Wordless Wednesday (Beast from the East)

Posted on February 28, 2018 by bawdsey

Antonov AN124
Doncaster Yorkshire

Antonov AN124
Doncaster Yorkshire

Posted in blog, canon, Canon G10, flight, flying, hobbies, life, Photography, travel, wordless wednesday | Leave a comment

Throwback Thursday, When you’re digging, stop!

Posted on February 22, 2018 by bawdsey

Shelfie2
OO Gauge

You know when you take one of those images that just nails it? This one above does it for me and it emphasises I’m well on the way to something good.  A year or so ago I’d been working on a Southern Electric scheme that wasn’t working, so I’d changed that to a Midlands based ex Great Central Railway truncated branch. Well, that hadn’t worked either.  when-youre-digging-a-hole/ it is definitely time to stop!

Shelfie2
OO Gauge
Great Central Railway

Remember this station shot? Well it’s pretty much the same viewpoint as the header image, and validates for me the decision to swap the layout drastically.

The swap into a small shunting yard for a coal drift mine reflects a good part of my off the beaten track interests. The revised location and workings partly inspired by Ben Ashworths Forest of Dean images, and time spent in Northumberland. Combine this with my late father in laws innate ability to blag me a morning shift visit underground at Whittle Colliery, Health and Safety? (different times mate), and I’ve got a heady mix to indulge in!
irishswissernie/whittle


Swing the camera through 180 degrees to look at the old station throat, and the new loading bank is now underway, based on a couple of similar installations in the Forest of Dean, Parkend, being one of them. I’m keeping my options open to possibly integrate this layout into a larger Forest of Dean project, as either a drift mine or Ballast railhead.

Shelfie2 OO gauge
Southern Region Southern Electrics

This is the same station throat ‘location’ last year, looking at it I definitely know the correct choice was made to change the layout significantly, but the Southern itch is still there to be scratched. I’m mindful of the discussions I had at the time, with a couple of good friends bouncing ideas back and forth for the design both in its Southern and ex-GC guises. Those thoughts are very much still with me, and some of the links and images taken and sent to me were and are, very much appreciated.

Something for the new Peco Bullhead points then ..

Posted in 2017, Bachmann, blog, Branch Line, brassmasters, British Rail, Cameo, Cameo layout, Canon G10, dapol, DCC, Eastern Region, finescale, Forest of Dean, Great Western, HO, hobbies, Hornby, Industrial, Inspiration, iphoneography, Layout, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, modeling, Modelling, n gauge, Narrow Gauge, Nevard, northumberland, O Gauge, o scale, OO Gauge, Oxford rail, Scottish Region, shelfie, Southern, Southern Electrics, Southern Region, throwback thursday, toy train, Toy trains, toytrainset, train set, trainset, tree, trees, Western Region, woodland | 4 Comments

Wordless Wednesday (Shelfie2)

Posted on February 21, 2018 by bawdsey

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, blog, Branch Line, British Rail, Cameo, Cameo layout, dapol, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, EM, finescale, Forest of Dean, HO, hobbies, Hornby, Industrial, iphone, iphoneography, Layout, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, modeling, Modelling, Modelu, n gauge, Narrow Gauge, Nevard, O Gauge, o scale, OO Gauge, Oxford rail, peco, Scottish Region, shelfie, Southern Region, toy train, Toy trains, toytrainset, train set, trainset, tree, trees, wagon, Wales, waterslide, Western Region, woodland, woods, wordless wednesday | 1 Comment

Throwback Thursday Collier Street

Posted on February 15, 2018 by bawdsey

Collier Street
N Gauge Peco Project Layout

A quick look back a few years, here’s ‘Collier Street’ an N gauge layout commissioned by Peco. The layout was a Paul Lunn design from the N gauge Set Track plan book and I built it adapting the design slightly here and there, using off the shelf products. It subsequently has been used by them for advertising photography, appeared at Warley on their stand, and in the Railway Modeller as a project layout. It was I suppose a micro/cameo layout too, with fully enclosed fascia and a wrap round back scene though at the time I didn’t consider it in cameo terms. An exercise in using set track too, never a favourite of mine. However, set track serves a purpose judging by its popularity, and it doesn’t hurt to step outside your comfort zone once in a while. The design was based on a midland region station now truncated and running parcels and DMU’s as the primary service. Operationally it worked quite well, and was a useful exercise in blending both card and plastic buildings for the scenery. The view blocking was really challenging, I remember that much!

