing.
     



  14. Phil Parker
    In the August issue of BRM, Howard builds some etched signals in 7mm scale. Inspired by this, I've tried the economically priced operating colour light signals for 4mm scale models from Train-Tech.
     
    The company produce a range of designs, each supplied in kit form and simple enough for anyone to build who has stuck an Airfix Spitfire together.
     
    The two aspect signal I built costs less than £10 and takes about half an hour to assemble and paint. It's designed for DC control but DCC versions are available.
     




    In the packet is a sprue of plastic parts that cover all the different signal designs. The leftover parts would make excellent lineside clutter. The stick is a ready wired circuit board with a pair of LEDs at the top and power connections at the bottom. A resistor is included to reduce the 12v to a level safe enough for the lights. Not shown, but included, is a length of aluminium tube for the post.
     



     
    All parts are assembled with plastic cement. I painted the signal head around the light before fitting to avoid getting paint on the LEDs. Cutting the parts from the sprue took a bit of care and this is mentioned in the instructions, but as long as you use a sharp knife and support the parts, you should be OK. If not, repairs can be made with liquid plastic glue.
     



     
    Painting is simple – Humbrol matt black for everything except the post for which I used the same firms acrylic grey primer. The lights are bright although the green is dimmer than the red. Electrical contacts are on a stick 6cm below the base of the signal which might be a problem if you have a very shallow baseboard. Powered by 12v DC, this kit includes a suitable resistor and instructions on how to wire it up.
     
    I'll admit, I was very impressed with this. Everything assembles and works without any problems. While others are far more expert on signal design, this looks pretty good to me and I'd happily use the kits on a layout.
     
     
    Train-Tech
    www.train-tech.com
     
    SK2 Home Aspect self assembly signal kit - £8.00
  15. Phil Parker

    Scary close-up

    By Phil Parker,

    There are times when I wish magazine pages were smaller. For a future edition, I needed some figures and when looking at those available, one thought was running through my mind:
     
    “What will these look like really, really close up.”
     
    Look at your layout normally and you view it as though you are seeing the scene from a nearby field. Even in 7mm, the view is similar to that you might get from 50 feet away. The same scene, on the page will be viewed as close as you see your dentist – near enough to watch the hairs up his nose.
     
    The camera might not lie, but it's very rarely kind to model making. An awful lot of the images you see in a magazine are reproduced larger than life size. Because of this, any little errors are magnified for all to see.
     
    I know of one P4 layout where they didn't spot a tiny rail misalignment until they saw a photograph of the model. Then it stood out, but in real life, even for the most fastidious modellers, it was invisible.
     
    A couple of years ago, I was politely taken to task by a figure manufacturer who asked that review samples weren't shown many times their real size. There was nothing wrong with the models – indeed they are superb and I don't know any modellers who would hesitate to have then grace their layouts. It's just that a 4mm scale person magnified ten times or more, will look crude unless the mastering is of a quality comparable to a Fabergé egg and produced at a similar price.
     
    Anyway, my little diorama will be in 7mm scale and make use of people from the S&D Models range. All I have to do is paint them up to a standard that will stand scrutiny. So far the hair is OK, but I need to work on the eyes. Perhaps I should look for a set of photo-realistic transfers, or is this a step to far?
  16. Phil Parker
    Last week, the editorial team sat in a small meeting room for a day and threw around some ideas. Out of this will appear, as if by magic, a rough plan for the next six months or so of BRM content.
     
    As the practical one on the team, this sort of forward planning is excellent news. I now have a big list of projects to work on. Some are quickies that will only take a few hours. Others are far more involved jobs including a new layout.
     
    Knowing what I'm doing and when it needs to be completed is essential as I'll need to get all the materials required in stock as quickly as possible. Even with modern communications and on-line shopping, there are always bit and pieces you can't easily pick up. As the show season winds down for the summer lull, I won't be able to rely on taking a trip out at the weekend to buy some finishing touch items either.
     
    Luckily, I do have an excellent local model shop and being based in the middle of the country, it's reasonably easy to hop in the car and find at least two others within an hours drive.
     
