Good evening everyone. Yes, yet another edition of Chuffers!

This is a special one, as today the three of us ventured bravely over the Preseli Hills and across the reaches of the Cleddau into darkest Pembroke Dock.

My old workmate and accomplished bass guitarist from the 1960's, Pete Mitchell had invited the Chufferduffers to once again exhibit our layouts at his modelling groups' annual exhibition in the Heritage Museum in Pembroke Dockyard.

We set off at the ungodly time of 7:30 in the morning, and were all set up in the venue and operational by 9:30. No more waffle - here are pictures:

 

Maes Y Gof:

 

 

The American N Gauge:

And an overall view:

We had goodies to sell, and did quite a bit of business. Both layouts ran faultlessly throughout the six hour exhibition, and we had ample time to wander, meeting fellow modeller Roger Howells, also from 'Oop North', and old acquaintances Ron Weatherall, Peter Francis and Steve McDonald.

Finishing with videos of both layouts:

Thanks for watching,

Shaun.

 Greetings all. 

Last Tuesday saw three of us meeting at Patrick's, for a convivial evening of food and wine, and possibly a modicum of railway content...

Colin and myself had little to contribute, Colin suffering from over-indulgence after a night at Browns in Laugharn celebrating Chas's wedding anniversary, and me reluctantly passing my eightieth. So, it was all down to Pat.

In the last post I showed some pics of Pats flower shop he constructed from a laser-cut kit. On Tuesday I had the chance to take some pictures of the front - so here they are:

This is the overall shot, and below are a couple of close-ups, with a pound coin for comparison:

Pats son Daniel, who I believe I have mentioned before, dabbles (very professionally) in 3D printing, and he came up with some vehicles in 2mm scale for Pat's American N gauge layout.

One of the items was a steam lorry:

Again with the ubiquitous coin for comparison.

Staying with Daniel, the previous Sunday happened to be Mothers Day, and in the past Daniel has given his mother, Mary, live orchids, which don't always last for too long. This year he went one better, and found an orchid plant made from Lego... consisting of several hundred pieces, it took Mary a couple of hours to put together - but a very impressive result!

 

 

 

A short post this week - tomorrow (Saturday 25th) we are exhibiting Pats 'Maes Y Gof' layout, together with the American N Gauge, at the Heritage Museum in Pembroke Dock. It's an early start, so off to bed for an early night!

We finish with a video of the Station Masters L & B layout featuring two of his loco's in tandem.

Nos da,

Shaun.

 Whoop-de-do, hooray, and other exclamations of unbridled delight... Chufferduffers once again are able to meet at Pentrecagal!

But I am ahead of myself. Tuesday April 28th Colin hosted Chuffers at his house in Cilgerran, where we feasted on his excellent home-made soup, cheesey rolls and stuffed olives, and imbibing on an offering from his cellar, this time an Italian selection from the South, vintage 2003. Appropriately enough we watched an old DVD of Jancis Robinson, part of her series on wine! (not a locomotive in sight...)

On to last Tuesday, after a break of several months, curry was once again on the menu...

Pat had brought along a show-and-tell laser cut kit of a 4mm shop, which he has modelled as a florist.

The only commercial bits are the figures, courtesy of Preiser, and the shell of the building. Everything else has been painstakingly modelled in plasticard, paper and card - plus all the painting, except for the figures.

I forgot to include something to compare the size, but as a for-instance, the figures are less than an inch high. Herewith the pictures:

And three more:

Outside the front of the shop:

and some packets of seeds on display: 

Still work-in-progress, so more pics of the finished shop at a later date. Watch this space!

Things haven't been dormant down in the Taf valley. Although the Station Master has been unable to do much to his Lynton and Barnstaple layout due to inclement weather, he was in touch with a guy who does 0 gauge 3D printing, and who advertised the L & B crane. Pete inquired about one in 009 scale, and in due course:

Here it is straight 'out of the box' yet to be fettled and painted:

Pete's prowess with the paint brush is about on par with Pat's, so we can look forward to a worthy addition to the L & B layout in days to come.  

As we are in L & B mode, here is a video clip from our archives of one of Colins loco's running through Cilgerran onto the turntable, and back into the Gorge to do service at St Dogs.

Thats about it for this one.

Steady away,

Shaun.