Collier Street
N Gauge Peco Project Layout

Posted in Bachmann, blog, book, British Rail, Cameo, Cameo layout, Canon G10, dapol, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, Exhibition, finescale, Friends, Great Western, HO, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, LMS, LNER, magazine, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, modeling, Modelling, Modelu, n gauge, O Gauge, o scale, OO Gauge, Oxford rail, peco, Scottish Region, shelfie, social media, Southern Region, throwback thursday, toy train, Toy trains, toytrainset, train set, trainset, Uncategorized, Western Region | 3 Comments

Friday Flashback 64xx

Posted on February 9, 2018 by bawdsey

Bachmann 64xx
31-635 31-638 31-636 31-637

 

Whilst working up some words for a magazine piece, I was searching through the back catalogue of images of the layout and found this one out, a staged shot with passenger traffic and signalling at Albion Yard. It’s one of the Bachmann 64xx’s Pannier Capers 64xx that I picked up to add a bit of variety to the fleet. It’s shown with a Ratio modified LNWR signal, Ratio posts and MSE arm and details, and a B-Set from the late Geoff Brewin’s collection. I’ve recently added a further 64xx in to the mix and have yet to choose between a conversion to a 74xx, or go a significant stage further and fit the High Level kits 54xx chassis kit. Choices eh?

MSE signal components
High Level Kits

Posted in Bachmann, blogger, Branch Line, British Rail, Cameo layout, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, finescale, Forest of Dean, friday flashback, Great Western, HO, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, LMS, LNER, magazine, media, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, modeling, Modelling, Modelu, n gauge, O Gauge, o scale, OO Gauge, Oxford rail, Scottish Region, social media, Southern Region, toy train, Toy trains, toytrainset, train set, trainset, Wales, Welsh Marches, Western Region | Leave a comment

Wordless Wednesday (Shelfie2)

Posted on February 7, 2018 by bawdsey

Posted in Bachmann, blogger, Branch Line, brassmasters, British Rail, Cameo layout, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, Exhibition, finescale, Forest of Dean, Great Western, HO, hobbies, Hornby, Industrial, Layout, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, modeling, Modelling, Modelu, n gauge, Narrow Gauge, O Gauge, o scale, OO Gauge, Oxford rail, Scottish Region, shelfie, Southern, toy train, Toy trains, toytrainset, train set, trainset, tree, trees, Western Region, woodland, woods, wordless wednesday | Leave a comment

Twee Trees

Posted on February 4, 2018 by bawdsey

Here’s some of today’s work. Whilst I’ve still got the exit end to work out in terms of view blocks and structures, the head shunt end is pretty much finalised.

These are Woodland Scenics tree armatures, with micro mark dark brown Poly Fiber. (EDIT : I initially wrote that this material was a Woodland Scenics product, Peter has been in touch and advised it’s actually from Micro-Mark https://www.micromark.com/Black-Poly-Fiber-12-oz_2 so apologies if any of you have been searching for this in the WS range.)

A clump of this material was given to me to try by Peter Marriott at Warley, the normal colour being a light to medium green if using Woodland Scenics. This Micro-Mark colour works really well, the tree foliage is a mix of only three colours, textures come from one being ground foam, and the other two differing sizes of scatter material.

As the trees stand there’s some shadow fall onto the back scene. However the lighting rig is yet to be designed and fitted, now I have a good idea of the volume and height of the rearmost trees. The woodland will extend the full length of the layout, so I have roughly six feet of trees to build. This technique allows forestry to be made quickly, this section taking a hour or so, so a day ‘in the office’ will see the core of the trees built. Foreground trees will be built differently with a bit more finesse and detail.

Having done this test with greens, (what I had to hand), I guess this ones going to be summertime, autumn and winter will have to wait, obvs….

Posted in Bachmann, blog, Branch Line, British Rail, Cameo layout, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, Eighties, finescale, Forest of Dean, HO, hobbies, Hornby, Industrial, Kalmbach, Layout, life, LMS, LNER, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, modeling, Modelling, Modelu, n gauge, Narrow Gauge, Nevard, O Gauge, o scale, OO Gauge, Oxford rail, Railex, Scotland, Scottish Region, shelfie, skill, Southern, Southern Region, toy train, Toy trains, toytrainset, train set, trainset, tree, trees, Uncategorized, Wales, Welsh Marches, Western Region, woodland, woods | 1 Comment

