Film set and reading matter!

Yesterday Mrs. Woody and myself had a day out at Belton House and gardens. A wonderful place to walk around and of course there are some shops run by the National Trust, one of which is a second hand book shop. Always worth a look round even if you don't find anything to buy but on this occasion I did and one is a bit of a niche book that I did not even realise Hungry had a system of forestry railways. That should be an interesting read. 

The next book is more of a look at the pictures book on Britain's Railways from the air. I can recall this book when it forst came out years ago at a price I could not afford but as they say have patience!

Walking round the gardens we discovered that they and the house had been used as sets in the Netflix series Bridgerton. Never seen it but it looks like one of those historic dramas and there are various signs around marking out places where filming was done..

One of the volunteers told us that a lot of filming was done at night as it was easier to create the right daylight with lighting then relying on daylight itself! 

The exterior of the house certainly looks impressive!

And so do the gardens.

However, just like the Rocks By Rail Museum that I volunteer at, they have picnic tables disappearing under wild growing grass!

Mrs. Woody's birthday means Christmas is on its way.

Yes, Mrs. Woody's birthday today and as a gentleman (!*?!?*) I won't say how old she is but just that she does not look it unlike me! Anyway an afternoon out after a lazy Sunday morning and we went to Belton House. As the weather was cold but very sunny the place had a fair few visitors but with a site as big as Belton once you get away from the car park there is space to spread out. 

It is a place we have been to before but I cannot recall the Orangery being open during previous visits so with its doors open I was in!

I have no idea why I am fascinated by these places as I have no idea of the plants growing in them but it i is that mix of man made building with enormous plants inside I guess. There were certainly some large specimens.

The glass roof is just perfect! Imagine modelling that!

The only plant that I know the name of in the Orangery is the Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeeana) which Mrs. W told me about. It does look from a distance remarkably like a shrimp! 

Just next to the Orangery is the church. 

A typical old English church with some interesting things inside including this carved inscription from the 1600s. What I found fascinating was the wording and spelling. The letter s is like an f without the horizonal line across midway. Public was spelt publick and capital letters are used on words mid way through sentences. A truly remarkable insight into the development of the English language.

Whilst going to Belton House we stopped off at a shopping park to buy a button battery. They did not have the required size but I could not believe the sudden influx of Christmas stuff including this rather natty flying Santa! I can see that on the roof of WMD HQ! Or maybe not!

Having cooked Mrs. W's birthday meal I think I may see if the Man Cave is accessible!

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......

WMD out and about!

Mrs Woody is off this week which gives me the opportunity to leave WMD HQ and go and visit a few places. Following the various restrictions and general desire to stay safe going out is still very much a novelty. It is strange to be in places where there are other people in large numbers and it is almost a case of reacclimatising yourself to those types of situations that we just did up until 18 months ago.

Monday was a trip to the coast not that the weather was inviting but never the less we saw the sea! Tuesday Mrs Woody went off to a spa day with a friend of hers whilst I took the opportunity to have a 27 mile bike ride with good friend, fellow modeler and artist Mr Beecham. Always a good ride with plenty of chat on a variety of topics and we even found this on our travels.

Many of the old K6 Classic Phone Boxes have been bought by Parish Councils and whilst many have become libraries or a place to house a defibrillator some have become used for some very novel purposes such as this with its flower display. Hmmm. Wonder if that would fit in the garden??? Certainly make an interesting model on a modern day model railway layout.

Near to home we stopped for a refreshment stop which was the £3.50 lunch at a local CoOp, other lunch deals are available! I thought I had done well with a BLT, Pepsi and a Wispa duo chocolate bar. Having made our purchases and no doubt swelled the days takings for the CoOp, we sat outside on the bench kindly provided by said purveyor of lunch deal. The bench was actually made out of plastic molded to look like wooden slats and sitting down you could tell the sun had warmed it well - lovely! As I tucked into my BLT from the comfort of my heated seating area, I placed my Wispa Duo beside me on the bench looking forward to that moment of chocolate indulgence. The BLT was great and reaching down for the Wispa I found this.

Yes! I should have really thought the storage arrangements for the Wispa through a bit more! Far from being the chocolate delight I had hoped for it had turned, in the heat of the sun and the radiant warmth of the bench slats, into a liquid flat pack! I did take it home and refrigerated it for several hours but to be honest it was not the same when I ate it and it had lost its duo status to become as one! For some reason Mr Beecham found it all very amusing!

Todays jaunt out was to the National Trust property Belton House in Lincolnshire. One of the flag ship properties (never sure how a house can be a flag ship but there you are) of the Natuonal Trust and very popular today. The house and surrounding properties are fantastic and the gardens and grounds wonderful. 

There is even something a little cheeky in the grounds!

A sandwich and hot sausage roll from the cafe took care of lunch and near to there were the gift shop and second hand book shop. There is something about a second hand book shop that I find difficult to resist so whilst Mrs Woody searches through the crime/mystery murder section (I still ask myself if I should be worried!) I take a look at the more technical sections especially on transport. Todays finds were these two for the princely sum of £6 for the two. 

 

I lived on Malta for several years at a time when the buses were painted multi colours (some photos in a YouTube video here) and were basically locally coach built bodies on lorry chassis which resulted in a fascinatingly unique transport system. From what I can gather when Malta joined the EU they had to upgrade the buses in 2011 and at one point had ex London Transport bendy buses. Many of the old buses were scrapped but there are a number still kept and now serve with a vintage bus tour company. I am always fascinated by the railways of Ireland so the book on the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway should be a good read.

In amongst all the above I have done some model making with the Zvezda K5350 Mustang truck. Not a great deal but it has the start of wheels which I guess is important for a truck to have! No doubt the 1/35th scale troops will think that getting their truck mobile will be 'wheely' great! Sorry! Couldn't resist that awful joke. However I had to have some laughter as at one stage I did have brake cylinders on the wrong way round but after a lot of head scratching, in-depth consultation with the plans, a further contribution to the swear jar and the consumption of a refrigerated former liquid flat pack Wispa Duo it all came right! This is what things are looking like now.

 Its getting there!

On the 009 gauge model railway layout front, I think I may have come up with a cunning way to realign the track without having to buy a new point but more on that another time.