Brian Austin

I've been getting that "An error occurred" message as well.

Shaky, short clip of the firebox glow effect in action, plus mfr website for reference. https://www.dapol.co.uk/collections/o-gauge 20240205_193958.mp4

A few weeks ago I purchased a British O Gauge (scale of 1:43 or 7mm to the foot) freight set from the website of the UK manufacturer Dapol. It was a bundle, that is, a little tank engine, two freight wagons and a brake van. No track, etc. While I was at it, I also got a wagon in a sharp red livery. It is labeled for a coal works in Worcester, England. I live an hour's drive east of Worcester, Mass. ? The loco has a neat feature: the firebox and cab glow with red and orange LEDs. Unfortunately, the engine cuts out at around 5V, so getting clear slow-speed pictures or video of the effect is quite difficult. Loco is tiny by US standards. It is roughly the size of a smallish S Gauge loco. Buffers are sprung, and it's fun to knock the string of wagons together to watch how they bounce into eachother. ? In anticipation of getting a British loco, last year from trainz.com I got three old plastic coaches made in Italy by LIMA. While for the price I paid for these three I thought they were fairly decent, they are looked down upon by today's modelers in the UK. Unfortunately current state-of-the-art model coaches of this type are out of my budget for now. The coaches I got came assorted in liveries. Luckily one of them happened to be painted for the same railway as my loco. I stuffed a battery-powered light string in it to see how it looked. The roof isn't properly seated in my photo. I am eagerly anticipating ordering another type of tank engine, of a different railway, and hope to get an appropriate coach for it. These things do turn up second hand on UK websites.

I'm in the Boston area, so I'm not conveniently located near the path. It'll be going through northern New England though. My brother went all the way to Illinois to see the last one. I do recall seeing crescents while I was at art school in Boston in the '90s.

https://www.undiscoveredclassics.com/forgotten-fiberglass/top-of-the-morning-to-you-lets-review-the-shamrock-brochure/ https://www.undiscoveredclassics.com/category/forgotten-fiberglass/shamrock/

Storefronts in a small city with lots of character... https://www.youtube.com/@Chandwell/videos

Wonder whatever happened to this pilot model.

While I was aware of these cars, I learned a few technical details from this video...

So how do you paint that in scale? ?

Camper shell looks odd on a pickup with a panoramic rear window. ?

Here's a book of various rubber toy cars and trucks. I always thought that for the most part they were good likenesses of 1930s and 40s vehicles. https://atca-club.org/atca-toy-catalogs/rubber-toy-vehicles-by-dave-leopard-1994/

From the era of cast iron, pressed steel and rubber... https://atca-club.org/atca-toy-catalogs/

Almost forgot about the Dodge pickup that was also announced. Note this is a wholly separate endeavor from the ill-fated 3-D printed Powell pickup announced last year by the "other" Jo-Han (Okey Spaulding). It is also wholly separate from the old JoHan. Too many JoHans.

There were numerous large-scale pressed steel or diecast toys of IH trucks made in the previous century. Also, in the '50s PMC made promo models of the larger IH trucks in glorious warpy acetate plastic.

Well, according to a post or two from the tail end of last year, the JoHan name was revived and would be issuing new product that was 3D printed. A trailer was announced, and we were supposed to await further new announcements but they've been rather quiet.

I've read somewhere (lost track where) to warm up the tires some to soften them prior to wrestling them onto the rims.

I came across these in a box in the attic. I had forgotten about them. These were a short-lived series from the early 1970s. You could get a separately-sold friction motor to pop into the chassis to power them. The front axle of the wagon has a pinion to spin the stove's stack around.

I wonder how soon we'll see a re-tooled streamlined go kart? ?

And anything too rigid cracked and broke easily. ?

Most of the classic bricks are made of a blend of ABS, but many other types of plastic are used... https://bricknerd.com/home/every-type-of-plastic-used-by-lego-5-20-22

For the price they're asking, I'd think I'd want nicer paint. ?

https://copleymotorcars.com/?showroom=1956-ferrari-500-trc-scaglietti-spyder

https://copleymotorcars.com/?showroom=1962-land-rover-series-iia-109-5-door-station-wagon

Note that the Pontiac parts are from a Catalina. Most models handy for kitbashing would be the longer Bonnevilles, I'd think. There is this resin Catalina kit. https://mcwfinishes.com/shop/ols/products/1959-pontiac-catalina-2dr-sedan