A return to the panniers
Progress on my 2 pannier tank projects has continued with the 94xx body reaching the paint stage. Bachmann has recently announced a new RTR model of this class but i’ve never been one for waiting for someone else to do things for me. Those who know me will know that my interest is in the making things side of the hobby rather than the amassing stuff side and besides there’s always something new in the pipeline somewhere so if you want the latest and greatest, you will forever be waiting for it to arrive. Nothing wrong with that of course and i’m sure having all the very best offerings from the trade will result in a magnificent layout, even if its only forever in someones head!
The 15xx tank has been a bit more back and forth. Someone kindly pointed out that the roof of the cab I had used was too shallow so this has been swapped for the roof from the original 94xx body. It did need shortening a little as the 94xx cab is bigger. The roof detail on the 94xx is nothing like so that was all replaced with more archers rivets. I also spotted that the rear cab windows are much further in than the way I had them (and the 94xx) so these have been changed too. Incidentally the Ian Beattie drawing in the April 1985 Railway Modeller also had the windows in the wrong place too so it wasn’t just me!)
For such a small class there’s a lot of variety. the cab door handrails were shorter originally and one class member (1506) seems to have had both long and short at the same time. The lower smokebox handrail also seems to have been added later (perhaps when the steps were changed) and 1503 seems to have had straight horizontal handrails on the rear of the bunker rather than the L shaped ones the rest of the class had. These were also mounted lower down for some reason. It just goes to show the old mantra of work from a photo of the loco you are modelling as close to the date you are modelling it that you can find.
Here comes the rain
Regular readers will be aware that I plan to model Brettell Road in the rain. While falling rain is not doable and if it was to scale wouldn’t be visible anyway I believe it’s worth trying to show the effects of rainfall. Of course it will be frozen in time but I don’t think there’s a lot I can do about that and I’d like to credit those who view the layout in the flesh with a degree of imagination.
Aside from things looking wet the other thing I wanted to try was raindrops in puddles and the canal.
The canal itself was done with multiple layers of varnish as per Gordon Gravetts book then the area where the bridges were masked and more varnish added (Humbrol clear) with baking soda sprinkled on while wet. I did try cold and warm varnish to see if it made any difference but found it didn’t.
The above image shows the canal in position (again you will have to imagine the walls) and below in something approaching the light I plan the final project to have.
Why do those with the least to say make the most noise?
One of the side effects of being reasonably well-known is that you attract the attention of the good old Internet troll or two. I’ve had 3 in my time and the all follow a similar pattern. That being a minor disagreement that most normal people just move on from (and I often have to search to try to track down myself as it was so insignificant at the time) sets them off on their self-imposed moral crusade. They then follow you round the Internet trying to have a pop at everything you do. They also nominate themselves as a voice of the people and take great delight in telling you what everyone thinks (of course this is usually accompanied by a host of messages from ‘the people’ telling you that they don’t think that at all!
My first pet troll told me he “had marked my cards early on as one of those finescale types” that ‘his’ forum didn’t need. And to be fair to him he did a good job of getting me banned from that forum for a single comment deliberately quoted out of context. I must say I had never had any negative feedback from the moderating team at that point and no effort was made to contact me or discuss anything by them. I did contact them and eventually I got some sort of half arsed reason for their decision which they couldn’t really justify!
Troll 2 and 3 decided to work together. Troll 2 made a big fuss about sorting me out but sadly any private correspondence to have an adult discussion were ignored and he continued his attacks on the forum. Troll 2 was quite an unusual one as the supportive feedback I had been mostly from people who had met him an found him to be a bit of a plank in real life too! Troll 2 seemed to delight in trying to get troll 3 to do his work for him and tried to encourage him to post my private messages on the forum for all to see. More of that later
Troll 3 has, I am told via quite a lot of unsolicited messages, a bit of a reputation for his own brand of abusive private messages and seemed to spend a great deal of time on Facebook complaining how everyone in his little village basically hated him!
So since troll 2 thinks it so important that the world sees just what I’m like regarding my private messages il, do him a little favour and post them here for people to make up their own minds. The only edits are to remove names and clues to their identity.
