A tale of two engines - twice!

Almost sounds like something from Thomas the Tank Engine but it is not so I will explain. First off it was another day at the Rocks by Rail Museum with yet more ballast washing on the agenda. With the temperature just above freezing and water flying about it was always going to be a tough job. However we were not expecting the screen over which the ballast passes when it comes out of the mixer drum to partially collapse nor for Harriot the JCB to develop an oil leak. So whilst we did not get much ballast cleaned we did get cold! Despite these set backs things are repaired and its the knowledge, dedication and determination of the guys at the museum that makes this all possible. Now moving onto the engine reference. It was the turn of Betty's sister loco, Jean to come out for some exercise today. They both look like twins apart from the nameplate as you can see in the photos below, but it was nice to see the other half out in the open air even if it is only the nameplate which shows the difference.

Back at WMD HQ I had time for an hour of model building. As I cannot do anything on the narrow gauge layout or the Heller Scania 141 LB at the moment I had to do what all modelers do and start another project. I have started the Italeri Scania Streamline 143 H and the beginning for me is the engine. Now this is interesting as the Heller kit engine is still not in the chassis so I can compare the two kits interpretation of what is more or less the same engine. The additional level of detail with the Italeri engine even though it is the early stages of construction, is obvious looking at the two together and the part count for the Heller engine is only about half that of the other engine which sort of confirms that observation. Whilst there may be more parts to assemble in the Italeri kit hopefully they will not have the twisted, warped and mis-moulded issues that the Heller kit has and the time taken to fix those. 

A tale of two engines - twice! What more could you want! Well a nice warmish day to finish spraying the Heller kit, the model water on the narrow gauge layout to dry, finish Mrs. Woody's job list, a lottery win...............and off to the land of fantasy I go!

Taking a risk!

I took a risk today! Nothing drastic just that I tried to spray the top gloss coat on the Heller Scania 141LB. Unfortunately its was cold in the WMD HQ spray room and there was damp in the air so the paint has not dried to a gloss which is the risk of spraying in these conditions. Looking at the weather forecast it is not getting better for a few days so I could take another risk by spraying in the kitchen but that is a risk far to far if Mrs. Woody found out! Anyway there is at least some more paint on the parts so they can dry and await a warmer drier day. If they the paint application had been successful then there should be a nice sheen coming off the parts instead of looking as matt as a dark hole!

As I am still waiting for the model water on the narrow gauge layout to fully dry - it is almost there but still needs to be left alone - I have looked for my next project and this is it.

The 143 and its associated derivatives was the next stage in the development of Scania line of trucks and will make a nice comparison with the 141 LB - when they both get finished! Now if I put a lot of newspaper down in the kitchen would I get away with spraying in there? I don't learn do I!

Sunday Sprays.

It is Sunday. It is slightly warmer. Mrs Woody is upstairs playing a computer game. That means it is ideal to do some paint spraying which is useful as I have a model to paint! The Heller Scania 141 LB got some serious attention from my airbrush today and although there is still more painting to do it is really beginning to come together - even if I have to balance parts on top of each other to see what the cab will look like! Tamiya dark blue and yellow were the paints of choice for my airbrush - well actually the paint stores at WMD HQ are beginning to look somewhat bare so there was not much choice even if I had wanted different colours! More supplies will have to be ordered soon!

Spraying takes time, especially with a chassis where there are so many less than accessible areas to paint and each need two or three coats. All in all the parts below needed about three hours spent on them just to get to this stage. The chassis needs a coat of semi-gloss varnish which I think is in stock. The cab is in an undercoat yellow so needs a gloss top coat followed by a gloss varnish both of which are in stock as I have already found them and secured them in a safe easily forgotten place!

In the meantime as I rack my brain as to where I put those paints this is what the model looks like at the moment in the warmth of the kitchen.

As a final note and just in case Mrs. W reads this, no kitchens were harmed in the painting of this model!

Nappy brown!

