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Issue 250 2016 « Previous issue | Next issue »
Edited by Iain Rice
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Small Suppliers Forum
p.242
Brassmasters 4mm coupling rods for Heljan Class 14; Latest additions to Lanarkshire Models & Hobbies range including buffers, bufferstops and loco lamps; Cambridge Custom Transfers transfer sheets for Bachmann 4mm scale 14T anchor-mounted tank wagons.
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Cade's Green
p.243
4mm/P4
Iain Rice offers the penitent confessions of a finescale heretic...
East Anglian branch line terminus loosely based on Thaxted.
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Architectural Snippets
p.255
Simon de Souza is well-known in the hobby as a dedicated scratch-builder and producer of many fine models including locos, rolling stock, and some truly exquisite structures. These last are particularly notable, not just for the quality of the results, but also for the accurate modelling of precise and authentic architectural detail (which, given that his father was both an architect and a very fine model-maker, should perhaps come as no surprise!). I am constantly amazed at the littler miracles that appear casually from his workbench, so I've twisted his arm to describe some specific modelling techniques as applied to particular architectural features as a series of short 'snippets'. Here are a couple to be going on with...
Scratchbuilding an octagonal Victorian chimney pot, and fabricating window frames and other items in wire.
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Ole Bill and the Bulldog
p.257
4mm
A hundred years ago this summer, the Battle of the Somme was being fought over a wide tract of the gently-rolling Flemish countryside, posing the respective armies logistical problems on a scale previously unimagined. As well as the development of the well-known 60cm-gauge light railway systems, there was a need for a swift, versatile and flexible means of getting supplies to locations not served by the railway. On the British side, this requirement was intended to be met with road transport, which led to the development of petrol-engined vehicles, most notably the ubiquitous 'war subsidy' general service lorry. It was these ex-military lorries that, in years following the war's end, came to form the basis of the road haulage industry back in Britain. No layout representing the British scene of the twenties and thirties is complete without a goodly number of these sturdy work-horses, variously adapted to their civilian roles. Yet how rarely do you see such vehicles in model form? As is often the case, this is where we railway modellers can borrow from our military modelling brethren, who have available to them a selection of kits and components for WW1 equipment. One man with a foot firmly in both the railway and military modelling camps is Alex Duckworth; we asked him for some prototype background together with a few samples of what is out there in terms of 4mm scale WW1-vintage vehicle kits suitable for 'civilianising'.
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Lakebank
p.261
3mm/3mm FS
Nick Salzman tells the story of a 3mm finescale club layout with a chequered history and nostalgic origins in the world of pirates and explorers created by a children's author almost as popular in his day as J.K.Rowling is today...
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MRJ Portfolio
p.268
4mm
Great Western 'Concertina' coaches are not easy to capture in a really convincing manner, but Giles Harrison has succeeded brilliantly in this 4mm portrayal using special etches from Martin Needham together with the latest version of David Geen's castings for the recessed doors. Some of the panelling was sheeted over following a photograph of the actual vehicle. Most other components come from David Geen's range.
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The Amberley Limeworks - a signature model
p.269
SN31/2
In New Zealand (total population 4.6 million) railway modellers are a fairly rare breed - especially those who choose to model the 'native' 3ft 6in gauge prototype in SN3½ (3/16 in scale on 16.5mm gauge track). As can be imagined, there is not a lot in the way of commercial support for this scale/gauge combination: a handful of cast and etched kits of variable quality, some very good fittings and components, and not a whiff of anything RTR. As seems often to be the case in such 'adverse' circumstances, the result has been the evolution of a tradition of modelmaking of the very highest quality, of which Peter Ross's portrait of a small lineside industry is a fine example - the more so as everything else on the layout is fully up to the same stunning standard!
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North-Eastern scale lumber
p.272
Ian Rice discovers the current sole UK distributor of this American firm's products, as used by Peter Ross in h8is Amberley project - Hobby's Ltd of West Norwood, London.
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The Survivor
p.273
4mm/P4
Iain Rice unearths the EM gauge model of a GWR 14xx tank featured in MRJ's very first 'No. 1 Shop' in issue No.1 back in 1985, and re-wheels and upgrades it to P4 standards
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P4 Pre-history
p.274
4mm/P4
Photograph of "Bembridge" Isle of Wight P4 layout c.1973, and Alan Goodwillie's "Dubbieside" - the oldest surviving P4 layout in continuous service?
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John Webb 1942-2015
p.275
4mm
A selection of photos of some of John's work including a Kirtley 800 class 2-4-0, 6-wheeled post office sorting van and tender, Kirtley 0-6-0, and Johnson MR 4-4-0.
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Stirling's fair work-maid
p.276
4mm/P4
Photo of Nigel Hunt's GNR Stirling 0-6-0 No.555 built for his P4 layout 'Swaveney'.
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Kitehouses
p.277
4mm/P4
A North Eastern fiction in P4 built by David Hawkins and Tony Sullivan.
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Real Atmosphere
p.281
Two photos of Thaxted - inspiration for Iain Rice's Cade's Green.