PLEASE READ BEFORE ORDERING -
THESE KITS/MODELLING AIDS ARE 0 GAUGE
Our card kits have gained a high reputation, and many repeat orders, which is a testimonial to our satisfied customers, but we find that a few purchasers have not bothered to read the write up. Most ebayers are delightful, but we had one lady who bought a card tram kit, and though it said card kit NINE TIMES in the write up complained it was not a RTR METAL MODEL, and whilst we offered a refund, gave us a negative feedback which ebay said was unreasonable so deleted it
a) The kits are printed on card, and are not READY-TO-RUN plastic or metal models.
b) Because the subjects we cover often have very limited sales, pre-cut card is NOT possible without increasing the price to prohibitive levels. This means YOU have to cut out the parts, including any windows, doors etc. If you are looking for a “SHAKE THE BOX AND IT FALLS TOGETHER” KIT, our kits are DEFINITELY NOT for you. If you are prepared to do quite a lot of work, you will end up with a model that has far more detail than the majority of the throw it together kits. kits are laser printed on thin card, paper or adhesive overlays based on what we find to be best in trials. For example, the granite sets are paper not card, as it gives a less pronounced edge when you overlap sheets. WE tried both to see which was better. Some rolling stock kits are card, but the loco livery overlays are adhesive sheets
c) We use quite thin 160gsm card for our kits, and there are several reasons for this. This is not to keep costs down as thinner layers means MORE printing and more costs, but for quality reasons. If you look at most kits, the windows are recessed far more than they should be due to the thickness of the material, and beading or other overlays are also much too prominent, so are either omitted by kit designers or are grossly over-scale. With the thin card we use, you can get it RIGHT, but it is more work for us to design and for you to build.
d) Anyone knows that you can’t bend card in two planes, so domed roof ends are “out” on a kit. – WRONG – with the thin card WE use, it will deform to permit domed panels. By using a multi-layering technique we can cover items that are quite impracticable in heavier card. We tried various thicknesses until we found what will work. Another benefit is that two or three layers of thin card, when glued together are MUCH STRONGER than one thicker piece of card and are less likely to sag or deform.
e) With thin card, we can add a lot more detail. For example our Ramsey water tank kit depicts a wooden tank that is very weathered with rotten wood. The colour artwork on all four faces is an exact match for the original, and with multi-layering you get 3D decayed wood in full colour. How many other kits do you know that offer that ????
TO SUMMARISE – IF YOU EXPECT A KIT YOU CAN THROW TOGETHER IN FIVE MINUTES, THEN YOU WILL NOT LIKE OUR KITS, SO PLEASE DO NOT BUY ONE. If, on the other hand, you are prepared to take some time, you can build a delightful model, and have a look at the photos of the kits in our range. The display model is built up from one of our kits, but you need to take time and put in some effort.
Best wishes
Robert & Elena
An
“Elro” Card
Construction Kit in 7mm O Gauge
The kit of 10 sheets makes up into a traditional and road surface. It will cover up to 6 square feet and can be used for railway goods yards, passenger platforms, street scenes, tramways, works yards, etc and at a bargain cost of less than £2.50 per square foot.
You will need a steel ruler, glue, scrap card, and felt tip pens or
paint to touch in exposed edges of the card.
We are now used to tarmac roads with an essay of writing and lines on them and a rash of signs, making it look as if they have ‘signpox.. Streets in towns and cities up to the 1950s were often surfaced with granite setts, especially if there was a tramway.
I didn't have any photos showing the new kit granite setts, as the old ones were not quite the same so I needed to do the first of the new projects. One view shows Elena holding some sheets, another view shows the card packing and three views show the finished artwork, tho I need to add edging slabs in the view with the petrol tankers, but that was not obvious other than in the photo as it is hidden from normal viewing angles. The end of the model railway yard is curved so again you can see how they look on a curve. The work was completed by dint of burning a lot of midnight oil about 7.30am on 23 October, and we had guests coming for 10.30 to run the railway and the first comment was that you've even got the drain covers!
