Hollar

Not this time it didn't! Good idea generally, though. Tone

Frustration reigns. I am just finishing off a nicely detailed LMS brake van using the Lanarkshire detailing pack. I'm very happy with the way it looks but I just can't get the roof painting right. I don't want to rig up the airbrush for just 3 square inches of plainish, darkish colour but so far nothing has worked and I am now on the fourth paint/sand it off again cycle. Even standing the aerosol in a jug of warm water for a few minutes and then shaking it for two more didn't give a smooth finish, and a careful brush over with my best Finest Sable number 6 brush left streaks. I'm not asking for advice, just venting at the way some things just don't go right for no b******** reason at all. Tomorrow will be better . . . Tone

For someone who can knock out good, working chassis the only problem would be preventing Public Order Act offences in the queue. For me, I love painting, can put together a decent, complex body, but it's a major achievement if my chassis can drag itself down the test track unaided. Tone

The division you highlight is true of the model railway trade, and mirrors the changes in retailing and the elimination of middlemen in commerce generally. I think it's less true of individual modellers, though. There are perfectionists for whom the hobby is a drive for personal perfection and who think it a compromise to buy motor, wheels and gearbox. There is also the collector who can scarcely bare bare to take his stuff out of the box, whom I don't understand at all but am grateful to when I reflect on RTR prices or occasionally sell unwanted stuff on eBay. Most of us are neither. As was said a few days ago, there are layouts that have been produced by collaborations between top-class modellers with varying skills and consequently are built to a uniform and brilliant standard. Pendon is the paramount example, and on this forum we have one closer to home. The generality, though, is that good layouts are produced by people building models where they have the skill and inclination; modifying RTR when either skill or inclination fails us; and occasionally buying in an RTR model simply because we love the prototype and remember it from our youth - in my case the Adams Radial. I miss traditional model shops, though I wonder if nostalgia sweetens the memory (does anyone else remember withering under the scorn of the bloke who used to work in Hamblings, and the W&H. However, I get by perfectly well by replenishing staples and the pleasure of impulse buying at finescale shows (thank you Jol); by going online for one-off specialist stuff and of course benefit from having my own wares available there. My nearest good model shop is 40 miles away in Chelmsford but I call in reasonably often when I'm up that way, and if I pay a little more then I get substantial added-value at the same time. On the whole, we still have a functioning and viable trade..If it is probably less companionable than 25 years ago, than we are finding different ways to be companionable. At least we are less likely to be jammed in the corner by someone scoffing that X's unimaginably brilliant Duchess is completely and utterly reduced to worthless trash because the spoke profile on the front bogie wheels is a bit worng. Allegendly. Tone

I completely agree about the beautiful crab, and although the lettering does look small, it's dangerous to be dogmatic about BR steam engine lettering. I've recently commissioned a sheet of numbers, and while I was researching it I was just amazed at the seemingly random and capricious variations in size, number spacing and even positioning. If ever there was a time where you need the often prescribed photo of that loco there and then - it is when you're putting the numbers on. I set up some duplications in different sizes so I could judge by eye what looks right, but I did draw the line at working through individual letter spacing for each loco. I assume that all this doesn't apply to top link locos, which must have been literally and figuratively under the eye of important people who cared how things looked. J15s in East Anglia were on their own, in terms of conformity to the corporate style manual. Tone

Serviceable though they were. I've always thought the Thompson A2s looked more like the Sphinx than like a racehorse. Tony's wonderful Cock o the North at the top of this post illustrates this perfectly - the smokebox looks like giant dustbin, jutting truculently over those exposed frames and making the engine look hopelessly front-heavy and lumpen. Roy Jackson has made a rebuilt P2 in BR green for Retford, which he sometimes brings to his exhibition demos just to wind people up. It looks wonderful and presumably can pull the roof off the shed. Tony

Buy the wheels. get the kit free, Recently I sold some 1970s Triang Caledonian coach kits on that basis. Not too long ago I made a K's Palvan. With decent brakes and buffers, a new roof and some detailing it looks less dated than I do, though you wouldn't necessarily run it next to the Parkside version, which is much daintier. Tony

I sold a couple of old K's kits on eBay recently, in the original tissue paper but without the wheels - and got £10-15 for them. Matter of luck, and of someone wanting the specific kit, but it gives you a guide price. If you make a train of them you will certainly want one of Tony's locos to drag it round the layout for you. Tony

Modelu have a cricket umpire figure in their files. Handsome chap,and you can see an authentically grumpy facial expression if you look closely.

Great stuff, lads, and I can't wait to see the results of what looks to be some intelligent and thoughtful preparation. A Bandon tank or a snuffling old J15 would be great, mind you. Or the Fintona tram. Looking forward to the Reveal. Tony McSeán

Wizard Models have taken on the distribution and sale of the OO and O gauge ranges of wagon posters produced by Hollar Models. Wizard will be selling Hollar posters at the many exhibitions they attend, and also online on their new web site at www.wizardmodels.ltd These posters were a everyday sight on British Railways in the steam and early diesel periods, and almost every main line and pick-up goods train of the period showed at least one example. They give a splash of colour and authenticity on otherwise drab bauxite vans. The range includes the newly introduced Theme Packs. These give a range of different posters covering different types of railway traffic: Bananas, Cement, Textiles and Carpets, Animal Feed, Fertiliser and The Rest. The full range of 20 single-company packs is also available and covers. I have produced all the posters from the BR steam era for which I have found decent photographs. Many of them have been based on dimensioned drawings taken from actual posters at the time by Geoff Kent and Don Rowlands, which they generously sent me. Fyffes Bananas (2 types). Geest Bananas (2 types), Blue Circle Cement, Earles Cement, Ribble Cement Silcocks Animal Feed, BOCM Animal Feed ICI Fertilizer, Fison's Basic Slag Fertilizer Cyril Lord Carpets, Youghal Carpets, Paton's Wool Lowe's Carta Carna Dog Food, Spratt's Dog Food Metal Box Carr's Biscuits . . . and also the Parcels Mail and a selection of destination labels - both stuck all over parcels vans during this period If you have any questions about the range, or know of other posters that could be added i will be hppy to hear from you. Tony Tony McSeán tmcsean@hollar.co.uk

For the record, I drew up almost all of the Hollar Models range from dimensioned drawings which Geoff Kent and Don Rowland made at the time the labels were actually in use. Geoff and Don very kindly gave me copies when they knew I was interested in wagon labels Wherever possible the label colours have been copied from material produced at the time, rather than being copied from photographs which can vary a bit. Many companies (eg Blue Circle Cement) have used the same corporate colours after a long period, others took a bit of seeking out. I originally produced the drawings for my own use and for friends, and the range reflects what was around during the period I model. The real problem is getting the typefaces right, and for some of the posters it was necessary to use CorelDraw to draw up characters individually. They are currently available from Parkside Dundas online and at exhibitions.. Tony McSeán Chairman and CEO The Hollar Models Group

You can make a huge improvement to the Dapol 21T hopper with Dave Bradwell's detailing fret. This allows you to upgrade 4 wagons using the original chassis, with a fully detailed sprung chassis for the 5th body. I found the body improvement quick and easy enough, but the chassis is a more serious undertaking though the instructions should see you through it ok. A pic of an original chassis model is attached to give an idea. Tony McSean