1:32F - Newsletter No.7

1:32 Finescale Newsletter No.7 April 2019

David Halfpenny -Admin

G1MRA Spring Meeting, Shepshed, April 2019

As last spring, we filled four tables.

John Green was back, though sadly his collaborator Tony Massey died earlier this year. We showed Tony's portrait and obituary alongside progress on their 1:32 Scale Adams 02 and Drummond T9 locomotives.

Sorry, John, I fluffed a photo of your locomotives themselves, but here’s how certain intricate parts are made from filament 3D printing:

(For a live-steamer, 3D parts would typically be printed in steel or aluminium.)

John Taylor, accompanied by Rachael, showed three diesel locomotives, weathered by various artists to match prototype photos:

These exquisite little engines were originally researched by John himself, built by San Cheng, and marketed by Finescale Brass and Bachmann Brassworks. (While all distributor stock has now gone, dealers may have odd ones at around £675, and secondhand ones appear regularly, from around £300; your mileage may vary.)

Supplied as 2-rail, they are readily converted to battery, r/c and very fine sound.

Please let me know if you have converted one to any of the Fine Standard wheels, as I intend to convert one of mine. An Article would be most welcome and, if you don’t feel you can do it all yourself, friendly ghost writers are available.

Here are Ken and Jo Martin on their own separate Trade stand:

Now take a closer look at the coupled-up vacuum tubes between the two 1:32 Scale vans:

To display on our Group stand, Ken lent us one of his completed Fred Phipps resin kits, upgraded with Ken’s own 1:32 brass castings:

An end view at rail level shows just how good Ken’s G1MRA Fine wheels look on our demonstration G1MRA Fine track:

People who handled the wagon could also feel how well they run as well - none of the ‘clunk’ of wheels falling into over-scale flangeways, and much easier to propel in a train.

We also showed how (left to right) Dead Scale, G1MRA Standard and G1MRA Fine wheelsets look and cope on the demo track:

Details of this demo track are at: http://tinyurl.com/yyw8dc78

In a nutshell, it won’t take any wheels set for G1MRA Standard track, but it will take all forms of wheel set for any Finescale Standard track, including Slaters F-series wheels set to 42mm back-to-back.

Note that Cliff Barker track uses “Finescale" to mean “1:32 Scale” not “Finescale Standard” unless specially requested.

(Even finer G1 Standards are available; see Mark Wood’s helpful website about choices. )

Adrian Johnstone set out a thoughtful display about Home Building, starting with a brass “Chingford Express” live steam tank engine (bottom left); a classic design by Model Engineer contributor “LBSC”. It epitomises the New Home Builder tradition: a reader with a small lathe and some handiwork can build a real working locomotive, at home, at modest cost, given guidance and suitable 2D drawings.

Today, someone with a small 3D printer and some handiwork can build amazing models and components, at home, at modest cost, given guidance and suitable 3D print-files.

Adrian was rushed off his feet all day, with 10% of attendees signing-up for more information.

So why on our stand?

Because, even more than most of Gauge One, it is we who combine high precision with short production runs. Adrian’s very precise RCH wagon bodies can be scaled to a range of scales. Each needs some surface finishing, costs £2.50 in materials, and takes 6.5 days to print; crucially, on a very precise printer costing a little over £300! (plus the computer you already have).

These numbers make scratchbuilding sense.

Just as LBSC’s product was what he called “Words and Music” (text and drawings) rather than lumps of metal, I can envisage future G1 products including some catchy moniker meaning "text and data files".

Low-cost home-building has always been one of the strings to G1MRA’s bow.

Expect to see more in future.

Although master layout builder Bob Hunter couldn’t make it from Devon, we displayed the complete magazine article about his stunning Finescale layout, Hatherleigh Junction. Here’s another snippet:

(reproduced without permission from Hornby Magazine August 2015 under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act by way of Review. Copies are still available to buy from Hornby Magazine.)

Notices:

Sinsheim Technik Museum Germany 22/23 June 2019

The biggest 1:32 event in the world:

https://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en/gauge-1-meeting

G1MRA’s foray with Live Steam in 2018 was a great success, so your passport to see 1:32 in all it’s glory is to Volunteer for the 2019 expedition.

Gauge 1 North Saturday 13 July 2019 at Bakewell

“North” in this context meaning, “half-way up England"

http://gauge1north.org.uk/Gauge-1-North-2019.php

Let’s have a 1:32 winner of the I Built it Myself competition!

Spreading the Word

You are welcome to email me material, either for these occasional newsletters or the website.

(The newsletters all end up on the website anyway:

https://sites.google.com/view/132finescale/home/news )

As Assistant Editor of the G1MRA Newsletter & Journal, I must declare a vested interest here, though by all means submit material to any publication you like.

A few will even pay you.

Internet Forums are another, quicker, less formal, way to publish.

Again, I have vested interests (viz my general-interest "Gauge One Railway Forum" on Tapatalk, and “Gauge One Railways” on Yahoo Groups) though do consider alternatives:

“Gauge One Model Railways” on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/659767510848279/

(F*Book Phobic? Don’t blame you!

But, as this is a Facebook Group, you can create a minimal Account (with no personal details) to read and contribute. That way, you can avoid the notorious dark underside.)

Western Thunder G1/32 section

http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?forums/g1-32.28/

This is a division within a ‘larger scales’ Finescale forum.

OK there’s a GWR bias in the prototypes, but it’s not compulsory, and it’s the one site in all the world most sympathetic to our aims.

Google Sites

Report abuse