Might as well be blunt!

Mrs. Woody can sometimes be to the point especially about failures to complete items on her job list for me! However she is never quite as blunt and to the point as the sign I saw on a gate whilst taking Mrs. Woody out for a £3.45 lunch deal! 

Decaling the tank!

Although the MiniArt kit for this Egyptian T34 tank has a multitude of parts it does not have much in the way of decals. Not a fault of the kit but these tanks just did not have much in the way of markings in real life. I am modelling the tank as it was when used in the Suez Crisis in the Autumn of 1956 which is probably the most decorated, in the way of markings, period for the Egyptian T34's. Just four decals are used in a slightly bright shade of green which at least stands out in a desert environment. The decals do add to the model and start to add character.

I did spray a coat of gloss varnish onto the areas where the decals were to be applied to give them a smooth surface to adhere to. The decals themselves were easy to apply and for once I did not end up trying to untangle curled up decals!

Paint my wagon?

If I had a wagon would I be tempted to paint it or leave it in its original condition - or as the experts say leave the patina! I came across this old horse drawn wagon at the side of a back road on one of my bike rides recently. 

Much as some may say it wants to be restored there are others who would say it needs conserving rather than restoring. I have to say that it has loads of character the way it is. The farmers name and farm details would be some thing difficult to replicate and lets be honest who, even if it were restored, would be able to use it with those metal rimmed wheels? Likelihood is that anyone brave enough to ride it would need the services of a chiropractor afterwards! Hopefully someone loves it and sees sense so it will be put under cover and steps taken to prevent any further deterioration. I will go back later and see!  

Weathering the tracks.

In my attempt to make the tracks of the T34 tank look weathered and worn I resorted to my usual trick of a wash of thinned black paint. Not a lot to the technique - merely dip the brush in the diluted paint and then dab it onto the track and let it flow naturally into the nooks and crannies. The nature of the liquid is that it carries most of the pigment of the paint into the lows of where it is dropped onto and as it dries it leaves that nice highlight. Although I forgot to take a picture once the black wash had dried I repeated the process with a sand coloured paint just to add variety!

Rusty tracks.

In between completing jobs on Mrs. Woody's list (that should get me in good books!) I did manage to find time to spray the tracks of the T34 Egyptian tank in an overall rust colour. This will be the ideal base for further work on them. They were also sprayed with matt varnish ready for that further work to make them look as though they have travelled miles through rough terrain with little care! This of course is dependent on me getting some more time between jobs!

Seeking the cool!

A really hot day at the Rocks by Rail Museum today - my car thermometer said it was 43C/110F in the carpark when I left this afternoon so either we were hotter than Coningsby in nearby Lincolnshire where the UK record of  40.3C/104F was recorded today or my car thermometer is slightly out! No idea which is right but it was still hot! So hot in fact we sought the cool shelter of  the workshops where it was somewhat cooler - in comparison to outside anyway! 

With visitors staying away and no doubt remaining at home it was a strange day but I did venture round the workshops to see progress on Elizabeth who is a 0-4-0 steam locomotive. She has been undergoing restoration for some years now and although the pandemic more or less stopped work on her for a year or two she is close to being finished although as these pictures show it does not seem that way. 

However, she does have a restored and certificated boiler, running gear that is in working order and a team now painting up the sub-structure so the cab and boiler cladding can be mounted on and painted. At that stage she will be finished and operational which will hopefully be in time for the start of next years opening and running sessions of the Museum.

in the meantime its time for another ice cream!

Sand Bag!

Whilst I am sure that my MiniArt T34 Egyptian Tank would be at home with a sand bag or two this particular reference is a UK vehicle registration plate. There a lot of 'doctored' plates on vehicles where spacings, layout  and character shapes are altered to make something else. You don't however see many standard plates where at first glance and the brain filling in gaps or reading what should be there they are relevant to their vehicle or owner. 

A case in point today where a tipper truck from a local sand and gravel merchant was behind me on my bike ride early this morning. It overtook me but due to a steep hill and gravity acting in my favour on my large frame, I caught up with it as it waited for a gap in the traffic at a junction to join the main road. I managed to get this quick picture of the truck with its SAND BAG registration plate. It amused me anyway!.

