Anniversary!

Not much model making today as it is mine and Mrs. Woody's anniversary of her putting up with me for more years then both of us can recall! She does deserve a large medal!

Whilst she was still slumbering this morning I did go out for an early bike ride to bring my mileage for the first third of 2023 up to a measly 1107 miles which compared to the 1500ish of this time last year is not good! I had 779 miles in by the end of March but have averaged only just under 11 miles a day this month. I blame the weather! Even on this morning's ride after last nights heavy rain there was flooding on parts of the road where I have never seen flooding before. Maybe I should take up sailing?

I also manage a half hour and painted the tyres on one side of the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma this evening which makes it look even better.

Tomorrow sees me at the Rocks By Rail Museum volunteering as we carry out a quarry day of operation for our visitors so I am hoping for a dry day!

Decaled after visiting a country house!!

A coat of gloss varnish on the turret and parts of the hull of the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma this morning....

....allowed the application of decals this evening.

They do make a big visual difference to the model.

Obviously they will tone down when some weathering is applied. This will be done after the various small additional parts are fixed on and the tyres painted. The two figures, once painted should add a bit of interest and I suspect I will end up make a small diorama for them all to be posed on.

In between the varnishing and the decaling I did take Mrs. Woody out to visit Belton House as it was one of those rare things this year - a nice day! A National Trust property we have visited before but always good to see how we could have lived if our lottery numbers had ever come up!

I have made it clear to Mrs. W that there is no way that we can replicate this in our back garden! It is very nice though!

That building at the back would make a great Man Cave......

Camouflage.

A pleasant few hours applying some camouflage to the  Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma this evening. I had finished painting the underside of the hull and the various other parts this morning in Dark Yellow and by this evening the hull was dry and ready for further painting.

First colour of camouflage to be applied was the Dark Green. Airbrushed on in random patterns just as the crew would have done on the real thing. They would probably have been neater though but there were, as far as I know, no defined painting patterns so it was for each crew to be crative.

Next up was the Red Brown which was again randomly applied.

I just need to tidy up some of the edges of the green and brown with a paint brush and then apply a coat of gloss varnish to allow for the application of the decals.

A wake, a book and dark yellow - a day in the life of Woody!

Unusually I had a day at the Rocks By Rail Museum today. The Museum closed for the day to host the wake of one of the members whose funeral it was. Unfortunately I did not know the member as he had succumbed to illness before I joined but he had made a big impact on the Museum over the years and it was obvious that his loss had affected those who did know him. It was great to see everyone come together to remember him and there was more laughter than tears which was a lovely way to remember someone. Although not knowing him I did assist with the catering and hosting duties which I hope went some way to making the day somewhat easier for his family and members to deal with. These sort of events always make me somewhat reflective and I do always have a sense of the preciousness of life and the need to live it to the full afterwards.

Anyway, enough of the philosophy! Whilst awaiting the arrival of the guests I did peruse the 'previously loved' book section in the cafe. Always interesting to see what is there and I did find this book on the Bicester Military Railway that I bought. Whilst I have known of this railway system for many years the only thing that Mrs. Woody knows about Bicester is the Retail Outlet Center where all the designer labels have shops. We did visit once and once only. My wallet was securely secreted on my person and my eyes wide open at the prices of things. There was the bargain handbag reduced from £12,000 to a mere £6,000 that Mrs. W had here eye on but I persuaded her that the colour did not suit her! The book was a much lesser price and will probably out last most handbags!

I will get round to reading it although I do have a pile of books that also await my availability to sit down and absorb their writing and illustrations.

Back at WMD HQ work on the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma has continued with an overall application of the base colour of Tamiya Dark Yellow to the hull, turret and wheels. This was the main colour German vehicles were painted in during the later part of WW2. Just the underside of the hull and the other sides of the wheels left to do.

Crews then usually applied random patterns of dark green and red brown in order to camouflage the vehicle. Tamiya do all the paints required with the Dark Yellow being XF60, the Dark Green being XF61 and the Red Brown being XF64. Luckily the WMD HQ paint stores have all of those in stock!

Primed!

Although I am normally primed to do the chores on Mrs. Woody's list of jobs for me, primed in this case refers to the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma. Having prepared the various components yesterday, today saw them primed in my go to Vallejo black primer. Both sides of  the various small parts have been primed as well as the hull and turret.

 I am now primed to get some colour on it in the next few days - chore lists allowing!

Grass, repairs and paint - oh, and progress on the Puma!

Three things going on at Rocks by Rail Museum today. Me grass cutting and at lunch the mass of brain power of my fellow diners calculated I walked ten miles cutting the grass today! No wonder I had an apatite! 

Back at the tracks the recently restored Midland Brake Van is looking good in its grey paint making its two companions look a little shabby.

However in the workshop works on a quick make over on the Shark brake van continue with it beginning to look a lot more solid and tidy.

Andy performing magic with car body filler!

John looking bemused as to why I keep taking photos!

However you can tell the progress with the end nearest me still needing more work whilst the far end is almost finished.

Also being painted is Paul's loco buffer beams. The photos don't do the undercoat justice as it does look rather pink in true day light! Not what you expect on a diesel but Paul assures me that the top coat will be a full blown bright red!

Back in the comfort of the WMD HQ with my legs rested and energy levels topped up with a superb Mrs. Woody lasagna, I did my preparation for painting of the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma with various parts attached to plywood strips using my favored masking tape ready to be airbrushed. The two figures have also been assembled.