It all started with this post on one of the forums
It depends what you mean by “mega star layouts”? Don’t you feel that by saying this that many of the people who have already exhibited at past exhibitions will feel rather insulted by this remark, as you give the impression that you don’t rate past/current efforts compared to your own unfinished layout?
To which someone with a normal degree of common sense replied
I don’t think this is Jim’s point at all. I think the question he poses is rather, among the general modelling public, which layouts are talked about in ‘must see’ terms? I think he’s claiming to be to close to the problem to see the general public’s view.
The reply came back
I’ll refrain from supporting others here then and posting in general in that case. Jim is known for his dismissive posts about others efforts; the Edited layout thread is a classic example. I’ll also retract my offer to make a free professional promotional film edited as well.
All the best
Troll 3
Not wanting to get into a discussion on the forum I sent the below via private message
Excuse me? What have I done to deserve this?
His response is below
Jim,
You know full well why. I’ve never read a single comment of yours, either here, facebook or anywhere else that doesn’t attempt to put something or someone down. Your recent spat with Troll 2 on the name removed thread is just one such example. You were always attacking my non railway stuff on facebook; (i cant recall this ever happening by the way bu this might be one of those insignificant comments that normal people just move on from as mentioned before) I was always waiting to read one positive thing from you. Your comment today edited was patronising and insensitive and how name removed (or whatever his name is) could decipher a hidden code in your message that us lesser mortals were oblivious to is completely beyond me. Again, you start posting a cynical view about my track on my layout thread; all of this just because of that catenary incident years ago! It’s rather sad don’t you think and babyish? I’ve often posted nice and genuine comments about your layout, but apparently these count for nowt where you’re concerned. Why can’t you show a little more modesty and spiritual generosity towards others? Why does this concept hurt you so much? I find it very weird and abnormal personally.
My reply
Name removed
You admit you have constantly read me wrong then? It is you that bring bring up the catenary thing consistently so it is clear that it’s you that can’t drop it. Yes I’ve had a few disagreements with people but I’m not even close to the amount of people you have routinely pissed off. I suggest you look closer to home before you point the finger and drop this pathetic point scoring agenda.
Jim
His response below
Jim,
OK name all the people I have constantly pissed off and why; the catenary shit was you mentioning it the other day. Other than that I only mentioned it once on RMweb – so twice (the second time because you brought it up). You’ve always had a problem with me; fuck knows why (although I have several ideas) but my advice to you is, do one. Find somebody else like you; sad; desperate for attention; egocentric with a very lonely pathetic life in a grotty basement in the Midlands, to unleash your miserable troll existence on. We don’t all give a shit about your huge sprawling self important layout like you think we should, and we don’t all spend our every waking moment building railways and trying to prove to an uninterested world how great we are(n’t).
Tight lines
My reply
I’m very happily married thank you and I don’t have a basement. You presume to know a lot and consistently get things completely wrong.
As for attention seeking egotists, remind me how many times you repost the exact same pictures you’ve been posting for the last 3 years again. I have said positive things about your layout but not every time you repost the same bloody thing.
Like I said, best not point the finger and prove my point
And that’s it. Not sure what I’ve done to deserve his ranting other than not tell him how great he is often enough! I am very aware that its poor form to post private messages online but since troll 2 is a fan of it and one of his mates did exactly the same to me on a forum I had no access too (even going as far as unlocking a thread just to score points – that’s a fine example of moderation for you!)
I hope I’ve removed enough identifying comments from the above and I must point out that any comments that do identify these people will also be edited. Perhaps trolls stand out because they are so rare and I might even be in a minority of only having 3!
Display shelves
Above is a couple of test shelves I did for a demo at DEMU earlier in the year. A variation on these shelves is now available from Tim Horn. If you missed the demo I will be doing a similar one (also on multiple units at next years Scalefour North. I’ll post details nearer the time.
New(ish) technology or modelling witchcraft?
New technology, there are those who embrace it or those who reject it or seeing it as cheating in some way. It’s not a new phenomena or even restricted to railway modelling, I remember such discussions when digital illustration started to appear. With a hobby of course it’s up to you how you pursue it. Do you want the end result to be the best it can be or do you enjoy the route to the end result more? No one is ‘right’ in such circumstances but if someone choses to embrace new technology is it fair to accuse them of cheating in some way?
