It was the art of soldering for me and doing one of those long outstanding jobs that exist on my (not Mrs. Woody's list!) list of things to do. It was to solder up a phono plug to connect the power from my DCC controller to my 009 narrow gauge layout Chalkdon. Prior to this momentous moment I had used a pair of crocodile clips which was not really the best way to do things!
Recording my progress, or usually the lack of it, in building kits, creating model railways and other related and sometimes unrelated matters!
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Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Various arts!
Friday, December 22, 2023
A relaxing painting job!
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Motormania!
Time to add a few more vehicles to Chalkdon. Over the years, much to Mrs. Woody's amusement, I have collected 00 gauge vehicles. I have not done so for a while but my collection was raided for some suitable vehicles which were found.
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Flooding and life belts!
A bike ride saw me actually able to get through the previously flooded road under the railway bridge that I featured some days ago.
There are at least 7 number plates including a 22 plate Tesla. Apparently, from talking to someone who lives nearby, the Tesla stopped in the water with a loud bang! Ouch! And more ouches as you add up the cots of all the other cars!
Reminded by the above, and taking water safety seriously, the Wharf Master, me, at Chalkdon, my 009 layout, has installed a life belt on the wharf side! Actually it was one of the 3D printed items that I picked up at the Sleaford Model Makers Show. At £1 it was a bargain and painted up it looks good. The life belt itself was a seperate print which made painting easier.
Superglued in place it was time to mount it on the layout.
Monday, December 18, 2023
Spitfire, Land Rovers and hedges - a typical day in the life of Woody!
A visit from that great modeller Mr. Beecham today. Always good to see him and have a chat and see his latest proliferation of models. Top of the bill is this 1/24th scale Airfix Spitfire.
At 1/24th scale it is a big model with lots of detail all brought out by the model making skills displayed here. It is certainly a different model to the earlier releases by Airfix in this scale and the removable panels almost feel like etched brass rather then plastic.
This Land Rover also is superbly built, painted and weathered. It is a 1/35th scale Hobby Boss kit and full of detail particularly with the armament.
Meanwhile, back in the mediocre World of my model making, I have been hedging my bets by continuing to try to finish off Chalkdon my 009 layout with, hedge making!
Scouring pads can make excellent model hedges and I cut off 3 strips about 1cm wide.
These were then coated with PVA glue.
With a coating of PVA the Woodlands Scenics Fine Turf was brought ut.
The fine turf was sprinkled on to the wet PVA.
Once finished and allowed to dry I had 3 strips looking hedge like!
They were then cut to length and glued around part of the thatched cottage garden.
I think it looks good!
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Hiding the join!
Hiding the join is something that model makers usually spend a great deal of time on as it adds to the realism of the model. Sometimes it is easier than others but for me the hiding of the joint between the garage forecourt and the road surface on Chalkdon my 009 gauge layout was a reasonably easy job. Originally made of two pieces of card butted together the join between the two has always been evident but as I seem to be in the right mood to tackle all these small jobs at the moment I thought it time to take care of that. All it took was some PVA glue carefully applied to the join and a sprinkling of kiln dried sand to match the forecourt and all was well!
Whilst the sand was out I also ballasted the point leading into the wharf. Another job done!
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Red sky at night!
I am not a shepherd but as the old saying goes, 'Red sky at night, Shepherds delight!' So hopefully tomorrow will be a good day weather wise if these pictures are anything to go by as I brought Mrs. Woody back from a no shopping no spend afternoon out!
Back at WMD with my wallet happily resting from a quiet day out and having got the buffer stops in place and added vegetation to the hill on Chalkdon, it seemed like a good idea to actually permeantly fix the two sheds of Two Shed Fred Trading in place! As one of the sheds has open doors and it is supposed to represent a trading company it seemed only sensible to add the various crates and sacks I had prepared months ago. Miraculously, I managed to find those items relatively easily!
Another job done so hopefully with the promised good weather of tomorrow I may get on with some more of these finishing off jobs or then again Mrs. W may want to go shopping!
With all these jobs going on there are some interesting wider shot images which begin to take on that 'finished' look like this one - I like that!
Friday, December 15, 2023
More buffer stops!
Following on from yesterdays buffer stop bodgery, the other siding has now had similar treatment to fit a buffer stop. As you may see the cobbles needed gluing back down in certain areas anyway.
With some further butchery and brutality to the track similar to yesterdays adventure, the buffer stop was fitted. Whilst I was working on this part of the layout I decided to add some more vegetation to the hill behind the shed as there were a few bald parts which had been missed with my initial application of static grass. Wanting a bit more colour and texture variation, I used PVA glue, applied randomly but to hide the bald spots. This was covered with Woodlands Scenics medium turf mix as well as some of their poly fiber onto which flock powder was then spread once more PVA had been applied. The whole lot was then treated to a soaking of dilute PVA applied with a syringe. It certainly looks more in keeping with the other parts of the layout's greenery as well as the background scene.
Well, that is all the buffer stops now installed so the sheds can go back in place once the greenery is dry!
Thursday, December 14, 2023
A buffer in place saves a fall!
Time to put a buffer stop on the wharf siding on Chalkdon my 009 layout. Up until now nothing has been in place to prevent rolling stock running off the edge of the layout and taking a near scale 250 foot drop down to ground. Like Elon Musk's recent rocket launches, this would be a 'Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly'! However unlike Mr. Musk's seemingly bottomless wallet which appears unharmed by such unscheduled events my wallet, especially after yesterdays tyre expenditure, cannot afford to see a rapid unscheduled disassembly of rolling stock so the installation of a robust buffer stop is advised!
The Peco buffer stop is ideal as it is robust and the rails actually thread through the uprights, as shown in the photo below, which together with a solid base means that once installed it should be almost immovable unless hit by a 00 scale Musk rocket!
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
One of the good things about having a Man Cave which Mrs. Woody rarely visits is that I can be as untidy as I want without repercussions! However there comes a time when even the convenience of having tools and materials close to hand is overcome by that fact that I can't find them because they are hidden under even more materials and tools. So today it was a time for a clear out and the recycling bin was recipient of a fair amount of stuff. Apart from wondering why I had kept hold of certain things I was a bit shocked at how dirty my door mat had become. It is a carpet sample but does the job. There was a piece of tape over one corner of the mat which was wearing through so I pulled it off to reveal the original colour.
Think I need to clean that in the Spring once the mud from the garden dries up!
A number of kit boxes were sent to the recycling bin. The strange ritual I have is to take a photo of the kit box top. Don't know why but it is perhaps just to remind me that I have built the model which is equally strange as I have the built kit on a shelf!