Back at WMD HQ, the Man Cave oven saw a very brief visit where I have painted the tow cables rust colour. Due to the nozzle of the paint bottle being partially blocked, I ended up spraying a lage amount of paint out so in a bid not to waste it parts of the track were painted. With this heat progress is slow which I also tell Mrs. Woody when she enquires as to the progress of the jobs on her list! Time for another ice cream!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I felt like singing the song Lazy Sunday Afternoon (sung far better then I can by The Small Faces back in 1968 and available by clicking here.) I was at the Rocks by Rail Museum on the door welcoming guests to the diesel day that should have been a steam day if it were not for the fire risk to neighboring fields. Whilst it was a hot day it was pleasant enough for visitors but maybe some had been frightened off by the various warnings in the media of heat induced problems. Anyway we had enough visitors to make it a good day and they seemed to all enjoy it with some being return guests which is really good to see. The cafe did a brisk trade in bacon cobs and a selection of cakes, scones, croissants, ice creams and drinks both hot and cold. I did surprise a few by cooking myself up a bacon croissant which was delicious!

We all had a good time and this afternoon it was a little like Lazy Sunday Afternoon with lots of chats sitting in the sun or shade and I even had time to take a ride in the cab of Betty the Sentinel down to the bottom of the line and back. According to the speedometer, which goes up to a maximum of 30 mph or about 48kmph, we topped out at a very laid back 5mph! 

Just a few pictures from the day summing up the good glow of that Lazy Afternoon feeling and I guess part of the reason I volunteer! 

The rear of things!

Treating Mrs. Woody to lunch out today - a £3.75 Spar Lunch Deal (25pence cheaper than the CoOp - every little saving helps!) - we took a ride out to enjoy a walk in the countryside. Having highlighted the early harvest that is currently happening here in the UK it was somewhat inevitable that our view of the countryside on our journey was at times compromised by being behind a tractor and grain trailer. 

However we were in no rush, the farmers need to do what they are doing and driving slowly saves fuel too! 

I certainly would rather see the rear of a grain trailer than the a T34 tank although continuing my modelling activities on the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank I have added slightly to the rear of that as I have painted the Jerry cans that fit in the holder on the hull. Using the opportunity to add some colour one is green and the other red. No idea if that is prototypical but you do see these cans in all sorts of colours and it adds a bit of interest to the rear of the tank unlike the grain trailers I keep following!

They need to be weathered and made to look battered as most such cans look especially when in operational use.

I have also added further colour to the DShK 12.7mm anti-air (and everything else that gets in its way for that matter) machine gun which is taking on some character.

 I have also glued the drive wheels in place which will enable me to do a final test fit of the tracks before painting those separately. The rest of the wheels are loose at the moment which allows me to remove the tracks. I had to fit the drive wheels because of the way in which MiniArt choose to mount them to the hull. As they engage with the tracks they have to be in the correct position on the hull or the premade tracks will not fit. If that explanation sounds confusing then just put it down to my poor choice of words! 

With the DShK gun temporarily mounted on the turret things are really coming together.

Is this really only the middle of July?

 

With warnings of a hot weekend I still had to remind myself that it was only mid July whilst out on my bike ride this morning seeing harvested fields, hay stacks and tractors out ploughing - sights normally for late August and September!!

Back in the relative sanity of WMD HQ I was pleased to have a visit from Mr Beecham, he of modelling fame and cycling prowess! It was only a flying visit but always great to have a chat with him and he had a look at my Egyptian T34 on which I have added the hatches to the turret which now require weathering, weathered the wheels some more and highlighted a few more parts of the hull.

Out of interest I dug out my Italeri Russian T34 that I built a year or so ago just to see what the two look like together. Interesting comparison and whilst you can see differences in the level of detail between the two kits they do look very similar from normal viewing distance. 

Probably the tracks are the next thing to do but with a hot weekend that may make the Man Cave somewhat oven like and delay progress. However it will be a good excuse for an ice cream!