Saturday Film Club: Unboxing English Electric locomotives

Steven and I had great fun filming this unboxing of a couple of Hornby locos. I played with some DCC, and enjoyed it!

Ally Pally time

All being well, by lunchtime today, I'll be in that there London for a capital show.

Yes, it's time for The London Festival of Railway Modelling, two days in the magnificent Alexandra Palace. 

It's one of my favourite venues, so much more character than your average exhibition hall. I just need to stay in the show and not spend my time gawping at the view over London. 

It's the show's 25th Birthday too. Doesn't time fly? I still fondly remember IMREX in the Horticultural Halls, and now the show that replaced it when these became too expensive, is a quarter of a century old!

As ever, there will be a wide variety of layouts and trade, details of which can be found on the exhibition website.  

I'll be on the World of Railways stand for the duration - at least when I'm not wandering around shooting layouts for future issues of BRM. 

If you aren't sure about a visit, let this top chap persuade you. 

 I hope to see you there! 

Help, my lorries got no wheel! In April's BRM

 

 

On my workbench in the April issue, I've taken an Oxford diecast Christmas lorry, and ruined it. Off comes the festive lettering, and one of the wheels. On goes dirt and graffiti, plus a pile of bricks to prop the thing up. 

There is also a wooden shelter - from a Scalemodelscenery kit whose construction defeated me, but I built it anyway. Well, bodging is an important skill...

The camera has been out for three of the four layouts in this issue: 

Broadwell lives in Cardiff, and is an impressive club-sized tail chaser with a very familiar station building. 

As well as the material on the page, the layout appears on BRM TV. 

Next, a first for me, T gauge, with the Ock Valley. 

Finally, a fun micro layout, Broad Arrow in 009. 

 BRM magazine is available from all good newsagents, or our online store: www.world-of-railways.co.uk

Supermarket customers will, I think, find it bagged with Garden Rail, which has a DVD on the cover.  

Tidy corners

 

Always turn your brain on, before taking the top off the glue. 

I didn't, and very nearly got my corners on the Manvers wagon mixed up. There is an end door, and this should go at the end of the wagon without corner plates. It took me a little while to twig this, as I sat wondering why the corner joint wasn't as neat as I'd expected. Fortunately, this was at the dry-fit stage. Which is why you do it of course. 

With all the parts in the right place, the corners are neat. Even the floor is the right size, not always a given in smaller scales. I've sanded a couple of mm from the sides and ends before now, so the thing would fit in the bottom. 

At the ends with corner plates, there was a tiny step, so I glued a tiny piece of Microstrip in. Once full dry (overnight), I was able to scrape and sand it to represent the bent bits of metal these parts represent. I'm being picky, and suspect most people wouldn't be bothered, as you can't see anything when the train is thrashing around the layout behind a steam engine!

Manvers Main G1 wagon

 

I mentioned yesterday that I felt the stirrings of modelling mojo coming back, and one of the kits that is helping me with this, is the Gauge 1 PO wagon from Northern Finescale, picked up at the Midlands show. 

Pawing at the components, something in me wanted to break out the plastic glue and stick the thing together!

Northern Finescale kits as injection moulded plastic models, a bit like a larger Parkside model, and since this isn't the first one I've built, I'm confident that it will be nice and easy to put together. 

I appreciate that this isn't the first model from this manufacturer on the blog, and as I have half a dozen more to build over time, it won't be the last! I will try and find something different to say each time to avoid boring you too much... 

Anyway, in the box, which is big enough for the finished model (do they still say that in Railway Modeller) are the parts moulded in greay and black. Only the pastic axle bearings are supplied on the sprue, everything else has been neatly cut off. Only a tiny suggestion of nib remains, nothing that a few strokes of an abrasive stick can't deal with. 

Now, where's the glue?