The Marvellous(?) Miniature Workshop

 

Can I be a little controversial? There is a TV show called The Marvellous Miniature Workshop. It should be right up my street - and I really don't like it. 

The basic premise is that a skilled modelmaker produces a miniature scene, or building, that brings to life a memory for a member of the public. We watch the skilled (and they are very skilled) modelmaker create something wonderful.

If this was how it worked, I'd be all over the show. After all, there is the excellent Repair Shop, and I'm also keen on Car SOS and Wheeler Dealers, especially the Ed China episodes. But it doesn't. 

The producers are obviously keen to invent another Repair Shop, but because they work in tellyland, completely missed the point that makes that show work. Put simply, they fall for the fallacy that a TV show needs a STAR. In The Repair Shop, pretty much everyone involved was unknown at the start. A few series in, all the people working on it (we'll not mention Jay Blades) is a star - because of the wonderful skills they have.  

For MMW, there was a budget, so we get SARA COX. Now, I think she is brilliant on the radio, but here, I think shes woefully miscast. The BBC has favourites of the month, and they are shoe-horned into everything. Presumably, SARA COX got the gig because Romesh Ranganathan wasn't available. 

Worse, because we have a STAR, she has to be the main focus of the programme. So, we have SARA COX  introducing things, talking to the ordinary members of the public over a contrived cup of tea, where they meet the modelmaker. Then, to tell the story, the ordinary members of the public are shown talking to the camera with SARA COX providing voiceover. Cut to the modelmaker with more, slightly patronising SARA COX voiceover. Everything is "made to perfection". Next, SARA COX goes and does some "research" for all of two minutes. Back to a bit of construction, then SARA COX unveils the finished model. 

In The Repair Shop, and other shows I mentioned, we follow, and get some understanding of the work being done. Most of the time, it is fascinating. Here, we have a STAR, so the modelmaking is almost an afterthought. The people building models seem perfectly personable, so why not give them more screen time so they can tell us what they are doing? 

One reason might be that a lot of processes take a very long time. If it takes five hours to make a floor, then the camera team can't be kept hanging around while someone cuts out bits of wood. In the same episode, the maker produced half-a-dozen tubular steel hospital beds from plastic strip, which will have taken hours, but was covered in a single voiceover line from SARA COX.  

Worse, the focus is on the "human interest" story. So, there is a lot of reminiscing, and not a little crying. To me, it's very mawkish, something The Repair Shop keeps to a minimum. But then they know we've come to see skilled people at work. The backstory is kept short. 

But these producers don't like skilled people doing interesting work. They have a STAR, who has cost a loads of money, and needs to be used a lot. They also believe that blubbering ordinary members of the public are TV gold. 

What the show needs is a spinoff - no SARA COX, no ordinary members of the public, just skilled modelmakers talking us through the work they are doing. OK, it's a harder edit, and you'd probably need them to film themselves, but that's not impossible. It's would be a better representation of the effort that goes into what are real masterpieces. 

Maybe I'm just grumpy. Very probably, but I look at the modelmaking, and want to know more. I don't care about the "research" which isn't, and I never want to see people so upset by the current state of the house they loved, and the subject of the model, that they are crying on camera. 

Not for me. 

Review: Dapol Hawthorn Leslie locomotive

 

A recent purchase. As it turns out, I bought the wrong loco, but we'll come to that in a minute...

The range of small RTR shunters is amazing to those of us who grew up knowing that the only way to find something for our small, dockside layouts, was to dig out the soldering iron, and tackle a kit. Now, for not much more than that kit would have cost me in the 1990s, I get this. 

This little loco looks fantastic. Nicely detailed, and well decorated. It runs very smoothly too. 

With a large selection of colours to choose from, the only criteria was that I didn't want an NCB blue loco, as that would limit its use. Instead, I picked the nicest name, "Wallaby". I know nothing of the actual loco, although there is a bit online here. It seems that my choice was shipped off to Australia, where she still resides, stuffed and mounted. Photos show clock hands rather than a wheel on the smokebox door, but this could have been a later change, and I'm not really worried. 

