Woody's model bodgery on film!

The build of the Airfix Solly was documented by the WMD film crew and uploaded to YouTube and if you are interested in the visual delights of Woody's model bodgery just click on the video below!

The Airfix Stolly is finished!

The Airfix Stolly is finished! Well, just need to add an aerial when I find my small drills, but otherwise finished complete with base to display it on which now has some greenery added to add a bit of interest. All in all I am very pleased with the way it has turned out and hats off to Airfix for producing this long awaited kit.

So, here are a few photos to record the Stolly.

Just like making a pizza!

Time to think about a base to put the Airfix Stolly on. My traditional method is to cut a piece of Styrofoam to a standard sized rectangle to match up with the other bases I have made. Indeed, this is what I decided to do in this case to! The Styrofoam comes from a time when shop pizzas came with base made out of that material. Long gone to be replaced by more environmentally friendly cardboard, I did, as is my way, keep a box ful of these pizza bases so I have stock for many years to come and fond memories of consuming the pizzas that said bases supported!

I do tend to add a piece of mounting card to the underside of the foam to add to the strength so first job was to cut foam and card to size for the base.

Second job was to use a rattle can to spray one side of the foam grey and the glue it to the card.

With that done it was topping time, just like a pizza, (oh the memories!). In this case I am trying to mimic a rough stone area which is not maintained so will have grass and similar vegetation growing through or over it. The stone is some old model railway ballast that I had in a draw and was applied to a coat of PVA glue.

Leaving it all to dry overnight I have covered the stone with a plastic bag so that the glue will not stick to it and on top of that a wooden board with heavy jars should keep things flat - hopefully.

So with my version of pizza making underway I do actually feel like a real pizza - hope Mrs. Woody does too!

It is nearly there! A few more parts to add, a bit more weathering but the Airfix Stolly is just about finished and I am pleased by both the kit build which has mostly been very enjoyable and by how it is turning out.

Windscreen wiper masks!

With the few parts still be fitted to the cab now weathered...

...it was time to think about putting some glazing in the cab. First off I needed to remove the masking tape from the inside of the cab which went remarkably uneventful!

With the masking out of the way I painted the inside of the glazing with Tamiya Clear Green to simulate the tinted windows that I have seen on the real vehicles. Before fitting though I cut suitably shaped masks for the windscreens to simulate the wiper coverage so that when I mist a coat of dirt over the vehicle I will get that clear area on the glass where the windscreen wiper blade would keep the glass clean.

This is just a test fit and I will test fit all the glazing before gluing - just in case!

Time to get dirty

With the Airfix Stolly in green and the wheels painted up it is time to get dirty!

I start off with a dilute brown wash which sounds as though it will not really do much but take a look at the before and after on these wheels.

Applying the wash to the body of the Stolly makes you initially think that the model is ruined.

However, once gravity works taking the pigment down and the wash dries the effects are very subtle but realistic as to how vehicles get dirty in real life.

All this is the result of three applications of wash. Just let each one dry before applying the next and let gravity work!

During August the Rocks By Rail Museum opens every Sunday and on non-event days visitors can walk around the museum and just enjoy the delights of the exhibits. These days are usually fairly simple to run as the cafe is not open so there only needs to be two volunteers on site. Somehow I managed to be asked to be one of those two for today! So, I arrived, having also picked Geoff up and whilst John was happy enough to speak with visitors as they arrived, Geoff and myself took the opportunity for some site maintenance. Geoff got a lot of weeding done whilst I tool out Sammy Strimmer and butchered vast areas of overgrown vegetation!

It has been a long time since that was cut and all this rubbish came out of the cut area!

Before...

After....

All in all a great day with a fair number of visitors despite Google wrongly telling everyone we were closed! Must get that fixed!

On the Airfix Stolly things move on with decals applied. Not many but they add some colour.

Now in green!

The Airfix Stolly build has now reached the stage of being all green!

It really is beginning to take on some character. A good weathering should really enhance it. Just need to find the time to do it!

It's all grey!

It is strange how getting a model into a uniform colour changes the way it looks, especially when that colour is grey! However, that is what has happen to the Airfix Stolly which is now in grey undercoat awaiting its top coat of green. Having a number of separate parts yet to be fitted makes the painting a bit more of a challenge but it is certainly easier in the long run then trying to mask them or paint them in situ. Anyway, it all has to dry off now so I will have the delight of seeing it all grey for a while!

Just about ready for paint!

