New Member Robbie McGavin

[Robbie McGavin]

Hi All,

I might qualify for chat I doubt I'd qualify as fluff.

Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself, some may know that my interests are in photo-editing usually RTR 00 models, and I have got into trouble regularly over the years on another forum for my ineptitude, lack of attention, or laisse faire attitudes to decent standards of behaviour, and above all my very modest modelling.

My excuse, apart from inate laziness, is being bed-bound or wheelchair-bound after a bad bike crash in 1974, paralysed from chest down, also with one arm numb and slow, but I can open an RTR box and photograph a model. I usually use Canon cameras with a couple of basic lenses, then mess with Paintshop Pro.

An example, given recent debates about Hornby green was to photograph the latest Clan 72009 'Clan Stewart' then add colours by editing trickery. Which I shall try to load somehow.

I do hope my presence and lack of modelling expertise (I was pretty good at Kitmaster and Airfix in the 60s) can be tolerated.

Cheers,

Robbie

 

[Robbie McGavin]

 

[Robbie McGavin]

Oh, and just to illustrate the kind of thing which causes grief to those for whom photography is an accurate record, (as it can be),
here is a Bachmann 9F climbing the 1-in-50 out of Devonshire tunnel... and for the record no I don't think much of the smudges of smoke in many magzine pics.



I'm still an 8yr-old at heart.

Here below a marvellous Hornby Brit...



Better leave at that for now, I hope my fiddling with photos can be tolerated from time to time.

Cheers, Robbie

 

[John Ross]

Ace Brit picture, keep up the good work.

All the best

John

 

[Rob R]

I had to Google pictures of the real thing and compare the 2.
The only obvious things that give it away that I could see were the crankpin nuts and wheel flanges (and you have to look flipping hard to notice that!).
It also says quite a lot for the current standard of RTR.
Wonderful stuff.
Welcome aboard Robbie.

Rob

 

[Robbie McGavin]

Thanks all. One has to tread carefully sometimes.

Robbie

 

[Robbie McGavin]

Oh dear oh dear. Are we going to have to issue more warnings about how unethical it is to post photos of the real thing, whilst claiming it to be a model..??

Utterly convincing - superb stuff!!
Welcome aboard WT, pictures are our currency so you'll fit right in.

Well , we now know that but for an unkind twist of fate, our best steam express engines could have had 400+lb marine boilers and the A4 may never have happened... I haven't read the definitive books on the W1 yet, but what little I have read suggests that there was a disjunct between maunfacturers, suppliers, maintainence and design, as bad, no, as colourful, as anything we've had since the 1970s.

Quite a hansome engine, surely.



I mean, ihe above is clearly preferable to this below...





Just as well we had BR and the 8P Duke to sort it all out!

 

[chigley]

welcome Robbie, your among friends now

Ken

 

[Osgood]

These images certainly demonstrate the fidelity of current RTR products - it would be interesting to see what you could do with typical 1960s RTR!

 

[Robbie McGavin]

These images certainly demonstrate the fidelity of current RTR products - it would be interesting to see what you could do with typical 1960s RTR!

Yes I have a bit of Hornby Dublo 3-rail and have photgraphed it, and it tends to always still look like Hornby Dublo 3-rail.. even with various effects and every trick I know, but never mind, it's still beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, the BR Standard which was supposed to be 'best' didn't quite work out, the 'Duke', ...until post-BR .

Here in the tradition of poles poking out of smokeboxes is our lovely BR 71000 in BR days. What a pity it wasn't sorted properly back in the 50s. I'm glad it has shown its quality since then. It always looked a bit sad in BR days, what with its reputation with crews.



I should have added that I have a soft spot for this model, which got pretty bad press from the modelling cognoscenti. I like it. Weathering by TMC.

 

[Robbie McGavin]

The perennial question, to weather, or not to weather.

And if so, how much does one weather?

I was intrigued by a photo I saw today in a certain 'other' forum an A3 with couble chimney, no smoke deflectors, this about 1959-60, and it was completely the colour of ash, a dull grey-black, good colour photo too. Cab numbers visible but no emblem. I thought, 'I could paint that'.

So with my current toys being new Hornby Clan class 6MTs 72004 and 72009 I thought I would show here a couple of older pics of 72008 to compare various effects....







Entertaining if nothing else....

Cheers, Robbie

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

[QUOTE="Robbie McGavin,
I was intrigued by a photo I saw today in a certain 'other' forum an A3 with couble chimney, no smoke deflectors, this about 1959-60, and it was completely the colour of ash, a dull grey-
Cheers, Robbie[/QUOTE]

A3’s replaced the Royal Scot’s on the Thames Clyde on the St Enoch -Leeds leg. I remember them as being black!

Ian

 

[oldravendale]

I have some pictures here, Robbie, of A3s at Kings Cross in exactly the condition you describe. Date is about 1963. Gateshead shed seemed to be the worst for sending out their locos in appalling external condition. "Top Shed" at least tried to keep it's locos looking presentable up until it closed.

I will eventually publish these but will not see Tim's family until the Spring when we'll establish how we go about using his pictures.

Your mention of Royal Scots reminds me of their use on the Great Central, Ian. They were indescribably filthy most of the time, and in equally poor mechanical condition. At least the Gateshead A3s seemed to be steam tight!

Brian

 

[Robbie McGavin]

These images certainly demonstrate the fidelity of current RTR products - it would be interesting to see what you could do with typical 1960s RTR!