And I am pleased to report that three days in the work bench is still looking clear!

Puma and bird table!

An odd title but starting with the Puma (which in this case is the tank not the large cat), today saw further progress on the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma. It is all the small bits that take the time to prepare and there are a few on this kit. The jack is an example/ Five parts go to make it all of which have to be cleaned up and then glued together. Add to that time, the time it also takes to find the parts that fall from my fingers onto the fall as I try to clean up joint lines (I made the right choice in having a hard floor rather then carpet - you can never find parts once they go in the pile of the carpet as I know from bitter experience!) and soon the jack becomes a 25 minute job. 

The exhaust units were also added to the rear of the hull which is the last of the major hull parts.

Here are the various cleaned up parts, most of which I will paint separately before adding them to the painted vehicle.

There are four wing markers and two aerials to add and the two figures that came with the kit to assemble and then it will be paint time.

Moving onto the bird table I did cover my restoration of it in this blog back in July 2021 (click here to see it). Unfortunately it was a victim of the recent building works. Not sure what happened to it but its roof ended up in pieces. Just hope the builders built a stronger roof then I did!

To gain some much needed credibility with Mrs. Woody and clear an eyesore from the garden I have repaired it and given it another coat of wood paint.

Mrs. W was suitably impressed although she did point out no birds had landed on it which after all is the purpose of the structure. She does have a point! However, landing birds or not, hopefully it will last for a few more years yet and no pumas will be seen on it!

Catching up on the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma.

It seems as though someone has forgotten to tell the weather it is no longer Winter! Another day of cold wetness that made me think it was January not April. However at least it was relatively warm and certainly dry in the Man Cave where I was able to enjoy the delights of having a clear workbench. 

With space comes a desire to fill it so the half built Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma that I started at the beginning of the year (when the weather seemed to be equally wet and cold as now) came out of storage.

I had got to the stage of putting the jerry cans in their cradles and putting the etched brass straps on. I had actually completed one so there were another five to do.

I did use acrylic varnish to fasten the etched brass parts which as I have pointed out before can be used as an adhesive. You can see the size of some of the parts with one of the smaller ones highlighted by the red arrow. They can test your eyesight!

After a couple of hours the jerry cans are done and four of the tyres smoothed off at the join line. I will probably leave the jerry cans off and paint them separately for ease of  applying paint to both them and the hull of the Puma.

Anyone who thought my newly cleared workbench would not last more then a day I am afraid is proved wrong! However, tomorrow is another day where in the World of Woody anything can happen as Mrs. Woody will freely testify to!

The decks are clear - well clearer!

As I posted several days ago I need to clear the decks on my workbench as it was just becoming too crowded with unfinished projects, paints, glue, tools and various bits that I just don't understand how they arrived on the bench! Anyway the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper truck is just about finished and can be taken off the bench following the application of some spare number plates left over from the build of the Leyland National bus last year.

With the truck removed the bench itself was looking like this!

Following some serious sorting out it does look somewhat clearer and organised! 

How long this will remains the case is open to debate but if you are into betting I would be putting money on not long! However in the meantime it has at least raised my spirits - nothing beats creating space on the decks!

Mirror, Mirror, on the truck!

Just a few minutes out in the man cave today which was enough though to put together some door mirrors for the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper truck. The arms were bent from some brass wire and the mirrors were simply cut from a scrap of plastic card. 

They were then fastened to the truck with some superglue into the small holes I driller in the cab doors. They were then painted black and the mirror faces silver. I will never see a reflection in these mirrors which is good because I don't really want to see myself! 

Whilst I had these paints to hand I also finished painting the grill on the front of the cab.

It will never win any trophies for detail but as a layout model in amongst all the other models it will look fine - I hope!

Legless!

A bit more work on the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper. It now has a driver although the only suitable figure to hand was one of the Dapol Platform Figures that I have been painting. The problem was that he was in a standing position. No problem - he became legless to fit in! You cannot really see my crude operation through the cab windows and it si something that is done a lot for passenger figures in model railway carriages so I don't feel too guilty about it.

The problem with fitting the cab in the right position was taken care of by cutting the engine block back. You cannot see it as the cab does not tilt and it was the only way to get the cab to fit properly. The engine is probably down a cylinder but that is no problem in the model world!

The tipper side has been adorned with some name plates - Bobby Beets, Quality Chalk - which I did using WORD. There is a story behind the choice of name but I will cover that in another post.

In the meantime I would just like to make some door mirrors and maybe a bit of weathering before I can call it finally finished.

Whilst making the name plates I also did a larger one for the quarry access.

It needs some legs to stand on - I wonder if the drivers legs are up to the job?

Almost finished!

It is almost finished - the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper that is. I have started fitting some glazing and need to fettle the cab to sit a bit lower but it does look like a proper tipper!

I feel almost finished too after a morning putting out banners for the Rocks By Rail Museum event over the May Bank holiday. At least it is done having visited various locations to put them in place and dragging all the stuff from the safe parking place to the visible location which are never conveniently in the same place! Oh well the exercise will do me good!

Broken things!

A day of broken things at the Rocks By Rail Museum today! 

The mower broke on me with the drive to the front wheels failing for no obvious reasons so that is in the workshop!

Also in the workshop is the Shark brake van with some rather broken wood panels that Andy is chopping out ready for new wood to be let in.

This steam loco has a broken tube in the boiler which has had to be repaired - no easy job!

However on a more positive note hopefully all will be ready for the My Bank Holiday when our next big events are.

Hopefully the gate will not break!