In the bin Twitter

4698 days. That's how long I've been on Twitter, but no more. 

At first, it was something interesting. There was a lot in the news about this new website, and I decided to give it a try. 

A little bit of me wondered if getting to know the Blue Bird, would help me drive visitors to this blog, and other websites I looked after. Something I learned fairly early, was that answer was "no it won't". That didn't matter, I looked in to get my dopamine fix, and occasionally, people wrote something interesting. 

However, once it was renamed "X", the site gradually developed into right-wingers screaming at each other, and to anyone not close enough to their political persuasion. Once we past the most recent UK election, things got much worse. Mostly people who forgot thier party had been in power for over a decade, and decided that every problem in the world was the fault of the current government. 

To be honest, it was making me miserable. So, I have dumped my account. I'm sure I won't be missed. 

Of course, I have dabbled with the new boys on the block. Over on Threads (I hate that name) I am practical_phil. It seems OK, even if most of the comments are people saying how much nier it is than Twitter. Right up until the Zuk said there wouldn't be fact-checking any more and they got upset. TBH, I've never seen any evidence of fact-checking on Facebook, or Threads. Possibly an American only thing? 

And ever curious, I'm on BlueSky as practical-phil Not sure what to make of this. Lots of Americans, so most stuff isn't relevant to me. Maybe I'll gradually find people to follow. Maybe I won't. 

Of course, the big problem with this sort of social media is: people. Many people online are vile. They love abusing others because they don't think they can be tracked down. People will move from one site to another, and then moan the neigbourhood isn't as good as it was. Here's a handy hint, there is NO general discussion website that is nice. There will be idiots. Plenty of people are online because it's too cold or wet for their main hobby of shouting at pigeons in the street.

You might say something about pots and kettles since I'm a moderator on RMweb. I know there are some people who really hate the site, you can read them on Facebook shouting things that would certainly have seen them moderated. It's not perfect, but generally better behaved than Facebook, and especially YouTube, commenting. Watching any RTR manufacturer do a video launch, it doesn't take long before the comments reveal a few real crazy people. And those are the ones you remember, not the majorty. In the same way RMweb is "known" for the fight in the pub car park, not the huge amount of quality modelling to be found on the site, and the areas devoted to supporting other members with various ailments. 

Of all the social media, I think my favourite is Instagram, where I am (surprisingly) practical_phil. I love popping up odd photos I take on my phone. It's properly disposable media, and all the more fun for it. I don't take it seriously. 

There is Tik-Tok, where I bagged practical_phil, but I'm not 12, so I haven't posted anything. 

Being old, I am on Facebook, but tend to limit friends to people I have met. It's mainly for groups nowadays anyway, and if you can find mutual interests, there's an awful lot to be said for it. I know I regularly find interesting content. 

Mind you, there's no escaping moans about price. In the last week I've binned one group finding interesting stuff in charity shops because it just became abuse aimed at people running those shops for the prices. On Threads (I think) someone started threatening anyone who bought partworks as apparently these are an evil scam too. 

The other thing falling out of the Twitter fun and games is people discovering they really should build a website, and not have their entire online presense in someone else's walled garden. A few people have even suggested that blogs should see a resurgence. Now, wouldn't that be a good idea...

Calendar Time

 

Time to start filling in the calendar for 2025. The number of weekends given over to shows hasn't decreased, but here's what I've put on the list so far.

Work events

8/9 February - Doncaster

21-23 February - Glasgow

1/2 March - Midlands Garden Railway show

15-16 March - Ally Pally

6 April - SWAG (RMweb Taunton)

12 April - National Garden Railway Show

3/4 May - Bristol 

7 June - Llangollen garden rail show (Not on a stand, just wandering around)

27 September - Elsecar on tour at Barrow Hill (Not on a stand, just wandering around)

25/26 October - Great British Model Railway Show

22/23 November - NEC

13 December - Rowington garden railway show (Not on a stand, just wandering around)

Non work

20 April - York

26 or 27 April - Key Model World

14 June - 7mm Narrow gauge show

19 July - Gauge 1 north

2 or 3 August - Art in the Park

28 September - Stafford

8 or 9 November - IPMS Telford

7 or 8 November - NEC Classic car show

That's 18 weekends accounted for already then, and I know I'll add more to this list during the year. For a start, there are dates not yet set for some shows. I have a few ideas for exhibitions I've never been to that I'd like to see - Blackpool model boat show perhaps. There really ought to be a trip to the Isle of Man too, the heritage festival is at the back end of July. 

