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Anyone know who took over the Wrightlines NG models range?
David?
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My understanding is that whoever took it over, with, I believe, at least some others of the various erstwhile ABS 7mm marques, doesn’t wish to be identified until such time as he(she?) is in a position to actually retail at least a reasonable portion of the range. Having known Adrian for donkey’s years, before ABS started in fact, and consequently being aware just how difficult things were getting even before Kay gave up (she retailed the whole range as well as having Wrightlines as her particular baby), I wish the new owner well but I suspect that it will be some time before retailing becomes possible again. I think that the 7mm NGA committee were extremely wise not to get involved with the range this time round.
David WOODCOCK
Champlon, Belgique
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I
am not sure (if anyone)has purchased them at present. I spoke to
the guy who has purchased the Trams and road vehicles kits, but he did say he
avoided the railway stuff as it was not something he wanted to be involved
with.
Sometime ago I did ask
Adrian about the Ambrico Isle of Man 00n3 kit, but all he said was it was
difficult to get the right grade of rubber for the moulds, he went on to say,
that he was spending more time making new moulds from inferior grade rubber and
this was only lasting from 10 to 20 mouldings before it was no good.
?
The normal rubber so he
told me that he was using, lasted about 50 times longer in the moulding process.
?
I am not an expert on the
moulding process so I don’t know if this is a good or bad result for moulding
white metal castings, maybe someone could tell us.
Colin Rainsbury
?
?
Colin Rainsbury
?
My understanding is that whoever took it over, with, I believe, at least some others of the various erstwhile ABS 7mm marques, doesn’t wish to be identified until such time as he(she?) is in a position to actually retail at least a reasonable portion of the range. Having known Adrian for donkey’s years, before ABS started in fact, and consequently being aware just how difficult things were getting even before Kay gave up (she retailed the whole range as well as having Wrightlines as her particular baby), I wish the new owner well but I suspect that it will be some time before retailing becomes possible again. I think that the 7mm NGA committee were extremely wise not to get involved with the range this time round.
David WOODCOCK
Champlon, Belgique
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David WOODCOCK, is correct.? What he says appeared as a statement withing the 7mm NGA as part of the 7mm NGA announcing that it had, wisely, decided not to pursue the range. Their position was that they would have stepped into safe it but that it was far better for it to go to a commercial operation. ? What Colin reports is typical of my own relatively recent dealings with Adrian and what others also report. It may or may not have anything to do the quality of the rubber (given you don’t hear other caster whining about it but it has a lot to do with Adrian’s CBA in recent years and, as the tale/reason varied with the person asking the question or trying to get him to produce kit x, y or z and was probably his polite version of “beggar of and stop bothering me” ? Paul Martin ?
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From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Colin Rainsbury
Sent: 29 December 2020 16:09
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [o14] Wrightlines Models? I am not sure (if anyone)has purchased them at present. I spoke to the guy who has purchased the Trams and road vehicles kits, but he did say he avoided the railway stuff as it was not something he wanted to be involved with. Sometime ago I did ask Adrian about the Ambrico Isle of Man 00n3 kit, but all he said was it was difficult to get the right grade of rubber for the moulds, he went on to say, that he was spending more time making new moulds from inferior grade rubber and this was only lasting from 10 to 20 mouldings before it was no good. ? The normal rubber so he told me that he was using, lasted about 50 times longer in the moulding process. ? I am not an expert on the moulding process so I don’t know if this is a good or bad result for moulding white metal castings, maybe someone could tell us. ? Colin Rainsbury ? ? Colin Rainsbury ? ? My understanding is that whoever took it over, with, I believe, at least some others of the various erstwhile ABS 7mm marques, doesn’t wish to be identified until such time as he(she?) is in a position to actually retail at least a reasonable portion of the range. Having known Adrian for donkey’s years, before ABS started in fact, and consequently being aware just how difficult things were getting even before Kay gave up (she retailed the whole range as well as having Wrightlines as her particular baby), I wish the new owner well but I suspect that it will be some time before retailing becomes possible again. I think that the 7mm NGA committee were extremely wise not to get involved with the range this time round.
David WOODCOCK
Champlon, Belgique
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I think we'd all like to see them come back onto the market. If you take the attitude that they are a kit from which you can build into good model rather than just putting a kit together they do make a decent representation of a prototype. I think it was David Jenkinson who differentiated between building a kit and building a model from a kit. I used to be able to buy a Keyser kit on Saturday and take it to the club running and painted on Wednesday night, dread to think now what they looked like. Wrightlines kits were however multimedia and nominally complete. White metal castings, sometimes some lost wax brass, a bit of etch and a milled if basic chassis. I rather enjoy 'getting the bits in', it means I can substitute a better motor, gearbox, details but many want it all in the box. What I hate is a complete kit with white metal moving or delicate parts, or having to solder 6 etches on top of each other to make what should have been a casting. However you might wonder if the age of the white metal kit could be passing. Now that resin printers are managing reasonable definition and it will only get better/cheaper and that you can work from a drawing rather than having to build masters that might be the? future. An analogy might be those dreadful slow start bulbs that Tony Blair foisted onto the long suffering British public when the future was already obviously LED both in terms of starting, brightness, colour and much lower power consumption and much longer life. ? Hope this makes sense, I'm struggling with a dyslexic keyboard. ? Frank ?
