Track has always been a bit of a problem for the NZR modeller. Does one use something proprietary, with it’s virtues of speed, simplicity and robustness? Tempting as these virtues are, commercial track bears little resemblance to NZR practice. Worth considering for a yard with buried sleepers, but not good where the structure is visible. …
Interesting times here at NZF, where we’ve been reminded yet again of the pace of technology change. The trusty Solus 3d printer that we’ve been churning out casting patterns on for a few years has died, and been replaced with something higher resolution, faster and cheaper. While that has been going on, production of parts…
As a manufacturer, there is nothing quite as rewarding as seeing others turn your humble offerings into really nice models. What’s particulary neat is seeing builds or finishing that are not how you envisaged the product at all. This blog post showcases a lovely build from the Gig kit (KS016) by Rick Schreuder. Rick’s natural…
Personally, one of the great joys and challenges of model making is to make something that is not only an accurate scale model, but also looks like the real thing. This is, I suppose, the crossover between the science and art of modelling. I have to admit with struggling a little on the artistic side,…
As keen students of this blog will know, the idea of an F kit gestated for longer than the proverbial elephant. Having rashly displayed the newborn idea in a more public forum, I now find myself with the task of raising this problem child. One of the many issues besetting this unfortunate infant is a…
Every product reaches the point where I feel the urge to produce my definitive build, whereupon I move on to other things. Thus it was, and here it is, for the gig. I was rather taken by a photo on the web of a bright yellow gig. This may not be very typical of a…
Motivation is an untamed horse. There’s no knowing entirely where it comes from or what it’s going to do next. The drivers behind this little project where many, but certainly not aligned with any modelling big picture of mine. After all, there are no roads at Rewanui, so a car is somewhat surplus to my…
As the 1:64 W kits are just about to be released, my thoughts turned back to crew figures to complete the picture. One of the joys of modelling in the digital era is that output from one source can be imported into diverse software to simplify other steps. In this case I was able to…
With the W kit becoming imminent, one of the final tasks to sort out was the number and maker’s plates. While doing that I also took the opportunity to do the WA, and F class plates as kits for these are on my drawing board. There are also car class plates on the stock list.…
Long time readers of the blog will appreciate that, here at NZ Finescale, recent efforts might be characterised as ‘productive dabbling’. Productive in the sense that we’ve been able to demonstrate some pretty cool items. Dabbling, because this has not so far resulted in many new products that you can actually build. No apologies from…
As the W kits get closer to shipping, I’m focusing on the few remaining details like the number and maker’s plates. That occasioned me to exhume the test shots I did for this a little while ago. Prototype plates were around 1/4″ thick, scaling out to 0.1mm, which is convenient as 0.1mm brass is readily…
