Brighton Modelworld 2012

With last years Modelworld being so good, and my Dad having a significant birthday on yesterday, we decided to give the show another go. A quick check showed that a train trip would cost more than buying an aeroplane, but it's only a couple of hours drive.

Travelling on a Sunday seemed a good idea. The M25 would be quiet and there probably wouldn't be a queue to get in. Most serious modellers go to shows on the Saturday so they can enjoy being shoved around in crowds and struggling to see things. The second day will always see only 40% of total attendance with consequently quieter gangways.

Well, the M25 bit worked OK. After a stroll along a sunny sea front, we still had to queue up for a few minutes to get in. I'm not moaning - this is the sign of a good and popular show. They had even provided us with a Terrier locomotive to look at while waiting ! Anyway, the show was crowded but getting around wasn't a big problem.

At this point I expect you are thinking I'm going to ramble on about the model railways. You'd be wrong. There were layouts and plenty of them but to be honest nothing jumped out at me as much as previous years. Those I liked I'd seen before, but then I have attended a lot of shows recently. No, there are trains but we don't go for those, we go for the mix of hobbies under one roof. If you take the toy-train blinkers off, then there is good stuff to be found.

First up, Lego. Yes, it's for kids but they don't build a huge model of Westminster Abbey. How this thing is moved I don't know but it must be a challenge. On one side the building is complete and very recognisable. On the other it's open and you can see the interior detail and congregation. To top it all off (pun intended) the attendant looking after it was wearing a hat that looked like a brick, made out of bricks. I think I might have plans for fashion range...

There were also a couple of Lego railway layouts featuring trains that looked very much like real British ones. A 0-4-4 tank was running well as well as a tube train and couple of pannier. OK, it's possibly not "real" model making, it is impressive and looks much more fun than trying to make a P4 layout work. For the older plastic brickie, there was a big display of Betta-builda from the 1960's. Their centrepiece was a 5 foot tall Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Moving on, I had a go at a radio control car simulator which saw me trying to pilot a model stock car around a carpet circuit and failing miserably. The demonstrator made it look so easy too. A bit later on we watched the real (model) things trying the same tricks and doing not much better than I was. Well, apart from clocking up a lap every 3.5 seconds that is.

Down at the boat pool there were lots of vessels on display including possibly the largest number of lifeboats I've seen under one roof. Several were of types I'd not seen before including the Lizzie class - from the books by Dora Thatcher. Lizzie is the RNLI version of "Thomas the Tank" and very nice she looks too. I'll keep an eye out for the book - the model looked lovely.

With the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic sinking, there were lots of examples on display from tiny Lego ones to radio control versions. Lots of memorabilia was on show too. The only downside was that while the model was shown off in the pool, that dreadful Celine Dion song was being played. The one that makes you wish the thing had sunk faster and with one more person on board...

I suppose I should mention one railway layout, which was in the dolls house section of the show. It was minuscule and yet appeared to work rather better than many larger versions. Sitting on top of a lunch box, the train moved around the oval of track as smoothly as you might wish. Closer investigation leads me to think that a toothed belt is involved but I can't be sure. I would like to have a go at making one myself though.

If there is an indicator of a shows interestingness, it's probably the number of photos I took. Despite ignoring most of the layouts, I still managed over 80. There's no rhyme or reason to my choices, just that I found the models interesting. You get plastic cars, boats, trains, Daleks, buildings, and a toy atmoic power plant. Some of these have been uploaded to Flickr and others will join them in a few days time as I concoct blog posts around them.

See the photos on Flickr

Longer life through hobbies

The government has been issuing reports that people who stay in touch with other, avoid loneliness and live for longer. Their suggestion is that we should all stay in work until we die.

That sounds rubbish to me. If you want to encourage people to stay social and live longer, promote access to hobbies. Look at the picture above. That is a Thursday morning at our boat club. 22 people have chosen to come down to the lakeside in February. Some have travelled many miles to do this. All will have to build models to sail and when they get to the club, they chat away and enjoy each others company.

What support does the club get from the government for this useful social service ? Nothing.

Indeed if we shout about our hobby, the media treat us worse than terrorists and yet it's sitting in front of the telly vegetating that is the cause of many early deaths as the viewers switch their brains off. If I were a cynical person, I might suggest that this is exactly what the government wants. They say they want you to live longer but in reality our MPs want you to peg out quickly so they can spend your pension on duck houses or speeding fines.

Look at this way. If the budget doesn't include the removal of VAT from model railway and boat products then George Osboure hates you. Just remember Ossyborne, us modellers are a bad bunch to upset. We're more tooled up than a branch of Halfords. You might want to rethink your plans once you find yourself at the business end of an Olfa Plasticard cutter.

Animation experiment

My first animated film was produced at the age of 9 using my Dad's Standard 8 camera and a set up with loads of lights in the corner of my bedroom. The subsequent film was shown to the local cine club to great (probably polite) applause.

I learnt a lot from the experience - mostly that it's a good idea to come up with a plot before you are half way through the expensive roll of film. Needless to say, the cost put me off a second epic.

Nowadays things are a lot easier. Da kidz can do what I did with digital cameras and computers. The lucky gits can even buy Lego Film Studios where you get the sets and camera ! They have it far too easy. In my day mutter, mutter....

Anyway, I've always wanted to do one of those films where a Lego model builds itself and finally had a go a few days ago. Thinking I'd buy a nice, new set, I searched central Birmingham. This drew a blank - how ? - but the Pound Shop supplied me with one of those knock-off versions that have appeared since the good people of Denmark lost a copyright case a few years ago. Best-Lock brick are sort of like Lego but cheaper, shiny and don't fit quite as well. I disapprove. They do Army stuff too, which is distinctly un Lego. Booo.

