Loved the "interview" more a couple of mates talking. very interesting. I stumbled upon Scalescenes by pure accident I was working within a crafting industry working with paper and card 24/7 and had a long suffering husband of my craft. I printed off a free kit from John and handed it to my husband and he became hooked within minutes and John has became a firm friend. His mind pushes the boundaries of card manipulation.
What a great "interview". Interesting how you refer to older books. For all the internet has brought, there is still something timeless about books. And maybe what future generations need is a book from Michael and John on architectural modelling in card! But we'll let you finish the cathedral first!
Yeah, I love a good book. There's something timeless about holding one in your hand. Turns out that John and I have similar influences in our modelling journey. I'll let you know when the book is out!
This is wonderful. Two blokes who share a passion for creating a world of their own making. What a priveldge to listen and learn from the Masters. Thanks guys.
It was wonderful to meet the man behind the kits. His enthusiasm is wonderful. I have a large number of kits kits that I originally built in OO Gauge and I am now making in TT:120. Lovely to build except for the windows (old age and arthritic fingers make this part more difficult) which I now make with a laser cutter and more recently a Cricut machine.
You have both inspired me to build your wonderful kits. I started about a year ago and find it relaxing and so rewarding. Returning to railway modelling after 60 years and loving it. Thank you both.
John is a jolly nice chap and his kits are fab. I think of his range as the new boy on the block, but then, I AM getting old😲🙄😀 Good to see you both on here too, an informative and enjoyable video ✌️👍😊😊
Hi, that was a brilliant interview, thankyou. I model something close to the Great Central Railway in 4mm and find the railway buildings a close enough likeness for me. They are brilliantly designed and full of options for making the same building multiple times in different ways, so adaptable. So if John sees these comments then thank you John. All the very best and thanks for your channel too.
Scalescenes are so versatile and can be made to sit right in an Aussie outback town, or Victorian era city half way around the world. Well done both of you.
Scalescenes brilliant have been using them for a long time great for building and scratching and bashing , great to see the guy who does it. Thank you Michael for this interview
Wow, a fascinating conversation and I could listen to this all day. JW seems a really down to earth personable chap and hearing about the journey of ScaleScenes is really interesting. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks cutting out 2mm card is hard work! The kits are amazing, they certainly don’t look like paper and card when constructed, like Chandwell. Looking forward to the kit build and what goes into 11 Station Road. Cheers to Michael and John 👏🏼
Glad you enjoyed it! And you played a part this year too - you know it. Thanks for your support, and your friendship. Happy new year to you... and hope to see you in 2025.
@ Michael that’s a lovely reply and I appreciate it very much. I don’t think I’ve done that much though, I’ve given recognition to an excellent channel and craftsman and it’s the gift that keeps giving. Your channel is an encyclopaedia of how to build up to being a very skilled modeller and though I’m still at a basic level there’s so much to work with. I’m finding moving away from card and onto paper is happening with haste and that’s after a little while toying about. There’s so much you can do with these techniques and though it might seem like a quick view on Chandwell, in practice this all takes a while to get used to and there’s lots of thinking when you’re away from the laptop/cutting mat. It’s a real education. If I don’t message before, I’m wishing everyone at yours the best for the New Year and looking forward to 2025 on the channel. Cheers Michael and thanks again for the post, top man!
Thanks, Michael, what a great christmas gift! Two references in card modelling in an inspiring exchange! Really great to get to know the person behind the scratchbuilders yard! What a kind character! Thanks to you both for providing us with so much little joyful snippets on supportive collaboration! So if Scalescenes is opening up a shop in Station Road it might not take long until John releases one of the Chandwell buildings. Until then I think I should have a go on one of the kits ...