    At least I can start the shopping now. Waiting on the postman for a vital item with a deadline approaching isn't a lot of fun – trust me, I've been there. And why is it that when you are in a hurry, the post always takes a day or two longer to arrive. Mind you, there are bits I ordered for Edgeworth months ago that are still yet to appear!
  17. Phil Parker
    In his thread "Layout Damaged at Open Day!", Darren described the damage sustained by "Torrington" at a recent event. Part of this involved a car going missing from the scene. While I'm sure all RMWebber's will sympathise (many already have on the thread), there's not much we can do to help remotely.
     
    Except to replace the missing car.
     

     
    The car in question is a Morris Minor - normally nicknamed a "Moggie". I dropped in to my local model shop and rooted through the selection of Oxford Diecast models on offer. Sadly, there wasn't an exact match but I had the choice of a convertable version or a Traveller. The convertable seemed a closer match, and I've never liked the woodwork on the Traveller anyway, so I paid up and brought the model home.
     

     
    Like all Oxford Diecast models, this is a nice looking model car. When you consider the range available at such reasonable prices compared to a few years ago, it's amazing. I remember kitbuilding a similar car where 2 roof castings were included and I had to use both as neither was long enough...
     
    Anyway, not all was perfect. There's a blob of paint on one wheel and to my eyes, the paint is far too shiny.
     
    The model is taken apart by undoing a pair of screws underneath. The rubber tyres are easily prised from the hubs so the blob could be removed. This left a bit of black plastic showing through so I repainted all the wheels with Humbrol cream. While this dried, I looked at the body. Removing the glazing wasn't an easy option so matt varnishing the bodywork was going to require all the glass to be masked off. A fiddly job and one I chickened out of.
     
    My usual choice of varnish is Testors Dullcote. Until recently I'd only ever seen this as an aerosol but it is also available in a bottle and I'd picked some up from Hobby Holidays a few months ago.
     

     
    Anyway, a couple of coats brushed over the paintwork has reduced the shene to a much more realistic level, all without the need to mask anything. If you are interested in brushable varnish options, I tried a few different options on my blog last year.
     
    With the car dry and re-assembled, I thought there was one finishing touch that it deserved - some new numberplates.
     
    Using Paintshop Pro, I made a black rectangle then overlaid the text "RM WEB 1" in 7pt Arial and then printed this at 25% on photo quality paper. Careful cutting out was followed by colouring the edges with black felt pen. The finished plates were fixed with smears of UHU.
     

     
    Now the car is finished and packed to go in the post, ready to fill a space on Torrington.
     

  18. Phil Parker
    Working on a model for a future article, I scratchbuilt a door from white Plasticard. It's a simple job – just cut a rectangle out and scribe the surface with an Olfa plasticard cutter.
     
    Next, the door was painted a sunny green to match the windows and left overnight.
     
    In the morning, weathering work commenced with a wash of enamel track colour Humbrol. I'd hoped the paint would sit in the gaps between the planks emphasising them as well as toning down the green.
     
    I'd obviously not left the base colour to harden long enough as it was washed away in places. This could have been a bit of a disaster but I think I quite like the result. The paint looks as though it has weathered, wearing away in patches through the efforts of the sun and rain.
     

  19. Phil Parker

    Beer research

    By Phil Parker,

    The current beer-themed issue of BRM includes a piece on the National Brewery Centre in Burton-on-Trent. Andy York and I spent a fantastic afternoon with the team behind the museum and I can wholeheartedly recommend it as somewhere well worth a visit.
     
    I took the train to Burton and local(ish) lad Andy picked me up from the station. With a few hours to kill before we were due at the museum, we drove around looking for interesting old buildings to photograph.
     



     



     
    The first is the Midland warehouse beside the station. Now a hotel, it's been restored but still looks the part. There are some interesting buildings out front, hidden from the trains. One is obviously a weighbridge hut, but I wonder what the others were?
     



     
    A bonded warehouse is still operational and apparently still has many original features inside. I say apparently because the security guards didn't want to let us inside for a look around. Maybe we don't have sufficiently honest faces, or just looked thirsty!
     



