Felixstowe Area “N” Gauge Group
JUNE 2020 NEWSLETTER
MEMBER’S ROUNDUP
Trevor - Exhibition Update and general observations.
I write this having the new experience of being able to relax on the Sunday before our exhibition. It would normally be a frantic round of painting and finishing models whilst feeding my printer with paper and ink to complete the guides. Hopefully I’ll be a bit busier this time next year.
It does of course give us all a year to complete / create new exhibits, so please set this as your target and we can have a bumper show next year.
Whilst things are starting to ease a little the separation requirements are still a big issue for us in terms of being able to meet up as a group or for events around our hobby to take place. Clearly our clubroom meetings will continue to be on hold for the foreseeable future and our open day in October can only take place if restrictions are effectively removed (which looks unlikely). Therefore, it may well be next year before we can meet as normal again.
There have been a couple of really good new TV shows about railways and steam. The Yesterday channel (Freeview 25) has been showing a series ‘The Architecture the Railways Built’ and Channel 5 are showing a series ‘Inside The Steam Train Museum’ which follows a year at Bressingham. The Bressingham series is a ‘fly on the wall’ program, which is particularly refreshing as there is none of the contrived drama that often features in otherwise good programs (North Yorks Moor springs to mind). The biggest disaster is Ray burning the sausages. It genuinely reflects the charm of Bressingham. Hopefully they will be able to open soon in some form to take advantage of this publicity. If you have missed it, then they are available on catch-up (UK TV Play for Yesterday).
Peter – A brief snippet regarding the club Facebook page, likes have passed 300 and now stand at 302, so people out there are still interested in us!
Chris – We have received the following from the N Gauge Society - The NGS Committee have decided to cancel the AGM at Hermitage on 18th July as the AGM will not be held there. Alternative arrangements for how the AGM will be held are currently being considered and will be communicated in due course via News on the NGS website.
Due to the cancellation of the AGM at Hermitage, there is little point in holding a Convention prior to the AGM meeting. In any case, a large proportion of our members who could visit, and of course our exhibitors, are over 70 and in the vulnerable category, and it is just not possible to keep socially distant at such an event, especially when viewing layouts and exhibits. It is very likely the village hall would not be available anyway.
I want to especially thank you all for offering layouts, displays, merchandise etc. and I hope you will forgive my using the BCC email option to contact you, without addressing the message to you personably.
I hope you are all keeping well and distant from the wretched virus, and able to continue modelling in our shared gauge and scale.
MEMBER’S MODELS by Richard
I have just finished my class 41 diesel hydraulic D602 Bulldog. It has a resin body on a class 47 motor which needed a little work to make it fit.
This design was built by the North British Locomotive Company in 1957, for comparison with class 40.
It was the same mechanically as the warship, but it did not have the stressed-skin and lightweight construction of the class 42 warship. Class 41 weighed 120 tons compared with 80 tons of a warship.
There were only made 5 of these locomotive and they were all withdrawn by 1967.
MEMBER’S LAYOUTS (1) By Alan
I’ve managed to finish the factory complex on my layout.
MEMBER’S LAYOUTS (2) by Kelvin
Upper Yard
This is the layout which I purchased off Mike just over three months ago. If members can remember, it’s the one that he showed at our exhibitions.
I have given it a bit of a makeover by fitting a new back scene, putting low relief Buildings on the viaduct, and fitting yard lights, and street lights, and also illuminating the buildings.
As you can see by the photos it has made it a busy layout, and quite effective with the lights on for night running.
MILITARY VEHICLE KITS (again) by Trevor
In between completing some wiring work on a friend’s layout and repairing / completing some model aircraft (flying is permitted again) I’ve managed to fit in building some more army vehicles / boats.
First is a small landing craft for 30 personnel, known as a Higgins boat. These were normally towed across larger areas of water (e.g. the channel) then loaded from larger ships for the final run in. Rather scarily these were largely built from plywood with very little protection from even small arms fire. In fact the larger tank landing craft I built before also has a plywood hull / limited armour plating to keep the weight down so it can get into shallow water.
The Higgins boat is a white metal kit. I’ve also built another of the tank landing craft plastic kits. These are currently painted in primer as I need to purchase the correct colours to complete.
Tank Landing Craft and Higgins boat
I’ve also completed a selection of the white metal army kits mentioned in previous articles and repainted some Oxford models from desert camouflage into more typical D Day colours.
As mentioned before I’ve yet to sort out suitable transfers for the invasion star markings (or a way to do this myself).
1/4 ton trailer with resin jeep, Universal (Bren Gun) Carrier, 5.5” field gun behind repainted Oxford AEC Matador
Bedford QLD Lorry, Repainted Oxford Tilley and CMP, Bedford QLT troop carrier 17lb Anti-tank gun