Sunday was a Quarry day at the Rocks by Rail Museum which meant I was shunting assisted by Dan and with John driving Mr. D. Unfortunately Mr. D decided that it was time to breakdown with a lack of air to release the brakes being the problem. There was an additional problem in that the other quarry train was now trapped behind Mr. D!
WMD - Woody's Modelling Diary
Recording my progress, or usually the lack of it, in building kits, creating model railways and other related and sometimes unrelated matters!
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Wednesday, July 2, 2025
BBC - Brakedowns, Brakes and Couplings!
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Stairway to dirt!
With the Dapol Booking Hall kit now finished it is time to move on with associated station area projects such as the steps that I built to take passengers from the bridge above the platform down onto the platform itself. I did airbrush them blue at the same time as the windows and doors for the Dapol kit. Much as the steps looked OK in the pristine blue....
...they did look as though they were part of a modern industrial unit in some hi tech industry rather than a uncared for item open to the elements in an urban and industrial area. Given that an airbrushing of earth brown followed by rust weathering powders and it turned the steps into a stairway to dirt, certainly not heaven!
Monday, June 30, 2025
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Its finished!
Yes, it is finished! Not Mrs. Woody's list of jobs for me to do but the Dapol kit is now done. Final bits were adding the roof and canopy along with the privacy fence for the gents toilet as well as the front doors. Also added were some posters, a clock face and a gentleman inside at the ticket hatch. I think he may have a long wait until he can get his ticket! Anyway, some pictures illustrate the final product far better than my words can but I can say I am pleased with it!
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Friday, June 27, 2025
Hush, hush!
I had to be hush, hush at the Rocks b Rail Museum so no noisy mowers or strimmers! The reason? A film crew. Cant say what the programme is but it will be on main stream TV probably the back end of next year or in 2027! However it was great to watch it being made.
Mr. D in his brand new paint job is a major part of the programme and John and Thomas have made a fantastic job in less than a week.
Meanwhile things did carry on away from the filming with work on steam loco Barrington involving taking off the non-original coal bunker and replacing it with a normal cab back.
A view into the cab that you would not normally get!
Outside work on 1931 carries on with the boiler being washed out ready for inspection.
Richard was under the loco with a hose pipe.
Whilst Hazel was at the side pulling the debris that had washed out through the drain hole.
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Chimney pots.
Just a small amount of work on the Dapol Booking Hall kit but it does make a difference. The Chimney pots are moulded as a solid part. By drilling through the chimney pot part and opening it up it does make it look a lot more realistic - it will be enhanced once painted and fitted to the roof!
I do enjoy these small jobs - if only the jobs on Mrs. Woody's list for me to do where this small!
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
What a pain to do the panes!
What a pain to do the panes! Well actually it was not too bad a job to glaze the windows for the Dapol building. I could have used the clear plastic sheet provided but choose to use DeLuxe Materials Glue n Glaze to give a better finish and to fill in the all to deep window bars in the window frames.
Basically all I had to do was get the Glue n Glaze into the apertures and let it set.

Tuesday, June 24, 2025
A night on the tiles!
Well I did spend some of the night painting the tiles on the Dapol kit and very soothing it was! As with the brickwork blogged about a few days ago, I picked out random tiles in a slightly lighted colour to the main colour used. I also used the same Rust colour trhat IU had for the brickwork on the ridge tiles and it contrasts nicely.
Monday, June 23, 2025
Its not easy to be random!
It is not easy to be random despite what Mrs. Woody may think about my actions! What I am talking about here is being random in picking out individual bricks in a wall such as on the Dapol model I am building at the moment. Looking at a real building you notice that there a subtle and on occasions not so subtle variations in the colour of individual bricks. I replicated this to some degree on my model by taking the Rust coloured paint that I had painted the brickwork in and adding either the Sand or Leather Brown colour as used in previous painting of the model, in small amounts on a plastic bag to make up slightly darker and lighter colour variations on the original Rust colour. Individual bricks were then painted and an interesting effect starts to build up.
This is also the point at which being random becomes difficult - well for me anyway - as I always seem to start developing a symmetrical pattern in painting individual bricks! I really have to think hard about randomness! Just hope Mrs. Woody doesn't read this or I could face some difficult questions!
With the brick work painted, randomly, it was time to add some mortar to the joints and generally tone and weather the colour down. That was done with a very dilute cat of grey paint which was just applied to the surface and allowed to find its own way inti the brick joints.