Sneaking in a February entry before the month ends :-) Evening Star Dapol plastic kit is now completed. And I don't think I have been more satisfied with the outcome of a plastic kit in my hands.
The finishing touch (decals) made all the more glorious with a product that in Australia is called Pledge One Go. It is a floor polish made by Johnson and Johnson under various names world wide. Through the Internet I learned that while there are many specialist products for surface preparation for decals, there was one that might be under my kitchen sink. And indeed there was and indeed it worked as well as most had made out.
This somewhat begs the question, what did modellers do before the Internet allowed them to share ideas? Having read just a few magazines and books of modelling tips, none compare to watching a video of someone else doing the thing you have never done before but want to try. Clubs are possibly the closest to where this sort of thing could happen: watching someone else perform a technique you are not familiar with. And yet clubs tend to meet at fixed times and in places not always nearby and certainly rarely in one's own home. The convenience of the Internet being in one's own home, 24/7. Also the joy of pause and rewind because I missed what happened just there or want to see it again.
And yet in 2011 I note that other things are being lost. Steam is dying, slowly but surely. Heritage and preservation groups are doing their best but the reality seems to be that the expiry of a steam locomotive's boiler certificate is a death sentence, or at least requires major pause for concern. Ah melancholy.
Looking forward to Steamfest in Maitland in April for that very reason: 3 full size operating steam locomotives in one place. As a child of the 70s in Australia, not something I have experienced in living memory. For further melancholy, something that would have allowed my dad to relive his more youthful days, had I learned of this while dad still had more days on this earth.
So in order to avoid a triple bout of melancholy, a shot of the end result. I can see many flaws: the surface is not flawless under scrutiny, paint lines are not as crisp as I would like, and some of the decals are a little off level or not 100% straight along their length (observe the orange border on the tender) but as above, this plastic model is my "Most voted to give me contentment". And as a last note, yes, the wheels rotate and the valve gear works (though one of the axles is not dead true so she needs a good push to make things rotate)
