Neil in OO - Coming Soon!

I've been asking friends and visitors what they would like to see made next from the Sodor OO Works, and in the Railway Series category, i noticed someone said about giving Neil a try.

This little box tank, though not much is known about him, is a perfect little character who i think would make a great addition to the Sodor fleet, thought he worked for the Sodor & Mainland Railway (S&M), he was one of three locomotives to only be seen in the book 'Very Old Engines'. Nothing is really known about the other two either, however, one could say they were brothers.

Though the model might not look like much in the diagram, it would be an ideal little engine for shunting duties, so it is highly likely that Neil, will soon be under way.

A suitable donor chassis, would be either a Hornby 0-4-0 'Percy' or a 'Pug'.

Stick in the Mud - now here!

The Railway Inspector Studios is proud to present, a classic story from The Railway Series by The Rev. W. Awdry. Adapted and Told by Owen Hayward.

Owen writes:

"I am proud (if you can call it that) to finally release a project I have been working furiously on for about 2 months or so now.
Based on the Thomas The Tank Engine books by the late Reverend Wilbert Awdry, 'Stick In The Mud' tells the story of the two oldest engines on the Island of Sodors' narrow gauge railway- Skarloey and Rheneas, and what happened when they first arrived to the crumbling old lines.

Taken from the book 'Very Old Engines', this story had to be heavily adapted to allow for production constraints, as well as keeping the writing to, what I hope feels like, a classic TV episode appearance and atmosphere. For example, I found that the original episodes were all 5 minutes 35 seconds in length, so had to ensure that this story matched that timing. The original book also saw Skarloey comes to the line without a cab. As removing this would have damaged my only model I had to cut this aspect of the story out to retain continuity.
I have to admit, it was an interesting project to undertake. I'm looking at possibly animating the other stories from the book as well, of which there are three more. But until then, I hope you enjoy my work shown here".

HO Scale Iron 'Arry and Bert for 2013 from Bachmann!

Bachmann has announced that Iron 'Arry and Iron Bert are this years newest locomotives to join the expanding Thomas & Friends range.  These two models have been long thought about by fans, and many had assumed that they would soon be joining the range in the distant future.

Well, the proof is now here, as shown in their 2013 online catalogue, also joining them will be a new Troublesome Truck titled 'Troublesome Truck #4' and 'Jeremy the Jet Plane', but it is not yet known what this truck will look like, but knowing Bachmann, they will surprise us once further details are known.

Large scale modellers will be happy to hear that Toby is planned as the next new Large Scale Thomas & Friends locomotive to join the growing range.

Series 2 Red Coaches underway!

Recently started using Ratio 612's and a 613 Brake Coach.

Brake coach ends were cut up and elements extracted for use on a cut up 612 coach body side. Which as pictured above, has formed the brake coach exactly how i was hoping.  These were left to dry overnight, before being sprayed with a Tamiya spray paint, TS-33 'Dull Red'.

The results, a fine looking set of coaches, that will be ready to be assembled later, window glazing needs to be added, buffers painted and chassis put together before the body sides and ends go on.

Wanna keep track of them?

Head over to - http://worldofsodor.proboards.com/index.cgi?

More model based media to come!

We will hopefully be showcasing some more media works by our members in time, with the addition of James Hardwood's latest work 'Very Old Engines', with the story being adapted by Owen Hayward.

Be sure to check back later when we will have the media work posted on the media page.

Twitter Updated!

Decided to give the twitter account a clean up and update, if you arn't following us already, be sure to follow as at the link below.

https://twitter.com/ThomasModelling

100 likes reached!

The World of Thomas the Tank Engine Modelling Community, Facebook page, has reached it's 100th like today, we are really happy that so many like our page and what we do as a community dedicated to modelling Thomas & Friends stock.

Our biggest thanks goes out to Steven Bedford-Carter for being the 100th liker, and as a special treat, there will be a short clip made with a thank you message to everyone who has supported us since the page started in 2012. :)

Series Three 'Red' Coaches in OO

The Sodor OO works latest announcement has been made, and it has been decided that the next new project for 2013 will be to make some coaches depicting the series three 'red' 4 wheel passenger and brake coaches using the Ratio 612, four wheel composites with a 613 brake coach that will be modified to make the brake coach shown below.

I am aware there are several kits out there that already exist to make the red coaches, but, i am a keen modeller and i like a challenge, so i will see what i can mock up using these babies in the next few weeks.