This month I tick off an item on my model making "bucket list" as I dabble in S scale.This half way house between OO and O has appealed to me since I first became aware of it in a 1983 issue of Scale Trains. Being a scale for scratchbuilders also touches my interest in working away from the dominance of RTR models.
The timing of this project couldn't have been better. The society had just developed a kit based on a plastic moulded body when I started researching for my "Wagon kit in every scale" series. I'd assumed that there would be much effort pulling together items from several manufacturers, but no. Thanks to a special effort for the 75th Anniversary of the scale, it was all available in one box. An very nice it is too. The experience has tempted me to want to do more.
Moving things on layouts are always popular. Of course we normally mean trains, but Faller's road system has been with us for years now and yet I've never had a go with it. This changes with the first part of my build of a modern shopping centre.
The van shown in the picture circles the diorama surprisingly realistically at a sensible speed. With a little weathering, you'd not be able to tell it from a diecast, except when it starts to move.
When I was a child, a J94 could be found in a local park acting as a climbing frame. It's long gone now, but I've built a miniature version using a old Airfix kit.
Elsewhere, I'm helping you chose a craft knife and on the DVD there is a tribute to John Webb with a show of his fantastic EM gauge locomotives.There's also a little video I made in the Extra's section on a 009 loco shown in the main mag. I had to do a bit of chassis fettling for Ben and decided a video was easier than a long e-mail. I hadn't expected it to go public but the team thought it would be entertaining. Next time I'll be more showbiz!