The finescale end of the hobby has always had a reputation for valuing the journey over the destination and for a long time detailed or converted RTR was frowned on as not proper modelling by those who scratchbuild stuff when in many cases the RTR looked much more like it was supposed to than the scratchbuilt stuff anyway. In reality though the finescalers have usually been the ones to embrace new technology and ideas first and the current crop of high quality RTR is largely down to people wanting something better. You hear it all the time, we’ve never had it so good and it’s probably true but things don’t get better if people just accept what they are given – they have to ‘want’ better too. It’s probably worth at this point mentioning that we never had it so good 20 years ago and we will probably still be saying it 20 years from now. Does anyone really believe that the current crop of RTR is the best we are ever to see?
So to the point – Laser cut buildings. Already people are saying that its cheating, that you just push a button and a building pops out of a machine but in reality it’s just a very very clever scalpel and while I believe the end result is better is it any easier or quicker?
What you see above is a simple canal bridge drawing for Brettell Road. Its drawn in illustrator and while I have used some time-saving tricks like custom brushes for the arch and a custom fill for the brick pattern it seemed to take a lot longer than just getting a sheet of brick plasticard and cutting it out. The thing is though I could convert the pattern to lines (expand appearance for those interested) and then tweak it. For example I could easily recreate the half width header near the corners in an English Bond wall while doing so with plasticard would have been a massive faff. In fact I wonder if anyone has even bothered, I know I didn’t think it worth the effort!
Above is the actual wall loosely positioned on its canal bed and towpath. The top row are routed and cut by Tim.
However laser cut can be a bit clinical. For the towpath I wanted a cobbled section but also a dirt section to – the finished cut was attacked with files and sandpaper to roughen it up. Going back to the point of New technology and illustration, I always thought, if Michelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci had Photoshop would they have used it? Id bet that they would!
A spot of reading
Been doing a spot of shopping, first up are a couple of new(ish) books by Kevin Derrick and published buy Strathwood. I’ve always liked class 25s and 45s so the these books are right up my street. A4 hardbacks and full colour they are essentially picture books with a very brief intro. That’s fine with me as other books dealing with the technical sides of these locos are already out there and do we really need a repeat? Besides pictures appeal to my, ‘what does it look like, I don’t care how it does what it does’ approach to things.
What I like about these 2 books is that effort has been put in to showing different livery variations and in the case of the Peaks nameplates (including the painted ones). Add in there’s some nice New Street shots in both and I’m more than happy.
£19.99 each website
Sometimes an impulse buy can lead to a whole load of trouble. In this instance I’ve always liked Jintys and indeed I scratchbuilt a body for an n gauge one as a kid. It was a bit rubbish to be honest, ok a lot rubbish and the fact that it was scratchbuilt couldn’t save it from the bin! However the Great British Locomotives collection have just done one and for less than a tenner I couldn’t resist!
This is how it came out of the packet although I did reattach the bufferbeam so that it was straight. The magazine isn’t really one, more of a stand alone article but I was surprised that it’s quite well done with some good images and illustrations.
In the real world steam wasn’t allowed in New Street in my era so the above would never have happened but it’s good for a little flight of fantasy.
The problem is I’ve found myself looking at the Brassmasters detailing kit, as well as the High Level chassis kit. Also thoughts of a small diorama based on some sort of industrial setting and set at night (and in the rain). This is not a good thing!
Some more wagons
Despite not really getting caught up in the rush for the latest thing when it comes to RTR I do find that the new wagon announcements have an effect on what I’m up to. It’s because most of the new stuff actually isn’t. It’s been available before as a kit and if it suits what I’m doing there’s a good chance there’s an example or two in either my unbuilt kit pile or half started in a box somewhere. I’ve had to admit I’ve never really understood the clamour for new stuff we already have especially if the example is something simple like a 4 wheel open wagon. I mean you will see comments on forums that it’s the greatest thing ever, that someone has wanted one of these for years etc etc. I just think they can’t have wanted one that badly or they would have built the kit! Don’t dare suggest it though as such people seem to rejoice in explaining that they are so inept that they can’t stick 2 sides and 2 ends to a floor, or even better puff their chest out with pride when they tell you they have never even tried! And yet after all this time waiting they will absolutely buy 3 dozen of them just on a written specification, yeah right!
