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Waterborne Wednesday: Thunderbird 4
Something a bit newsy this week. I spotted this Thunderbird 4 on the fantastic Ian Visits blog.It's a real, 15ft long working boat built for ITV to plug their new Thunderbirds TV series.Looking at the...
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Lockdown Project: Sorting magazines
This is definitely one of those jobs that is "saved" for when time is plentiful.My collection of magazines from the Double O Gauge Association has been spilling off the bookshelf for a very long period...
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Playmobil diesel
The latest addition to the Parker garden railway fleet is this Playmobil diesel from the 4024 freight train set where it's accompanied by a tank wagon and flat wagon.Based on the standard LGB-derived...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: German yachting on a small scale
I don't speak German, or understand why their newsreaders aren't allowed to sit down,but I do love this model boating that takes place in Freiburg. It looks like great fun, although I think making your...
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Lockdown sailing
As the world changes thanks to Coronavirus, some things evolve. Supermarkets keep people apart. Pubs offer takeaway beer. And KMBC now has a booking system so we can get out and have a sail.Thanks to...
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La Passagere
Digging through the photos recovered from a hard drive crash years ago, I spotted this shot of a tine ferry that I suspect I took at a model boat show over a decade ago.It reminded me that I'd really...
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Cutting frames
One advance since the plans for La Passagere was filed away is the silhouette cutter. What better way to produce frames than transfer the plans to the computer and let the machine do the work?I scanned...
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Waterborne Wednesday: Walk around a Severn lifeboat
Fresh from the RNLI, a walk around a Severn Class Lifeboat.Click here to go aboard. Loads of great modelling detail if you are building a RC model or perhaps the Airfix kit.
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Smoked glass
When I was building the office block for BRMs Runcorn Salt Union layout, I suggested on video that to hide the lack of interior, some car window tinting film might be a good idea.Where this idea came...
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Mystery Fowler
Here's a little mystery. I have this lorry on a shelf - presumably bought because it's an Isle of Man collectable - but can't identify the maker. It celebrates the 1993 Douglas vintage rally. The model...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Thunderbirds reunion
It's back to work for the Century 21 staff as they re-visit the Slough studios before demolition.
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The book is back!
Yes, my first novel is out again. We've gone back to basics and done something we should have the first time around - employed a proper proof-reader. Over time, it's become more and more obvious that...
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Faller Mini-Playtrain
Since I got back properly in garden railways, the amount of RTR stuff that's been made available at the budget end of the market has fascinated me. I've already explained my love of Faller's insane Hit...
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Mending the Mini-Train
The Mini-Train is broken in many ways. For a start, the boiler unit has been dropped and broken in half. That's pretty terminal for most people, but not someone armed with a bottle of strong-smelling...
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Waterborne Wednesday: Atlantic Bay
Spotted in Peel harbour back in 2008, this is the Atlantic Bay dredging away.The business end seems to be a fairly conventional digger parked on the deck. It grabs a bucket-load of the seabed and dumps...
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Lockdown Project: Fix the APT
On the top of a cupboard, I have a wooden model of the Advanced Passenger Train. Produced by Space Models for use in travel agents, these models have become popular among APT fans and are generally...
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Trams LP
Spin up those wheels of steel, this is a platter that matters!From BBC Record - recordings of trams. Found at the back of a cupboard, we don't actually own a turntable to play it on, and even if we...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Draw a Bord Na Mona locomotive
I met Shoo Raynor a couple od years ago at a literary festival and have dripped in to his YouTube channels a few times since then. However, when I spotted this lesson, I knew it had to appear on the...
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Upgrading the photo studio
For the last few months, my photo setup has included a roll of printer paper acting as a background. Since adding this, I've saved ages over previous attempts at providing this - to remove all the...
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Lindberg Line Tug Boat kit
I'm still keen to build a model boat and so it's back to the kit stash to find something I bought a couple of years ago at the IPMS show. There used to be a fashion for motorised plastic kits, but...
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