 Well, the Stolly is just about ready for paint. Just a couple of parts to attach and then its time for some primer before a top coating. 

I 'm impressed by this kit - I just need to get the painting right though! That is also what Mrs. Woody says to me!

Some extra detail would be nice!

 I have to admit to enjoying the build of the Airfix Stolly. I have said it before but will say it again, it does remind me of the early Tamiya kits, simple but detailed. Unfortunately there are always the odd parts where that extra detail would have been nice. On this kit, these are the mouldings for the headlight protectors. In real life a frame with slats that should deflect any large rocks or such like that could damage the headlight. In model form, Airfix have moulded the part as a solid so that the headlight that will be behind it will be invisible. Not exactly a good moulding.

However, with some dexterous cutting and some plastic strip something a bit better can be created. First job is to cut the innards out of the frame.

Then add some plastic strip. Now I have just got to wait for the glue to dry to trim the strips to length but that should at least look a bit more realistic then the original part once mounted on the vehicle.

Crashed and bashed!

Crashed and bashed today and I am not talking about some new weathering technique on the Airfix Stolly build! It is me who is crashed and bashed having come off my bike on a corner in the rain. I just know that the front wheel slid out and before I knew it I was on the ground looking at the lady in the car following me who must have had more of a shock than me! Amazingly no bones broken, no ripped clothing and minimal damage to the bike. I seem to have taken the main damage with gravel rash and a very sore left hip and shoulder which will heal whereas any damage to the bike won't heal! Anyway, after a minute or two I was back on the bike and continued home to present my bloodied self to Mrs. Woody who said not to make a mess!

Right, crash or not, work on the Stolly continues with the interior of the cab masked in readiness for painting.

It was then attached to the cab base before the joints were flooded with glue.

I will need to fill the joints but there is nothing too serious unlike my body joints at the moment!

Weathering the cab!

The Airfix Stolly is coming on with the cab now weathered using my usual dilute mix of earth brown paint along with some Tamiya weathering pastilles. 

I like the way this has come together. 

Once matt varnished I will mask from the inside the window and hatch aperture's and fit the cab to its base. With that done I should then be able to deal with any joint issues before painting the external parts of the vehicle.

Stolly cab interior

The Stolly cab interior looks a lot more interesting now the various parts are fitted and painted. It just needs some dirtying up to replicate the state these cabs got into in real life!

Micro Sol for a micro job!

 Having previously primed the cab interior of the Stolly it was time to top coat it with Tamiya XF11 which is J N Green or also known as Bronze Green which is the shade of paint used by the British Army in the 1960s. The airbrush soon had the paint applied.

Whilst that was drying I thought it was time to add the dashboard decal to the dashboard part! Airfix have supplied a nice set of decals but previous experience of other makes and dashboard decals has not been good for me. So with some trepidation I cut out the decal and dipped it in water.

After a couple of minutes I slid it in place. Now the dashboard part has the various dials and switches moulded in place so the decal needs some Micro Soll applied to soften it so that it moulds to the shape of the dashboard part.

You can see by the ruler that this is a small part! At this point the Micro Sol still has to do its job. However, once it had it all looked much better. I'm impressed by the decal and its general fit on a part so small as well as the powers of Micro Sol.

Stolly cab interior starts to get some paint.

Just a quick update on the Airfix Stolly build. I am now at the stage where I need to attach the cab to the base which means the inside needs painting. First off a bit of preparation. I am painting the seats and a few other parts separately and then attaching them to the cab base once painted which means I need a paint free gluing surface. Now I could just paint the entire cab base and then scrape paint away but to save some possibility of damage to the paintwork I have used thin strips of masking tape to cover the required areas. Once painting is finished I should be able to remove them and have plain unpainted plastic ready for glue! That is the theory anyway!

Painting requires a primer and black is my go to choice as if I miss any parts with the top coat the black should at least act as a shading and hide my errors! So the primer has been applied. Left overnight it should be ready for a top coat tomorrow.

In suspense!

 I was in suspense about how easy or difficult it would be to build the Stolly's suspension. It is an important part of the vehicle and very visible so it has to be right. At the time of building the first side I was a bit bemused as to how Airfix had designed the suspension but by the time I finished I was actually very impressed by it. The important part is to follow the instructions precisely and to look hard before cutting the parts from the spru to make sure you don't leave behind any part of the part!

The first part is the torsion bar suspension and shock sbsorbers.

The stub axles are added next.

Then the steering linkages and some hoops .

Just the other side to do now!