Back in the 1980's vehicle interiors had a certain look to them. A lot of beige, browns and blacks with the odd bold colour thrown in for good measure. Truck interiors followed this trend to be fashionable and at the time it looked good - honest! The interior of my Heller Scania 141 LB is a recreation of that fashion with a generally black and nappy brown interior broken up with some yellow for seats and beds. It will look great to the 1/24th scale driver - he is in the 1980s so knows no better - just like me! The floor coverings and dashboard are black and I had sprayed this on yesterday. Having had 24 hours to dry I masked the floor of floor pan to spray the engine hump brown as this would have been a carpeted area. 

I never made it inside a 141 but I did get into a lot of the Series 3 Scanias, especially the 91 and 113 models that came later on with similar interior décor so I was getting nostalgic with this paint scheme. Anyway, the brown was sprayed onto the engine hump, seats back of cab and cab roof and left to dry. Pulling the masking tape off shortly after applying the paint means that you will usually get a clean line to the paint. Waiting until it fully dry means that there is a risk of pulling the newly applied paint away with the masking tape. In my case the opposite happened with yesterdays black coming partly away with the masking tape. 

Not sure why but no use in holding a full scale investigation when I could actually use the time to rectify the matter with a brush and some black paint. The beauty of matt black paint is that it can be brushed relatively easily which in this case was good for me. With the time I had available a few interior parts were added to the floor pan and the seats given a couple of coats of yellow.

I also had time to fettle a few other parts and to knock up a suzie rack which is where the air lines for the trailer brakes connect to the trucks air system. The kit has a small single outlet mount which is wrong as the system in use at the time of this truck. There would be a red air line as the emergency brake, a yellow line as the service brake and a blue line as the auxiliary brake. In addition there would also be the electrical connection for the lights. 

Hopefully I might get some paint on the chassis over the next few days but that certainly will not be nappy brown!

Hush, Hush, lets do some more painting!

A bit more time to have a look at the Hornby LNER Class W1 Hush Hush today and it is a real stunning model. I just need to put a DCC chip in it and then it will be hauling trains. In the mean time I will just enjoy the beauty of this model.

Having spent far too much time admiring the Hush Hush I made a bit more progress on the Heller Scania 141 LB priming some more parts having fettled a few of them. The wheels in particular needed some attention. The ventilation holes were not actually holes! They were just small depressions in the moulding so some time with a pin vice and drill had these opened up to proper holes which looked a whole (pun intended) better!

My usual method of fastening small parts to be painted onto a board with masking tape folded over itself followed.

Once one side is painted and dry the parts are turned over so that all the exposed surfaces get a coat of primer. After a couple of hours I have this pile of parts on my workbench.

Almost looks like a truck assembly plant but I will stay hush, hush about that!

The painting begins!

This is where the build of the Heller Scania 141 LB slows down a lot as the paint begins to go on. You need to prepare parts, undercoat them, top coat and then wait to dry. Some parts have to be painted before being assembled further and it can all become a little like a chess board as you plan what parts need painting and when. Despite my scatter gun brain I do have a plan - almost - and I have started with the engine and a few other parts. The engines on Scania trucks are generally painted in green when they are assembled in the factory and so that is what I went with despite the instructions telling me it should be red.

First off the engine was primed in my favorite Vallejo black primer after which it was then painted in green - in this case a bottle of Vallejo Russian Green was to hand so that is what I used.

The engine still needs some detailed painting with the exhaust pipes, inlet manifolds and turbo needing attention as well as the fan blades needing to be added.

I have also primed the exhaust pipe, the fan blades and the underside of the floor pan. All this will dry over night and hopefully tomorrow a bit more painting will take place.

Hush, Hush!

Many people tell me to hush or even hush, hush if I m particularly loud but in this case hush, hush related to something that came in the post today from The Model Centre. I will probably need to keep its arrival hush, hush from Mrs. Woody but as she occasionally reads this blog to find out exactly what I have been up to it won't be hush, hush for too long! Hush, hush is actually the name given to the LNER Class W1 locomotive which was a secretly developed prototype fitted with a high pressure water boiler. Not only were the mechanics unusual but the body was too with a very unusual shape at the time. It was also the only 4-6-4 tender locomotive to run in the UK. There is a lots more technical and historical description on Wikipedia which you can see by clicking here. 

