Separating Myth from Fact

Since returning from Italy, the butterfly driving the decision making part of my brain has dictated that I add the railways of that country to my list of model making interests. The Yorkshire component in charge of the wallet opening mechanism had grave worries that it was going to get costly.

I'm not a naive newbie,  there's almost fifty years worth of making trains under my belt, I've taken a keen interest in the overseas scene for many years now, but I still held this preconception that continental HO meant deep pockets and opening boxes. I'm pleased to say that this is wrong, that budget options are available, along with kits and components which enable model making in the style to which I have become accustomed.

 

The photo above shows pretty much where I've got to with my Italian interests, and serves to illustrate that economy and craft can be brought to bear. From the right we have a Lima model of a FS D445 which cost fifty quid, forty for the loco and a tenner to post from Bologna. For that you get all wheel pick up and drive, five pole motor and a heavy cast frame. The body is finely moulded and well painted. It seems to me to be on a par with the sort of 00 gauge ready to run diesels we're used to seeing from Bachmann. The one area where  compromise is obvious is the lack of cab interior and the intrusion of the cast frame into this area. However for forty notes it's a steal.

In the centre is a part finished conversion of a Piko German brake van into an Italian baggage van. There's been much cutting and sticking gone into this model so far (detailed here), but it's been most satisfying to be able to deploy familiar model making techniques to an unfamiliar prototype. The donor van cost me three quid, it's one of those cheap and cheerful continental items which turns up at toyfairs and on e-bay at minimal cost.

Finally on the left is an Italeri kit for a goods van. The kit costs about a tenner, about on a  par with similar UK kits from Parkside once I'd added couplings (not included with the kit) and replaced the plastic wheel sets with metal. To build, it again stands comparison with Parkside kits hitting the sweet spot where the balance between ease of construction and the fine detail included is at the optimum.

I have spent considerable time on the interweb researching this new and exciting sphere. I was very pleased to find that many of our fellow Europeans practise the sorts of model making which we are familiar with in the UK. Here's my favourite.

Perhaps it's the efforts of some of our home grown practitioners which have led to the stereotype of pay through the nose and deploy the box contents continental modelling. 

Italy by Seventeen Trains

I realise that over the last couple of years this blog has evolved from 'what I've done' to 'what I like'. I've recently reviewed books, models and kits; now it's time for a holiday.

Mrs R and I have just returned home after a ten day trip to Italy by train, organised by Great Rail Journeys. Though they run some tours aimed it seems at the enthusiast market, the rail component for majority is just a pleasant means to an end. So it was for our holiday to Lake Garda. The link should tell you all about our itinerary, so what else can I usefully say? 

To start with, from the moment the first enquiry is made, the office staff are unfailingly helpful and knowledgeable. The process of booking was made easy and good guidance given in the literature sent out. We were impressed with the phone call from our tour manager the weekend before we left to check that all was well and give us the opportunity to ask any last minute questions. Check in, security and passport control at St Pancras was a breeze. The hotels were all spotless, but the family run Hotel Desanzano was a cut above the high standards of the others. Our tour manager Carolyn was fabulous, helpful, organised, reassuring, friendly and with a wonderful sense of humour. Italy is wonderful, the Italians friendly and very willing to help. English to a good standard seems to be pretty widely spoken in Northern Italy. The guided tours were pitched just right, not being dumbed down nor too highbrow. There are two long days on the train, Paris to Desenzano, and Desenzano to Strasbourg. Italy, even the north is a long way away, the miles have to be put in at some stage. The journey can be eased by taking good pack ups and plenty to read, for those sections where the stunning alpine scenery doesn't take the eye. Enough words, have a look at what awaits.

I suppose that having extolled the virtues of the holiday I should mention the cost. It is the most expensive holiday that we've taken. Last year we holidayed in a simple but pleasant cottage in Cornwall for a week, again travelling by train. This years trip to Lake Garda cost about double the Cornwall jaunt, but was for three days longer, included excursions and most meals with a higher standard of accommodation. As such I'm minded to think that it represents better value for money. It's certainly the best holiday I've had.

 

Journey through the past

As modellers we're, by and large, very good at sorting out the historical accuracy of the railway side of the fence. We can generally get locos, stock and structures to match, and include those out of time subtleties of earlier liveries and out of period pieces still clinging on. Our sensibilities are so finely tuned that we easily spot and ridicule the appearance of the BR mk1 in films and TV dramas set before world war two. 

