Ruston Proctor and Hornsby Akroyd Oil-Engined Locomotives

Earlier today Sue and I decided to drive across to Bewdley and have a walk along the river. On the way back I stopped off at the Severn Valley Railway and picked up a number of second hand magazines, but it was this small booklet that I consider as my best buy of the day.

Ruston Proctor and Hornsby Akroyd Oil-Engined Locomotives by Robin J. Parkinson and published by The Moseley Railway Trust in 2003 is a book I have been searching for for some time and I found it nestled amongst a number of pamphlets and booklets in one of the preservation wagons. At just £3.50 I thought it was a real steal.....

As a modeller of 18inch narrow gauge railway engines, the four oil fired locomotives built by Ruston, Proctor and Hornsby Akroyd for the Royal Gunpowder & Small Arms Factory, Waltham Abbey are some of my favourite prototypes. I already have some scale drawings of these engines, but this booklet includes some of the best blueprints of these engines that I have even seen. I no longer have any excuse for not building a model in 1:27.7 (or 11mm = 1 foot).

Along with this publication I am still looking for Railways of Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey and a Narrow Gauge Railway Guide about the same subject.

For now I'll just enjoy this latest buy.

Tony

Minotaur Shrine for Typhon

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames - issue 483 from July 2023 features another tutorial written by me and showing how I built this Greek Mythology inspired piece of scatter terrain - a Minotaur Shrine. The main stone was built out of a piece of scrap blue foam with more foam used for the stones and decoration on the base. The Minotaur head was cut from a child's toy with clutter selected from my 'Bits Box'.

Painting was done with acrylics using simple grey paints, drybrushing and washes. The base was decorated with static grass and tufts after being varnished with matt varnish.

For more information, pick up the latest issue from W H Smiths.

Tony

Some amazing charity shop finds

It all started with a simple plan - we were going to drive to Stratford-upon-Avon around lunchtime and spend a couple of hours enjoying one of our favourite town centres before moving on to Leamington Spa, but that all changed when the main road between Droitwich and Alcester was closed (again) so it was over to plan B. Up the M5, across the M42 and then down the M40 so we could arrive in time to pick up our Grandsons from school and babysit until their parents came home from work.

Arriving early, we browsed the shops in Leamington where I saw  this book - How Airbrushes Work by Steven Leaby on a shelf in a charity shop. It was just £1.00 and I thought I'd have that. And as I walked over to pay for it.....

I spotted this second book also for a £1.00 - Painting and Finishing Scale Models by Paul Boyer. Before paying I thought, I wonder if there are any others?

And there was. This time - How to Build Plastic Aircraft Models by Roscoe Creed, another £1.00 bargain.

Three great reads and all for the cost of less than one new magazine.

But that wasn't all. As I was thinking, this must be my bargain/bargains of the day I spotted this plastic, tilting and locking turntable in a second charity shop. I have often thought I would like a turntable for my modelling and at just £6.00 I think this is my bargain buy of the day.

In the first image you can see it in its tilted form.

Th second image is it in the plain turntable mode.

The locking nuts can be removed and refitted in any of the 24 holes and adjusted with the screw threads.

This locking nut holds the turntable in place when you want it fixed.

And finally this is the label that was attached to the top - FOR MUG/CUP PAINTING.

The lady who served me asked what it was and how I was going to use it. I said for model making and promptly paid the £6.00 and couldn't wait to test it out back in my shed.

Since coming home, I have tried searching for more information, but as there are no markings or details printed on the turntable, the best I have been able to come up with is that there are a number of different cake decorating tilting and turning turntables about - some are quite expensive, but I have not been able to find a plastic cup painting turntable on the internet.

The turntable is extremely well engineered and the only modification I will make is to add a sheet of sticky-back plastic to the main face as I am a messy modeller and I would expect to get paint and/or DAS on the main surface when using it.

I'll report back once I have some 'hands-on' experience with the turntable but look forward to using it.

Tony

The Yellow Pelican Mining Co. - the first exhibition

Later this month I will be exhibiting the layout at the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association model railway exhibition in Burton-Upon-Trent, for full details see this link.

The exhibition takes place at the Burton Town Hall on Saturday 17th June.

This will be the first time the layout will have been exhibited and I have been busy making sure that everything works properly and giving the layout a good clean. In addition I have produced an album showing work-in-progress shots and some of the models or images that I have used for inspiration while constructing the buildings and rolling stock. The layout now has a PAT certificate and I have been building some cardboard ends to protect the layout during transit.

I will report back with images once I return.

Tony

Traditional Farm Buildings of Britain

Another second hand book bargain picked up from a National Trust property book stall, this time Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire. 

One of my favourite parts of these NT visits is browsing the second hand book shops and finding these great bargains.

The book is full of both black and white illustrations and photographs plus loads of inspiration for future terrain builds.

Tony

Turnip40 - an update

I've been asked to include additional images of the snail shell backpacks included on two of my 40mm scale Turnip40 miniatures.....

The original Blog post can be found here.

The snail shells were collected from my back garden and filled with Greenstuff before being glued in place with superglue and then painted with the same techniques used on the rest of the figures.

The second figure also uses a snail shell from the garden, but this one is a little more ornate and was painted with a slightly metallic colour scheme.

The shells were both cleaned before use and come from a selection of seaside shells that I picked up some time ago to decorate the seaside themed summerhouse we have in the garden.

A case of using what I had available.....

Tony

Another Hobgoblin for Pax Bochemannica

This particular mini has patiently sat on my to-do shelf for some time and I have finally got around to finishing the painting varnishing the model and decoration the base. I can no longer remember where I got the figure from, but I do know that I had to modify the headscarf with Greenstuff. Other than that I don't recall any other conversion work.

The final image shows the new character - a Hobgoblin Auxiliary alongside a Noman Legionnaire and another Hobgoblin from the original Pax Bochemannica box set. All these figures have been mounted on to 2p coins with the groundwork built up with Milliput.

Tony