For detail fans, a set of plastic 3-link couplings, and a detailed set of name and works plates is included in the bag. What isn't is something to fill the hole in the bufferbeam if you ditch the tension lock couplings. Unless you buy the wasp stripe version. I can use Plastikard, but why not all the models? 

It sits nicely with the gold standard of shunters, the Hornby Peckett, and shows that small shunting layouts are open to all people. Mildly anoying to those of us who have a collection of kits, but that's the way things go. Time to move on to some O16.5 or 009. Oh, hold on...

My verdict, based on a cursory check (buy the BRM review for much more detail) is that I am happy. The price was a smidge over £100, pretty good for modern locos. I undertand that you pay more if the evil DCC is fitted, but that's your problem. 

And why is this the wrong loco? 

Well, back in the old days, I rather fancied one of the Crownline Models last kits, which I thought was this loco. In fact this is the reason I bought it. However, I'm wrong. The Crownline kit was BR/MR Kitson Saddle tank, not a Hawthorn Leslie. If I want a Kitson, then it's off to Judith Edge kits now...

The Army Painter - Matt Varnish

 

One shiny diecast 4mm scale VW Beetle body. 

A couple of coats of The Army Painter Matt Varnish later. 

Suddenly, we have a matt Beetle. 

There's not much more then that to say really. The stuff might be a tenner for a 400ml aerosol can, but it does the job very nicely indeed. Easily as good as the now unavailable Testors Dullcote. 

Out of curiosity, I grabbed a nice cream tub lid out of the recycling bag, masked a bit of the naked plastic and sprayed the rest. The photo doesn't quite show how good the matt effect it, but it certainly works. Something to consider for self-coloured plastic kits in the future perhaps.

New look Humbrol weathering powders

  

The nice people at Hornby recently sent me some of their new-look weathering powders to use in my projects. I understand that there has been a change in supplier and also, more importantly, in the packaging. 

Gone is the thin-necked glass jar, and in comes proper pots with wide lids. Much easier to use as you can pull the powder out of the pot with one of their Stipple brushes (I really like these) and then use it from the lids, even mixing it up in there. It's less messy than the bottles, although I still wouldn't work over your best tablecloth!

There are new colours too with light and dark rust in addition to the iron oxide. 

Sticking power seems to be about the same as the old mix. I happily threw them at some standard wagons and the powder didn't fall off the sides. I don't bother sealing it as varnish changes the colour of the weathering. OK, lots of handling will wear the powder away, but largely from those areas that would be less mucky anyway - it will still be in those nooks and crannies. 

Good stuff. 

New brushes

I paint a lot of stuff, and so am always on the lookout for modestly priced brushes that are good enough for the sort of work I do. 

£10 for 20 brushes counts as better than a bargain, at least if they don't fall apart after the first use. The pack came from Brushes 4 Models at the garden rail show recently. The make normally serves the art market, but also takes space at a few model railway shows. 

I've been using a both pointed and flat versions for a couple of jobs recently, and am very impressed. They have been cleaned many times and held both acrylic and enamel paints - and yet have held their shape and the attractive colouring of the bristles. I've certainly spent more and enjoyed less impressive results. 

The only problem? Brushes 4 Models doesn't have a web site, so you need to keep an eye out for him at exhibitions, but if you do, grab yourself a bargain.

Review: Clear PVA glue - The Works

It was an exciting moment when I dropped into remaindered book shop The Works, and found they had bottles of a clear PVA glue on sale. 

We all know that PVA is supposed to start white and dry clear, but this stuff is properly clear in the bottle. I mean, seriously clear. What witchcraft is this? 

In my modelmaking, I use gallons of PVA. Sometimes it's used neat and sometimes thinned with water. I use so much I actually have a favourite brand from the building trade. 

So, is this new stuff any good? I had to buy a bottle to try it out. 