Shot on a stills camera and then thrown through Microsoft Movie Maker, the film above is a bit of an experiment. This time I learnt that you have to put a lot of effort into marking the position of the model and lining up the camera. On the other hand, the thing only cost a quid and I enjoyed making it, so who cares ?

On the other hand, perhaps time-lapse is the way to go...

The Footplate

I'm not sure about this motor - it's too big to go through the hole provided in the footplate without a bit of wiggling. I've offset the thing to the side a bit and so it's only the electric connections that are in the way. More of an issue is that thanks to the back of the under-bonnet hole being in the way, it can't lean back as far as it should.

A little modification might be in order soon.

On the other hand the rest of the footplate is a joy to build. The buffer beams were fitted in the half-etched lines provided. I did this with the footplate off the chassis in contravention of the instructions, soldering around the frames doesn't seem that clever to me. Or maybe I'm just not clever enough to do it successfully. Two sets of beams are provided in case you are building an industrial loco with deeper requirements.

The front steps are brilliant. A quick fold makes the basic box and then the treads slot in to holes in the back, to be soldered from the rear. No cleaning up ! At the back, the treads fold to right angles and have to be laminated in place. I managed this with heat and flux as I couldn't be bothered to set up the RSU, although this would have made it easier. On the other hand, a half-etch locating line under the footplate is so much nicer than trying to position steps by eye under a cab doorway.

One change I made was to use bigger bolts to join footplate and chassis. 10BA rather than 14BA. Can't be bothered fiddling around with tiny fixings if I need to do anything during a show. My only regret was fitting the nuts too early and not having a flat top to the footplate while I was attaching all the other stuff.

A great big motor

When I bought the 01 kit, I must have asked which motor and gearbox was recommended and bought them at the same time. I know this was Railex so supply wouldn't have been too big a problem unlike many shows.

The instruction say you use a bit of a whopper for such a tiny model locomotive. Specifically a MH1024 motor in a Markits MM210 gear mount. That motor is better know in the klitbuilding fraternity as the DS10. It's been around for at least 30 years and it's brothers have powered many a kit-built engine around layouts across the world. It might be old technology, but it works.

The gear mount is the usual fold-up jobbie and as seems the case every time I get one, the motor mounting holes were in the wrong place. Yes, they held the motor but the 40:1 gears weren't even in the same postcode, never mind in mesh.

My usual trick is to file the screw holes into ovals so the motor can be tweaked up and down. The central holes for the shaft to poke through was also wrong but instead of altering it, I just hacked away a chunk of the massive plastic boss that the shaft emerges through. Heaven knows what it's there for (go on, someone tell me I've done a bad thing) but the motor still works after my surgery. It might have been prudent to test it before I did this though.

The unit drops in nicely between the frames. Even in OO there's loads of room. With some leads attached the chassis was soon scooting around the modelling board. The mesh isn't perfect, it rattles in reverse which means I need to tighten it up a smidgen, but it works well enough for now.

One point, the motor has a shaft coming out of each end. To remove the excess from the top you are "supposed" to file it away or use a min drill. I can't be bothered and suspect both methods would generate bearing melting heat. I find my decade and a bit pair of Zebra wire cutters works just as well. I just have to keep my face out of the way of the waste shaft as it tends to fire off at supersonic speeds !

01 Chassis

Starting at the bottom of the loco as usual, I made up the coupling rods, the shorter of which you can see in the photo.

Next, the sideframes were joined with the two main end spacers. Everything checked out as nice, square and flat. Handy hint at this point - don't used a spare wing mirror glass to check, they are slightly curved. Guess how I know.

The rods were then used to align the axle bearings, it's important that the centres of these are the same distance apart as the holes in the rods if the loco is ever to run properly. I jigged the front axle to crank axle set as well but couldn't be bothered to take a photo of this. And yes, the rod does run from the front to the crank, not the back. That's the class 06 that does that. Yes the two locos do look very similar. Being a Scottish company, Barclay didn't waste money of design if they could help it. Or stuck to a "brand image", you decide.

Once happy, I added a third spacer in the middle at the bottom because it will be used to support the pick-ups. Then the two outer strip ones because I'd paid for the bits and wasn't going to waste them even though I can't see what they are supposed to add to anything..

A fresh pot of flux and some nice shiny etches

My old pot of Copalux flux has run out. The dregs in the bottom are more detritus than soldering aid. Time to bury it in the bin and break out a new pot.

Opening the lid reveals a fresh opalescent cream. Were the outer printing different, I could imagine it being sold as a repair for the twenty signs of aging (women) or the 5 signs of fatigue (men - although it's the same stuff in the pot). It almost looks good enough to eat.

The compliment the fresh flux, I need a fresh kit and so out of the pile comes a Judith Edge models Class 01 diesel. Bought over a year ago, I had intended to put this model together fast and try to lodge it in a magazine. Another idea that got away from me.

Never mind, the box has now been opened and a start will be made. Those brass etchings look lovely, all the bits are in the box including motor, gears and wheels. Actually, not only are all the bits for this model in the box, so are all the bits for a 4-wheel railcar that I'd completely forgotten about...

For those not familiar with the prototype, the 01 is a short wheelbase 0-4-0 shunter produced by Barclay. I need one to fill in my 01 to 10 set. Once upon a time there was a version built on a Dapol Pug chassis in my collection but it was in the stock box that was stolen. Now, at least, I'll replace it. The original was pretty good (correct wheelbase and size) with a scratchbuilt body that I was pretty proud of at the time.

Wikipedia on the Class 01