Scratchbuilding a locomotive...

Producing a UK outline narrow gauge locomotive in 009 currently requires you to source a kit and ready to run chassis. There are European locomotives available in HOe from Bemo, Liliput, and Minitrains. In 009 there is just the recent Minitrains Brigadelok but nothing of a distinctly British outline...

We will look at assembling white metal kits, etched brass kits and 3D printed kits in other posts, however an important and often considered mythical skill is scratch building. This basically means using raw materials to produce your own model, however that does not mean necessarily building your own chassis, or fabricating everything yourself. As you will see in this article you can make use of parts in your 'bits' box, or specific detailing parts to finish your model. All of these parts in the model below, excluding the bucket and chimney, are scratch built or available from suppliers online.

Building a coach kit

An adventure beyond ready to run often starts with a rolling stock kit. When working with British outline narrow gauge in 4mm scale this has been a necessity before the advent of the Peco Lynton and Barnstable rolling stock...

Building a plastic kit is an excellent learning experience, especially if it's a well designed and explained example. The Meridian Models Talyllyn coach No.4 is a simple and well designed example that is cleanly moulded with little flash on the injection mouldings.