A walk out in the countryside .

Sometimes a walk out in the countryside is just the thing to make me realise both Mrs. Woody and myself are lucky to have access to such things and refreshes us. Today was one of those days when you cannot help but feel good when you walk round a lake with wildlife and stunning weather.

The local fishing fraternity were out in force and looked as though they were there for the weekend! Can't blame them!

 

The one thing that I could not really get my head round was why the sign on a nearby electric cattle fence was in seven languages when the picture of the hand makes it clear what it is!

Talking of good weather my cycling total mileage for the year was 1585 at the end of May which means I did nearly 500 miles in that month. Not bad but I am about 600 miles short of where I was this time last year so I need to do some more longer rides!

With me refreshed from my walk and cycling attention, back at WMD HQ, focused on the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck where the build moves on, slowly, but getting there! Today saw the underside of the cab, front valance and wheel arches as well as the cargo body sprayed matt black.

The various light lenses have also been painted silver before the lenses are fitted.

The heat got to me!

Over the past few months I have complained about the miserable cold and wet weather so this week I have really been enjoying the much warmer and sunnier times especially out cycling and in the garden but I think I might have over done it! Did not feel particularly brilliant today and a 22 mile bike ride felt more like one of the 100 mile time trials I used to ride many years ago! Seeing how I have caught the sun during the week I think that may have something to do with it. I will inform Mrs. Woody that I will need to cut down on gardening for health reasons! However, if I do tell her that I will actually have a higher risk to my health from her reaction then from the sun! 

Hopefully I have now acclimatised to the warmer weather so I can continue to enjoy it and get out more on the bike (and garden) to take in sights like these which were on my cycling route this morning. 

I really do appreciate I am lucky to have such sights near to me.

Venturing out to the Man Cave this evening saw the various interior panels for the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck given an overall coat of light grey which appears to be the spec to these trucks from my internet trawling. The greyness will be broken up here and there with a splash of colour once I get my interior design hat on. Talking of hats maybe I should have worn a hat this week to keep me cool? More to the point a hard hat for when Mrs. W finds the gardening not done!

Whats on the menu?

A wet and cold start to March which pretty much follows on from much of February. I did manage to get out on my bike building on the 320 miles I managed last month which brought the total for the year to 527. Whether March will see that increased much is debatable following the weather forecast that suggests snow is on the menu next week!

On the menu today though was some more work on the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier. the body and trailer got another coat of Olive Green and the canvas top was painted a stone colour. The tyres have also been painted in grey. It all looks a bit bright at the moment but it will all tone down with some weathering. I still need to paint some details in like the seats and instrument dials before that happens though.

Not sure whats on the menu for tomorrow apart from more rain by the looks of it!

Woody goes to a gig!

I got a phone call at 4.30pm yesterday from an old friend, Dangerous Dave. Now that 'Dangerous' doesn't mean that he is an unsavory character just that he does some dangerous things! Best illustrated by the fact that when he wired a new light fitting into his and Mrs. Dave's bedroom he managed to wire it so that when switched on it also switched the light on in the next bedroom. No one could work out how he managed it - not even the qualified electrician called in to sort it out! Anyway Dave had an offer that apparently I could not refuse! I thought what does he need sorting out after his latest 'gone wrong' project? However he had a spare ticket to see a Thin Lizzy tribute band and would pick me up at 6.30pm. I had nothing else on and Mrs. Woody had a whole series of some murder crime mystery to catch up on so I said yes please! I am glad I did. The band was Limehouse Lizzy and they were incredible musicians as well as recreating very faithfully the music of Thin Lizzy which was part of my misspent youth! Both Dave and myself have played in bands during our times but neither of us are any where near the professionalism of these guys. The singer was a great front man and had the audience fully behind the band within seconds of coming on. 

I walked out slightly hard of hearing but I would certainly go and see them again. If you like Thin Lizzy this is the band to see.

Back at WMD HQ I decided it was time to clean my car both inside and out - it needed it! Whilst the bucket and sponge were out I also thought it might be an idea to clean my bike. Normally I prefer to spend my time riding the bike rather than cleaning it. Some cyclists I know spend hours polishing and cleaning their bikes only to see it smothered in dirt on their next ride! However I am sure me being slower these days is down to the weight of all that dirt! At least that is what I tell myself!  The photo doesn't do the build up of muck and dirt justice but it was bad.

Some water and sponge work together with an old toothbrush (and Mrs. Woody thought that those old tooth brushes were thrown out!) to get into the nooks and crannies and it was looking better and weighing less! 

 Back in the Man Cave a bit more work on the dropped baseboard section of my 00 gauge layout. Today the road and canal sections were put in which means that I can get on with finishing the landscaping. I must admit that this part of the project is dragging on for me but I do need to see it through!

The road and canal sections were cut from a sheet of foam card and hot glued into place.

I was wise enough to test that the road and canal actually would be capable of taking 4mm scale road vehicles and narrow boats without them crashing into the viaduct. The bus, car and narrow boat were borrowed from my 009 narrow gauge layout just to test things although they do look rather good in this new location. I was also wise enough to ensure that the road level is above the canal level! Working smarter not harder as I get older!

Well I am still a little hard of hearing so I have a good excuse for not hearing Mrs. W if she has any jobs that need doing! 

