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Scenics
Noch
A ruined church, a cloister, and associated tower (above)
will be added to the Profi series of buildings made
from hard structural foam in the third quarter.
New all-in diorama sets also due
in the third quarter feature a children’s
playground, a park, a garden plot, and wood
storage (below). Each has a carefully hand-painted
hard foam base (170mm x 120mm) and is supplied with
figures and accessories.
Six further varieties will join the range of HO hand-coloured fencing in the
third quarter, and Noch will also adopt laser-cut technology
to create four further fine fencing and gates packs,
plus drain covers (below), all due in the second quarter.
Noch have been progressively expanding their selection of figures and related
accessories, and more should arrive in February.
In HO
- loco crew and shunters (Epoch III) (above), warehousemen,
housework, young travellers, seated figures, seated
figures (without legs, for installation in railway
vehicles), seated figures (without legs, for installation
in open sports cars), motor cyclists, cyclists, fruit
pickers, newspaper sellers, and a brass band.
In TT - homecoming, cyclists, loose women, a horse-drawn landau, and a horse-drawn
hay wagon.
In N
- construction workers, glass installers, pedestrians,
a weekly market, ‘love
story’, bathers, nudists, a horse-drawn landau,
a horse-drawn hay wagon, and a horse-drawn brewery
dray.
As can be seen, some are duplicated in various scales, others repeat sets already
available in other scales.
In HO, there will also be sets of
figures with appropriate accessories - storemen, market,
farm, playground, beach, and barbecue: these are due
in the third quarter. At the same time themed packs of
accessories are also planned - postal equipment, camping
gear, and funerals, while four small vehicles add to
the variety: a small tractor, a single-axle tractor and
trailer, a miniature tracked excavator, and an electric
platform trolley. Some bulk packs (designated ‘XL’)
of 24 figures are expected in the fourth quarter - travellers,
seated figures, workers, children, and bathers.
The
range of mini scenes will also be expanded during the
third quarter, with some subjects in more than one
scale: city café (HO),
lakeside playground (HO), nudist beach (HO), firefighting
(HO), motor bike accident (HO), biker meeting (HO,
TT, N), mini zoo (HO, TT), and anglers (HO, TT).
The structural hard foam will also be used to create rock pieces realistic in
form and colouring - granite, sandstone, and slate
(below). Second quarter delivery is expected.
Also proposed is a Profi rock structuring set, with
rock pieces, plaster cloth, rock compound, and wire
mesh.
A water set is planned in parallel, with Water Drops, colouring, Water Effects,
sand, gravel, reeds, and assorted foliage, while
the flora set provides thirteen sachets of different
colours and grades of foliage and grass materials for
ground cover. This will be complemented by a tree set
with sea foam as a base, three shades of green foliage,
and spray adhesive.
In the second quarter Noch are offering a set of five paints to give plastic
a metal patina - gold, silver, aluminium, copper,
and verdigris - and a handy pack of eight weathering
powders (ash, dust, sand, cement, brick red, soot,
rust, and lichen) with an applicator brush; a spray
adhesive for fixing them is also listed.
The existing range of acrylic paints is augmented with yellow, red, blue, and
dark brown.
Heki
The ‘citiline’ range of card building kits, realistically coloured,
and easy to assemble (they are pre-cut) is extended
with a six-storey corner house with two adjacent buildings,
and a building with an entrance archway plus two flanking
structures.
There is also a station set, offering the station building, signal box, a hut,
and the platform; extra platform sections are available
separately.
The warehouse set provides two stores, two offices, two electrical cabinets,
a loading dock, four pallets, and four special boxes.
A container set is also listed with two each of 20',
40', and 40'HC containers plus four pallets, and
four special boxes.
A brick-capped rendered wall is also available, along with brick, random stone,
and granite masonry sheets for scratchbuilding.
The idea is also being carried over into N, with four sets of three assorted
town houses already available, along with the town
hall and a church, and two blocks of flats plus sheds
and garages. Furthermore, this year’s new items
in HO will be repeated in N in September.
Three new packs of ten trees are announced birch c.18cm high,
beech c.18cm high, and rowan c.12cm
high (all below).
Busch
New releases include four new pairs of pine trees, ranging in height from 13cm
to 21cm (above), and a handy starter kit for ground
cover in forests and meadows (below), along with special
scatter material mixtures for forest or park pathways.
Grass fibres will be offered on transparent A4 backing sheets in five single
colours - spring, summer, late summer, and autumn,
plus dry grass (e.g. for dunes) - and in two and three
colour mixtures spring meadow, late spring/early summer,
heath, and forest fringe. Also planned is a lakeside
with grass and reeds, a cornfield, and a wheat field
complete with crop circles.
Following the kits for flowers introduced last year, some will be offered assembled
- tulips and ox-eye daisies; sunflowers and roses;
four large painted flower pots with flowers; and a
set of twenty small flower pots with flowers.
The new flower/plant kits for this year are wild and cultivated lupins (seen
in the hop field diorama, above), dahlias, cucumbers
and tomatoes.
After last year’s maize field, the latest crops are barley (above) and
hops (below) - the beginning of a beer theme!
A beer garden set provides sales stalls, tables, benches, umbrellas, and other
accessories, and various vehicles from the
Busch range will carry matching decoration for the ‘Sternquell’ brewery.