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An “Elro” O Gauge 1:43 scale Great Eastern Railway “Type 7” SIGNAL BOX CARD Model Kit by Elena & Robert Hendry. The kit builds up into a multi-layered detailed model of the GER Type 7 signal box, a design that first appeared in the 1880s and continued to be built until the start of the 1920s. In 1997, two dozen GE Type 7 boxes remained in use on the national rail network, making the model suitable for modellers covering a period of well over a century. To complete the kit, you will need scissors/craft knife, a steel ruler, glue, scrap card, wire, glazing material, and felt tip pens or paint to touch in exposed edges of the card.
The origins of this kit were that we wanted a Great Eastern Railway signal box for a friend, and spent a couple of years looking for a suitable kit in O Gauge with no success, but plenty of promises from manufacturers that they would look into it. When we started making kits ourselves, we decided we would get on with it, and studied drawings prepared by the GE for contractors building the genuine boxes over a century ago and photos of many GE boxes of this pattern. The kit follows the contract drawings but also incorporates evidence as to how the boxes appeared in real life. It is suitable for a smaller GER station, of the sort that most modellers have room for, but if you are wanting a really large box, a couple of kits could be combined to produce a suitable structure, as these boxes appeared in many different sizes. It can be “platform mounted”, i.e. placed directly on the platform of a station, or ground standing, as with the original design.
In this age of plastic and resin, the use of card in a kit may seem “old-fashioned”, but card is a very versatile and convenient modelling medium, and where small production runs are called for, is ideal, as it offers versatility at low cost. To do a small production run for a structure like this in plastic or resin would put up the cost 10 or 20 fold. The kit consists of six sheets of pre-printed fully coloured A4 card, along with detailed instructions and a photo of a completed model for you to refer to during construction. The card is quite thin, but this means that it bends smoothly but flooring, roofs and other structural areas should be reinforced with additional card that is readily available from stationers, or you can use a cornflake or similar packet if you are into recycling ! In assembling the sides, we make up a “sandwich” comprising the pre-printed sides, a sheet of 1mm glazing and then the pre-printed interior. Apart from bending much more smoothly that a thick sheet of card, the thinner card we use means that unlike most die-cast or plastic models, where the window frames are much too thick, the windows are not inset too far, enhancing realism greatly. The kit includes sides, ends, floors, roof and interior detailing. To construct the sides, the window frames are cut out from Sheet A, and then an overlay that has been cut out for the structural timbers is placed over this, creating a realistic 3D effect. Separate window frames are cut out, glazed and inserted behind the main sheet. The same procedure is followed with the ends, whilst the staircase is built up from several layers of card to produce a realistic and robust model of the characteristic GE end gallery and stairs. Interior detail includes some internal wooden planking, the floor, on which are marked out the locations of the lever frame, the signalman’s desk, lockers and stove. These items are also included in the kit, with a generous selection of correctly coloured levers, so that a modeller can build up a lever frame to suit his layout. Helpful hints on how levers are organised in a lever frame are included. The block shelf and specimen block instruments are also included as bonus items, although not originally a part of the kit.
Whilst the kit can be built up with a high level of detail with interior fittings, it can also be assembled as a simple non glazed “box” by a younger or less experienced modeller. Unlike expensive etched brass kits that many modellers find too daunting, and are not really suitable to the younger modeller, this card kit is readily affordable and is a good start to modelling. The photo of the finished model shows what you can do, but some experience of card construction kits is a help.
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An “Elro” O Gauge 1:43 scale CARD Model Kit by Elena & Robert Hendry that builds up into a pair of multi-layered detailed models of the widely used GER standard 10 ft x 10 ft wooden hut, a design that appeared in the 19th century and continued to be built for many years. Hundreds of them survived well into BR days, making the kitl suitable for modellers covering a period of well over a century. To complete the kit, you will need scissors/craft knife, a steel ruler, glue, scrap card, wire, glazing material, and felt tip pens or paint to touch in exposed edges of the card. The origins of this kit were that we wanted some Great Eastern Railway structures for a friend, and spent a couple of years looking for a suitable items in O Gauge with no success, but plenty of promises from manufacturers that they would look into it. When we started making kits ourselves, we decided we would get on with it, and during research for signal boxes, found data on this GE standard hut.
