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Trip to Stafford and Cwm Prysor’s future

Last weekend I took the trip to Stafford Model Railway Circle’s Annual Exhibition. I was in two minds about taking the trip with the stormy weather forecast. I took the decision to go, and I’m glad I did. I had visited Stafford two years ago as an operator with Gresley Beat, and didn’t get chance to see much of the show. This year I went as a punter, and very much enjoyed it. I left the house early for the trip South, and arrived at 8.45 and thankfully was able to park on tarmac. The Staffordshire Showgrounds parking is designed for grass parking, and you can imagine the state of the ground with the current weather.

The stand out layout for me, was possibly one of the smallest, the P4 layout ‘Cheddar’. Beautiful modelling, which draws you in. The back scene is a piece artwork in itself. Photos of which can be found here. Trade wasn’t bad, some specialist and a fair amount of RTR traders. Personally I would have liked more specialist traders, but it’s the way of the hobby, with the likes of the fine scale shows being their more likely home now.

The highlight overall though, was the social side of things. It was good to see Alan Buttler, Geoff Taylor and the gang from Mid Wales. Good banter all around! I have to say though, I’ve never spent so little at a show, £1 on 10A scalpel blades. I take this as a positive shift in my modelling, not like the early years when I would have to buy a loco at a show.

Regarding Cwm Prysor, the tag line sounds quite serious, although it’s far from it. Realistically, the layout can not stay in my work room. There isn’t space for the fiddle yards, and it is certainly not going to do the layout any good being transported along a narrow landing and stair way each time I have a show. So, plans are a foot in the garden…..

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Trees are gone to make way…..make way for something else! 😉

(oh yes and as you can see, I did break the garden fork in the process)

Modelu 3D printed Lamps-Review

As I mentioned the other week, I was sent Modelu’s prototype lamps to give feedback on the design. When received, Alan already told me he was working on a V2 which would have subtle improvements. The Production samples arrived on Friday, so this weekend was spent preparing them, one for review and two….for my Panniers! 😉

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The lamps come in their natural red resin. This substance is a little waxy, but most importantly it’s rather flexible, which I shall come back to later. I initially gave it some wafts with the Halford’s Acrylic White Primer. These are literally very light coats, you are not intending to give it as a full coat, just something that the enamel paint can key to. It should be noted that while it’s in it’s primer stage, be careful when touching the lamps as the primer is likely to rub off. Once dry, I carefully brush paint the lamp with Humbrol ‘matt white’.

What makes these lamps a step up from the prototypes, is the lens included with them. These are stuck to a self adhesive tape, and require gently peeling off. Do make sure that the silver/reflective lens shaped paper is attached to the lens. I use the self adhesive residue on the lens to my advantage when attaching to the lamp. I used the edge of the scalpel blade I’d peeled the lens off with, to transport it to the lamp. It slots in relatively easy, make sure it goes into the lamp with the bulbous side facing out. To be sure the lens wouldn’t come adrift, I gave the lens a coat of Klear, to protect everything.

Final stage was weathering, with a dark mucky wash, to just linger into the corners. It’s interesting when you look at photos of real loco lamps that they can vary from very clean, to down right mucky…which must have been an offence I presume?

Overall, these have to be the finest lamps produced in 4mm. I mentioned earlier the downside of the waxy resin, this isn’t so much a negative as it’s not a problem once you have added the top coat. The really positive side of the resin, is the flexibility. Those handles are incredibly fine (and finer prior to painting). The flexible nature of the material, means that even with some intentional rough handling (excuse the pun) that those handles survived being dropped onto my workbench and even the floor. The addition of a lens I think really gives a very nice effect, the reflection differs in lighting in quite a subtle way. The slot for the lamp means no more drilling out holes for the irons to fit and as these are GWR, the slot has been drilled in the correct position. It has also been refined, so that it’s a nice snug fit for etched lamp irons (I use masokits). For those with thicker RTR lamp irons, there will be an option with a hole in the bottom of a second range of lamps.

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Modelu are working on producing loco lamps for the big four (and BR) plus tail lamps. This I’m most interested to see, as I’ve been informed you can buy a red lens.

