7mm Road Vehicles

Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Seddon bought Atkinson in 1970 and became Seddon Atkinson - which subsequently became part of International Harvester in 1974, then to Spanish group ENASA which itself went under the IVECO umbrella. Another one gone forever :'(
 
Simon

Simon

Flying Squad
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Once I have the Mk2 triplets out of the way, I think I may treat myself to this little beauty. He's been lurking on my shelf for quite a while. I got some nice detail shots around a real one a couple of years ago, too.

IMG_4836.jpgIMG_4837.jpg
 
westernfan

westernfan

Western Thunderer
P1010036.JPG Whilst looking at old battered Dinky ,Corgi, and Spot on diecast models as alternatives for the more costly model kits as canditates for my O gauge projects I found this website it gives an indication of the scale, a particular model I was drawn to was the Priestman Cub excavator scale 1/45 a close match for O gauge. I had in mind a trackside scene of a plant hire firm using the Priestman along with some Dinky lwb mk1 Transits and the Diesel road roller .

http://www.chezbois.com/corgi/1963/corgi_1963.htm

there are links to other diecast sites . hope this is of some use




WF
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Very nice. My only gripe is the font used for the number plate :oops: . Arial didn't exist before 1982. A dot of white paint under the finger of the 1 to fill it in and all will be adequate. :thumbs:
 
Heather Kay

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
eastsidepilot said:
Does the Model Company still exist as when I googled it I got some lovely models:D............but not the four wheeled kind:rolleyes:
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I bought it from Bob Barlow when he was running Classic Commercials. I guess our AdrianBS now holds any stocks remaining.

Dave said:
Hi Heather, what typeface should I have used?
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Now, there's a knotty question. Someone created a free font for numberplates, but the only ones I can find quickly are for the modern plates. The majority of plates in the 1950s and 1960s were stamped metal, with the letters in bas relief. The letterforms still varied to a degree, but you wouldn't go far wrong to use a Helvetica style face (also known as Swiss or Nimbus Sans). At a pinch you could use Gill Sans or similar, but that's more suited to the earlier painted plates.

It's the shape of the numerals 1, 2 and 0 that stand out, as well as the C, G, R, S and W which would be completely wrong in form when using Arial. Oxford and Classix get away with it at 4mm scale because it's much smaller, but at 7mm scale it kind of jars with me.

I'm a bit of a type geek, from my "real job" of being a graphic designer. Normal people probably wouldn't notice! :D

The best model plates I've seen were from Classic Commercials, who etched them in stainless steel. Sadly, they may be hard to find now, and were limited to about six different numbers all told. C&L did sell a waterslide transfer sheet of numbers, suitable for the earlier plates which were painted rather than stamped.

Perhaps I should get some data together and sort out some etches. (That's done it. I'll have to do it now. :confused:)
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Heather Kay said:
....I'm a bit of a type geek, from my "real job" of being a graphic designer. Normal people probably wouldn't notice! :D...
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At the risk of digressing too far from 7mm Road Vehicles (but still with railways :) ) - have you ever come across this font, Heather?

MSLR2.jpg

It was used by the Mid Suffolk Light Railway for their station signs, the cast iron letters being supplied by Walter Macfarlane Ltd's Saracen Foundry in Glasgow in 1908.

I have discovered an old Macfarlanes Castings trade catalogue showing a few of the letters but have had no success in my goal of recreating the entire alphabet in this font. Very few examples still survive - one local one being the POST OFFICE sign in Bury St.Edmunds and I believe a factory sign in the north London area. I have no ideas if this was a commonly used font or a 'Macfarlane special'. My occasional searches for this in font catalogues have drawn a blank, but then I don't really know where to look! If you can throw any light on this I'd be most grateful.

MSLR letters.JPG
 
Dog Star

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
How about approaching the Mitchell Library in Glasgow?

I entered "Charles Rennie Mackintosh" and "Macfarlane Saracen Foundry" into a search engine and every suggested web-page contained both of those search terms... so there is a good chance that Mackintosh knew Macfarlane (they were active in the same period). Maybe the font is a Mackintosh style?

regards, Graham
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Dog Star said:
How about approaching the Mitchell Library in Glasgow?....
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Well I nearly made it to that library 4 years ago when up that way - but ran out of time. I'd discovered they had a Macfarlane catalogue containing examples of the letters. However I recently found a catalogue (probably the same one) available to view online -

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24592791M/Macfarlane's_castings

- and that is where the second picture comes from. So maybe just the ABC!

However I like your idea that Mackintosh and Macfarlane might have been associated in some way - and much of Macfarlane's decorative cast iron output suggests a bias towards the same style as Mackintosh. That could be a productive line of enquiry - thanks Graham!

I just can't help feeling someone has got there before me!
 
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