New from the Fens

[Locomodels]

Martin,
Those engines, in 'Miss America' were RR Merlins built under license by Packard. They certainly had plenty of ignition leads and sparkplugs, not to mention the magnetos, as do all aero engines. After all you would want the engines to keep running if a mag went down, wouldn't you?

Great model and welcome to you. You'll like it just fine round here'

Paul.

 

[Martin Field]

MD, I wouldn't have put stuff up that wasn't railways, but was asked, which was a nice touch. I guess the above is business, or was, but railways and scenery is for me and always has been.

Turves? Heavens those trains would have gone past the end of my son's road! I love the town of March, it has a strange 50's feel to it, such that those modern trains look out of place. I keep expecting a man with oiled wavy hair and an ill fitting blue serge suit get out of a shiny black Ford Pop and put on his foreman's bowler hat! If you ever saw Big Jim and the Figaro Club on telly....that's March for you.
But yes, big skies.

And I do wish modelmakers would cock a glance at what others do, they would all learn some good stuff. I tend to work with a broad brush because I never knew where the next job was coming from.

Cheers,
Martin

 

[Martin Field]

Paul, they weren't Packard Merlins they were pure Packards. Merlins, RR or Packard -built, have a strange tapered appearance to the cam covers. These 2700 Ms have perfectly regular parallel covers. But no, you wouldn't want one of those to drop out at 120mph on a choppy estuary!

These were built as purely marine engines. Gar Wood wielded some considerable clout in those days! Cos they didn't build any more!

Cheers,
Martin

 

[mickoo]

MD, I wouldn't have put stuff up that wasn't railways, but was asked, which was a nice touch. I guess the above is business, or was, but railways and scenery is for me and always has been.

Cheers,
Martin

No need to explain or apologise, some of us like 'other' forms of modelling, most like any good modelling what ever the genre. Not all of us were railway modellers before we arrived here

March was mecca back in the early eighties, especially the Spalding flower show weekends when anything and everything turned up from all over the country and headed up the Lincoln line. Bit of a shame when I revisited some 30 years later, the bridge is still there but no depot and some hideous edifice slapped bang on the old yard to keep reprobates locked up! A small part remains for GBRF but I'd say 80-90% is long gone to history.

March seems to advance with a pace similar across most of the fens......slowly I think there may be one or two mechanical boxes left in the area but not for long I fear.







MD

 

[Martin Field]

Ah! Manea (pronounced Maynee, for non locals). I wonder when the last passenger ever used Manea.
There was something in the local news about how old March station was recently. It would make a nice model for them as likes a main line.
And it's not that long since I was driving out of March via Coldham to Friday Bridge and just feet away was an A1A with some fruit wagons trundling through the long grass on its way to Wisbech, except Wisbech then was Spillers and Metal Box. The station was long gone. The track's still there, but the A 47 Wisbech bypass has been tarmacked over the level crossing. They still keep going on about re-instating the line's use twixt Wisbech and March, but a) they can't get near the town at Wisbech end and b) they say it won't go into the normal platforms at March, so what's the point? Then there's the Bramble Line folks who seem to think that it would make a good Heritage line, but the fact is nobody wants to visit Wisbech. It's nobbut a staging point (burger vans or Subway) on the way to sunny Hunny on the coast. And only we fans of vernacular architecture want to visit March. It really isn't an area people come to, except to work and go back to Poland or stop off to buy last minute bits for the visit to Granny up on the coast.
That's why it's still relatively cheap to live here, although even that's changing. And of course if you go too far you fall off completely!

Cheers,
Martin

 

[Joe's Garage]

Welcome Martin, I had to look at the Matchbox for a long time as it looks so real....lovely model..where is it now? Also the Southwold Loco looks interesting, again did you finish it? Such an interesting line in any scale but the bigger the better.

The photo of the freight train above running across the bumpy (!) track shows how level the fens are not...I know it is the lens effect etc. but you could get sea sick!!!!!! Subsidence guaranteed.

Now what about some S Scale models????

I agree with the above comments, we all benefit from seeing the other areas of modelling.

Julian

 

[Martin Field]

Julian, the Matchless was a kit produced by Big 6 Classic Replicas, cast by RAE Models in Surrey, both long gone it seems. RAE also did a 1/8th scale Vincent, although since they did the contract casting that's hardly surprising. I think they are all now gone, including the Bellini version, who also used RAE to cast there tiddly racer models of which I did over 20 masters.
This one will be cast by P&D Marsh as they happen to be round the corner to me! If it catches on it'll be followed by a BSA DBD 34 Clubman Gold Star.

I'd like to do some S Scale, but would they fetch anything upon my demise?

I haven't finished the Southwold loco yet as I switch off from model railways during summer. I was model yachting and gardening, but now the greenhouse is no longer producing I'm back in the workshop. So the Southwold loco may well get a shove up the queue.