Surprise in the Post-Lamps!

Nice little surprise in the post. Prototypes of Alan Buttler’s Modelu companies next product. 4mm Lamps. This has been an area of the hobby which has been somewhat lacking.

These are the first prototypes, so I will not be doing a full review for a few weeks, as I know Modelu wish to modify the lamps further. Most noticeable though, is the very fine handles….. more on these in a few weeks.

On Track – Part 2

Mr Cooper visited today, and work commenced swiftly. I finished off adding sleepers to the trap points, while Andy made up both point crossing Vees. Yours truly did the mundane (yet rewarding job) of adding Exactoscale chairs to lengths of rail….and supplying lots of coffee!

With the Vee’s made and fixed in place, the task of adding the outer rails was to hand.

Meanwhile, Andy was constantly supervised by Lass, and was expected to be pat her every 5 minutes. 😉

It was clear the points were not going to be finished today….especially as the weather turned wintery and Andy had a 2 hour drive home.

Work to resume in a month or so, meanwhile I shall be returning to working on rolling stock. 🙂

On Track-Part 1

On this coming Saturday, Mr Andy Cooper is visiting to kindly give me a hand building the points on Cwm Prysor. I’ve never done this before so it will be a good learning experience. Andy set me my homework, to glue the timber sleepers into place, which makes things a lot easier come the weekend.

I have to say, I have found the whole thing rather therapeutic, and not a chore in the slightest. The main points themselves are two ‘B8’ turnouts, which I acquired from Timber Tracks. The trap points are made up of timber section from the Scale Four Society.

Merry Christmas

As a post script to yesterday’s post. Cwm Prysor arrived this morning. Very happy indeed.

A typical week day working, 5742 with a train from Blaenau Ffestiniog approaches what will be Cwm Prysor.
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7428 sits in the loop preparing to shunt.
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Merry Christmas all! 🙂

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Prysor for Christmas

Good tidings to all at this festive time of year. In the last couple of days I’ve been preparing the work room for the arrival of the layout. Tim Horn has worked exceptionally hard to bring my rough ideas into reality. From here, the real work can begin on turing this into an operational layout, with the eventual goal of having the layout on the exhibition circuit, however I intend to take my time with this, I see no need to rush this project.

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In the meantime, I’ve been working on another 74XX. This one is somewhat special in that 7428 retained her GWR livery until withdrawal on the 31/10/1962. Although she retained the livery, the photos I have show her in typical Croes Newydd condition (filthy), although the Great Western Railway initials are still very prominent (I read that shed staff highlighted it with chalk over the years). As this started life as a Bachmann GWR 64XX, it didn’t have a smokebox numberplate, so I made one from some 10thou plasticard.

Weathering was done using several reference colour photographs, and the effect I feel works well, with the green livery slightly hinted at ‘just’ under the grime.

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To finish the scene, Modelu‘s figures bring the whole thing to life. You may notice the lamp missing from along the running plate, the reason for this is I will testing some prototypes of Modelu’s 3D printed lamps in the next few weeks.

Those that follow this blog and are interested in these Pannier tanks, may like to know that the Railway Modeller article on the subject of my 74XX conversion, will be in (I believe) the February issue.

Finally I’d just like to wish the followers of tfmodelling, a Very Merry Christmas, and all the best for the New Year.

Best Wishes

Tom

All crewed up!

I’ve spent the last few days painting up the first of Modelu’s commercial figures. You may remember Alan allowed me to paint a few of his prototypes which can be found here.

At the time, I was amazed with the prototypes, but these retail examples really are a step up in detail.

I initially give them a coat of Halford’s Acrylic Primer, before painting up with a mixture of my chosen paints, enamels.

I have to say, my favourite is the guard who does looks cold, tired and peeved off!

For more info on the Modelu range, take a look at the website here.

Cwm Prysor is born!

Evening all!
Quick blog post showing that boards for Cwm Prysor have been cut.

Tim has laser cut the templot plan, which has then been fixed to the baseboards. More work to do as one can see, but hopefully the boards will be delivered in the coming weeks!