Back to the scenic base!

With my distractions of the Lima DMU and the 3Dtractor out of the way it is back to scenic sub-base construction for my Last Great Project layout. Having created a sub-base from mounting card formers and polystyrene it is time to put a layer of plaster impregnated bandage on top to create a hard shell. The WMD stores have recently had stocks of said plaster impregnated bandage replenished so there was now no excuse to delay!

It comes in a 3m long roll but rather then try to deal with such a length of what is to be a wetted and slimy item I do the sensible (me be sensible???) thing of  cutting it to short lengths. Much easier to handle and get into place.

I painted some PVA glue onto the polystyrene before starting to place the lengths of bandage in place. Once I had a first layer of several bits I simply painted on water with a paint brush. This is much easier and cleaner then dumping the bandage into a bowl of water and trying to then transfer it to the scenic sub-base and then mould it to shape. With an initial layer in place another two layers are added to give some thickness and strength to the shell of bandage.

A couple of hours of therapeutically pleasant work whilst listen to the radio saw progress although there is still a few more hours work. However as it was getting cold I thought that I would leave that for another day!

Showroom condition!

It may need some weathering but the 3D tractor is finished! All that I had to do was finish y=he painting and assemble the four parts that make up the kit. There were no instructions but even I could not go wrong!

It just needs some weathering to take away that 'showroom' look and make it look a bit more like a working piece of agricultural machinery!

I made sure to park in such a way that if Mrs. W had to push us out it was not going to be too far - thoughtful as always!

Mrs. Woody took me out for a change! She took me to the Makers Show at Spalding. It was not the greatest of days to travel but we got there and found the car park somewhat wet, muddy and fairly full! With warning signs about soft ground the omens were not looking good for this trip out.

However we parked and I made sure to park in such a way that if Mrs. W had to push us out it was not going to be too far - thoughtful as always!

Going into the building I thought that whilst the coffee and pasta vans may get trade the ice cream van was perhaps clutching at straws!

Once in and as no stranger to the building I am much more used to that place being full of model railways so it was a bit of a shock to see stall upon stall of arts, crafts and eatables!

Much as I had in my mind that it would be similar to the small shows in church halls and similar where the quality of items can sometimes be, lets say, a bit dubious, this show was actually about 150 stalls of very high quality products.

I always like a bit of a play on words and this top caught my eye.

Only available in child sizes though! Shame, as even though Mrs. W thinks I am a child at heart, there is no way I can fit into that!

We did buy a few items including some very nice fudge and some Christmas presents so it was nice to both get these and know it was supporting small local businesses.

Looking round the retail park that adjoins the show building it was obvious that Christmas preparations had been ongoing for some time although I had to feel sorry for those running the Winter Wonderland Walk as it looked more like the Winter Wetland Walk as the guys were trying to get the water off the paths.

A great day out and one that Mrs, W wanted to do for some time so that was nice!

Blue is the colour!

Feeling as though I was Scott of the Antarctic, which was possibly an over dramatisation of the coldness in the Man Cave but it was cold, some progress was made on painting the £D tractor print. Having actually turned the heater on, it was warm enough to airbrush some paint so undercoat was followed by painting the wheel centres white.

After that, the tyres were brushed painted. The separate mudguards and bonnet were airbrushed in blue whilst the main body has had a first hand brushed coat of the same blue which by this time matched my complexion with the cold!

Once finished it should find a home on one of my layouts but in the meantime it is back to the warmth of the house!

I looked back on my work and had a pleasant feeling of achieving something!

Like my Man Cave, the rocks By Rail Museum was cold! In fact even the heater in the lunch cabin had stopped working so I joked that we should open the fridge door to warm the place up! I think it would have worked too! However with some outside jobs to be done most people were being warmed by the work they were involved in including the continued work on finishing the land drainage schemme started last year.

Obviously the work is going well if the smiles on faces are to be believed!

Sammy Strimmer was back with me for the day as the seemingly never ending task of clearing the bone yard continues! Now David believes there are some weighbridge parts in the undergrowth and stated a mission to find them - brave man is all I can say!

If he goes much further he could be lost!

He never did find them but I, on the other hand discovered these two RSJs just lurking in the undergrowth as such things do!

I showed Richard them and he recalls about 20 years ago using them as cross members under a loco to jack it up and move a wagon under so that the loco could be moved! Well, if we need to do that again at least we now know where the RSJs are!

This collection of various shaped metal parts are from a long ago dismantled ore wagon David informed me! May come in useful if we ever find the rest of the wagon and it could be out there in the undergrowth!

I didn't think much of this as it became visible with the work of Sammy Strimmer.

However, lifting it up revealed that this and the one under it were the side panels to the engine on a Janus locomotive of which the Museum has one.  To be blunt, they should be rusted out but despite them being in the bone yard for at least over 20 years they have survived reasonably well unlike me!

As the sun set I looked back on my work and had a pleasant feeling of achieving something! Not sure what but it was a pleasing feeling!

Its cold in the Man Cave!

Well, it may not be the most exciting of posts but given the cold weather it was not the most hospitable of places in the M an Cave so my stay was limited to cleaning up the 3D tractor kit ready for priming. Not a whole lot to do, but a bit of sanding on the bonnet and rear mudguards together with removing some excess print material in a few places together with mounting the parts onto a board with masking tape means they are ready for some primer once I venture back out again!

Now that should be a nice small, quick to do project whilst I wait for glues to dry!

