Carrying road vehicles

 

Visiting a wargaming store last week, reminded me that I took this photo when Melbridge Dock was on display. It shows how I cart the selection of 4mm scale road vehicles around in a case designed for transporting little figures. 

Essentially, there is a layer of shaped foam top and bottom. When the case closes, the models are gripped by this. I found that this was a little severe; we are talking plastic models, not metal soldiers, but cutting the points off the foam helped. 

My Dad used to enjoy the job of removing vehicles and putting them in the case. He'd let me deal with the locos and rolling stock, but wasn't so worried about these bits. It's sobering to think that when I got them out for display, he was probably the last person to touch them.

Unfortunately, Games Workshop don't sell these cases any more. I bet mine is 30 years old, but I found something from Green Stuff World that looks adaptable.  

All is not well with the sides of the barge

 

It was all going so well. The sides of the barge looked good. I'd even found some waterslide crests to liven up the red areas from a box at Bournville. 

As a finishing touch, I gave them a light coat of matt varnish from my Army Painted rattle can. 

It dried badly. In fact, it dried too early - before hitting the model. Result: a finish that might have been matt, but has the texture of fine sandpaper. I tried to pretend that I could live with it, but after a little while decided to be honest. 

So, the red areas were given a light sanding with a very fine abrasive. I wasn't looking to remove the paint, just smooth the varnish. Amazingly, it worked OK. Not perfect, but good enough. A light brushed coat of matt, another sanding, and I was happy enough to brush (I'm not messing with spray paints for a while) satin acrylic on. 

After that, the layers were assembled, complete with glazing. OK, the results aren't perfect, but as I said at the start, the aim is to finish something, and the search for perfection will be the enemy of that. As it is, sorting this out has taught me something; mistakes often do that! 

Garden Rail - October 2026

 

This issue takes you behind the scenes of one of the most ambitious temporary garden railways ever built, the stunning BBC Gardeners’ World Live display created by Andrew Christie. We tell the story from transforming a car park into a gold award-winning railway garden, to keeping trains running for thousands of visitors. 

We're also heading to Scotland to visit Forest of Glee, a remarkable exhibition garden railway built for the Falkirk Model Railway Club show. Created indoors in November, complete with real flowers, and a fully operational railway, it's proof that garden railways can flourish anywhere with enough imagination. 

On the workbench: 

• Testing Maxitrak's new Corris live steam locomotive 'Sir Haydn' 
• Building a coal tub 
• Painting people for beginners 
• Engineers wagons
• LGB's first kit-built wagon 
• Developing an outdoor line 

Plus the latest products for modellers in larger scales. 

Garden Rail is available from all good newsagents, and our online store. 

Element Games, Birmingham

 

Located in an unfashionable arcade five minutes walk from Snow Hill station in Birmingham, Element Games is part of a chain, catering for wargamers. 

It's home to the largest selection of model paints I have ever seen in one room. You won't find Humbrol or Revell, but pretty much everything else is there. Loads of brands I've never heard of, and quite a few I have, but consider them "advanced". 

My problem was that I'm working on a GWR station, and needed some light stone, dark stone etc.  The book stays use Precision Paints, but the web says there's no chance to buy the full set of colours. 

Anyway, I wander in with my book, hoping to pick up some alternatives. An assistant asks if he can help, then proceeds to spend 15 minutes working around the various ranges, looking for the best colour match. I've got five acrylic colours, from four different makers - full details will be in the article. 

I was especially impressed when he said there was one range he wasn't selecting from, as he'd never used that paint. That says he's using the products from the store, and has some knowledge of them, always a good thing. 

So, there aren't any toy trains, and the small number of plastic kits are properly weird, but for paint and other modelling materials and tools, I'd certainly recommend this place. Best of all, according to their website, they have stores all over the country. The next one to open is in Covent Garden, so someone has a budget...

Element Games website.  

Bournville haul - the joy of scruffy boxes

 

Small shows are a happy hunting ground for me. Since I'm not looking for the latest RTR, I'm free to scrub around under tables and in scruffy cardboard boxes for interesting stuff. 

The first prize has to be a Gaugemaster Combi controller - for a fiver! I have been pondering buying something from the range for loco testing anyway. OK, it doesn't have the separate power supply, but that's a generic item that I should be able to pick up easily enough. I'll have one somewhere as I've used a Combi on a couple of layouts in the past. I think it's stuck to the NG7 project at the moment. 

After that, there is some microstrip for a quid a pack, piercing saw blades for about the same, dry print lettering and Tiny Signs posters, the latter for a current BRM project. 

Finally, a row of sprung SPDT toggle switches for three pounds. All this is junk to most people, but I rate it higher than the latest shiny Accucraft product, but then I'm a bit weird. 

I'm the same with books - there are very few big hardbacks for me. But those slim publications that never made it to a second print run, and whose distribution was very limited, that's my thing. Especially if there is an Isle of Man connection. 

So, we have Manx Transport Kaleidoscope, of course. I may well have a copy, but why risk it for 50p/ Bagnall: A narrow gauge legacy is new to me, and I can't have looked through it as there is a whole chapter devoted to the Groudle Glen locomotives. That wasn't going to stay in the box! And we finish with Davyhulme Sewage Works and its railway - which has some interesting pictures, and let's face it, an unusual subject. Sewage works railways aren't common models, but the photos suggest that there is some interesting scope for one. Best of all, this lot came from a preserved railway stand, so the money is off to a good cause. 

The postcard kits for telephone boxes are just a bit of fun, and I do love a K6...