John B: Tuesday Terrors: 200 years of public railways: 1/72 Airfix Rocket conversion (30 points)

Squirreless again :( .........

During AHPC15 I decided to make a steam engine as 2025 would be the 200th anniversary of public railways. Last year I visited the Railway Museum at Stockton which is located on the famous route of the first railway open to the public back in 1825.

Also I had a nice link in an interesting book on the Hungarian Forces of 1848 revolutions.

The source of my model was the very ancient Airfix 1/72 Stephensons Rocket. Fortunate these are still made by Dapol in Wales UK, as no other model exists for the period to my knowledge. So off I went converting - it took me two rockets to get the look I wanted.

The early steam railways were a hotbed of invention and some amazing experimental engines ran.

I found this book in a charity bookshop and its a mine of information.It was tempting to embark on other model conversions but for a painting challenge even this one has proven time consuming despite part building the model during AHPC15.

Well its a case of steaming on having bagged TOY and REBEL theme entries and now put this engine to bed next up is a RESCUE figure.

Points calculation is 1/72 = 20mm so 15 points for the vehicle and 2 x 4 points for the two gentlemen.

That gets me 23 points - not quite a squirrel point again. ho hum.

What a wonderfully looking engine John, I really like that!  The blue-green is really striking and I like the animation of the two crew.  I wouldn't bet on them retaining their hats once they get up to any speed.  What does BETS stand for?  I also like the old time reference materials that you sources, plus of course the in person museum visit.  Given the conversion work involved I will round this post up to 30.