First impressions

It's clear. And slightly runnier than the 502 PVA I normally use. Slightly shiny too - a bit like one of the cheaper PVAs which always seem plasticy to me compared to the matt stuff of 502 or resin W. Maybe, this is because it's sold as a "craft" product rather than a wood glue. 

Sticking things down

Good - the clear glue stays clear and dries nice and matt. I wasn't too careful about the pieces shown above and yet you can't see any splurges around the edges. 

I'd say the drying time, or at least the time to grab, is slightly slower then other glues, but not enough to worry me. 

Ballasting

Thinned with ordinary tap water plus a couple of drops of washing up liquid, the odd thing was that the mix appeared slightly blue - then I realised this was the detergent put in to break surface tension. 

For test materials, I used some Woodland Scenics beige ballast and random granite stuff found in the bottom of the ballast tub. Both have stuck, but are still slightly spongy unlike the rock hard result from traditional glue. This might confer a benefit for sound deadening, but I haven't tested that.

Drying time seemed pretty normal and the granite hasn't turned a green shade as it does with normal glue. 

Modelling water

The test piece is some DIY wall filler splodged on car, painted with brown emulsion and then treated to several thin coats of glue. 

Obviously this stuff should have an advantage over traditional PVA, what with it being water-colour to start with and this carries on when dry. The results are nice and shiny. I poured about 1mm each time for four pours. I reckon it looks OK. 

Conclusion

I like this stuff and will keep a bottle in stock in the future. Some tests to compare joint strength would be interesting, but really I see the "sticking things down" test being the key and there joint strength isn't much of an issue. Well worth a look - has anyone else tried it?

Airbrush test Part 2

You might remember that a few weeks ago, I tried out a cheap airbrush with hand-held compressor. 

If you didn't the post is here, go and have a look. 

Several posters asked some interesting questions and made helpful suggestions for further tests, and finding myself with a simple spray job to carry out, I decided to look into this further. 

 First, we have Humbrol Track Colour paint sprayed on to some paper using my Iwata airbrush. I don't look after it properly, but it gives perfectly acceptable results. The only limiting factor is my skill.

The same paint from the cheapo airbrush. This was connected to an airline from the same Sparmax compressor. You can see the difference. Initial impressions that the airbrush is rubbish are confirmed it appears. Well, unless you want to splatter things. 

This time, we have the Iwata connected to the cheapo hand-held compressor. Not bad at all. I happily sprayed several bits of track brown with the setup and I'd do it again. This is basically what I bought the cheapo airbrush for in the first place - portable spray painting. 

The solution seems to be Iwata combined with hand-held compressor. But I now wonder if the rubbish airbrush can be fettled. I need to look into this and see if anything can be done. It's not like I can make things worse after all!

Mini Airbrush With Compact Compressor test

 

 I saw it advertised on Facebook. Decided it could be useful and not too expensive, but am I happy?

Using scalemodelscenery Old Wooden Fencing

Selly Oak in the 1970s was a bit scruffy and the area beside the canal was a prime example of this. Modelling scruffy can be time consuming and right now, time isn't something I'm over-supplied with. I need quick and effective solutions and when I spotted ScaleModelScenery's wooden fencing online, I guessed I'd found one. 

The kit arrives laser-cut in what I think is called "Laserboard", basically a very high qaulity cardboard about 1mm think. Each fence panel is made up of a front with the planks and the framing for the back. Assembly is simple - stick on to the other. The five lengths make up 72cm of fencing, nearly enough for the full run along the canal on my model.

Although the fence has scruffy built in, I felt that a few planks replaced with corrugated iron sheets would only enhance run-down look so chopped a few out before fitting them to the framing. Some South-Eastern Finecast corrugated sheets were then fitted in their place. 

Even allowing for this modification, building the fence took less than half an hour, or one episode of Only Connect. It helps I'm too dumb to answer any of the questions in the first three rounds so can concentrate on some modelling. 

