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!

Anyone order snow?

I was supposed to have a day at the Rocks by Rail Museum today but waking up this morning it was obvious that even if I went there was not a lot I could do outside apart from get wet and cold as this photo from WMD HQ illustrates.

I used the opportunity to catch up with some home jobs and I even managed to get out on my bike this afternoon for a few miles before being caught in a snow storm and headed for home. This months mileage is 539 bringing the years total up to 1315 miles. I did loose two days this month when it rained but apart from that I have ben out every day this year so I ma pleased.

Model wise I have managed to work on the cab of the Scania 143H and I was lucky enough to get the decals off which I wanted to and save the ones I wised to keep as well as get the cab front panel securely glued in place and hopefully without the need to respray the cab. Result! I will need to respray the side deflectors and reattach them but that is a small job compared to respraying the cab. As I said in a previous post, sometimes you just have to put a project that is going wrong away for some time and come back to it with a fresh mind. I still need to reattach the roof panel but with the wonders of BluTac I will able to mock the cab up on the chassis to see how it all looked without the original decals.

I think it works!