A once a year day!

It only happens once a year and that is my birthday! Age is unimportant I say but whilst mentally I still think I am in my 20's the reality physically is a little different! However I did start the day with a bike ride, which is always a good way to wake up, to the local CoOp to buy a paper. The shop is 3 miles away but todays ride was a round trip of 17 miles bringing my total for the year up to 4020! The bike ride was great but the day just got better. As I was paying for my paper I suddenly noticed several of the CoOp staff around me. Gulp! What had I done? The manager than announced that today was a day of 'Small Acts of Kindness' and I had randomly been chosen to receive a little something which were the two boxes of mints in the picture below. I was quiet taken aback but it really made my day so a big thank you to the CoOp staff and thank you to them to for carrying on as they have over the pandemic. 

Back at WMD HQ Mrs. Woody gave me a fantastic train related card, two pairs of cycling shorts (very much needed as I think my present ones are just about worn out) and this DCC sound chipped GT3 00 gauge locomotive manufactured by KR Models and a beautiful piece of manufacturing it is too! Thank you Mrs. W - You are wonderful!

There is a detailed history of this unusual locomotive here but in summary it was built in 1958 and although looking like a steam engine it was actually powered by a gas turbine engine hence the GT name. It was not as successful as hoped but despite having potential it was eventually scrapped in 1966.

Carrying on with a railway theme the afternoon was spent at the Nottingham Heritage Railway at Ruddington just outside of Nottingham following a Subway sandwich. Never been before and despite no trains on the main railway running at the moment there was a lot to see. Firstly there was a small classic car show with a few cars I have not seen on the roads for years. 

Two nice Mercedes but the convertible TR7 is my favorite in that group. Apparently Mrs. Woody had always wanted one in her younger days but then she met me and could then never afford one!

Three Citroens showing the development of the original 1950's DS into the modern day version. On the left it looks like a Wolsey 6 and then a modded Morris Minor which had Minilite wheels, lowered suspension and probably a few modifications to the engine - nice! 

This rather nice 1972 Triumph Dolomite Sprint caught my eye in its very 70's yellow paint.

A Rover 400 I think. You just do not see many of what was a common car back in its day.

Something I have not seen for many years an original Daimler Dart looking very nice.

Still on road transport there is a collection of buses most of them local to the Nottingham area.

This City of Nottingham bus dates from about 1978 if the number plate is correct but looks more modern.

Much older is this bus from The Felix Bus Services fleet which operated out of Stanley in Derbyshire between 1921 and 2012. It is probably a Bedord chassis with a Plaxton body. The destination board is small and what would have been Ilkeston has been abbreviated to its colloquial name of Ilson.

Barton Transport buses operated in Nottinghamshire between 1908 and 1989. It was sold to Trent Buses and the new company is known as Trent Barton.

Old meets new! One of the bues undergoing restoration.

There are pieces of history all over the site such as this road sign. Many years ago the motoring organizations such as the RAC and AA put up road signs such as the one above as part of their service to motorists.

If you want some inspiration for heavy weathering on a model vehicle you could not do better than this old JCB.

It just cries out to be modelled.

There were also a few old lorries which look as though they are restoration projects. This old Scammell 8 legger probably looks better than it really is because the cab is aluminum and looks relatively solid but the chassis is highly corroded.

Another Scammell, probably a Highwayman, from 1962 is in even worse condition.

The original Ministry of Transport test certificate shows it was last tested in March 1969.

Railway wise there was a lot to see although in this first photo all you can see are some coaches. However there are two power cars for an HST and with theses coaches that would make a great train to bring back into service.

A Pacer. Hated by many but loved by some like me!

A well worn and partly dismantled Class 08 shunter that made it into EWS ownership.

A fantastic break down crane - every railway needs one!

In the pictures of the classic car show the 8F steam loco was in the background and here are a couple more pictures of this mighty freight engine.

Although no main line trains were running there was a miniature railway offering rides.

Ruddington Model Railway Club have a building with three layouts in it including this 00 gauge model of the original station at Ruddington.

There is also an 0 gauge layout with most of the highly detailed buildings built by the late great and much missed Allan Downes. 

A mega post today but it was a great day for so many reasons and one to remember!

Mirror, mirror on the workbench......

If you think that the K5350 Mustang truck model build is dragging on I must agree! However in my defense I keep getting dragged off into other things. Today it was a trip to the scrap yard to get rid of some scrap metal and than this afternoon cutting a very over grown hedge for a neighbour. However I have assembled the mirrors for the truck which are now on my work bench. Zvezda kindly supply some self adhesive ready cut reflective sheets to put on the mirror to imitate the real mirror glass. Looking at the mirror arms and their fragile nature made me think that to put those cut outs on once the mirrors were mounted to the truck was likely to end in a large contribution to the swear jar! I therefore devised a cunning plan of painting the front faces of the mirror bodies first which would give the rubber surround, then mount the reflective sheets and then mount the mirror bodies to the mirror arms. I could then either mount the arms to the doors and paint or paint separately and then mount to the door. Either way some masking tape on the reflective sheet will protect it from any painting. I will have to see if it all works out and will I be the fairest of them all???? I am sure Mrs. Woody has an answer for that!

In plain sight!

I have completed the chassis of the Zvezda K5350 Mustang truck for some weeks ago. This took many hours of work. The chassis has stood in front of me for hours on my modelling bench. I have spent many hours adding washes and weathering to it and even spending time watching the paint dry! Why then, having spent all this time looking at it, holding it and working on it, did it take the fitting of two jerry cans to the cargo body to realise that the battery box and mounted air tanks on it was upside down! In best Homer Simpson voice - Dooh! This mistake was in plain sight for weeks but I missed it - just goes to show you that even after years of modelling you can still get it fundamentally wrong! However I did manage to gently break the two joints of the battery box to the chassis and re-glue the right way round!

