Posted on by michael

Model Railroad Exhibition

Since this is a blog….
On Sunday we (Amber the kids and I) went too the Model Railway thingy down the road. It was quite a lot bigger since last time I’d been (probably when I was a kid). 13 running railroads I think, from the size of a brief case to probably the length of my garage.
The standard was a bit mixed. It was fairly obvious that some of the exhibits reflected their owners love of trains rather than models which is more inline with my interest. One called the stamping ground ( a gold and quartz mine) was incredibly professional looking. see here at Timaru It was awesome and very popular but what was really good was that it all looked like it fitted together. There was one called Arauatu herewhich was quite large and incredibly detailed (apparently sn3.5 guage) The scenary was nicely done. Some of the buildings were essentially card with that printed paper on it which looked better than I thought it would but the lack of texture really let it down a bit. They also had really nicely done flax bushes made out of fake christmas tree like material but all with squared ends. I realise it would have take a long time to do (there were a lot of flax bushes) but pointing those leaves would have really made it look so much better. The other thing I noticed with a number of them was the water. They looked like a bit of paint with some resin poured on top and tadda. No movement in the water which makes it look, well not like water and crystal clear through to the paint which also kinda looks a bit fake. Pity. Then there were the ones who just splashed out on expensive plastic kits and essentially dinkies. Looked more like my kids bedroom/toy railroad than a model railroad. Disappointing especially when you consider how much money was invested.
The Lego set was pretty amazing probably the size of my garage and 20? trains running on it. I don’t know heaps anyway and lots of lego buildings. Certainly impressive collection.
There were a number of resellers. Was tempted to buy flocking and what not which was reasonably cheap but in the end I didn’t.
There was a Band of Brothers one which was essentially a railroad with a bunch of plastic (armymen plastic) tanks. Some nice 15mm landing craft and beautiful diecast I think fortress and super fortress suspended above with a bunch of other aircraft of various scales. Quite amateurish but got me thinking. Very keen to make my own now just trying to work out the scale that could nicely complement flames of war. I think that 3mm/TT gauge as that is actually 1/100. HO is to big, N is too small. Ah well enthusiasm will probably dry up in a few days and I’ll forget about it but certainly was keen to give it a crack. Build something like this miniatur-wunderland

7 Replies to “Model Railroad Exhibition”

  1. I was chatting to Justin Cockroft last night, he ran the rail display of the small town with the winter theme. Including ice skaters and kayaker that where animated. I must admit to having some input in discussing the construction of the animations that will work. Justin mentioned the war scene from Timaru which hada beack front assault occouring.. unrealistically with a working rail way right ther.. yup no shell craters over the rail lines!
    Still it was apparently terrific.

  2. Quote: [Then there were the ones who just splashed out on expensive plastic kits and essentially dinkies. Looked more like my kids bedroom/toy railroad than a model railroad. Disappointing especially when you consider how much money was invested.] end quote

    I know those type of model layout make me cross. You know they sell video courses in theUS on how to put these kits together… just incase theuser is so stupid as to not figure teh way the chinney goes up.. duh. And then they don’t even paint them.. just the raw plastic colour and some paper posters stuck on.. and these idiotsactually think of themselves as modellers?

    I think Mr Miyogie said it well.. no no no, you either Do, or Do not.

  3. I can’t view U tube from this work station.
    Can I suggest you take on a 2′ x 4′ layout of a badley wrecked French provincial railway station with a straight thru rail including on parrallel siding and maybe even a turntable.
    In TT scale. that way you can model for both your hobbies. Ther is some very interesting history about rail operationin Occupied France. Some areas actually had electric rail (Closer to paris) which emained in operation. The French rural economy in fact actually increased production in the occupied times and teh importance of the rail centres well wellappreciated by the occupiers and the RAF

  4. Yep I saw the winter themed one. It was quite good actually. Not my favourite and suffering what looks like a bit of wear by the look of it but it was certainly one of the better ones. The family like it also because it did an I spy thing where you had to find various things.
    I don’t know what he is talking about. It was not terrific at all. The base of it was alright, just not enough trees and whatnot but most of all the problem was the 50c plastic (non historically accurate) tanks and trucks covering every square inch. The winter one was many many many times better.

  5. Yes raw plastic, ugly. Very very ugly at least to my taste. It’s just not cricket

    Well check them out they’re pretty good.
    Looks like it’s hard to get TT gauge stuff. But definitely thats what I’d want to do it in as I could combine the two. I also no squat about model railways don’t know what I need or where to go to get it. Probably would need to join a club.

  7. OMG! I don’t quite know what to say. Your buildings are good man but you can’t really complain about those. The only things I can think of are that the tree trunks could have done with a quick paint and the seams of the modules could have been tighter. But gee whilakers…, why don’t we have that good a terrain Martin?

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