Cold morning for cycling but I break a record!

It was cold this morning - very cold as my kneecaps can testify as I cycled this morning. However I was warmed by the fact that my total mileage for this year so far has ended up at 5556 miles which is a record for me in my later years of life. Not done that kind of mileage since the times I could get out of bed without creaking! Last years grand total was 5544 so with eight weeks of the year left I may, health and weather allowing, get to 6000 miles which would be a record I would like to get to.

Back in the relative warmth of the WMD HQ I had an hour or so doing some more on the viaducts for my 00 gauge Last Great Project. I have now managed to finish the various parapet wall sections that go either side of the main structure. A bit of a boring and repetitive job but it is now at least done.

I also had a look at the track bases for the viaduct. The track will be ballasted once I get to that stage so there will be diluted PVA glue used. This is great for gluing ballast down but not so good for cardboard which can turn a rather soggy mess. Trying to think ahead, which is alien to me in most cases, I need to seal the surface of the track base. I used the sanding sealer that I used for the balsa canal boats that I built for my 009 narrow gauge layout (which is still undergoing construction). This should at least act as a waterproof coating keeping the viaduct from  ending up as a water infested collapsed cardboard hulk! That is the theory at least.

The various parts awaiting the next stage of construction. I will however have to paint the other side of the track base to ensure they are fully sealed and waterproof.

5200 miles and putting a wagon back together.

5200 miles was the target I set at the beginning of the year for the distance I was going to cycle this year. It is mid October and I clocked that mileage up today well actually 5201. That leaves me with about 11 weeks before the end of the year - that is frightening in itself as to where three quarters of the year has gone and no doubt someone will tell me how many days to Christmas before to long! So I could simply put the bike away and have a restful and warm time staying inside until 2023 when I start cycling again. Or, I could stretch myself and try to break last years total of 5544 miles. Or I could actually do something a bit more stretching and go for 6000 miles. Despite the attractions of the first two options the Woody mind (and remember according to Mrs. Woody that is a strange place!) has decided to go for 6000 miles by the end of this year. So I have 799 miles to do which is not that much when the weather is warm and the winds light but as Winter approaches and the temperature drops and the winds rise, getting out becomes at my age harder! So it will be a good challenge! 

Meanwhile back in the warmth of WMD HQ I had to deal with a victim of my recent Man Cave upheaval. It is almost inevitable when you do such work that something will get damaged. In my case I was pleased that all that has been damaged is one wagon that fell off the USA switching layout. The strange thing is that it actually did not really break. It just broke into component parts which was very lucky! It was even luckier that I found the two pins that hold the bogies to the base.

The parts literally just clipped back together.

Until it was a complete wagon again. I took the opportunity to give it a bit of a clean as well and the dirty cotton buds in the picture below shows it did need it.

Back on the layout looking slightly better than before its accident! Having cleaned it I guess I should really weather it to make it look dirty again!

 

Puncture repair marathon and also the T34/122 tank.

As I have mentioned in the past I do a lot of cycling and have done so for decades! 200K plus miles of cycling on my legs going back over a long time with a lot of time trialing and road racing in my younger days. However, as Mrs. Woody would no doubt agree, you would probably have to scrap a car with 200K miles on it especially if it was as old as I am!

Over all those miles of cycling I have had all sorts of  mechanical mishaps from gear and brake cables snapping through to snapping chains which when it happens and you are out of the saddle climbing a hill the first thing you hit is the cross bar and then the ground! Ouch and a squeaky voice! 

Generally I carry a few tools with me on the bike and I have mostly managed to get home under my own power after most mishaps. Whilst I do carry a puncture repair kit I do tend to avoid repairing punctures at the road side preferring to carry a couple of spare inner tubes with me. Get puncture, stop bike, wheel off, tyre off, check for what caused puncture and remove, punctured inner tube replaced with spare, tyre back on and pumped up, wheel back in place, get back on bike and continue happy bike ride! I can usually do that in about 5 minutes which is a lot quicker than trying to find the puncture in the inner tube and repairing it especially if its cold, windy and wet. The repair can await my return to a hopefully warm and dry WMD HQ - working smarter not harder as I get older! 

When back a HQ I replace the now used spare tube on the bike with another from my box of good tubes straightaway so I still have two good tubes with me for my next ride. I have learnt the hard way when miles from home with both spares having not been replaced. The punctured tube then usually ends up hanging on something convenient and then gets forgotten about rather than repaired. This goes on until I look in my box of good tubes to find the last one. So still feeling a bit under the weather with Covid I decided to bite the bullet and go through the 12 tubes that needed repair as I was down to my last good tube. It was a puncture repair marathon but worth it. Five were beyond repair or ended up needing repairs that would involve putting a patch on a patch which is never a good idea. However, I did end up with seven repaired tubes and a happy Mrs. Woody seeing the tubes removed from various hanging points despite my manifestations that they were a decorative feature!

Tank wise the tracks are now constructed. Having built one set on the tank itself with the wheels temporarily mounted to the hull I used this a s a pattern to build the other set. I used masking tape wrapped half way around the complete set and then built the other set by attaching the links to the other half of the masking tape. The photo probably explains it better.

I have also primered the hull and turret in a light grey primer which should be a good base for the top coat. It is drying over night so should be ready tomorrow to go back in the spray booth - Covid permitting!