Now it is not very often that Woody gets invited to a party or indeed any event - ask Mrs. Woody!

Now it is not very often that Woody gets invited to a party or indeed any event - ask Mrs. Woody! My usual situation is that if I do get invited anywhere I only ever go twice and the second time is to apologise! However, Mrs. W and me were invited to a Birthday Party and not just a run of the mill party. It was a 95th birthday party! You don't see many of those in a lifetime! In this case it was Rocks By Rail hero volunteer Ray's 95th and what a great party it was! And where did he decide to hold it? Well at the Rocks By Rail Museum - his favourite place!

With a family of children, grand children, great grand children and a few great great grand children there were probably more people at the Museum then we see in a normal open day!

It was nice that it was a sunny day and people could overspill outside the cafe enjoying the food and cake that was in abundance!

And how many birthday parties do you go to where you get to have a ride in the cab of a locomotive? Well if you are at the Museum that can happen and it did! 

Nice one Ray and a real privilege to be at your party! I don't even have to go back and apologise - Mrs. W made sure of that ai8ded by loyal blog reader Mrs. B who was also there!

Galzing time!

 Just a small model making job - glazing the windows of the 3D printed signal box. For this I used my trusted glazing product Glue n Glaze. For small panes it is a great produce. It looks a mess when applied and there is an art to getting it to spread across the aperture of the window pane but once mastered it is a fairly quick process.

Just about dry now and changed from a white mess to clear!

Another job done on this structure so hopefully before too long I can get it back on the layout1

This time though, productivity on the destruction front would be double!

 There has ben a bit of tidying going on at the rocks By rail Museum!

The Restoration Shed was particularly tidy with all the stuff that has found its way onto the rolling stock removed although I am not sure where it has ended up!

 Even the platform planters are being spruced up with new wooden planting boxes replacing the tired plastic ones.

White paint is being applied to various things too!

Even this buffer head got the treatment presumably so that guests see it and don't bump into it!

Continuing with this theme of tidying, it was time to do some more vegetational butchery! This time though, productivity on the destruction front would be double as loyal blog reader Mrs. B was at the Museum looking for something to do. Well, that looking was soon sorted as a quick tutorial on the controls of Morris Mower saw Mrs. B head off into the jungle of vegetation with Morris leaving me to do some much needed strimming with Sammy Strimmer!

So this....

Became this...

It may not look much but there were brambles, ivy and grass engorging the track side and wheels of the rolling stock so it at least looks neater.

More work with Sammy saw this....

become this...

I know that vegetation has not been dealt with for at least five years! Looks neater now though!

You always find odd things when wandering around the site such as this old birds nest made on the chassis of one of the wagons.

I also got a chance to take a look at some of the rolling stock I never normally get to see cloose up such as this bogie flat.

It may not have moved in a few years but it will be needed to move rail and sleepers once the passing loop is started at the end of the line.

Something that probably has no likely future service is this coach which unfortunately was vandalised some years ago.

Something I would like to see come back into service is this rather unique rake of side tipping wagons.

As a rake of 6 wagons they would look stunning restored and running behind one of the locos. The chassis are fine on the wagons but the bodies would need a lot of work to bring them back to life.

Whilst I imagined the fully restored wagons running Mrs. B had run out of petrol for mowing but had done a great job in keeping the place looking tidy. At this rate we may run out of jobs to do!

The platelayers hut comes on!

As you can see and following on from yesterdays post I have added some window frames from plastic strip to the 34D printed platelayers hut. I have also put some filler around the top of the chimney breast to simulate the cement flaunching that is there in rea life.

With that done it was out with the rattle can of grey primer to give it a base coat.

Once dry I can start the colouring!

Corrugated iron plastic sheet.

Having added some brick detail to the chimney breast of the 3D printed platelayers hut it was time to add some texture to the walls. A sheet of embossed corrugated iron plastic sheet provided this. Some careful measurements and cutting produced the necessary parts.

I even added some plastic strip for the door. Just need to do something about that window and then it will be paint time!