Due to reduction in passenger and freight facilities at station that are open, and because branch lines, where such huts prevailed were vulnerable to the Beeching cuts, these traditional GE buildings have been largely forgotten, but were a feature of East Anglia for much of the twentieth century. To give a few examples, such huts were to be found in platform use at Seven Sisters, as a yard hut at Stowmarket, and as a swing bridge control hut at Beccles, whilst Cawston boasted a double length version with garage type doors. In this kit, which has been prepared from GER plans issued to contractors who built the real version over a century ago, and from a study of views of GE stations, we have provided various components to customise your model, as you require. Interior fittings include the desk, lockers, stove and a variety of levers allow you to build a ground frame to suite your layout. This kit builds into two huts, so that the modeller can use ONE as a porters room or other station building, as a yard office, and the SECOND as a signal hut or bridge hut, or you can combine the two into the large Cawston version ! The hut is pre-printed in early Eastern Region BR blue green and cream colour scheme. As this paint tended to be very long lasting and faded, we have sought an appearance that suggests it has been some time since the building was painted but it is not in the last stages of decay. The interior colours we have used are brown and cream. A detailed study of 1960s and 1970s colour views former GE signalling structures reveals great diversity, with white or cream floor to ceiling, or with white/cream upper panels, and blue green, apple green or brown lower woodwork. For use on the ground, the floor of the hut was raised off the ground by about a foot to prevent dampness, but for platform use, this was not necessary, and the plinth was dispensed with, providing a level access from the platform to the hut. If you are using the hut as a platform building, you can cut away the plinth, giving the maximum flexibility.
In this age of plastic and resin, the use of card in a kit may seem “old-fashioned”, but card is a very versatile and convenient modelling medium, and where small production runs are called for, is ideal, as it offers versatility at low cost. To do a small production run for a structure like this in plastic or resin would put up the cost 10 or 20 fold. The kit consists of four sheets of pre-printed fully coloured card, along with detailed instructions and a photo of a completed model for you to refer to during construction. The card is quite thin, but this means that it bends smoothly but flooring, roofs and other structural areas should be reinforced with additional card that is readily available from stationers, or you can use a cornflake or similar packet if you are into recycling ! In assembling the sides, we make up a “sandwich” comprising the pre-printed sides, a sheet of glazing and then the pre-printed interior. Apart from bending much more smoothly that a thick sheet of card, the thinner card we use means that unlike most die-cast or plastic models, where the window frames are much too thick, the windows are not inset too far, enhancing realism greatly. The precise interior details would depend on usage, but would include lockers, a desk and the all important stove. These are included as is the interior wooden planking, permitting you to produce a detailed interior. If you wish, you can add lighting so that this will be readily visible on your layout. As a common use for these huts was with a small outdoor ground frame at minor locations, where the expense of a signal box was not justified, we have included a selection of levers that you can build up into a ground frame. Even at large stations, ground frames were common, working carriage sidings, yard connections, and so on.
Whilst the kit can be built up with a high level of detail with interior fittings, it can also be assembled as a simple non glazed “box” by a younger or less experienced modeller. Unlike expensive etched brass kits that many modellers find too daunting, and are not really suitable to the younger modeller, this card kit is readily affordable and is a good start to modelling. The photo of the finished model shows what you can do, but some experience of card construction kits is a help.
