Saturday Film Club: Draw a VW camper van
Time for me to remember that as well as a Beetle, I own a VW campervan - I just don't know where it is. The guy who did mechanical stuff for me was supposed to be selling it, but moved to Bloxwich (I...
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Calendar time - but is there a point?
In the past, I've provided an early list of shows I'm adding to my calendar as a way of filling a post, and reminding myself how busy I am. We all know how badly wrong this went in 2020. Almost every...
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Does anyone actually BUILD the Wills bicycle shed?
The Wills SS23 Bicycle shed with Bicycles is a lovely kit, and one that has been around since the dawn of time (OK, 1980s), but I'm not sure how many I've actually seen built up on layouts. I wonder...
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Lunchtime - a Parker perenial
A little scene on Selly Oak. Two workers in the wood yard enjoy a bite of snap sat on a stack. The greaseproof paper is a tiny square of Rizla paper, the sandwiches bit of microstrip and the flask a...
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Adverts
There are quite a lot of advertising hoardings around the Selly Oak bridge, and although my model has moved things around, I want to include adverts to add a bit of colour to the scene. Wills have...
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Farewell to the Haynes manual
According to my Practical Classics magazine, the new owners of Haynes, Infopro Digital, are to stop publishing paper versions of the famous manuals. Apparently, they don't see a future in printing the...
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The Airfix Beach Buggy is back!
Excellent news from Airfix - the 1/32nd scale Beach Buggy is back, and should be in stock early in the year. Young Phil built one of these many years ago, complete with orange bodywork. It wasn't...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Making the Paddington 2 circus train
Best film I watched over the festive period? Not Spartacus. That was over-long and rubbish. The winner, by a mile, was Paddington 2. The finale involves a train chase from Paddington station with...
View ArticleVideo: Unboxing the new Hornby pre-grouping coach
Something nice and newsy today -a first look at one of Hornby's new range of generic pre-grouping coaches.When these were announced, it was a surprise. Even more of a shock was that they were in the...
View ArticleVote on the 100mm challenge
Back in October, I was instrumental in setting up The 100mm Challenge in the Hornby Collectors Club magazine. Well, it's now time to vote on the resulting models. Hornby have put the entries into a...
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Cake Box is back
If you were inspired by yesterdays Hornby 100mm challenge, you'll be pleased to know that the Cake Box Challenge is back to relieve you of lockdown boredom. There has been a lot of demand for this,...
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Diamond Dotz - or 16mm scale rivets?
For Christmas, mum received a "Diamond Dotz" kit to produce a picture of a gecko. She sat for hours, happily picking up little hemispheres, and sticking them to the self-adhesive background. Following...
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Is that Henry Greenlys' bridge in Garden Rail?
February's Garden Rail includes a piece on a historic model railway bridge, designed by none other then Henry Greenly. You don't turn one of these up very often and it reveals a very different world...
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Trent Lifeboat
A new addition to the Parker fleet, albeit one with a sad reason for it's arrival. It's no surprise that with model boaters tending to be on the older age of the hobby, that vessels come up for sale...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Britain's oldest trains retire
2020 saw the last trips for the Isle of Wight tube stock, nicely filmed here. Had we not been locked down, I'd have been tempted to make the trip for this. My one visit to the island saw me stand on...
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Missing Ally Pally Model Engineering Exhibition
My TV is full of snooker, which tells me that today, I should be driving in to London for the Model Engineering exhibition. It's always fun to see the tables of baize in the foyer of the exhibition...
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Ask Phil: A beginners Gauge 1 loco kit
Lionel asks: Is the Mercian Models G1 Ruston kit suitable for a beginner? This is a difficult question to answer. Everything depends on what you mean by "beginner". If your construction skills are...
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Making pavements
One of the jobs I've been least looking forward to on Selly Oak is laying the pavements. I'm not sure why, it's just a task I can't work up any enthusiasm for, but know needs to be done. Progress has...
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Bigger adverts
I've mounted an adverting hoarding on the Selly Oak hill, but looking at photos, the realisation dawned that it wasn't big enough. Looking these things up online, I found this handy guide. Basically, a...
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Mud, glorious mud
There's quite a lot of scruffy ground on Selly Oak. My normal method of reproducing this involves lots of Wilco "Nutmeg Spice" emulsion, but I wanted to up my game this time, so added "Chocolate...
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