I have been thinking for a long time if should make such a post or I should just stay in silence and do my thing. I don’t know which is the right way, but I decided to write some of my thoughts because I know some people from this forum quite well and I would like to share my thoughts.
I decided that my modelling in H0 would come to a full circle quite soon and after that I will “retire” myself from that and concentrate in 0. This does not mean I will give up what I have but I will be “resting” doing only from time to time some scratchbuilding in my favourite Epoches, which are II and III and finishing of the kit that I have accumulated over the years.
Until that comes I will present my “mass production” plans that I have in mind or are already under way but also some other projects that will complete my H0 fleet. Of course the term “mass produced” is not correct but I will use it when a number of models will be produced and not just one or two. I have made a “bucket” list of what I want and I will pursue them in solo or max. with another person that shares the same interest. I announce them here because if somebody wants any of them he can happy get them but they will be in no way produced as kits of rtr in the normal sense. They are more considered as “scratchbuilding aids”.
Let’s take a look in these projects. “Production” timescale will be something like 2-3 years. These will be made only once and then finished.
1) N6 Rgss Kioleidis. I have been giving a thought about this wagon for a long time. I have been looking in the pictures that TEE 11.5 uploaded and was thinking strongly about the drawings….but I have to discard this idea as the drawings seem/are designed for mass produced plastic (roco style) production, which I do not want to do/lay my hands on (Sorry Panagiotis). I want 15 wagons for me and Barbapanagos also wants a fleet. We have been looking for methods of doing that at a reasonable cost and that the assembly should be quite straightforward. I have also talked with Balkanmodels for a possible cooperation but I am still unsure about the fact of assembling 15 nickel silver kits with all the fiddly stuff. I do not think I would have the nerve. I am currently looking into other techniques in producing the basic “kit” but still don’t have results. The idea of metal etching has not been abandoned but I am still sceptical. I also do not have the mood to draw the stuff on corel or CAD thus I need somebody to do it for me and this costs of course as I will pay this out of my pocket....
2) Z1 1926 Ringhoffer closed wagons. A must for Ep. II and III as this was the most numerous class of goods wagos with 800 in total. I will make some kits for me (20-25) of this interesting wagon and hope that Balkanmodels will provide me the castings for the buffers, axle boxes and maybe springs
as the first two have already been mastered for the Ringhoffer summer project. Probably the wagon will be produced in laser cut card for the body and the chassis in the UK. I already have talked with somebody that will be able to make it for me. If I can get the castings the wagon could be complete within the next few months.3) A longer term project will be the Eaos-x….I still don’t know the best way to make it but I would like to have a rake of them. I don’t know if it will be a mix of cast resin parts and scratchbuilding of pure scratchbuilding…I think etching for this wagon will be highly complicated. The other option would be laser cut card for some basic parts and then cast resin….lets see.
4) Since about 2 years I bought a number of unpainted G10 goods wagons from a supplier in Germany. I was thinking of painting them through Albert models but I am not sure as probably the interest is very low. I will make the decals and paint them myself….it will take time.
5) Famillereux coaches….these are my favourite and I would like all of them. Now the catch…if sufficient interest (15-20 per type) I could make the coach bodies in laser cut card. If not I will scratchbuild them out of paper or plastic. The chassis is easy and bogies can be sourced quite easily from ebay as the gangways and the buffers from piko.
6) I have also some other private projects running like the “Breda” family wagons (passenger and baggage/mail), which I already building in ep. III in SEK lettering. Decals will be made available for anyone who wants. Also the Kioleidis IC coaches are under way….I bought the donour coaches and it will a lot of work for a rake of 5 of them and I will only do that once.
Why am I doing it like that? I believe now firmly that the greek railway modelling is non-existent anymore. Maybe 6-7 years ago there was some movement but now everything has died out….one might say that the crisis brought it to a halt. To my opinion this is not the case. You DO NOT need money to build something. You do not need expensive stuff. Especially wagons can be built with basic tools and materials. Before somebody says anything…my favourite wagon was built using a Fleischmann baggage car that I bought as a bargain for 15€ and made a complete new correct body out of evergreen…costs…..not even 20€ including the decals. You can find this project in the forum. It is certainly not the MicroMetakit Kb loco (which cost me a fortune), which is a nice model though…..I would say that the greek railway modelling is non-existent because there are no modellers around to make their own stuff. On one hand the market is so small for mass produced models (although there were some good examples like the ADtranz) on the other hand no one wants to built a kit (production only justified for some large classes) or even scratchbuild. For a straightforward conversion of the 1936 passenger coaches besides me there were only 4 people that got some decals!!!! (Christo, Barbapanagos, Tim Hills and erail)…..I don’t mind as an A4 sheet costs me 45€ but what if that is a kit that you have to produce minimum of 50 pieces? As you can see no interest is here thus I do not want to continue anymore. Currently I only know a few people that did/do some real modelling in Greek prototype. I will name them in random order: Barbapanagos, Johnmood, Christo, Stavros Koureas, Vasos from SFS (pioneering work), Panagiotis Melissaropoulos, Stefanos Goulakos, Yannis Hazapis, Nontas Moyzes, Vasilis Choriatis….and that is were the list ends…..pretty poor.
This of course does not mean that I will stop contributing or hiding my modelling….it might inspire somebody to start. Furthermore I think that the Balkanmodels forum fulfils my needs much better than any other forum around as I can also satisfy my thirst on historical matters. Some of you know that I have withdrawn myself from Amnizia because the level of communication was not want I wanted. I think the moderation team is excellent and I know most of the personally but the discussions are not interesting and the modelling part is since long dead.
We can happily discuss my statement and also about the projects. If somebody wants to make a contribution I am open as always.
If the fat controller thinks that the topic should be moved he can do that as he likes...
Kind Regards to all
Andreas