Hornby have now released a model of it and having had this on pre-order for a while it arrived today.

I have not had a chance to run it yet but hopefully I will be able to do that in a hush, hush operation in the next few days but it does look gorgeous!

On the Heller Scania141 LB front I have finished the engine with the various exhaust and turbo pipework added which makes it look a whole lot more interesting. Despite this kit not having the best fitting parts these parts went together remarkably well. I could say it was down to the skills of the modeler but I have been the only one building this!

Now for some hush as I plan how best to start painting.

Another day in Paradise!

As I went through the gates at the Rocks by Rail Museum that beautiful and emotional song by Phil Collins came on the radio - Another day in Paradise. For me it was another day in paradise. Although frosty the sun was shining and the museum had that inviting look and I was going to spend a day in a stunning, to me anyway, place with a group of great guys! 

Paradise for me is also being at the end of a shovel (it takes all sorts but at least my needs are simple! ) and todays task was to dig out all the spillage around the oversized washing machine ballast washer so that Harriot the JCB could get its bucket under the screen to collect the washed ballast. As the ballast comes out of the drum and down the screen the fine material goes through the screen and should drop into a couple of wheel barrows underneath. Some of that fine material inevitably misses the barrows and over time you get to the point where the barrows can not get under the screen so you have to dig out the spilled material. Despite the frost it was soon T shirt time!

 After that job was over it was time to start spreading the washed ballast where it was needed. Having had a full week of track leveling and packing over last week, looking down the track to where the loco and ballast wagon where was a bit of a shock and a bit of a walk! There has ceratinly been some major progress made. 

After the hard labour of the day I hitched a ride back up the line in the cab of Betty the loco which was nice as I can say I travelled in a Rolls Royce - well a RR powered loco anyway! 

Back at the other paradise of WMD HQ the Heller Scania 141 LB has progressed slightly. The various joints in the front wheel arches were filled early this morning with Vallejo acrylic putty. 

As I had a spare half hour before preparing Mrs. Woody's dinner I rubbed down the joints which just require a little more tidying tomorrow and then that will be ready for paint.

Hopefully the Sausage Hot Dogs for tonight's dinner will see a continuation of my day in paradise!

Big visual impact!

With a kit build such as this there are days when you work for an hour and so, sit back and although there is a part of the kit built it is small and has little visual impact. However there are other days when you sit back and just take in the big visual impact of what you have built. Today was one of those days as parts of the cab of the Heller Scania 141 LB went together. It may only be the floor and the rear panel but it has a big visual impact.

Unfortunately progress will be slower for a while as there are all sorts of joints to be filled and smoothed before too much more progress can be made. However its now looking like a truck and that is always a spur to get on with a model but with my history of being distracted anything could happen!

Putty time!

I managed to grab a couple of hours on progressing the Heller Scania 141 LB today. Given that the resin model water on my narrow gauge layout is still drying out I cannot progress with that at the moment so the Scania benefits my full attention - after Mrs. Woody of course!

One of the jobs I did apart from sanding a lot of parts was to glue the fuel tank ends to the main tank body. The fit is not good with a gap around most of it which when painted would show up unless filled. Not the easiest of filling jobs but in my continued quest to work smarter not harder I have used Vallejo plastic putty. This is an acrylic putty that is like a smooth paste. I used a paint brush to brush it along the joints and then wetted the brush to again run along the joints wetting the putty which then sinks into the gaps. It will probably need two or three goes to get it right but a lot easier than conventional fillers and sanding.

AI am getting near the point where I am going to have to start to paint the chassis in order to progress that but there are still a few more parts that need to be added. In the meantime work on the cab has started. You can see the continued issues with warped and twisted parts with the inner rear cab wall which will need some bending to get it to line up with the cab floor. More fun times then! 

Looking at the workbench it certainly looks a bit different to a week ago which is nice when you do see progress being made. As you can also see the wheels have now been dechromed using the Mr. Muscle oven cleaner. There was mention today by Mrs. W. that the oven could indeed do with a clean so at some stage I will have to bite the bullet or find a very convincing excuse!