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: ---- 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.... ---- 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.

"It will be cancelled before the series finishes" is a constant refrain on-line EVERY time a partwork is released. The problem is that most only appear in Smifs until issue 7 - by this point you are either subscribed or not interested. After this they are on order or subscription so disapear from general sale. I read the same comments about both the Bismark and Hood model boats but my Dad has both complete sets now. Incidentally, the quality of the etched brass on these is superb, better than much model railway stuff. As for the price, don't forget that you are getting detailed stei-by-step instructions with the model. No mainstream manufacturer can provide these with a kit, it would send the price through the roof. Also, the model is designed for the beginner and that means a lot more work. Look at the DJH beginners kits, they are excellent and anyone could assemble them BUT the extra development costs mean a higher final price. I'll be honest, if the A4 is as good as some of the Flying Scotsman models seen on RMWeb then it will be an impressive model. I'm no beginner but would have been very pleased with myself if I'd produced something as good as these.

That was me, I had a go with the cab on my blog http://philsworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/partwork-season-a4s-everywhere.html The kit is designed for glue to make it suitable for beginners so the metal is laquered. At last it will stay shiny if, like most modellers, you don't quite get around to building it :-)

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.

You don't have any insulating fishplates in the engine she siding. The only place you need a pair is in the middle of the crossover.

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.

The plastic chassis is fundamentally accurate in that the axles line up so bushing and wheeling is easier than scratchbuilding something. And it is under Percy so there isn't prototype fidelity to worry about. A new RTR chassis would be lovely but if it ran at scale speeds, the drive train would cost more than the current Scalextric setup. That makes the finished loco more expensive, taking it out of the train set market. Once in the scale market, people will complain about the body distorted to fit the chassis.

It's also under the Caledonian pug... Reengineering the chassis would cost tens of thousands. For the train set market, it probably doesn't make sense.

I'd love to see a re-designed 0-4-0 chassis too. Some of those locos could be very tempting projects if they ran at shunting speeds. However, it IS possible to re-wheel the chassis by reaming out the axle holes for brass bearings and then replacing the mechanism with something better. My Percy runs as well as any loco after a bit of work: Romford wheels, Branchlines motor/gearbox. Gibson crossheads. Incidentally, why is the thread title Barclay, shouldn't it be Bagnall?

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.

I agree - all layouts are a compromise. No one has "enough" space for a model railway, you always seem to want a bit more! We tend to focus on operation with people deciding not to start because they don't have the space. I'd suggest that even a micro-layout is worth building - for the FUN of building it. Your 2mm scale model looks great and I'd certainly like to produce something similar. While operation is important, the build isn't a horrible stage to be rushed through as fas as possible. Watching the scene gradually develop is as pleasent as playing trains at the end of it, or at least it is for me.

You are spot on. One of the many improvements I'd make to this layout if space permitted would be to add more scenery between the bridge and station throat. An extra 3 or 4 feet would dramatically change the look of the model, or you could build it in N. Having said this, it all works as is. What we did was build as small as possible since it's better to explain to people that their version will look better rather than try to work out how to make the plan smaller.

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

It's easy to say that another person and a bit more kit would have resulted in higher production values - they would. But who's going to pay for that extra person and more kit? As Andy has mentioned, the will be a better quality video from BRM but it's likely to be on a DVD attached to a magazine you will have to pay for. I saw some of the shooting as I was running around with my MREmag hat on talking to people. The place was fairly chaotic and the big Shildon shed noisy. What you got is a film shot on a shoestring to share the feel of the event. Should it have been binned for quality issues? By the sound of it, yes, if anything less than broadcast quality isn't acceptable anyway. That video is the cherry on the cake of the RMweb coverage - far from essential but (IMHO) worth a go. Shooting BBC quality video is tough and expensive. A series of wobbly camera Floyd will cost as much as running BRM RMweb and most of Warners for a year! All that casual stuff is the result of lots of planning and plenty of re-takes. To give you an idea of this, my section of the August issue BRM DVD lasts 9 minutes and took or an hour to shoot with minimal re-takes. Personally, I hate wobbly camera stuff. You can't ask for more equipment and dispense with the tripod. At the end of the day, no-one was forced to watch and unlike the BBC or any DVD production, doing so cost you nothing.

No we didn't. We offered to get some fuel and then film it bursting out through the shed doors. That would have made a great video clip... Anyway, we got chucked out of the cab because all the buttons were lit up and they didn't trust us not to press some of them. (More on the support group here)

If you really MUST have an N gauge APT-E, there was one to be seen at Shildon. This part-built model is from the gifted fingers of Kit Spackman - "Mr Tilt" himself. Started a long while ago, the rest of the train is nothing more than plasticard parts waiting for him to figure out how to power the thing. The tiny body profile makes fitting a drive system in quite a challenge. At present power is a continental bogie mated with an ECM motor - that shows how long ago he started this! Don't think the tliting system has been installed yet or any idea how many decades it will be before the model is finished. And no, it wasn't for sale.

It's a cracking museum - I have a couple more pictures and some links on my blog today - and not a bad model shop if you need Humbrol paint or an Airfix kit. Visit quickly though as the sale of the airport means that they might not be there after September. The new owners think that houses are more profitable than runways and they own the building the exhibits are housed in. This would be a great shame as there is a lot to see, it's well displayed and the volunteers who run it are lovely.

Both the Hachette Bismarck and Hood ships went all the way. The majority of artworks disappear from general sale after issue 7 but that doesn't mean they have died. By that point you are either in and getting it via an order or sub, or you won't be interested. This allows the publisher to cut production to a minimum. GBP is selling very well, hence it is bucking the trend for vanishing from Smiths etc.

Before condeming the track - make sure all the wheels and track are sparkling clean. Also, that the points are perfectly flat. This might not sure everything but it might help.

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?

There goes your warranty then...

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!

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.

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.

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)