Getting back to the point, this time it’s Bachmanns tube wagon which so far does look nice. If starting from scratch I’d probably buy a couple but I’ve had the Parkside kits half done for many years. Having said that I would be surprised if Bachmann manage to match Parkside’s lovely thin sides.
Here is one of them after changing the w-irons for Bill Bedford ones, adding brakes from MSE and a few bits of wire for linkages and safety loops.
Above is a Bachmann VGA also done with Bill Bedford w-irons. The original axle boxes look nothing like those on a VGA so it’s worth changing them for slightly cut down hooded roller bearings, again from MSE. the break gear is from microstrip and wire but you can’t see the wire when the wagon is the right way up. The end steps are from DEMU member Martyn Normanton. I thought they were a bit too long so moved the top fold along by 1mm to reduce the height. Martyn also does steps for BAA and BBAs.
One little tool I’ve had for years but never really used is this, which is like a temperature controlled hot glue gun designed for sticking etched details to plastic. It’s kind of like a soldering iron for plastic because if you get it wrong you can over heat the part and the glue breaks down and just rubs off. More faff than using superglue but the joint appears to be stronger.
more coaches ticked off
The Bachmann/airfix Mk2c is now done. Additional parts coming from Southern Pride (Roof Hatch, extra underframe box, and GM roof vents), Replica for the bogies, MJT for the dropped buckeye and retracted buffers and ABS for the extended ones.
Also complete are my other 2 newspaper GUV conversions. I tend to like to do a one off prototype and then batch build the rest but there in lies a question. What size batch is best? OK a batch of 2 as in this case and the case of my Mk3 pullmans (shown below) isn’t much of a saving but large batches seem like too much of a mountain to climb. Take Mk2 coaches for an example (and probably the most extreme one on the layout) logically it would make sense to do them all together. It would be easier, and the results would be consistent but just working out how many that number is, is a job in itself. I’m sure I can get way past 50 without any effort at all and even 100 is only approximately 10 trains.
Such a number is enough to drive the enthusiasm out of even the most dedicated person but what about doing them train by train? For some trains that might just work. The Brum to Norwich train springs to mind as it’s just 6 early mark 2’s, 4 of which are TSO’s. That seems manageable but most trains are longer – some a lot longer. I have found video of a class 87 hauled motorail train at New Street that’s 15 vehicles long. Not that many of them are the same type either. This is the problem. I’ve identified a need for at least 5 Mk2D BFK’s, 2 of which are in the same train but these are a bit of a faff (not horrendous mind you). Doing them train by train is not efficient at all. So whats the answer? Does anyone else build in batches? If you do how do you approach it?
A glipse of the future provided by memories of the past.
When I was a kid, standing at New Street I only had a little brownie camera that took 110 film (remember that?) and couldn’t really take a decent picture of anything, not that I could afford film anyway so while I was there at the location and period I am modelling I never took any pictures of my own. It’s somewhat taken for granted these days that we can just have access to images of whatever we want due to the internet and sites like Flickr but unless people were there at the time to take the images and today give up their time to upload them for no reward we would really struggle to get even basic info on our chosen subjects. It is these unsung contributors that play a vital role in our hobby and its worth now and then taking a moment to stop and appreciate the efforts they go to.
Recently I found a video I hadn’t seen before that featured New Street, just a few months after the period I intend to model from Brian Hancock. His Youtube channel is well worth checking out and with his kind permission I can share with you his video.
This look back at the past is a prediction of my future. It is scenes like these that I am ultimately trying to recreate.
Theres a bit of Marston Green before and Reading after but these are still well worth watching, so if you have a spare 25 minutes – make your self comfortable and enjoy.
Some thoughts on the video
The first thing that stands out (because it’s the first train) is how un-colourful freightliner trains were in the 80’s with mostly white, blue and red boxes. The class 31 apparently rescuing a failed 47 (2.46) seems to be putting in a good performance.
