Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sunday morning With Auntie Druff

A slow weekend here at Chateau dandruff. I'm just a bit stuck in a modeling rut at the moment. None of the ongoing projects seem to be enticing me to the bench (so much so that I'm painting ww2 Russian cavalry).

So, time for some commenting.

-RTR locomotives. This raised its head (again) on the yahoogroup during the week. personally, I think its not going to happen unless either someone decides to take an enormous financial hit in doing it to sell at a price that people can afford, or works out how to sell upwards of 500 models of one prototype. I would point out that its probably possible in S scale (they manage to do it in Australia, and some of their markets are the same size), with the most likely choice being an Ab. Maybe there is something in this, as a steam loco that runs well could be a very good seller in the scale, if comments I've heard from local modelers can be extended to the wider world.

- From the comments section last week; P.S Can you please philosophise on your blog about whether it is better to butcher an existing body or to start anew?
Hmm, well, first up I'm not quite sure what the parameters are. Back in the 'Golden age' (which i should really comment on in another post) we cut detail bits of loco shells (grills, brake fans etc) to use on the plasticard models. I would not use an existing body to start with as they are just too small (stick an N scale diesel next to a TT scle one and you can see the difference; the N scale model just does not have the 'heft'). So from this neck of the woods its start anew or make a Trackgang kit and add details (which is actualyl quite a good way to do it)

Any questions for next week?

1 comment:

repeat anonymous said...

Thank you for your wisdom on bashing existing bodies or from new... the frustrating thing for me is stuff like grilles, and vents etc which (I find) is hard to do by hand.
re: rtr it would be interesting to see what kind of production figures the aussie lima loco's were, or the old tri-ang tank loco's which were made in Auckland. Unfortunately I would imagine the dies were made in Italy or the UK (respectively) and then shipped locally... I think either an Ab (as said) would be great or a Ww/ Wab, tankers are single bodies, no tender - potentially cheaper? I think the mass market likes steamers... use a kato or microace 2-6-4 undies for a Wf and some of your Marks Designs laser cut La wagons and a guards van...
P.S Don't tell the 6th Army about painting the cavalry - it's a surprise! (bit of red army humour there.)