A bit of that and a bit of this!

The first real post of the New Year and my thoughts partly look back over what I did last year and what I would like to do. A case of a bit of that and a bit of this! The blog gives me a good reminder of what I did and there was a fair amount achieved including breaking my cycling target of 5200 miles for the year by actually ending up with 5544 miles. Although it is useful to set a few targets I do not rule my life by them but you do need some direction. As the blog serves as a record and reminder of what I did I will also use it as a reminder of what I would like to do. For this year I am going to try to do 

• the jobs on Mrs. W's ever refreshed list!
• cycle 5200 miles
• build at least 12 kits of scale 1/35th or greater from my stash 
• finish the narrow gauge railway layout  
• finish laying the track and wiring on my Last Great Project layout and try to get some basic scenery on it
• complete as many Shelf Queens as I can
• sort out/tidy/de-junk my man cave AKA The Room of Gloom
• try to spend one day a week volunteering at the Rocks by Rail Museum
• finish sorting out my parents affects which although I have not talked about it on this blog has taken up so much of my time last year and is an emotional business. I would like to complete it.

Well I have recorded it and in 363 days time I can see just how much or more possibly little I have achieved of that lot. What ever I end up doing I will try to have fun doing it! On the cycling front I have managed 24 miles so far this year which is not even 0.5% of my desired total however it has been that mild weather wise that I have been riding in shorts. That's the problem when you complete one target and start another - you have to start at the bottom again!

Model making wise a few steps forward with the narrow gauge layout having had a bit of a break over News Year Day with watching old favorites in the James Bond and Indiana Jones series on TV. What is ridiculous is that we watch them on TV and sit through the adverts when we have them advert free on  DVDs! Note to self - think about this!

The bridge abutments have been added and the acrylic varnish used to seal around them so that when I pour resin to model the water in the river, the resin itself will hopefully stay in the river and not flood what's under the layout. In addition the river bed has had some greenery added to represent the type of weed and plant life you would find in a river of this sort. I am no expert so the whole thing is random and probably breaks all known laws of biology but is anyone going to look that closely? It will probably need a few further applications but slowly does it - there are another 363 days to this year yet!

I did also find a bit of time to do a bit more painting on the two sheds for the narrow gauge layout which now have doors and framework in a contrasting shade of blue. The internal face of the two open doors also got another coat of paint and hinges and locks have been picked out in black paint. Meanwhile the crates and barrels got a wash of dilute black paint to highlight the plank detail. The drums have also been painted in that contrasting blue shade that the sheds were painted in - something to do with sqeezing too much paint out and needing a use for it!

Hopefully over the next few days the sheds will get fully finished and the river may even get its water!