The New Street stuff starts at 3mins 33 seconds and its interesting to note the lack of uniform rakes of coaches, there’s a set of nearly all Mk1s in blue and grey at 7min 50 though. Also worth noting is that none of this set is running on B1 bogies. In fact there’s an awful lot of Mk1s throughout the film.
The Class 158 test bed, class 154 puts in an appearance just before 12 minutes as does the yellow 312, albeit in the background. Is also worth noting the high number of light engine moves the highlight of which is a lash up of a class 56 and 2 class 58s in the 14th minute. I have no idea what the markings on the side of the DMU seen at 14.40 are but its worth noting that these 4 car 115/116 hybrids were common place at the time.
Theres an awful lot of platform enders throughout the film and this reaches a peak in the 15th minute as a class 45 generates much interest – I must remember to add the various bags they seem to leave lying arround to the model! At 18 minutes there’s one of the Express Parcels liveried 128 DPU’s which is causing much frustration on one of the Model Railway forums at the moment due to the new model apparently being in the wrong colour. The last train seen at New Street is a bit of an oddity with a class 31 hauling a rake of what seems to be mostly first class air cons. Perhaps an excuse to use up some of those cheap Airfix Mk2 FO’s that we all seem to pick up as the years go by. It would certainly give the exhibition critics something to get excited about.
Theres a few highlights in the Reading bit too with 50027 (Lion) making a nice getaway, a class 56 storming through the station and one of the class 210 DEMUs.
Thanks to Brian for uploading it but as mentioned before thanks to anyone who uploads videos and pictures, the hobby would be all the worse without your efforts.
The forgotten compromise
When ever we make a model of something we have to compromise. Usually due to materials, time or space but also sometimes due to the laws of physics. Even if we could build an exact copy in every way of a locomotive, using the exact materials, it wouldn’t be the same. It would be so fragile you couldn’t pick it up and even then it wouldn’t be a dead scale weight. Try making a 4mm scale loaded continuous welded rail train, loaded with steel rail and see what happens when you get to a curve!
We accept this, even if some people on forums think they are being clever by repeating it as an excuse to not try their best themselves. New Street is compromised for reasons – the station is scale length but not scale width. There are 2 platforms and a through road missing and the platforms get narrower as they get further away from the viewer. These compromises are considered ones.
However the compromise most people make is very rarely considered at all. In fact it’s seldom even recognised and that compromise comes down to aspiration. How often have you seen people say ‘I cant do that’ or ‘I cant build brass kits’? This applies to layouts too. How often do people set their end point for their layout ambitions on the capabilities they have at the start point? Sure there’s a certain safety in knowing that something is achievable but isn’t that the ultimate compromise? A common one you hear is ‘id love to do p4 but don’t think i could build the track’. Don’t think or do know? It’s a trait of many people that they think they can’t do something because they havent tried it. Surely its better to take the view that there’s no reason you can’t do something unless you have demonstrated to yourself that you can’t? Why just assume you can’t do something you know nothing about? You might have a natural talent at it, something you didn’t know you had, you might even enjoy it!
When I started planning and building New Street I set my target at what I wanted (perhaps with the arrogance and naivety of a 27 year old) not on what I could achieve at the time. I had been working with p4 for 11 years at that point and while I had helped with layouts I had never built one of my own, technically I sill havent! There were things I knew I couldn’t do, things I would have to learn to do along the way and those were just the things i knew about. I didn’t realise at the start I’d be etching my own parts or drawing things for laser cutting. Who knows what else I didn’t, and still don’t, know I have to learn?And that is perhaps the ultimate compromise we make. Not running a 6 coach train instead of a 12 coach one, not using set-track instead of building our own but compromising our ambitions based on where we start from.
Thoughts on the little people (part 2)
I’ve been looking at little people again. This time a rough mock-up of groups straight from the packet.
The first thing I have found is that I don’t need as many as I think. In the 2 scenes above, with the exception of the front row theres approximately half as many people in the second image and yet the ‘crowd’ looks pretty much the same.
