Flying Snail

I'm very sorry for your loss. I hope you find comfort in your memories together and that brighter days will come again.

I think you're hoping for a bit too much here in terms of downloadable fonts – for a lot of those older liveries, there simply isn’t a “ready-made” font in the modern sense. That’s why the examples shared above by Mol_PMB are very useful – they’re exactly the kind of reference you need if you’re trying to recreate numerals accurately, even if it means a bit of drawing or tweaking yourself. Probably the only way to really capture the look properly to be fair.

Plenty of great modelling going on here - as David says, its different but thats what makes it interesting to me. I'm looking forward to seeing this documentary if it will be publicly available?

I have a few and they're lovely carriages alright ... sure if your doing another run, maybe through in a few GSR or even GSWR while you're at it too lads? Anyone for the DNGR???

Likewise - very excited. I know from the lads' updates here that they're a few weeks away yet, but the email might confuse someone not following along with the updates here as it says 'Current Order Status: Arrived In To Stock' before then saying 'Latest ETA: May 29, 2026'

Excellent. I've just put an order in

Very nice indeed!!!

Like most people on this forum, I honestly struggle to see what Accurascale done wrong. They’ve been one of the most positive forces in the hobby in recent years - bringing innovation, investment, and high-quality models to market while still working with retailers. This feels far more like resistance to change from established players than any genuine concern for the health of the industry. Fran gave a very insightful update yesterday which I’d strongly encourage everyone to read: https://heljan.com/blogs/news/the-accurascale-take-over-of-heljan-common-queries-answered I agree with @Ironroad that the stance taken by Rails of Sheffield is not on. To me it feels not only overblown, but somewhat hypocritical. They are one of the largest players in the market with considerable buying power, and their growth over the years has not exactly been to the benefit of smaller independent retailers. For them now to position themselves as defenders of the “industry” sits very uneasily. I can understand why GM might feel raw given their historic relationship with Heljan, but that still doesn’t justify the this campaign either. I’ve spent plenty with both over the years and likely still will, but I’ll certainly be making a much more conscious effort to support a broader mix of retailers going forward. Closer to home, I was disappointed to see Marks Models share the ‘One Industry, One Message’ statement, but I’d hope that was more a reflection of the moment than a firmly held position. They and IRM/Accurascale are stalwarts of the hobby in Ireland, and I would hope that the relationship between the two is not impacted as things settle.

I have an 800 still sitting in my shopping basket from my last visit, stopped myself fn the nick of time as I've an anniversary present to buy herself this month and a grey 800 would not be on her wishlist (don't worry lads I have a couple of 800s on pre-order as it is)

'ello, 'ello, 'ello, whats all this then about a police class 37 spotted at Model Rail Scotland???

Captain Sensible is a good call ... but this is what popped into my head when I saw Colin's comment. I could well believe that this track got cranked up to 11 over at Accuracale Towers over the last few days!

Congratulations - the layout looks really well in those pictures!

Having read through the RMweb thread, I think there are some fair and balanced points being made about what a direct-sales model might mean for retailers and for the wider hobby. But equally, there’s also been a fair bit of hysteria and pearl-clutching. In the end, manufacturers should be entitled to choose the route to market that suits their business, while retailers are entitled to commission their own models as well. Not everyone will like every business model, but that’s how markets work.

Definitely causing quite the stir over on RMWeb. I see Marks Models have issued the joint statement from retailers on their socials now too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do the bigger retailers not request discounts from the manufacturers? I would have assumed a large retailer that moves significant volumes would "negotiate" with the manufacturer regarding discounts - in much the same way as the supermarkets do with their suppliers. i.e the big retailer protects their margins by passing the pain back to the manufacturer