Painting is nearly as quick. I start with a blast of Railmatch track colour spray to get everything nice and brown. After that, some washes from the Lifecolor "Weathered Wood" set of acrylic paints. 

I washed over some planks more than once so the colours (should that be colors?) blended together, in a haphazard way. 

 The corrugated panels were washed with paint from the Lifecolor "Rust Wizard" set, which didn't seem to stick very well, but the pooling effect looks quite nice to me so I'll enjoy the happy accident. 

Planted into 1.5mm diameter holes, the fence was errected along the canal in time for me to take the final photos for a magazine article. Once I'm ready to glue it in place, I'll add a bit of grass and weed along the base for a properly unkempt appearance. 

I really like this stuff and have ordered some more packs for the other side of the canal and also beside the road as I found a photo showing wooden fencing for one section, it will make a change from brickwork. 

Old Wooden Fencing from scalemodelscenery

(Just for clarity, I bought the fencing for the project with real money but the Lifecolor paints were left over from some review samples supplied a few years ago.)

Challenger Aircraft Carrier

I need to ban my Dad from ordering stuff over the phone. Left to his own devices when calling Howes, he managed to buy a RTR aircraft carrier.

Arriving in a big box, the 78cm long model includes many hilariously badly translated English phrases. You get quite a lot of model for your money, although despite the prototype photos and ship names on the packing, isn't a desperately realistic model. Those helicopters on the deck look like the one the KGB boss arrived in at the end of For Your Eyes Only, not the American ones you might expects on a ship like this.

To be honest, the whole model appears to have been designed by a 12-year-old boy left to his own devices with a pencil. There are aeroplanes, helicopters, guns, rockets and unidentifiable things that are probably offensive in some way.

Power comes from a 9.6v rechargeable battery pack. There's no on/off switch so it need to be unplugged between sailing sessions. The radio gears is a bit rubbish since you swamp the whole 26 or 4o MHz frequency, but this isn't such an issue nowadays with everyone else on 2.4,

On the water, operation is from a controller using tank steering - two motors and props and two sticks for forward and reverse on each. None of that steering using a rudder here. The motors will only work if the model is afloat, or if you touch the contacts on the deck.

Sailing - well forget realism. This thing can motor. It's fast and turns quickly, especially if you hold the sticks in opposite directions. If you have even seen the film Battleship, where they handbrake turn a destroyer (I think) then you get the idea. As you can see, the model does get up on the plane, not something large warships do as a rule.

The battery pack allows for at least 20 minutes full-tilt action, probably more as the batteries are exercised over a few sessions.

Despite all this, sailing this model is fun. It won't please purists but who cares. I enjoyed bombing around the lake more then is entirely decent.

Maybe a better RC unit could be fitted, but you'd need to put in new speed controls, and probably fit some rudders unless you fancy adding a mixer. That's a lot of money and work (refitting RTR boats is harder then building a kit)for a model that doesn't really justify either. Forget detailing it, you are putting lipstick on a pig.

Instead, just enjoy the model for what it is. Fun.

More details on the Howes website

L-Cut Creative 2-tier paint tray

I like toolboxes and spotted this nice little paint organiser on the L-Cut Creative stand at Doncaster. £7.99 buys an easy to assemble kit for a 2-level tray.

All the parts are laser cut from plywood. This has a slightly rough surface and benefitted from sanding on the faces to smooth things off. The parts lock together well with only a little PVA in the joins being enough to hold them. The centra handle keeps everything inline and stops the trays falling off while you carry them.

24 Humbrol pots are a tight fit into each level. I'm wondering about using them for small tools on the workbench as at 195 by 142mm, there should be space for all those regularly used items that don't make it back into the drawer.

Should you want a taller tray, a 5 tier version is available.

2 layer tray from L-Cut.

 Note: I paid for this tray myself. To be honest, I'd spent a day at the show and not aquired any toys so decided to purchase something fun to assemble. It was a good move.

