News from your model shop - 12th of April 2020

Hello

Don't forget to read our latest modelling tips located at the bottom of the newsletter.

As always we hope that all of our modelling friends out there are keeping well in these dreadful times. Please take care of yourselves and we hope to see you again soon. In the meantime, you can still order from us on the website. We are still dispatching daily but please note that delays at Royal mail and other couriers mean it may take a bit longer than usual for your parcel to reach you.

Tony Careless from the Isle of Wight has sent us a nice quizz. The full details are on our Facebook page but the short version is: can you guess what he used as a starting point to make the following three buildings, which are kit-bashed from various kits? Click on the image to see more pictures.

 

 

There is an unwritten rule when furnishing your layout with station buildings, platforms or high streets that you use either plastic or card kits, mixing the two can highlight the difference in texture between the two materials and compromise the finished effect of your scene.

Of course, there are a lot of very skilled modellers out there that can overcome this problem with the clever use of weathering and paint. Others take advantage of the vast choice of card kits available and use them exclusively whilst others prefer plastic.

Plastic kits, however, generally do not receive the same coverage as their card counterparts, which is a shame because there are some wonderful kits out there and at very reasonable prices.

The main difference you will find when constructing plastic kits as opposed to card ones is that they will likely require painting. This may put some modellers off, but don't be afraid, try to remember the number of skills you have mastered so far building your layout and give it a go.

Once you have gotten your head around the subject of paints and techniques, then you will really be ready to take your layout and rolling stock to the next level. Starting off with small lineside kits (as opposed to your favourite locomotive) is an excellent and inexpensive way to get started.

Dapol is a Welsh company that manufactures quite a significant range of buildings, line-side miscellaneous and even non-motorised rolling stock. The kits used to be part of the Kitmaster range in the 1950s and 1960s. Then they got acquired by Airfix and finally Dapol. They are all in OO gauge.

To give you an idea of the kind of kits now available in plastic, you can access the whole range here or we have selected to show you some pictures of the easier kits to construct and paint: there are some telegraph poles which once painted look so much better than the ready to go variety, a water tower (which looks fantastic weathered if you're feeling adventurous), a modern-day general store, a platform kiosk and steps, some track-side accessories and an impressive girder bridge. Note from the pictures how a little bit of rust effect would make all the difference.

For a more substantial project, you may want to attempt a kit that requires some micro-detailing to really pull it off. The general store that we have featured looks fine freshly painted but apply a couple of decades worth of grime and pollution, this unattractive little shop would really deliver realism. Also featured is a village church (which happens to be based on the church in Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight) and station booking hall, at first glance, these look relatively simple, but look again carefully at the brickwork, not only are the grout lines evident but the bricks are an irregular colour too, these all need to be painted.

Again with the dockside crane and station canopy, they look great freshly painted, but add grime, rust and some soot or diesel smoke residue and see how a transformation takes place.

But why go to all the effort when a card kit has the detail already printed on the model? Don't get us wrong we love the card kits, but a hand-painted plastic kit will be unique, and it's that uniqueness that will distance your layout from the Hornby catalogue.

And because we couldn't resist, we mentioned earlier that Dapol produce non-motorised rolling stock, we leave you with this small taster of an old first-generation railbus, wouldn't it look marvellous either in a siding or even a shelf?