Missing the obvious!

Back to some model making matters. On my bench for some weeks has been the Central Trains Class 156 DMU, a Hornby model that suddenly stopped running for no apparent reason. In true Woody style, I just put it to one side pending further investigation when I had time! That is never a good prospect for a model but it has only taken me four weeks to ge round to looking at this which is almost an unheard of short time for me!

My first thought was that the DCC chip had failed as I could not get any noise out of the motor in either DCC or DC mode. The body had yo come off and I replaced the chip with a blanking plug which should have allowed the motor to run on DC power. Nothing!

Taking the bogie out of the chassis I went as far as actually getting the motor out of its housing and testing it. It worked which was good but putting it back and applying power to the wheels was meet with silence.

Now it might be obvious in the photo below but for some reason it was not obvious to me at the time of looking at the actual bogie that the wires from the wheels and electrical pickups were no longer connected to the motor! It took me about 40 minutes to finally realise this rather fundamental issue was the cause of the problem!

With that fact finally in my head the soldering iron came out and the wires were soldered back in place. With the DCC chip refitted it was ready to put the body back on.

Back on the layout all was back to normal which was great!

Meanwhile as we now have lighter evenings although my body clock is still not aware of the hour lost, I did manage to get out in the greenhouse planting out some tomato, pepper and cucumber plants that I have germinated in the warmth of the house and I also planted some lettuce, spinach, onion and sunflower seeds. Hopefully their growth will be obvious so I don't miss it!

Growing!

With some warm and, amazingly, dry weather it was time to sort the green house out a bit. Mrs. Woody and myself had planted various flower and vegetable seeds some weeks ago which have equally amazingly have mostly all grown! The tomato plants that I grew from seed on a windowsill inside (away from prying cat paws) were potted up today and some marigold seedlings taken onto the next stage of small pots. The trouble with this sort of work is that you do loose yourself in it and before I knew it several hours had gone - several hours I planned to do some model making in! Oh well - I can always make models when it is raining (Mrs. Woody allowing of course!) but I cant always get into the garden and greenhouse if it is raining - that sort of makes sense!

I did want to try out my DCC controller as posted about yesterday so that does work and I did take some video for another insomnia curing YouTube video which I will do in the next few days. I had actually prepared some trains for it with a focus on EWS, Freightliner and DRS diesels. 

I will have to see how unpopular my choices are with viewers! Hopefully I can keep my viwer base growing!

Getting dirty!

Mrs. Woody and myself spent much of the day getting in each others way in the green house planting seeds for this years flowers and some vegetables. We will never be asked to show at the Chelsea Garden Show or indeed any local garden show but we do usually manage to get enough flowers to plant out the garden and at least show some colour along with a few salad vegetables some of which are edible! All worth getting a bit dirty for.

A few of the trays seeded up - hopefully in a few weeks there will be a sea of green in the green house!

Meanwhile back in the Man Cave the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier has also been getting dirty - or should that be dirtier? It had had yet more brown paint wash treatment. I think I am there with it now. I did give the inside floor of the trailer a heavy hit of the brown wash and a sprinkling of some weathering powders. Sometimes you don't appreciate just how much you have done with weathering but look at the inside of the trailer in this picture and then compare wit the next.

The difference is actually that it now looks as though it has been through a war and with that amount of dirt in it you could well plant it out with seeds just like my green house. In fact looking a bit closer it looks just like my lawn does at the moment following the building work!

With wheels added (although the spare still needs to be glued in place) there is not a lot more to do to bring this build to a finish which is good because there are plenty more waiting!

Too tight!

I'm not talking about my wallet being too tight although Mrs. W probably would say it was as I claim I have forgotten the combination to open it when needing to spend money and look to her purse as an alternative! In this case of being too tight I am referring to the tracks of the T34/122 Ryefield Models tank. I have built the tracks according to the instructions. They have been painted and weathered which was finished today. I added polished metal highlights where the wheels and sprockets would come into contact with the tracks and track guides as well as on the faces of the tracks where the running on hard surfaces would keep the metal polished and free of rust.

I then attempted to mount the tracks and wheels to the tank hull. Side one was a struggle but I thought all had gone well and moved onto side two. Struggling with the last wheel the tracks came apart at the join between two of the track links. I tried gluing in situ but there was just too little give in the track to allow a bond to form abd harden before the two parts pulled apart. I dismantled that side and glued the links again but this tiem they should bond fully as there is no undue pressure on them. Going onto add some more weathering to the tank such as rust and soot I noticed that the other track had also come apart. I tool these photos before taking that track off to glue it. I suspect that I may actually have to add two more links to the track in order for it too fit. The only problem with this is that the track will probably look too slack. However I will have to wait and see what tomorrows episode of track fitting brings before deciding if I have to deal with that problem.

I must admit I do like the way this tank is turning out - I just need to solve the track issue.