The second thing I have discovered flies against the perceived wisdom of figure painting that has been transferred over from the military modelling field.
I have written before about my dislike of the military style. To me it’s over exaggerated and looks almost cartoon like. In my distant past when I was doing illustration as a job the more real you wanted something to look the more delicate and subtle your technique had to be. In the above image I have simply desaturated the image by 50% and reduced the contrast a bit. To my eye, at least it looks closer to how people should look. I would welcome your thoughts.
This show was rubbish!
Anyone who has ever frequented a forum devoted to playing trains will no doubt have seen comments like the above. Some of us that stand on the less pretty side of layouts at a show may have heard it in person. What seems to be the most common reason for the above? It doesn’t have something of specific interest to the visitor.
Lets think about that for a second, someone spends a day or possibly 2 and some of their hard-earned to go to a show with the expectation that they want to see something they are interested in. If they are truly interested in it they probably have something very similar to what they want to see at home. Why go to such effort to see what you already have. Another one is leveled at magazines – we want to see views we might get at a show! Why? A show is a show – a magazine is a magazine surely anybody with any degree of creativity (and lets face it if you are into model railways you must have some) would use the different ways of presenting their work to showcase different things. I certainly think that a layout article populated with the same sort of pictures you can take yourself at a show is a complete waste of time. What, as the person behind the layout, am I really offering the readers that justifies why they should by the mag or pay to get into a show?
Sadly this inward looking approach is deep rooted in this hobby of ours, so much so that we prioritise models on our own layouts in order of what we like. We all like loco’s so we put a lot of effort in to those, coaches, well yes we need some and the look a bit odd out of the box so we might want to weather them a bit. Road vehicles? Oh god no, we are RAILWAY modellers not car modellers – anything that just happens to fall out of the box will do!
I was at a show the other week and one layout featured a nicely modelled road with a bus depot but all the vehicles where straight from a box – I even saw another layout while setting up taking them from their boxes and straight onto the layout. Why? Why bother doing a nicely modelled road if you don’t care what you put on it?
But it’s not unique to us – not at all. I was a member of a truck modellers forum and the stuff they churned out was magnificent. One example was a virtually entirely scratchbuilt low loader with a tipped from the box Lima 0 gauge tender dumped on it. It looked awful! The point I am getting at is we all do things differently, Railway, aircraft, vehicle, military modellers we do our thing and rarely look at what our counterparts are up to because it’s not what WE are doing. It pays though to look outside off model railways now and then as it can sometimes redefine your preconceived idea of what good is.
The above model (yeah it IS a model) is by Chuck Doan, features no railways and is in a scale most people would never have heard of (12 inch scale) Chuck mixes traditional materials and good old trial and error with modern approaches like 3D printing etc. He’s probably too modest to admit it but his threads are always well documented (including the failures) and its nice to see a true master at work.
Image © Chuck Doan and used with permission
By contrast the above is by a chap called Ali Alamedy who lives in Iraq and only has access to basic tools and materials.
Image © Ali Alamedy and used with permission.
Images like the above really do have an effect on me, they change my ideas of what is achievable and make me want to do better. However I have no interest in the subjects (other than they are run down prototypes). Because there’s no trains that are in BR Blue should I really just pass stuff like this by without a second glance?
Of course not everything other modellers do is automatically better than what we do. I’m going to pick on certain types of military modellers here in that, possibly due to a similar inward looking approach that we railway types have, they have gone down a route of style over reality. I have never liked the over exaggerated skin tones of their figures and their pre-shading approach to vehicles and buildings just doesn’t look like reality. It’s almost like a cartoon. That’s just a personal opinion and there’s no doubting the work and skill that goes into it but it’s just, stylistically, not for me. They probably think my stuff is bland and lifeless and that’s fine too.
If this has spurred a bit of interest in looking ‘outside of the box’ so to speak then you might want to have a look at the following sites
Chuck Doan’s site, Ali Alamedy’s facebook page, Randy Hague’s Flickr page, Anders Malberg’s site, Emmanuel Nouaillier, Stefano Marchetti’s Facebook page, and finally Marc Reusser, modelling with paper