Radiator issues but progress with the great wardrobe project!

Taking on a kit started 23 years ago is always going to have an issue or two. Luckily so far there have not been any major problems although that changed today when I came to fit the radiator to the Scania chassis. It has two pegs that fit into holes on the inside faces of two mounting points that fit on the chassis. The manufactures intention is you fit one of the mounts to the chassis, then pop in the radiator and then fit the second mount. Of course I had fitted both mounts some 23 years ago. I ended up having to break the mount off one side to insert the radiator but it worked. The mount was reglued and luckily there appears to be no visible damage!

I have also sprayed the side skirts, mudguards and front panel in matt black. From what I could see I must have had a paint compatibility issue back in 1999 when I sprayed them originally as some of the paint was crazed. I figured after 23 years the paint should be fully hardened so I smoothed the rough parts and sprayed acrylic black on which worked well. I then sprayed a coat of semi-gloss varnish on just to give it a slight sheen.

Need to wait for the paint and varnish to harden and then fit the lights.

On the wardrobe front things have moved on and the 'Expert' is really showing his skills with a real top notch job.

Just hope my painting skills match up when I get to paint the room or Mrs. Woody will not be happy! 

Small and big steps!

With the wardrobe being fitted today I thought that I might have an opportunity to get some model making done. Well it did not really work out that way as I got involved in a bit of cleaning and sorting as instructed by Mrs. W. However I did sneak in an hour on the Italeri Scania making some small steps on its build. 

The engine and gearbox is now installed with the propshaft in place. I had constantly reminded myself that the propshaft had to go into position before the engine and gearbox was fitted as it can not be fitted once the engine and gearbox are in place. With this thought firmly in my mind I am still trying to figure out how I ended up congratulating myself on the successful fitting of the engine and gearbox without any contributions to the swear jar before I realised that I had forgotten the propshaft! In best Homer Simpson voice - Doh! Luckily the glue had not set and I was able to do the job as it should be!. Other parts have been fitted such as the small steps on the battery box and I have temporarily placed the rear mudguards in place which look as though they fit reasonably well. I just need to repaint them along with the side skirts.

 I am pleased I painted some of the details on the engine which looks better than it did

On the matter of big steps, the 'Expert' wardrobe fitter is here and I must admit he is an expert. There have been some big steps in its build but this is now going to be a two day job so Mrs. W and myself will be sleeping on the sofas tonight as the bedroom is covered in tools and the bed tipped on its side. A slight miscalculation by me means that the other bed is covered to a considerable depth with the contents of the wardrobe! In best Homer Simpson voice - Doh and Doh again! However as the old saying goes, you cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

Whilst Mrs. W will no doubt get the large sofa to sleep on tonight I will be left with the smaller one (such is my position in the importance of sleeping facilities) in the lounge. Luckily I don't have fight with the cats to get procession of their sofa in the cat conservatory. This lot may look cuddly and cute but they can bite and scratch! Honest! Upset that lot and I won't be taking any steps small or big!

The See Saw Game!

 Having taken apart the old wardrobe yesterday I needed to get the parts off to the tip before the rains started and the whole lot became a soggy mess of saturated chipboard. Most parts would fit in my car with no problems but there were some long parts that needed halving in size. Getting close to 8pm, it was not the time to annoy my neighbours by getting a power saw out so in the Woody way of unconventionality I persuaded Mrs. Woody that I had developed a new see saw game that required her assistance. Note the subtlety of the word 'game' rather than work. Mrs. W readily agreed to take part but was probably disappointed when the see saw was a piece of the aforementioned wardrobe balanced on a piece of 3 x4 inch timber. Anyway the game started with her standing on one end of the board and me then stepping on the other. Hey presto and Woody's wizardry saw the board snap in half just right to fit in my car. By the time we had done the 9 boards Mrs. Woody had concluded that this was not a 'game' and went back in to watch some TV shopping channel!

All fits nicely - never go to the tip without a full load!

My hopes that the wall would paint itself unfortunately failed to materialise so last night at 8.30 I painted a first coat. Given that I was at the Rocks by Rail Museum today that was one of my better decisions as it was obvious this morning that it needed another coat. That went on this after noon....