Grinding Machime

A few months ago, I bunged a "U Star Grinding Machime" (sic) into a larger order from Hobbyking. It only cost £3.77 at the time so I was curious to see how good such a cheap tool could be.

Well, after exhaustive testing, I've come to the conclusion that it's rubbish.

Pros: Cheap. Powered by easily available batteries. Fits nicely in the hand.

Cons: Grinders need grunt. This one is utterly devoid of this.

I guess the push in tools should give this away. There's nothing to stop them from rotating in the hidden chuck. For the sake of it, I tried to grind away a bit of plastic. The tool stalled. I tried with hardly any pressure. The tool stalled.

Basically, this would be fine powering a fan, but for work, buy a Dremel or something proper.

I suppose the tools were nearly worth the price of the whole lot. Another lesson learned. 

Review: GVS Elipse spray mask

A face mask is an absolute essential when spray painting or airbrushing. You might think that you're only working on a model so it won't matter, but your lungs don't care where the paint came from.

I have a spray booth, but always wear a mask, and my old version was letting me smell paint the last couple of times I used it. Since Halfords don't seem to sell the cartridge filters any more (or any other type of spray mask - the assistant pointed me at a dust mask!) it was time to find a replacement.

Screwfix seems the obvious place to go to find something. They cater from the more demanding professional market, so if they are OK with the kit, my short bursts of spraying shouldn't tax it too much.

My choice is the GVS Eclipse Half Mask Respirator. It's rated for P3, that is paint and solvents so good for the stuff I use. I'm not using 2-pack paint, so we don't need forced air or anything fancy.

In the box, the mask seemed very small, but once on, the very flexible rubber sealed around my mouth and nose very well. The top of the nose doesn't interfere with the bridge of my glasses. Both filters are also flexible and peel out of the blue rubbery bit, changing them is a little fiddly, but a matter of a few minutes.

My entirely unscientific test showed no smells coming through when I weathered a 7mm scale wagon with thinned enamel paint. I could still breath perfectly normally too.

I am impressed with this. It's a lot more comfortable than my old mask. I can slip it on and off without removing my glasses, in fact, it's easy to slide down my face leaving the mask around my neck while out of the garage enjoying a cup of tea.

The straps around the back of my head are elastic and I didn't need to adjust them, although this is easy enough. Maybe I have a big bonce so they just pull tight.

So far, so good. For the price (mask and spare filters were less than the last one cost), this seems to be exactly what I need for model making spraying.

Eclipse mask at Screwfix.

Harris "No Loss" brush review

Faced with a "garden room" (posh shed) requiring a coat of yacht varnish before winter, I headed to the local DIY store for some new brushes.

I've always been pleased with the Harris "No Loss" range. Unlike slightly cheaper brushes, they don't seem to moult hairs as you paint. To be fair, they are better described as "a LOT less loss" and on the shed, I reckon I lost about 4 or 5, but then it's big enough to need a full large sized tin of varnish, so that's not bad going.

It was certainly a lot easier than picking bristles out of the varnish. That game gets old pretty quickly and you end up trying to shove them somewhere they won't be spotted rather than experiencing another dose of sticky finger bristle picking.

The only disappointment is that some muppet has re-designed the handles to be a bit more streamlined. Very pretty, but the end is now quite a bit sharper than it was before and once you hold it half way down the handle for fast application of lots of varnish, it digs in your palm. The old, blunter ones didn't do this.

Overall though, they are well worth the money. I've given a old set lots of stick and they still work OK. It's worth taking time to clean them properly, but even there you don't pull out handfuls of hair, which makes a messy job a little more pleasant.

MiG Oilbrusher

New, to me anyway, is this handy painting goodie from MiG. To anyone who has owned a car and carried out any work on it, it looks like a touch-up brush, and to all intents and purposes, this is what it is.

Inside the 7cm by 1.5cm tube, is 10ml of paint and in the cap is a long bristled brush. Unscrew the lid and you have a ready-loaded brush for tiny jobs.

