The idea has been floating around my mind for a while - let's get photos of all the BR diesel classes and put them together in order of their TOPs numbers. Building all the BR shunters from 01 to 10 has always been an ambition (still working on it but mostly done) so this is a logical extension.
When mytimemedia, publishers of MREmag.com were looking for idea for a railway themed paper publication, I suggested this and it was eagerly accepted.
Now I'm into hitherto uncharted territory of negotiating for reproduction rights on photos and trying to work out who made which kit of which loco. It's going to be fun but a challenge. At least I'm trying to make something I would certainly buy if it turned up in Smiths.
Of course, that doesn't guarantee sales. However, the deal that means a £9.99 book includes a £10 voucher for ModelFair might help a bit.
Pre-order your book here.
7 comments:
That could be interesting - how honest will you be when it comes to describing just how good some models actually are?
The class 47 is a classic example, out of the box none of the available models is perfect but some have a lot of potential. Class 31's are another one where the 'state of the art model' isn't correctly shaped and the much old Lima model offers a far more convincing bodyshell, but without the extras of opening doors!
We're sidestepping that particular can of worms. With 180 pages there simply isn't enough space to do a full build on each so most of the modelling material will be a list of options. Some of these are long enough!
I will be including soame longer pieces on building some of the shunters.
Of course, there WILL be photoso of models and since these will be next to photos of the real thing, readers can draw their own conclusions.
I can understand space constraints, but then I'd wonder why bother with half measures instead of going all out! But then I can't see the point of any car with less 180bhp when most people can see what the fuss is about!
However I hope you highlight the class 31 issue, sadly most people can't look beyond the model. Fine if they're happy but if you have the chance, why not educate modellers into really looking at how the prototype really appears. It has uses far beyond locos too, better observation leads to better layouts!
And the Class 31 is a lovely con version to do -
http://eastmoor.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/project-31-finale.html
It's a case for horses for courses. A full-on book would run to several volumes, cost a fortune and take forever to write. I've got a book on the class 47 beside me, 200 pages long, costs £20 and doesn't have any modelling options. 50 classes carried out like that would be a bit of a challenge.
Even with 3 pages per class on average, it's still a significant undertaking. And I bet I still get loads of stick on web forums.
Class 31 is an interesting one. The Hornby model looks nice, the Airfix one can be rescued, Triang TT one not bad for its age, but the Heljan O guage version - something odd about the bufferbeams.
Still prototype photo next to model photo ought to help.
I'm afraid the Hornby one is their poorest effort in the 'second generation' of models. It really is poor - so much so my conversion got a lot comment online when I was doing it.
Personally I think Tim Shackleton's book Modelling Diesels in 4mm scale is the best a approach, examples and teaching techniques. Allows a greater depth of how undertake work whilst expecting the reader to go out and research for themselves.
Which is one of the reasons we aren't doing full modelling features on all the locos. There isn't a single RTR model that someone doesn't think is a load of rubbish.
I remember detailing the Bachmann 04 diesel when it came out and a day after it appeared in a mag, the editor recived a call saying I was completely wrong on everything. Thius was despite having the photos to prove I was right.
You can't win.
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