Micro Sol for a micro job!

 Having previously primed the cab interior of the Stolly it was time to top coat it with Tamiya XF11 which is J N Green or also known as Bronze Green which is the shade of paint used by the British Army in the 1960s. The airbrush soon had the paint applied.

Whilst that was drying I thought it was time to add the dashboard decal to the dashboard part! Airfix have supplied a nice set of decals but previous experience of other makes and dashboard decals has not been good for me. So with some trepidation I cut out the decal and dipped it in water.

After a couple of minutes I slid it in place. Now the dashboard part has the various dials and switches moulded in place so the decal needs some Micro Soll applied to soften it so that it moulds to the shape of the dashboard part.

You can see by the ruler that this is a small part! At this point the Micro Sol still has to do its job. However, once it had it all looked much better. I'm impressed by the decal and its general fit on a part so small as well as the powers of Micro Sol.

Stolly cab interior starts to get some paint.

Just a quick update on the Airfix Stolly build. I am now at the stage where I need to attach the cab to the base which means the inside needs painting. First off a bit of preparation. I am painting the seats and a few other parts separately and then attaching them to the cab base once painted which means I need a paint free gluing surface. Now I could just paint the entire cab base and then scrape paint away but to save some possibility of damage to the paintwork I have used thin strips of masking tape to cover the required areas. Once painting is finished I should be able to remove them and have plain unpainted plastic ready for glue! That is the theory anyway!

Painting requires a primer and black is my go to choice as if I miss any parts with the top coat the black should at least act as a shading and hide my errors! So the primer has been applied. Left overnight it should be ready for a top coat tomorrow.

Mrs Woody really wanted to go to the Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum!

Following a post on Phil Parkers Blog about the Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum (click here for that) I knew Mrs. Woody would want to visit (possibly if there was nothing else left to do on a wet Sunday afternoon and if she didnt know where we were going) so creating a surprise for her I just said we were going out and off we went today! I must admit that I had never heard of the place before but it is one of those hidden gems tucked away but well worth hunting out!

It is not only full of buses, lorries, cars and motorcycles, but the walls and any free floor space have the most amazing display of memorabilia and information.

They carry out their own maintenance in the workshop which is very tidy and organised. Must mention that at the Rocks By Rail Museum!

There are a lot of bicycles around the walls with this being about the most modern but I recall it!

Equally I also recall this particular bus that I travelled on many times!

And I also recall as a lad wanting so badly to be sat behind the wheel of a double decker bus just like this!

I also wanted a Ford Capri and eventually had four of them over time!

There is so much I have not shown here and I will be taking Mrs. Woody back as I am sure I did not see everything and that Mrs. W will also definitely want to return! At £5 each admission what a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon - check out the website by clicking here.

In suspense!

 I was in suspense about how easy or difficult it would be to build the Stolly's suspension. It is an important part of the vehicle and very visible so it has to be right. At the time of building the first side I was a bit bemused as to how Airfix had designed the suspension but by the time I finished I was actually very impressed by it. The important part is to follow the instructions precisely and to look hard before cutting the parts from the spru to make sure you don't leave behind any part of the part!

The first part is the torsion bar suspension and shock sbsorbers.

The stub axles are added next.

Then the steering linkages and some hoops .

Just the other side to do now!

I saw the sign!

I saw the sign is a line from that hit by Ace of Base (click here for the video) but has nothing to do with this post!  Rather, and this should please loyal blog reader Mrs. B, it relates to the sign at the entrance to the Rocks by Rail Museum. A mammoth vegetational butchery session by me has seen the sign regain some visability from outside of the Museum's gate.

Meanwhile, back at the Exhibition Centre, there was space.

Betty had gone up the quarry to do a filming stint (more of that another time) and Mr. D was over the pit where John and Hazel were dealing with various air leaks in the braking system.

Across the way, in the restoration shed, Richard was de-rusting 1931 in readiness for the retube.

And all this was being observed by this helicopter that was flying over the site!

Must ber a sign of the times we are in!

A deviation from the inmstructions!

Now, I have in the past in this blog highlighted the pitfalls of not following the manufactures instructions to build their kit or indeed Mrs. Woody's instructions on tasks that she has lined up for me to do. In fact I have created problems for myself by doing the exact thing both with kits and Mrs. W! However, in this instance I am sure I can deviate from the Airfix instructions without issue but not so sure about Mrs. W! However, I will deal with the latter issue later. In the meantime, I have found out that it is possible to build the Stolly's cab separately to the chassis/hull and for it to still be able to be fitted into place. The significance of this is that I can paint the inside of the cab at any stage I like without having the worry of having to do it through the cab windows. Much easier!