Add in some club open days for both boats and trains, and the calendar is filling up fast!

I know people who are amazed at the number of events I'll head out to in a year, but the truth is that I really enjoy all of them. Working from home, getting out is a good way of taking a break, it's too easy to slip into doing something because it is there, but if you are out and about, you are forced not to. As far as the model train show go, it's a great way to find inspiration, or chat to readers and find out what they like for future magazines. 

Despite this, if anyone has suggestions for places I should visit, pop them in the comments, and I'll take a look. 

And if you are at one of these events and spot me, please come over for a chat. It's always nice to meet blog readers. 

Oh, and the header image is from the KMBC calendar. I nice shot of my boat on the water. The first time that one sailed for quite some time!.

Merry Christmas

 

On holiday

If everything is going as planned, by the time most of you are reading this, I should be at St Pancras station, awaiting the first of a series of trains, that will transport me to Switzerland. 

I've booked a trip through Great Rail Journeys, and should be heading to Wilderswil, for a week. 

Part of the holiday includes a trip up the Jungfrau Railway, so I hope the weather is good!

I'll also be near Interlaken, and have identified a couple of model shops, among other attractions. Well, it's a good way to make yourself visit different bits of a city. 

All this means no modelling content for a week, but you can (hopefully, technology permitting) follow my travels. 

On Instagram, I am Practical_Phil

 

 On Flickr, I am Phil Parker

Feel free to head over to either of these sites for your daily entertainment. And, all being well, I'll see you on my return in a week.

Sunday Post

Sorry, I forgot. Been a bit busy recently. 

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Time for a break

 

I've not been feeling great recently. Any modelling mojo has left the building and run down the street,  there's nothing for me to write up on the blog. 

So, I'm going to take a few days off. I've started to get a little mojo back, so maybe there will be something interesting to say. I do have a bit of material from a couple of shows to work through eventually for a start. 

Anyway, I bet most of you are off work for half-term weekend. Loads of people I know are, so you're not missing the posts so much. 

Incidentally, have I managed to sort out the anoying adverts? I can't see them, so I hope those pesky Google experiments have gone for you too.

Adverts. Grrrr

Paul asks: Have you changed your advert settings? They're now appearing in the post as well as on the right. A bit too intrusive for my liking.

No, I haven't. It seems that Google (Moto: Don't be Evil) has decided my blog needs more adverts. When I look at it, there is an anoying slide up advert at the bottom. Paul's seeing adverts in the posts. I don't have control over either of these. 

And, I don't make any money from them either. The only remuneration I get is if you click on the sidebar advert. 

I assume that this is Google looking for payback for hosting Blogger for free. Unfortunatly, they don't offer a paid-for ad-free version (Wordpress do). If they did, I'd probably take it up.  But they don't. Odd really, as this would be a more reliable source of income. Perhaps the joy of being evil and forcing adverts onto people's content is more fun. It's not like they need the money. 

Anyway, apologies for the adverts. Ill do a bit of digging to see if there is a way to calm them down. If not, I'll have to think about a bigger move to my own webspace, but that's a massive technical challenge as I'd need to move the photos currenlty hosted in Blogger too. And it needs to be automated. With 4600+ posts, I'm not doing it manually!

Time for a break

 

It's that time again. I've been so busy recently that any thought of modelling for my own entertainment has been out of the question. 

Two weekend shows on the trot hasn't helped. If I'm honest, I need to take a few days away from here as I'm so tired I'll just type even more gibberish than normal!

