Finish it Friday - but which Friday?

Back when I started this Blog I had a few Finish It Friday posts where I finished a almost completed model. It was quite successful for me and saw a number of other wise shelf queens finished off. However, for reasons that I cannot recall, the whole Finish It Friday went by the wayside. However, whilst doing the control panel for my model railway layout I keep bumping into two boxes which are from this build of the Dragon  Kit 6625 and 6669 Panzer Ferry,

Now in my usual way 95% of the kit has had been built and painted back in 2022 but there were some stanchions and chain to add which I never goy round to.

Luckily the box contains the parts!

At this point I realised why I probably put the finishing touches to one side - etched brass parts!

However, since 2022 I have become more adept at dealing with such parts so I have made some progress just that the progress is slow in this heat and hence which Friday will it be finished!

Nice, sensible and cool just like me!

Out on a bike ride the sheep were, unlike me, again doing the sensible thing of keeping in the shade and cool whilst I pushed myself up hill in the baking sum! So I have to admit the sheep are being sensible!

At the Rocks By Rail Museum, Andy and John were doing the sensible thing of being in the pit under the shade of Graham the Sentinel doing some brake work.

Pam and Pete had been keeping cool in the shade of the Exhibition Centre where they are restoring the fence panel and gate donated by the family of a deceased husband and wife who were founding members of the Museum back in the early 80s.

Even steam loco Uppingham looked cool in the stripped down condition it is in!

In fact the whole of the Exhibition Centre just looked cool and this is not a sight that is seen everyday as there are several locos on that middle road!

So given the sensibility of staying in the cool, what did I do? I took Sammy Strimmer out of the cool of his storage unit and took him and me down to the sidings where we carried out mass vegetational butchery turning things like this...

...into this!

I certainly did not stay cool and it was certainly not sensible as Mrs. Woody would point out but she did give me a sensible dinner of a delicious cooling salad!

Nice, sensible and cool just like me!

Wordless WEDNESDAY!

Wordless Wednesday as it's too hot to do anything other than enjoy ice cream!

Still a bit more to do but progress in the cool!

Despite the heat I ventured into the Man Cave having opened windows and spent some time sorting out a few issues with the control panel for my 00 gauge layout. Nothing strenuous and keeping cool and I have made some progress. Still a bit more to do but progress in the cool!

The Man Shed is like an oven today.

Whee! It is hot! The canal tells me it is also dry as todays bike ride past it revealed!

After more gardening I am not getting any model making done as the Man Shed is like an oven today. However a cooling half hour sitting in the shade to recover (don't tell Mrs. Woody I was sat down!) surfing YouTube found this which really made me smile. Well worth a few minutes just to take your mind off all the things happening in the World at the moment!

 

It is still one of my favourites,

It has been a day of gardening and I am hot and tired so no model making activities today. I may run some trains later but for now I go back in time! In the early 1980s Italeri produced the first 1/24th scale European truck kit with the Volvo F10. It was a fantastic kit and I built one. I still have it even though I rebuilt it back in the early naughty's. 

It is still one of my favourites,  

I built it out of the box and then at the rebuild I added some details to the cab interior.

That is a copy of the Star newspaper with some headline about the footballer Gazza> I had forgotten that I had added that!

I also added the Suzies in the traditional colours that were used back in the day. I used to know what each one was but I am going to have to look that up when I have time.

I did the sensible thing and repaired the problem with a bit of a bodge!

I may well have extracted myself from the rabbit hole I was talking about in yesterdays post. The Hornby Hymek could have dug me deep into the World of conversion to DCC, adding extra pickups and detailing the body and chassis/ I did consider all these things and then sense prevailed! I did the sensible thing and repaired the problem with a bit of a bodge! 

This was the problem.

And this was the solution!

Good old superglue! I just used a few drops to secure the copper pickups into where they should be and it seemed to work!

The wheels were filthy so they were cleaned and you can see the rim of the one wheel cleaned in the picture above. The motor itself also got some lubricant. With that the bogie was placed on the oval of track and attached to the coaches that were on it.

I really was not expecting much but it ran and ran well! With that I mounted it back into its chassis and the body went on.

Then back onto the oval for a final test where it ran for over an hour at various speeds and to be honest it was wonderful to watch! Another loco saved from scrap!

This is another rabbit hole I am descending into and I take the blame!

I could blame others but it is my fault! What is that you may ask. Well, whilst running Mr. B's Britannia in around a loop of track on the floor I got three coaches out of a box. 

There was also an old Hornby Hymek in there. Now that is nearly 50 years old and given to me as I posted back in 2022 (click here to see that post). It did run then and so I put it on the track and coupled up the coaches, and turned the power on. It ran for about three inches and died! No amount of prodding would see any life in it so it came on the bench.

These old models are so simple that it is a pleasure to work on them - normally! The Hymek had one screw and two clips and with these undone/unclipped the body came off. The power bogie has one screw holding it to the chassis and that was soon released. I can see the problems as to why it stopped running as part of the bogie and motor mount has broken meaning the pickups don't pick up electricity from the wheels. 50 year old plastic does deteriorate with time. Not sure if I can get a spare or rebuild the broken part or develop some other solution. This is another rabbit hole I am descending into and I take the blame!

I did take a moment to have a drink and found the site's Robin looking for food among the grass cuttings.

Whilst the Rocks By Rail Museum has some major projects going on at the moment with the cosmetic restoration of steam loco Uppingham, the rebuild of steam loco 1931 and the rebuild if the Southern brake van Rob has decided another project needs to be added to the list so he is doing up the Euclid dumper truck.

Much grinding and cutting out of rusty metal has been going on but still much to do Rob!

For me it was back to grass cutting. I missed last week because of the rain but never expected the level of growth that has happened over two weeks. However, a combination of Morris Mower and Sammy strimmer managed to change this...

...to this...

And I continued up the site and outside too! 

I did take a moment to have a drink and found the site's Robin looking for food among the grass cuttings. He took a break from that too!

 Cant see the Robin?

Elsewhere on the site it has been a story of  colourful flowers in the planters on the platform and around the cafe thanks to Sue's hard work...

...whereas Andy's hard work on weed killing has been a story of brown weeds!

And finally, the clam buckets have been emptied of vegetation and rocks added to illustrate what they were used for and that has made a big difference.

All in all things are moving on!

I could watch such scenes all day long!

One of the great things about living in a rural area is the chance to cycle along quite roads in traffic terms. However there is occasional congestion as i experienced out on a bike ride!

I had to wait at least 30 seconds to get going again!

Apparently, Leo the horse just stopped when he saw he JCB so had to be led around it! 

I could watch such scenes all day long!

Back at WMD the cable tie bases have started to be attached using screws to the Last Great Project Layout.

The wiring looms are then just hung off the bases using a cable tie.

It may not look attractive but it works. I could have hung the looms under the baseboards but as the area underneath is used for storage of  junk valuable items there would be the possibility of catching the loom whist moving things. I can certainly live with it and if I cant in the future I can always wrap the wires in a sheaf of somesort.