Subject:
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Re: New MOC: Dark Red LMS 4F 0-6-0 Freight Locomotive
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 19 Aug 2002 14:34:57 GMT
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Viewed:
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898 times
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> > And that's it. This was the first model locomotive I had as a kid, so it's
> > nice to make a LEGO one now.
In lugnet.trains, Tim David writes:
> Was that the Airfix one? Of course you could have made your job easier by
> making an all black one! but that wouldn't make nearly such nice model.
Actually it's an HO-gauge (not OO, like current UK models) electric model
made by Lima. I do have a black one as well, but that's no fun. :-)
> I've been watching the models you have posted and each one gets better. I
> can't really work out why but models of UK prototypes seem harder to make
> in lego than German or US. Any way, very well done
Thanks Tim - it was a lot of fun trying to acquire the bricks, then to work
out what I could do with them. It was to be this or a large diesel, and I
much prefer this one.
I think UK models are hard to make for a number of reasons. The first is
the colours of old steam engines - Germany had a national railway much
earlier than the UK, so much of it was a uniform black with red wheels.
There are plenty of Lego bits in black that can then be used for details.
It's not just hard to find bits in green or dark red (even red and blue
sometimes), but there are shades of these colours that make it harder. For
instance, GWR used a much darker green than LNER. Lego green is a shade in
between the two so doesn't look quite right for either. Tan looks good for
building, but make an engine out of it and you realise it's qite pale. I
had to use a lot of black lines on my Bluebell engine, sometimes using two
plate thicknesses, so it wouldn't look too odd. The only colours that come
close are Caledonian blue and black (mainly the last BR steam trains).
Early BR diesels are good in Blue (as Huw has built), but again the green is
a little bright (although that was a brilliant achievement at the time).
There's also a style thing. Most British designs tried to hide a lot of the
pipework and mechanics from view, behind double-walls and such like, so
there's less detail to model. Germans always seem to like very visible
engineering (I've never seen an escalator in the UK that has the mechanism
visible through glass panels!), and that gives you more to work with.
Having said that, modern continental trains are absolute swines to model
with all their aerodynamic shapes. I'll just stick to steam.
US steam engines show a lot of external widgets too, and their diesels are
fairly blocky. Why bother with aerodynamics when you're not tied to
emissions quotas? Just use a bigger engine.
Driver wheels are a problem too. British train designers had a passion for
huge wheels. I'm not sure if German ones weren't as big, or if they just
hid them behind a lot of pipes and connecting rods, but you really can't do
many British trains without them. You'll notice I've used modified model
team hubs on mine.
Apparently Legoland have problems with colours too, as some companies can be
quite picky about colour matches. Others just love to see their liveries in
Lego. Depends on whether you talk to the MDs or the marketing people I
suppose...
Jason J Railton
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: New MOC: Dark Red LMS 4F 0-6-0 Freight Locomotive
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| (...) Was that the Airfix one? Of course you could have made your job easier by making an all black one! but that wouldn't make nearly such nice model. I've been watching the models you have posted and each one gets better. I can't really work out (...) (22 years ago, 19-Aug-02, to lugnet.trains)
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