Earlier in the day I spent a few more hours cleaning the greenhouse. A number of spiders are now looking for new homes and it is amazing just how many cobwebs such a small space can contain. However most of the glass has now been cleaned so I can actually look out of it without the view being blurred! I still need to sort my tools out and have a bit more of a sort out of various pots and associated things but certainly looking better!

Swan song!

Well not quiet my swan song but whilst out this morning on the bike I came across this.

Looks a bit strange but getting closer it was a young swan having a kip! It looked up at me as I took the photos and stretched before going back to sleep. An hour later as I headed home it had moved a bit further down the road but was enjoying the morning sun.

Back at WMD HQ it was time for some green house work and I spent a pleasant few hours pricking out seedlings into pots. I will be in good books with Mrs. Woody - I hope anyway! Still more to do but it is nice to see nature at work.

I even had time for a bit of model making. The two T34 Egyptian tank kits have been sitting in my Man Cave shouting out to be made and I have given into one of them! So in my usual grass hopper way of jumping from projects another now joins the list.

There are a lot of parts in the kit which is worrying.

So far I have managed about 30 or so of these parts which has got me a basic chassis so far.

|Having built the Italeri kit of the Russian version of this tank a couple of years ago this one is light years ahead of it in detail. However more detail can mean a harder and more likely to go wrong build so I will see how I go. I just hope this kit is not my Swan Song!

Get your Woody serviced here!

 

A somewhat unusual title to commence a blog entry even by my corny standards. However there is a story about this that does lead onto modelling matters!. Friday morning saw me take a break from butchering wood having achieved something that even Mrs Woody thought was 'nice'! I have got to the point where the floor and bookcases in Man Cave AKA The Room of Gloom are nearly finished. Much to my amazement the bookcases actually are of the same height, stand straight and stunningly have not collapsed once loaded with modelling magazines! More on this in another post but here are a couple of pictures of things so far.

Getting back to Friday, I do cycle most days and cycling on my own has always been that opportunity to unwind and think things through. A lot of problems have seen a solution created after a bike ride. However I do on occasions have the fortune to take a ride out with some company. Friday saw Mr Beecham arrive as my company for my ride. Mr Beecham is the artist who drew the various locomotives and T34 tank that featured in a post earlier this year. He is a very talented modeler and its a pleasure to see some of his models that he brings along to show me. I do take inspiration from his creations and it is always good to see and learn from other modelers approaches to building a kit. Annoyingly he is not only a talented modeler but a fairly quick cyclists too. I have cycled seriously for many years time trialing and road racing in my younger years and have about 200,000 miles on my legs which, if I were a car, I would probably have been scrapped by now! However getting old has meant I have slowed down and hills, especially these days, always seem steeper than they did 10 years ago. My hill climbing ability is perhaps also not assisted by the fact that I am a bit heavier, OK a fair amount heavier, than I was in my prime racing days. This leads to Mr Beecham leaving me behind on the hills. However not all is lost as although both our bikes are of a very similar equipment spec I can leave him behind on the descent where I am free wheeling and he is having to pedal to keep up. Gravity can indeed be your friend on occasions!

Moving onto getting this story back towards modelling matters we stopped for a bite to eat at a local place we know and ordered sausage breakfast cobs - ideal for the weight conscious cyclist but they are tasty! Whilst waiting for our drinks I spied that they had for sale various reproduction metal signs including the one at the head of this post - Get your Woody serviced here. Well being known as Woody made the decision to buy easy but there is a modelling connection which the sign suddenly brought back fond memories of. 

On a trip to the USA some years ago I happened to be in a Walmart or Target store and I saw the Revell 1/25 scale 48 Ford Woody kit in amongst their range of kits they stocked. That had to come home with me even though I do not build car kits. Prior to the Revell kit I have only built the Airfix 1/32 scale VW Beatle and the Tamiya 1/24 VW Karman Giah. Anyway once home in sat in my pile of unmade kits for several years and then for no reason that I remember I built it. It was probably 10 or so years ago as I was still using enamel paints in stead of acrylics. I do recall it was a bit of a pig to mask up for spraying and that the green was a Humbrol green with a small amount of silver mixed in to give a slight metallic finish. However it is safe on a shelf and I dusted it off and became re-acquainted with an old build and the history behind it. Looking at it closely again there are some parts that could be improved but its a record of my model making skills at the time so its a bit of my history! I still like it and that is all that matters and what's more the memories it brought flooding back are priceless! Strange how a set of circumstances comes together and gives a nice result!

As I am still dealing with The Room of Gloom other modelling activities are on a bit of a back burner at the moment. However I have managed to be creative in the green house which is slowly becoming green! Usually my gardening and planting of seeds ends up as a scale model of a desert or lunar landscape but this year things seem to be going right!

Not sure whether I will get some more done on the Room of Gloom tomorrow (Sunday) and on Monday I have to go and collect something model related but more on that once collection has been made!