Amongst all the goodies on display at Brighton this weekend was this fascinating beast. It is, as any tractor aficionado will recognise, a David Brown tracked tractor. Those who can read will spot that it is a DB4 built in 1942 and think "That's a good model". Scale appears to be about 1/32nd.
The real surprise is the material used to make the model - clay.
According to the blurb beside it, the clay is worked and then flattened to dry until it has the texture of leather. Then the parts are cut out and fitted. The results are surprisingly sharp. There must be a real skill to doing this as I've never seen such clean lines on an earthenware item before.
The display showed a number of models, sadly I didn't grab as many pictures as I should have done. The paintwork on some of the others was also excellent with very good weathering.
All this makes me wonder what other unusual materials are out there and due for rediscovery ? Is anyone carving model cars out of marble ? Papier Machie locomotives ?
Hmm... considering the howls we get on certain forums when someone models in card, I wonder what fits of this information will cause in 'Brass and solder only' land?
ReplyDeletePapier mache has been used for loco construction, I recently found (then thrown away...) an article in an ancient Railway Modeller where the writer made a class 47 out of it in a wooden 2 piece mould.
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