Not strictly 1960s but late-1940s and early 1950s, suspension of disbelief was in full operation when I played with Hornby Dublo in the late-1950s-1960 era.

For nostaligia's sake I have bought a few Hornby Dublo pieces recently and they generally run well, but I can no longer lie on the carpet after school and imagine things quite as I did then..

I did learn how to convert scale speeds to 'real' speeds using a simple but effective 12" for a typical H-D rail section, straights a tad less, curves a tad more, and this using a watch with a second hand time a model train at, say, 40' taking 35 seconds, with 88ft/sec being 60mph and it all being 1:76 therefore to my 10 yr-old brain that was about 1.13 ft/sec sooo 40' at 60mph should take about 37 secs, and 35 secs would be probably about 63mph do I make myself clear,? ....you at the back there, do keep up. The train was thus making a bit over a mile a minute, time-in-hand to reach Edinburgh 'on the dot' with 'The Eliabethan'

So I barely noticed the slightly out-of-scale handrails. Nor that 'The Elizabethan' was BR not LNER...



I have always enjoyed painting though, smoke and steam, and at 12-15 years rather specialised in ships in storms, with wild seas. Not the first painter to do that!

 

[Robbie McGavin]

I have some pictures here, Robbie, of A3s at Kings Cross in exactly the condition you describe. Date is about 1963. Gateshead shed seemed to be the worst for sending out their locos in appalling external condition. "Top Shed" at least tried to keep it's locos looking presentable up until it closed.

I will eventually publish these but will not see Tim's family until the Spring when we'll establish how we go about using his pictures.

Your mention of Royal Scots reminds me of their use on the Great Central, Ian. They were indescribably filthy most of the time, and in equally poor mechanical condition. At least the Gateshead A3s seemed to be steam tight!

Brian

Indeed poor Sir Nigel would have been pleased to see all his Pacifics, well most of them, receive double chimneys, but perhaps not so pleased to see them replaced by diesels, and their deplorable treatment on the ex-GCR and elsewhere..

I have concocted a picture of a Heaton engine 60072 'Sunstar' in the condition of 60051 in Tony Wright's RMweb thread of two days ago, that is, without visible colour or markings other than cabside number and various iterations of rust and scale. Without deflectors, so possibly around 1960? I would have to do actual research to get that aspect right, and we can't have too much of that.

So here is Heaton engine 60072 'Sunstar' in late-BR condition.



Digital cameras do odd things to the shape of engines at times, at least the cheapish cameras and lenses I use, and I'm still trying to get the hang of it after 15 years.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Indeed poor Sir Nigel would have been pleased to see all his Pacifics, well most of them, receive double chimneys, but perhaps not so pleased to see them replaced by diesels, and their deplorable treatment on the ex-GCR and elsewhere..

I have concocted a picture of a Heaton engine 60072 'Sunstar' in the condition of 60051 in Tony Wright's RMweb thread of two days ago, that is, without visible colour or markings other than cabside number and various iterations of rust and scale. Without deflectors, so possibly around 1960? I would have to do actual research to get that aspect right, and we can't have too much of that.

So here is Heaton engine 60072 'Sunstar' in late-BR condition.

View attachment 153576

Digital cameras do odd things to the shape of engines at times, at least the cheapish cameras and lenses I use, and I'm still trying to get the hang of it after 15 years.

I remember Sunstar painted like that but more black than grey! She was a frequent performer on the Thames Clyde, along with the White Knight, but by the time I saw them they both had the German blinkers.

Ian.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Your mention of Royal Scots reminds me of their use on the Great Central, Ian. They were indescribably filthy most of the time, and in equally poor mechanical condition. At least the Gateshead A3s seemed to be steam tight!

Brian

I never took many photos, I had a camera, plastic Kodak, but film was too expensive. However I did take a poor photo of Scots Guardsman in late 65 at my local station in very poor shape. There is a print somewhere so I will try and find it.

Ian.

 

[Robbie McGavin]

Quite a rare thing, but maybe not so rare in these days of transport mayhem, we in NZ have received a new Hornby model before people in the UK.

Here is R3843 10000 as rebuilt by Sir Nigel in 1938. Very nice engineering aesthetics, lovely model too.




cheers

 

[Lyndhurstman]

The perennial question, to weather, or not to weather.

And if so, how much does one weather?

I was intrigued by a photo I saw today in a certain 'other' forum an A3 with couble chimney, no smoke deflectors, this about 1959-60, and it was completely the colour of ash, a dull grey-black, good colour photo too. Cab numbers visible but no emblem. I thought, 'I could paint that'.

So with my current toys being new Hornby Clan class 6MTs 72004 and 72009 I thought I would show here a couple of older pics of 72008 to compare various effects....

View attachment 153504

View attachment 153505

View attachment 153506

Entertaining if nothing else....

Cheers, Robbie

Cuneo-esque, to my eye. I think it’s a good thing, and very clever rendering.

Cheers

Jan

 

[Robbie McGavin]

I have recently bought a ful-frame mirrorless camera and in playing with it made a photo of Hornby's die-cast Duchess 46252 'City of Leicester'. Here is the photo placed on Ben Brookbanks Wikipedia Commons b+w photo of 'The Caledonian'. Approaching Carlisle Citadel from the north, near the Caley yeards, 1957.
Great fun thse new cameras, mine is a Canon RP with a 24-15mm zoom. Great model by Hornby too!

Having attsached the photo, how do I put it in the post? Tried four times. I give up.