Saturday Ramble: Lightening the load

 Sometimes there can be too much. Sometimes you just want to clear the decks and sit in the sun, especially at it has made a rare appearance this summer. The TT:120, done to the best of the brief if not my satisfaction. The trio of BRM projects moved through quite swiftly and submitted to Warner Towers. Suddenly there is nothing; though this isn't quite the case. Hidden under the debris are projects  long forgotten and yet now taking a new urgency.

There are a number of items that have been on the bench both physically and metaphorically for probably a year. Honestly these all need to be finished. The target therefore is to get all these done and clear. This, as well as a few tidy-up and addition bits to both Rhiw 2 and Drovers Brook; the first of these, above, was to get a walkway over the as yet to be added point rodding. This probably comes with the Ratio kit, but as I bought it for a fiver from the Croydon club stand part-built, I had to make my own. This probably sums up the general  direction of travel now; I make things from scratch and scrap, and fix up old discarded stuff. There's more pleasure to be had from actual modelling and rescuing than I've ever got from buying something, especially at the eye-watering prices that are to the fore now. We are steadily losing this. Yes I know this is a well-worn moan from the older guys but when a very well-known younger modeller pinged me and asked if I knew where you could buy 3D printed tie-bar plates for a bridge he was building, and I replied '20 thou sheet and some micro rod', you do begin to wonder. That though is a whole other can of worms and this is about me working through bits. I'll line them up in due course.

In the meantime Drovers Brook heads toward the Bredgar and Wormshill event on Sunday. Not an exhibition in the true sense, but a bolt-on to all the other things that are happening. We'll all be in the engine shed, which may well be cooler than outside, or unbearably hot.

Consolidation time.

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009 water tower

There is some back story on this, but I'll gloss over that for a minute. A bit of proper modelling as some would comment: a water tower for the upcoming 009 layout. Mr. Hill passed me the basic bits in a slide box with alternative bases. I went with this one which is a vintage set of Airfix crossing gates. These topped with the expected Wills vari-girder tank and a timber lid from the fret parts of a Peco TT:120 building kit. So three kits, mostly scrap materials and none used for their intended purpose. The detail parts are some more ex Airfix bits, some 1mm rod and a bit of chain. This is a tad long and may be shortened. I'll live with it for the time being.

Cost: almost zero. Yes I could have bought a proper 3D print or a kit, but that ain't the way we roll around here.
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The wonder of Metcalfe card kits

 I do like a card kit. The middle part of a trio of buildings that I needed to get done was this N gauge factory from Metcalfe. Of course I had to fiddle with it a little by moving the outers to the inner and putting the loading bays together as would seem logical. The whole structure layout is slightly illogical and that may be why I struggle with the death-by-Metcalfe layouts out there. There are a couple of people who can make these work, the rest just scream Metcalfe. There really has to be a way to lift this, but I haven't yet found it. The N gauge kits seem to suffer less than the OO, but it's still the bright 2D window frames and the consistent brick/stone finish - here I've hit it fairly heavily with the pencil shading and it still looks quite bland. I think the windows need to be replaced, by which time you may as well scratch-build. Also this seems almost to be unique to Metcalfe; the old Bilt-ezzi and the Superquick kits are less of a problem and the Scale Scenes are the best of the bunch, though the download aspect kills these a little for me. Anyway this and the other two buildings are coming to an issue of BRM in the near future.

Pett O gauge open day

 Almost an annual trip. Down to that odd area between Hastings and Rye which feels like a huge village  with no defined edges  Plenty of rummage boxes and the usual multi gauge test track and a softer feel than an exhibition. Time to chat, space to ponder. The 7mm NGA were in attendance (above) which I wasn't expecting with this lovely demo layout on two of the Peco/White Rose competition boards. Really taken with this. The now well-worn comment about these events being 'older' and I still felt like I was the youngest in the room, which doesn't bode well for a decade's time.

Show 9

Catering 9

Parking 8

Rucksacks 0

Not Lymington signal box

I got presented with a kit. OK, so I requested it without realising which kit it was. 

The Peco (ex Merit) Potters Bar signal box has been around since God was a boy and is showing its age in more than a few places. Compared to say the Ratio Highley box kit which is probably only ten years younger, very few of these seem to get built, or at least not on my radar. It feels like a very period idea of a product when most model railways were still very much of a train set leaning and this would have been an upswing in terms of detail to say the Triang Type 15 box which share some of the same general post war vibe. There are a few conversions though, notably the Model Railway Club's Minories which has a box which has all the hallmarks of this kit, and then there is David Malton's published bash into the Pyewipe box. 

My eyes lit upon the defunct, but still standing box at Lymington Pier. So that's where I went with it. There are errors aplenty, mostly as I was initialy working from just a single aspect photo hence quite a bit of guesswork (other views typically came to light once the build was fairly well advanced) but I think I've caught the essence of the building. The finished and almost third revision of it coming to an issue of BRM in the near future.

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Saturday Ramble The flat kit society

 Where does it all go after we've built it?