I'm assuming the paint is an enamel because of the name - it certainly sticks well to plastic and metal.

I chose a dark brown (dark mud) that looked pretty close to Humbrol Track Colour. It's a very useful shade to have at shows for touching up scrapes or soldered joints. Most of the time a colour match isn't essential, some dirt will do the job.

Not the cheapest way to paint, mine cost £3.50, I can really see these being a useful extra tool for many modellers. It's certainly quicker than mixing a tinlet and then washing the brush afterwards. An essential addition for most exhibition toolboxes I'd suggest.

See the full range on the MiG website.

Robert's Brick Mortar Formula

One of my Canadian souvenirs, is this little bottle of "Roberts Brick Mortar Formula". It's a magic substance that claims to be able to fill the mortar lines in brickwork, something I've never had any success with. The stuff isn't cheap, but I thought I'd give it a go as I've not seen this product for sale in the UK.

My first test was some 4mm scale Slaters Brick Plastikard. I painted it brick colour using Humbrol 70 and left to dry overnight.

In the morning, I painted a little of the formula on the bricks and wiped it around a little. This is left to dry and then wiped again to reveal the faces. The effect is very impressive. A little polishing with a paper towel and the mortar is clearly defined.

I've no idea what is in this stuff but it feels like a very fine gritty powder suspended, if you shake it well enough, in a liquid. There's definitely some texture in there.

The colour is a bit bright so I experimented with a wash of thinned cream enamel (left) and Agrax inks on the right. They look OK, but a little work is still required.

 The second text was on some laser cut MDF, again in 4mm scale. This stuff can be tough to paint as the bricks are so sharp my normal pencil crayon technique doesn't work. Again, I painted the bricks with enamel and once dry, used the formula. It worked a treat, possibly too well as you can see the brick joints aren't vertical.

1oz of the stuff covers 5 square feet, so a good chunk of anyone's layout. I'd certainly use this again in the future, even at the price.

Robert's brick mortar website

Feed my ego

Perhaps the biggest surprise at York came when I collected a couple of kits for review Stephen at Narrow Planet. Not only where they as well packaged as ever, the box label says they are for me!

Needless to say, this flattery will not affect any comments I make in the review.  I've written up a few of the firms products in the past and don't expect there will be much to worry about, and the post-purchase backup is really good too.

OO6.5 (4mm scale running on 6.5mm track made popular by the Busch Feldbahn system) is pretty niche, but then narrow gauge is popular these days as ready-to-run models locos appear on the scene.

Chatting about the business, Narrow Planet are providing a useful service to tiny manufacturers by providing the on-line shop they all need, but frequently don't have the resources to run themselves. For customers, it becomes a one-stop-shop for the slightly oddball products which can make them aware of all the other goodies available in the scale. Fun, but potentially expensive!

Review: The Biggest Little Railway in the World

Caveat: I have met the producer of  "The Biggest Little Railway in the World" a couple of times and read two accounts from those who took part, one of which will appear in the March issue of Garden Rail. I do, therefore, have some behind the scenes knowledge.

Basically - I liked it.

The first thing to realise is we are watching a TV programme. One designed for "normal" people. One that has to entertain enough to attract advertisers to pay for it all.

Because of this, the five episodes have to feature human interest stories, we need to care about the participants, and plenty of action. If the who shebang goes without a hitch then it's going to be boring. It didn't. It wasn't.

This requires a certain amount of TV trickery. The producers had surveyed the route (or at least virtually all of it) before filming and they knew where the difficult bits were going to be. In this case, that's where the special build teams found themselves, and the people on that team got a lot more screen time than those just laying mile after mile of plastic track in the middle of nowhere.

The special designs have been stunning. The 60-metre long viaduct and trestle bridge are both amazing structures. One suspects that the team were given reasonably well worked out "suggestions" so that the right tools and materials were to hand. This took place in deepest Scotland so any bright spark suggesting that the solution would involve carbon fibre and nanotubes would be quietly taken to one side, pointed at a van full of wood and some woodworking tools, and told to get on with it.

