Perennially popular, this course offers hands-on practical support with issues that challenge even experienced modellers – preparation, soldering, chassis construction, compensation systems, motor mounting, detailing, assembling valve gear and fitting pickups. The aim is to take home a model that not only works reliably but is well on the way to completion. Locomotives naturally predominate but we also have a very active carriage & wagon department.
Tony Gee, Tim Watson and Jerry Clifford are our regular tutors.
Tony Gee’s course on kit construction caters for modellers with basic skills, who want expert advice and time for uninterrupted modelling. If you’re having difficulty making a locomotive run, or have mastered the art of making wonky rolling stock, then bring your handiwork along. Tony focuses on the core essentials of construction – preparation, soldering, assembly with and without jigs, wheeling-up and building etched brass/nickel silver or whitemetal bodywork. Whatever gauge you work in, whether you’re a first-timer or simply need a refresher, this back-to-basics course will encourage you to learn the guiding principles of kit construction.
Tony will help you get the basics right – square and true underframes, boilers and roofs sitting level, wheels correctly quartered, spacers accurately aligned, compensation doing its job. If you’ve been having difficulty in this area (and who hasn’t, at one time or another?) then here’s how to get it right. The course caters for all the 4mm gauges as well as 3mm and 2mm modellers.
Tony has recorded a demonstration of how to make replacement parts for metal cuts out of sheet brass and nickel silver. This recording covers both duplicating parts and making them from scratch. These techniques can be helpful if you have lost a part from your kit, you wish to add an extra detail or build a variant of the prototype that your kit does not cover.
Tim Watson makes his skills and experience as CME of Copenhagen Fields available to the Advanced Locomotive Chassis Clinic. As well as OO, EM and P4 enthusiasts, we usually have a healthy gathering of 2mm scale and N gauge modellers. In this group Tim will help you with CSBs, compensation, springing, multi-stage gearboxes, split-chassis construction and all the ultimate refinements of the chassis-builder’s art. Tim has tutored this course for several years and partners with Tony Gee at our Spring weekend. Tim has recorded a pair of demonstrations on both soft soldering and silver solving techniques for construction.
Jerry Clifford is a well known 2mm timescale modeller who regularly edits and contributes to the Model Railway Journal. Jerry is also well known for his various layouts based around the Somerset & Dorset Railway, featuring his model of Bath Queen Square. As well as tutoring the 4mm Locomotive and Kit Construction course Jerry also tutors our regular structure building course when he is not sharing tutor duties with Tony on the 4mm course.
Tony Gee, Jerry Clifford and Tim Watson are also tutors at our ever-popular Summer Retreat where, for six gloriously uninterrupted days in August (Sunday afternoon to Saturday lunchtime) you can really get to grips with your chosen project, whether it’s a locomotive, a coach or a rake of wagons.
We also have a 7mm Locomotive & Kit Construction course that deals with the larger scales.
