Hellingly Hospital in "Modelling the Southern"

There I am innocently standing in front of a nice man selling books at a show when my eye alights in a new publication called "Modelling the Southern - Volume 1: Ideas and Inspiration". I suddenly remember that I was asked to supply a couple of photos for a model making book along these lines a few months ago.

I wonder if it is this book. Picking it up to flick through from the back (we always do this, I wonder if Chinese people flick through from the front), I don't flick far before finding my layout, The Hellingly Hospital Railway, on the inside back cover.

Nice photo too - my favourite of the selection supplied.

Needless to say, all I get is credit. Not even (as far as I am aware) a free copy. If you feel this is a bad thing, click on the link below to buy your copy at a discount price from Amazon. Using this means I get a little cash as well - result !

Don't worry, there are lots of other good things in there for your money, at least there are if you think the modelling north starts at Watford anyway.

Buy Modelling the Southern - Volume 1: Ideas and Inspiration from Amazon.

Fred, chatting with the driver

Down at the Vale of Melbridge Light Railway, Fred Dibnah chews the fat with the driver of Number 6, Peveril.

Taking some photos of the garden railway, I snapped this one which, while useless for publication, has a nice bit of atmosphere. Imagine yourself on a sunny summers day (remember those ?) at a steam railway. You are sitting on the platform as the train sits there sizzling and producing that oh so wonderful aroma of hot steam oil and coal.

Lutterworth tomorrow

We're back on the road tomorrow. This time we're taking Flockburgh to Lutterworth show, under 30 miles away, so not (hopefully) on the road for very long !

The layout hasn't done much since it's last trip out but I will be packing a bit more lead in some of the locos to see if it makes a difference. The Jinty certainly worked better last time after gaining weight faster than a fat bloke with a free pass to Greggs.

See you there !

Lutterworth MRC website

More details on UK Model shops (with satnav postcode)

These part painted figures are giving me the creeps !

Is it just me who finds these figures creepy ? Once the eyes are finished, they'll be fine but at this stage, it looks more like a zombie apocalypse than some little model men for the garden railway.

Don't worry, with my magic paintbrush and faithful pot of Humbrol, I'll soon re-animate these undead !

Or perhaps I should use these eyeball transfers ?

(Note: The figures are G scale models from the old George Turner range. As far as I know, they are currently unavailable)

Snaefell Mountain Railway wagon

The Snaefell Mountain Railway is a tramway that runs up the only mountain on the Isle of Man. As such, it doesn't have a lot of good stock. There was a car specifically designed to haul coal to the boilers but nowadays you get trams and not much else.

However, there is a webcam pointing at it and I have this on my iGoogle home page so when I switch the computer on, I get a view of Manxland. A couple of days ago, I screen grabbed this sequence of pictures. The cafe at the top of the mountain has no road access, so if a new display unit, or supplies of food have to be delivered, these are pushed up the hill on a small wagon by a tram.

During the off-season, there is still a need to get to the top of the mountain - the RAF have a couple of large transmitter aerials that need to be serviced after all. Thus, when the trams aren't running, there is a Wickham railcar to act as transport for people and supplies.

Does anyone know of a plan for this vehicle ? It would look rather fabulous on my garden railway.

Pilot boat, brush and saw in Model Boats

A couple of reviews by me in the current (June 2012) issue of Model Boats magazine.

First up are some brushes from Trumpeter. I'm using these on the Canberra as I write (well, not as I write, I don't want paint on the keyboard,. You know what I mean, stop being silly) and they seem very nice.

From the same source is a nifty little saw. In full size it would be described as a "Keyhole saw", a very useful bit of kit in the real world. For modellers wanting to hack away at stuff where the access is poor, then this little device is very handy. Sadly the blades are more suited to wood and plastic than metal. A finer tooth would make it a must buy.

Finally, the biggie - first review of the Speedline ex-HFM Pilot Boat. Model Boats often do reviews in two stages and this is no exception. Part 1 mentions the kit and shows a shot of the contents. It's little more than a mention the thing exists. Part 2, in a few months, will be a build of the model with all the niggles exposed. Or the builders incompetence. We shall see once it hits the workbench.

Slim Gauge Circle 2012

I should be working hard on some garden railway stuff for a mag, or painting a miniature cruise liner. Instead, I took a break for a couple of hours to head over to Rugby, for a day the centre of the universe as far as narrow gauge American railways are concerned.

The most startling model was some steampunk model making. How about a chunk of asteroid with a space ship, literally a ship for space, moored to it. In the middle is a little mine railway...

For those who want to know, the ship comes from Industria Mechanika and is called the Remora. For $150, you'd better want it pretty badly, although compared to some locomotive kits, it's not bad.

More conventionally, there was a rather nice bogie hopper wagon from Grandt Line that appeared on the more complete of the two layouts on show. The other layout was very much under construction as we wandered around. This one was pretty complete but most of the locos were unpainted brass - presumably from Korea with prices that deter you from unpacking the airbrush. Mind you, they looked beautiful and ran like a dream.

The buildings were laser cut wooden kits which I'd previously only seen in magazine adverts.

It's a funny event - half the room was random people selling off their old bits and pieces, a sort of specialist jumble sale. Great fun as you never know quite what you will find. I managed to resist projects but did come away with a superb book on building model bridges. An American publication that I'd never seen before and possibly is the only copy this side of the Atlantic.

Slim Gauge Circle Website

(Photo Note: All these pictures were taken on my mobile phone. I've been trying to persuade Chris Nevard that he can ditch his DSLR for one and I think I've proved my point.)