Oxford Rail London Toy Fair 2018

Posted on January 26, 2018 by bawdsey

GER/LNER/BR N7

Oxford Rail N7
OR76N7001 OR76N7001XS OR76N7002 OR76N7002XS OR76N7003 OR76N7003XS

The N7 announced last year is very close to release and Oxford had an advanced EP on the stand to have a look at. As such it has some issues eg the coupling rods have been put on upside down (Oxford are aware), but on the whole it looks very promising. The weight of the loco is striking, most of the superstructure being cast metal, so I think there’s unlikely to be many traction issues. The rear pony truck appears rigid, the wheelset having a good amount of lateral movement and a small amount of vertical movement. Decorated samples are due very soon, and the detail on the EP looked a good cross section of quality and finesse. It was certainly standing up well to be handled frequently at the show.

Oxford Rail N7
OR76N7001 OR76N7001XS OR76N7002 OR76N7002XS OR76N7003 OR76N7003XS

Oxford Rail N7 OR76N7001

Also on show were the early tooling shots of the round top version, again with corrections anticipated, there should be three washout plugs each side whereas the EP has two.

Oxford Rail N7 Round Top Boiler

Oxford Rail N7 Round Top Boiler

5 Plank Wagon

Oxford Rail 5 Plank Open
OR76MW5001 OR76MW5002
OR76MW5003 OR76MW5004

These are images of the first shots of the new 5 plank wagon, tooling appears crisp and no unusual features on first inspection like their 7 plank open with its repair patch on the end corner strapping.

Oxford Rail 5 Plank Open
OR76MW5001 OR76MW5002
OR76MW5003 OR76MW5004


The chassis looks like the existing under frame from the 7 plank series, and the EP has the same buffers as the 7 plank so a representation of RCH types but a bit on the undernourished side. You can see the two types on the images above, note the second image shows the end door buffer type, an incorrect housing for a non drop end wagon. The 35T GLW A and B tanks announced last year are still work in progress, no EP was available to view and livery details are still being resolved. No prototype detail or EP’s were available for the new tool 12T tank wagons announced at the show, and the various PO livery 7 plank wagons continue to sell well, as have the six wheel brake vans.

Oxford Rail MK3a 1st Open
OR763FO001B


The BR Mk3 coaches were on display in the blue grey livery. First blue/grey paint samples were on show and corrections are being fed back to the manufacturing team, in particular the white line around the vestibule area.

Oxford Rail BR MK3

18 Inch Howitzer Rail Gun

Oxford Rail Howitzer Rail Gun
OR76BOOM01 OR76BOOM01XS OR76BOOM02


Occasionally a model company releases something that initially looks like a bonkers idea, and this 18 inch Howitzer almost certainly falls into that category. The three pictures here are of the 3D Print to give people an idea of the prototype, and final model so excuse the rough contours and detailing of this print. However once past the WTF! reaction, its quite a cool idea and model. It will appeal across a section of the modelling community who like odd stuff, the physical size of it in 4mm scale is a massive piece of equipment. Oxford with their military vehicle range will have a natural crossover in the collectors market for this model. It’s likely that military modellers will find this of interest for dioramas, wargamers may well be attracted to it too, and it will also be available with sound as part of a set including a War Department livery Dean Goods.

Oxford Rail Howitzer Rail Gun
OR76BOOM01 OR76BOOM01XS OR76BOOM02

Oxford Rail Howitzer Rail Gun
OR76BOOM01 OR76BOOM01XS OR76BOOM02


And probably the thing that will sell this item the most is the price. Around £50 for a complete Rail Gun, that price point will surely attract the ‘buy it because I like it’ rather than use it modeller. With an example covering the first world war to the late 1950’s they’ve chosen well for the popular era’s too. It seemed to be attracting a good deal of interest from the stand visitors and feed back from the retail trade had been positive. One to watch …

Finally a couple of pictures of a new Dean Goods Livery, and in black, it certainly has a charm to it.

