Today we held the last Wealden area group meeting for 2014. As meetings are on the 4th Saturday of the month, the theoretical December meeting always clashes with Christmas. So the next meeting will split the difference and be held on the 10th January then we revert to the 4th weekend in February. With us so far?? Good - I'll continue.

We had a good turn out with Richard, Dave, Gareth, Bob, David and myself present with a few items being worked on.

Topics of conversation included the Arnold 5BEL (Richard and Gareth already gloating in posession),the state of the Brighton Line, through tickets and forthcoming exhibitions.

Projects being developed included my GWR Mogul, with the splashers being added. I had already turned some cups on the lathe and cutting the splashers out of the circular cups was done during the meeting. The pictures show the machined disc and the last splasher being cut from its partner. The boiler and firebox are cast resin while the cab and footplate are nickel silver all to fit over one of my Manor chassis kits with suitable afjustments. The tender is one of the Dapol items avaiable from the Asssociation shop.

Gareth was lining out one SECR carriage, with another finished one on show for inspiration. As ever, Gareth's modelling quality exceeds virtually anything else designed to run on 9mm gauge track. I'm itching to change the wheels to 2FS one day.....

David was working on some early GWR wagons in red oxide. The Western did exist prior to the 20th century and some of the earlier colour schemes were different to those most of us know. As all this pre-dates living memory and colour photographs David has the ideal answer to any rivet counters. He was using an interesting little vice  to steady the wagon body being worked on, as shown in another picture.

Meanwhile Richard was refining points on some of the wagons referred to in an earlier blog, among other things making new coupling loops.

So that was us done for 2014. Plenty of time to make modelling progress over the festive season and we'll all congregate back in Uckfield in mid January to share what we've been up to.

The pictures are pretty much in the order of the text above. Double click on any picture to see more detail.