There are a few potential posts lined up, and hopfully I'll be back at the end of the week with something for you to look at. 

In the meantime, there's a lot of links in the right -hand bar. You can't have read ALL of them surely? 

See you later.

2022 - Review of the year

In theory 2022 should have been a very much upgraded version of 2021. With Covid receeding as a menace, we were finally allowed out to meet each other, something I mentioned last year that I missed far more than I expected I would. 

Sadly, when spring arrived, so did a large number of Russians in someone else's country. While not affected as badly as those in Ukraine (thank goodness), it still weighed on my mind. I'm no good when the drums of war are beating and so my head wasn't really in something as unimportant as building toy trains and boats. This sort of thing puts what I do into perspective, proving what a pointeless activity it all is. 

Needless to say, the old project list can be copied from 2020: 

• 7mm scale Garratts STILL haven't been out of their boxes. I'm looking for a new builder for the one I've been commissioned to produce, something not helped by the death of my friend Trevor who was looking out for me, and has the comissioners details. This is going to take a lot more sorting now.
  
• 3mm scale Class 25 hasn't bothered to build itself.
• O gauge "Flying Banana" railcar, still in the box. With a RTR model on the horizon, should I just give it up as a bad job?
  
• 4mm GWR steam railcar, I know it's one people would like to see finished. Me too. There's also a RTR one of these on the way, I've actually handled the decorated samples.
  
• Still can't face finishing the Cravens DMU.  

There's no progress to report on the Beetle either, but I have managed to locate my camper van thanks to a lucky spot on Instagram. I've chatted to the person looking after it and will arrange to drop in to have a proper look and work out the next stages. Mind you, I said this two months ago, but time and weather have prevented  anything happening. 

If none of those have moved forward, what did I get up too? 

I built FAB 1 from a plastic kit.

Controllers can now be connected to layouts for testing easily with my new powerbox. 

Finally built a Mine Hutch from Harecroft.

 

A mock Georgean house from a Hornby kit. 

After two attempts, I built a Cooper Craft Provendor wagon kit. 

And finally, there was a trio of 3-wheel Japanese plastic kit vehicles. 

Apart from that, there isn't much more to show. No boats, no non-work layouts or even a new model locomotive to show for the last year. 

Digging back, I see a lot of months where the posts have gone out, but there isn't anything resembling a project. Part of me is quite impressed with myself that I can generate content - only six days this year have been missed - out of thin air! 

One area that has improved is taking trips out. I've visited plenty of events this year, and even managed a quick trip abroad, and that is a good thing. I love getting out an about, meeting people who read this blog, or my stuff on the page. It brings me alive and restores some of my enthuaism for modelling. If I've chatted to you in 2022, thanks very much. 

None of this has helped my "modelling mojo" much I'm afraid to say. Projects still call out to me, and I've added a few to the stash, but once there, the enthusiasm wanes and I don't get around to any of them. Hopefully, I can lift myself out of this over the next 12 months. It's not like I don't want to build things, just that there is always another deadline looming. You can tell you are a writer, apparently, because you simply can't not write. Modelling is the same. I remember grabbing any odd moments for a little progress, because I couldn't not grab them. That feeling hasn't been there for a while. 

I know, stop moaning Parker, plenty of people are worse off. 

Ho hum. Let's see how it goes. In the meantime, thanks for reading the blog over the last year, and please carry on doing so over the next one. And if you see me at a show, come over and have a chat.

Time for a break

 

There's not been a lot (any) modelling going on around here for a while, and for various reasons, my ability to invent interesting things to post about has dried up. Rather than stress about it, I'm going to take a few days off. 

Sorry about this, try randomly clicking in the right hand bar for older projects. You can't have read ALL the posts can you? Thanks, and see you soon.

6000

It's taken 16 years, but this is the 6000th post on Phil's Workbench! Thank you everyone who continue to read this stuff every day. Sometimes I need to write it just to motivate me. Other times, the blog just gives me an excuse to buy cheap junk from second-hand stalls to bring to you. Not that I need much of an excuse. 

