I'm not really a welder!

Although I have in the past been known to use a MIG welder my skills were such that I blew more holes in the metal to be joined then actually welded the metal together. However that does not stop me from making model welds. The turret of the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank is missing a major weld around the bottom part of the turret. I could have left this and ignored the issue but in the desire to create something a bit more than the box provided I glued some very thin plastic strip, from my stock of such items, to the turret in the required places.

Once stuck on I then applied some plastic glue to the top of the strip to soften it. With the back of a scalpel blade I then literally pushed into the semi soft plastic to produce ridges to replicate a welded seam.

I need to do a bit more to it but it is beginning to look like a welded seam - not bad for someone who can't weld!.

I also managed to paint one side of the wheels in their proper colour which is brining this project along.

Sunday variety!

Well it was a Sunday of variety. An early morning bike ride bringing my total for this year to 2907miles followed by a trip to the Rocks by Rail Museum having left Mrs. Woody with breakfast in bed. That should earn me some bonus points which may go someway to cancelling all the negative points I seem to earn on a regular basis! Today I was helping out on the Driver for a Fiver day at the Museum. I am not let loose on the locomotive but I am let loose to collect money which may say something about me and how my museum colleagues see me!

It was a steady day of guests but perhaps not as busy as we thought it might be. Whether that is down to potential visitors feeling the squeeze on their pockets and disposable income with the rising cost of living or whether it was the rain late this afternoon we do not know but things will perhaps get clearer as the year progresses. We did have a group of cyclists in this afternoon who came for the cafe and once fed and watered set off only to return five minutes later as the rain came in. In the best traditions of weathering out the rain they consumed some more drinks and cakes and one lady even bought a jig saw and book from our sales stand! The cash till benefitted greatly!

Back at WMD HQ I have primed the other side of the Egyptian T34 tank wheels as well as giving the headless tankers a base coat of sand coloured paint for their uniforms.

Other than bringing some colour to a model, putting a light coloured coat of paint on does highlight any areas that are perhaps not as well assembled as they might be! I am trying to be polite in describing my own incomitance! An example is the figure below where the left shoulder as you look at the figure does not quite line up with the body. I will need to use some filler or putty to rectify that as once you notice something it sticks out every time you look at the model. The other three figures will no doubt have similar issues so I will need to look closely at those when I have time and before I progress with anymore painting. 

Slow Saturday!

Sometimes you have a day when you just do not achieve very much. Today was one of those days. I guess with all that has been going on in Mrs. Woody and my lives over the past few weeks it does catch up with you and the body and mind says its time for a rest. So, not a lot done but Mrs. Woody did get a SubWay sandwich for lunch and I did manage to put a coat of black primer on the Egyptian tankers as well as one side of all the wheels. 

It will be a busier day tomorrow as I am at the Rocks by Rail Museum helping with the Driver for a Fiver day. With the price of fuel going up this event becomes better value every time it is run!

Dual tracks!

Having completed the first of the tracks for the Egyptian T34 tank I was not looking forward to doing the other one as I would need to temporarily fasten wheels to the tank hull with all the issues that I described a couple of days ago. However, there was a moment of inspiration! In my working smarter not harder mood I thought that I could use the first track as a templet for the second track by using masking tape. The photos probably describe it better than my words can so here they are!

There are few loose and slightly mis-aligned joints but I can fettle those but other wise I'm pleased with that! Result!

Accurascale Deltic.

I succumbed to this after literally years looking at the website on the progress Accurascale were making with this long awaited project which was heralded as being the best Deltic ever produced. The Deltic is one of those iconic diesels that replaced steam and took British Rail passenger traffic into the 80s when the HST's took on that role. It is popular with many railway enthusiasts so the model had to be special to meet up to the makers claims. Have those claims been fulfilled in the final model? Well like many others who have received their models you cannot be anything but impressed. The packaging is superb. The accompanying literature is fully detailed and comes complete with a sheet of alternative head codes. The model itself is hefty at about 800g or just under two pounds for those of us with long memories. As you start looking at the model itself you realise this is something else. For the price or even less than the price of some Hornby and Bachmann locos you get a level of detail I have never seen on a mass produced model.

It looks great but start moving in to see just how detailed this is.

Sprung buffers compliment the model but things like the finesse of the windscreen wipers, the sliding cab windows, the way the door is correctly recessed are all things that you really do not find that well done on other models.

Move in closer still and you see the chains that run between the bogies and the body which I have never seen modelled before. You also see the manufacturers plate above the loco number and through the window the dtail inside the engine compartment.

However the biggest surprise is the cab. My camera is not good at close up shots but this photo at least shows the level of detail just in the cab. Regulator, recessed dials, doors for the electrical cabinets. If there were such a thing as a 4mm real life driver I think they would be fully at home in that cab!

I have the DCC sound version and the sound of the real Napier engines is fully captured. They really have a unique tone.