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South Eastern Railway SB
Much of the details of this kit are as for the previous two kits. The SER used a sash window box from the 1870s, a few of which survived into the 21st century and privatisation, giving the kit a use for modellers from Victorian times to Privatisation. Like the GER signal box, it included interior fittings for an SER Brady lever frame, block instruments, signal box diagram, register desk and so on. If the modeller has worked out the levers required for his layout, sufficient spare levers are provided to allow him to duplicate it in the model
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Great Eastern Railway water tank
Although an accurate model of a GER water tank on a brick base, it could be used on almost any layout as these structures were relatively standardised. The tank can be made to various depths, as was the case with the original and has sufficient components to provide an accurately modelled interior to the tank house and to the water tank itself. For the water we recommend you buy 1mm Darvik of equivalent glazing. If you ask why do we not supply it, we would need to buy in bulk and would then have to add on a margin AND allow for postal, ebay and PAL charges, so it is cheaper for you to buy it! As a 'tip' you can buy A4 sheets of Darvik from model suppliers, but if you go to Wilkinson's - Wilko - they sell frameless picture frames. The small ones are GLASS so are not what you need but the large frames are done with a darvik type material and a 30 x 20 ins sheet is less than an A4 sheet from a specialist supplier. We used one large 'glazed' frame to make many of the proving models which appear in our kit descriptions. .
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St John’s IOM Railway Signal Box
Suitable for Light Railway or Scottish use, St John's box was an early stone and wood box supplied by Scottish contractors Grainger & Sons in 1879, with many early Scottish design features. See the large rod opening at the base. The Kit inc parts for the locking frame, as this is visible due to the big opening, which would make a delightful addition to any layout.
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Light Railway Water tank (Ramsey, MNR)
Country Station Building/ Foxdale Station
This is one of out most popular kits. A detailed kit of Foxdale station with comprehensive interior fittings, this is suitable for any small country station. In red brick with cream brick quoining and a wooden screen to the waiting room. Whilst it would not suit the LNWR or GWR modeller, it would be suitable for many parts of the UK as many wayside stations were to no particular company house style. Full interior details are provided, even for the urinals, and not just the booking office, waiting room and so on! Our proving model is built with a removable roof, so we can display the interior which is fully planked partitions, and one later addition is quite different to all the other partitions, and oddly enough overlaps one of the windows at the back of the building by an inch on the real building, which in 0 Gauge is 1/43rd on an inch! The interior décor is blue and pale cream, and when we measured it up in the 1970s, it is probably that it was the original 1885 paintwork!
The kit includes advert boards and suitable posters and although these are for the IOM, railway companies did exchange posters, as I can recall Cheshire Lines Railways posters in the Isle of Man long after the CLC had been absorbed into BR! You can of course add your own posters instead.
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Grounded tram body kit
As an offshoot of one of our tram kits we produced a pair of grounded tram body kits as we wanted one for a shelter at a tram terminus on our layout and we thought other modellers might want the same. It is typical of old horse car or small electric car bodies and would suit any layout from the 1890s to the 1960s. Such bodies were to be found in farm houses, allotments, factories and so on, and the modeller can use his imagination, for example boarding up some windows roughly with planks or adding potting shed ephemera etc. In our illustration it is in use as a waiting shelter at a tram terminus. Col Stephens even used an old horse tram as a coach on the Shropshire & Montgomery! Old tram bodies were still being rescued from farm yards well into the 1980s, so the scope is almost limitless.
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Full-colour LOW RELIEF Card
Kit for Victorian 3 and 4 storey urban high density tenements, suitable for
model railways etc.
ARTWORK IMPROVED SINCE PROVING
# MODEL BETTER SILLS,
#BETTER LINTELS,
#MORE WINDOWS IN KIT,
#more washing on lines!!!
NOTE the retaining wall
at the base of the tenements is NOT A PART OF THE KIT
Brick, sandstone,
limestone, are common in some parts of the UK, so we cannot guess what
retaining wall you need, so it is best left to you, and adds diversity to your
model. We used 5mm foamboard, scored with a biro and steel ruler to
provide depth to enhance the 3D illusion.
This is not a shake the
box and it falls together kit. You have to do a good deal of work.
