Hornby Skaledale GWR buildings

◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Hornby R7284 Skaledale GWR water tower (£32.99) Hornby R7282 Skaledale GWR goods shed (£49.99) ◆ AVAILABILITY Hornby stockists ◆ Web www.hornby.com

Resin buildings provide a quick and easy way to bring life to your layout, but they do mean a compromise. They can be quite costly and you don’t end up with a unique model. However, there’s definitely a place for them in the modelling world, particularly as a means of encouraging new entrants who may lack time or kit-building skills. That’s why I was pleased to receive two new additions to the Hornby Skaledale range, the GWR goods shed and GWR water tower for review.

Hornby, as demonstrated once again in its 2021 product range announcement, has always tried to be a ‘one stop shop’ for modellers, particularly those on a budget. Accordingly, the prices of its ready-to-plant accessories are very competitive, especially when compared to other similar products on the market. However, the lower price has sometimes been accompanied by a compromised level of finesse on some of its resin-cast structures. Examining the GWR water tower, there are a number of positive aspects to highlight. The corrugated roof has subtle colour variations to suggest some weathering and the brickwork is also excellent, with clean mortar lines and, again, patches of a different colour to avoid an overly uniform appearance.

The pipework runs right the way from the tank down to the ground, making it easy to integrate into your layout without an unprototypical gap. Unfortunately, on closer inspection, a few quality control issues are apparent: the pipes have been fixed to the side of the tower and the excess glue hasn’t been wiped away, leaving large blobs at the joins; one of the windows is misaligned and there are quite a few areas either missing paint or with a stray paint mark.

HAND-CRAFTED

It’s worth remembering that these models have been assembled and painted by hand, so there are bound to be some imperfections. Happily, the majority of them aren’t visible from a ‘normal’ viewing distance.

It’s a similar situation with the GWR goods shed. The brickwork is excellent and even though the roof tiles aren’t overlapping, they give that impression from a distance. The relief from the windowsills is also pleasing and gives resin models an advantage over older card kits.

The shed isn’t without fault though, and there are two main issues with our review sample. Firstly, the paint is missing from the inner faces of the parapet walls at each corner, and secondly the structure is not square. This is highlighted in the attached office and a close inspection of the underside seems to suggest that this is down to the resin being thicker at one end than the other.

Aside from those problems (the first one could be solved with a quick dab of a paintbrush and the second isn’t visible at viewing distances), the only issue I could find is a couple of missing downpipes from the guttering. As before, this might not even be visible from the viewing side of the layout, depending on the orientation of your building.

Although not based on specific prototypes, both structures have an archetypal Great Western feel about them, helped by the light brown and cream paintwork and red/brown shade of brick. While they look pleasing straight from the box, both models could be easily improved with some extra weathering and detailing, plus various plants and bushes around the base to really set them into the layout.

Careful planning regarding their location will hide almost all of their imperfections and they could really look at home in your miniature world. They’re ideal for budget conscious and timestarved GWR/BR Western Region modellers who want to progress with their layout build quickly. (CG)