Any downsides? Well I have to be honest and say on unpacking there were a couple of small detail parts that needed to be reattached. After some running I have also collected four other detail parts that need to be reattached. And this is the quandary. If we want models this well detailed they are going to be fragile and parts will fall off if they are used which is something your 1980 Hornby Deltic would be hard pressed to replicate as there was only the body moulding with no other detail to fall off. 

I am not sure where I stand on this quandary but for the moment I am just going to enjoy this model and appreciate the detail it has. 

Linking tracks!!

Some more progress on the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank with one side of the tracks nearly done. I say nearly as whilst the kit makers envisage you constructing everything to completion and then painting it, most modellers of military armour will build sub assemblies and paint these before bringing the kit together as one. This is especially true of tracks and wheels. Tamiya and many other manufacturers supply a poly cap that goes in the wheel assembly and allows you to pop the wheel on and off the chassis. This is great for building as you can ensure the wheels line up whilst building the kit and then take the wheels off for painting and allowing the hull behind to also be painted. MiniArt however do not follow that method so a bit of improvisation is required. The wheels are attached with a wing and a prayer as well as some BluTac and this at least allows the tracks to be built around them and once complete removed along with the wheels for painting. That is the theory! 

I used my usual method of constructing track links be attaching them to a strip of masking tape as I glued each link. This holds the links together whilst the glue sets but allows some flexibility so that the tracks can be posed over the various wheels with the correct sag. I then inserted a large set of tweezers into the gap between the top of the track and the hull fender which in effect forced the track links to take the correct sag over the wheels that the real tank had. 

Once the glur started to harden I took the tweezers out and I have now left this first set of tracks to dry over night. Hopefully they have set correctly once I remove the masking tape. Then again it could be a contribution to the swear jar tomorrow then!

Sentinels under repair.

A day at Rocks by Rail Museum today with me reunited with the lawn mower for most of the day making the place look neat for Sunday's Driver for a Fiver day. It will be one of the diesel Sentinel locomotives on duty and we have a choice of two. Either Betty or Jean. However it is feasible that Graham who has been off duty with various issues for some months now will be back in operation as well. 

The guys who maintain and repair these locomotives certainly have a challenge so it is a good job they know what they are doing. It is one thing working on the engine but when you start with wiring that is another thing. Take Betty for example.

This is what her cab looks like with a clear operating control panel which looks reasonably simple.

This is Graham.

Graham's control panel is undergoing maintenance and with the cosmetic covers removed and things opened up, it shows the real complexity of what makes these locomotives work. Rather the guys dealing with this then me! It just looks like a mass of spaghetti to my untrained eye! Hopefully though it will be up and running this Sunday.

Tankers take their places.

Having completed the so far headless quartet of Egyptian tankers I have posed them around the tank. They appear to be in poses that compliment the tank which also means I will be modelling the turret hatches open - unless something unforeseen happens! Always leave yourself a little wriggle room in case something does go wrong and knowing my luck it will!

Different types of water!

Not an experiment but this morning I had to unfortunately join the Sunday Car Washing Club which seems to prevail in the UK. Mrs. Woody had decreed that her car needed cleaning and today was the day to do it and who am I to disagree? So it was the soapy water type that saw use and several hours later the car had not only been washed but waxed as well! 

With several other things going on today as well that did not leave much model making time but I made the most of it by examining the resin water I had poured into the river on the 009 narrow gauge layout a few days ago. Having waited literally months for it to dry when I poured the first layer back in January, I was pleased to find it dry and solid after just three days - Result!. So another type of water in my life today as I poured the third and probably last layer of resin water into the river. Hopefully dry in three days time too.

Not water related was the assembly of the second Egyptian tanker for the T34 MiniArt kit. A nice pose and one where he looks at ease on the tank itself - well he would do if he had his head but as I explained yesterday I will probably paint the heads before mounting them on the bodies.

Finally something that could get me into the type of water that is very hot if Mrs. Woody finds out about it is the arrival of this which I have not had a chance to sit down with the time to properly unpack and set up. The reviews are good and it appears that Accurascale have indeed produced the ultimate Deltic locomotive - I just need the time to find out myself!

Having completed this blog it is time for the final type of water for today - the washing up type of water as I have the job of doing the dishes after dinner!

Headless?

I have spent some time putting the drive sprockets and idler wheels together as well as preparing some more track links ready to be assembled once I have enough to do a full track run. The tank has an unusual sprocket drive in that unlike most tans where the drive wheels have teeth that engage in holes in the track, the T34 has a toothless drive wheel but the triangular guide teeth on the tracks are pushed by rods that are between the two faces of the drive wheel. It obviously worked!

Nothing too exciting with the work above but I have started to assemble the four figures provided with the kit. They are nicely detailed and come in a harder plastic than the tank kiy so are a little more robust when it comes to cleaning them up as they come off the sprue.

The first figure has been put together minus his head! I am thinking of leaving his head off whilst painting the figure as it might be easier to paint the face. Figure painting is not my strongest skill. In fact to use the word skill in relation to my attempts at this art is perhaps a major injustice to the word itself! Anyway I will see how this one goes once he and his three mates are in the WMD HQ paint shop. In the meantime here we have the headless tanker - for the moment anyway!