Nice interview. Really enjoyed listening to your conversation. Give me an appreciation for the amount of effort needed to create a kit. I've been working on creating various kits myself, but sometimes I see a squirrel and end up on a tangent somewhere. Happy Holidays! Don
What a thoroughly nice man. Michael, you're ok too!!! ;-) I used to shy away from card buildings, thinking they wouldn't survive in my loft, but now I've come full circle and am scratch building in card, stickly label windows, etc. Happy Christmas and have a great New Year. Cheers
Hi Michael and John, I started my Model Railway journey in 2020 during COVID lockdowns. Found Scalescenes one day and immediately downloaded your free models. Enjoyed building them and have since used some of your Corrugated iron roofing for other projects. I didn’t realise you were Australian based. You could mention somewhere that your shop handles credit card purchases from Australia. I have only just tried buying a building using credit card, which worked. Another thought for you is to include an HO button, I use the scaling function when printing if I think it matters. Have you considered adding some Australian buildings to your range. Great interview. Cheers, Peter from downunder.
A very different and interesting video mate. Enjoyable. Best wishes for the New Year to you and your lady. Looking forward to more Chandwell in 2025. Arthur
John’s kits have been a real game changer for the hobby. It’s made scratch building so much more accessible and a lot easier as being able to download more parts for example is so much more enjoyable than having to go backwards and forwards to a model shop or having to wait for parts to arrive in the post. Being able to customise the kits and make them into something unique or a representation of a prototype is fabulous.
After watching this, would you consider doing a tutorial video using one of the free ScaleScenes kits? This would be something we could try with you at no risk. Could do the small goods store, or the Low Relief warehouse. If you have already done this, I apologize but I didn't see it in the video list. you have wonderful videos and I'm thinking about trying. I just ordered the recommended weights of card stop for N scale off amazon.
What an amazing finish to a great year, an interview with the man behind Scalescenes. The video was very interesting and enjoyable, and no doubt a little awkward to put together due to being half a world apart. Would be interesting to see you both collaborate on a joint design. Looking forward to seeing the Catherdral build continue, especially as I will be able to visit to see the model in person once it is completed and on display.
This was really interesting, even as someone who's never made a Scalescenes kit! Been meaning to say for a while - I scratch-build in plastic but so much of what you've done with Chandwell has inspired me and given me confidence. I've been building a large station based on York in OO for nearly a year now (and that's *with* a cutting machine), which is obviously a lot. I doubt I'd have even started, let alone got this far without the techniques I learned here!
Wow, wonderful stuff... However, I'm quite intrigued as to how Michael managed to stitch together a shirt made out of my mum's old 1970's teatowels... I was wondering where they went.. 😜
Great conversation Michael, very interesting to hear how he designs it all without building it as he goes!! I think I'm a cross between you both!! I do a lot of design work, then build, go back and tweak anything... then finish off the design work.. Usually broken up into the main building structure... done first, then the roof, once I have a structure to work from!! What a great year it has been for the channel, wishing you and your family a great Christmas and looking forward to seeing more from you win 2025. Craig.
Thank you! Details of how to scale are on the Scalescenes website. There's a link at the bottom of each page, or you can use this one: scalescenes.com/not-modelling-in-n-or-oo
These kits fantastic to build very inter detail they just like the real thing at moment I have 14 to build so I am going to be very busy indeed and very challenging because I do a Adult Course at Coppull Libary in Lancashire showing them how to scratch built cardboard models for there model Bill Moore
Can you not print an A4 file on US Legal size, there is sufficient area on the page, just dont scale image to fill the page. Another alternative would be to purchase A4 paper, not so readily available in US stores but is available online (Amazon for example), then select A4 as page size on printer driver.
I'm not certain, but I think Letter paper is about the same width as A4 but is a bit shorter. There is quite a margin at the bottom of the sheets, so if this is cut off you should still get the kit parts. You could download one of the free kits and give it a test.
Your skills of public speaking are coming to the fore again. Also, well played, this could easily have come across as a glorified advert, but just felt like two modellers having a chat.