 

[oldravendale]

Martin - a bit off piste, but I wonder if you knew Steve Overy who, with his partner Mike Murray founded Illustra Models? I knew Steve in his previous life as he was in the same business as me, and we kept in touch when he moved away from London. A colleague had a large collection of cars from Illustra Models for which I built a display case which he had in his office. A super guy, much missed.

Brian

 

[allegheny1600]

Welcome, Martin!
It is so nice to see a really talented model maker such as yourself grace these pages, the other sides loss is our gain. I'm little more than a 'box opener' but I can appreciate what work you have done.
Cheers,
John.

PS Also a bit of a fan of the MG&N on the quiet )Shhh(

 

[Martin Field]

Brian,
I do/did indeed know Steve Overy. We always met up at Modelex exhibitions in the evenings, where Steve would always ply us with drinks and funny stories. He would always pick on someone who needed knocking down a peg or two (we all know that sort, don't we) and he would attack them mercilessly all evening and then buy them a drink! He always flirted outrageously with my wife but in the best of taste. He took on a couple of models I'd done for Jody modes, a Reliant Robin and a Triumph Mayflower. I don't know where he is now. I think his young protege took over. He fell out with the rest of them at SMTS and my dislike of that company's models and attitude always gave Steve and I a common reference point. The last thing I did for Steve was a patent illustration for a fold up gazebo, but that was nearly 10 years ago as I did that when I was on my boat!

John, thanks for the welcome and the kind words. I'm warming up to the Winter season with the railway stuff and will do my best to get the M&GNJR 4-4-0 tank done. I also have an all wooden (Swiss pear) brake van to go with the loco, so there's likely to be more posts from me. But I must do a bit on the Vincent today to make up for model rail work for myself!

 

[oldravendale]

Sadly Steve died in 2013 from the Big C. I believe Mike Murray took the business over, but what happened later I don't know.

Your description of Steve rings so many bells. He was truly a one off.

B

 

[Martin Field]

That's sad to hear, Brian. I could never get on with Mike.

M

 

[JimG]

I'd like to do some S Scale, but would they fetch anything upon my demise?

Martin,

I don't think you would get Antiques Roadshow prices. Your likely buyers in the UK are other S scale modelers and we don't tend to pay top dollar. We had some sealed bid auctions on locos from members' estates a year or two ago and I believe that the prices got for the locomotives were in the low hundreds.

The only times our stock assumes high prices is for insurance values at exhibitions, when values into low four figures are applied. This is because a replacement would have to be scratchbuilt by a professional model maker. We had one instance of that some years ago when the late Alan Cruikshanks' Metropolitan 2-6-4 tank was stolen from a display stand and a replacement was scratchbuilt by Vic Green. I think I remember the cost being around £1500 and this was in the mid 1980s. The loco was a beauty and I remember it making its first run on my layout at an Autumn meeting at my house.

Jim.

 

[Martin Field]

Jim,
I have to know that if I've spent time and money on a model it will get at least a decent price when I croak. BUT, I will have a crack at something in S because I always promised myself to do something like that. 20 years ago it wouldn't have bothered me. I guess my attitude to it all is different having done modelmaking for a living for so long (though never model railways, apart from Nev Kent's few masters) and not having the benefit of a fat pension, I have to make my expenditures count. It's why I make as much as possible, but wheels and, these days, even materials, are not cheap. Of course, I enjoy making them or I wouldn't do it at all, but I would like my survivors to get back at least what I've spent. Anything else is a bonus.

In the 80s I was getting upwards of £2000 for a brass master of a 1/43rd scale car and could complete one in a fortnight! Knowing Vic green's work I'd say he was undercharging somewhat!

 

[Mike W]

Welcome Martin. You have, in a few short posts, taken us off model railways, through model cars, real cars, real boats, aircraft ... Just shows we do indeed have diverse interests on here but I envy your patterns for model cars - much more difficult to make than model railways in my opinion and beyond y skills.

Mike

 

[Martin Field]

Hi Mike, thanks. In so far as fancy shapes abound on a car and they have to be reproduced in 1/16th" brass sheet by hammering, I suppose there are difficulties compared with the more geometric shapes of a steam loco. Until you get to an A4 or similar or the nose of a Deltic, perhaps. I suppose I am truly that old saw, a Jack of all trades, master of none, otherwise I'd more easily be able to identify your avatar, but it's small enough to confound me. I'm leaning towards something unusual like a Railton by the architectural look of the grille. Or even an Invicta Black Prince?
Sorry to veer away from the main subject matter.

 

[Mike W]

Very close indeed Martin. It is Anglo American but made in the Midlands and most people know the name from their 1970s cars.

 

[Martin Field]

Ah, could it be a Jensen?

 

[Mike W]

Very well done Martin, go to the top of the class! Don't want to go into further details on this public forum except I know a model would be beyond my capability.

 

[Martin Field]

Very much the kind of car I used to turn out, Mike, but the fashion tended to go away from Pre-War stuff towards the end of the w/m collecting spat.
Always been my favourite era as cars were largely handmade then, especially by coachbuilders like the Jensen bros. I think the S type is as smart a vehicle as many of that era and I say that as an Alvis obsessive<G>