Ok, post Telford and after many debriefings it was finally time to peruse those items which we should not buy, but do, immediately regret but deep down are glad we did
First off a quick whizz by the Heljan stand, Phil and Heljan were haggling over a box of bits and pieces, rather cheekily (the deal was not yet done) and with pikey swiftness I whipped out two shells and asked how much
To be fair I thought one of them was a 47 and the other was certainly a Warship. Phil being polite agreed and struck a deal for the rest, to be fair the white knuckle death like grip and 100 m sprinters stance I'd taken probably had something to do with it, none the less, thank you Phil for your politeness
Goodies in hand it was back to the Finney7 stand for the first stint.
A while later I crossed paths with the Blue Brigade and showed them the wares, of course they're only bodies I said and then one of them, I think it was Ross, I'll blame him anyway
informed me that you could get the rest of the bits as spares, done deal.
So Monday a quick phone call to a man in a warehouse and a large list of bits was procured, to be fair I only wanted the lower valance for the Warship, but he said it came with this and that and the seed was sown, "what else do you do" I asked, "oh virtually everything sir", to whit I bought virtually everything
I was warned it would be expensive and sat on tenterhooks awaiting the final bill, now to be fair, to many it is a lot of money, but when you consider what you're getting and the time saved on scratch building, it's the bargain of the century.
Today the Postman delivered 'virtually everything'.
And so you see, one Falcon body and a virtually complete set of sprues, though I seem to be missing some bits for the control desk so will have to look on line and see if I can see whats missing or if it can be fabricated locally. We also have a Swindon built Warship with sundry sprues to detail. I have plans for the Warship, one or at least two cab doors will go for etched open ones and the cab floor and rear bulkhead need some work to take the motor cover off, but other than that I think pretty much all of it is there. An etch for roof grills, steps and walkways is forthcoming in the future.
I also seem to have acquired two falcon buffer beams and hoses sprues so if anyone is short or needs some bits, just shout and I'll send it over for the price of a beer or two.
I can't but help think that Heljan are missing a trick here, I like to make things and although these will end up virtually no different than a RTR model I will have had the pleasure of assembling it. I also have to make the drive trains and supply motors and wheels, but this way gives me a choice of how I want to do that.
Much later in the day I again came across the Blue brigade, debating some tin thing with openings in the side, it was painted a funny shade of blue and grey, I think it was called a 'coach' or something
funny sort of thing really, apparently you join several of them together and they make what's called a train that you can run on a 'train set'....how quaint!
Being used to 'Static 7' I find this concept of moving trains rather disturbing and un-nerving, just not good cricket old boy.
None the less on the table also was a DB TRAXX, "you're not going to buy that!" they exclaimed, I did hold off for a few minutes, primarily because it's labeled as Railion and I wanted DB biscuit, but in the end I walked away with a big box under my arm.
Apparently it's sound equipped DC, DCC and DCCS compatible what ever that lot means, the man said you need a converter for this and that to work on the MTH system, I figured a screw driver, sharp knife and soldering iron would suffice, maybe a bent rusty nail as a backup. Mind, you also need one of these so called 'train sets' and I don't have one of them either so this and that are rather a waste of time at the moment
To be fair I've always wanted a TRAXX model and 50% of the purchase was as a starting point to measure up for a scratch build project, I'm going to assume MTH have the basic dimensions right so working from this should give me enough information to work up some art work for one of the later variants that work into Danmark.
The purchase did give me a chance to open up last years impulse buy.
Like the TRAXX, not a perfect representation of what I wanted, as I'd like it in the 221 xxx.x series, not V200.1xx, so now I have two engines to try and remove decals from and re number / letter.
About as far apart chronologically you can get in modern German railway terms, and I need a bigger white backdrop LOL.
Enjoy.
MD
but it's nice to finally see some bench underneath and make space for future projects.
, with a few weeks spare until the next etches come back it's time for some catching up elsewhere (and a little NGG16 here and there
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