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What’s on our Workbench?

 

Perhaps the summer is a good time to get out and look at our surroundings, because nearly all the work in progress shown this evening was of buildings, especially station buildings; and none the worse for that, because it was interesting to compare the different modelling techniques used.  But architectural models did not have it all to themselves.

Chris Kapolka (celebrating his birthday) unpacked and assembled his cleverly prefabricated 00 model of the Clayton North Tunnel Portal which he is building as a diorama for his photographic work.  The portal is a very complicated piece of architecture, as can be seen online; and it was by going online (recommended) that I was able to appreciate just how well he has recreated this intricate and evocative tunnel mouth.

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Graham Betts, searching for a suitable prototype station for his layout, came upon Ben Rhydding in Yorkshire, and showed his beautifully made and painted model of it in 00.  The inner carcase was of clear plasticard, with plasticard overlays of various thickness, thus neatly solving the glazing problem.  The interior was complete with station furniture and human figures.  He also showed the OO chassis that he is building for a Black 5, to which he had hoped to fit a Hornby body, only to find that the body is inaccurate, appearing to be 2 to 3 mm too short in the smokebox.

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Vernon Larcombe produced what he claimed was his first build in thirty years (and most of us would have been grateful to have reached this standard after thirty continuous years of practice!).  His exquisite N gauge model of Stirchley station demonstrated another method of glazing, that advocated by Stephen Duffell and Chris Cox, of using microscope slide glass cover slips, cut and placed using Glue and Glaze.  Vernon caused further surprise and astonishment by saying that this model was just a trial and he probably would not use it - what?

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Howard Mainwaring is moving from 0 to 00, and is just starting his layout.  As he has been required to keep out of the sun this summer (what sun, what summer?), he has started on the station buildings, and he brought along nicely constructed examples of the Metcalfe card kit country station offerings.  For reasons that were not clear to me he had built these in both N and 00; perhaps the N model was, like Vernon’s, just a trial?

Roger Grizzell has assembled a laser-cut 00 footbridge kit, and the end result is very impressive in the fine detail of its lattice work.  All the many stair treads have to be fitted at each end simultaneously into their side frames before gluing, and this was tricky, but Roger managed it successfully as we could see.

Andy Vaughan succeeded in completely amazing us, not for the first time, with his new models.  His N gauge goods transfer shed was another little gem, but it was his bicycles that really drew the applause.  From a set of six in N, which most of the older members could barely see, but which have foldable handlebars and seat; to 00, where an apparent six to a fret in fact folds over to make three bicycles with rounded 3-D frames and wheels; to 0, where even the brake blocks are modelled, we were completely blown away.

Nick Coppin used the projector to show developments in his garage, where he has sold his previous ten foot diameter 0 gauge layout in order to extend his Great Eastern single shelf layout round the perimeter of the whole garage, carefully laser-levelling it all so that steam locos will run evenly.  He showed how he constructs his simple but effective support brackets using triangular plywood glued braces.

Dave Gotliffe has been making steady and meticulous progress with his N gauge model of Llangollen station.  His careful photography and architectural drawings have enabled him to produce a beautiful model of the station building.  The York Models tiles on the roof in varied patterns were striking, as were the chimneys, all four of them (of course!) different.  Dave has yet to build the canopy, which will be tricky as it is angled, not symmetrical, but he has ordered the layout baseboards from Grainge and Hodder, so he is running out of excuses!

Neal Cooper has been working on rolling stock loads for his South Wales Colliery 0 layout.  He has taken advantage of his son’s 3-D printer (lucky man) to model rolled steel loads for his open wagons, complete with moulded false wagon floor.  In addition he showed very realistic removable wagon loads of masonry rubble, iron ore - from painted limestone -, and, of course, coal.   He also produced a good-looking but unusual 3-D printed wagon from Skog.

Mike Davies brought the evening to an end with a return to the station buildings theme, showing his plywood and plasticard constructed model of Newbridge-on-Wye station for his Mid Wales Railway 00 layout.  His varied colouring of its Slater’s brickwork with the subtle use of artists’ crayons was particularly effective.  As if that were not enough, he concluded the meeting with a flourish, the goods shed from Rhayader, where the ashlar stonework was all made from individually cut and applied plasticard stones of different shapes and thickness.

 

After this remarkable evening’s display of modelling excellence, I don’t think I was the only one who had a similar response to that of (I think) Eric Clapton on first hearing Jimi Hendrix playing and being asked what he thought, “I am going home to practise!”

Peter Cox.