At some point, I hope to do some modelling!

Anyway, I think I deserve some cake...

Time for a break

 

I'm snowed under with work for our Virtual Show at the start of December, and the truth is I've not had the time or inclination for much personal modelling for a few weeks, so I don't have a lot to write about. 

Hopefully, I'll be back in a week, but for now, please amuse yourselves with the links to other peoples excellent blogs on the right hand side. Or you could dig back into some of my old posts - there are plenty of them!

Time for a break

I'm afraid there aren't going to be any posts this week - I need to take a bit of a holiday from blogging for a few days. 

Sorry about this. If you need a bit of my drivel, there are well over 5000 posts to dig back through, so please talk amongst yourselves for a bit. 

Thanks

The future of stuff

A perennial topic where I work is what the future of magazine publishing will look like. There is the shift to digital and the move from newsagents to supermarkets for paper mag sales. Readers consume their content in many different forms and in a wide variety of places. 

When I started with BRM, we had 12 magazines a year to produce. And the hordes on RMweb to wrangle. 

Then along came a DVD which has evolved into BRM TV. We upped magazine production to 13 per annum. A few years later, a free weekly newsletter. Then the World of Railways website. Next (for me) Garden Rail. We publish on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. More recently, we ran our first virtual show with another in a few months time. And there is more new stuff to come. 

Once upon a time, a model railway magazine team could sit back and rely on a monthly letters page to communicate with readers. We now find ourselves working with e-mail, Facebook messenger, Twitter and of course, RMweb. 

The users of each tend to be very loyal to their chosen platforms - I keep talking with potential contributors via Facebook and having to direct them to e-mail as the photos they are sending me need to be large for publication, not shrunk by the Zuckerberg machine. Oh, and don't think office hours will do - there are plenty who will message over the weekend and complain when a reply isn't instant!

Add in the joys of Covid, and my job is evolving at a rate of knots. We've lots of exciting ideas floating around and the one common theme is that for the moment, the workload is only going to increase. And I want to grab all the opportunities to get involved with everything. 

Sadly, something has got to give, and that is going to be this blog.

Much as I love my blog, and am really proud of it, the pressure of producing enough material for a post a day is going to be too great over the next few months. 

This doesn't mean no blog - that's too big a step to take - it just means that I'm not going to have time for my own projects for a while. 

I do have a major project starting tomorrow and that will generate plenty of posts, at least initially. Although some of this will be magazine fodder, this forms only a small part of the job. The rest appears on here. 

I'm not sure when the gaps will appear, and it's going to hurt the first time one does, but I need to do this. If anyone fancies helping out with the odd guest post, please let me know. For the moment, I'm sticking this out there so that when there is a post-free day or two, regular readers won't think I've fallen down a hole somewhere. Just hang around and another post will be along eventually.

The one thing I know about the future is that it will be different from today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?*

*Actually, on here I do, but that's another story.

Post 5000!

Today marks the 5000th post on this blog. It's taken just over 14 years to get here - although moving a post-a-day speeded things up a little.

Since 2005 I've been busy documenting the projects that have passed over my workbench. In the process, I've improved my writing and developed the ability to pull ideas out of the thin air, for projects and more importantly, for things to write. As a method of exercising your creative mental muscles, blogging can't be beaten.

OK, I know this stuff isn't perfect. There are typos but hopefully no-one minds too much. If they do, they've stormed off to one of those blogs where endless discussions of the role semi-colons play can be found.

Anyway, this calls for cake.

Post 5000 also sees the completion of the J72 project.



It's a pretty typical blog project - pointless (the new Bachmann model is better) but I enjoyed it, and since this is my blog, that's all that matters.



While I've been writing this blog, the world has gradually changed. Flickr hosting now chucks stuff up on images when you roll over them, so many of the pictures her now live in Blogger. Flickr shots are clickable for a larger version.

