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Miss-chief on the water
Let's end 2017 with a finished project. After a few bumps along the way, my vintage speedboat, "Miss-Chief" is ready. Towards the end, I hit a few snags - the can of red spray I used disappeared with...
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2017 - Review of the year
12 years of blogging and there hasn't been a let up in model making activities for me.While 2016 was notable for me giving up editing MREmag, this year has seen a reversal of fortunes with the editor's...
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Filling the calendar up
The new years sees me trying to get a handle on all the events I need to try to attend, and there are quite a lot of them in the next 12 months!The problem is that so much happens at weekends and this...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Hellingly Hospital Railway weighbridge hut
When I built my model of The Hellingly Hospital Railway, one of the great frustrations was the lack of information on the weighbridge hut. I appears in the corner of a single image in the first edition...
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Didsbury Green continues in BRM and I go to Pendon
2018 hadn't quite arrived when the subscription copies of BRM landed on the doorstep. The bank holiday will allow readers to check out progress on my new micro layout "Didsbury Green".Wiring up is this...
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Partwork Season: Classic Dinky Toys Collection
To be honest, I wasn't going to mention the new DeAgostini Classic Dinky Toys Collection partwork. I'd seen the attractive, in a vintage way, car and magazine combo on the newsagents shelves a few...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Robot track laying
There's a shorter and more complete version here:all of which is reminicant of the greatest train chase ever filmed.
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Steaming Saturday
One of my tasks for 2018 is to get out and about visiting lots of garden railways. Late December isn't ideal for this, but luckily enough there was a 16mm Association group having a Saturday steaming...
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Dotti kit
Time to build something new for the garden. This IP Engineering "Dotti" 0-4-0 kit has been kicking around for months in my "pending" pile. It's a discontinued model that I bought for bargain price so I...
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Dotti chassis
Nothing much changes. Many years ago, I'd look at Saltford Models kits with chassis made of a simple U-shaped channel fitted with a cheapo motor and gears. The biggest change now is that the wheels are...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Slingfield Mill
If you go down to the Severn Valley Railway today, prepare for a big surprise. At least if you follow the rest of the family into town for a bit of "normal" retail therapy. Head to "Weavers Wharf" and...
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Building a childs wooden multiplay playhouse
Recently, I offered to help assembled a TP Wooden Multiplay Playhouse for a friend's 4 year old daughter. Being told that it was a wooden garden toy that came in pieces, I couldn't resist the chance to...
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Palitoy S Gauge coaches
S scale has always fascinated me. A couple of years ago, I had the chance to build a wagon kit in the scale for a magazine series and this involved me carrying out a little research. The SSMRS history...
View ArticleSaturday Film Club: Triang TV adverts
It's been a week of product announcements from the big two UK model railway manufacturers and as usual, social media is full of people frothing with excitement and those bemoaning there not being...
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Scoutrail 2018
The first show of the year within sensible driving distance for me is Scoutrail at Kidlington. I've exhibited there many years ago and used to be a regular visitor. Circumstances have prevented me...
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Getting the right angles
I've probably mentioned these before, but some of the most useful tools I own are these cast iron angles bought from Squires tools.Assembling the Dotti kit body parts, it's important to keep them at...
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Bonnet detailing
Fun time - the body goes together well enough so I get to move on to the detailing stage. Plastic rivets are supplied - these being Cambrian Models. Spotted in place using Revell Contacta glue,...
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Warehouse Wednesday: Brick and stone
Mystery building time. All I know about this is that I took the photo while on the Ecclesbourne Railway.The design also seems a bit of a mystery. Why brick AND stone? Was the original building stone...
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February Garden Rail and EiM
Garden Rail is looking back tot he snowy weather just before Christmas to see how those whose layouts are affected by great big dollops of the white stuff deal with it.Being a magazine covering a wide...
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Britfix balsa glue
Brought in with an old wooden boat kit recently, this tube of glue takes me right back to my first modelling days.I can't remember how old I was, possibly 5 or 6, when my Dad presented me with a...
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