VER Car 2 - Finished

 

Job done. Not a difficult kit to build. It even drops perfectly onto the chassis, and is retained by a tiny amount of superglue. The only slight drama was the roof, which had distorted slightly. A warm with a hairdryer and some gentle bending fixed this. 

At the front I've used a Mony's Models (I think, he's whitemetal) figure with a traditional dustcoat. OK, traditional for the Manx Electric Railway anyway. We'll assume the VER is having a vintage weekend and eschew their more modern uniforms. 

At the back, my Dad enjoys a ride. 

This is a ModelU figure. He's a bit wedged under the roof, which is solid, not hollow, but just fits. 

I'm pretty certain that this is a model I'd have been building if my Dad had been at Bournville show with me. He loved the VER, and we had considered options for building it in the past. Is this a precursor to a layout? Not at the moment,  but who knows? 

The railway with a speedhump in the middle

 

From just before Christmas, Steve Purves's There and Back Light Railway, set up in Leamington Spa. Complete with speed hump in the middle of the line!

Sadly, Mr P cannot be persuaded to take a proper run-up at it, and to get some big air under the loco... 

Update: Sorry, Blogger appears to have bu**gered this up.  

Saturday Film Club: MAGLEV and Birmingham International Station

I travelled on the Birmingham Airport Maglev a few times. I even saw the test track at Derby, although only from the train. It was the (somewhat slow) future. 

And I would love to rescue the car currently sat in a field. Of course I would. I've nowhere to put it, no way of moving it, and no money for the restoration. Doesn't stop me dreaming though.  

Random cat photos

Spotted in the corner of our clubrooms, after a visit from Mr Kato - a couple of packs of cats. 

I wish I'd seen them before he left, because there are questions to be asked. I understand the Japanese cats set. A perfectly nice set of moggies, although I'm not sure how you are supposed to incorporate Maneki-neko into a HO scale model, I suppose he might bring you luck. 

But, what sort of meeting is it that says, "What our range needs is a set of cats in Ninja poses"? 

One where everyone nods in agreement, hence the bizarre Ninja Cat pack.

And before you ask, obviously I fancy a set of Ninja cats - but at nearly 30 quid because they are colour 3D printed? I might have to wait for the sales... 

Squeezing the seats in

 

3D printing is a marvellous thing, but it can throw up some issues. 

In an effort to provide as complete a lump as possible, the designer can cause the builder a few problems. For example, painting around the seats on the end would have been a whole lot easier if they were separate parts that were then glued together -  a kit, in other words. This isn't the only model I've found this problem with, and I wonder who much it's the designer focusing on the finished model, and how much the customer needing (wanting?) to avoid having to assemble anything. 

An extra problem here is that the seats drop inside the sides, pretty much perfectly. You can do that in CAD, but when the modeller sticks glazing material inside those sides, the space for the seats, is less than the length. Not much, just over 1mm, but enough to stop them fitting. 

I ended up breaking off the seat support at one end, sticking this in place, then shortening the seat itself, before fitting it. Not a big problem, although you do need to be careful when cutting resin as it's brittle, but niggling. 

Anyway, job done. Figures are all Hornby ready-painting, as I rescued them from an old project. They needed to lose their legs below the knee to fit, but as they are made of a rubbery plastic, that's a few seconds job.