Model Railway Scenery News…

Good Morning <<First Name>>,How’s things? The end of another week and it’s half-term holidays already. Elizabeth has been off school for part of this week actually too as she’s had a stinking cold and been running a temperature for a couple of days, so she’s been watching “Friends” pretty much non-stop since Wednesday while lying on the sofa! Meanwhile Tina and I have been playing catch-up on the orders that came in while the big laser was out of action. Thankfully Dan the service engineer got us back up and running swiftly on Thursday and we’ve now caught up. Just hoping we can stay clear of Elizabeth’s cold ourselves now as we’re off down to Cornwall next Thursday & Friday to sort out catering & flowers for the wedding. Don’t fancy a 4.5 hour drive whilst being full of cold really.

Actually I’m really looking forward to seeing the sea. We’ve booked a small lodge for a couple of nights in Whitsand Bay, and I think it’s got a sea view, so it’ll be nice to wake up to that on Friday & Saturday that’s for sure, no matter what the weather.

Work-wise this week, apart from playing catch-up with orders here at HQ, Iain has been flat our working on updates and improvements to the Scale Model Scenery site. We’ve been wanting to get things sorted on there for over a year now, so Iain got stuck in this week with reorganising the categories. Now when you enter the shop on the site, you should be able to browse much easier through the categories, and hopefully finding the stuff you need will become quicker and easier. There’s still a long way to go, and the category images all need adjusting, but it’s a step in the right direction I think.

Adam has been busy working on some new 3d printed stuff in OO scale too, one of the items I’ve got ready for you later in the newsletter, whilst he’s also been battling with the builders that are supposed to be doing some work on his house. I think he’s been getting a little frustrated with the disruption as he’s not been able to dedicate as much time as he’d like to development work. Hopefully he’ll be back on track next week.

So… What have we got for your enjoyment this week? Well first up, let’s head on up to the Yorkshire Dales for a bit of steam action. Click here to enjoy the video.

Geoff’s Layout Plans & Updates

Next up, Geoff is in a similar position to a lot of us I think with his layout. It’s reached a point where it’s starting to look like a layout, but there’s still a long way to go to achieve the look and atmosphere. Click here to watch Geoff’s latest video and find out what he’s got planned for the coming months.

How To Model Corrugated Iron Roofing

Next up, we take a trip down-under to Gormo’s shed, where he’s demonstrating a quick tip for making Corrugated Iron Roofing using a door threshold strip and a section of aluminium takeaway carton. He says he found this tip on the internet, and I think actually it’s something we shared a long long time ago, back in the early days of our newsletter (about 5 years ago or more) that came from Kim in Canada. I think we posted it up on our old blog at one point. Anyway… Here’s a quick and easy way to make a realistic corrugated roof.

Gary’s Finally Scratched That Itch…

Our final feature this morning comes from Gary, down in Southend On Sea, who brings us the last instalment of his excellent blog, “It Started With An Itch”. It’s been an exciting journey… He’s learned a lot through building his first layout, but as with all of our layouts, are they ever finished? Has that itch really been scratched? Click here to read the final chapter and find out what he’s got planned for the future.

N Gauge Grit / Salt Bins

On my quest to finally convert our products over the N gauge, this weeks product of choice was the AX056 Grit / Salt Bins. It took a bit of tweaking of the printer settings, but they actually came out really well, although being half the size of their OO scale big cousins, the transfers are incredibly small indeed… Being self adhesive I found it easier to peel the whole sheet off the backing and stick it lightly to my cutting matt, then cut out the decals I needed and lift them off the cutting matt with the tip of my knife.

Anyway, they’re small and as perfectly formed as I can possibly get them with the current technology we have here at HQ, and they’re ideal for detailing street scenes, car parks and yards etc on your N gauge model railway layouts. They’re printed in yellow PLA and look great straight from the packet, but they can be enhanced, just like the larger scale versions with a quick coat of yellow acrylic paint.

For full details of the Grit / Salt bins in both scales, please visit the following links.

AX071-OO Wall Mounted CCTV Cameras – OO / 4mm / 1:76

Another tiny product now, and please don’t ask for these in N gauge, they’d be impossible to do at present :). Adam created these easy to assemble wall mounted CCTV cameras last weekend in OO / 1:76 scale, and they’re great for quickly detailing the side of an industrial unit, monitoring the comings and goings in a busy yard etc. They are supplied in a pack of 4, printed in a choice of white or silver PLA, with a black bracket. Once assembled, the lens detail can be added in with a tiny dot of acrylic paint or a black Sharpie.

So if you fancy a pack of these to add a little detail to a modern image scene, click here to find out more and order yours.

Experience DCC Sound On Your Analogue Layout With The New Gaugemaster Tech 6 Controller

Now I know a lot of you guys run analogue layouts, and it’s been a topic of discussion many times in various groups on Facebook about how those with traditional layouts can’t experience the benefits that DCC brings without the hassle of upgrading an entire layout, adding decoders to all the accessories etc. And now with more an more locos being released with sound chips already installed (I love my Railroad Class 31 & Class 20… they’re great fun!), there’s so much potential for more realistic operation of our layouts. But of course, if you run a sound fitted DCC loco on an analogue layout, it’ll run, but silently, as there’s no way to trigger the sounds… Until now!

Enter the new Gaugemaster Tech 6 Controller. Thanks to some very clever MRC Black Box technology, this replaces your existing analogue controller, allowing to to control your regular locos, just as you normally would, but you can also run DCC sound equipped locomotives AND trigger all the sound functions, even though you don’t have a DCC layout! A-Maz-Ing!

Now I’d totally forgotten they were bringing this out until they arrived here yesterday, and to be quite honest, if I’d have realised, I have probably chosen this for the Whitwick Grove layout over the Prodigy, which is probably a bit over the top for such a small layout. But hey-ho…

So… if you fancy dabbling in the world of DCC sound, without the expense of fitting DCC decoders to all your accessories etc, with this little beauy, you can treat yourself to that sound fitted loco, and enjoy it on your Analogue layout!

We’ve got just 3 in stock this morning and we’re price matching Hattons this weekend, as well as offering Free Courier Delivery to UK mainland addresses too!

For more information and to order yours, please click here.

Still To Come

Next week, we’ll be flat out on a couple of projects Monday to Wednesday before heading south for 2 days. Iain will be continuing work on the website restructuring, and Adam’s got a couple of new things up his sleeve too.

Ooh… that reminds me, I’ll send out the PPI info to those that requested it today too.

Have a splendid weekend folks, & Keep on Shunting!

Justin, Tina & Elizabeth
www.ModelRailwayScenery.com – Download and Print Model Buildings & Accessories
www.ScaleModelScenery.co.uk – Laser Cut Kits & Accessories Delivered By Post!

P.S. Also on the delivery that arrived yesterday were this little lot…