Take a step away from the railway's property and  we do less well. I realise that for some it really won't matter, won't impinge on happiness or satisfaction but it bugs the life out of me to see the effort, skill and determination to create a realistic railway sabotaged by the out of period and out of character wider setting.

I've an idea that two factors are at play; the first is our natural focus on the railway component of the model, the second being that railways were standardised and prescriptive in a way that the rest of the world was not. It's easy to apply the specified shades of paint to a station shelter or signal box and get it right, harder to do so for the cottage, shop and factory. Many is the model supposedly set in the fifties that uses today's palette, hardware and proportions. With a lack of 'rules' specifying pattern and colour what is the modeller to do?

The answer is to buy one of these, or something similar.

 

Country Life published a whole series of these in the fifties, they cover the whole of Britain though the rural predominates. Most are black and white rather than colour, but even so they give a valuable reference to regional architecture, landscape and farming practises.

They're beautifully escapist in their own right; hunt one down and drift off to a quieter time and place.

Out of Africa

The chance to review some of the model-making products featured on the Idealo website has given me the opportunity to look closely at items I may have thought interesting but otherwise passed by in search of something more closely connected with my main interests. The Italeri 'African House' is one such product.

 

Looking at the box it's clearly intended for the wargames market and by extension military modellers seeking a suitable diorama for figures and vehicles. To my eyes it looks distinctly North African and could probably serve as a non specific Mediterranean structure of some age. If built to the instructions it has a good sized 220mm x 180mm footprint,  but viewed as raw material there are 1280mm worth of nicely moulded rough-rendered stone walls as well as a cobbled courtyard surface, two sets of stairs, a dome and some paving.

Stay tuned to see what becomes of this.

Recipe for success?

Well what to do with the review sample FA2 which arrived on my workbench thanks to the benevolence of Idealo?

Memories of previous web discussion of railcars and a quick internet trawl came up with this beauty as inspiration. It's a Sentinel Camell steam railcar belonging to the railway system of Sri Lanka. It will therefore not look out of place with my collection of colonial narrow gauge models from the Indian sub-continent. Added to the Mehano FA2 chassis will be a pair of Ratio Midland Railway carriage sides and apair of ends from the Bachmann San Francisco cable car.

Will these unlikely bedfellows prove to be a recipe for success, or a congealed mess?

The postman always rings twice

A double delivery of interesting packages arrived yesterday. I've mentioned previously that I have been invited by the price comparison site Idealo to review some of the model railway products it features in order to raise the profile of the site and service it offers.Though I don't get paid to review I do get to select and keep the samples. It was not having to hand back the items that guided my choice this time of the Italeri African House (more of this later) and a Mehano n gauge Alco FA2. First to arrive was postie with the Italeri kit followed a couple of hours later by the DHL courier. As both parcels were earlier than the estimated date I was already impressed.

Up for inspection first is the Mehano FA2, it comes simply but securely packaged in the sort of clear plastic box of the style that many Atlas, IHC and Rivarossi locos did in the seventies and eighties. I rather like that it's not a fantastically detailed delicate model with hundreds of fiddly bits to add on, and that it doesn't require a BSc in advanced packaging to get the thing out of the box in one piece. I've yet to be convinced that separate detail is what counts in n gauge, body shape and outline counts for more. Unfortunately this is where my skills as a reviewer run out as I'm not an expert on the prototype, all I can say is that it has the look of an Alco.

However it's not as an n gauge loco that I selected the model but as a running gear donor for a 009 narrow gauge project. I'm happy to say that despite its budget price the running quality is top drawer. Though it's not quite as whisper quiet as the Kato mechanisms that have been through my hands it's certainly not noisy. The slow running is excellent and the pick up from standstill gentle. I suspect that some of these qualities are down to the weight of the model, having body filling cast metal weights that screw to the plastic chassis spine. Though it seems possible to run without the weights, enabling a potentially greater choice of bodies to clothe the mechanism with, I shall be keeping it in heavyweight form.

Review

 

There's much of interest in old model railway magazines, even if like this example they are over fifty years old. Cyril L Fry, whose layout features on the cover and as the 'railway of the month' had incorporated smoke and sound effects into his engines, Sir Eric Hutchinson presented six drawings of pre-group wagons and Cyril Freezer has a layout design which wouldn't look too shabby alongside current best practice. 

However best of all are the reviews, which is where the gulf between now and then really shows. The new Triang diesel shunter and standard class 3 tank loco both come in for much praise which is then leavened by the sentences 'Our only criticism is that they do diverge dimensionally from their prototypes. Apart from this we have nothing but praise.'

Priceless.