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Coopercraft platelayers trolley
A little bit of product testing today. A pack of platelayers trolleys from Coopercraft have been knocking around for a long while now and when I wanted to test some Lifecolor weathered wood paints, I...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Airfield hut
Found in the middle of the Cotswold Airport, this corrugated hut is slowly disintegrating beautifully. Plaster peels away from the bricks on the end walls while paint falls of the asbestos roof. I've...
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Filling the dream garage
Most of us have a dream garage. Sensible people plan to fill theirs with supercars. Me, I'm going for something rarer than a Ferrari. Obviously I can't do this in real life. Cost and space issues...
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GMC truck shunter
Last weekend, I was reunited with an old project.Always interested in unusual rail items, when Chris showed me a picture of a US GMC truck converted to a rail shunter, I couldn't resist having a go at...
View ArticleSaturday film club: A ride on a OO garden railway
In my new role as Garden Rail editor, I've been looking at lot as outdoor lines on-line. One thing I have learned is that garden railway fans are basically interested in the bigger scale - G and 16mm....
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Surface Warship Day 2017
We don't see many "grey boats" at our model boat club. Warships are popular subjects but being large and full of detail, they are probably a "high days and holidays" sail rather than something you take...
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YSD Self propelled Derrick
With Warship day approaching, a fair bit of effort went in to bringing one of my dad's projects to the water. He'd built the basics of the YSF Self Propelled Derrik, or US Navy Wrecking barge, from a...
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Deck clutter/details
To fill the deck of the YSD derrick, I needed some "clutter" and while browsing for figure (which I also found) on the SGT's Mess website, I found these rather nice resin mouldings.Each ends up costing...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Classic Nissen Hut
Thanks to Brian Macdermott for this picture taken at Denham Aerodrome. A proper, classic, Nissen Hut.You can tell it's a Nissen hut because, unlike many models, the sides tuck under a little at the...
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Is it a bargain?
OK, so there I was rushing along the platform at Loughborough during the GCR model railway event. There wasn't a lot of time as I needed to have a look at the garden railway exhibits and my train to...
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On30 chassis investigation and repair
First job with the Inspection railcar kit was obvioulsy to plonk the Bachmann chassis on the track and and see if it works. It didn't. I wasn't surprised. There was a spare motor and set of wheels and...
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Saturday film club: Tugs
"Why are you showing us a 28-year-old kids TV show?, I hear you ask. Well, it's from the same stable as the early Thomas the Tank TV shows - in the food days when it was all models and not CGI. That...
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Butterley Garden Railway open day 2017
Needing to get out and about to see more of the garden railway world, I spotted that the Butterley Garden Railway Association were hosting an open day. Nice location on the Midland Railway and a bit of...
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Adding the "nose"
Most of the bodywork for the railbus arrived ready assembled but it still needed a bit of cleaning up to sit down on the Bachmann chassis properly. I'm wondering exactly why this kit ended up for sale...
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Getting exhausted
As supplied, the railbus exhaust is just a bit of tube. To my mind this didn't seem right. Surely the rain would get down it?What we needed was one of those funky tops that bob up and down in the...
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Warehouse Wednesday: In the back streets of Bourne
My regular trips to the Warners offices in Bourne mean I'm getting ever more familiar with the town centre, at least the bit between the office and lunchtime pub (I don't have a desk so have no choice...
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Stations, footbridges, water and hedges in BRM
August is the BRM Scenery Special issue, so you won't be surprised that I've been getting my hands dirty. We start with buildings. New Andy has built a station kit from 4Ground models and has made a...
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Brandbright coach in Garden Rail
In the last issue before I take over as Editor (gulp) I'm building a 16mm scale coach kit from Brandbright. Compared to the small scale models I normally build, it's a big model at a foot in...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Cosford Large Model aircraft
Today, I should be telling you about the joys of the Large Model Aircraft event at Cosford. Sadly though, as we headed along the motorway we discovered that when the Met Office tells you there will be...
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3D bus scan party!
Bus enthusiasts are weird. I mean, why would you fly all the way from Canada to scan a Birmingham bus? And then why would you decide it's a sensible commercial decision to produce this in 1:76 scale...
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