A Great Day!

All days are good but sometimes there is a day which you will remember and today was  one of those days.

Was it because of my 20 mile bike ride this morning? Well it was a good 20 mile ride and I returned home relatively in breath!

Was it because I cleaned the kitchen and the floor was clean enough to eat your dinner off. Well Mrs Woody was impressed and the cats actually do tend to end up eating their dinner off the floor once they have pulled it out from the feeding dishes so they will be impressed too.

Was it because I have managed some more progress with the Zvezda K5350 Mustang truck kit and got the body sides glued together? Well it is coming together nicely.

 All these were good but the highlight of the day which made it a great day was a trip to the Rock by Rails museum in Rutland and you can find all the details on their website by clicking here. It was my first time to a railway attraction since my last model railway exhibition in February 2020 so it was a bit special. I was lucky enough to be accompanied by a good friend Mr Bliss who had a long career with British Rail dealing with Permanent Way matters so talk to and from as well as at the museum was very much focused on railway matters and I learnt a lot in a few hours. 

I will let the photos below do the talking with a few notes where necessary.

Phil Parker from British Railway Modelling magazine built the Hornby Family Fun Layout and he donated it to the museum where it is located in the cafe and it is a great piece of modelling showing how what in effect is a train set becomes a model. Details on his blog - click here.

Makes you want to go and buy the Hornby model.

Strangely we had talked about dealing with mining subsidence and having to literally jack the track back into a level plane on our way to the museum and whilst not dealing with subsidence they are jacking some track level on site so I knew exactly what was going on

An unusual use for a cement mixer. Used to clean and sort ballast. 

The old loco shed from Harston in Leicestershire rebuilt at the museum where a lot of restoration work is now carried out including the steam loco below stripped to its boiler.

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On operational days rides down the line are provided in these brake vans.

Steam loco Belvoir awaiting restoration.

I didn't know that this existed and as there is a family connection with the war in the Far East this was a poignant moment for me.

Always good to see some humour and this loco is obviously used for novices to learn on with the L plate!

Some diggers as well.

The cab from a massive excavator used to mine ironstone in the area.

Love to have this in my garden but I think Mrs. Woody would draw the line at that plonked on the front lawn!

If only I could drive it home that would be the perfect ending to a great day! 

I will be back probably on one of the operational days. The place just oozes with atmosphere and nostalgia. Well worth a visit and after Covid places such as theses need all the custom and support they can get.

All about that baseboard!

Apologies for the slightly altered song title - All about that bass by Meghan Trainor - but today I completed the second baseboard to extend my 009 Narrow Gauge railway. It is something that I had always planned to do but unusually for me I actually have started it! A gap in Mrs. Woody's Task List and a thought that I don't want to be constructing baseboards in the Winter got me fired up and following my usual methods of wood butchery a baseboard the same size (amazingly given my ability to make tape measures elastic) appeared. Just need to sort out a method of joining this to the original board. 

The second board has a cut out for a river and a canal wharf so will have a slightly different type of scenery to the first board.

At the moment the two boards rest in the middle of my Last Great Project 00 gauge layout in my Room of Gloom AKA my man cave. At least being there in front of me might give me the impetuous to start the track laying on either of the layouts!

 

Whether weathering is worth it?

In yesterdays post I outlined the hairspray technique for creating scuffs and wear in paintwork. In my eyes it worked successfully but as I said it looked a bit stark.

One of the advantages of weathering a model is that it can bring a harmony to colours by in effect toning them down and giving them a patina of wear and age. Another is that it creates something that looks realistic. Look at any vehicle apart from one in a car concourse show and you will see varying amounts of dirt and wear. Usually the more the vehicle is used for a commercial or military purpose the more it shows its age and use because they are working vehicles were a job needs to be done and then another without a break to get the water and sponge out followed by a full T cut and wax!

I have been weathering models for many years now trying to get that realistic look where you have to look twice to see if it really is a model or a real vehicle. Sometimes it goes well other times not so well looking as if I had dipped the model in a mix of mud and sand but as the adage says practice makes perfect! I certainly think weathering is worth it. 

