FQX Production underway

G'Day All, the factory has advised that production is now underway on the FQX project

This picture shows the diecast underframes being polished in preperation for assembly.

The plastic parts are being shot at the moment after a couple of final tweaks.

Cheers
Rob

N Scale NR's

A quick update, thanks to Colin Bolin Aussie N Scalers now have ready to run NR class locos. These are from 3D Rapid Protyotype master, cast, assembled and painted by Colin on Atlas mechanisms. They are now available from Colin or online from Aust-N-Rail.

Cheers

Rob

Australian N Scale Convention Part 2

There were a number of new products available for the convention, the first group I wish to highlight are from the skilled hands of Robbie Popovski and Colin Bolin. These models were drawn in 3D, printed in 3D, painted and with decals from an Alps printer... These models will be available Ready To Run from Aust-N-Rail later in the week and will be made to order in small batches.

First off the McKeen rail car! HO'ers eat your heart out ;) An unusual model that captures the prototype well. It is on a TomyTec mech and runs sweetly.

Keeping in theme we also have the DERM also on a TomyTec mech:

Moving forward and still with a passenger theme is the NSW XPT with a variety of coaches available:

Finally the AN.

Surely a boon to modellers of many eras!

Australian N Scale Convention part 1

Sorry for the long delay, where did the time go! haven't been doing much modelling, just keeping my head above water; however, last weekend I attended the Australian n Scale Convention here in Melbourne.

It was a fantastic couple of days and full credit to the organisers for a superbly organised event at an excellent venue. Numbers wise it was the largest Australian N scale convention so far, so well done!

One of the highlights for me was seeing the plans Ross Balderson, the builder of award winning N scale layouts "Sydney Central" and " Captains Flat"  has for "Newcastle circa late 1800's"... yes that is right late 1800's in n scale complete with sailing ships and more...

The first key building is well underway, the Customs House. Here are a few pictures:

All scratch built from plans and measurements. Nothing more I can say other than hurry up Ross, we are all keen to see more!

Cheers

Rob

N Scale FQX OCX test Sample 2

We have received the second set of test samples. A couple of key improvements finish wise over the first set. They have been painted to show up the detail, enjoy!

FQX OCX underneath detail

FQX OCX deck detail

FQX Side 1

FQX Side 2

OCX Side 1

OCX side 2

 They will come with XSC bogies with 36in fine scale wheels and Microtrains 2001 underslung couplers to give the correct ride height. The test bogies run very nicely :)

Cheers

Rob

N Scale NSW 400 Class Railmotor

When I received the first kit from Peter Boorman of his 400 Class railmotor (3D master by Rob Popovski) I just has to make one up! A beautiful little model and another well designed kit. In addition to the cast body an etch for the roof radiator, lost was horns and decals make up the kit. It requires a modified Tomytec TM-04 chassis to complete. Over the last two months or so I've been putting it together and now it is finished!

Peter Boorman Workshop NSW 400 Class Railmotor

The castings out of the box are crisp and paint up well. The brass detail items require soldering for the footplates between the railmotor and trailer, otherwise they attached with superglue.

The chassis needs to be cut on the ends and a little bit of filing back to get a nice fit.

This one is also fitted with a TCS M1 decoder :)

Detail shot of the decoder fitting showing where wires are soldered on.

The model looks good and runs sweetly, although if you had to pull more weight should be added.

Another fine kit from Peter Boorman and more fantastic 3D work from Rob Popovski!

Cheers
Rob

October Victorian N Scale Collective meeting

Yesterday the October Victorian N Scale Collective http://home.vicnet.net.au/~vnsc/ was held at my place with 25-30 members turning up at various times during the day.

So what do you do at these things?

Talk in small groups:

Discussions such as how to paint models, airbrushing techniques, paint manufacture (Thanks to David Haymes from Haymes Paints),  demonstrations of assembling Microtrains couplers (I felt no pressure at all....), Fairmile Class small boats of WW2 and a range of other topics...


Here another group of intrepid enthusiasts discuss Flinders st station (thanks to this book http://www.readings.com.au/product/9781921488030/), Darren's crazy obsession with trestle bridges, Luke's obsession with Bendigo and my crazy obsession with having a million projects on the go...

The meeting spilled out into the shed where Nowa Nowa was running (but not Bairnsdale yet), sorry no pictures; into the carport where Michael had a variation of T-Trak on display (pictured) and a Free-moN reverse loop (which I forgot to photograph). Are we having fun? The answer is obvious!

I don't get to VNSC meetings often but when I do I always have a fantastic time, learn a lot and share my knowledge. The Collective has members at all levels of skill and interest in the prototype and is a great pleasure to share with other enthusiasts. Belonging to a club / group brings many benefits especially when it is as great a bunch of people as the Victorian N Scale Collective.

I even got to do some modelling!