The kit is in 8 A4
sheets, 3 of the brickwork, three of the window sills surrounds and buttresses,
and two different sheets, C and D giving over 40 different windows. Washing to
hang on lines, as at Ranelagh Bridge is included plus open windows, different
types of curtains, net curtains, election posters and people to provide
one-offs to add diversity.
The kit makes three
12 window panels and we put two kits together to make a 60 inch long six bay
tenement. As we needed a low relief building, less that 0.5 ins deep, we could
not provide the protruding kitchen blocks of the Ranelagh Road tenements, but
other blocks were flat at the rear, as ours is. You can see at least 8 chimneys
to each section at Ranelagh Bridge, but this requires depth, and if you do not
have such depth, perspective chimneys look wrong from most directions. We do
not include chimneys as you may not have enough depth, and a feature badly
modelled is worse than nothing.
Our proving model
uses two kits and is 60 inches long, a scale 215 feet in 0 gauge. The green
banding of the full size tiles is similar to the shade we used for the capping.
My father’s 0 gauge
Greenlane & Hillside Railway was started in 1921, and sidings off the end
of Hillside platform 1 occupied a roughly triangular site bounded by two walls
and the running lines. Some hand-painted scenery was tatty so was removed but a
replacement was overdue. One day as I looked at the photo of Ranelagh Bridge
loco sidings outside Paddington, I realised the shape of the site was similar,
though Ranelagh Bridge seems to have at least 20 blocks. OUR KIT provides
material for three blocks, and two kits will provide for 6 blocks and a length
of 60 inches, which is probably enough for most modellers.
The photos are of
proving models and other models built for our model railway and include
individual customising for example the Daimler factory having a ground
floor cut-away to allow private sidings to enter the building, and the sign
being customised with rub on lettering, not a part of the kit. The five story
building is by cutting down a three story unit to two, and the Walmsley bulding
is a tribute to a pioneer modeller I knew when I was a child, and the WM sign
is plastic letters added to the kit. The 'tramscape' to the left is our
artwork and we hope to offer some to modellers.
How to build our kit
For strength we
suggest building the kit on hardboard. We used 10.5” depth to provide a
boundary wall below the apartment block, and 30” for one kit or 60” for two
kits. If you stick the artwork direct to the wall, when you need to change, it
will be ruined, whereas the hardboard can be separated from the wall. SHEET A
provides the brickwork and window apertures, so with a sharp craft knife and
steel rule, cut out eleven window openings per sheet, or all twelve if you wish
to remove the bricked up window aperture. Blocked up windows were the result of
a particularly mad tax introduced in 1696 in which the number of windows in a
property were taxed. It was correctly condemned as a tax on light and air, and
although it was repealed in 1851, many Victorian properties had bricked up
windows and this mad legacy can still be seen on many older properties to this
today. Often the quality of the infill was poorer than the surrounding bricks,
so our infill is ‘tatty’ compared to the other brick. Three of the six panels
in the double kit we built have the bricked up windows removed. Use a
dark red felt tipped pen to colour in the exposed white card and a grey pen to
colour in the exposed edge of the window will on the side.