Oxford Rail Dean Goods
OR76DG006 OR76DG006XS

Oxford Rail Dean Goods
OR76DG006 OR76DG006XS

Posted in 3d, 3d printing, blog, British Rail, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, Eleventh Hour, Great Western, Hattons, history, HO, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, LMS, LNER, media, menin gate, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, modeling, Modelling, O Gauge, o scale, OO Gauge, oxford, Oxford rail, remembrance, Scottish Region, social media, the great war, toy fair, toy train, Toy trains, toytrainset, train set, trainset, Uncategorized, wagon, Western Region, world war one, world war two | 17 Comments

Hornby London Toy Fair 2018

Posted on January 25, 2018 by bawdsey

NBR/LNER/BR J36

Hornby J36 R3600TTS R3621 R3622

On the Hornby stand one of the EP’s for the new J36 was available to have a good look at. The Prototype is definitely a Scottish model, so those of you who have been after a widely spread ‘Northern’ locomotive have landed on your feet! It’ll be available in three color schemes initially, North British DCC with sound, LNER, and BR early crest, the last two DCC ready. The pricing is interesting with the DCC sound version (£164.00) only being around £35.00 more than a DCC ready version. I can foresee buyers swapping bodies to get sound and vice versa! The EP looked pretty much ready to go, the weight seemed appropriate and I’d guess of similar value to the J15 which pulls well for its size.

Hornby J36 R3600TTS R3621 R3622

Hornby J36 R3600TTS R3621 R3622

Hornby J36 R3600TTS R3621 R3622

Hornby J36 R3600TTS R3621 R3622

Drive is via the rear axle and the cab area look clear of any compromises to achieve the rear wheel drive leaving daylight under the boiler and a representation of some of the inside valve gear. Tender pickups look to be on all axles, with the tender ‘permanently’ coupled. I couldn’t see on the quick look I had if there was a facility to close couple the tender, even if not, it won’t be a big job for those so inclined.

Hornby J36 R3600TTS R3621 R3622

NE Toads

LNER Toad Dia.064 R6834 R6834a R6833 R6833a

Well I seem to be followed around by Toads at the moment. Recently I’ve made four of them, two in 7mm and two in 4mm scale from the Parkside kits.
The Hornby model will cover two variants, the early (dia.034)as shown in this EP, wooden boarded ducket version, and the later steel ducket version (Dia.064). Overall it looks a really good effort. I originally wrote one characteristic of the type was a single large circular roof vent, neither version (to date), appears tooled for this common fitting. That was incorrect. The vans had paired vents which were larger than typical van roof vents, rather than the singular vent which I originally stated. My apologies for any confusion caused!

LNER Toad Dia.064 R6834 R6834a R6833 R6833a

It does unfortunately duplicate the Parkside kit which has only recently been released, I’m more than happy with the three I have (one to be built), and may indulge in one of the Dia.034’s. Then again I could do some modelling, and convert the unbuilt kit to an .034!

LNER Toad Dia.064 R6834 R6834a R6833 R6833a

So two very useful additions to Hornby’s range which look to be up to their current standard of quality releases. The Toads will be suitable for NE/LNER/Eastern Region generally across the board with the opportunity for cross region workings too. It’ll be interesting to see how the J36 is received sales wise, I hope it does well being specific to north of the border, and opens up possibilities for other northern region types.

Posted in 3d, 3d printing, Airfix, blog, blogger, Branch Line, British Rail, DCC, dcc sound, Eastern Region, flying scotsman, history, HO, hobbies, Hornby, Ian Futers, Inspiration, Layout, LNER, media, Midland Region, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Model Railway Journal, modeling, Modelling, n gauge, Nevard, O Gauge, o scale, OO Gauge, Oxford rail, R3600TTS, R3621, research, Scotland, Scottish Region, social media, throwback thursday, toy fair, toy train, Toy trains, toytrainset, train set, trainset, Uncategorized, wagon | 2 Comments

London ToyFair 2018 Airfix

Posted on January 25, 2018 by bawdsey

Airfix 1/48 Bristol Blenheim A09186

Here’s some aviation content, the new releases from Airfix for 2018 seen at the London Toyfair.

Airfix 1/48 Bristol Blenheim A09186

Airfix 1/48 Hawker Hunter F6
A09185

Airfix 1/48 Hawker Hunter F6
A09185

The Hunter is one of the releases that interests me, it’s a classic 50’s and 60’s jet and reminds me of kicking the tyres on a batch of them (mainly T7’s) at RAF Cosford on behalf of a client prior to their sale. Our client in the end didn’t bid, the only single sweater in the batch wasn’t of sufficient interest. This EP to me catches the look of the Hunter nothing immediately standing out.

Airfix 1/72 Vickers Wellington MK1C A08019

Airfix 1/72 Vickers Wellington MK1C A08019

All three of the kits from the EP’s shown, look like they’re continuing the rich seam that Airfix are mining, with pretty accurate kits at competitive pricing.

Posted in Airfix, aviation, blogger, flight, history, hobbies, Hornby, modeling, Modelling, remembrance, toy fair, Uncategorized, world war two | Leave a comment