Under estimaing!

In my inevitable way of under estimating things, my idea for painting the hall, stairs and landing in a couple of days has been totally trashed as I started that job (Mrs. Woody will be pleased!) having got the bi-fold doors into the kitchen finally painted and remounted (another job I under estimated)  - and working too!

Even though you see things every day I had not appreciated just how much preparation is needed before any paint goes on the walls. Looking closer revealed cracks and defects that need dealing with so much of the day was spent filling and sanding as will be a few more days yet! 

Under estimation is also the order of the day with the Revell Peterbilt 359 that I uncovered from on top of a cupboard yesterday. Half an hour should see it cleaned up I thought. How wrong was I? Very wrong! This is where I started from.

Using some warm water with a dash of detergent in it I used cotton buds and a brush to start to remiove the years of accumulated dirt and dust. It took me 15 minutes to clean that one mudguard which I forgot was a chrome finish! 

After an hour and a half, my half hour job was still not finished but it was looking a lot better.

I even discovered that the hood opened revealing a detailed engine!

I am not going to estimate how much work is left to do to finish this but hopefully not too long!

Top of the cupboard find on a snowy day!

Waking up, like most of the UK, to this.....

....meant that even Mrs. Woody had to agree that outside jobs were off the agenda for me today - tomorrow might be a different story though! However Chloe cat was not being put off her morning patrol round the garden even if her legs disappeared. Mind you it was a shorter time than normal before she was at the door ready to come in!

On a day like this, inside, you sometimes look in places you have not been for a while and I ventured to look on top of a cupboard to find this.....

It is a Revell 1/25th scale diecast model of a Peterbilt 359 truck which was sold as 'Iron'. 

It has languished on top of the cupboard for many years and judging by the dust and cobwebs, which I cleaned off the sleeper roof, Mrs. Woody needs to do some more dusting - Oh, that's my job!

For a diecast mode it is nicely detailed and realistically weathered with all that dust!

I did think that I had bought it about the mid 2000s but doing some research reveals that the model was made in 1990 so it must have been between then and 1995 that I bought it. I can recall buying it from a local model shop for about £10 as one of the exhaust stacks was broken off. I can also recall fixing it but obviously not very well as it is broken off again. I can only find one on line for sale which has a broken exhaust stack and is dusty, no it is not this one, for a price of £109.99! You do get free postage though and if you are interested it is on eBay - click here. Not sure if I have a collectors item here or someone is just seeing what the market will pay.

Much as I could have spent the day inside repairing this and cleaning it up there was painting to be done! The bi-fold doors that were fitted during the kitchen rebuild  need painting and the two door frames that I did paint all the components to before they were fitted, did get a bit of a bashing as the kitchen units and appliances were moved in so they needed a repaint. First job was to dismantle the bi-fold doors and get them out of the way as it is far easier to paint the frame and indeed the doors once they are stripped of the components that enable a bi-fold door to work. Just hope I can remember how it all goes back together! 

Unlike yesterdays dust storm, my sanding requirements today only produced limited levels of dust that were easily cleaned up.

Once sanded the bare wood areas were treated to a coat of acrylic primer - this is just like painting a model I kidded myself!

Once dry the top coat was applied and all looks good!

Having the doors off their hinges makes it far easier to paint as for one thing access to all the edges is easier and with the hinges off there is no need to mask them up. Working smarter not harder as I get older!

The doors come coated with a white primer which when you apply top coat doesn't look very white to me! Anyway, hope fully the doors will be finished tonight and then tomorrow the great re-hanging can commence when anything could happen!

Making a mess!

This job has been on the 'to do' list that Mrs. Woody updates and extends om a regular basis for some while now so I thought it was time to earn some credit points by getting it done. When the kitchen was rebuilt most of the room had been re-plastered and I painted what was in effect an empty room. However there was some trim around the window which we decided to remove after the plastering and painting was done. The removal of the trim revealed holes in the plaster which needed filling which I did at the time. Telling Mrs. W that the filler needed time to harden works for a week but after that even she knows it is ready to be sanded and painted! The problem is that whereas before there was nothing in the way to get clear access to the job there is now a counter top and sink in the way. So with some contortions I managed to get the filler sanded causing what looked like the aftermath of a flour bomb and that took longer to clean up then the sanding! It is amazing just how far dust travels!

The actual painting was the relatively easy part of this job and has made a difference - hopefully Mrs. W will notice it!

With the mess of the kitchen dealt with the last thing that I really needed was another mess to clear up but that is exactly what I had in the Man Cave. Delighted with the painting job in the kitchen I thought I deserved an hour in the Man Cave doing some more hill work. I had cut some more polystyrene strips and glued them last night so it was time to add some more. 

However in searching for the paint for the kitchen job earlier in the day I came across a piece of insulation board that looked ideal to use in the hill job and would save a lot of cutting of polystyrene strips and speed up the job. So into the Man Cave it went along with a saw and that is where the mess began! Nothing like the dust storm of the filler but foam when cut with a saw does produce a lot of dust and creates a mess. However, with the mess my Man Cave is in at the moment some additional dust is hardly noticeable!

Once a few extra bits were cut and glued into place I put the subbase back on the layout where hopefully the glue will dry and I can finish off the contours with some more polystyrene which should hopefully be a simple task! Famous last words!

Dimmed lighting!

 It is time to start painting in some details on the Tiger 1 tank and I have started with the turret mounted spare track links. An initial coat of  Vallejo Rust paint will be a base for further rust treatment.

