Sandown Park December 2013
Myself and Cyril were invited again this year to visit the 2013 Sandown Model Engineering Exhibition. This is at Sandown Park famous for horse racing. I say invited as my next door neighbour is a long standing member of a local model club. His name is Fred Sargent and his son Jonathan are into radio controlled planes and helicopters. Fred always goes and kindly offers a ride. For any body that does not know, the exhibition covers such a wide range of models and shows skills and patience that amaze you. This is one of the reasons I wanted to write a few lines to let everyone know, because if you have not been it’s worth a visit.
The exhibition runs in December and in 2013 it was from the 13th to the 15th. I can’t begin to describe the range and amount of models but they range from the small fully functional aircraft / car engines to fair ground exhibits, model boats, steam engines, steam trains, various scales, radio controlled and on and on, all of them well worth a detailed look at, but one thing that appeals to me is the associated trade stands. There are specific ones for model steam which I must admit I was able to find a few items I required to assist the rebuild of my 3″ scale Burrell traction engine but for anyone who is restoring and making things stationary engine or otherwise, there many stalls selling machine tools new and used, from thread gauges, taps and dies, drills and chucks to lathes and mills. There are stalls that sell stock material in small sizes, and also have a wide range of what I would call throw away items, like cleaning brushes, cutting discs, files etc.
We met up this year with my good friend, SEAMS club member, Paul Johnson and his Dad Colin. This worked well for Cyril as Colin is not in perfect health and Cyril can not race from stall to stall either. There is a nice canteen at on end of the exhibition hall, where you can get and thing from a nice frothy coffee to a plate of fish and chips.
As this must be about our 4th or 5th trip in the row, one purchase I made a couple of years back was an item called a “Beugler ” pin striping tool. This is an item that allows a fine line of paint to be applied from a tube like dispenser through a paddle wheel with very accurate cut grooves across it. The paint that they recommend is well worth the investment as the consistency is so important as you can stop and start while using this tool and it does not drip, pool or spread. So far I have not seen this at any other event that I have been to but sure enough the stand was there. The unit itself with say three different width heads comes to about £150 so you need some confidence you want one before you purchase.
I had bought the device to line out another 3″ scale steam engine I am slowly rebuilding and had in the back of my mind all other stationary engine applications, but when I decided to repaint the 3″ Burrell I knew it would come into it’s own. I reached the point when I had all the engine painted in it’s Burrell green paint and had to ‘take the bull by the horns’ and stripe. Like everything it comes with practice but it is relatively easy, you can use a straight edge guide supplied but if you can’t get access to the particular area you are lining , you can go free hand. It is very easy to control and achieve straight lines, with the added bonus that you can wipe straight off and have an other go. I am very pleased with the results.
This time at the exhibition I decided to buy a few more different width heads for the Beugler so we now have a good selection. A few weekends after the exhibition I found out that Jon Foster and Steve Mills also attended, all be it on a different day to us , and Steve has made the investment of a Beugler.
So if you have never been and always wondered what it is like, I would put it in your diary for 2014.
Steve Rowland