The end of summer...

Although feeling the heat from the sun today, I'm not sure of the accuracy of saying such things... It's been a great summer the doing things with the family, from messing about with motorbikes, and generally all those other things which mean there is a temporary lull in the pace of modelling. I still done one or two things over the period since I last posted, and more of that in future days.

However two things in the last two weekends have inspired me to dust off the modelling bench and make a serious start on one or two unfinished models.

The first was Scaleforum where I was on a demonstration desk talking about how to model wagons in the pre-grouping period. I had some great conversations with visitors over the weekend, not only about period modelling but also about things as diverse as what types of couplings to use, what is the best type of suspension, and how best to do weathering (including a swift hands on demonstration of the use of washes on the sides of wagons to simulate that lovely Edwardian grime).

Of course, one of the best ways to learn weathering techniques is to attend Tim Shackleton's weathering course at Missenden Abbey. It was the Missenden autumn weekend last weekend, and as usual I participated in the 4 mm loco modelling group. It was a great bunch of people to spend the weekend with and was led in great humour by Tony Gee.



If you've never been to Missenden before, here's a few snapshots of what I was working on and how it was done.

This was the set up in the loco building room. The light available, both artificial and natural, in the room was superb and I very much hope we'll be returning there on future courses.

As usual, I had my portable workbench with me. It's been a great addition to my toolkit, enabling me to take it to demonstrate at Scaleforum and then on to Missenden. I also had a few comments over both weekends from people offering to beg, buy, borrow or steal my beloved toolchest from me. Alas, I'm not letting go of it, and you can go and find your own for twenty quid in a junk shop.



I'd taken along to separate loco kits, both of which I'd started at previous Missendens. Both of them are also in the final stages of completion with the chassis fundamentally builds and the bodies to different stages of finishing. On the left is a London Road Models LNWR Samson kit, which really only needs motor rising before it is finished. On the right is the kit I chose to take further this weekend, which is a Connoisseur Models GER Buckjumper.

I'd taken it to the point where I had a rolling chassis with a motor installed, and apart completed body that needed detailing. It was this I chose to work on for the weekend.






I'll come back to what I did over the weekend in my next post.

Cheers,
Flymo