The Muckleborough Tank Museum T34 Tank.

I have been to sunny Norfolk with Mrs. Woody for a few days. It is a beautiful place with many interesting attractions apart from the wonderful scenery and the sea. One of these attractions is the Muckleborough Military Collection just outside of Sheringham on the North Norfolk Coast. It is a large collection of artillery, tanks and hard/soft skinned vehicles. You can even have a ride around the site in a Leyland DAF four wheel drive truck. Not as exciting as the Gamma Goat I went on some years ago but never the less rough enough to need fully harnessed seats, More on that and the other vehicles in another post but today I will highlight the fact that there is a T34 as part of the collection. Anyone having read previous posts will know I am building an Egyptian T34 at the moment and built a Russian one last year so these tanks are of interest.

Whilst building these tank models I am always worried I am not neat enough in my build. However take a look at these pictures to see just how rough these tanks were. It does appear that by accident, my poor modelling skills may have actually produced something more realistic than if I had skillfully constructed the kit into a pristine vehicle! 

Have a look at these to see just how rough the real tank is. Whilst I was taking the photos I also stuck the camera through the open drivers hatch and just blindly pointed it to see what images I would get. Very interesting especially as I built the Italeri kit with the interior in it last year. It is more roomy than I thought it would be!

Brass bearings.

I have had a problem with one of my second hand coaches derailing on an increasingly regular basis. It is always best to carry out an inspection of the track work first just to see that there is no problem there and there was not. Looking at the bogies on the coach I noted that on one of them the wheels had a lot of sloppy movement that meant they were not running true. This was because the plastic bearing face in the bogie frame had worn.

I could have got a new bogie but I had in stock a pack of brass pin point bearings. All I had to do was to put these into the bogies where the pin point axles of the wheel sets locate. In true Woody botch style rather then drill out a suitable hole I used a soldering iron to heat up the brass bearing and in effect 'sink' it into the plastic bogie frame.

Amazingly my botching work!

 Putting the wheels back in the coach runs without derailing - Result!

Kite Flying.

Not the kind on the end of a long line but in this case the bird Red Kite. Out on a bike ride I spotted one hovering in a thermal above a corn field. The I caught site of another and before I knew it there were eight of them. I understand that bird enthusiasts have mixed feelings about them but they do look majestic as they seemingly float in the sky. My camera is not a very good one but there are black dots in the picture below which are the kites and the photo below that is about as close a shot as I could get. The photos may not be much but my memory has these images stored in detail for the rest of my life!

The difference of scale.

No time for model making but the picture below shows the sheer difference in the two most popular scales for military vehicle modelling. The smaller model is an Airfix Sherman Crab in 1/72 scale. The actual tank was a mine clearance tank where the chains on the roller at the front were rotated and set the mines off a safe distance from the tank and cleared a way for following vehicles and troops. I added various parts to enhance the level of detail.

Meanwhile the Sherman behind is an Academy kit in 1/35 scale of a loan lease tank to the Russian army. I added a few details such as tarpaulins laid over the rear of the hull and various bags and sacks formed out of epoxy resin.

Obviously the bigger scale allows more detail but with what I added to the smaller tank it illustrates that you can still get a lot into the smaller scale. The one thing you can see though is that a life time of modelling in 1/76 scale takes up a lot less space than the same collection in 1/35 scale! I won't tell Mrs. Woody about that!

Looking around and getting in close!

Being a volunteer at the Rocks by Rail Museum usually involves being busy. However there are moments when you can spend a bit of time just enjoying the site for what it is - a museum. Not many museums allow you to get so close to the exhibits but Rocks is a hands on place that allows guests to get up close. 

An example of that is how many people can say they have seen the inside of the cab of a steam locomotive. Not that many but here at the Museum I had the opportunity to do just that with this with this Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 locomotive built in Kilmarnock in 1958. 

It may be a small locomotive compared to the large express steam locos but if you can master the controls of this then you could probably drive Flying Scotsman or Tornado too!

Nearly there!

Not much time for model making just recently but I have had a chance to start putting the Egyptian T34 tank together with the figures that came with the kit. I will leave it to the pictures but although there are still things to finish I am rather pleased with it!

Asking questions!

My daily bike ride takes me to some interesting villages and there are some really fascinating buildings which just ooze character and history. This can also whet the apatite for modelling projects when you see the architectural details although with my modelling skills any model of an old building would probably end up looking like a porta-cabin!

This row of houses just cries out to be modelled.

I don't know the history of these but a bit further up the road is this building.

I have known this building for many years and it has always been an engineering works - the true old style works where you could get anything made in metal. 

It looked somewhat derelict this time though. However as I was taking these pictures the owner stepped out and was no doubt surprised to be questioned by a sweaty looking cyclist about the building. However sometimes you have to ask questions to find out things and I learnt a lot about this building. It was constructed in the 1800s as a building for lace outworkers. Situated about 20 miles from Nottingham, which was the lace center of the World at the time, lace was shipped to the village by canal to be hand sewn by outworkers. The canal had a wharf about a mile from the village so no doubt horse and cart brought the products to and from the building. Maybe the wagon from a few blogs ago did this?The building has massive windows as there was no artificial light in those days and candles would not have been a safe option with al that flammable lace. As the lace industry contracted the building was taken over by a local iron stone quarrying company in the early 1900s for maintenance of equipment. Then in the mid 1900s the father of the gent I was talking to bought the building for £600 and opened the engineering works which then was taken over by the son. With no family interest in continuing the business the son has now retired earlier this year and the building will be sold. It would make a superb museum but will no doubt be converted to residential use which at least will see the exterior of the building conserved. However the various additions to the building that have been added over the years will no doubt go so some history will disappear but at least I now know. Never be afraid to ask!