Painting the details takes a while just like the finishing painting details in the WMD kitchen rebuild. However, after dark, with the lights on, which hides those areas still to paint, it does look good! 

And with the under unit lighting only it looks even better - just like me in dimmed lighting!

Mrs. Woody is really happy with it and thinks it is now the ideal place for me to prepare her meals! Something not quite right with that but I guess just don't say anything is the best thing!

Recycling!

 A fruitful day at WMD today! Unusual but nice!

First off the Tiger 1 has had the third element of its camouflage added in the form of the red brown paint which adds greatly to the character of the tank.

Still lots to do such as adding the tools, tow ropes, hatches and weathering the hull and turret but I am really pleased so far!

Adding t the pleased list is that I have cleared most of the remnants of the kitchen rebuild with the scrap metal having gone off to the recyclers and my bank account added to from the proceeds. No doubt Mrs. Woody has plans to spend that!

And the wood from the ceiling has been trimmed to size to fit in my car to take down to Rocks By Rail Museum where it will be used as the new cab floor for Mr. D. I do like recycling!

A bonus find of £1.05!

 Another day at WMD Recycling! This time the old washing machine was subject to reverse engineering! It is surprising just how much space a machine takes up when in bits!

Once it was all tidied up and sorted there is a a fair amount of metal including a 5p and a £1 coin found in the filter - bonus find!

Inside, the kitchen is so near to being finished that tomorrow should see it done with just a few painting jobs for me to do - as well as the fact that Mrs. Woody has now deemed that every other room now requires repainting! Great!

Today saw Phil the builder finish off the floor that leads out of the kitchen and down the hall. It makes the place feel bigger and as Mrs. W has pointed out it is easy clean so my cleaning tasks will be easier! Fantastic!

What would be more great and fantastic would be to get out in my Man Cave and finish that Tiger. Maybe tomorrow and maybe I can get another kit with that £1.05 bonus find!

Reverse engineering!

As a day for doing any model making today was not the day! However I did reduce the old cooker into kit form using a screw driver and pair of pliars in my reverse engineering escapades so that could count as some form of reverse kit building! It is actually quite interesting to see how something has been put together - a good insight into both design and engineering - whether it is reverse or forwards!.

Meanwhile, whilst I have been reverse engineering, Ben the electrician has fitted a new consumer unit as the old one which was state of the art 32 years ago is now classed as barely adequate - a bit like me!

Wish I could wire that neatly!

In the kitchen itself things are progressing with handles and splash backs being fitted and held in place with clamps and wood so it still looks a work in progress. One thing is certain though, I don't want to reverse engineer that kitchen - Mrs. Woody certainly would have words to say even if I just mentioned it!

Abraded, worn and weathered - and that is not me!

A great day at WMD HQ as the kitchen rebuild skip has now departed! That does not mean that the Kitchen rebuild is complete, just that the skip was as full as it was safe to do so!

The skip had obviously been recently painted and with its shiny paint yet to be abraded, worn and weathered by use and nature. The Tiger has also recently been painted with a clean looking coat of paint that will be abraded , worn and weathered by me!

First I need to finish the turret though but this project is moving on again!

Running water!

This picture marks a massive step towards completion of the kitchen rebuild and my return to more model making - unless Mrs. Woody has other plans!

However getting to that point took both Phil the builder and myself on a journey neither of us had been on before. Having installed the waste pipes - always best to get those in before the running water is connected - Phil connected up the water. Testing the connections, the cold ran and the hot ran, both without leaks. Great! Turn the two on together and all was well for two minutes before the overflow at the top of the house started gushing! Not great! Phil had never seen that before and neither had I. What was going on? We had running water in two places! Phil had a theory which was backed up by my perusal of the internet. 

The issue was that the cold water was being supplied straight from the mains at a high pressure. The hot on the other hand was supplied from the hot water tank upstairs using gravity and its pressure was low. Inside the mixer tap, when both the hot and the cold were turned on full, the outlet of the tap could only allow a certain amount of water out which was less than the water being supplied by the cold and hot inlets. Therefore the cold water, with its much higher pressure, was able to backfeed into the hot pipe and push the water back into the hot water tank. The hot water tank then needed to expel the excess water which it did through its feed from the cold water tank in the loft. The cold water tank then had to get rid of the excess water through its overflow pipe hence the gushing water we saw outside.

The answer was a one way valve on the hot supply which Phil had one of in his van - almost as good as WMD Stores! Once fitted, the problem was solved and we only had running water in the sink! 

Gunning it!

Gunning it usually means putting your foot down on the car accelerator and moving off at a fast speed. In this case, and as is usually in Woody's World, speed is usually slow! However at least there is movement and on the Tiger 1 build there is just one last piece that I need to finish in order to glue the top of the hull onto the lower part and that is the bow gun. Not a big part but it will be seen through the open hatch above it so I managed a few minutes to start getting it ready for painting. A few sprue mountings need sanding and then it is time to get the paint out. Once it is installed then the whole tank can begin the paint process. No doubt that process will probably be as slow a process as the masterpieces produced by the great artists of the World only my end product won't be a masterpiece!

And despite trying 'gunning it' on the model build it is the kitchen rebuild that is actually moving on quickly now with Phil the Builder, with my assistance hindrance now having got all the worktops joined and in place complete with the hob plate in position.   

The joins between the worktops are all but invisible and to see the way it is done is quite an eyeopener. Definitely something that I could not have achieved if I had done it! However I did have to lend Phil one of my model making needle files to carry out some fine adjustment to the joins so I at least felt as though my assisatnce hinderance had been of some use!