The Modeling Nook and Reminiscing

With Christmas out of the way, and a couple of weeks rest for the injured toe, I've got back into sorting out the modeling nook, previously known as the spare room wardrobe. It's a little odd in its design, due mainly to my use of existing items laying about, but it works.

There's a set of three drawers on the bottom, of decent size and perfect for keeping all those accumulated modeling projects. The "priority drawer" has a Lloyds 421 Class diesel and three Hanovale GHG Brake Vans in it. These are things that I must get to sooner rather than later!

Another drawer is full of paints and painting oriented items, and it's good to have them all accessible and in the one spot. The other drawer if full of older and odd rolling stock that doesn't have a box so is best kept in a drawer to keep them safe and free of dust.

On top of the three drawers, is an old desk with two drawers side by side and the legs removed. It's the old type where the legs just screw on so no harm was done removing them. This given the final desk top the correct height and a couple more drawers to put things in.

On top of that is the old trestle table that I cut down so it is a neat fit inside the modeling nook. This is important so that no items can roll off the sides or back and disappear never to be seen again. Hinged off the front of this is another piece of the old trestle table top (the item responsible for the smashed toe! ) which gives me an extra area to work on, and when not is use it simply folds down to allow the nook doors to be closed.

On the desk are three multi compartment storage thingies contain various nuts and bolts, couplers, track gauges, switches, rail joiners, thumb tacks, reed switches, micro switches, motors and all manner of items that I think will come in handy for modeling jobs.

On top of these is another length of timber, where the "fast moving projects" will sit. Hopefully having the things I am part way through doing out in the open will make sure they don't get forgotten, and when I can't fit any more on that shelf it's time to finish something before starting something else.

There's still a lot more to do, lots more shelves to put in, and apart from the desk top and what's below it everything else may change over time as ideas come to mind. But for now, it's great to have somewhere permanent to work on things, and I even manages to get some more work on some points done that will be used on a simple test track that will have Kadee height gauges, uncoupling magnets and a slight graded section, all for testing rolling stock in one way or another upon.

Amongst moving things around I opened a box containing some rolling stock I built when I was in my mid teens in the mid 80's. An AR Kits GLX louvre van in blue, BDX open wagon in dark grey/black, MLE flat wagon in dark grey with sort of timber coloured decking timbers, and two Trax MRC refrigerated wagons.

It was abit like opening a time capsule looking at these models again. None are masterpieces by any stretch, but each had something that shows that even as a young'n, I had a bit of an eye for detail of sorts and tried to make things look as good as possible with what skills and materials I had at the time.

The MLE has the deck painted in timber colours rather than just grey, and even though I don't remember doing it, it's something that I wanted to do to the Austrains FME's I bought recently to replicate the prototype better. Obviously even back then I had the same idea!

One of the MRC's has had masking tape added to the roof to simulate the malthoid sometimes used on the real thing. I remember building these two MRC's at school during the last couple of weeks when we had activities rather than schooling. One of the teachers had a modeling class for the two weeks which was a good time to use to build these two.

The problem I have with these five models is that with a little work they could be made into quite respectable models, but then as they are they are kind of like a reminder of my early days in the hobby and a yardstick of my skill levels back then. In some ways I think they should be left as is and not improved upon, as they do bring back some fond memories from that time of my life.

Hopefully over the next few days I'll get some more stuff done before going back to work on the 4th of January 2010.

On that note, I'd like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, and I hope that 2010 is a safe and prosperous year for everyone.