With 2 weeks for the project (the most many people will be able to take off work) and 71 miles to build, that's how life is, but then you didn't believe all those projects on Top Gear were carried out the way it appeared on screen did you?

As ever with this type of show, there's a lot of human interest stuff and we got to know a few of the personalities wearing hi-viz. There were emotional back-stories of course, TV loves a little bit of a blubber, but also people showing skill and determination. You could see the teams starting to gel as they fought the elements and landscape. We were encouraged to care about them and I think we generally did. OK, some people come out of the edit better than others, but you could see the hard work involved and the frustrations, and competitive spirit, along the way.

A few justified more depth and we got it. There's not time in 5 shows for everyone to be profiled, but those that were came across as nice, normal(ish - we are talking about people like me who love railways after all) folk you'd be happy to have a pint with.

A few of the enthusiast community have taken against the show. The tone was set by someone posting a rant around 10 minutes in to the first episode which included criticism that those taking part were only looking for their 15 minutes of fame. Since he posted this on several forums, one might suggest he just wanted to shout, "Look at me! Look at me! I don't like something!!!"

Others have suggested it just reinforces all the old railway modeller stereotypes. I disagree.

For a start, the participants were much younger and of more mixed genders than a random selection from any model railway or engineering show. They also represent a wide range of disciplines from railway modellers to real engineers.

If stereotypes are to be found, it's in my view, the behaviour of those on-line. Many couldn't understand the idea of entertainment. Tantrums (some very serious) and abuse were thrown around. One group lost its Facebook moderator due to the grief dished out trying to keep discussions polite. That's not the fault of a TV programme, it's the immaturity and general appalling behaviour of a tiny number of enthusiasts.

Many can't stand the idea of people who aren't time-served modellers doing something in a hobby they feel very protective of. Railway modelling has provided a "home" to people on the autistic spectrum (which in itself is an excellent thing as we saw in the final show) but that makes some nervous of anyone new getting involved in "their" world and sometimes they can lash out on forums and communicate their thoughts very badly.

That said, some people are just very unpleasant, one forumite seemed to have a chip on his shoulder about girls and project managers generally. They weren't going to like it. They weren't going to like anything. The only reason they watched was to be offended. A 5 part series covering the development of a P4 wheel would be more their cup of tea - but this isn't the Open University.

A few chose to ride their personal hobbyhorses, mostly around the H&S arena. Yes, they all wore hi-viz and yes, there were lifejackets when they were anywhere near a canal, but if you had a lot of money invested in a TV series, you'd do your level best not to ruin it by killing off a participant. Also, that orange stuff comes in waterproof and probably midgeproof - both pretty useful in the highlands.

Interestingly, RMweb scored well for sensible discussion. There were participants on the forum who could explain why certain decisions had been taken and point out life is a lot harder on the ground than sat in front of a screen hundreds of miles away. This made for interesting discussion which I felt added to the show.

Those who took part seemed to have enjoyed themselves and are rightly proud of what they achieved. Like any project, not everything went well. Sometimes this made good TV - refilling the gas on a loco when the burner is still lit looks impressive but isn't actually going to do any damage. It's an easy beginner mistake too, and many of the drivers had never handled a live steam loco before.

Talking about the loco, what a star. One machine ran (nearly all) the length of the line. It needed maintenance along the way, but nothing too major (more on this in the March GR) and is a testament to Roundhouse Engineering. I hope they sell many off the back of it - I know other large-scale traders have already felt the benefit.

Ultimately, I enjoyed it, and so did several million other people. It was obviously a heck of a journey for the participants, but they did it and made many friends along the way.

Well done all concerned. What's next?

Book Review: Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik

Publisher: Viking

ISBN: 978-0670920549

A5 Softback

272 pages

£9.98

Most of my work involved messing around with various materials so when I spotted a book claiming to explain in layman's terms, how these work then it was worth borrowing from the local library.

