Was it twelve months ago or eleven?

I never kept a diary as a youngster so it was a strange step for me when a few years ago I started this blog primarily as a way to record what I have been up to rather then rely upon my memory as well as to prove to Mrs. Woody that I had been getting on with at least some of her list of jobs for me! I have informed a bewildered Mrs. Woody on many occasions that my memory is fine and I never get things wrong and even the one time l though I was actually wrong I wasn't! Interestingly though, the blog has proved that my memory can actually get things wrong and the reality is that like most people my memory is not as accurate as I thought and this blog is a way of going back and actually seeing the facts in cyber print. Take today for example. Out on my bike ride this morning, early to avoid the heat, I took this photo to show that the sheep knew it was going to be hot.

In my mind I took more or less the same picture twelve months ago when it was a hot weather period and I was convinced it was more or less to the day that I took this one last year.

Actually going back through the blog the photo was taken and the blog posted on the 11 July 2022 as evidenced by clicking here. Well there you go! My memory was semi right but a month almost to the day out! The worth of the blog is proved! To my mind anyway so I was not wrong in starting the blog. There is a lot of convoluted logic there which will keep Mrs. W amused if nothing else!

Back then I was also building the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank which seems a lot longer ago then a year. However lets get back to the present and progress on the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck. Today I decaled the cargo body. Sometime ago Kit Form Services had a clear out and there were bargains to be had and of course I ended up with things that I knew would come in handy one day. These included these part decal sheets.

The sheets are for a fictional UK company (I must try the phone number just to see!) and were originally designed to fit a tractor and trailer set up. I had it my mind though for some time that the trailer ones would, with a bit of compression, fit the cargo body. A quick test with the various parts cut out confirmed that my hopes.

With that confirmed and having already sprayed the matt paint of the canvas with gloss varnish to aid the application process, the decals were dipped into a water filled ice cream container that I had had to empty - well it was a hot day!

Applying them to the cargo body was not the easiest thing to do as I had to do a lot of measuring to make sure they at least looked straight and centered. After a few hours this is what it all looked like and I am pleased with the result.

The rear of the cargo body required some custom cutting of the decals but I think it works.

I thought that the blue cab decals that came with the set did not really work on the green cab and with such prominent advertising on the cargo body why would the cab also be liveried up? I did however apply the ISO 9002 decals as a token gesture to some cab adornment. Not sure if it works so it may come off once I have thought about it a bit more.

All the decals were treated to a coating of Micro Sol to aid their adhesion and setting.

Hopefully if I can remember I need to also treat the decals to a coat of semi matt varnish. If I forget I can always look back on this blog in a few months time!