     
    On the edge of town there are several old industrial premises that have been converted in to offices. If you ignore the air conditioning units and other modern additions, the fabric of the building still survives and some of the detail is worth noting for inclusion in other models.
     



     
    Lunchtime arrived and Burton being a town of breweries, we stopped off at one of the smaller ones – Burton Bridge Brewery. A quick pint and delicious ham roll later, we headed off to the museum.
     



     
    I'd arranged for us to meet the volunteers who look after the N gauge railway model, our plan being to take some new pictures of it. As far as anyone remembers, the last time it appeared in print was very soon after installation in 1985. Since then the museum has closed, changed hands and re-opened. Trackwork on the model has been replaced and a number of new locos built by the team.
     



     
    Initially, they were a little nervous about letting Andy wave cameras around. The model lives in a glass display case for protection and although we could have the doors on this slid open, dangling cameras over the cardboard buildings wasn't allowed.
     
    After a few pictures were taken using the camera on a tripod, confidence had grown and the camera found its way carefully in between some of the structures for close up shots. The model is fabulously detailed but the best way to appreciate it is to take in the overall picture – it is a truly magnificent piece of work. I've included one of the photos below as space was a bit tight in the magazine to really do it justice - click on this one to see it as large as the RMWeb system will allow me to upload.
     



     
    Station Street features a tramway and some of the numerous level crossings dotted around the town centre. Many of the scenes are taken from life, someone carried out a lot of research for this model!
     



     
    Elsewhere in the museum, there are more models showing different aspects of the industry. As a boat modeller, I enjoyed the water borne craft that pre-dated railway transport. These were in cabinets near the railway, hence the reflections in the photo. Hopefully they give you an idea what there is to be seen though.
     
    Thanks must got to the staff and volunteers at the National Brewery Centre for looking after and helping us during the visit.
  20. Phil Parker
    Chatting to visitors to exhibitions, lack of space for model making seems to be a common problem. Some people assume that to produce anything you'll need a fully equipped workshop full of lathes and pillar drills. Nothing could be further from the truth. My workbench is a pretty small space in the corner of a room and I still churn things out.
     
    My work area is a wooden cutting board around which are the tools and materials I'll be using. I won't pretend to be organised, if you saw me operating, in common with most modellers, it's pretty chaotic. I'm happy with it though and that's all that matters.
     



     
    Years ago I enrolled on a home study course in accountancy. This meant that I needed to be able to use my desk for books and paperwork as well as model making. Not being a tidy worker I suspected that having to get all the tools out and put them away at the end of every session was going to slow the progress on any project to a crawl or even stop it altogether. A second desk seemed the best idea except there wasn’t room for one in the room.
     
    If you read old railway modelling magazines as I do, you will have seen various devices described to enable the kitchen table worker to have access to a portable workbench. The photograph usually shows a wooden case like device with a prehistoric electric drill mounted somewhere on it. I contemplated one of these but decided in the end that this was all too complicated. I didn’t need storage drawers etc. as these could continue to live on the shelf. What I needed was the work area to be portable. It didn’t even need to be very mobile as the furthest it had to move was around 3 feet away to sit on a bed. What I needed was a second desktop.
     



     
    My solution is shown in the drawing and has worked for me for over twenty years. Built of 9mm plywood cut to size by the local DIY store (in the days when we wondered “How do Do-It-All do it ?”). All I had to do was cut the curved ends and pin and glue it together. A few coats of wood stain and clear varnish, a length of PECO code 75 track and the job was done. The track is wired up with a set of my standard plugs so I can attach a Gaugemaster Handheld controller as used on the layout for loco testing, although a couple of leads with croc-clips on the end and an HM Clipper normally suffice.
     
    A final touch is the use a 1 inch thick kitchen cutting board which allows me to have a working area raised above the detritus of my modelling activity - tools are pushed off the work area but remain handy. The ubiquitous green cutting mat can be used on top of this but not when soldering.
     
