August already: the year speeds by, and next month - Saturday 20th September to be precise - we have the Scottish Minimeet. The weather was fine for our August meeting at Almondell but numbers were slightly down, perhaps due to holidays. Alisdair, Alistair, Nigel, Jim, James and Graham were present.
Nigel was assembling finescale motion for a Farish Ivatt 2MT tank, from (I think) a Nigel Hunt etch.
He also had for inspection an interesting little 4mm scale project, aimed at solving the perennial problem of what to do when an exhibition-standard model is retired, a potential long-term display site has been found as an alternative to scrapping it, but for one reason or another the operating rolling stock is not available. Nigel found he could scan a side elevation drawing of a loco, draw a basic sketch over it and give it volume in CAD, and use a 3D filament printer to produce adequately-accurate, non-functional models quickly and cheaply.
James had a mock-up of the view-blocker building he volunteered to produce for Mearns Shed, to disguise the fact that the shed itself is only two bays long. The blocker started out as a tree, morphed into a store, then a tenement (Scottish apartment block), and finally a multi-floor warehouse (since there is no space for a tenement's drying-green). L-shaped, but with the back of the L cut away so it's in low relief, it is more effective in actuality than in the photo - taken without the proscenium arch in place.
Jim has been working on etched platform seats for the Grampian group's "Dunallander" project. He showed us the latest etch sheet, bristling with things like picket fences, signal posts and arms, and telegraph-pole crossbars in addition to the seats.
He then settled down to solder up the two designs of seat (simple, as used by all the pre-group Scottish companies, and fancy, as used by the Caledonian).
There were a few fights with the carpet monster on the way, but the results, even before cleaning up, were impressive. These seats are awfy wee.
Alistair was completing the final part of the backscene for ESME's N-gauge layout.
Alisdair has a Fairburn tank which he'd acquired damaged for a bargain price, repaired, and now wished to finescale. Plenty advice was on hand. Graham had a variety of 3D-printed buildings for Simon's "Glenfinnan" layout, and coach bodies for Alisdair. Both of these initiatives escaped the blog camera, however.
Alisdair also handed out responsibilities for the minimeet. There will be quite a few interesting layouts there: Kirkallanmuir, Lenabo, Glenfinnan, South Queensferry, a lump of Dunallander have all been invited, Mearns Shed will be running, and a bring-and-buy stall. If you're in central Scotland on 20th September, we would love to see you at ESME's Almondell clubroom (EH32 5PF) between 1100 and 1630. Full details in the August/September 2mmSA newsletter.
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