Blogger is changing too, but not very much and I don't think there will be anything visible to the reader. Behind the scenes, Google is putting a bit of effort in. I'm not worried - leave it alone and I'm more than happy. OK, it's not as slick as Wordpress, but it is free and being able to fiddle under the bonnet appeals to me.

Anyway, all being well, tomorrow will see post 5001 appear and I'll start working towards the next milestone. Thanks for reading.

2019 - Review of the year

It's time for that post again, the one where I look back at projects done and those that haven't progressed.

Here's the update from last year:

• 7mm scale Garratts STILL haven't been out of their boxes
• I found the 3mm scale Class 25 the other day and it hasn't bothered to build itself.
• O gauge "Flying Banana" railcar, still summoning up the courage to re-start that. 
• 4mm GWR steam railcar, I know it's one people would like to see finished. Me too.
• The Cravens DMU is probably the first candidate on this list to re-start as it should be fairly simple. 

And that is still the position with these today. I also mentioned that my Beetle was stopping the garage filling up with junk. It continues with this important task, but I have managed to get two of the spark plugs out of the engine, a pig of a job on a bug. The plan is that I'll fill the cylinders with penetrating oil to start the process of freeing up the engine.

Getting the oil in is going to be interesting. A plastic straw is required to guide it, and guess what has been vanishing from fast food places in 2019? Yes I know I can buy a box for pennies, but I really don't want 50, I want a couple. It took a while, I'm not a regular in these places, but I have them. I just need time to do the work.

I might even have persuaded the mechanic who does my parents Berlingo to look at the job of doing bodywork. Quite how I get the car to him is nearly as big a mystery as to how I'll pay for it, but that's for another day.

Anyway, projects done:

16mm Brake Van



Noah's Ark





Wooden Wagon

 

Pink Mini

That's not a lot for a year of work. OK, there are a few tiny projects too, but I feel I should have produced more. It amazes me that the J72 has been on the bench for the best part of 3 months thanks to my stop-start working on it.

Unusually for me, I've been buying locos. Two in 4mm scale, the Hornby 48DS and 0-6-0 Peckett and a G scale Piko track cleaner. Compared to some I read about on social media, I'm a rank amateur, but then clocking up £3000 of pre-orders suggest buying everything you see whereas I like to think I'm more selective. That said, the total for 2020 is likely to be higher, at least monetarily, but I can't tell you why.

Workwise, I have built three little layouts (Billy Bookcase series) and a garden railway in a day plus loads of other projects to appear in print. I'm really pleased with all of them.

I'm still working on both BRM and Garden Rail. The e-newsletter has been passed back to the office but I still create content for World of Railways, which then fills the now weekly newsletter. 

I went to the Isle of Man, but that's the extent of travelling for the year. Not very exciting, but I'm not a very exciting person and anyway, I simply don't have time for jet-setting. The trouble with the various deadlines on my calendar is that I don't understand how I'd take 2 weeks out of the schedule. Fortunately, I enjoy my job!

These have been a couple of new show - Hornby's open weekend and the Hornby Collector Club event, both of which I demonstrated at. I really enjoyed both, although wished I'd have a second body to take along so I could have escaped from behind the stand a bit more.  Perhaps I need to buy a full-sized 3D print that could sit there while I'm wandering.

Blogwise, there have been 365 posts and visits are generally the same as last year. Advertising income is down a bit, so please click on that add in the sidebar. 

For 2020, more of the same I suspect. I have a number of projects I'd like to work on and maybe there will even be a bit more time as my workload sorts itself out a bit and perhaps I become a bit more focussed and efficient. In the meantime, I'll do my best to provide a bit more entertainment for you in the next year. Thanks for reading!

Can't find what you want? Try this.

Nigel asks:

I have been a regular reader of "Phil’s workbench" for a number of years and always enjoy your varied topics covered, relaxed writing style and give it ago attitude. Making the majority of modelling subjects sound easy. I have recently started modelling a narrow gauge 009 layout, which I am enjoying immensely.

My question is - Your blog contains a wealth of information. Is there an easy way that one can search a particular subject?