Looks a bit more interesting then what it started out as!

A bit disappointing but it can be fixed!

Whilst waiting for the weathering on the 3D printed signal box to thoroughly dry, I dug this 3D printed platelayers hut from the WMD 3D Printed Items Secure Store and there is no acronym to that that I will print!!

I must admit that when I bought it I did not examine it that closely otherwise I would have noted the lack of any detail surfaces. No representation of brick or stone on the chimney breast or wood planks for the hut itself. 

A bit disappointing but not a problem especially when the WMD Stores have the necessary items to improve matters in stock! So work has started on the chimney breast with some embossed brick plastic card being cut to size and glued onto the flat surface of the 3D print.

Took a bit of time but worth the effort. Next up are the walls of the hut which should give a bit more interest to the model.

 

Tone it down!

Given the rather garish nature of the blue paint applied to the 3D printed signal box, it needed toning down. That was done after the tiles on the roof were painted and the ridge tiles painted a contrasting clay colour. Several washes of dilute black paint and gravity have tones it all down making it look a bit more life like.

still a few things to do like glaze the windows but it is progressing well!

The three coloured pencil method!

I removed the masking tape from the signal box with some trepidation having airbrushed the wooden parts. There is always a danger of bleed through or slight misalignment but happily and probably unusually, my efforts were fairly successful with only a slight bit of bleed on the roof which will be painted over.

With the masking off I attended to the brickwork using my favourite method where the brickwork has some relief to the mortar courses which is the three coloured pencil method! By randomly rubbing the pencils over the brick faces a random and varied brick colour appears whilst the mortar remains a grey colour.

With that done I have started picking out the roof tiles in random shades of grey to provide some variety to the overall look of the roof.

More to do on that but the signal box is taking on some character!

It all looks a bit garish at the moment like an explosion of blue!

Whilst I wait for the paint to harden on the Italeri Mercedes MP4 truck cab parts I made use of the time by digging out the 3D printed signal box from its resting place on the My Last Great Project 00 gauge layout. Apart from playing operating it over the last few months nothing else has been done to it since probably Christmas time so it is time to get something done!

I had already primed the signal box with a coat of rattle can grey so I had a base on which to put some top coat. As with the station building built from a Dapol kit last year, the woodwork is a dark blue. Given the expanse of wood and the intricacies of the window frames my choice of paint application system was the airbrush! First off though I had to mask the parts that were not to be blue as it would be a job to paint over the blue with other colours. 

There were a few interesting geometric cuts required to the masking tape to get it to fit where it should but after a while things came together.

With the masking done some suitable blue paint was decanted and thinned and then applied to the model.

It all looks a bit garish at the moment like an explosion of blue but once the other colours are applied and some weathering is done it will all tone in together.

In the meantime I need to let the paint dry and then see how effective my masking was!

No flies on this loco!

It may look like Pam had decked John at the Ricks By Rail Museum...

Nut all was well as I just happened to catch John crawling out from under one of the locos as Pam and Pete were passing whilst my camera was out!

Whilst my camera was out I also caught up with the Southern brake van restoration where the two air tanks have been painted smartening things up.

However, the woodwork is not so smart with further cleaning and prodding revealing a fair amount of rot which will need dealing with and new timbers added. 

Steam loco Barrington is slowly coming on with its cosmetic restoration.

Whilst I am aware that insects are attracted to wet paint I thought that the addition of the electronic insect disposal system might be taking things to extremes! A real case of no flies on this loco! However, it appears that this was in the workshop for repair and will be reinstated in the cage once working again!

Loco 1931 is still awaiting the return of its boiler which is away for repairs including additional items found that need dealing with but were not spotted earlier. Always the case but hopefully by mid year it will be back together and steaming away down the track.

My contribution was to steam around the grass areas with Morris Mower. Amazing how quick the grass has grown when its has not been that wet or warm!

Just as we packed up for the say a sudden wind and rain storm hit the site and here Pam is battling to get to her car and shelter. Certainly no flies in that storm!