USATC S100

[spikey faz]

To be fair the Minerva model does look quite nice (based on the pictures/videos I've seen so far). I think they've had to understandably compromise a little on the chassis, but I dare say their bodywork is a darn sight straighter than my efforts! Swings and roundabouts.

Mike

 

[simond]

No you don’t! Yours is a one off built by YOUR blood sweat and tears while the Minerva one is one of hundreds made in a faceless Chinese factory by robots.

I bet there are very few robots involved, but like much of the imports our consumer society desires, the work overseas is carried out by folks on poor pay with few rights. I guess the shame of it is that labour and social costs of doing it in the West would preclude most of us from buying RTR.

Or quite a lot of other things like phones and TVs etc, but of course there will be robots involved there, as the volumes are high enough to make it worthwhile to program them.

 

[simond]

To be fair the Minerva model does look quite nice (based on the pictures/videos I've seen so far). I think they've had to understandably compromise a little on the chassis, but I dare say their bodywork is a darn sight straighter than my efforts! Swings and roundabouts.

Mike

The Minerva effort is a JV with Chrezo, a French specialist manufacturer, who have a very good reputation. They did a lovely 2-8-0 tender loco (140 in French!) a few years back. I was tempted…

CHREZO | Modélisme ferroviaire à l'écartement Zéro : 1/45 et 1/43,5

CHREZO est spécialisé dans la fabrication des trains miniatures à l'échelle O ou "zéro". Depuis 2015, cette entreprise artisanale française, basée à Royan (17), propose ses créations en modélisme ferroviaire à l’écartement Zéro : 1/45 & 1/43,5.

www.chrezo.com

I expect it’ll be another decent product.

 

[spikey faz]

I'd be tempted with the Minerva S100, but I'd have to get it converted to S7. In the past @Eastsidepilot has kindly carried out a few wheel turning/RTR conversions for me, and very good they are too. However, I wonder how close the Minerva (and other makes such as Dapol) wheel profiles are to S7? Is it enough to simply adjust the back-to-back by moving the wheels out on their axles?

Mike