Sheet B provides
buttresses, window sills, window surrounds and roof capping stones. With a
sharp craft knife, cut out the window sills and the window surrounds, colouring
exposed edges of card with felt tip pens. Fit the window cill first, or you may
end up with the window surround not level. There are 42 or 43 windows in the
kit, depending on the sheets supplied which provides spares for the 33-36
windows in a single kit. Basic types, e.g. a window with a net curtain below
the mid rail are in multiple, but some windows with posters, full depth
curtains or people are one-offs, as they should only appear once in a finished
kit. If you do a double kit, you need 66-72 windows and you have
84/86 windows which will enable you not to duplicate people. We suggest
you cut out the windows in the main sheet A, add the cills and surrounds, and
from the photo you can see how the 3D effect improves the look of the model,
and add the window units last as there is a risk of getting glue on the frame
as you are positioning the surrounds if you do it that way. How you arrange the
windows is up to you, but have a look at the photo of Ranelagh Bridge. Blinds
are now common, but were unusual in the steam era. Conversely lace curtains
were more common. This was traditional working class accommodation at a time
when working men were predominantly labour, so the election posters are ‘Vote
Labour,’ as Tory or Liberal posters would be rare. You will see washing
is hung from one window in a flat to the other window. Buttresses help
the 3D and mask the join between sheets. CUT the artwork approx ¼ ins from the
end of the brickwork, score the black bend line about 1/10th ins
inside the artwork and end to a right angle. When you have a crisp bend cut
away the surplus white material. If you cut to the edge of the brick first, it
will not bend as cleanly,
If you have 2 or 3
inches space for scenery, you could move the boundary wall away from the face
of the tenement, and add a extra floor by cutting and pasting the artwork, or
add depth to the model and chimney stacks. You could add window boxes for
flowers or bird boxes. We have someone looking out of an open window. You could
cut a plastic figure to provide a 3D person leaning out. We do not
supply the plastic downpipes or the foamboard for the boundary wall, as E-bay
charges a commission on the sale price, so if we include them, we have to pay
full price and then charge you price plus commission plus the ebay commission
on our additional postal cost, so it saves perhaps 20% if you buy foamboard etc
directly yourself.
There is a ‘must
be old fashioned rubbish’ prejudice against card as a modelling
medium, as plastic, etched brass, etc are more trendy. A sensible modeller
ignores prejudice and uses something that does the job. We have provided
close-up photos of the artwork as applied to our proving model. A plastic model
would have the mortar recessed, but be unpainted, and I recall several days
picking out mortar on a plastic kit only too well! Apart from the chore of the
mortar, and the colour difference is what you notice, think of doing all the
individual window frames and getting them uniform.....
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Essentially
everything we say about our tenement block applies to the modular factory
kit. You get sufficient components to build a 20 ins x 9 ins
factory with ground level loading doors, and the opportunity to provide high
level warehouse doors as well, and a cover for the hoist [chain and hook NOT
supplied]. OUr proving model is 4 panels long so required two kits.
As it is modular construction, we built another kit or another site on the
model railway with a 2 x 2 [i.e. 4 square] format and 5 storeys high though it
could have been six stories if we had the height to do so. Buttresses disguise
joins between horizontal units and enhance 3-D effect, and as you can see
from the proving model you can include opened windows, [glazing not supplied]
Plain [black-interior] windows are supplied and ALSO windows with the middle
bar on the opening position omitted so you can add your own angled open window
and these show suitable factory interiors, dynamos, switch boards, roof beams
etc.
As the structure is
modular you can use or or multiple kits, and with two kits, you can make a 4 x
1 horizontal block, a 3 x 1 vertical block, a 2 x 2 square 6 story block, or
larger is you aff more modular units. We have built three models already
for our layout.
Although we call it a 'factory'
you could build it as a large railway company freight warehouse for a large
town or city station. We provide lettering for some classic factories and blank
brick to add your own using rub-on lettering or transfers.
Chains, hooks, and model raiway
foreground, wagons etc are NOT provided.
We recommend you build the
factory on foam board or picture framing card or hardboard [NOT included in
kit]
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Full-colour
Card Kit for 1920s onwards modular CONCRETE 3 storey Factory with high
level doors suitable for model railways etc.
This is a concrete version of the
1920s/1930s brick built modular factory kit. A United Dairies title
is included but it can be finished for other purposes to choice. You get sufficient components to build
a 20 ins x 9 ins factory with ground level loading doors, and the
opportunity to provide high level warehouse doors as well, and a cover for the
hoist [chain and hook NOT supplied]. Our two proving model for our model
railway are different as per the photos and the kits can be built in many
different ways combining two or three kits if need be
Buttresses disguise joins between
horizontal units and enhance 3-D effect, and as you can see from the
proving model you can include opened windows, [glazing not supplied]
Plain [black-interior] windows are supplied and ALSO windows with the middle
bar on the opening position omitted so you can add your own angled open window and
these show suitable factory interiors, dynamos, switch boards, roof beams etc.