    A bonus of making this is that it is ideal for use when demonstrating at exhibitions and it has become quite travelled. Best of all it works for the intended role. In a matter of seconds I can have a clear desk ready for anything I might need a clear desk for (not the accountancy course - I never finished it).
     
    If you chose to make something similar, dimensions are not critical. The only improvement would be to make the shelf for the track wide enough to take O gauge track with OO laid down the middle of it. Not only does this allow for changing modelling plans but gives helps catch derailments !
  21. Phil Parker
    Most of my work for BRM is at the workbench, but sometimes I get out into the big, bad world. A couple of days ago, we needed a photo of a station at night for a feature so I set off to Hatton with a camera and tripod to grab some photos.
     



     
    While I was shooting the infrastructure, I had to keep stopping as trains were getting in the way. Despite it being after 9pm (guess who should have done this before the clocks went forward) at least 8 trains passed by in the 40 minutes I was there. The station sits between Leamington & Birmingham and is served by passenger services from Chiltern Railways. London Midland and Virgin trains flew through without stopping and a couple of container freights also rumbled by.
     
    I'm not that well versed on the working timetables for modern railways but nowadays it's possible to use www.realtimetrains.co.uk to find out what you'll be seeing. Just search for the station and the site gives a list of trains calling. Switch to the detailed view and you'll get a longer list including those that are passing through. It's even possible to drill down and find out the full route of each including the freight services.
  22. Phil Parker
    It's often suggested that as soon as you build a kit for a model, someone will bring out a ready to run example almost immediately. This happened to me with the Fowler diesel shunter last year. There I was innocently browsing the NG Trains stand and I spotted a notice bearing the picture of a loco that looked very similar to one in my unfinished kit stash.
     



     
    The story began over 15 years ago. At my local model railway club, a few of the members decided that while none of us felt up to building an O gauge layout single-handed, we were all enthusiastic enough to each build a few wagons and a loco. Bringing these together we'd have enough stock for a modest layout which could be built in the clubrooms.
     
    Soon afterwards I found myself in Tennents Trains looking at some kits on the shelf. The Fowler had always appealed to my love of industrial locomotives and since the layout was to be a brewery, a model would be ideal. After spreading the parts out over the counter, I decided the Eric Underhill kit looked like it was within my capabilities and so I splashed out on what was at that point, the most expensive loco kit I'd ever bought. Even in those days, complete with motor, wheels and gears, the bill was over a hundred quid.
     
    Anyway, progress was initially quite quick. I soon had the chassis up and running thanks to some lovely solid metal connecting rods that were far superior than the etched versions I knew from OO kits. The major parts of the whitemetal body were soldered together and the loco started to look really nice.
     
    At this point, things ground to a halt. The layout had fallen into abeyance – it was later rescued by a new team and is still part of the club collection – and I had moved on to producing motive power for one of my own layouts.
     
    The Fowler lay in the bottom of the stockbox for a few years until I found myself building a suitable layout for it. I had a look through the remaining castings and fixed a few more in place. Progress occurred in fits and starts around other projects. Then I saw the sign telling everyone a RTR model was on its way.
     
    Luckily, Ixion had chosen to model the GWR prototype. I had considered this one but chickened out when I looked at the lining, a skill that eludes me. My plan was to build the LMS version cloaked in a much more friendly plain black livery.
     
    This required a few changes to the model. The donkey engine moved from one side of the bonnet to the other. The supplied version was the wrong size too so I scratch built a replacement.
     
    Despite my efforts, Ixion still beat me, finishing their version before I had completed mine. I'll admit I was impressed and if I hadn't owned a half-built kit, I'd probably have snapped one up. A few months later, my version was complete, running, but unpainted. I claimed it was a special “Silver Jubilee” livery if anyone asked.
     
    Now the model is finished. I'm pleased with it. The RTR version has sold well, Howard has even taken the BRM review sample and produced an even more complicated paint job than it originally sported. My model now resides in a display case – I sold the layout it should have run on. One day I will have to build another.
     
    (If you are interested in reading a more detailed write-up on building this loco, I posted details on my blog)
     



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