Mostly, when modellers depict abandoned buildings they’re that way because of battle damage. However, there are corners of every town with buildings that have just been vacated, fair subjects for the railway layouts and non-military dioramas. So these pictures of a Russian ghost town, abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union, might be useful reference material for the effects of 20 years abandonment.
via BoingBoing
Technorati tag: Photo Reference, Scale Models
Airfix has gone into administration. They’re blaming the closure on the collapse of Heller earlier this year and the French company’s refusal to hand over certain moulds.
It’s a damn shame. The company was going through something of a revival and had released, or planned to release, quite a few kits I was eager (if too poor) to buy. I did get their TSR-2, but I also wanted the classic cars collection and various of the smaller military models. Wonder what this is going to do to the price of their kits lying around in model shops?
As yet the official Airfix site has nothing to say on the subject.
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Airfix
Hitler’s only aircraft carrier was the Graf Zeppelin. Despite being launched in 1938 it never saw service. The Red Army captured and recovered the ship after it was scuttled in the Polish port of Szczecin in April 1945. Contrary to agreements to sink or destroy Nazi vessels, the Russians used it to transport looted equipment, and later as target practice for their dive bombers. After this battering the ship disappeared and its exact location was never known until recently, when an oil exploration survey found the ship on the bed of the Baltic Sea near the Bay of Gdansk.
Graf Zeppelin in wikipedia.
A model of the Graf Zeppelin.
Technorati tag: Graf Zeppelin, Aircraft Carrier, Nazis, Soviet Union, Scale Models
An interesting subject for a conversion- Iraq’s army is being reconstituted with Soviet era T-55s and T-72s (NYT article, you may need to visit BugMeNot.com to get a password.)
via BoingBoing
Technorati tag: Iraq, Scale Models
Internet Modeller has an interesting article entitled Stereolithography & the Future of Aftermarket about the use of 3d printing for prototyping and even production of aftermarket components. I’ve been pondering this for a while. When I get more experienced at 3d modelling I’d like to use it to produce a bunch of figure masters for model railway characters. I’ve even got a list somewhere of suitable subjects. Now all I need is to sit down adn master Blender or Hexagon, the two 3d packages I own.
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Prototyping, 3d
Cross posted from Steam Geek.
I finally got round to visiting the Transport Museum yesterday, and took lots of pictures.
Technorati tag: Scale Models
I built this Ford F150 with a machine gun in the pickup bed as a joke. I was contemplating a Mad Max style future set of models, a black humour apocalypse.
It seems that real life is a step or two ahead of me, as these pictures of gun trucks in Iraq show. It’s not so funny any more, but still tempting as a subject.
via BoingBoing
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Gun Truck, Iraq
A great way to lose a couple of hours on a rainy Sunday evening. The SoCal Car Culture Model Car Resources has a load of links to, mostly American, garage kit manufacturers. I’m dreaming of having enough time, money and space to make a few of the things I found. There are occasional dead links, but not so many.
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Model car
This tutorial includes its own pdf file of textures to cut out mount on card whilst building your own factory.
via Go Model Trains
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Building
Got to love Wikipedia. The only reason I don’t visit it more often is a fear that I’d lose whole days to finding stuff out. Here’s the Scale Model page, with a little history, such as the origin of popular scales.
For aircraft recognition in the Second World War, the RAF selected making models to the scale of “one-sixth inch to the foot” (which was two British lines, a legal division of length which didn’t make it to America, besides being a standard shipyard scale). Although some consumer models were sold pre-war in Britain to this scale, the airmens’ models were pressed out of ground-up old rubber tires. This is of course the still-popular “one-seventy-second size”.
It wasn’t predestined to succeed; there were competitors. The US Navy, in contrast, had metal models made to the proportion 1:432, which is “nine-feet-to-the-quarter-inch”. At this scale, a model six feet away looked as the prototype would at about half a statute mile; and at seven feet, at about half a nautical mile.
After the war, firms that moulded models from polystyrene entered the consumer marketplace, the American firm Revell notably offering a model of the Royal Coach around the time of the 1953 coronation. In the early years, firms offered models of aircraft and ships in “fit-the-box” size. A box that would make an impressive gift was specified, and a mould was crafted to make a model that wouldn’t ludicrously slide around inside. Modellers could not compare models, nor switch parts from one kit to another. It was the British firm Airfix that brought the idea of the constant scale to the marketplace, and they picked the RAF’s scale.
Technorati tag: Scale Models
Tim Hall on what annoys him about some exhibition model rail layouts and other layouts that work-
* Layouts that look good but run badly.
* Architecturally impossible structures, especially bridges.
* Obvious anachronisms.
* Layouts where 50% of the locos is one-off depot specials or short-lived prototypes, which would never have been seen together at the same time and place.
* No attempt to run prototypical train formations despite the correct stock being available off the shelf (N gauge layouts seem to be bad offenders at this; how many malformed Virgin Cross-Country locomotive-hauled sets have you seen?)
* Unpainted brass kettles (I’m surprised how often you see this on finescale kettle layouts)
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Model Railway, Railway layout
I’m resisting buying the classic car collection, but I’ll probably cave in soon in fear that they’ll all be gone and I’ll regret not having them.
In the mean time, a few links-
The Vauxhall Viva HA.
The Viva Outlaws Club (mostly HBs and HCs though).
Triumph Herald images (including an appearance in a Tintin comic).
Triumph Herald wikipedia entry.
A stretched Herald.
Ford Escort Mk1 pictures.
A lot of Ford Escort desktop images.
The Escort RS2000.
Escort Mk1 rally cars.
An Escort funny car.
Related- onethirtysecond, a resource for 1:32nd scale car kits.
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Vauxhall Viva, Triumph Herald, Ford Escort
Ickle went to the Greater Manchester Transport Society Museum of Transport last week and posted a gallery from the visit today. Lots of stuff for Manchester bus modellers. I think I’ll be visiting the museum some time this summer as well.
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Bus, Manchester
Tim Hall must have his N gauge modern image locos.
Technorati tag: N Gauge, Model Railway, Scale Models
For those who remember my post a little while ago, i’m constructing a scale model of the now demolished Rugby Central railway station.
I’ve started to apply brick paper which was printed out on my rather old HP Deskjet 550C. It’s a respectable quality even though all it’s capable of is a rather low resolution when compared to todays printers. I think the model is starting to take shape…
Photo of the actual building
Model photo 1
Model photo 2
Technorati tag: Scale Models
The Union Pacific railroad is suing a model company for breach of copyright because their logo appears on scale rolling stock. Lots of aerospace and military corporations are trying to shake down model companies for exorbitant licencing fees, and now the railways are getting in on the act.
It’s time for companies to start bringing out really obscure subjects and creating their own pretend corporations to use them.
via BoingBoing
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Model railway
Useful for something I’m working on at the moment-
Wikipedia on British car number plates.
Technorati tag: number plate
Blur-modeller has links to two useful online how-to guides- Testor’s Model Master Technical Guide with tips for painting, and an Eduard tutorial on using photo etched details.
Technorati tag: Scale Models
Airfix teamed up with Scale Aviation Modeller International to produce a series called AirKraft, a part work guide to basic modelling techniques. If, like me, you’ve missed a few issues, you can download them as pdfs from the Airfix site.
via Blur Modeller
Technorati tag: Scale Models, Airfix