This is such a lovely conversation between you both. It's really nice to see how you both relate to each other and your modelling techniques compare.
Loved the "interview" more a couple of mates talking. very interesting. I stumbled upon Scalescenes by pure accident I was working within a crafting industry working with paper and card 24/7 and had a long suffering husband of my craft. I printed off a free kit from John and handed it to my husband and he became hooked within minutes and John has became a firm friend. His mind pushes the boundaries of card manipulation.
That's a wonderful story! Thank you for sharing. John's models have always been such an inspiration.
What a great "interview". Interesting how you refer to older books. For all the internet has brought, there is still something timeless about books. And maybe what future generations need is a book from Michael and John on architectural modelling in card! But we'll let you finish the cathedral first!
Yeah, I love a good book. There's something timeless about holding one in your hand. Turns out that John and I have similar influences in our modelling journey. I'll let you know when the book is out!
Very interesting interview with John. Thanks for doing that.
Puts a face to the product.
Glad you enjoyed it
This is wonderful. Two blokes who share a passion for creating a world of their own making. What a priveldge to listen and learn from the Masters. Thanks guys.
That is really kind - thank you.
It was wonderful to meet the man behind the kits. His enthusiasm is wonderful. I have a large number of kits kits that I originally built in OO Gauge and I am now making in TT:120. Lovely to build except for the windows (old age and arthritic fingers make this part more difficult) which I now make with a laser cutter and more recently a Cricut machine.
Thanks for letting us know! As John would say... Happy Modelling!
Fantastic interview Michael. Thanks for setting that up. Hope you had a great Christmas and best wishes for the new year. Roy.
Thank you Roy! Same to you!
Great stuff, seeing the inspiration behind Scalescenes and Chandwell. I like the informal style of two mates having a chat about the hobby.
This was the first time we'd ever spoken. It was indeed like a friendly chat.
Fascinating insights. I look forward to your videos going forward and wish you all the best for 2025.
Happy new year!
Brilliant Michael. I really enjoyed this.
Thank you Peter!
You have both inspired me to build your wonderful kits. I started about a year ago and find it relaxing and so rewarding. Returning to railway modelling after 60 years and loving it. Thank you both.
Thank you for sharing!
John is a jolly nice chap and his kits are fab. I think of his range as the new boy on the block, but then, I AM getting old😲🙄😀
Good to see you both on here too, an informative and enjoyable video ✌️👍😊😊
Thank you!
Hi, that was a brilliant interview, thankyou. I model something close to the Great Central Railway in 4mm and find the railway buildings a close enough likeness for me. They are brilliantly designed and full of options for making the same building multiple times in different ways, so adaptable. So if John sees these comments then thank you John. All the very best and thanks for your channel too.
Thank you very much indeed. John does read these comments, so he will have seen your message.
A really interesting video. I've loved building Scalescenes kits for the past few years so it's great to hear from the creator
Couldn't agree more!
I was given john Ahern's book in the 1980s, its so inspiring, love it that john, cited it as instrumental in helping his business. Great interview.
Wonderful!
Scalescenes are so versatile and can be made to sit right in an Aussie outback town, or Victorian era city half way around the world. Well done both of you.
Yes indeed!
Great video. Would love to learn more about John’s process of creating textures. Perhaps another video. ;)
Noted! Maybe for part 2 eh!?
Scalescenes brilliant have been using them for a long time great for building and scratching and bashing , great to see the guy who does it. Thank you Michael for this interview
Thank you - you're welcome.
Wow, a fascinating conversation and I could listen to this all day. JW seems a really down to earth personable chap and hearing about the journey of ScaleScenes is really interesting. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks cutting out 2mm card is hard work! The kits are amazing, they certainly don’t look like paper and card when constructed, like Chandwell. Looking forward to the kit build and what goes into 11 Station Road. Cheers to Michael and John 👏🏼
Glad you enjoyed it! And you played a part this year too - you know it. Thanks for your support, and your friendship. Happy new year to you... and hope to see you in 2025.