With cab temporarily in place it already looks like a Stolly!

Right, better get some plant watering done as Mrs. Woody has instructed - always best to follow instructions, or is it???

This could be an early Tamiya kit!

Work on building the Airfix Alvis FV622 Stalwart Mk.2 1/35 scale or as I will now refer to it as the Stolly has started. This is the first Airfix 1/35 scale military vehicle that I have built by Airfix so the build will be a learning curve but initial impressions are that this could be an early Tamiya kit. Parts fit well and it is not over complicated but the jit dos lack the finess of say a Dragon or Miniarts kit. However, I like uncomplicated and simple as it reminds me of me!

So far it has been easy going ith the chassis or hull constructed and the cab started on. Unfortubnatly, for a brand new tooling, there is a sink hole mark either side of the cab interior.

Some filler has dealt with these, but not what I expected in a new kit.

Moving on, the cab interior is mostly done and I have left the seats unglued for he moment as that will make painting the cab interior easier. I will have to see how I do that painting before building the cab which the instructions instruct should be built around the chassis/hull or can I find another way?

More YouTube filming!

The station area street scene is the subject of the latest WMD blockbuster (not) and can be found for your viewing pleasure here!

It has come together!

The Dapol Booking Hall kit that I built some weeks ago is now in its setting and although there are a few things left to do it is all but finished and I am pleased with it! I will let the photos do the talking which makes a change for me!

Parts of a street scene.

Getting towards the end of the road overbridge and station building area there is a need to add some detail to the street scene. Luckily, the WMD Stores had the necessary items in stock - telephone box, post box, bus shelter, cabinets, litter bin and bicycles.

All I needed to do was build and paint as appropriate.

The post boxes were a simple kit and I chose one of the six in the box.

Which built up into this.

The telephone box is also a simple small but effective kit.

Painting these and it takes you back to a pre internet/mobile phone era when you rushed to get a letter in the post box before the last collection of the day and when you stood in a phone box feeding it 2 pence pieces every time the pips went! You need to be of a certain age to understand that!

With some gluing and painting this is how the street scene parts look.

I am nearly at the point where I can add all these parts and see if it all comes together as a street scene I hoped for!

Time for a Stolly!

Time for a Stolly is not what Mrs. Woody heard. She heard Time for a lolly! Whilst in this hot weather that might be a good idea, equally it being time for a Stolly is also a good idea!  

What's a Stolly Woody, you may well ask? Well, in this case it is a Alvis FV622 Stalwart Mk.2 which in many circles, including the military, is known affectionately as a Stolly for short. If you want to know more about this vehicle there are some details on the Wikipedia page available by clicking here.

That's all well and good but what has this to do with my blog? A new 1/35th scale kit by Airfix is what it has to do and yesterday saw delivery of one of the first kits in the UK to the WMD HQ. In fact it is the first kit I have bought this year!. Uniquely, this is the first 1/35th scale injection moulded kit of this vehicle made as far as I know. There have been resin versions in the scale and KFS do a fine 1/24th scale one in resin but Airfix have done a first!

It is a largish box with some weight to it although opening it up doesn't reveal a mass of parts just heavy ones!

I'm looking forward to building this as I have had a fascination for these iconic vehicles since my childhood. Mrs. Woody is of the opinion that I am still a child which may explain my continued fascination! It does look as though I may have help or probably hindrance in the build as Monty the cat is showing a keen interest!

Right, now its time for a lolly!

Reduced shade!

I was hot at the Rocks By Rail Museum yesterday. It was so hot that Thomas's paint app told him it was too hot for paint to be applied to metal so he decided that a day helping me with some vegetational butchery in the shade was the thing to do. Alex thought so too. Now, despite the heat waves and general lack of rain, bushes and shrubs still appear to have grown at a rapid rate so some heavy pruning was required. Thomas had brought in his mini chain saw which he gave his mother for her birthday but then decided to test at the Museum. To be fair it was a great aid and soon destructed vegetation was piling up to the point that something had to be done.

Cue the builders bag which allowed the vegetational debris to be bulked up and transported to the composting area.

There was another issue with this mass vegetational destruction. That being that the shade that had been there was no longer there as we stripped back the vegetation! Being a bit crafty, I made my excuses and took the strimmer along the quarry tracks where it was still shady and cool and my strimming did nothing to reduce that! Cool! More to do on the cutting back side of the shrubs but that can wait for another day - hopefully when it is cooler!

Whilst talking about vegetation, one of my bike rides took me pass the local canal which over the last few weeks has become a stream. This is how it looked a few weeks ago.

And now....

Maybe I should take the strimmer down there!