GMRC Series 2 - Episode 2 - 'Classic books'

[johnofwessex]

I'd like to see somebody choosing 'Love on a Branch Line' or 'Closely Observed Trains' for their entry

[Dave 46]

7 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

How? Can scratchbuilding only be carried out with materials approved by MRJ?

 

People have been making models out of all sorts of odd items for years. OK, this might be taking it to an extreme, but it's not that out-there. The trick seems to be to ignore what something is and focus on the shapes and materials. Last weeks tutu re-workings were quite imaginative and I was impressed with the watering can to gasometer this time.  I could have seen me being inspired to give that a go as a youngster.

 

The trick seems to be to ignore what something is and focus on the shapes and materials.

 

Didn't Allan Downes use odd household items in some of his builds?

 

Dave

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by Dave 46
missing word and couldn't spell allan

[RLWP]

2 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Hi Phil

To answer your pedantry with more pedantry .

• <snip>
• Tieing the heroine to the RR tracks was apparently a common trope in Victorian stage melodramas. It first appeared on film in "Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life " which was a Mack Sennet silent short from 1913
• <snip>

To combine pedantry with literary snobbery to an outrageous degree. I did wonder whether some of the scenes were inspired by film or TV productions of the books rather than the books themselves. The Death in the Cluds scene featured a DC-3 which was what appeared in the 1992 TV adaptation with David Suchet. The DC-3 is a gorgeous aircraft of course but not what ever ran on the London (Croydon)-Paris route in the 1930s. The DC-3 didn't even exist until 1935 and were then eagerly snapped up by American airlines (in fact by American Airlines first) though KLM did have them for long distance routes.

 

 

 

This is a glorious piece of pedantry, and I congratulate you on it - especially the aviation part. Aviation enthusiasts are easily as finicky about details as railway ones

 

On your 'tieing to the RR tracks point' - ISTR there is an early film in which the tiee is male, and this may come before

 

There are some terrific whiskers in that film 

 

Richard

 

[RJS1977]

1 hour ago, Dave 46 said:

 

The trick seems to be to ignore what something is and focus on the shapes and materials.

 

Didn't Allan Downes use odd household items in some of his builds?

 

Dave

 

 

Usually his wife's...

 

I can certainly remember him saying he thought of cutting the handle off the mashed potato scoop for something! (Domed top of the windmill?)

 

The classic Gerry Anderson TV series made considerable use of household items and other odds and ends in making industrial complexes etc.

 

[RJS1977]

2 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

 

To combine pedantry with literary snobbery to an outrageous degree. I did wonder whether some of the scenes were inspired by film or TV productions of the books rather than the books themselves. The Death in the Cluds scene featured a DC-3 which was what appeared in the 1992 TV adaptation with David Suchet. The DC-3 is a gorgeous aircraft of course but not what ever ran on the London (Croydon)-Paris route in the 1930s. The DC-3 didn't even exist until 1935 and were then eagerly snapped up by American airlines (in fact by American Airlines first) though KLM did have them for long distance routes.

 

 

 

IIRC the airline in the book/TV episode is a fictional one, so there's nothing wrong in considering that such a fictional airline managed to put in an order for some, just as modellers of freelance narrow gauge lines assume that their fictional railway company purchased locos from George England, Kerr Stuart, Davies & Metcalfe etc.

 

The actual aeroplane in the books was the Handley Page HP 42, all of which had been destroyed by 1941 so none were available for filming. (Ironically one was destroyed in the Middle East and the wreckage was carted away by the Hedjaz Railway!). The Dakota is slightly anachronistic in that the episode was set in June 1935 and the Dakota first flew in December, but it's better than using say a 707 (which would be the equivalent of having a Mark 1 coach or a Routemaster in the episode!).

[Pacific231G]

11 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

IIRC the airline in the book/TV episode is a fictional one, so there's nothing wrong in considering that such a fictional airline managed to put in an order for some, just as modellers of freelance narrow gauge lines assume that their fictional railway company purchased locos from George England, Kerr Stuart, Davies & Metcalfe etc.

 

The actual aeroplane in the books was the Handley Page HP 42, all of which had been destroyed by 1941 so none were available for filming. (Ironically one was destroyed in the Middle East and the wreckage was carted away by the Hedjaz Railway!). The Dakota is slightly anachronistic in that the episode was set in June 1935 and the Dakota first flew in December, but it's better than using say a 707 (which would be the equivalent of having a Mark 1 coach or a Routemaster in the episode!).

Had I been making that episode I'd probably have chosen a DC-3 too though even if you shift the year a bit it's unlikely that any British or French airline would have bought from a foreign manufacturer and, apart from KLM, I think Douglas' production was totally spoken for.  However, a Dragon Rapide (probably the only available British passenger aircraft contemporary with the period) wouldn't have had enough room in its cabin. Shoreham Aerodrome's Art Deco terminal (used in the TV adaptation) is the right period though totally different from Croydon so also a good choice. The design concept of the earlier Poirot series seems to have been to present what now tends to be soaked in nostalgia as being super modern as it would have been perceived in the 1930s. 

Edited September 24, 2019 by Pacific231G

[Pacific231G]

2 hours ago, RLWP said:

 

This is a glorious piece of pedantry, and I congratulate you on it - especially the aviation part. Aviation enthusiasts are easily as finicky about details as railway ones

 

On your 'tieing to the RR tracks point' - ISTR there is an early film in which the tiee is male, and this may come before

 

There are some terrific whiskers in that film 

 

Richard

 

Oh well discovered and what a brilliant restoration!

When I worked in radio the three sounds you knew you'd get letters about were trains, planes and birdsong. They seemed to bring out the inner pedant in a lot of people.

 

 

[wombatofludham]

Can I just ask Jenny a question, what was that heat responsive vinyl you mentioned using for the landscaping?  Not come across that before.

