How To Model Spruce Trees, Pavements & Cobblestone Streets

Morning All!

Snow! Would you believe… In Cornwall! Well… a tiny bit. Most of the county seemed to grind to a halt with just a tiny smattering. But it had all gone by about lunchtime, I think. Did you get much?

Thanks for the feedback on the new look newsletter. I think over all it's been well received which is good news. Apologies for the slightly false start with the newsletter. I scheduled the newsletter to go live at 8am but it turns out the server time is set to something other than GMT, so it didn't go live at the right time. With a bit of luck, this one will be live at the same time you get the email with the link this week!

Things have been busy behind the scenes here at SMS this week as we've been getting some shelves sorted in the showroom ready to display some of our baseboards.

I've been working on the website a bit, tidying up a few sections and working with our developers to improve a few other pages. Hopefully the changes will go live sometime early next week with a bit of luck. The improvements should make browsing our product collection pages a much more pleasant experience. 

And we've also been clearing some space for a new range of products we'll be stocking in the very near future, giving folks in mid Cornwall easy access to a very established and well-known brand! More news on that as soon as the first delivery arrives… hopefully before Christmas and just in time for our…

Christmas Open Evening - A Quick Reminder

If you're in the area on the evening of the 14th of December, don't forget we have our Christmas Open Evening with some festive treats, a chance to come and meet the team, chat about plans for next year and more. Full details here.

Product Development - Latest News

This week… Sam's been working his socks off on another new texture which looks rather splendid indeed. Details of that in the new releases section further down this newsletter. I've made a little progress on a couple of things this week, but to be honest I've been so busy with other behind the scenes stuff, I've not had chance to complete anything.

Sam's also got another rather impressive kit on the go too which is 99% there. I just need to sit with him next week and double check everything goes together ok, then we can get that released before Christmas all being well.

Right then… we'd better have some videos…

Miniatur Wunderland… The World's Largest Model Railway

You've probably all seen this before but it's worth another look. This has got to be the holy grail of the model railway world and it's high up there on the bucket list of places to visit. I'd need a week to look round it I think! Anyway… here's something to marvel at on this chilly Saturday morning… The world's largest model railway. Anyone fancy a trip over there?

How To Build A Model Spruce Tree

This next video shows us how to make a rather splendid spruce tree. It uses a similar method to the one Steve demonstrated in our Live workshop in the Railway Modellers Club a few months ago and it's really quite easy to do. If you fancy having a go, we stock suitable 6.5mm balsa dowel which is ideal for tree trunks.

Planning Your Town Scenes: Pavements & Roads

This next video has lots of tips for planning your town scenes and creating roads and pavements. If you're planning your town scenes, it's worth spending time playing with different arrangements of your buildings, moving them around until you get the spacing and location of each just right.

If you're working on your pavements and roads… we have a variety of things to help you here:

• Pavement Sections
• Road Markings

Making A Cobblestone Road From Styrofoam

And finally, staying on the subject of roads, this excellent video by Night Shift walks us through the process of creating a realistic cobblestone road from Styrofoam. The finished road looks absolutely amazing! In fact if you showed anyone a photo of it, they'd never be able to tell whether it was real or a model.

Don't fancy making a Styrofoam road? We do cobblestone paper sheets here.

This Week's New Releases

• TX293-OO English Bond Engineering Brick - OO/4mm/1:76
  A particularly useful pack of 5 sheets of English Bond Engineering Brick. Ideal for railway infrastructure, industrial buildings and all that kinda stuff. Downloadable PDF versions in First Class & Pay As You Go
• 3mm Heat Shrink Tubing
  Supplied in 1m lengths, our heat shrink tubing is ideal for protecting soldered joints on LEDs, switches and cable to cable joints.

We've also got some new, great value detailing accessories in this week too:

• GM491 Relay Cabinets (Pack of 3) - OO/4mm/1:76 
  Detail your trackside scenes with these ready to plant relay cabinets.
• GM492 Skips (Pack of 2) - OO/4mm/1:76
  Ideal for builders yards, depots & construction sites. Pre-painted and ready to go!
• GM494 Traditional Dustbins (Pack of 10) - OO/4mm/1:76
  Great for detailing any street scene from the 1950's onwards
• GM474 Modern Train Ticket Machine (Pack of 2) - OO/4mm/1:76
  An essential detail for your modern image stations
• GM497 Modern Grit / Salt Boxes (Pack of 3) - OO/4mm/1:76
  Perfect for street scenes from the 1980's through to present day
• GM495 Wheelie Bins (Pack of 4) - OO/4mm/1:76
  Another essential for modern image street scenes. Pre-painted & ready to go!
• GM496 Telecoms Cabinets (Pack of 3) - OO/4mm/1:76
  As seen on pretty much every street corner of the UK!
• GM471 Parking Meters (Pre-Painted) Pack of 6 - OO/4mm/1:76
  Another essential for busy city streets
• GM461 Traditional Red Telephone Box - OO/4mm/1:76
  This one needs no explanation really :) 

First Class 2023 Layout Plaques - Last Orders

These have absolutely flown out this week and it's almost time for Last Orders on these. Because in just a few weeks time, I'll be 51 and it'll be time to release the 2024 version! If you fancy one and you're a First Class member of the Railway Modellers Club, you can order yours now via the post in the First Class Lounge.

Next week then, I'll finally be pushing on with my test build of that kit I've had sat on my desk for nearly 3 weeks now. Then I've got some stands to get painted in the showroom ready for our open evening a week on Thursday. Not sure what we're getting up to this weekend. Most likely making a start on the Christmas shopping and having a crack at filling all the holes in the plaster in the hall at home as we removed all the old coving last weekend and made a right mess!

Have an amazing weekend folks… and of course…

Keep on shunting…

Justin, Tina, Elizabeth, Lola & The Team

P.S. This weekend's header image comes from Dave over on the Railway Modellers Community with this shot of one of his new additions to his collection… A rather splendid Class 31 in Network Rail yellow livery. I've got a soft spot for these as well as Warships :)

P.P.S. Missed a newsletter? You can read all of our recent newsletters online here.