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From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Martin
Sent: Tuesday, 29 December, 2020 17:47
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [o14] Wrightlines Models? David WOODCOCK, is correct.? What he says appeared as a statement withing the 7mm NGA as part of the 7mm NGA announcing that it had, wisely, decided not to pursue the range. Their position was that they would have stepped into safe it but that it was far better for it to go to a commercial operation. ? What Colin reports is typical of my own relatively recent dealings with Adrian and what others also report. It may or may not have anything to do the quality of the rubber (given you don’t hear other caster whining about it but it has a lot to do with Adrian’s CBA in recent years and, as the tale/reason varied with the person asking the question or trying to get him to produce kit x, y or z and was probably his polite version of “beggar of and stop bothering me” ? Paul Martin ? ? I am not sure (if anyone)has purchased them at present. I spoke to the guy who has purchased the Trams and road vehicles kits, but he did say he avoided the railway stuff as it was not something he wanted to be involved with. Sometime ago I did ask Adrian about the Ambrico Isle of Man 00n3 kit, but all he said was it was difficult to get the right grade of rubber for the moulds, he went on to say, that he was spending more time making new moulds from inferior grade rubber and this was only lasting from 10 to 20 mouldings before it was no good. ? The normal rubber so he told me that he was using, lasted about 50 times longer in the moulding process. ? I am not an expert on the moulding process so I don’t know if this is a good or bad result for moulding white metal castings, maybe someone could tell us. ? Colin Rainsbury ? ? Colin Rainsbury ? ? My understanding is that whoever took it over, with, I believe, at least some others of the various erstwhile ABS 7mm marques, doesn’t wish to be identified until such time as he(she?) is in a position to actually retail at least a reasonable portion of the range. Having known Adrian for donkey’s years, before ABS started in fact, and consequently being aware just how difficult things were getting even before Kay gave up (she retailed the whole range as well as having Wrightlines as her particular baby), I wish the new owner well but I suspect that it will be some time before retailing becomes possible again. I think that the 7mm NGA committee were extremely wise not to get involved with the range this time round.
David WOODCOCK
Champlon, Belgique
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Hi all,
I totally agree with Frank that white-metal or similar is completely unsuitable for waggly bits on model locomotives, however I don't totally share his views on 3D printing being a substitute for casting. At this stage 3D printing still seems to require either a printer that is beyond most hobbyist modellers budget to turn out a body of the same quality as a cast model, or, it can produce quality, but the time it takes to do so is inordinately long, and hence is really only suitable for one offs.? (Now I must stress at this point I have not had the chance to view one of Paul Martin's models of the Fletcher Jennings, so maybe I am just too out of date with my knowledge. )? Commercially produced bodies, ie. Shap***s are rather expensive for what they are, and it appears a lot of what is on offer on their website was drawn up in the early years of 3D printing and never upgraded. There are some loco bodies on there that must have footplates at least a scale 9 inches thick.
Frank also touches on another related area, and it's this one that I think will ensure kits will continue to be offered, the pleasure of actually building something. Sitting at the workbench building a model, is for the majority of my modelling cohorts the most pleasurable aspect of the hobby, (with one notable exception,) running the models is definitely secondary.? Buying, or drawing up and printing, a 3D body, and just sticking it on a chassis, just doesn't cut it in comparison with a decent kit when it comes to personal satisfaction.? ?
Cheers
Ian J??
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David,
Yes, I do. However, I promised the new owner I would not go public until he was ready, as he has lots to deal with and does not want to be distracted by fielding enquiries. As I wrote in a recent Trade News for the 7mm NGA Narrow News (not a member?? why not?) the new owner is already an established and reputable supplier to modellers in 7mm scale.
Adrian Chairman & Trade Liaison, 7mm NGA
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Yes of course I am a member (and with a membership number of 81 it is just possible that I have been a member longer than you Adrian) and I read your bit in the Narrow Lines trade news although I had already heard from elsewhere. Whilst it was good news to learn that the new owner is already well established, I did wonder if he realises just what he was taking on. I don’t know who it is although, given the small field, it would be easy to speculate, but I have no intention of doing so publicly. Even getting a small proportion of Adrian’s 7mm kits back into manufacture, at least to the high standard that Adrian achieved, is going to be no mean task.
Happy New Year (well at least as happy as it can be)
David WOODCOCK
Champlon, Belgique
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On 29/12/2020 18:29, Frank Sharp via
groups.io wrote:
An
analogy might be those dreadful slow start bulbs that Tony Blair
foisted onto the long suffering British public when the future
was already obviously LED both in terms of starting, brightness,
colour and much lower power consumption and much longer life.
At that time LED bulbs
were either not in serious production or VERY expensive (?25+
per bulb as I recall) - I'm not exactly sure after all this
time.
Also "compact
florescent" bulbs, which is what I think you meant, got much
better with time, with much less flickering, much faster start
up, and whiter light output.
Like all new
technology, there are steady improvements over time, until the
tech reaches a "plateau" with little further improvement, until
a better technology comes along. For example flat-screen TVs,
electric cars, computers, mobile phones, etc. Remember those
HUGE mobile phones that "yuppies" (and Dell Boy) had in the
1980s?
And of coarse diesel
replacing steam, and road trucks replacing rail freight (ducks
for cover) ?
--
Brian Rumary
England
brian(at)rumary.co.uk
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Paul Martin
Adrian Gray