If only I had been that clever at such a young age things might have been so different!

It was a nice start to the day with sun streaming through the windows that need cleaning according to Mrs. Woody at WMD HQ this morning. Ideal bike riding weather! It was warm in the shelter but the wind was icy cold especially on a bike - I'm just glad, as are most of the local population, that I did not wear shorts! Anyway, being in the countryside means you get to see how animals deal with the cold and these lambs knew exactly what to do to stay warm. Up against a straw pile sheltering them from the westerly wind whilst being warmed by the morning easterly sun. 

If only I had been that clever at such a young age things might have been so different!

Back at the shelter of WMD I undertook the start of the growing season by preparing some seed trays for the recently purchased seeds that I blogged about on Thursday using the compost also purchased at that time. A bit of silver sand mixed in with the compost is supposed to assist seedlings so that was added! 16 trays done which will now warm in the greenhouse for a week before sowing said seeds and awaiting the growth of plants - or not if my luck goes as normal!

Despite being a busy boy as I informed Mrs. W I did find time to weather the other side of the tank tracks in the IBG Scammell Pioneer Tank Transporter and Crusader tank kit as well as the various tractor and trailer wheels. 

Slow progress but steps forward. If only I had been clever enough to take up a different hobby to model making things might have been so different like actually getting those windows cleaned!

I would have cycled into a brick wall of a wind on the way out and been like Mary Poppins with her umbrella on the way home!

I was intending to go on a bike ride today but the strength of the wind put me off demonstrated by the wheelie bin doing wheelies down the pavement! Ten years ago I would have gone even if the wheelie bin had taken off and I would have cycled into a brick wall of a wind on the way out and been like Mary Poppins with her umbrella on the way home! But, with age, I am much more a self preservationist as I get older! The strength of the wind was perhaps demonstrated by the closure of a nearby main road where a lorry had been blown over by the wind! The picture is taken from a distance which equates to about as close as I want to be to such an incident! Apparently the recovery team cannot  recover the lorry until the wind dies down so it could be a while before all those amber lights go!

Instead of going on the bike I took a recovering from a bad cold Mrs. Woody out to a local garden Centre where various items such as seeds, compost, fertilizer, bread and tea cakes where purchased emptying my depleted from recent compressor and printer purchases wallet!! All items were apparently to do with a therapy to cure the cold. It seems it is called retail therapy!

Anyway, I did make use of some of the items purchased to attend to what is laughingly a lawn but is more like a sea of moss and weeds! First off I aerated the ground with something that I inherited from my Dad who got this back in the 60s or 70s with Green Shield stamps which was like an awards scheme today but you got physical stamps to stick in a book which could then be exchanged for items in a catalogue. If you want to find out more look at this! And if you have old stamps or books they are selling on eBay so there may still be some value in them!

Once holes were punched through the moss and weeds the lawn feed came out spread in a mechanical spreader again inherited from my Dad but of a more modern 90s vintage I think!

As I informed a further recovering aided by retail therapy Mrs. W, in a weeks time we should be able to look out upon a sea of dead moss and weeds! 

Back in the World of model making some more painting of the Scammell Pioneer Tank Transporter and Crusader tank kit has taken place with more painting of wheels, seats and engine block.

I will be glad when this build is complete as it is seemingly taking for ever. What I need is a bit of wind behind me.....

This could be a sign of a good summer!

More parts to the Scammel Pioneer Tank Transporter trailer have been fitted including the side strengthening gussets and the end piece to which the loading ramps will be fitted.

Turning it right ways up it even looks like a trailer!

Hopefully I will get some more done soon but Mrs. Woody's list of chores includes tidying the garden so, given the somewhat nice unseasonable weather and rather than paint the Mercedes MP4 cab, i got  the lawnmower out as well as doing some weeding and pruning. What did surprise me more than Mrs. W was surprised I had done some chores, was the fact that there were so many ladybirds about. 

Whether they had survived the Winter or are new born I don't know but this could be a sign of a good summer! Famous last words and all that!

Leaf it out!

A day of small but satisfying jobs today. The type that take a n hour or so to complete but you can see a big difference after finishing them. Well that is what I thought as I raked, swept and bagged the leaves that have fallen onto the front garden thinking Mrs. Woody will be impressed by this major clean up which has resulted in six large sacks of sweepings that need to go to the recycling centre.

Not so! Mrs. W, when informed of my hard work and the resultant vast visual improvement, announced she could see no difference whilst looking at the back garden! Leaf it out please! Even when turned 180 degrees I don't think the improvement was noted by her despite the six sacks being in her view.

Back in the sanity of my leaf and Mrs. W free Man Cave, work continues on the scenery with more plaster impregnated bandage having been applied to the currently worked on sub-base. Hopefully that part of the work may het finished tomorrow if I don't have any more leaves to sweep up! Leaf it out!