There are three pieces of advice I can give any novice to weathering. 

1. Look at pictures of the real vehicle and see how they look in real life situations.

2. Look for inspiration - there are many websites and YouTube videos that Deal in weathering techniques but also use your own senses as to where people would climb onto things rubbing paint away or leaving dirt or how rain would pool dust into low lying areas.

3. Don't be afraid to try it and experiment to develop techniques that you are happy with. There are as many different ways to weather a vehicle as Mrs Woody's hand bag collection and that is a lot and there is no right or wrong way to do it. 

Back to the bed of the body of the Zvezda K5350 truck which this evening received an attack of various weathering powders starting with MIG Industrial Grime and then European dust and finally a medium rust for around the metal supports to the bench seats and the staining that would lead to on the wooden floor. The powders were applied with a stiff brush, some paper towel and cotton buds. The photos are not the best and the results do look better in the flesh and once a coat of varnish is applied that will lighten the colours but the starkness of what I started with has  certainly been toned down nicely.

On the 009 gauge layout base board building front further distress has been caused to pieces of wood s that the baseboard is near completion. Hopefully by the end of the week it should be ready for track laying or then again with my speed of progress it might actually be finished in time for the next major geological event!

A bit of everything!

It was one of those nice days where I did a bit of everything. An early morning cycle ride saw my total mileage for this year so far reach 3368 miles. During the day a bit of gardening, a good chat with fellow modeller and good friend Mr Beechham (he with the artistry skills (see here) and who can beat me up hills cycling!) who was passing and then a start on the second baseboard for my 009 narrow gauge railway last featured here. Its always been my intention to extend the layout and today seemed as good a day as any to make a start especially as the gardening was done early so that Mrs. Woody would think I had spent the whole day productively employed on non model making activities! Splendid! The base board will have a river flowing through it - that is a model one rather than a real one - so appropriate pieces have been cut out of the baseboard. It will also have a canal wharf at the end and construction of that part will take place over the next day or so. At the moment my few hours of wood butchery (I am no carpenter) have seen several pieces of wood forced and coerced into this.

Surprisingly for my limited skills it is the same width as the existing board and appears to be square. How long that will last is something that you could wager on. 

Having cooked Mrs. Woody's dinner, more positive points gained, I decided to tackle the Zvezda K5350 Mustang truck. In the last post I outlined that I was going to top coat the bench seats and the bed of the body using the hairspray technique to allow me to create wear and scuff marks. I used an old can of hairspray that I bought years ago for a similar project and sprayed the bench seats and bed of the body. Even doing it outside there was still a strong but pleasant perfumed aroma wafting around the garden for a while which no doubt confused our feathered friends. Having let it dry for 15 minutes I top coated the various parts plus the inside of the cab with Vallejo Air Russian Green which seems to be a perfect match to the coloured painting guide supplied with the kit. The nice thing about Vallejo Air paints are they are ready thinned for airbrushing. No messing about with pouring paint and thinners out into a jar and getting the right mixture which usually ends in a swear jar moment. Just pour into the airbrush and spray. Nice! Being acrylic, the airbrush can be cleaned in plain water. Nicer still! The other good thing about these paints is they cover well and usually one coat does the job as shown in the picture below.

Letting the paint dry for about half an hour I used a selection of stiff brushes, a tooth pick and some water to start to rub and abrade the paint where I thought wear and scuffing would take place in real life as troops sat on the benches and walked over the bed of the body. Thirty minutes or so got me to where I wanted to be. It can be easy to end up stripping away all the top coat bring you back to where you started so less is best as they say. Whether I have achieved that or not is something that is in the eye of the beholder. However I am pleased with what I have achieved and though it all looks a bit stark at the moment once varnished to seal it, a coat of weathering on top will tone it all down and harmonise the effect. Well that's the plan anyway! Now what shall I cook for Mrs Woody tomorrow? Not much in the cupboard so maybe a bit of everything!

