12 gifts for model railway fans

Wondering what gifts to buy for your fellow railway modellers – or yourself? George Dent marks the 12 days of Christmas with a dozen suggestions for stocking fillers and more substantial treats.

POSTCARDS FROM KENT

Postcard Models is a family business, producing a delightful range of laser-cut building kits in various scales, each designed to fit within postcard-sized packaging. They’re great fun to assemble and depict fabulous prototype structures from various parts of ritain, but especially those with a Kent or Sussex flavour.

This lovely ‘N’ gauge kit of Bodiam station, on the Kent and East Sussex Railway, features plenty of detail and an authentic timber grain texture. The platform canopy is included, and the kit provided an enjoyable evening project – it’ll be just the thing for helping your

Christmas pudding digest! And for something a little more whimsical, why not plump for a kit of Brighton Pier’s iconic Helter Skelter, or the Art Deco tower from Margate Lido.

SANTA’S ON HIS WAY!

Add festive cheer to your layout with these new Christmas-themed packs from Modelu. As well as Santa driving his reindeer sleigh with a sack of presents in tow, there’s also a more pagan Victorian Father Christmas figure, plus a pack of gifts (including a steam loco). There’s even a very cute trio of snowmen.

All are 3D-printed and are available in virtually any scale, from ‘N’ gauge upwards. All you need to do is paint them.

TOP-NOTCH TWEEZERS

I’ve only recently discovered GodHand tools and they’re superb, combining high ‐quality materials and modeller-friendly design. While cheaper tweezers are freely available, few are as good and reliable as this set.

Crafted in Japan from high grade stainless steel, this set of tapered tweezers sits comfortably in the hand and the fine tips align perfectly without deforming, ensuring a firm grip of even the smallest object, drastically reducing the risk of the part flying off into the abyss of the carpet. Once you’ve tried these, you’ll avoid cheap tweezers like the plague!

SPRAY PAINT THE HALLS…

The festive holidays are a great time to learn new modelling skills, so an airbrush starter set would make an ideal gift. This Sparmax kit provides all you need to get started, in the form of a handy little ARISM compressor, which is pretty quiet in operation and, at just 160mm long by 90mm wide, it’s ultra-portable too. It features a pressure regulator and even sports a Christmassy sparkling red finish!

A Sparmax MAX-3 airbrush is provided, along with a storage wallet and 2 metre braided hose. Extra accessories include a glass cleaning pot (with spare air filters) with built-in airbrush holder and a set of cleaning tools. As a bonus, a pair of Christmas-themed stencils, acrylic paints and jar of cleaning fluid are also included. The

MAX-3 is one of the best budget airbrushes around, and the 0.3mm diameter nozzle makes it great for working on smaller models or for detailed weathering jobs.

KEEP A LOW PROFILE

Low ‐relief buildings are a key feature of so many layouts and these user-friendly kits from Scale Model Scenery provide an enjoyable assembly project – and superb results. The laser-cut MDF structure slots together easily, with printed overlays providing a convincing brick texture (there’s also an option of whitewashed stone for the ‘Backs’ kit). The sash windows are assembled from various layers to provide convincing depth and plenty of smaller details are provided, including gutters and downpipes, along with pre ‐weathered roof slates.

Building a row of these cottages will provide the perfect backscene to a layout or diorama, and the kits offer plenty of scope for customisation and adding interior detail, and lighting too, perhaps.

A FEW EXTRA HANDS

Do you have plans to tackle one of those brass kits you’ve squirrelled away, or take care of some electrical repairs? If so, this tool will make life so much easier, solving the modeller’s perennial problem of a lack of a third hand.

Four adjustable gooseneck arms, each fitted with a spring clamp, are fitted into a sturdy metal base, allowing components to be held securely and leaving your hands free. Ensuring parts do not move during the soldering process is essential for avoiding ‘dry’ joints, so this tool will definitely prove its worth.

Additionally, the base is equipped with a sponge and wire cleaning ball for keeping your iron’s tip clean, plus a jar of rosin flux. There’s also a handy spindle which can be wrapped with solder to act as a handy dispenser.

THE HISTORY BOOKS

Spread over two separate, landscape format volumes, these collections of old photographs are a joy to browse. Northern England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland feature in one volume, while Southern England is the subject of the other. Each hardback book contains over 100 black and white images of historic locomotives in a wide variety of locations and settings, all captured during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Many of the images are published for the first time and the captions and early chapters provide plenty of useful information about steam locomotive development.

