Saturday Film Club: Secret London microcar stash
Jonny Smith visits an incredible private London car collection full of the rarest custom and bubble cars. Like most classic car fans, I have a fantasy garage, and while I wouldn't fit in many of them,...
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Lamenting the modeller I used to be
Digging through my stash of bits'n'pieces for something that wasn't there, I couldn't help wonder how the pile of packets had come about. Loads of buffers, wheels, detailing components. All solid gold...
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I know I said "no more kits"...
In my defence, I ordered this pile before Christmas, and they have only just arrived. It's all TV engineer and motorbike racer Guy Martin's fault. In his latest epic, he built a racing Piagio. Liking...
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Newspaper solution
Last year, I pondered the right sort of papers to appear in modelling magazine photos. Nothing too political, or with anything titilating on the picture front. You don't need controversial storeis...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Overgrown huts
Spotted in an odd bit of land near me that is surrounded by a housing estate. According to a planning notice, this and the bungalow next door, will soon become a 2-bed house and some self-build plots....
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The most useless thing in the world
Time for a bit of wiring debugging for my latest BRM project. Obviously, everything had been working, but then I threw glue and ballast and paint everywhere and these got in the way of some of the...
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Book Review: Backroom Boys - The Secret Return of the British Boffin
Britian has always produced people who can develop things and do science. We're not so hot at turning this stuff into money, but not always as bad as portrayed. Francis Spufford has tracked down the...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Welsh narrow gauge in 1969
I'm not sure what I love about this film more - the old steam stuff (BR Blue Rheidol tanks!) or that it's been transfered from cine film, with all the titling and editing that I remember from my...
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New Talk: An Evening With Phil Parker
Stop the press! Clear your Diaries! Stick the kettle on! We're pleased to announce the first of many Thursday Club Nights! And we're very privileged to have BRM Editor and Modelling Guru Phil Parker...
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FAB 1 - Let's look in the box
Time to start work on the new, Japanese, kit stash. The good news is that I'm actually looking forward to having a go at these. Maybe a hint of modelling mojo returning? We'll start with FAB 1 - a...
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Fabulous FAB 1
OK, so as a first project of the year, FAB 1 wasn't too challenging. Basically, it's a painting job. Toughest thing is not to rush the build - let the paint dry fully before slotting the bits together....
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Miniature Warehouse Wednesday: Scamell Trailer
From Nigel Hill: Attached are a pair of snaps of my recently completed blog post inspired Scammell trailer. It was quite fun to do and was built from stuff that most people would throw away. I should...
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Wiring time in March BRM
I don't much like wiring, and I like trying to write it up even less, but needs must, and so this month I'm buiding the baseboard, laying the track and getting the electricity flowing on the DHAPR...
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How old is this paint?
I was given some paint when I visted Footplate a few weeks ago. It's unopened - New Old Stock. Question: How old are these pots? Best guess from a contact at Hornby is something like 50 years. Can...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: See How Book Artwork Was Done In The Old Days Before...
How was an illustrated book put together in the days before Desk Top Publishing? Shoo Raynor takes us back to those pre-computer days and shows how a paste-up works. From a work point of view, it's...
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Gone boating
One thing I am determind to do more of this year is sailing model boats. Long term I'd like to get back to the regular Thursday morning meets, but for the moment, the odd weekend trip to the pond will...
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A tale of two catalogues
A couple of weeks ago, two catalogues landed on my desk with a thump. Hornby's book is fatter than ever. At 956g (the same as last year and only 69g less than the centenery issue) and 227 pages long,...
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Why do I keep buying this kit?
Another packet arrives in the post, signifying success an eBay auction. Inside is a Cooper Craft AEC lorry kit. I know I own several examples, the two pictured are just the ones that came to hand...
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Cooper Craft AEC Monarch
For a change, the latest kit didn't go into the stash awaiting building. Instead, over the festive period, I built it up like a proper modeller. There's not much to say about the build, I wrote a bit...
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Making mistakes with Tippex
As I mentioned yesterday, I like a bit of hand lettering and so when it came to finishing the Timpdon beer wagon, I added the letters by hand. At the time, it seemed like a good idea to use a Tippex...
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