Friday Update: Thirteen Eleven Twenty...

The morning is bright and clear here in North Wales on the dawn of a Friday 13th. I'm not one for superstition, but it is funny how things like this do get lodged in the mind nevertheless. Let's see how the day pans out...

The beginning of the week was a bit of a come-down, and slight anti-climax after the Victory launch at the weekend prior - I put the interview on our SmartTV for the kids to watch in front of the fire, it was strange to see myself on the big screen, but I didn't cringe too much and my partner said kind things about it - which was lovely. We've had such an amazing reception from both the public and other manufacturers, it's been more than we hoped for... you should see the press release in the magazines before Christmas and some advertising is planned as we move forwards with the project. All very exciting...

Early in the week I dug out my old iMac G4 - this 800Mhz machine is actually, on paper, slower than my old 12" PowerBook G4 at 867Mhz, but in reality, as a machine at home in my late teens it saw a lot less use as both Dad and I had laptops. Therefore, when Mum gave it me a few years ago it had been hardly used. It's got Adobe CreativeSuite installed, which is the main reason I dug it out, to confirm all worked as I remembered, because I may have a project coming up that would need a more professional page layout tool...

Before we talk about commissions, I was also playing around with some features of Affinity Photo, some software that does a lot of what Photoshop can do, for a lot less £££. Available from the Mac AppStore for less than £50, it seems, to me, to be a great tool. This weeks' lesson was not in photo colour adjustment or anything like that, but image stacking to improve the depth of field. Something I'd read about but never had the software for, it's built into Affinity Photo and was as complicated as taking three photos - see the results here, I can see this being of great use for future projects.

In terms of commissions, the header image shows the first pair of Hudson Hunslet's this year now complete, and ready to pass on to their new homes. Another will be crossing the line in the next few weeks. The final one requires a lot of custom work to represent a particular prototype so that will progress shortly afterwards. They've been so well received it feels strange to think I'll not build any more, but time moves on, and although I'd happily build one as a 'one off' I won't be doing any further batches of them.

The final thing this week is a delivery of etched parts from Steve - the revised Ruston parts have arrived, so that will be exciting to see it come together now - this model isn't far off release. The orange Plymouth has now got it's front bar grill protector so that will be soldered up with some mounting handrails, chemically blackened, painted and then fitted in place carefully next week - which with three large models off the bench will mean I have no excuse but to start some more fiddly etched brass kits!

If you've got a custom project, be it a layout design, structure, locomotive or rolling stock kit - or want me to design you something from scratch - I'm happy to say that despite lock down I'm still able to work and would love to help you make your dreams a reality. Get in touch using the form here, Facebook or the forums and we can discuss your commission. Until next time, more soon...