Planning the Club Modelling Competition Entries

Tuesday this week I made my first visit to Cliff’s place for our Tuesday Nighter’s meeting.  Cliff is the newest member of our group, although he has been a member for quite some time now.  I have not been able to make any of the previous trips to Cliff’s place to view his layout.  He has a nice layout down one side of his garage and plenty of tracks to shunt back and forth on.  He also has a few desks on which to undertake modelling and painting.  While there another of the Tuesday NIghters brought along 3 of his Eureka 40 class locos.  So I coded them up with 4 digit addresses for him.  They seem to have a very weird speed straight out of the box.  Very fast on speed step one, and one had a huge amount of momentum.

This weekend was our monthly meeting for our Club.  It was also the date that we needed to have our modelling competition entries submitted for next month's modelling competition.  This allows the organiser to determine what categories we will have entries in, and arrange judges, and trophies to be purchased for the various categories that will have entries.  This year I plan to have 5 entries.  The competition is on the second Saturday in December.  So I have not much time left in which to complete my entries.  I spent a good hour thinking what I was going submit on Thursday night.

On Friday night I decided to get stuck into completing my Hanovale FAM sleeper.  THis has been sitting around for months.  I had previously tried white glue for making the windows, but they turned out very cloudy.  So on Friday I cut out and shaped 10 windows for one side of the wagon from clear styrene.  On Saturday night, I made another two windows for the side doors.  Today I cut out 10 more for the other side of the wagon, and got around to gluing them in.  The windows now look much better.  I also painted two bogies up for the FAM on Friday afternoon.  Today I also fitted the KDs and the bogies to the FAM.  I now need to do the two end windows in the doors that allow travel between coaches in the train, and then look around for some appropriate decals for the wagon.

Yesterday on the way to the Club, I picked up some styrene to make a train shed as part of a diorama to be entered into the modelling competition.  I think I will try and get around to completing that either tonight or during the week.  I will paint it next weekend and it should be ready by next Sunday.  So that will be two entries down.

I have made another structure that I was going to use for entry number 3, but I have not been able to locate it.  It is somewhere in the shed.  I will dedicate next weekend for locating that item and put the finishing touches on it.  If I cannot find it, I will make another.  You can never have too many of this item.

Another item that I was going to enter was started many months ago and has languishing on the layout unfinished and unpainted.  So I think I will be working on that the weekend after.

My last entry also contains lots of half finished models.  So I need to get stuck into completing these items.  I am having some holidays around the cricket test match in Brisbane and the first week of December (just before the competition) and should be able to knock up about a dozen items and paint them up.

It will be shame if other members do not get on board and put entries into the competition.  That is why I am putting in 5 entries.

I have also done so much detailing and scene making on the home layout during the year, but I just cannot up and bring it along to the Club.  The shed is just not portable.