 

  

Might as well be blunt!

Mrs. Woody can sometimes be to the point especially about failures to complete items on her job list for me! However she is never quite as blunt and to the point as the sign I saw on a gate whilst taking Mrs. Woody out for a £3.45 lunch deal! 

Decaling the tank!

Although the MiniArt kit for this Egyptian T34 tank has a multitude of parts it does not have much in the way of decals. Not a fault of the kit but these tanks just did not have much in the way of markings in real life. I am modelling the tank as it was when used in the Suez Crisis in the Autumn of 1956 which is probably the most decorated, in the way of markings, period for the Egyptian T34's. Just four decals are used in a slightly bright shade of green which at least stands out in a desert environment. The decals do add to the model and start to add character.

I did spray a coat of gloss varnish onto the areas where the decals were to be applied to give them a smooth surface to adhere to. The decals themselves were easy to apply and for once I did not end up trying to untangle curled up decals!

Paint my wagon?

If I had a wagon would I be tempted to paint it or leave it in its original condition - or as the experts say leave the patina! I came across this old horse drawn wagon at the side of a back road on one of my bike rides recently. 

Much as some may say it wants to be restored there are others who would say it needs conserving rather than restoring. I have to say that it has loads of character the way it is. The farmers name and farm details would be some thing difficult to replicate and lets be honest who, even if it were restored, would be able to use it with those metal rimmed wheels? Likelihood is that anyone brave enough to ride it would need the services of a chiropractor afterwards! Hopefully someone loves it and sees sense so it will be put under cover and steps taken to prevent any further deterioration. I will go back later and see!  

Weathering the tracks.

In my attempt to make the tracks of the T34 tank look weathered and worn I resorted to my usual trick of a wash of thinned black paint. Not a lot to the technique - merely dip the brush in the diluted paint and then dab it onto the track and let it flow naturally into the nooks and crannies. The nature of the liquid is that it carries most of the pigment of the paint into the lows of where it is dropped onto and as it dries it leaves that nice highlight. Although I forgot to take a picture once the black wash had dried I repeated the process with a sand coloured paint just to add variety!

Rusty tracks.

In between completing jobs on Mrs. Woody's list (that should get me in good books!) I did manage to find time to spray the tracks of the T34 Egyptian tank in an overall rust colour. This will be the ideal base for further work on them. They were also sprayed with matt varnish ready for that further work to make them look as though they have travelled miles through rough terrain with little care! This of course is dependent on me getting some more time between jobs!

Seeking the cool!

A really hot day at the Rocks by Rail Museum today - my car thermometer said it was 43C/110F in the carpark when I left this afternoon so either we were hotter than Coningsby in nearby Lincolnshire where the UK record of  40.3C/104F was recorded today or my car thermometer is slightly out! No idea which is right but it was still hot! So hot in fact we sought the cool shelter of  the workshops where it was somewhat cooler - in comparison to outside anyway! 

With visitors staying away and no doubt remaining at home it was a strange day but I did venture round the workshops to see progress on Elizabeth who is a 0-4-0 steam locomotive. She has been undergoing restoration for some years now and although the pandemic more or less stopped work on her for a year or two she is close to being finished although as these pictures show it does not seem that way. 

However, she does have a restored and certificated boiler, running gear that is in working order and a team now painting up the sub-structure so the cab and boiler cladding can be mounted on and painted. At that stage she will be finished and operational which will hopefully be in time for the start of next years opening and running sessions of the Museum.

in the meantime its time for another ice cream!

Sand Bag!

Whilst I am sure that my MiniArt T34 Egyptian Tank would be at home with a sand bag or two this particular reference is a UK vehicle registration plate. There a lot of 'doctored' plates on vehicles where spacings, layout  and character shapes are altered to make something else. You don't however see many standard plates where at first glance and the brain filling in gaps or reading what should be there they are relevant to their vehicle or owner. 

A case in point today where a tipper truck from a local sand and gravel merchant was behind me on my bike ride early this morning. It overtook me but due to a steep hill and gravity acting in my favour on my large frame, I caught up with it as it waited for a gap in the traffic at a junction to join the main road. I managed to get this quick picture of the truck with its SAND BAG registration plate. It amused me anyway!.

Back at WMD HQ, the Man Cave oven saw a very brief visit where I have painted the tow cables rust colour. Due to the nozzle of the paint bottle being partially blocked, I ended up spraying a lage amount of paint out so in a bid not to waste it parts of the track were painted. With this heat progress is slow which I also tell Mrs. Woody when she enquires as to the progress of the jobs on her list! Time for another ice cream!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I felt like singing the song Lazy Sunday Afternoon (sung far better then I can by The Small Faces back in 1968 and available by clicking here.) I was at the Rocks by Rail Museum on the door welcoming guests to the diesel day that should have been a steam day if it were not for the fire risk to neighboring fields. Whilst it was a hot day it was pleasant enough for visitors but maybe some had been frightened off by the various warnings in the media of heat induced problems. Anyway we had enough visitors to make it a good day and they seemed to all enjoy it with some being return guests which is really good to see. The cafe did a brisk trade in bacon cobs and a selection of cakes, scones, croissants, ice creams and drinks both hot and cold. I did surprise a few by cooking myself up a bacon croissant which was delicious!

We all had a good time and this afternoon it was a little like Lazy Sunday Afternoon with lots of chats sitting in the sun or shade and I even had time to take a ride in the cab of Betty the Sentinel down to the bottom of the line and back. According to the speedometer, which goes up to a maximum of 30 mph or about 48kmph, we topped out at a very laid back 5mph! 

Just a few pictures from the day summing up the good glow of that Lazy Afternoon feeling and I guess part of the reason I volunteer!