Plastic Part Panics!

Building this Ratio Oil Depot kit has been very laid back and relaxing for some reason which makes a nice change from my usual plastic part panics where some calamity strikes meaning hours of searching for a lost elusive but critical part or trying to unglue a wrongly located part getting finger prints everywhere from wet glue, etc, etc! Hopefully this trend will continue to replicate itself in future builds. Somehow I doubt it though! Anyway, back to the oil depot and a relaxing time adding some etched dial faces to the various pipes and painting said pipes sees the project move on. Not too much more to do now!

On a different note, I have mentioned the classic K6 phone box on this blog before. They are very iconic and since they have been removed from the streets many alternate uses have been found for them including as garden tool sheds, green houses, showers, community book swap centres, and many other things including as a drinks bar. Prices of these phone boxes is high and you need about £2500 for a good one which means you seriously want to own one if you pay that. However, whilst out with Mrs. Woody, who was listing up products for future jobs for me to do, I saw this.

Obviously not a real K6 phone box but never the less neatly done as a bar for inside use. Probably a lot easier to get in a room then the real thing and not being cast metal, won't fall through your floor either! Price wise? Well less than a real box but you still really want to have a phone box bar if you are willing to pay.....

Just hope Mrs. W hasn't got any ideas from that!¬

It now looks like this....

I have hawe moved onto the various pipes for the oil depot. Not much to see really but valve handles added and awaiting painting.

You may have noticed the two etched handles in the above photo which were tiny when compared to this etch for the catwalk along the top of the tanks.

Cut out from the fret and put into my bending tool....

It eventually looked like this....

And after some airbrushing, like this.

Things are moving on even if slowly and it is interesting to look back on photos to see how things have changed. And that is the same with the local canal which I visited whilst out on a bike ride. A few weeks ago it looked like this....

but despite the lack of rain during August it now looks like this....

Just wish I could make rapid progress like that on my jobs! No doubt so does Mrs. Woody!

Anyway, a local swan seems to like what has happened.

Another relaxing hour!

Another relaxing hour (hope Mrs. Woody does not read that!) with some Panzer Light Rust colour paint saw the brickwork on the recently constructed bund painted and the coping stones got a stoneish colour on them too. As with most of my brick painting, I then mixed up some darker and lighter colours to randomly highlight individual bricks. More relaxation!

With that done I then used a wash of dilute grey paint to settle into the mortar joints on the bund and the office building. This also subdued the overall brick colour making it look waethered.

I think that looks OK, but then again I would!

Bund!

In todays World, every potential large container of a hazardous product needs a bund around it in case of leaks. The idea is that the product is kept contained within a sealed area so that it doesn't leak into the ground and can then be dealt with to make it safe. Oil depots are no different. However the Ratio kit dose not have such a thing so I have to construct my own. If I was constructing a real bund it would probably be referred to as a cauldron! 

Anyway, as it is a 4mm scale bund, my constructional capabilities are not at risk of leaks. A visit to the ever well stocked WMD Stores soon had suitable plastic card and embossed sheet on my workbench. This was cut to the size to go around the supplied kit base.

Coping stones were added and then it was time to prime the bund.

Rattle can grey primer was soon drying out ready for some top coat.

Etched parts in a model building kit?

Very surprisingly, the kit for the oil depot didn't stay long on the shelves of the WMD Stores! It is now on the work bench so a quick look at what is in the box. It all looks well moulded with parts for the two tanks, bases and he accompanying hut.

What I did not expect was this....

Etched brass parts in a model building kit! However, their inclusion is actually welcomed and the parts are fairly large so should be fairly easy to get a hold of and bend to shape - I hope!

Initial building has seen the hut walls and tank halves glued together.

There is a depressed seam line in the tank halves that cant be sanded out without deforming the round shape of the tanks so a bit of acrylic putty has been applied. It will need a day to go off before I can sand it and then will still need a little more!

Ratio oil depot kit.

Back to my Last Great Project Layout and with the fueling point just about finished I need to have a source of fuel for it to dispense. I could have gone for the easy option and just worked on the assumption that where ever the fuel was stored was off the layout. But I did see this kit.

This looks ideal and as you will no doubt have deduced is now part of the WMD Sores inventory awaiting construction! When and how long that construction will be is one of those unknowns!