Manning Waller Time

Now that Boston Lodge has finished building the replica L&B Manning Wardle tank 'Lyd' it's been judged safe to begin work on our 4mm version.

This is in accordance with Bron Hebog Golden Rule Number 1 - never assume Boston Lodge builds things according to the plans until you've seen it with your own eyes.

Lyd has been the star attraction on the FR / WHR for a couple of months now and has also appeared on L&B territory at Woody Bay.

So the seal has been broken on the Backwoods Miniatures kit and Himself has made the first folds.



I'm going to be especially interested to see how this build progresses.

Another well known 009 modeller has written extensively of his concerns about the difficulty of assembling Backwoods Miniatures mechanisms and of their long term reliability. Indeed he has gone so far as too rebuild all his Manning Wardle tanks using the Grafar 08 shunter chassis.

We have to state that this is in complete contrast to our experiences with Pete's kits which continue to perform like Swiss watches after many years on the exhibition circuit on our layouts.

Perhaps it just depends on how well they're put together? They are indeed intricate, but are also superbly designed and seem to us to payback all the time, effort and patience put into their assembly.