More of the same 2!

Yes it was another day of more of the same for me! More hedge/shrub/tree cutting at WMD HQ. In particular there is a conifer tree which is about 15 foot high and I normally trim it twice a year. However this was its first cut this year and it had certainly bushed out. Not the easiest of trees to trim either given I have to climb on a shed roof to get to the back of it and then use a ladder to get to the top of it at the front. I have always been cautious with ladders but the older I get the more cautious I become!

The before!

The after!

Tomorrow will see this lot go to the recycling center where it will begin its journey to become the compost for next year. As I said yesterday it is amazing just how much stuff is generated when you start cutting things back.

Having satisfied myself that Mrs. Woody must see the work  have done (yesterday she did not notice that her drive onto the driveway was tree branch free following my work until I told her!) I ventured off into the Man Cave where the Dragon Panzer Ferry kit awaited more painting. The deck and everything apart from the cabin needed to be painted light grey so some masking was done.

The cabin was masked by using a piece of card held against it as I sprayed. There was a little overspray but that was touched in with a brush and some of the dark grey paint that I had sprayed.

It is beginning to look interesting.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit different to the last few days as I am shattered and need a rest but try telling Mrs. W that!

More of the same!

You would think that after a day of vegetational butchery at the Rocks by Rail Museum yesterday that the last thing I would do would be to carry on with more of the same but back at WMD HQ! However that is exactly what I have been doing! Hedge, shrub and tree cutting has been carried out and there is more to do but Mrs. Woody should be happy as the tree that overhung the drive and blocked her view as she drove on to the drive is now cut back. Once you start hacking away at a tree it is amazing just how much space the cuttings take up as they are packed in sacks to go to the recycling center.

Continuing on the theme of more of the same the Dragon Panzer Ferry kit got some more paint treatment. This time a darkish grey for the hull and cabin. According to what I can find on the internet there is conflicting information as to what it was painted in real life so I have relied upon the instructions. Whilst the hull and cabin are a darkish grey the rest of the hull will be a light grey. Given that none of these vehicles survive as far as I know and there are no colour photos of it I don't think anyone can prove my choice as wrong.

I will leave the dark grey to dry overnight and then after tomorrows further adventures in vegetational butchery at WMD HQ I will be painting the other parts light grey. So it will be another day of more of the same! Oh joy!

A green day!

It is all about the colours in the past few days. Grey, red and now green. The green in this case refers to two things. Firstly the cab parts of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck are now in green. The paint job needs further attention as I made the mistake of washing the cab which was in grey undercoat and although it was dry it was not really dry! The paint had absorbed moisture which really needed a day to dry off again. Oh well lesson learnt!. I will leave this a day or so before giving another coat which will hopefully dry glossy.

Meanwhile the cab interior is progressing. The right hand drive dashboard has been glued in place with super glue and the pedals and gear leaver added - on the right! 

Strange thing is that although Italeri make this kit as a left hand drive I noticed that on the floor pan there are location points on both sides for the pedals - most strange but very welcome!

The second part of the green day was a further day of planting out the flower beds. The other side of the garden is now done. 

With the space created in the greenhouse as the plants have come out I was able to pot up my home grown tomato plants that I am proud of!

It will be a red day once they hopefully start producing!

Starting the watering season!

A day of gardening here at WMD HQ taking advantage of the warm weather. Today saw the main flower bed planted out which was a task and a half as despite all the recent rain the ground is rock hard. A combination of watering, compost and sheer determination saw about ten trays of home grown plants set out, planted and watered. No idea how it will all look if they survive. I am no Alan Titchmarsh in gardening knowledge but if it all comes out green with some coloured flowers I will be happy and I am sure Mrs. woody will be - especially since she did not have to plant them!

Of course this now means that I have additional watering duties every day!

I did take the occasional break - important when it is hot outside as I have informed Mrs. W to justify the breaks - and managed to undercoat the cab parts to the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck. The same grey that I used for the chassis was used and will be ideal for the green top coat.

It certainly looks a little less plastic and toy like with the grey applied. Hopefully with the warm weather it will dry fairly quickly. At least I don't need to water it!

Hiding the evidence!

In case Mrs. Woody is reading this I will start off with the fact that I did some more in-depth cleaning today and then got out into the garden which is more like a muddy field as described yesterday. Today I cleared up the fallen leaves. I tend to leave the leaves on the flower beds. They give some cover and protection to plants and it is amazing what can survive over the Winter and re-emerge in the Spring. They also provide the wildlife with a source of bugs. What is on the grass - I won't call it lawn as it is far from pristine - gets swept up. With the recent wind there are a lot about.

Usually the bags I fill get taken off to the recycling center but with builders on site who did not turn up today and their skip on my drive the leaves got put in there - all five big  bags worth!