I'd not consciously heard of the author but looking at the book flyleaf, I found he set up The Institute of Making, an organisation I had heard of one of the my more talented friends has also been involved with it in the past.

Anyway, the book takes the reader through some pretty heavy science but in a light and understandable way. We find out why metals get harder when you bash or bend them but soften if they are heated up.

There's some nice stuff about why glass is clear, or at least why things other than glass (such as aluminium Star Trek fans) aren't too. I think I understand it and if I need to be sure, a second read would do it. Arguably, this sort of book needs to be read twice - once to enjoy the ride and again to fix some of the details in your head.

One fascinating chapter covers a material I'd never heard of - Aerogel. It's difficult to explain (read the Wikipedia page for a start) but basically, you take the structure of a jelly and remove the liquid that makes it jelly. The result is something that looks like blue smoke but has many amazing properties. Protecting flowers from the heat of a Bunsen burner is just a party trick, but an interesting one showing it to be a superb insulator.

If you are the sort of person who enjoys finding out how things work, this is recommended reading. I learnt quite a lot, some of which will actually be useful in the future, especially if someone tries to sell me a magical electric blade sharpener!

Buy Stuff Matters from Amazon

Book Review: The Hovercraft. A history by Ashley Hollebone

Publisher: The History Press

ISBN: 978-0752-464794

A5 Softback

188 pages

£19.99 

Unusual forms of transport fascinate me. When that involves a machine that was once seen as "the future", it's even more appealing. Because of this, I love hovercraft.

Ashley Hollebone also loves hovercraft. Unlike me, he's done more than take a day trip on one, he re-built a personal hovercraft (Starbreeze RX-2000) and then wrote a book on their history.

The books is more comprehensive than anything I've read before. Starting with the very early days and Christopher Cockerell, we progress through the SRN-1 and its first crossing of the English Channel right up the present day.

Along the way there are rather more manufacturers on the scene than you might expect. I'd never heard of Cushioncraft for example, but as the cover shows, they produced some fantastic looking machines. Some were not a million miles away from the Star Wars land speeder seen back in 1977. I wonder if they were any influence on the design?

Technical fans will enjoy the chapter on how a hovercraft works, not just the "blow air out of the bottom and it floats bit" but the way that this is carried out in a sophisticated way so the craft rises in a controlled manner. It turns out that while a skirt might make a hovercraft more efficient, it isn't essential. Should you feel the urge to add one though, it's far more than a simple curtain around the edge of your platform.

Hovercraft, like faster than sound passenger flight are possibly one of those technologies whose time has been and gone. The wonderful giant SRN4 craft are no more than museum pieces now. The service to and from the Isle of Wight still runs, but there is a lot of pressure to build a fixed link to the island which would surely kill it.

For the moment, the future is with military service. Cost is secondary to speed and maneuverability here so there is a real advantage in moving men and machines on a cushion of air.

The text is very readable, this is a page-turner. Better still, plenty of photos illustrate many of the points as you go along. There were places I felt could have benefited from more pictures and others where the photo could have been in a more appropriate chapter, but nothing major.

The main criticism of the book is that it tries to cover too much. Maglevs are NOT hovercraft to my mind and neither are ground effect vessels. Yes, they float and don't fly, but to me, if it doesn't blow air then it's not a hovercraft. I'm happy that the French Aerotrain makes it in, but we get next to nothing on the British Hovertrain.

Oddly, the chapter on rescue craft ignores the RNLI hovercraft but these them pop up in the Griffon Hoverwork chapter at the end.

These are niggles though. This book did its job of inspiring me to want to know more. Not because there was anything missing, but because it sparked my enthusiasm for more pictures and videos of interesting and obscure craft. Rather a lot of my time recently has been spend on the web performing searches for things I've just read about.

Buy The Hovercraft. A History from Amazon. Or do what I did and borrow a copy from your local library.