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These arrived today, and I am very pleased with them. They’re the latest test prints of my first set of modern image bikes for model railways. The larger bikes are O gauge (1:43rd), and look to be ready for market. You can order them from the Spinneyworld shop, with the first full scale print late this month or early next.
The smaller bikes are OO (1:76th). At that size, the handle bars and pedals were too fine to print (I had to fatten them up for the O gauge ones). The question is, would people buy them if they need to fashion their own handle bars? I could make them in etched brass, but that could be expensive, or make them from wire, a little labour intensive. But I’m selling to resourceful folk, maybe I can rely on them to do a bit of the work.
Modellers, what do you think?
I may be an eco-worrier, but I also have a love of interesting cars. Sadly, most motoring television is fixated with dull penis replacements which cost more than a house (I’m looking at you Top Gear). So it was nice to see a two part documentary on Bonneville Speed Week. The first episode has probably dropped off iPlayer by now, but Jalopy Journal has found it on YouTube and embedded it.
Any one of the cars which makes it out to the salt flats is more interesting than all the supercars being drooled over by Clarkson and co.. We need to see more of this sort of stuff on the telly, so I’ll give a nod to Fast ‘n Loud on Discovery- two men with awesome beards rescue old cars, customise them and try to turn a profit.
34 Ford, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.
I saw this driving around yesterday and was mightily impressed. When I spotted it parked up this afternoon I just had to grab a photo.
Photos from the show on Saturday. What you may notice is that, although it was a model railway show, there are not that many photos of trains in the gallery. I’m more interested in the scenery, architecture and vignettes which appear away from the railway lines than in the rolling stock itself. However, I did get to put a tiny video camera on a few of the larger gauge trains and run them through layouts. When I make the time, I shall edit the footage together.
I think this is a jet powered sledge, anyway. I can’t see what else it could be. It’s one of many stunning and/or weird hot rods and customs in this photo gallery of a Swedish custom car show.
via The Jalopy Journal
As a modeller I’ve long considered creating some art using kits, possibly some sort of surreal diorama or somesuch. What I hadn’t considered, until now, was flipping the work through 90 degrees and turning it into a “painting”. This is what Gerry Judah does with his post apocalypse cityscapes, and they’re very effective. I’ve had a load of ideas just from watching the 9 minute video below. Not plans to rip him off, but some thoughts on new ways to present ideas I’ve had for a while.
Gerry Judah: Paintings from Sam Marcuson on Vimeo.
via BLDBLOG
My “Oh wow!” moment of the morning was finding a seller on eBay offering remote control models of Donald Campbell’s last Bluebird boat. They’re available in 1:6th and 1:10th scale.
The South Manchester Model Boat Club get their boats out on Platt Fields boating lake on Sunday mornings. It would be mean to turn up with one of these and blast it around the island.
And so did the builder of this car it would seem. It’s very retro, though I think the metalflake paint has been augmented with the colour shift stuff found on TVRs (and Nissan Micras, for some reason).
I doubt it goes to many shows in Germany.
It makes me want to buy some old issues of Custom Car or Street Machine.
Most o0f the pictures I took at the indoor classic car show on Sunday are quite noisy because I didn’t use the flash or think to go to full manual and tinker with ISO, aperture etc.. However, there are a few of them in this Flickr set.
As a bit of off the wall promotion for Slashed I’ve decided to have a go at creating miniature figures of as many of the characters as possible. These will be based upon existing 28mm gaming figures adapted and painted to suit. So I’ve had an enjoyable few hours this week surfing gaming sites and ordering the first few figures. I’d just like to recommend Heresy Miniatures and Hasslefree Miniatures, both of whom turned around my orders quickly and got them to me within a couple of days. They also packed sweeties with the deliveries, and that sort of thing works for me every time.
Model Shipyard is a Polish company specialising in laser cut card and wood models, such as these 1:87th scale accessories for your model house’s garden. 1:87th is HO, a model railway gauge favoured in Europe and the USA but less so over here and there are products available for it which put the more British OO (1:76th) to shame. I have plans to rectify this, if I can spend enough time learning 3D modelling and do a better press blitz for the products I’ve already created.
диорамы (if it displays correctly) is Russian for diorama. I am now going to spend the afternoon looking at Russian language modelling sites such as this one with a little help from Google translate.
More photos of the models on display at the show can be found in my Bolton IPMS set on Flickr.
Every so often I’ll get obsessed with a particular modelling subject and buy lots of kits, most of which may never get made (by me at least). A couple of years ago, whilst writing a “propellerpunk” sci-fi tale, I got loads of models of less well known planes- prototypes which never made it into production, Luft46 fantasies, that sort of thing. I’ve still got the flying wing, and that may yet get built, but most of the rest have gone the way of EBay.
My new obsession is 1:32nd scale model cars. They don’t take up too much space and they come in some interesting subjects. Arii do some cool Japanese retro vehicles, though I have to find them on EBay as it seems no-one in the UK stocks them. Airfix did an equally interesting range of British vehicles. But they’re mostly out of production now, and the rarer ones can get a bit pricey.
These resin slot car bodies by Pendle Slot Racing may be a source of interesting British classics to customise, if I ever work my way through the backlog I’ve already got. The bodies are £20-£40 each, it’s true, and I’d have to provide chassis and interior detail, but I could have fun creating a very British custom car meet with a few of them.
Or I could buy myself a Scalextric track, build them for their intended purpose and re-enact chases from The Sweeney and The Professionals with them.
Currently for sale on Ebay are several pieces by Roy Cross, one of the main creators of box art for old school Airfix. If anyone wants to get me a Christmas present they could, for example, buy me this piece for the SAR Boeing Vertol helicopter. It’s one of a batch being sold, along with several vintage models, here.
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