Holiday chalets (ready assembled) are planned, with a choice of five colours,
and there will also be a pack of five tents and campsite
accessories.
Other structure kits will include an off-licence kiosk in a converted filling
station, a tyre service garage, Portakabin style
offices used by the police, and an amusement arcade.
The selection of mini scenes, using figures and vehicles, is to be expanded. Busch also plan to produce a weathering set three matt paints (black, off-white,
and green) and three powders (black, dark brown,
and rust) with brushes and instructions.
They also offer a new landscape sub-structure system - universal plastic joiners,
8mm thick faced corrugated card (as strong as wood
but lighter, and cheaper), and expanded hard foam
sheets as infill.
Jordan
Noted for their ready-made trees and other foliage products, Jordan have new
this year boxes of twenty-five pieces of natural
sea moss, a set of palm trees (below), and a new
flower meadow grass mat (rolled) in three sizes.
GPP
The French specialist noted for their range of scenic material and accessories
has new grass fibres suitable for use with the Noch
electrostatic device in four shades of green - light,
medium, dark, and olive plus leaves in matching colours,
apparent in a number of small scenes on their stand
(like the one shown above). The fibres will also be
offered in 1 litre bottles as well as the usual small
sachets, which work out more economical.
New fine grass ground cover mats are available in medium (upper) and dark (above)
green.
GPP also have a new water material, which had been used to make a very effective
waterfall and pool diorama (below).
Silhouette/MiniNatur
This superlative range of ground
cover, foliage, and foliage mats, each in a range
of colours to follow seasonal changes, has been expanded
with ground cover mats for spring and autumn meadows.
New trees include a larch, two
firs, and two pines, displayed in context with the
foliage mats on various dioramas (like the example
above).
To illustrate the versatility of
all their materials, they displayed various mini-dioramas,
among them a convincing oriental scene with paddy
fields and blossom trees (below).
These products are available in the UK from International Models.
Dr.Schroll
These scenic specialists have a range of hand-made trees depicting specific
types built on various bases - natural, plastic, or wire,
as best suits the desired original - with fine
smaller branches from sea foam, and high quality
foliage.
New
introductions include field hedging, a small
copse (upper), a small birch wood with and without
bush undergrowth (above), and weeping willows
with and without foliage (below).
Preiser
This stand is always worth a
visit to see the carefully crafted display dioramas
showing the figures in appropriate contexts.
The carefully painted plastic figures are usually
sold in sets of five or six, sometimes with accessories.
New
in HO are: American railroad crew (above), travellers,
travellers’ aid (Bahnhofsmission), trainspotters
(below), two sets of passers-by, pregnant women,
babies, campsite figures, paramedics, hunters,
miners, bricklayers (with accessories), road resurfacing
(with accessories), a birthday party (with accessories),
a barbecue (with accessories), and figures at an
open air pop concert.
In
the economical standard series will be track
workers (above), laying sleepers (below),
travellers in winter clothing, passers-by in
winter clothing, standing travellers, walking
travellers, walking passers-by, walking woman
and children, cattle market.
A new
development for Preiser is animated figures and
they start with three with simple arm movements
- a stationmaster giving the right away signal,
a road worker with a warning flag, and a police
officer with a signalling disc (above). The cylinder
below housing the mechanism needs about three times
the height of the figure. They work off 14-16v
DC or AC.
Useful accessories include equipment used by the police - crowd barriers, traffic
cones, accident signs, hazard beacons, floodlights,
speed cameras, equipment cases, and even weapons.
Combined vehicle and figure sets on a theme include a horse-drawn removals van
with furniture, a horse-drawn cart carrying vegetables,
a tractor with trailer loaded with coal sacks,
a camper van and beach barbecue party, and a
car with two medical personnel.
The Exclusive edition individual figures have a distinct character or often
a humorous touch, and are sometimes simply
exotic. There are some thirty new items, too
many to list, but notable among them are a track
worker with a pick, a postman with a hand-cart,
two workmen unloading a luggage cart, a sign-writer,
and three statues.
New for TT - walking couples, one with a dog; trainspotters; seated passengers;
and a bulk pack of 36 unpainted seated passengers.
In N - US railroad personnel (above); trainspotters
(below); walking couples, one with a dog;sitting
travellers; nuns with children; grandfather and
children, seated.
For Z - walking couples, one with a dog; nuns with children; grandfather and
children, seated.
In O - US railroad personnel; passers-by; and a bulk pack of 24 unpainted seated
passengers.
For 1 - two women travellers; ‘happy return’ couple; and a bulk
pack of 15 unpainted seated passengers. In the
1:35 military range there is also a group of
nine unpainted post-war period civilians.
The G scale section includes two American railroad staff (above); American sleeping
car porter and waiter; American porter; seated DB
official, with jacket over the chair; three workmen playing cards (below); two hunters, seated;
three children; three ‘cheeky brats’;
sleeping guest and waitress; ‘Answer me!’ (wife
finding female underwear in husband’s suitcase);
female pop star and fan. Many of these packs include
accessories like furniture or luggage.
Merten
Merten figures were shown on the Preiser stand as usual,
in a separate display.
Noted as new in HO are two sets of passers-by, and five nightclub dancers, plus
a couple ‘occupied’ in a dimly-lit tent,
with movement.
In G, there will be loco crew, railway personnel, travellers, and sitting travellers,
plus four different night club dancers.