Prime Time!

Prime Time! For some it is that excellent hit by The Tubes back in 1979 and if you wish to reacquaint yourself with it or even see a golden oldie if you were born later then click here! For Mrs Woody, Prime Time is either watching a murder mystery or reading a murder mystery. Should I be worried???? Any way she had a bumper viewing session today of aforementioned programmes so I used the opportunity to have some Prime Time myself and have managed to do some priming of the Zvezda 5350 Mustang truck as well as a bit of other painting and a bit more assembly. Most of the cab components are now assembled and most have been primed in Vallejo black primer which gives a great finish. They will get at least overnight to dry before I do anything else.

Look at the detail on the doors - you could almost put your 1/35th scale map in that door pocket.

I have. as previously explained in an earlier post, primed the inside of the body. This contains wooden seating which although in the traditional military manner would be painted in green along with all the rest of the truck, would actual wear when troops were sat on them. Equally the wooden floor of the body would be painted green but the paint would wear and scuff away in the places where troops would walk. To replicate this in model form there is a technique involving hairspray. Basically you spray the wood colour, protect it with a coat of varnish and then before you spray the top coat a coat of hairspray is sprayed onto the areas you want to show the paint underneath the top coat. The top coat is then sprayed and left for a short while to dry. Then using a stiff brush or a cocktail stick and water the top coat is abraded and this reveals the paint underneath. If you get it right it should look like natural wear and scuff marks. It is sometime since I did this so it will be interesting to see what I manage to produce. If nothing else I should have a sweet smelling truck! At the moment the inside of the truck body looks like this.

Putting it all together at the moment the truck looks like a real wreck but its coming together - really! So long as nothing untoward and mysterious happens to me that may have similarities to a murder mystery book or TV programme this kit might actually get finished this month! Now there's a challenge for myself!

Cabin Fever!

 

Well as witnessed by the above photographs and after a fevered evening of work the crew cabin of the Zvezda K5350 Mustang truck is coming together (I don't just throw the title to these posts together you know!). As I have said from the very beginning of this build the level of detail in this kit is astonishing. You can see in the above photos the dash board lying to the left of the cab which when fitted will cover most of the detail in the photo below.

Amazing that you get the heater box and ducting that unless you leave a door open on the cab you will never see any of it once the dash board is in place. One part of me thinks this level of detail is perhaps a step too far but the other side of me has enjoyed the build and it is almost an education in vehicle design to put this detailed kit together. As a side note you sometimes see in a photograph things that the eye has missed. In this case I see I have yet to deal with the two points at the bottom of the front cab panel where I separated it from the sprue and these will need sanding smooth. Will my goldfish type memory remember this for tomorrow? Only time will tell. Now what am I supposed to do tomorrow????

As most modelers do when you reach a certain stage in a kit build I have brought the various parts together to get an idea how the finished model will look.

Progress from now on is going to be slower as the interior of the cab is going to need painting before I go much further with the rest of the build. That will be an interesting trial in swear jar contributions! I will need some soothing music to calm me but for tonight entertainment in music cassette form was provided by 10cc in concert.

Thinking ahead!

There comes a point in building a kit where you have to make a decision as to whether you build the whole kit and then paint it or do you build it as sub-assemblies after which the painting is carried out and the final assembly is done. Each has there advantages but I made the decision early on in this build to paint sub-assemblies. On a complex kit like this it makes sense. Generally I airbrush most of my models and you have to have a reasonable level of access to allow the atomised paint to get to all parts of the model. Sprayed paint by its nature travels in a straight line from the tip of the airbrush to the surface being painted and so if there is a part that you can see but can not get a straight line from the airbrush to it the likelihood is it won't get any paint on it. In addition if the plastic that the kit is molded in is a light or contrasting colour to the finished paint job you can be assured that it will stick out like a sore thumb. In the case of this kit the plastic is light grey and the overall finish to the model will be black and green. Any unpainted parts will show as clear as daylight. 

