I expected an Autumnal day.

Taking some time out after five heavy days of painting the lounge and one day of extensive grass cutting operations at the Rocks By rail Museum, Mrs. Woody and me ended up at Easton Walled Gardens which I have posted about before. Always a great place to walk around or just sit and watch the robot lawn mowers at work with a backdrop of stunning gardens and scenery (why doesn't the Museum have a robot lawn mower but then again as Mrs. W says I am like a robot on occassions!). Anyway, given the time of year, I expected an Autumnal day. 

The display at the welcome sign said Autumn.....

The display in the court yard said Autumn....

However, the weather and the vegetation said otherwise!

And then this bee landed on my leg seemingly thinking it was some form of vegetation as though it is still trying to pollinate plants!

I was pleased to be able to get this picture - most of the time insects fly off before I have a chance to get my camera out!

Well this weather is said to continue for a while so I guess I may see a few more bees out and about although it is just not right for Autumn!

Pizza time!

Whilst I had the day at the Rocks By Rail Museum yesterday, I actually spent all my time cutting grass which the recent rains have encouraged to grow! That means I never got to see what was happening around the site which was a bit strange but I was on a tight schedule to get the grass cut, get back home, get cleaned up, pick Mrs. Woody up and head out to Easton Walled Gardens for an evening Pizza event! Now, I have to say that attending this was very much Mrs. W's idea. The prospect of pizza had nothing to do with me agreeing!

It was fantastic freshly made Italian pizza and it was delicious! 

Having stuffed my face it was of course a good idea to have a bit of a walk round the gardens which took on a different look in the evening rather than daytime light.

Although it is supposedly Summer, you can see the Autominal colours coming through already with the reds and oranges.

What a wonderful way to end a day! And Mrs. W enjoyed it too!

Get Out Of Jail card!

As it was a nice afternoon, Mrs. Woody and me went to Easton Walled Gardens to sit in the sun and have a picnic lunch. Very nice it was to. It is always interesting to walk round the gardens and see what the gardeners have been up to, or in this case not! As posted earlier this week I managed to put the Rocks By Rail trusted mower out of action. Whilst a solution is in the post to get the mower back on the grass and cutting it, I was taken by the fact that at Easton they have adopted the philosophy of No Mow May for much of their grass.

Now if the solution for the mower fails this could be my Get Out Of Jail card of adopting No Mow May at the Museum! Well at least for a couple of weeks until June comes!

Whilst escorting Mrs. W through the gift shop and avoiding items that she might wish to purchase, I did notice these which most hotels used to supply in guest's rooms before the age of instant messaging and all other electronic communications and when people wrote letters! These are actually based on fictional hotels from TV and the Fawlty Towers one brings back memories of the comic genius of the writers and actors. Must start going through my old collection of the two series on DVD which is something before the days of streaming!

The art of knowing when enough is enough!

I was reminded of the art of knowing when enough is enough when Mrs. Woody and me went to Easton walled gardens. Although normally a regular place to visit, I have to admit that due to things like the kitchen rebuild, it had been several months since we were last there. In effect we had missed most of the summer views of the gardens and at the entrance that absence was highlighted by this autumnal display which showed just how long it had been since we last visited! I did think it rather nice and touching that they had put together this welcome for us after our absence but Mrs. W did highlight that it didn't state 'Woody' on it so it was not personalised to us but was a general welcome to everyone! Most disappointing!

The actual display caught my eye. The colours were just right, the composition was excellent and whoever put it together knew the art of knowing when enough is enough!

Knowing that is a great asset not only in putting seasonal displays together but when model making. Whilst I am no expert at this art but I do know that my Tiger 1 build is at  a point when it is fairly near to the point of having enough done to it certainly in my eyes.

The latest work has been to add the hull and turret hatches and then use various weathering powders to dull everything down brightness wise as well as giving the tank a working look to it. I do believe I am at the point of  having done enough to it weathering wise. I am happy with the look and adding more to it could tip it over the point of looking realistic to becoming a messed up model. 

With the hatches open on the turret there is that tantalising view of the main gun and its breech - just what I was hoping for.

Whilst I am not going to say 'finished' yet, it is close! I will look over it for a couple of days and if still happy think about mounting it on a base/diorama. Whatever happens, one thing is clear from the photos and that is I need to clear my workbench of all those things involved in this build - enough is enough!

 

Crossmembers!

Having got my platform surface to the right shape as highlighted yesterday, it was time to add to some sides and crossmembers but not happy members! There are some specifications which real railways follow as to platform heights and roughly interpreted these amount to a 17mm highwall in model form. I have cut some mounting card walls to this height and also some crossmembers.

Just to get a feel for things I placed the platform surface on top which shows it is looking OK!!!

Having checked that my measurements and shaping were correct it was possible to start some more constructive work on the crossmembers. Hopefully the mix of right angle and diagonal crossmembers will keep things both flat and strong.

My glue of choice at the moment is this special card glue made by DeLux Materials and very good it is too.

I have progressed but this will take a few days to build but I am in no rush as whilst doing it I am also running trains on the layout - I just don't tell Mrs. Woody that bit!

However I did tell Mrs. W about these tulips when we called in at Easton Walled Gardens. 

