Review Of The Year - Part 3

July

And so to the second half of 2018 where there was much excitement at the arrival of our first ready-to-run model, the Bachmann 590 Baldwin.

I've never made any secret of my enthusiasm for the mainstream manufacturers discovering 009.

The intensity of the debate online around this has been second only to Brexit, but unlike the latter subject I can see only positives in this development for our scale.

I'm hugely excited about the next project in the pipeline, the small quarry Hunslets (especially the cab-less versions) and for what this innovative firm might decide to do next.

In this month I began work on a project which had been on the back burner for a while, to make models of the hybrid BZ wagons made at Boston Lodge for infrastructure trains on the FR.

I decided to make masters and cast them in resin, even though only two have been produced so far and they are far from identical.

July was also the month where, quite by chance, I discovered that the last two Backwoods NGG16 kits produced were available to buy.

We had to dig deep to avert the possibility of them being offered for sale in an online auction, but we'd been looking for a number of years for the opportunity to complete our Garratt fleet and it was too good an opportunity to miss.

August

The first of the BZ wagons had been cast and was being put together.

The fold-flat end doors are a right pain because I had to scratch build the triangular support brackets in styrene, which was a very fiddly job.

Himself had been putting together a Chivers kit of a tiny Hunslet diesel to replace our model of Harold, the Boston Lodge shunter, which had been stolen when we were exhibiting Dduallt in Leeds a number of years ago.

And to have a bit of fun for when we took Bron Hebog to show at the Welsh Highland 'Super Power' weekend I decided to add a very contemporary scenic feature - a reminder of the day when a driver tried his luck racing a Garratt to Bron Hebog crossing - and the Garratt won!

September

Himself had taken an executive decision to invest in panoramic photographic backscenes for the show at Dinas.

The result was very effective indeed!

We had a fabulous time - as we always do - showing Bron Hebog in the goods shed, this time in its finished state.

The Lynton and Barnstaple Baldwin Lyn was the star attraction on the railway and Himself pulled out the stops to get the Backwoods kit we had been given running.

Once again we couldn't resist being cheeky and double-heading it with Lyd knowing that the real locomotives were not being allowed anywhere near each other that weekend.

Back home the production line of superbarns continued with a start being made on assembling number 120.

The Car's The Star

There's a lot that's been done to the layout since the last time we showed it at Dinas, three years ago, and a lot of new stock to run on it too.

I expect, however, that one of the star attractions when we're at Welsh Highland Superpower next weekend - at least among those in the know - will be looking for the crashed car at Bron Hebog crossing.

One of the perils of making a layout of a real place, and a reasonably contemporary one as well, is that there is never a shortage of people to tell you whether or not you've done it right, and even more so when you go and show it a few miles down the road from the actual place.

I'm expecting that the Oberon Woods estate scene will be getting a through going over because each time we've taken the layout to Dinas we've had people coming up who live there and asking us if we're going to be making a model of their house?

Well, now we have.

The big question is, will it pass muster?

One Careful Owner

I've had a go at distressing the model of the Ford Puma to try to make it look like it's had an argument with a Garratt.

Does that look convincing?

The technique I used in the end was a heat one of my spoon-shaped scribing tools over a gas burner on the stove and press it into the panels which look the hits.

The area was weathered using a dry brush to try and pick out the shape more and then the previously shiny plastic was given a coat of matt varnish.

I'll take it over to Himself's place later today and see what it looks like abandoned by the lineside.