In view of the above I looked at the construction of the body to the truck. I had assembled the park bench style seats onto the bed and sides of the body and was about to glue the sides on when it struck me that once they were on there was no way I could reasonably get any paint to the underside. I therefore, in my working smarter not harder as I get older approach to matters and actually thinking ahead (an unusual event according to Mrs. Woody), decided to paint the parts prior to final assembly. First stage is a primer coat and there is a lot written about their use on models. Some say you don't need them and others swear by them! For me I generally use one to at least get a uniform base (and hide my poor skills) upon which to paint the finishing coats. For armoured and military vehicles I tend to use black for three reasons. Firstly it is a good base for the greens and other dark colours that these vehicles are generally painted in. Secondly and there is no doubt some optic science behind this, but the eye tends to ignore black so if a part is not fully painted it sticks out less then if the primer were white. Thirdly, on those difficult to reach parts with the airbrush, if you do have a black primer it gives an effect of shadow even if there is no final colour on it. 

I airbrushed the Vallejo primer yesterday and I am giving it a day to dry fully. The photographs below perhaps add some clarity to the above text.

I have also started on the cab. Progress s far has the floor, tow seats and the bunk done Believe it or not there are twenty parts just in the part of the build in the photographs below but the detail is amazing.

A bit of music to keep me sane during the build was provided by a compilation album, Soft Metal. I am guessing there is no soft metal in the truck though! Strange how something as daft as a price ticket on something can bring back memories. In this case I paid £2 for this cassette, second hand from a charity shop many years ago along with a few others. Oh the joys of going through piles of records and tapes to find something of interest - amusement and entertainment for hours! Now all you have to do is type in a title in Google from the comfort of your home and you can download it in seconds but is it as much fun????

Outhouses and seating arrangements!

A very strange title to this post but it will make sense!

Yesterday I took a trip out of WMD HQ to visit a model shop. First time I have been in one for nearly a year due to Covid. Much as mail order has its advantages there are times when it is just nice to be able to physical see and touch things. My wallet was lightened and my arms full as I left but as I have found out that Mrs. Woody now reads this blog I will just admit to a few modest and essential purchases!

Meanwhile back at WMD HQ some more progress on the Zvezda K5350 Mustang truck with the body now taking shape. The seating arrangements in the title to this post refer to the seats in the body for passengers to sit in. Looking at the wooden slatted seats and bearing in mind the leaf spring suspension on the chassis its not exactly seating you would find in the first class cabin of your favorite airline. However, as this is designed for hardened troops they are no doubt used to the harshness or maybe take a cushion with them!

The seats in the first photograph are made up of 14 separate parts with the supporting frame being very fine and fragile. Experience and many swear jar moments have taught me that the best way of removing parts like this from the sprue is to use several light slicing passes over the plastic which means you are minimising the pressure and force on the part itself. For each frame there were three attachment points to cut through. Of the six supports I managed to get five separated from the sprue without incident - the sixth semi broke but was repairable. There are some more seats to build that attach to the sides of the body and then once these are joined to the floor that should bring the body build to a conclusion.

As I mentioned in the last post shelves are now up in my man cave AKA The Room of Gloom. I am now slowly moving models out of the house into their new home. The latest one I moved in was this 1/35 scale model of the KV2 Russian Heavy Assault tank. I built the kit in about 2014 from a kit from some obscure manufacturer. It was a simple kit and built easily and is one of my favorites. 

As you can see it was not designed to win any awards for finesse but in typical Russian fashion it was almost indestructible. I have read that in the early part of the Second World War the German army had very little capability to deal with these and other Russian tanks. The only way that they could stop them was to try to damage the tracks to immobilise the tank and then bring up artillery at close range to try to destroy the tank.

Why the outhouse in the title to this post? Well the KV2 had that enormous turret and to many soldiers it just looked like an outhouse plonked on a tank chassis and it became known as the Outhouse!