Cat art, canals and a boat called Earwig!

In repainting the hall I noted that a lot of the pictures that I took down and then rehung are related to cats which given the number who have lived their lives at WMD HQ over the years is perhaps not too surprising! I go have some personal favorites - the art that is , all cats are treated equally!

This first one is one that my Mum bought from a car boot sale about 40 years ago. She had it framed and I always loved it. Why? I don't really know but I just do! When I inherited it I wondered where to put it so it has leant up against a bedroom wall for some time but with the opportunity to re-arrange pictures during the repaint process it now hangs in the hall

This hangs by the front door and is another of those that just captures my heart!

Finally for today this one probably says it all. Any cat owners will more than likely understand the words!

Apart from admiring cat art I have also managed several bike rides over the past few days. You may recall from an earlier post that I had see the Marie Celeste of the local canal following its disappearance after being stranded when the canal water level subsided to trickle level! It was riding high in a lock but the glare of the sun made it difficult to see. Well another bike ride has found it hiding in the bottom of the lock but I ventured a different way to avoid the glare of the sun.

My venturing also allowed me to observe that its name is not Marie Celeste but Earwig! Now it takes some imagination to conjure up why it is called earwig. Any thoughts, please tell me!

The cat sat on the ......kitchen cupboard?

As is usual in the WMD household nothing is ever as you expect. Our cats do not sit on mats but they do find other strange places such as on the top of the kitchen cupboard where Marty sat himself.

Why on top of there? Well I think he was fed up with the work on repainting the hall where I am now getting out of the corner with some paint on the walls and almost all the ceiling done. Mrs. Woody will be impressed - hopefully!

There has been a little time to get in the Man Cave where corners still feature as I build the landform that I started the other day. First off another section of sub-base has been constructed from mounting card for the far end of the baseboard.

The picture below shows the entire sub-base made up of three pieces.

Then a large sheet of polystyrene was liberated from the WMD Stores - I knew it would come in handy! The idea of this is that by gluing it to the profile or upright of the sub-base it will join the three parts together making them one piece.

With the polystyrene cut it was glued to the back of the sub-base with various handy tubs of things used to keep it in place whilst the glue dries. Whether the theory works remains to be seen but I need to give the glue a chance to dry so I am not moving it yet!

In other news, the first bike ride for a week due to the weather, saw me passing the local canal where the water levels are really high - just about 6 inches off the top of the bank.

Interestingly, especially for those interested in such matters, the disappeared stranded Marie Celeste boat last seen about two weeks ago has reappeared - just as I said it would! Not a great picture as that large bright object in the sky decided to shine directly into the lens of my phone camera! However, the red arrow indicated where it is.

A close up gives a bit more clarity.

Will it stay there or disappear for several more weeks? Who knows but I will be keeping a watchful eye! Maybe that was reallly why Marty was on top of the cupboard to see the boat?

BOC tank wagon and the canal mystery continues!

 One of the things, or if Mrs. Woody is reading this, the only thing, that I bought at the Spalding Model Railway show last week was this rake of four Hornby BOC tank wagons at a bargain price. 

What caught my eye was not only the price but the livery. Not seen this before or more likely I cannot remember seeing it before. 

A bit of an internet search revealed that they were only manufactured between 1973 and 1974 meaning these models are now 50 years old and given their age they have survived well - better than me anyway!

They have obviously had some modifications done to them to improve running with someone trying to add weight by gluing two washers under each bogie - not seen that done before but it seems to work!

Also of interest is that these four may have been part of a larger rake as scratched into the under body are numbers. I have 1,2,5 and 8 which I presume referred to their position in the rake.

 

On other matters a bike ride taking in the local canal revealed that its status has once again changed from babbling brook with stranded boat back to full size canal which is interesting to me and no doubt loyal blog reader Mrs. B! As to why it is yoyoing in this manner I have no ideas anymore! Its a mystery as Toya said in her hit from years ago! Perhaps the canal people read this blog and are just messing with me!

Stranded boat on the canal!

Lets start today with a bike ride which took me past a certain canal that I have posted about previously. My last post highlighted that the canal was back to normal with water filling it from bank to bank. I was therefore somewhat taken aback, as no doubt loyal blog reader Mrs. B will, that the previous trickle of a stream had returned leaving an expanse of mud and a stranded boat!

