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Smallspace 2016
With this years HaMeX Smallspace event celebrating my favourite spacecraft - the Space 1999 Eagle - even getting lost coming off the motorway wasn't going to stop me visiting. A reorganization of the...
View ArticleUseful modelling suppliers
During last week's course, I promised the attendees that I'd put a couple of posts up to provide a little more information. Since this would possibly be useful to others, and because web links don't...
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Choosing a soldering iron
Choosing a soldering iron is an interesting job. There are loads of cheap irons to appeal to beginners but the wrong tool can make the learning curve a whole lot harder. The first thing to realize is...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Light industrial unit
Here's a challenge. These light industrial units in Daventry are pretty common across the country, but how would you model them? Obviously the brickwork and doors are easy enough, but that roof and...
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Renumbering locos for Hornby Collectors Club
"Why won't the manufacturers make this particular locomotive?" is a constant refrain. Trouble is, even if they release a different number model every 6 months, many classes would take years to work...
View ArticleBachmann operating gravel car
I've always been a fan of operating accessories for railway modellers.Some will know I have a fine collection of Triang Giraffe cars, but I didn't know that Bachmann in America produced some working...
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German pizza in NGW
Bit of a surprise in WH Smiths yesterday - my "pizza" layout appears in the latest issue of Narrow Gauge World magazine. Quite fitting as much of the rest of the content has quite a military bias with...
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Condon Ballast Wagon
Part of my workbench clear up revealed this little wagon. I picked it up for a quid from a box at Stafford show a few months ago. I knew I'd seen something similar before in print but couldn't place...
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Making pit props
The first lesson to learn when making 4mm scale pit props is that a wagon can hold an awful lot of them. The second is that the Chopper II tool was worth every penny.
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Building a quick and simple voltmeter
Sometimes, knowing the voltage coming out of a circuit can be very handy. For us RC boaters, knowing which of the three identical 6V batteries has some charge left in it can make the difference between...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Grass top hangers
Last week, I wondered how it would be possible to model the curved roof of a light industrial unit. This week, the curved roof would present no problem at all. A couple of aircraft hangers at Cosford....
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7mm halt, overhead wires and a Toad in BRM
There's more scenicing going on than normal from me in this month's BRM.First up, we have a 7mm scale diorama based around one of the wooden railcar halts built on the Tetbury branch in a last ditch...
View ArticleBachmann Action Depot
Another operating accessory from the Bachmann back catalogue - this time a miniature forklift truck runs in and out of a "depot". As I say in the film, I wondered if the mechanism could be converted...
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Large scale model aircraft - Cosford 2016
The weather was perfect - sunny with a little breeze. Perhaps a little less of the later would have been nice as it was at the 15mph limit that the 1/3rd scale WW1 planes can fly in, but otherwise...
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Flash - saviour of the universe!
2 boats for £20? According to the label, they were returned models that had been checked and were OK. A nice couple of speedboats fitted with 2.4mhz radio so they could be sued alongside other models....
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A happy customer service story
Let's start the week with a happy story (SPOILER ALERT - everything works out fine). On the back of our house is a waterproof socket. It's the second one to be installed, the first having rapidly...
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Colron replacement
Sean asks: I came across your Blog by pure chance I was looking for information about a replacement product for colron wood dye, for use on plastic stone kits any info would be a great help.I'm not...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Converted hangars
Last week, I looked at the grass-covered hangars at Cosford. Not an obvious modelling choice perhaps, at least for railway geeks, but hangars can be re-purposed. These two are on a storage place near...
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Mannin
Some things are worth the wait. Accurcraft's G scale model of Isle of Man No.16 "Mannin" is just such a thing. When the big box arrived last week, my dad and I were in a hurry to get it open. After...
View ArticleHot Air Engine
If you fill in enough surveys for the Guardian, they give you 50 quid to spend at Amazon. In those balmy pre-Brexit days, a touch over half of that bought me a tiny hot air engine from Amazon. Now it...
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