RMCQ Show and Qld Rail 12mm collection started

Now that I am back again from my recent sabbatical from blogging, what has been happening. Well the Tour De France is over again for another year and as usual some surprise upsets but Froome won the contest.

On the modeling front, not much has happened as highlighted in the last post, however I have been pottering around with some ideas for the Club HO station area backscene and very low relief buildings that are needed. I have purchased the Evans Designs Model Builder software (http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/model-builder.html) which seems to be the way forward. I am thinking of making it three dimensional by using thin card (1-1.5 mm) against the backboard with a building on it, then in front of it using foam board (about 5mm) with the foreground buildings on it. I will come up with a design concept and place on the layout to see if it works as I am hoping it will.

On the subject of the Club HO layout, we have decided to incorporate a 12mm (HOn3.5) design that will coexist with the 16.5mm system. This has got me interested in Queensland Rail rollingstock as this is the prototype I grew up with, more so than NSW, but to date not much mass produced RTR 12mm available (PGC Models do small runs I believe and I will look into these to pad out my mixed traffic trains with some interesting rollingstock). However Southern Rail Models and Wuiske have been producing some nice RTR rollingstock. I also have 12mm and 16.5mm QR 2300 class  locos on order from Southern (care of Mr Mackie). Why the 16.5 you might ask? Something to run on the main layout (modeller's licence - the bogies were swapped out to standard gauge will be my story!).

So at the club's (RMCQ) show on the weekend just gone, I have started the 12mm collection with the purchase of a 4 pack of Southern Rail 4-wheelers from a vendor at the show, Railco.

(picture sourced from Southern Rail Models website http://www.southernrailmodels.com.au/)

I have also been on the hunt for a OO bus for my layout, but to date I have only been able to find buses specific to a region or city. However also at the Railco stall I came across an Oxford Diecast model of a generic British Rail bus which suited perfectly.

 

(picture sourced from Oxford Diecast's website http://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/)

On the subject of the RMCQ Show, I took my sons down to have a look and there were some very good layouts in attendance. Some we had seen before, some added to, and some new. Some photos from the show can be found at Mr Mackie's blog (http://ca55ino.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/a-good-weekend-turned-into-great-weekend.html).

Also this week I received an email from a bloke at Shapeways, the 3D printing company, wanting me to do a blog post about their products and website. Not sure what is in it for me, but hopefully they will surprise me?