The scenic sub base was carved to shape today - and it made a mess that hopefully Mrs. Woody wont find out about unless she reads this!

Starting off with the now solid glued jigsaw of polystyrene which Marty the cat seems to have an interest in....

...the bread knife soon carved into it. leaving the carnage of its work on the floor....

...which took some cleaning up as the beads of polystyrene become statically charged and sticks to everything ! Luckily Marty was out of the way so he is clear of any beads!

There are just a couple of small areas which need some additional polystyrene attaching so whilst I await the glue to dry that I used to fasten the additional bits, in true Woody style I have started another project! At the Narrow Gauge show that I took Mrs. W to a few weeks ago O did buy some 3D prints including a couple of wagons and also this small agricultural tractor.

Now that should be a nice small, quick to do project whilst I wait for glues to dry! Hmmmm! Famous last words and all that!

Tooth pick nails?

It was one of those, why didn't I remember that before, moments as I suddenly remembered the importance of tooth picks! Not that I needed a tooth pick for any tooth maintenance, rather that they can be used like nails to hold polystyrene together whilst the glue sets!

This rediscovery of something I have done before has sped up the scenic base build so that all the bits of polystyrene are now glued and 'nailed' together. I just need to wait for the glue to dry which may be hastened if I can sneak the thing into the house without Mrs. Woody spotting it and put it by a radiator.

It may look a a white mess of strange proportions at the moment but eventually it will be a thing of beauty just like Mrs. W! Hopefully that might get me out of trouble if she discovers it in the house! 

In the absence of Mrs. Woody!

With my rabbit hole project of the Lima DMU now finished it is back to layout building. I have moved onto scenic subbase construction for the far corner of the last baseboard I am building. I have already cut out mounting card formers to match the plywood profiles I mounted on the baseboard some time ago. To these I am mounting polystyrene from the WMD Stores which seemingly has stocks of most items I need!

As it is somewhat cold in the Man Cav I have only made a small start and I have, in the absence of Mrs. Woody today, brought the structure inside the house and in the warm to speed up the drying process. I just need to repatriate it to the Man Cave before Mrs. W gets back!

Another possible blockbuster YouTube video from WMD!

The WMD film crew have been at work again and this potential blockbuster, or more likely flop, visually goes through the Lima Class 117 DMU rebuild. 

The end! Well for the Lima Class 117 DMU rebuild project!

At last it is the end of the Lima Class 117 DMU rebuild! It has taken some time and stretched my abilities but I have learnt a lot.

The last job was to weather the roof and that was done with a few washes of my usual dilute brown paint. Just brushed on and allowed to dry as gravity and capillary action did it's job.

With that done it was time to put it back on the track and enjoy the fruits of my labour.

It may not be the greatest model in my collection but it is one that means a lot to me after the work that has gone into it.

I like it!

Now it is time to get back to building the layout for it too run on! Not sure when the end to that project will come though!

More rocks at the Rocks By Rail Museum!

Arriving at the Museum I popped my head into the cafe where I found several volunteers trying to put together the recently purchased flat pack flat pack display case for the various fossils recently donated to the Museum. They were having problems as not only were the instructions in Italian, they were for a completely different display case! Add to that that there were too many fastenings and the whole episode was becoming fraught!

However, at last the case was together and the fossils are now on full display ready for next year opening.

What should also be ready for next year is the additional drainage system being installed to link up to that installed earlier this year. Hopefully that will go a lot more quickly and should make the site around the toilet block somewhat less like a paddy field after a few days of rain.

Having actually got to the signing in room I found John being studious for a change. Apparently we have a manual for loco Mr. D which is very helpful as John needs to order some parts for the braking system. Not sure where he will get them from as the loco is over 50 years old!

For me, it was a day of being reunited with Sammy Strimmer as I continued my task of clearing the boneyard of overgrowth so that we can actually see what has been stored away for years and may actually be of use and save buying in new things! This was the start of the day.

Todays main find was not more rocks or fossils but bricks! Hundreds of them! Now nicely stacked, apart from the broken ones which can be used as hardcore, and that was a back breaking job, at least we know how many and where they are although I suspect there are still more to find  in the rest of the yard! It does look a lot more accessible now!

Richard gave me a hand in clearing out the strimmed vegetation and built this rather fine looking bonfire pile!

 There will no doubt be several more piles to go yet as there is a lot more bone yard to clear!

Those small details!

With the certainty that the Lima DMU is working it is time to bring this project to an end. There are still some jobs to do including some passengers and drivers at each end. I already had the passengers in stock as outlined in an earlier post so these were brought out and several seated figures chosen to spend the rest of their plastic lives riding on the railway! 

A dab of superglue on their backsides saw them secured in place.

The one thing I could not find in my pack of seated people was a pair of suitable drivers. A search through my collection of bits from years ago uncovered these two figures which are the old Airfix mouldings. Whilst not posed in a seated position I will cut their legs off so they fit into the cabs - Ouch!

Another detail that I noted on the real DMU was a metal mesh over the windows in the luggage compartment which Lima had not replicated.

I had some plastic woven mesh that would do the job so a bead of Glue and Glaze was run around the inside of the plastic window.

 Whilst from the inside, the mesh looks a bit strange.....

.....from the outside it looks good.

I also got the chrome pen out and highlighted the grab and door handles which just adds that little bit of extra detail that stands out.

 Just a few more small jobs like these to finish and then this project will be complete!