The question is just how long will it remain tidy?

Starting todays post like yesterdays, if you have been reading this blog for some time you may remember my various postings regarding the price of fuel and wondered if this services had the highest prices in the UK. Well passing by on a bike ride I did stop to take this picture.

The price of diesel is just 2 pence a litre off the June 2022 price (see here for that post). I have a horrible feeling that the current World situation may see that 2022 price beaten. I will be keeping an eye open for further price changes!

Meanwhile, back at WMD HQ, I took a break from seed planting to tidy my workbench. It had got to the stage where I was spending too much time looking through the debris on it to find things that should be put away in known places. Although I always state that the best artists work in a mess, sometimes the mess is just too much! So a couple of hours saw items put back in their places and the workbench showing some significant clear areas to carry out further work hopefully more productively!

Again, if you have read this blog for some time you will know this is not the first tidy of the bench and it won't be the last. The question is just how long will it remain tidy?

Deciduous decisions!

Turning back to my 00 gauge Last Great Project layout, I need to think about making the scenic sub-bases look a bit more like the natural countryside. Not as easy as it sounds as you need to make it actually look natural rather than put together in a garden centre! Knowing that this would be happening, a number of items have been purchased over the last few years and put into the WMD Stores ready for this moment Included in those items are four deciduous trees made by Woodlands Scenics. Bought as secondhand saved some money and they are trees with a presence rather than a 2 inch twigs which is something you can end up buying if you are not careful.

Now to achieve 'natural' is quite a hard process and sometimes it just comes as you work along and on other occasions you have to work at it. Working at it usually means taking your time and putting things temporarily in place to see how they look and feel over some time. That is what I am doing with making a decision on where these deciduous trees will end up on the sub-base. At the moment this is the initial positioning with an old bard in the centre. I quite like it but there is just a little nag in the back of my mind that says leave it for a few days and see how oit looks then.

Something that could not wait a few days though was my work bench which got yet another tidy! That is probably the fifth or sixth this year which is somewhat incredible knowing my usual habits of working in chaos! However, I have to admit that it is nice to look at a clean workbench - almost makes me want to build some models!

Workbench tidy!

After several weeks of creating a mess in the Man Cave building the Tiger 1 it was time to tidy the workbench, after all I had spent the morning tidying the house much to Mrs. Woody's amazement!

Nice Tiger tank on the cutting board!

I even went as far as giving the floor a wash bringing me to my knees!

By the colour of the water that floor really did need a clean!

So with the workbench tidy and the floor washed I had a few minutes to have a quick look at this.

More of this another time though as its time to make Mrs. W's dinner!

The decks are clear - well clearer!

As I posted several days ago I need to clear the decks on my workbench as it was just becoming too crowded with unfinished projects, paints, glue, tools and various bits that I just don't understand how they arrived on the bench! Anyway the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper truck is just about finished and can be taken off the bench following the application of some spare number plates left over from the build of the Leyland National bus last year.

With the truck removed the bench itself was looking like this!

Following some serious sorting out it does look somewhat clearer and organised! 

How long this will remains the case is open to debate but if you are into betting I would be putting money on not long! However in the meantime it has at least raised my spirits - nothing beats creating space on the decks!

The waiting game.

As written about over the past few blogs I have been doing work on wilding the valley sides of my 00 gauge layout. I have used a lot of diluted PVA glue to stick things down. Brilliant when it dries but when it is cold it takes ages to dry! Even following the heating with Mrs. Woody's hair dryer yesterday the glue in many places has yet to dry. If I carry on with any further work at the moment on this area of the layout I risk damaging what I have already done. I really can't do any other areas of the layout until this is done as the alignment of the rest of the track is dependent on lining up with the new position of the viaducts. So I am having to play the waiting game which could be several days yet. I may bring the section into the warmth of the house when Mrs. W is out on Monday but I have to be aware that there are several inquisitive cats who could either see it as a new scratching post or some funky new type of litter box! I will think about that option!

As I was out in the man cave and I have created chaos over the past few weeks I decided it was time to at least clear some space on my workbench.

After a bit of a half hearted tidy I can at least see the cutting mat!

Something I did come across in my tidying activity were these two Metcalfe card kits which I was fortunate enough to win in the Tombola at the Sleaford Model Makers Show last week. I should be able to make use of these and they are nice kits. The tower block is a fairly new kit too!.

Despite a desire to start building these I will not! I don't need any more projects on the go at the moment so for the moment it is back to the waiting game!

Prediction correct!

I ended yesterdays post about sickly cats and the house being turned into a vomitorium saying I would probably be giving the house a thorough clean today. Well that prediction proved correct! The steam cleaner came out at 7am and by the end of the day I had created a vista of cleanliness downstairs. Even Mrs. Woody was impressed! Just upstairs to do next!

All that cleaning probably shamed me into tidying my work bench which was slowly disappearing under parts of models and rubbish. I must admit it was getting to the stage where I was loosing things on the bench but a half hour improved matters! I must admit I felt better for doing it. If only all the cats were better too but we are making progress - slowly.

I would post a picture of the before and after of the workbench but for some reason that is beyond me the photos will not upload! Oh well! Me and technology. Hopefully it works tomorrow!

Update - I found a way to make it work!