@ Michael that’s a lovely reply and I appreciate it very much. I don’t think I’ve done that much though, I’ve given recognition to an excellent channel and craftsman and it’s the gift that keeps giving.
Your channel is an encyclopaedia of how to build up to being a very skilled modeller and though I’m still at a basic level there’s so much to work with. I’m finding moving away from card and onto paper is happening with haste and that’s after a little while toying about. There’s so much you can do with these techniques and though it might seem like a quick view on Chandwell, in practice this all takes a while to get used to and there’s lots of thinking when you’re away from the laptop/cutting mat. It’s a real education.
If I don’t message before, I’m wishing everyone at yours the best for the New Year and looking forward to 2025 on the channel. Cheers Michael and thanks again for the post, top man!
Thanks, Michael, what a great christmas gift! Two references in card modelling in an inspiring exchange! Really great to get to know the person behind the scratchbuilders yard! What a kind character! Thanks to you both for providing us with so much little joyful snippets on supportive collaboration! So if Scalescenes is opening up a shop in Station Road it might not take long until John releases one of the Chandwell buildings. Until then I think I should have a go on one of the kits ...
The kits are definitely worth a go, if only for the techniques that they share.
Great interview!
Thank you!
Really like this. An intesting conversstion without the usual marketing , great.
Thank you!
Nice interview. Really enjoyed listening to your conversation. Give me an appreciation for the amount of effort needed to create a kit. I've been working on creating various kits myself, but sometimes I see a squirrel and end up on a tangent somewhere.
Happy Holidays!
Don
Squirrels have that effect.
What a thoroughly nice man. Michael, you're ok too!!! ;-)
I used to shy away from card buildings, thinking they wouldn't survive in my loft, but now I've come full circle and am scratch building in card, stickly label windows, etc. Happy Christmas and have a great New Year. Cheers
Well said! Happy New Year to you too! Thank you for your membership and support this year!
great interview Michael
Thank you!
What a brilliant conversation. Thank you both
Thank you!
Hi Michael and John,
I started my Model Railway journey in 2020 during COVID lockdowns. Found Scalescenes one day and immediately downloaded your free models. Enjoyed building them and have since used some of your Corrugated iron roofing for other projects. I didn’t realise you were Australian based.
You could mention somewhere that your shop handles credit card purchases from Australia. I have only just tried buying a building using credit card, which worked.
Another thought for you is to include an HO button, I use the scaling function when printing if I think it matters.
Have you considered adding some Australian buildings to your range.
Great interview. Cheers, Peter from downunder.
Thanks Peter. I will try to get these questions to John for you!
Hi Michael, yes I realised after I sent that comment that it had gone to the wrong person. Thanks Peter from downunder.
Brilliant, inspiring.
Thank you!
A very different and interesting video mate. Enjoyable. Best wishes for the New Year to you and your lady. Looking forward to more Chandwell in 2025. Arthur
Thank you Arthur!
John’s kits have been a real game changer for the hobby. It’s made scratch building so much more accessible and a lot easier as being able to download more parts for example is so much more enjoyable than having to go backwards and forwards to a model shop or having to wait for parts to arrive in the post. Being able to customise the kits and make them into something unique or a representation of a prototype is fabulous.
You have articulated my thoughts exactly. They are magnificent on so many levels.
thank you for putting that together.
You're welcome - I enjoyed it.
After watching this, would you consider doing a tutorial video using one of the free ScaleScenes kits? This would be something we could try with you at no risk. Could do the small goods store, or the Low Relief warehouse. If you have already done this, I apologize but I didn't see it in the video list. you have wonderful videos and I'm thinking about trying. I just ordered the recommended weights of card stop for N scale off amazon.
There are a few good tutorials out there already, but I am making a video where I make one of these kits, so that may be helpful to you.
