Wolverhampton Mrc Exhibition

Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
....is this coming weekend, 5th/6th November.

I shall be demonstrating 7mm kit building, so if you are going, come and say hi!

There is a good 7mm layout, Hollowbeck Shed, owned by the irrepressible Dave Wellington (Heyside Northern Division), and a full list of layouts is at:

http://www.wolverhamptonmrc.co.uk/exhibit/ours.htm

I'm looking forward to the weekend.

Richard
 
iploffy

iploffy

OC Blue Brigade
I will not know if I am attending this year until I find out what time I finish at work hopefully I will see you on Saturday as well

Ian
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
I had a thoroughly good time at the show. I'd been promoted (or is that relegated) to the main hall, so it was non-stop talking and not much modelling.

One bloke came up to me - I remembered him from last year as I had given him a hands-on soldering lesson - and told me that he had managed to complete his first ever brass loco thanks to my lesson; it had given him the confidence to have a go, and he was chuffed to bits. It made my weekend.

On the Sunday, I took my warship along so that the guys from Shawplan and the 'extreme etchings' team could pull it apart. I was not entirely convinced I had got it right as I found it very difficult to get decent roof pictures of a NB warship in particular. To my delight, once we'd got past the 'nothing a lump hammer can't cure' ribbing, I only have a very small list of items to correct. So next year, it's into the paintshops.

They also went through all the errors on the Heljan Deltic. Hmmm. I think I shall wait for their replacement etchings to come out and really have a go at it. Means a full repaint though, which sort of seems to defeat the object of RTR?

Richard
 
Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
Dikitriki said:
On the Sunday, I took my warship along so that the guys from Shawplan and the 'extreme etchings' team could pull it apart. I was not entirely convinced I had got it right as I found it very difficult to get decent roof pictures of a NB warship in particular. To my delight, once we'd got past the 'nothing a lump hammer can't cure' ribbing, I only have a very small list of items to correct. So next year, it's into the paintshops.

Richard
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just me, but I can never find the 7mm stuff on their website :confused:
 
Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Jordan said:
"All the errors"...? Just how many are there, then, apart from the nose side grille height, the cab step and possibly the nose profile...? :confused: :eek: :rolleyes:
You're right - it does sort of defeat the object of R-T-R... possibly a reason why the likes of Tower are bleating about a lack of pre-orders for the 31... Heljan are not making a good name for themselves - I suspect that many people now want to see the model first, before committing to buying....:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

but why do they ignore the comments? enough were made at the pre-production stage about the nose side grills and every model they have produced, the fuel tanks/battery boxes are too wide - is it a Danish thing?

cheers

Mike
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Dikitriki said:
They also went through all the errors on the Heljan Deltic. Hmmm. I think I shall wait for their replacement etchings to come out and really have a go at it. Means a full repaint though, which sort of seems to defeat the object of RTR?
Click to expand...

Now that piece of news means I might actually buy a Heljan Deltic...

To be honest the other models I've seen of them in 7mm don't look any better to my eyes. The Heljan got a 'nearly' on my highly subjective scale. :D

Steph
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Jordan said:
There's a sneaking suspicion arising that I've read about that there isn't a pre-production stage as such... the "test shot" is from the final mold tool, so if when there are errors, it's too late/expensive to do anything about them ... :headbang::rant:
Click to expand...

Quite true. What's to be considered here is that a production quantity for us is often no larger than 'Low Rate Initial Production' (LRIP) for some major industries. Nowadays with digital prototyping and the cost of die making, there is only one go at making a mould as it's so damned expensive. I had been led to believe that Heljan actually use a high-grade aluminium for their dies, rather than going to the expense of steel. This is fine for small runs where mould wear won't be a problem. However, doing corrections is hard; I seem to remember that 'plating in' an alumium mould is at best tricky, I just wish I could remember why (metalurgy and/or electrolysis would seem most likely).

The test shots shown of the Deltic were just that - test shots to see whether the mould worked, not whether the product was any good as that had already been finalised. It's interesting to note that the greatest howler on the model (nose grille) was obvious on the test artwork and 3d CAD drafting in retrospect, but nobody said anything to Heljan until after seeing the test shot. I have to confess I didn't notice it at all until I realised that the horizontal line on the green version wasn't quite where it should be...

I also have to say that I don't think moving the grille is the trickiest job on the planet, but it would mean a respray.

Steph
 
Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
I don't think Heljan have made any major mistakes in any of the classes they have produced so far, I have 2 Heljan Hymeks & a class 47 which look better & run better than most of the kit built examples I have seen & the 20,26,27 & 33 look pretty good to me too. While I do appreciate the Deltic has the grill in slightly the wrong place this will be able to be corrected with after-market grills & you will end up with a very nice sweet running Deltic for a lot less money than a comparable kit (if available)
I would like Hornby,Bachmann, Dapol or any other manufacturer to produce RTR O gauge too, but there is not much chance of that anytime soon, so I applaud Heljan for being brave enough to produce RTR British outline models :)
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Jordan said:
Yep... one wouldn't have made such a dent in my Class 31 fund, but three have... :oops: :confused: :D (one as posted White/Red, one in CP Rail, and a GP39-2 in Soo Candy Apple Red... then there'll be the DCC chips to get for them....)
Click to expand...

Hmm, I hope you know what you've let yourself in for with the CP Rail one! Multimark I assume? What decoders; ESU LokPilot is very good...

I think I've got some info here on doing the CPR GP38-2, would you like me to see what I can dig out? That's if you're up for doing the conversion, of course :thumbs:? I've got a couple of the P2K ones here for dressing up with the relevant parts to Canadianise (CN rather than CP though).

Steph

It would appear that once again a thread has been desperately subverted by the Dark Side - sorry all...!
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Back on the Heljan Deltic temporarily. The grill is the easiest of the errors to deal with. The bodyshape errors require very careful work over large areas to correct:

Tumblehome is not pronounced enough, particularly between the cabs.
The bodyside is supposed to taper in, but from the rear of the cab, not the front.
Heljan sort of worked out something was wrong and fudged it, with the result that the top of the nose is noticeably wider than the bottom - they should be the same width.

I'm kicking round how to deal with these, but it is possible as the plastic is thick enough to do so, though you will go through the recesses on the inside of the body to allow for tighter than scale curves.

The kind folk of Shawplan gave me 3 discs of detail photos - all their research into the Deltic and Warship, so I've got more than enough photos to be going on with. Just need a 36 hour day.

Richard
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Richard,

I didn't pick up those shape problems, but then again I haven't spent much time looking at one of the models 'in the flesh', so to speak. It's a damned shame if they didn't get it right in those areas, all of which are pretty distinctive.

I still may be tempted to go for it, with recent plasticard construction I've got pretty handy at scraping and sanding...

Steph
 
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