Above the battery box on the wrong way round so that the cargo body would not fit once some jerry cans had been fitted.

Having managed to gently break the joint it was time to put right my long standing error!

Now the right way round and the body fitted with the jerry cans in place.

The cab is almost ready for full external painting and once that is done there are really only mirrors, light lenses and decals to fit and the final weathering - Great!

A real windmill!

As described in my post here I have built a model windmill in the past and do have an interest in them. I have visited windmills around the Country as the opportunity arises but it has been some time since I last was inside one. As the WMD road trip on Bank Holiday Monday ended up in flatest Lincolnshire, Mrs. Woody and myself found ourselves at a place called Heckington where an 8 sail restored windmill dominates the skyline. It was open to visitors too so we stopped and had a look around.

Originally built in 1830 as a five sail windmill it suffered devastating damage in a thunderstorm in 1890. It was rebuilt as an eight sailed windmill in 1892 using parts from a windmill in nearby Boston. It was still commercially working until 1946 after which it fell into disrepair. In 1953 the then Kesteven County Council bought it and following a history of restoration it is now operated by the Heckington Windmill Trust. They have a very informative web site here .

I always find such places fascinating from the wonderment as to how the builders actually managed to build them using the technology then available all the way through to how they operate. From a modelling view you can learn a lot just by looking at how things are constructed and how they weather and age and how repairs show themselves as they undergo a different aging process. I did get to the top and the view was fantastic but as the ladders going up were almost vertical I didn't blame Mrs. W for just going up as far as the first floor! We did however get a sticky badge to say we had climbed the windmill. Well worth a visit if you are in the area and there is a tea shop and brewery on site!

The view from the top - If your dog ran off you could probably still see it two day slater as it is so flat in this part of Lincolnshire!

WMD out and about and an experiment in filming!

Todays post is mainly imagery. Not much modelling done as here in the UK it is a Bank Holiday weekend - the last before the 25th December - (I am not mentioning that word yet but no doubt by September there will be adverts for it!) so I have spent a bit of time out and about.

One thing I did do whilst back at WMD HQ was to film some operation on the USA Switching layout that I last talked about back in April. The WMD Trainee Film Crew attempted filming a local driver undergoing training on switching duties! Some of the better clips are in this film which you can watch by clicking on the white arrow head. The Trainee Film Crew will have to do better next time but at least its more exciting then watching paint dry - just!

One of the places Mrs Woody has wanted to visit for some time are the walled gardens at a place called Easton just off the A1 in Lincolnshire. Usually Mrs W's choices of places to visit are very good and she didn't fail in that in finding this place. 

Up until the early 1950s there was a manor house which unfortunately and like so many others, was demolished. The gardens survived but became derelict until restoration work started in 2000. They are now lovely and there are 12 acres to explore. The website has full details and you can visit it by clicking here. In the meantime a selection of photos below which always make you wish you could model the landscape as exquisitely as nature created it!

With all that grass you have to included some modern way of maintaining it and this is one of two robotic lawnmowers - nice! Now if only Mrs W could see the virtue.....

Watching paint dry!

A gap of a couple of days since the last post as I have literally been watching dry on the K5350 Mustang Truck. Well there has also been some work on getting the last pieces of the cab fitted so it can be painted up but a lot of time has been taken up in applying 'washes' to the chassis and cargo body. I use very diluted brown and grey Vallejo paint. This is then painted on to the model and then I let gravity takes its course as the paint pigment gets trapped in nooks and crannies of the model as well as dulling the overall paint finish. As it is very dilute it does take a long time to dry hence you feel as though you are sat there watching paint dry. Its all very therapeutic though and you can get lost in time if you decide to intervene on gravity's effects by using the paint brush to start making streaking effects or adding paint here or taking it away from somewhere else. The idea however is to make the truck look well used - no shampoo and wax every Sunday for a working truck like this! In essence applying a dilute coat of paint like this is trying to emulate the environment the vehicle drives through. Take a car out on a wet day and it comes back home looking dirty. Rain itself contains dirt, the spray off the road has dirt and even the air itself can have dirt in it. All of this dirt just loves to deposit itself on vehicles - especially if you have just washed it! Something I have explained to Mrs. Woody on many occasions when she has deemed her car needs washing and I have tried to get out of it by pointing out that it will only get dirty again. Never works!

The cargo body started out looking like this 

and now looks like this

Still a way to go but you can almost feel that ingrained grime on the paintwork. 

Whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry I did have a look at some of my previous cherished models or as Mrs. W would say junk, which are beginning to reside on the shelves in the man cave AKA the Room of Gloom. Built about 18 years ago this is an Italeri 1/24 scale DAF 95XF Super Cab. It was a simple build as there was no engine to construct and it was one of Italeri's first ventures into their 'New Concert' of simplified truck kits. There were a few others but they were not popular with modelers and I am pleased to say all the new releases over the past few years have been full kits with engines and gearboxes.

Its hitched up to an Italeri Schmitz Dumper Trailer which is an impressively big model. Built in 2013 I recall managing to build the majority of the kit in a day! Wow! If only I could do that now. I can see from the photo that I need to get the duster out. Unlike the K5350 Mustang Truck this truck and trailer are cared for! 

Right back to the paint drying channel!