[DY444]

17 hours ago, Pmorgancym said:

 

it's more how scratch building works, most of us don't think hmm I must make something out of a ping pong bat, high heel.shoe and a collendar, but we do think I need to make a water tower, now what have I got that's water tower shaped.

 

 

That's my problem with it too.  I've never sat looking at random objects and thought what can I make with those.  It's always been the other way round - I need something so what can I use to build it.

[RLWP]

7 hours ago, wombatofludham said:

Can I just ask Jenny a question, what was that heat responsive vinyl you mentioned using for the landscaping?  Not come across that before.

 

This stuff?: https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/1RGVM-GG

 

Richard

[Ian Morgan]

11 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

The classic Gerry Anderson TV series made considerable use of household items and other odds and ends in making industrial complexes etc.

 

 

Indeed, the famous lemon squeezer on the wall of the Thunderbird 1 hanger has also been re-created in the current CGI version of the series.

 

[PhilJ W]

The only other 1930's airliner still flying* today is the Junkers Ju52m3 though a Dakota was probably the easiest to obtain. *That might be doubtful now as there was a fatal crash involving one a few years ago and the handful that are left might be grounded.

Edited September 24, 2019 by PhilJ W

[Phil Parker]

17 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

H.M.S. Thunderchild MOD? War Office or Admiralty surely;  Jackie Fisher will have you keel hauled. Anyway the Thunderchild of the second invasion that appeared all too briefly in GRMC was clearly either a replica or the salvaged original, built or restored to honour the courage of the original crew in allowing the civilian evacuation fleet to escape and pressed back into service when the RN's more modern ships had been destroyed. See the 2012 film Battleship for a suitably stars and stripes filled equivalent.

 

Typical MOD. The Thunderchild didn't work, but let's build an identical one to see what happens. My research (looking at the book that came with the Jeff Wayne album) suggests that it was all melty and probably a bit difficult to dig up and restore, thus, Thunderchild Mk2 (Thunderteenager?) is a new ship. Is it too late to count the rivets?

 

As for the excellent documentary Battleship you mention, I thought it was all a bit silly until I found a Chinese Aircraft carrier than can really do the super-realistic handbrake turn seen in the film. https://philsworkbench.blogspot.com/2019/08/challenger-aircraft-carrier.html  I now believe everything Hollywood tells me.

[Huw Griffiths]

I can only assume that any full size version of this "carrier" would be fitted with swivelling motor pods, thrusters, or something similar - a bit like some tugs.

 

However, I strongly suspect that you would have had a lot of fun - sorry - undertook a lot of "serious research" with this piece of equipment.

[RJS1977]

8 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

As for the excellent documentary Battleship you mention, I thought it was all a bit silly until I found a Chinese Aircraft carrier than can really do the super-realistic handbrake turn seen in the film. https://philsworkbench.blogspot.com/2019/08/challenger-aircraft-carrier.html  I now believe everything Hollywood tells me.

 

I'm pretty sure there was at least one episode of The Navy lark where Mr Phillips instructed CPO Pertwee to do a handbrake turn in HMS Troutbridge!

[RLWP]

21 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

 

I'm pretty sure there was at least one episode of The Navy lark where Mr Phillips instructed CPO Pertwee to do a handbrake turn in HMS Troutbridge!

 

Oh lumme...

[noiseboy72]

I can confirm that forgetting to untie the spring line when departing from the quayside does result in your vessel making a sharp turn and rapid return to the dock..

[Pacific231G]

22 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

The only other 1930's airliner still flying* today is the Junkers Ju52m3 though a Dakota was probably the easiest to obtain. *That might be doubtful now as there was a fatal crash involving one a few years ago and the handful that are left might be grounded.

The fatal crash was on 4th August last year to HB-HOT, the Ju52 familiar from the dramatic opening sequence of Where Eagles Dare. It was operated by  Ju-Air a Swiss company offering sightseeing flights in vintage aircraft. All twenty people aboard died and the investigation, which is expected to report early next year, found unrelated corrosion that led to the temporary suspension of the Certificate of Airworthiness of the other two J52s on the Swiss register.  A report in March said that, following the accident, the Swiss civil aviation authority has banned public commercial flights in historic aircraft though these will be available to members of dedicated aviation clubs (who've been members for at least thirty days and "educated on the particular risks of flying in vintage types.")  From the interim report it seems that the aircraft went into a downward spiral following a turn while flying in mountainous terrain in hot weather. From what I've read it seems more likely to have been  a stall leading to a spin than a spiral dive .

 

 

[Lancaster622]

Plenty of Dragon Rapides flying they are pretty relevant to the 30's

[Ian Morgan]

Dragons as well as dinosaurs now then?

 

 

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, Lancaster622 said:

Plenty of Dragon Rapides flying they are pretty relevant to the 30's

As stated above they are too small.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

9 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

Dragons as well as dinosaurs now then?

 

 

 

Is this "How to TRAIN your DRAGON"?

Edited September 25, 2019 by Sarahagain
added quotemarks...

[Hroth]

23 hours ago, RLWP said:

 

Oh lumme...

 

Left hand down a bit!

[Hroth]

On 23/09/2019 at 22:42, RJS1977 said:

The classic Gerry Anderson TV series made considerable use of household items and other odds and ends in making industrial complexes etc.

 

Dashboard knobs were often created using toothpaste tube tops, and boom microphones in Fab 1 and probably all the other vehicles that required one used co-axial cable and a terminator for the microphone head.

[Jenny Emily]

The heat shrink scenic mat was a Woodland Scenics product. Anyone familiar with Arcadia models in Shaw will see them to their right as they enter the door of that shop.

 

An interview with myself and Les Cliff for Hornby: