Fulfilling a childhood ambition!

It has been a busy and tiring couple of weeks what with Mrs. Woody's new wardrobe, desk and room painting tasks together with the inevitable sort out that such things lead to - four large bags and three boxes of things to go out! This together with several labour intensive but very satisfying days at the Rocks by Rail Museum mean that model making time has been limited. 

I did manage to put together two jerry cans for the Egyptian T34 tank. Whilst other manufactures would have limited this to two kit parts, MiniArt managed to break them down to five parts! Not that exciting to look at but for a half hour it was just enough for me to walk out of my Man Cave afterwards with a sense of having at least done some modelling. 

However I was thinking about model railways this morning whilst doing some of Mrs. W's jobs on her never ending list - just don't tell her my mind wandered from the task in hand! My mind was actually taken back to my childhood by a post of Phil Parkers blog this morning about the Triang Dock Shunter - click here. to see it. 

I guess for those of a certain age there were certain things that as a child we really wanted but pocket money didn't extend that far and birthdays and Christmas brought other things. One of those things I really wanted was the Triang Dock Shunter. No idea why it figured so highly on my 'want' list but it did. Maybe it was the shape which was unlike real locomotives or maybe it was the working headlight. Whatever it was passing time put the desire to the back of my mind until about ten years ago when looking round the second hand model shop in Sheringham, Norfolk (anyone who has visited the town with an interest in models will know the shop) I saw one on the shelf at the back of the counter. Suddenly I was child again and the £20 price tag was affordable and seemed reasonanle to my adult wallet. A quick decision was made whilst Mrs. W was busy perusing the nearby handbag shop, that the shunter should come home with me and finally fulfill that reawakened childhood ambition.

Here it is on my terminus layout. It fully functions although it sounds as though it is chewing up the track when it runs but that headlight works! Still makes me so happy when I look at it and more so when it has a run. As Mrs. W reminds me, I am still a child at heart. You know what? She is probably right!

The delights of volunteering

'You volunteer at a railway museum - do you drive the trains?' is a question I often get asked when people find out I am a volunteer at the Rocks by Rail Museum. Whilst I have ridden on some of the locomotives apart from being a Driver for a Fiver when I visited before becoming a volunteer I have never driven a locomotive whilst actually volunteering. In fact when I joined I made it clear I had no pretentions of being a train driver but I was there to put something into the museum with whatever skills I have. That is what I have done getting involved in all sorts of things with a group of like minded guys who are great to be with. At the moment I seem to be chief grass cutter. We don't have a huge volunteer base so we all have to be able to turn our hands to whatever needs doing. Grass cutting may not be glamorous but it makes a big difference especially at a site as large as Rocks by Rail. Our guests may not notice the cut grass as they wander about but they certainly would notice uncut grass if they had to wade through knee high wet grass. So today, despite having already been in on Tuesday I was back for half a day to do some more urgently needed cutting.

It does give me a lot of satisfaction to see what was an overgrown area turned into an area that looks groomed! It also gives me a chance to see things at close hand that our guests can not. Me and the mower go places where no mower has ventured which brings me close to things I would never see so close up anywhere else. It may all look like a lot of rusty machinery and rolling stock but it is what the museum is all about - keeping the history of the iron stone industry in the locality alive for guests to appreciate and learn from. Without the volunteers none of this would be possible and to get some of this rusty stuff looking even better we need more volunteers. 

So here are some photos of what I was mowing around and if you are a fan of railways nothing could be more delightful! By the way you may appreciate the cut grass!

Open the hatch!

As I said before this MiniArt kit of the Egyptian T34 tank is parts heavy. An example is the drivers hatch.

The hatch is made up of 12 parts including a metal etched handle which are mostly on the underside which is inside the tank hull. The effort in putting all of this together is somewhat dashed when the instructions then suggest that the hatch should be in the closed position. Given the effort and detail I will be hopefully be leaving the hatch in an open position. This was a common thing to do in real life on these tanks when not in battle as it allowed the driver a better view and also acted as a ventilator in what, in Egypt, would be a hot interior for the crew. So in this case my order is 'Open the hatch!'.

More mowng!

My weekly trip to Rocks by Rail and my skills (?!?!?!) with the mower appear to have created my present role as Mowing Operative! It is a fact that as with many museums that rely upon volunteers you need to be flexible and turn your hands to whatever needs doing. Grass cutting may not seem glamorous but having a site that looks tidy and cared for is important in giving our guests a good initial impression. Not everyone can be a train driver and driving a mower can be very satisfying when the cut grass just adds that bit more to the overall scene so I did more mowing today.

Meanwhile in the 'junk yard' some of the volunteers are clearing and sorting all those things that have been dumped there over the years just in case they are of use in the future - just like I do! There are a lot of things they are finding all of which will be of use in the future or maybe to some other museum.

For me tomorrow is back to painting and sorting and I may cut my own grass. Just like being at the museum!

Central Trains Class 156 - I'm happy with that!

Today has been a continuation of the sorting out and painting of the spare bedroom. Some interesting discoveries tucked away in places but a lot of recycling and charity shop donations has thinned out the collection of junk!

I did have a small break to have a look at my two Hornby Class 156 DMUs in Central Trains livery. I do have a fascination with the Central Trains brand - probably because it was local and the first of the privatised liveries in my part of the Country. It also goes well with my collection of EWS locos as they operated in the same region with Central trains doing passenger work whilst EWS took care of freight. I do have a few Central Trains DMUs but I dug the two Class 156s out with the view of putting DCC chips in them. Here is one of them.

The process to fit the DCC chip is fairly simple as the body literally just unclips from the chassis and the socket for the chip is on top of the Powered bogie. Unplug the blanking plug, insert DCC chip and put body back on before programming the chip. I did actually look at the instructions before starting amazingly for me (instructions are for when you can't figure it out as I tell Mrs. woody!) and you can just see them in the photo below.

Although an old model they are reasonably detailed and the livery is nicely applied.

Coupling the two 2 car units up, which is what they did in real life for busy periods or heavily used lines, it looks an impressive train. I'm happy with that!

Today it is worth it!

In yesterdays post I highlighted the two arguments for using photo etched parts in plastic kits and pondered if it was really worth it. Today I had to do some more etched parts on the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank kit but in my view this particular use is well worth the effort. The rear deck of the tank has the engine under it so there has to be some means of cooling it beyond the usual radiator and so most tanks do have some sort of grill above the engine compartment. Doing this part in plastic would mean, due to the limitations of the moulding process, a representation of the see through grill panel could only be provided with no ability to see through it.. The kit has some control flaps under the grill so there is something to see through the grill. To provide that visibility and overall finesse the grill is provided as a two part metal etch. Both are large, relatively easy to handle and to bend to shape - nice!

I used some Gorilla Superglue gel for the first time to glue the two eched parts together and it seems to work well. Tomorrow I will glue the grill in place and then add the rear and two side panels to the rear deck. May only be a few parts assembled today but it was worth it!

Is it really worth it?

There are many things in life when I ask myself 'is it really worth it?'. That is the question I asked today as I was having an hour or so with the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank. There are some etched metal parts to it as I showed a few posts ago. Today I had to deal with two etched hooks that fasten external fuel tanks on the body of the tank to their carriers. This is the finished result.

It took me nearly an hour to fit the two! They are small - very small - and as a consequence difficult to hold and maneuver as well as see! On several occasions they disappeared onto my work bench and took some finding which is difficult to believe as they are shiny brass. However believe me they are better camouflaged then the tank will be once painted! However the swear jar is now a bit weightier and the two hooks are in place as you see above. However is that nearly an hour of frustration really worth it as you can hardly see the things and once painted no one will even know. 

There are two ways of looking at this and my own preference changes in line with how far the process has gone and how well! The first way is to say that the parts are so small and insignificant that they could really have been moulded in plastic and incorporated into the main part making the build a whole lot easier and quicker. So it is not really worth it. Countering that is the second way of looking at this in that the kit is a challenge to build and you increase your skills and abilities by doing such things. In addition whilst your partner may not notice your skillful build fellow modellers will and appreciate the skills required to get good results. Therefore it really is worth it!

As I said my views can alter depending on how well the job has gone but I do wish that where etched parts are offered manufacturers would also offer a plastic alternative for those whose swear jars are already full enough or who just want to build a reasonable looking kit! That way either way would really be worth it!

Having beaten the etched parts I did have enough time to start building the running gear so the suspension arms and axels are built and temporarily in place. I need to glue them in place when I have enough time to make sure they are all level with each other s that the tank stands level. Hopefully I will be able to do that tomorrow if I finish my list of other jobs to do.

Rubbish gone!

Yesterdays post showed the pile of recycling/rubbish that I needed to get rid of. Despite the rain two trips, with a full car including the front passenger seat, to the recycling center saw the pile gone. Luckily the recycling center had space in all the relevant bins so hopefully it will mostly be recycled into something new. Trouble is with an open view I can now see the hedge needs cutting, the logs cutting and stacking and the daffodils cleared from the floor bed! More work that no doubt features on Mrs. Woody's list of jobs!

Having then got that job done it was time to sort out some of my clothes so many of my ancient clothes are now gone! I did take a few minutes to seek sanctuary from this heart retching job and found that my fleet of EWS locomotives had ended up parked close to each other for this phot opportunity. Oh the delights of models! Far better than all this sorting out and recycling!

One thing leads to another!

I recall a colleague at work relating the tale of his bathroom make over. His wife started by buying a new light pull handle as the old one had broken. That showed the cord up as being dirty which was replaced. The actual light switch was then deemed to look grubby and replaced. To cut a long story short by the time they finished the couple had replaced the entire bathroom all around a new light pull handle!

Having done the replacement work on the wardrobe in the spare room at WMD HQ it is obvious that something new in a room where the original paint on the walls was probably done some years ago makes everything else look well worn just like me! Hence, under Mrs. Woody's instruction one thing is leading to another for me and the room is now being painted, by me, which meant the wardrobe had to be emptied and moved to paint behind it. It is strange that the older you get the better you can foresee the finished project and basking in the joy of completing it but the actual work itself becomes more of a trial on an aching and worn body! Never mind it will get done but tomorrows job is a couple of visits to the recycling center to get rid of this lot.

I did have a few minutes to in my Man Cave to find the brother to my maroon Class 52 Western locomotive which is the blue BR version. Nice to have the pair of them and once I have time and if Mrs. woody doesn't decide to replace the bathroom light pull handle I may get round to adding name plates and head codes. Always nice to have something to look forward to!

A tiring day!

After yesterdays mega grass cutting session at the Rocks by Rail Museum it would have been nice to have a relaxing day. However Mrs. Woody had other plans!

Mrs. Woody came complete with a set of bedroom furniture when we married. The furniture was unexpected just in case anyone thinks that it was the furniture that drew me to her! It has remained with us for all those years moving from main to spare bedrooms but Mrs. W decided some months ago that it was time for some new furniture. I suppose better that then new husband! 

Today was the day it arrived so I was left this morning to clear all the stuff out of the old ones, dismantle them and then install the new ones. One of the problems of living somewhere for a long time is that stuff gets piled into rooms when really it should have gone to the tip or a new home a long time ago. I was surprised at what I pulled out and somewhat worried as the new furniture is slightly smaller overall. Anyway job nearly done although I ache and feel shattered with new furniture in place but I now need to sort out my valuable items and Mrs. W needs to sort out her junk! Whether she will actually then also want a new husband after that process or after she reads this is open to debate!

On the T34 tank front some progress with the hull now coming together. There are a lot of parts to this kit and whereas Italeri would have two parts for a fuel tank for example MiniArt have seven or eight parts. Still it makes it an interesting if not challenging build - just what I need after the last two days of work!