I have no idea why this has happened again as I thought that all the repair works had been done. I will visit again!

Meanwhile my visit to the Man Cave saw the wiring of  the baseboard that I am working on just about finished!

Whilst not being over pedantic about neatness in the wiring I have tried to keep it organised and tidyish!

This is where all the wires will join onto the control panel when it is eventually built! There are a lot of wires and there are three other baseboards so that control panel will need to be fairly large!

The point motors all have their own wiring using a 3 cabled ribbon wire that has made that job a lot easier!

I need to finish a few jobs on the rail alignment up top and then I might just run some trains - if it all works of course!

Canopy capers!

As I said yesterday the canopy to the Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk needs fitting but before that can happen it also needs to have the frame parts painted. Now the last time I did one of these I probably painted the frame with what would have been like a tar brush as a young lad with lots of imagination and keenness but no skill or patience! Things haven't changed much then in the passing years as Mrs Woody would no doubt say!

However, with this caper I did take my time and thought about the issue of painting fine lines on a clear canopy moulding. You can, if you hunt about on the internet, find firms who sell self adhesive masks that you can mask up the clear parts of the canopy with and from what I have seen most are really good. However my wallet is empty, I am not patient enough to wait for delivery and in my typical way I am sure I can manage without. Hence the mass of masking tape in the picture below. I did the vertical lines first and then masked off the horizontal once the paint had dried and....

...it turned out quite well in my view for a first attempt. The good thing about clear parts on a model is that you can generally clean unwanted paint off them using a soft blunt instrument such as a cocktail stick which is what I did.

I trial fitted the canopy which seems to fit and just need to fit the two rear canopy side pieces that are in front of the model in the picture below.

In other news, and of interest to those loyal blog readers with an interest in canals, a bike ride past the recently dried out canal has revealed that it is full again! Not sure if this is down to storm Ashley and its rain or whether some flow stopping device has failed or if all the repair works that required the drained canal have now been finished? 

Various arts!

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!

With this job done I can easily move the DCC controller from this layout to my USA switching layout for which I soldered up a similar plug some time ago. Amazing how time flies by!

Just out of interest, the Kato track that I posted about yesterday has a discrete means of plugging a power supply in with this socket under the track into which the ready wired power wires just plug into. That is an artful solution! 

More art on the canal which I have posted about recently in the form of the art of finding more wrong than you originally thought! Out on a bike ride I stopped off to see how things were going. More Hi Viz present and an overheard remark of 'well its rotten' which I presume is part of the lock gates which can now be inspected with the water level so low. No doubt more art will follow with the art of repairing!

Finally we have the art of realising it is just going to happen and perhaps sat navs are not that good! Whilst travelling through the Lincolnshire town of Grantham which has the East Coast Main Line railway bisecting it with several low bridges I got caught up in traffic which was at a standstill not because of the road works but due to that truck the other side of the bridge. The driver was trying to make a 180 degree turn onto a side road that goes under the arch on the far left of the picture below.

He gained a bit of an audience over the five or so minutes that he tried to turn the truck but eventually he gave up and drove off probably with a health deposit in his dashboard sware jar!

Right I am off to practice the art of making Mrs. W's dinner!

The case of the missing water!

Another bike ride taking in the local canal where the case of the missing water has perplexed me and loyal blog reader Mrs. B! It was still much the same as my previous picture but in this picture there is a clue in the bottom right hand corner about what is going on. 

Given the opportunity to ask someone who looked as though they knew what was going on I discovered that a lock further up the canal has been leaking into the adjacent field. To carry out repairs the local canal group needed to reduce the water levels in the lock so used 'Stopping Boards'. This in effect reduced the level down stream of that lock hence the reduced levels. However, just like one of my projects, reducing the level upstream revealed issues around the bridge that I take my photos from. Using the opportunity of reduced levels the group are now in the throws of carrying out repairs.

Looks just like a Rocks By Rail Museum project!

With that mystery now explained and work ongoing it should not be too long before water levels return to their natural state.

Back ay WMD HQ, the watery mess on the Tiger 1 tank has now dried (another case of missing water?) and, in my view anyway, is looking good!

The 'mud' has atken on a variety of hues from the paint and weathering powders.

That 'filter'coat of dilute brown paint has toned things down. 

I just need to add those hatches, a radio aerial and some more weathering and rust and it should be good to go!