Good question. According to Blogger, this is post number 4215, quite a lot to dig through.

Fortunately, there are tools to help. For the purposes of this post, I'm assuming you are using the desktop version of the site. Mobile is similar but different and if you are using voice control because you live in the future, you're on your own.

 

First, scroll down the page and look at the right hand side. There is a list of Labels categorising the posts. Just click on the topic and all the posts relating to is will be brought up.

Some posts appear in more then one category and because it relies on me tagging each one properly, some that should appear might not. I do try to be consistent, but like most humans, I'm a bit rubbish at it sometimes.

Those Labels also appear at the bottom of each post too.

Again, click on the link to bring up all the posts on that topic. The same caveats apply, but I try to be consistent within a project so at least you should find all the entries for that.

If the Labels don't help, there is a search box on the top left of this page.

I use this a lot, mainly to find out when I wrote a particular magazine article when someone asks me. A sensible person would keep a separate list but I just mention publication on the blog so the search can find it.

If this search isn't enough, then you can also force Google to narrow its searching to a specific website.

Just enter site: then the address of the site to be searched, philsworkbench.blogspot.co.uk in this case, a space and then the terms to search for.

Hopefully this helps. I've put a lot of content up on this blog, so anything I can do to help people find it is worth a go. Well, apart from re-categorising every post!

A milestone reached

This is post number:

since this blog started way back in 2005. I hate to think how many words that means I've typed!

Thanks to everyone for visiting. Now if only I could finish all those projects on the shelf before post 5000...

No red boxes for me :-(

Back in January, I received an interesting e-mail from a marketing company:

I’ve just come across your blog, http://philsworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/, and am contacting you to see if you’d be interested in working with our client, Hornby, on a product review?

We’d love to send you one of their products for you to try. All we ask for in return is a post on your blog featuring the product and a link to the Hornby site.

How does that sound?

If you’re interested in collaborating with them on this, please have a quick browse on their site and let me know what kind of product you’d like us to send you.

 

This all sounded interesting. After a little asking around, it turned out that I wasn't alone, a couple of other bloggers had received the same offer. It seemed that Hornby had decided to dip a toe into more unusual forms of marketing - bypassing the traditional magazines and trying for some traction in social media.

 

I replied that I'd be delighted to join in. While I don't really need any more toy train stuff, it seemed a cheap way to bag a few specific blog projects.

 

After a little discussion, I put my request in for:

• R9643 - Derelict Cottage No. 1 (Unpainted) £11.85
• R9755 - Utility Warehouse - Low Relief £14.99
• R8991 - Water Works Building £21.99
• R8952 - SkaleLighting Bulbs x 4 £6.15
• R8947 - SkaleLighting Power Strip £7.75
• R6631 - RailRoad Breakdown Crane £19.99
• R3283 - RailRoad Bagnall Shunter Locomotive £29.99

Total cost at RRP £112.71

 

This wasn't quite what they were expecting. I think that most people asked for a big loco, but I decided that this selection would fit in more with the ethos of this blog. Also, I really fancy one of those Bagnalls to play with.

 

Anyway, all was agreed and I waited. In the meantime, over on Albion Yard there was a very detailed K1 review so I knew models were being dished out.

 

A couple of days later, it transpired that Hornby were slashing the marketing budget and no longer supplying review items to magazines.

 

Chasing up the offer, it seems that having been agreed, the pause button had been hit on the whole project.

 

To quote the marketing company handling the whole thing, "I can confirm that they do want to put this on hold for now, however, I will hopefully be in touch in the near future to pick this up with you."

 

So, no new toys for me then. I should have asked for a big chuff-chuff.

 

Seriously though, I'm not worried about the lack of goodies. There is more than enough stuff sitting around awaiting my attention and if I get bored of that, then I have several boxes of kits and projects for my own entertainment.

 

Maybe if I was a newbie blogger then I'd be a lot more disappointed. After all, it's exciting to be given things for review - I remember the excitement when it first happened to me.

