Let's twist and shout!

No! Not doing a Beatles impression but I did shout and there is a twist involved but more of that later.

Having had a great time at the Rocks by Rail Museum yesterday, today was more of a 'normal' day - if any thing can be normal at WMD HQ! A couple of hours in the Man cave AKA The Room of Gloom this evening and I can report that the model water resin is still wet! No doubt the very low temperatures have something to do with it not setting but it is causing delays on getting on with things. I could really do with moving the board to get a better access to various parts but that would no doubt end up with a sloping river with dust in it! So for the moment I am just tinkering around the edges . However some progress with the cobble infill by the canal wharf and the open doors on one of the sheds together with its floor having been attached.

Having now got to the 9th January I thought that it might be wise to start on one of my 12 in 22 kit builds that I committed (yes I should be) to at the start of the year. It is the Heller Scania 141 LB as shown a few posts ago. It is an old kit dating back from the 1980's which I recall desiring to build at the time but not having the money to buy the kit. It was one of the first 1/24th scale kits of a European truck to be released - Italeri started the ball rolling with a kit of the Volvo F10 which I did build. Anyway! You expect a kit of this age to show some signs of wear but I was taken aback by the first two parts too assemble which were the two halves of the engine block.

As you can see there is a big twist in the parts which caused me to shout! The swear jar now has its first 2022 contribution! Clamps were the order of the day with the back of the two parts being glued and clamped firs and allowed to set before the front halves were twisted back as they should be and glued and clamped. 

Having completed that task it needs to be left to set fully before I dare attach anything else to it so attention turned to the chassis frame. Usually on these kits you get the two chassis rails which are then joined by crossmembers. Heller for some reason have produced the complete chassis in two halves - upper and lower. A new one on me and the joint line is going to need a lot of filling and sanding to make it disappear. 

With the aid of several clamps and a lot of glue the two halves were joined together. I also glued the two halves of the rear axle together.

Given that the chassis looks slightly twisted I have left it on the workbench with several weighty paint and brush jars on top to see if that will straighten it up overnight. I will await to see! Maybe the model water may have set too? Maybe that's a twist too far!