As well as standard gauge railways, narrow gauge and light railways also feature, with many well-known railway companies and locomotive types covered, but also plenty of more obscure and esoteric subjects, such as the Jersey Railway, Liskeard & Caradon, and the Easingwold Light Railway.

The geographic demarcation of subject matter across the volumes is a bit hit and miss (is Liskeard in Northern England?). However, the focus of each book is firmly on the locomotive types and there are plenty of weird and wonderful designs I hadn’t seen before, some of which would look equally at home in a Wild West movie. Perfect fireside reading material.

HEX APPEAL

I’ve given up on cheap straight shank twist drill bits, as the smaller diameter bits invariably break and the cutting edges dull quickly when used for cutting into nickel silver, brass or whitemetal. Larger diameter shanks may reduce the working length of a bit, but do provide more resilience, and this set of bits from GodHand have proved the best so far.

Contained in a tough, clear plastic holder, this set of bits (0.5mm-0.9mm) feature a 2.5mm round shank which then morphs into a 4mm hex shaft which can be held in a regular drill chuck or, for more convenience, a matching magnetic pin vice.

Manufactured from high ‐quality steel, the bits feature an obtuse cutting angle to prevent the bits from ‘digging in’, encouraging a truer, round hole while also prolonging the tool’s life.

The pin vice features a magnet to hold the bits more securely and the plastic finger grip makes it comfortable to operate.

TRAVEL PLANS

Millions of travellers rely on transport maps every day and, thanks to the likes of Harry Beck, whose London Underground maps have become part of the British consciousness, they have turned into a real art form, marrying function with style.

This fascinating new book looks at how public transport maps have developed around the world over the last 160 years, with chapters organised by continent. Locations include Berlin, Cape Town, London, Montreal, Tokyo, Chicago, Beijing, Delhi, Amsterdam and Sydney. It’s fascinating to see how different designers have approached the task and the book also includes insights from passengers and operators, while also re‐imagining transit maps for the future.

Anyone with an interest in travel or in the art and science of mapmaking will find this an absorbing read, and it may even influence your holiday destinations for the new year.

PUTTY IN YOUR HANDS

Model Craft’s masking putty is easy to shape and sticks to virtually any surface, making it ideal for masking up awkward surfaces prior to painting. It’s also easy to remove, leaves no oily or sticky residue and can be re-used.

Supplied in a round tin, simply break off the desired amount and knead or roll it into shape, pressing it onto the model’s surface. It’s perfect for protecting clear glazing when weathering locomotives and coaching stock and I’ve also found it perfect for masking elements of steam locomotives during full or partial repaints. Masking boilers, bufferbeams and smokeboxes can be tortuous with traditional tapes, but this putty does the job quickly and effectively – just tease the material around handrails and fine details with a cocktail stick.

Ideal for use when airbrushing or spraying aerosol paints, it can produce clean demarcations between colours. The putty is also handy for gripping delicate components while painting, especially miniature figures.

CHRISTMAS IS FOR THE NIPPERS

This top-notch set of nippers is designed primarily for cutting plastic kit parts from sprues, with the super-sharp, tapered jaws set at a 28º angle to help them reach into the tightest spots. Using tools like this, rather than a blade, ensures even the most delicate of plastic parts is removed without damage. They’ve also proved ideal for trimming away the support structure from 3D-printed parts and figures, drastically reducing the risk of breakages.

With a sprung action, comfortable grips and carbon steel jaws (made by the famous Kobe Steel Ltd), these nippers will last a lifetime if cared for properly. A pot of special maintenance oil is also available, to keep the jaws moving freely and prevent corrosion. The jar even features a built-in applicator brush.

Products: GodHand • GH-CPN-120-S Tapered Nippers (£32.50) • GH-NMO-SET Nipper Maintenance oil 5ml (£10.96) Web: www.airbrushes.com

THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS GIFT?

Most of us were introduced to this wonderful hobby through the gift of a train set, with everything you need to get started contained in one box. Hornby still leads the market in train sets, with packages to suit different budgets. One of the most colourful packages in the current catalogue is the Freightmaster set containing Class 20 20132 Barrow Hill Depot in Railfreight ‘red stripe’ livery, along with an inter-modal wagon loaded with two containers, a bogietippler wagon, Mk 1 tool van and a standard BR brake van. An analogue controller, power connector, oval of track – with points and siding – and colour track mat are all supplied. The locomotive is DCC‐ready too, so there’s scope to go digital in future.

It’s the perfect Christmas gift for a budding enthusiast, as well as providing fun for all the family.