Now you may say, that's all well and good Woody but if the wind blows tonight they will all blow out again! Thought of that and with my philosophy of working smarter not harder as I get older I pushed some of the skips contents over to cover the leaves! Not only that but the evidence of my leaves was hidden! The perfect crime! Knowing my luck though, the bottom of the skip will fall out when it gets lifted revealing my activity!

Hopefully Mrs. W satisfied that I have been working hard will not read as far as this so I can say that with a feeling of wellbeing after my days work  I took a well deserved, to me anyway, hour off to work some more on the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier. The front bumpers needed reattaching and when they were broken off at some point before I bought the kit they took some of the chassis with them. The winch that was attached to them was also in pieces.

The missing chassis was replaced with two pieces of square section plastic strip which conveniently filled the gap and once the glue set it was filed to shape.

I also strengthened the chassis on both sides with some plastic strip which will be mostly hidden when the body is fitted. Either that or I can argue that it was a field repair following the activity of a reckless driver.

The winch was also rebuilt. Strangely enough the drum had no representation of a cable so a raid on Mrs. W's sewing kit (I really do hope she has not read this far) saw some black cotton liberated and wound round the drum. I just need to fashion a hook of some sorts to go on the end.

In my inevitable way I temporarily put the chassis, load bed and cab together to see what it looks like so here are some picture of that. 

It is coming on! Just wish my rebuild of the conservatory was! Hopefully the builders are back tomorrow unaware of the hidden evidence in the skip!

Mixed up World.

I had to remind myself that today is the 13th November as I did some work in the garden today. Normally at this time of year the flowering bedding plants are dead and the other plants have gone into their Winter hibernation. I have more colour in the way of flowers now then I had in the Summer drought. These flower beds should be barren by now.

Yes, it is a mixed up World at the moment! However I can isolate myself, unless Mrs. Woody decides other wise, to the World of my Man Cave where although things are mixed up it is me doing the mixing!

Following on from yesterday when I had completed the landscape profiles for the valley sides around the viaducts I spent today dismantling most of it so that I could fully glue it all together. 

However it all comes together with the middle part now having a flat base for a road/lane and canal/river.

The viaducts slot into the gaps which at the moment makes the next stage of covering the polystyrene with paper towel soaked in plaster a lot easier. That will come in the next few days - hopefully!

Despite my previous success at keeping the mess of working with polystyrene to a minimum today in my mixed up World, there was a lot of mess!

 Oh well, it will clean up! Just a good job it is in my Man Cave and not the house!

End of the month so lots of things need to be done.

I had my Covid booster on Saturday and yesterday I felt terrible. Mrs. Woody was unaffected but that seems to be the way it goes with these things. If I am bad she is OK and vice versa. Anyway I woke up today feeling relatively well which was good as this week I need to get on top of preparing the garden for its Winter hibernation. However a 20 mile bike ride first brought my total for this year up to 5461 miles. 

Back at WMD HQ there are some things which should have been done earlier in the year like hedge cutting and tree pruning but with the drought affecting them during the summer I have left them to recover until now. Well with the amount of rain and warmish weather we have had over the last few weeks they have certainly recovered. I should have taken a 'before' picture of this tree but in my haste to get jobs done (please note that Mrs. W) I just went straight in but you get some idea of the fact that about 6 inches of growth all round was cut back from the various bags full of the debris now awaiting to go to the recycling center.

The tree certainly looks more manicured then it did before .

Having done that job I felt I ought to reward myself with a bit of model making. The two Metcalfe viaducts still need finishing - like a lot of things I do! As an aside Metcalfe have sent me the missing part which is great service from them. However because as I have discovered my kit, although bought this year, dates from 2006 the parts references have changed so the sheet sent is the wrong one. However an email to Metcalfe was answered within 30 minutes and the right part is on its way. Apparantly sheet references were changed when the kit was updated a few years ago. Again I have to say great service from this company.

I am building the parapets at the moment and although small parts there is a fair amount of preparation work to do on them. This is the sheet with one of the parapets which is made up of two main parts.

The core of the parts requires bending in half and although the part is partly cut through at the factory to get a neat fold requires scoring the back of the bend.

The core is then overlaid with another part that provides some relief  with inset brick work. All those cut outs required crayoning in to hide the card edge and that took some time but is worth it.

I have been using UHU glue for the substructure but I have bought some DeLuxe Materials card glue which most of the modelling magazines have recommended. Although a little costly I have to admit it is good! It has an instant grip which holds parts together and means I can move the build on quickly - well as quick as I go!

In my usual manner I have temporarily put the two parts I have semi completed so far in place on the main viaduct to see how they look.

Certainly adds to the structure and I only have another 14 sections to make!