 

It's a shame that the project wasn't carried though too as it would be interesting to see what the results were. Obviously if you can't afford to send models to magazines where they will garner many thousands of readers the it makes sense that you can't send it to bloggers who might only give you a few hundred.

 

Mind you, perhaps it's better for mainstream model railway companies to leave the blogasphere alone. Long term readers may remember the projects sent my way by Idealo - who no longer have a model railways category!

Nine!

The first day of a new year means it's time for my review of 2014's activity on the blog. A quick check back to last years effort shows that my 3mm scale Class 25 has clocked up 3 years in the "to do" pile. Maybe this year will see it completed, in time for the 3mm Society 50th Anniversary celebrations...

OK, first off, let's feed the statistics fans:

• Another "post a day" year, 365 in all. A few times keeping this going has been quite a challenge but I'm bloody-minded enough to try.
• 620 visitors a day on average with one day seeing over 1000 for the first time. This has shot up in the last 3 months so we'll see if it holds up.
• 886 pages per day viewed.
• 145 returning visits a day.
• Now well over 3000 posts in total.

During the year I've been out and about a bit. There's been a trip on the footplate of Bellerophon, a visit to the Hornby HQ in Margate, Foxdale on the Isle of Man and Burton Beer museum.

All this plus the major event - visiting Adelaide in Australia to talk to the British Railway Modellers of Australia convention. The longest flights I've ever taken and the longest holiday I've ever taken too.

I met some great people, saw some amazing layouts and a fascinating country. The train ride on the Indian Pacific from Adelaide to Sydney was brilliant but just one highlight among a trip full of them.

Back on the workbench, there has been plenty of action. For I start I finally finished the Fowler shunter in 7mm scale. Not back for something at least 10 years old. 

Mind you, I still beat Dapol to producing a shunter even if Ixion just piped me to the post. The 08 still hasn't appeared even in test shot form and I've now sold Clayhanger Yard, the layout I built for it to run on. This was a first, I've never sold a layout before and was really pleased to find it a good home.

Talking of selling stuff, the clearout of diecast tramcars continues. Check the eBay link on the right if you are interested...

Magazine projects have included one of my favourite dioramas, a Nissen hut based on a 3D printed shell and covered with resin printed surfacing.  

Wartime modelling has been a theme this year, we had a Rhomney, Hythe & Dymchurch armoured train for a start. Earlier in the year I'd been given a 4mm scale, 6mm gauge train pack to use as the basis for a cold war era model that fitted nicely on an IKEA wooden tray.



More significantly, 2014 saw the centenary of the outbreak of WW1. Knowing this would spark a lot of interest and probably inspire many modellers to have a go at layouts set in this era, I decided to follow my heart and set my efforts away from the blood and gore of the front line. Something military without guns and tanks allowed me to celebrate the efforts of the army engineers.

"Owen's Bridge", named after poet William Owen, has at it's centre a wooden bridge based on a plan for a design used by the Americans to get over French canals. At a metre long, it allowed me to demonstrate loads of techniques that would be just as applicable to conventional model railways.

Talking of demonstrating, part of my job now involves me appearing on screen for each issue of BRM.

Every couple of months, I have to go and sit in a studio and try not to look too stupid as I talk viewers through a technique or show them around a model I've built. So far, reaction has been positive and we'll be carrying on with the DVD programme for the foreseeable future.

So what does 2015 hold?

Well, I've a large number of projects on the books. There's also some leftovers from previous years - a couple of industrial Garratts, a radio controlled Bantam Tugboat last seen on May and even a 4mm scale Beetle wagon that just needs painting and has done for 6 months.

I'll also need to clear some storage space so some of the old dioramas will be going up for sale, watch this space or if there is one that interests you, get in touch. Not the Nissen hut though, I love that too much to let it go!

Let's hope this all goes to plan. I'm sure there will be lots of projects that will pop up during the next 12 months. I hope you continue to enjoy reading this blog and apologise for all the typos.

Happy New Year.