As Mr. Beecham, he of cycling prowess and model making skills, pointed out to me when I sent him some pictures, the red of the tulips is the colour of the paratrooper's berets. It is of course the 80th anniversary of Operation Market Garden which took place in September 1944.

Time to finish off some things as Spring has indeed sprung!

Anyone who has read this blog will know I have a habit of not finishing projects. The reasons are numerous and probably completely unjustifiable but every so often something coerces me to go back and do the finishing touches. This time it is the number of kit boxes scattered about the Man Cave with the last few pieces of kits that need finishing that is the coercing factor. If I get rid of the box before finishing the kit I will end up mislaying the parts so the box stays until the parts are used up! 

These ar just a few of the boxes!

With the recent clear out of magazines I now have that desire to get rid of the boxes so I am starting with the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck which is just about finished apart from mirrors, windscreen wipers, windscreen sun shield and side under-run guards. 

The box still has a lot of parts in it and I had to remind myself that I had replaced the wheels and dash board with resin items and did not use the air deflectors. Those parts can go in the spares box - oh dear yet another box!

This is what I am left with to fit. Hopefully should not take too long - in my inevitable famous last words!

On non-model making matters I did take Mrs. Woody to see the snowdrops at Easton Walled Gardens and if snowdrops are the indication that Spring has sprung then it certaily has with the number out. It did look impressive with carpets of white all over the large garden.

Apart from the delight of seeing so many snowdrops I also learnt that there are nine varieties in the Gardens thanks to this very informative display unit. Who says that learning has to be boring!

The ideal number is 'X plus one'!

Been a busy few days so lets start off with something that has been done during the less busy times - the Panzer Ferry. Yesterdays post showed one side of the tracks in place with pieces of card in place to make sure the sags between the idlers were in the right place. Having removed the card I am pleased to report it looks good!

Talking of yesterday this joined the WMD loco fleet.

It is the Hornby D16 LNER 4-4-0 and if you are interested in the history there is a detailed one on a third party website available by clicking here.. A second hand model bought at a very reasonable price and being 'DCC ready' according to the box (it has an 8pin socket already fitted in the tender) it was a fairly easy job to fit an appropriate DCC chip. Once fitted it ran well and I like it! Even though most of the locos operating on my 00 gauge layout are diesels I do have a collection of LNER steamers so this expands that! 

As I have explained to a puzzled Mrs. Woody on several occasions the ideal number of anything that I collect is 'X plus one' where 'X' is the existing number of whatever I am collecting! Not sure why Mrs. W finds that simple mathematics hard to follow or maybe she is just rolling her eyes out of frustration!

In order to cure her eye rolling I did take Mrs. W back to Easton Walled Gardens again. What struck me as we walked around was the neatness of the hedges grass - unlike my vegetational butchery at the Rocks By Rail Museum! 

I don't think my horticultural skills will be called upon by the walled gardens!

Getting closer to nature on Route 66?

I always enjoy Summer with the general growth of things, the bright colours that plants and flowers provide and the activity of wildlife as they bring their off spring up. The older I have become seemingly the more Summer means to me. I guess it is a getting old thing! So, today, when Mrs. Woody announced she wanted to go to a local country house to have a look around the house and gardens I was not going to argue - I never disagree with what Mrs. W says anyway! We arrived at the country house to find that it was holding a car show. Now some decades ago I would have thought that this sheer coincidence must make it my lucky day and have driven straight in. However Mrs. W and myself agreed (now that is an unusual occurrence) that it just looked too crowded and we drove off. We did end up back at the tranquility of Easton Walled Gardens where we visited a few weeks ago.

One of the nice things about the garden is that it is always changing as nature goes through the seasons and that you always find something new to look at. The other thing is that the gardens are large enough to leave some areas uncultivated so that nature can take over and the results can be stunning with grasses and wild flowers providing an oasis.

There were a lot of bees, butterflies and wasps and I stretched the capabilities of my camera phone to try to catch a bee and wasp as they hunted for nectar.

 It just hits you that this simple activity by these insects, repeated trillions of times around the World, is the basis of how we all keep alive. Amazing!

There are of course the more cultivated areas where form and order are displayed such as the universe garden where the galaxy and planets are represented in a mix of plant and sculpture form .

Further down the flower beds are dominated by large plants to an amazing effect.

At the moment sweet peas are one of the highlights of the gardens where they are grown for display and then the seeds are taken for the next years plants as well as for selling on through the on site shop.

It is strange how sometimes there can be the most unusual connection but having driven away from a car show to come to the gardens instead I find one of the varieties of sweet pea called Route 66 which from having driven some of it is probably the biggest car show ever!

Anyway a great afternoon and time spent sitting lazily in the sun for me and Mrs. W as well as this robotic lawn mower which had decided to call it a day and had parked up!

There is another reason I like to get close to nature at the walled gardens - they sell amazing cakes some of which came back to WMD HQ!

Back at WMD HQ work on my Last Great Project 00 gauge layout is progressing but would easily be taken over by nature if allowed! I have now finished the track work to extend the loop over the viaduct.

I am now in a position where I can start to fasten track down permanently as well as wiring it up and ballasting it. Or should I just let nature do it?