Meon Valley Models has its roots in my experiences when I returned to railway modelling about fifteen or twenty years ago. At that time, a vast range of rolling stock kits could be sourced from manufacturers such as ABS/Fourmost, D&S, David Geen or Coopercraft. When seemingly everything you needed to make even better models from these kits could be sourced from one place – either shops such as Cove Models or online from Mainly Trains.
Time has – and especially the advancing years of their owners – has taken a heavy toll on those suppliers but it has also delivered us a range of ready to run models of high quality from several suppliers. However, that quality has come at the expense of prices that make it more difficult for some to afford the hobby and the range is still not what it once was.
However, time has also delivered us new tools and provided much easier access to research materials.
Meon Valley Models has been been set up to use this opportunity to:
- Deliver a wide range of prototypes in kit form and detailing components that are designed using the original drawings and contemporary photographs
- Sell at prices which are set at a level that encourages people to try new things
- Distribute our products through those small vendors who do still exist and who are well placed to provide companion parts.
Success for us is about more people having the opportunity to more easily build a wider variety of more accurate models.
Our approach
The initial focus has been on a range of wagon bodies in 4mm scale running on subframes from Brassmasters. These familiar etched brass subframes allow modellers to incorporate sprung suspension and very finely detailed running gear with very little effort.
Work has also been underway on a range of detailing components , bodies with complete underframes for those who do not require sprung suspension or are not keen on working with brass, and on producing our range of bodies in 2mm scale.
All of our design work is undertaken using Fusion 360 and printed at 30 micron or less resolution (except for parts such as floors which do not have detail this fine). Our products are printed using specialist resins which are blended to give the material the properties we require in terms of degree of flex, strength and detail. Different parts of our models are printed using different combinations of resin as required. This allows us to retain more flex in the underframe to insert wheels whilst the body has high resistance to warping and the floor can be tapped to take screws for example.
About me
I am a member of the EM Gauge Society, Scalefour Society as well as the 2mm Scale Association and 009 society. I am also a member of the South Hants Model Railway Club. I am a former director of the Swanage Railway Trust and a current Trustee of the Historical Railway Modelling Society.
My railway interests are broad but with a bias towards the London and South Western Railway, railways of southern England (both Southern Railway and GWR) and especially southern electric and diesel multiple units. That said, I also have a fondness for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway!
I also own Iain Rice’s Butley Mills layout which is undergoing refurbishment some forty years after it was built.
Andy Vincent