Martin S-C

Yes, the most incredible flare-ups can result from the most well-meaning of (what you think are) helpful comments. People are oddly sensitive about things, or completely miss what is meant to be supportive advice. One modeller on Facebook I know (knew, he's since blocked me) just could not take criticism of any kind, even directed at the biggest howlers he made of his weathering projects. After a keyboard bashing too many I sometimes wonder if its worth even trying to guide anyone with their modelling.

In truth I agree with you. It does jar badly on my eye and sensibilities too. I was trying to be polite about it though! I have had a few recent problems with calling a spade a spade (not here but elsewhere on t'internet so I nowadays steer a more moderate course if I can). There is a very well known and much adored interwar layout in this community that is rightly held up as a superb example of modelling but the shop fronts shout out to me "1960s" instead of "1930s" due to the colours and fonts used which is such a great shame since the overall modelling is something I aspire to in every way. At the risk of beginning to sound like a real old moaner the one other issue I had with Norwich Central was an over abundance of specialist freight stock. I do dislike it when so many weird and wonderful wheeled "things" get used instead of a much more reasonable sea of sheeted opens and a few vans. There's just so many wonderful shapes, sizes and liveries of open merchandise wagon, using a lot of them does not have to mean a goods yard looks boring.

It seems crass in the extreme to be negatively critical of such a fine model, but sometimes the saying that the devil is in the details is applicable.

I did swing past 3 or 4 times on the Saturday and took pics each time. Always something interesting going on, even if it was "shunting wars"! Some of the fonts used for the lettering on the pub, shop and some horse drawn wagons are a bit dubiously modern looking, but that is a minor point. I only noticed them once I had the chance to relax in front of my PC screen and study things in detail and at leisure. I didn't get to see every layout I'd marked on my floor plan but this was the nicest layout there for me. There was a freelance 7mm light railway set around the Kettering area as well which I like but that was not new to me, being an old favourite. Great Barford, I think?

Plus a very reasonable £15 postage. Most curious. You could buy 10, yes TEN very good 00 gauge locos for £1800. Or have FOUR brass kits professionally built, painted and lined for you. As they say, life is strange.

Yeah, its a kind of scamming/mass marketing ploy. I loathe it, it just wastes time for the customer but the seller will benefit from more people seeing their not-Hattons, not-Bachmann and not-Hornby models. The annoying thing is, it works. Someone will see it on their Bachmann list and bid. eBay will never police such methods because it increases trade, and obviously their cut. My tactic when I see a seller doing this is I whack them onto my blacklist, wave bye-bye and go elsewhere. For me they cease to exist and I happily know I've saved myself wasted time in the future.

Having no joy, the seller relisted it at £40 starting bid. Give it a few weeks of this and it'll be a tenner.

I've had two really bad experiences, one from Rails and one from Hattons when buying used locos described in glowing terms with words like "mint", "as new" and so on in the listing only to find really basic items like buffers, handrails, glazing and couplings missing and the two bodyshells being either dusty in one case and stinking of tobacco in the other that I simply don't buy anything but new RTR stuff from the box shifters any more. One gets the impression that the staff who describe and put up the used items on their websites are not familiar with the models they're selling or just don't care. I'm also sat here wondering exactly what is an "unboxed condition". Being out of its box is not a "condition".

What sold it for me was the German HO coaches behind what looks like a green Princess class, and the use of that well known goods yard shunting engine a Battle of Britain class. These little details add so much and allow the prospective customer to reach an informed decision.

I can only take so much EWS red.

I've been looking through the plastic soldiers section for suitable railway passengers, workmen etc and came across this. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WW2-CIVILIANS-New-1-72-Soldiers-Hegemony-Miniatures-25mm-Figures-Set-Gift-Eco/174020370921?hash=item28846c21e9:g:UXAAAOSw6~pcE3Tb

Yep, nice and unobtrusive that no-one but the operator will notice. I suggested a bird on the fence post because I saw that one of the posts was in line with the magnet. A painted set would be expensive. Surely you could paint a blackbird?

A bird on the fencepost would work as well.

Wonky is fine, the real thing often was, with the passage of years. I think sometimes us modellers try to get things "too" correct. I have seen a number of photos where telephone poles lean at noticeable angles due to the shifting of the ground, often on or at the base of embankments. As long as things lean downslope, some wonkyness is good.

Norwich Central in 7mm O gauge, by Peter Thomson and David Smith, set around 1910-1914 and seen at Warley last weekend.

My dad used to call the soft roofs that folded down on sports cars a "tilt". I suspect from the same source. Without even questioning it I always think of the canvas roofs of horse drawn wagons as tilts. He was a Yorkshireman so the Danish influence might be understandable. It is also hardly surprising that the English language has so many words in common with NW Europe; since that's basically where a lot of us originally came from!

Regrettably, in my view, it had a bad case of "unusual-wagon-itis" with nowhere nearly enough vanilla vehicles. It was nicely done though, plus DCC sound.

The character introduces himself as "Stent" which was the fictional name Wells gave the Astronomer Royal in the book and it was to him that the famous line "the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one" was attributed. The politics aside I was struck by the use of the powerful British Empire as a device to emphasize the humbling of human efforts under the Martians. I was a little disappointed with the CGI effects regarding the first deployment of the heat ray which struck me as an unnecessary change and the fighting machines looked too much like those that terrorised Tom Cruise; slow, lumbering and very un-steam punky, which I think they ought to be. I supposed for this Wellsophile to be happy I'll have to make my own film or TV series...

But they do, all the time, as a quick walk around any decent model railway exhibition will demonstrate. For me though, modelling railways is an escape. It is a vehicle that transports me from this existence to another, much more to my liking. A psychologist might determine I am mentally weak to take this course. If that is so, I couldn't care less what drives my hobby. It just so happens that my focus is on a place far from where I live, set in a time long ago and wearing a very fictional hat and coat. If my interests were, however, to model the current railways I feel confident in saying that I would not model graffiti and the detritus and grime of our modern world because that would not be any escape at all. It would be a grim reflection of the existence I am struggling to escape. Its also possibly why modern railways (and to me this covers any period once I was old enough to become discerning about the technical details of such things - in my case the start of the BR blue era) that I am simply not interested at all in replicating such a scene in miniature.

I had that thought as well. @BlueLightning - did you see this? I know you're a fan of Met tanks.

It is a long way down the page - 18th Nov. The group is quite busy ATM so a lot of stuff has appeared after it. Also try searching "Great Northern" or "Wood Green".

Is this any good? I am not sure if this will open the post correctly or whether you'll have to scroll down the page quite a way. I also don't know if you'll need a Facebook account! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1614960195255335/?multi_permalinks=2559159624168716%2C2558277820923563%2C2558268444257834%2C2558262510925094%2C2558258430925502&notif_id=1574355254113731&notif_t=group_activity Its in a post by "Ronald Macdonald" on 18 November 2019 - Great Northern locos at Wood Green in 1898. Silent B/W. In the following conversation Jamie Steve Pickering added a new link which should work.

This might appeal to a few here. Mersey Railway 2-6-2 condensing tank No.13 “Brunlees”.

Gah. Sorry about that.

A very useful review of the figures that are included with some of the Lledo Days Gone vehicles. http://plasticsoldierreview.com/ShowFeature.aspx?id=56