What an amazing finish to a great year, an interview with the man behind Scalescenes. The video was very interesting and enjoyable, and no doubt a little awkward to put together due to being half a world apart. Would be interesting to see you both collaborate on a joint design. Looking forward to seeing the Catherdral build continue, especially as I will be able to visit to see the model in person once it is completed and on display.
Coming in 2028, the Scalescenes Bradford Cathedral kit.
Thanks Darren! That's an intriguing idea... :)
This was really interesting, even as someone who's never made a Scalescenes kit! Been meaning to say for a while - I scratch-build in plastic but so much of what you've done with Chandwell has inspired me and given me confidence. I've been building a large station based on York in OO for nearly a year now (and that's *with* a cutting machine), which is obviously a lot. I doubt I'd have even started, let alone got this far without the techniques I learned here!
Thank you very much indeed!
Great video.
Thank you!
Great watch Michael, very interesting.👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Wow, wonderful stuff...
However, I'm quite intrigued as to how Michael managed to stitch together a shirt made out of my mum's old 1970's teatowels...
I was wondering where they went..
😜
My wardrobe is full of old curtains, tea towels, etc. 😜
Great conversation Michael, very interesting to hear how he designs it all without building it as he goes!! I think I'm a cross between you both!! I do a lot of design work, then build, go back and tweak anything... then finish off the design work.. Usually broken up into the main building structure... done first, then the roof, once I have a structure to work from!! What a great year it has been for the channel, wishing you and your family a great Christmas and looking forward to seeing more from you win 2025. Craig.
Thank you Craig. Thanks foe being with me all year as a member. Your support means a lot.
These are really great - thank you for the interview. Is there any plans for HO scale, or a formula on how to scale down the OO scale?
Thank you! Details of how to scale are on the Scalescenes website. There's a link at the bottom of each page, or you can use this one: scalescenes.com/not-modelling-in-n-or-oo
@Chandwell thank you!
These kits fantastic to build very inter detail they just like the real thing at moment I have 14 to build so I am going to be very busy indeed and very challenging because I do a Adult Course at Coppull Libary in Lancashire showing them how to scratch built cardboard models for there model Bill Moore
What a good thing to do! Thank you for sharing.
BTW John sells models but relishes the lunacy of scratch building. Selling the materials is step 1. but encouraging the bretheren off piste is great.
Indeed!
A big problem for us now based in North America is we print on Letter sized paper. Any suggestions on this?
Can you not print an A4 file on US Legal size, there is sufficient area on the page, just dont scale image to fill the page. Another alternative would be to purchase A4 paper, not so readily available in US stores but is available online (Amazon for example), then select A4 as page size on printer driver.
@@darren25061965Thanks Darren, I ho early didn’t think that was an option. Will definitely do that. Cheers
I'm not certain, but I think Letter paper is about the same width as A4 but is a bit shorter. There is quite a margin at the bottom of the sheets, so if this is cut off you should still get the kit parts. You could download one of the free kits and give it a test.
located that book on Amazon but over US$67 for paperback
Gosh!
@ just found the Miniature Building construction for $15.00 !!!!
Chandwell's very own Romulus and Remus. A proper example of history unlike the concocted fairy tale of them posh buggers from Leeds.
Not seen you comment for a while! I hope all is well!?
ps I've gained tennis elbow from cutting card. Laser cutting may be my future,,,
Yeah, as soon as it becomes impossible to cut, then I imagine lasers are a gift!
Every building on my layout is a scalesccenes kit
Brilliant!
Your skills of public speaking are coming to the fore again.
Also, well played, this could easily have come across as a glorified advert, but just felt like two modellers having a chat.
Can you believe that this was the first time we'd ever spoken!? We got on so well. There will have to be a Part 2 later this year!
@Chandwell excellent news. High quality collaboration between channels helps both.
@Chandwell excellent news. High quality collaboration between channels helps both.