30th ANNIVERSARY COURSE

9th - 11th MARCH 2012

This is the original and BIG weekend where up to 70 modellers occupy the Abbey, working in several different areas. It is a great gathering wih lots to do, see, ask, learn and talk about.

This course has been at Missenden Abbey from the start.  It is a practical course, the aim being that participants gain new skills and build something to to take home after the weekend. The format has proved very successful over the years with many, many satisfied customers.

Book for the Spring Weekend then about a month before the date of the course, you will be sent full details and asked which one of following you wish to spend your weekend doing.

Although the 4mm Locomotive Kit construction is aimed at those modellers with some basic skills, who want expert advice and time for uninterrupted modelling. If you are having difficulty with making a locomotive run, then bring it along.  However, it's success has meant that some modellers come back year after year and their experience is every bit as helpful as the tutor's.  Tim Shackleton, experienced modeller and former editor of MRJ, is the tutor.

For those who like their chassis floppy, Tim Watson makes his skills and experience as CME of Copenhagen Fields available to the Advanced Locomotive Chassis Clinic. Tim has tutored this course for several years with a dedicated nucleus of modellers returning regularly.

7mm Modelling, which includes those who model larger scales and into more heavy engineering, are looked after by experienced modeller and engineer Bob Alderman.  Bob knows his way around locomotives having been involved in the building of Tornado.  Again, modellers return year after year.

The skills of Painting and Lining are nurtured by top professional model painter Ian Rathbone.  His group is perhaps the quietest of the weekend, concentration is intense and the results magnificent.  To do your models justice, this is a course all modellers should experience.

Norman Solomon's Trackwork is featured regularly in magazines and is as good as it gets.  The foundation of any layout, this is where you find out just how to make reliable track, learn the pitfalls of construction and the skills to avoid them.  Here is where you gain the necessary skills to build first class track for your layout.

Baseboards, Scenery and Buildings with Barry Norman.  There is little Barry doesn't know about the scenic skills.  He has been building scenery, writing books and articles about the results for many years as well as producing his own complete layouts and building locomotives and rolling stock.  His model of Lydham Heath in S scale now lives at the Bishop's Castle Museum in Shropshire.

In addition there are demonstrations on :-

*  Soldering made simple
*  Preparing a kit for successful assembly
*  Baseboard construction
*  Tracklaying

For details on how to book, see the Dates and Prices page. 
Spread the cost. There is the facility to do by direct debit.  See the 'How to Enrol' page of the Missenden Abbey site.

Pictures of a Modellers' Weekend are available for viewing.

CLICK HERE

‘Watching Ian drawing straight lining on a 4mm coach by hand (without a ruler) is rather like watching a concert pianist, when one is just learning to play the piano.’

'The best thing about attending a railway modelling course at Missenden Abbey isn't just the help from the tutors, but the little titbits you pick up from those working beside you'

'I would never have made a working locomotive if I had not been to a Missenden Abbey course'

'With help and encouragement from tutors & participants I took the plunge and used my Resistance Soldering Unit to add details to my 4 wheel coach etched brass kit. I was delighted with my accomplishments!'