I was rummaging around in a box looking for something that I hadn't got when I was aware of the expansion problem. This may be somewhat obvious and yet it is real and without resolution. All the unbuilt kits fit neatly into the box; well almost neatly. And at an exhibition I will always head for the club stand to pick through the unmade kits, which usually are part of a dead club member's estate that they are trying to clear. But when they are built, where do they go? Things to consider here with my often random selection of buying practice;

1. I'm buying the unbuilt stuff that still has some modeling life in it.

2. This is easy to sell/pack for the club. 

3. I store it for later(flat).

What doesn't happen (generally) is that I will buy pre-made stuff. The take away from this is that unmade kits have more value than made ones. This is long term, what happens to the made things? A conversation with an friend found me saying that all has treasured stuff would be landfill in time. Yes, it may find one interested buyer who was familiar with the process, but after that? Toy trains. Dump it. He was mortified, but could see my reasoning. What we find fun to build is purely personal, but often once out of that sphere it becomes worthless, the value is only in the actual building and the personal ownership. Once outside of that, the value drops to near zero as that personal connection is lost and we are back to landfill once more. It's notable that characterful models often lose that character if they are passed on to a third party. Read; dogs and their owners at this point.

What can we do about this? Very little. This is not about modelling or art even, but about human nature. Unless something has an outward value to others, we have to accept that anything we build, whether it be an exquisite fully detailed layout or a wagon kit is ultimately a purely person thing and that is where it ends. We cannot transmit the pleasure and the time spent building it to someone else and nor should we. Our modelling is just that; ours alone. 

Lima steam locomotives

You know how you find forgotten things when you were looking for something else?

I remember buying this in the shop in Holsworthy. I think either £15 or £20. It moved. Not ran; moved. A-ha! A project I thought. This week its time came.

I took it apart, No here's the thing, you can take these apart. It's built to last, not quality, durability. No bolt on electrics, just a couple of wires and a big motor.  It probably came with a weight, but its not there now. Was this the problem? I cleaned it and took the motor apart, rubbed the gears down a little and oiled the bearings. Runs sweet as a nut. OK this isn't 21st century Bachmann running, but this is probably 50 years old . A lot of the Accurdo/Rapidscale locos struggle past 50 weeks before something breaks!

It could be improved.

 The place to do this is pick-ups. For the uninitiated these are probably the crudest 4mm locomotives ever produced. Essentially an 0-4-0 the centre wheels are uncoupled and waggle about in a rectangular bearing. Top right (rear) a wheel with a traction tyre/no pick-up, bottom right, gear wheel/no pick-up. 

Top left and centre pick-up via a wiper, bottom left and centre pick-up via wiper on axle from the live-to-axle wheels. Therefore the insubstantial weight plastic motor is over the non pick-up wheels. A first addition would be an extra set of wipers on the RH pair thus increasing the pick-up by 50%. Then adding weight over the front and centre. There is so much space to do all of this that it seems rude not to.

Now, the last thing I need is a J50, but wouldn't it be fun to give it a full make-over and detailing?

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The 8 quid coach

 There aren't an awful lot of RTR 009 scale coaches out there, but on the 009 Society sales stand there are bargains aplenty especially if you don't mind meeting the system halfway and doing a little remedial work. And so it was here.

A runner with Peco bogies under a Dundas DM 40 WHR tourist coach. Nicely built, but a poor choice of adhesive and glazing. With a basic tidy up the original paint job was retained, but a new tissue paper roof surface and some clamshell vents were the first move. Lead was added between the seats and the bright blue interior was toned down with some earth and oxblood colour. New glazing in the form of some clear sheet and some weathering and she's done. The roof just sits at the moment while I ponder whether to go with passengers or not. There's one more to do and a conversion to make up the rake. 

A factory window?

There is almost no thing as rubbish on the workbench, things have to get very small before they are deemed unfit for further use. Though I do start drowning in stuff and have a mini clear out once in a while. This was a little five minute job, completed simply because it was there, and because I could. A left-over window frame off cut from a Peco (ex Merit) signal box build. The plastic is rubbery and not of the best quality, however too good to simply discard. It needed an new wider frame edge to match the one on the left. A further rummage found a piece of black 20 thou that would do the job.

This was stuck and then trimmed, then the window bars cleaned were up. I now have something suitable for a factory rooflight or similar. When, or if it will get used is a mystery, but it will land in the 'windows' tin ready for such time. Modelling, not purchasing.

 

Saturday Ramble

 

It started straight away, the minute that I pushed publish. The interest from 'overseas'. The old blog got swamped, the Mk 2 started getting swamped. The trouble is that Blogger, despite it being part of our G**gle  overlord, suits me. The forums don't; too much accent on reaction and scoring for the same. Really not interested. I just want a quiet corner of the interweb without the need for backchat. I'm not adverse to comment here, I just don't want that to be the driver of everything.

The above is done. To my satisfaction? Not by a long chalk. I shall smile and wave for the paparazzi, but the whole project felt contrived and forced; the disadvantage of being pressured from commercial sources. I like to dip my toe in to the world, but I have no desire to sit under the cosh and feel a certain amount of sorrow for those that have to, It doesn't need to be that way,,, well not completely anyway. I am drawn more and more to the 'independent' and this may be a throwback to 50+ year old punk sensibilities. We were going to live outside of the machine, that is, until we became the machine. My head instantly reels back in dismay as soon I feel that creep; always has; always will. I stopped going to school for the same reasons, there was too much cosh and not enough room to think and reason things out. If I felt that way at fourteen, then how can I avoid it now?

This is all part of a greater re-think: how to move forward, and how to facilitate the forward moving. I suspect that things will remain much as they were, with a certain amount of irony, a shift toward a more publishing friendly aspect. How this will pan out is anyone's guess.

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