It may need some weathering but the 3D tractor is finished! All that I had to do was finish y=he painting and assemble the four parts that make up the kit. There were no instructions but even I could not go wrong!
Mrs. Woody took me out for a change! She took me to the Makers Show at Spalding. It was not the greatest of days to travel but we got there and found the car park somewhat wet, muddy and fairly full! With warning signs about soft ground the omens were not looking good for this trip out.
However we parked and I made sure to park in such a way that if Mrs. W had to push us out it was not going to be too far - thoughtful as always!
Going into the building I thought that whilst the coffee and pasta vans may get trade the ice cream van was perhaps clutching at straws!
Once in and as no stranger to the building I am much more used to that place being full of model railways so it was a bit of a shock to see stall upon stall of arts, crafts and eatables!
Much as I had in my mind that it would be similar to the small shows in church halls and similar where the quality of items can sometimes be, lets say, a bit dubious, this show was actually about 150 stalls of very high quality products.
I always like a bit of a play on words and this top caught my eye.
Only available in child sizes though! Shame, as even though Mrs. W thinks I am a child at heart, there is no way I can fit into that!
We did buy a few items including some very nice fudge and some Christmas presents so it was nice to both get these and know it was supporting small local businesses.
Looking round the retail park that adjoins the show building it was obvious that Christmas preparations had been ongoing for some time although I had to feel sorry for those running the Winter Wonderland Walk as it looked more like the Winter Wetland Walk as the guys were trying to get the water off the paths.
A great day out and one that Mrs, W wanted to do for some time so that was nice!
Feeling as though I was Scott of the Antarctic, which was possibly an over dramatisation of the coldness in the Man Cave but it was cold, some progress was made on painting the £D tractor print. Having actually turned the heater on, it was warm enough to airbrush some paint so undercoat was followed by painting the wheel centres white.
After that, the tyres were brushed painted. The separate mudguards and bonnet were airbrushed in blue whilst the main body has had a first hand brushed coat of the same blue which by this time matched my complexion with the cold!
Like my Man Cave, the rocks By Rail Museum was cold! In fact even the heater in the lunch cabin had stopped working so I joked that we should open the fridge door to warm the place up! I think it would have worked too! However with some outside jobs to be done most people were being warmed by the work they were involved in including the continued work on finishing the land drainage schemme started last year.
Obviously the work is going well if the smiles on faces are to be believed!
Sammy Strimmer was back with me for the day as the seemingly never ending task of clearing the bone yard continues! Now David believes there are some weighbridge parts in the undergrowth and stated a mission to find them - brave man is all I can say!
If he goes much further he could be lost!
He never did find them but I, on the other hand discovered these two RSJs just lurking in the undergrowth as such things do!
Well, it may not be the most exciting of posts but given the cold weather it was not the most hospitable of places in the M an Cave so my stay was limited to cleaning up the 3D tractor kit ready for priming. Not a whole lot to do, but a bit of sanding on the bonnet and rear mudguards together with removing some excess print material in a few places together with mounting the parts onto a board with masking tape means they are ready for some primer once I venture back out again!
With my rabbit hole project of the Lima DMU now finished it is back to layout building. I have moved onto scenic subbase construction for the far corner of the last baseboard I am building. I have already cut out mounting card formers to match the plywood profiles I mounted on the baseboard some time ago. To these I am mounting polystyrene from the WMD Stores which seemingly has stocks of most items I need!
As it is somewhat cold in the Man Cav I have only made a small start and I have, in the absence of Mrs. Woody today, brought the structure inside the house and in the warm to speed up the drying process. I just need to repatriate it to the Man Cave before Mrs. W gets back!
The WMD film crew have been at work again and this potential blockbuster, or more likely flop, visually goes through the Lima Class 117 DMU rebuild.
At last it is the end of the Lima Class 117 DMU rebuild! It has taken some time and stretched my abilities but I have learnt a lot.
The last job was to weather the roof and that was done with a few washes of my usual dilute brown paint. Just brushed on and allowed to dry as gravity and capillary action did it's job.
Now it is time to get back to building the layout for it too run on! Not sure when the end to that project will come though!