Hopefully that is it until the 'Expert' fitter comes tomorrow. Once the rest of the room is painted after that then hopefully a bit more time for model making although looking at this scence out of the window which has not been like this for some time, it will soon be time to start cutting the grass again! Maybe I can persuade Mrs. W that grass cutting is a 'game'....

Archeological discovery whilst Woody's wizardry makes wardrobe disappear!

Now that is a title and a half to a blog post! It has been a very hard day. Why does everything take twice as long as you plan? However, the wardrobe is dismantled and I kept Mrs. Woody updated of my wizardry with pictures of the progress so she did know I was doing things! Apart from the length of time it took, the job went remarkably damage, injury and swear jar contribution free.

The wizardry slowly happening...

Almost there....

As if by magic all gone....

Unfortunately what was behind the wardrobe was not the best in wall integrity. So, before painting a packet of wall filler was mixed and all of it used in making good cracks, missing plaster and various other issues. At least with the hot weather and almost sauna like conditions in the bedroom it should dry fairly quickly.

Well it has to be dry by tomorrow as this kit form wardrobe is being fitted on Wednesday by the 'Expert' who I explained in an earlier blog is not me according to Mrs. W! 

As to the archeology. Well it won't excite the historians but it is never the less  a slight insight into the builders of the house some 50 years ago almost to the month. I uncovered this pencil calculation on one of the floor boards - remember this was in the days before calculators although I have to admit the calculation is not exactly complex! It will be covered up again when the new wardrobe is fitted but it is recorded here for posterity or when Mrs. W decides on another new wardrobe! 

Now if only I could wizard the walls to paint themselves.....

To hot and dry for steam!

Rocks by Rail was where I was today. It was scheduled to be a steam day with at least one steam engine in operation. However the reality is that with the tinder dry conditions in the UK at the moment which are a result of the now declared drought, to have steam engines running past agricultural land would be somewhat irresponsible. However being prepared for such contingencies the Museum got out Betty the diesel Sentinel where visitors could have rides down the line in the cab or even drive it as part of the Driver for a Fiver ticket. WE had a fair few visitors and the coolness of the cafe saw much food and drink being bought and consumed. All in all a great day and many happy people who had a memorable day.

Staying in the coolness of the cafe I took time to look at the various models that are on display. Firstly we have the Hornby Family Fun Project as built by Phil Parker of British Railway Modelling (BRM) magazine fame. He took the Hornby Family Fun Project (see the Hornby website here for details of the products) and built it with a few modifications - see here and here for details. Once complete and following its use on various media it needed a home and when the BRM team visited last year they brought along the layout so we could give it a home. It has proved very popular with the younger visitors although some of the more mature visitors have been seen taking on the controls as well! AS a credit to Phil's building skills, apart from a level crossing gate that needed gluing, a loading gauge that has been broken and some people that have been moved from their original glued locations, the layout has survived well. 

The other models are related to the iron stone quarrying that the Museum is all about and they are incredibly useful in giving a sense of scale of operations that were still active up to just over 50 years ago as well as illustrating the techniques used.

The model of Sundew, the World's largest walking drag line excavator at the time (until our American friends built one bigger), is perhaps the most dramatic. The work that went into it is amazing and the whole model is very detailed.

There is also another quarry model based on the nearby quarry at Market Overton. Not so large or detailed but never the less a great illustrative model in its own right. You can see the size of the excavator when compare to the steam locomotive at the far left of the train.

Finally we have what I term as an engineering model of an excatator. Not sure of the history of this but never the less another superb model.

All this puts my model making skills to shame! Never mind though its been too hot and dry to model as well as run steam trains!

Buying Paint!

Today Mrs. Woody and myself went off to buy paint for the bedroom. You can't have a new wardrobe with old paint you know! Well I didn't know that but Mrs. W informs me it is true so who am I to argue! So my job list for next week is to dismantle the old wardrobe on Monday. Paint the walls behind where the fitted wardrobe will go white. Then the wardrobe will get fitted and by the end of next week, once all the dust has been cleared away, it will be my job to paint the rest of the room. Somewhere in that week I also have to fit a day in at the Rocks by Rail Museum. I am hoping for cooler weather!

One thing that did hit me was the price of paint. It does not seem that many years ago I could buy a quality 5lt tin of emulsion for about £18. The last one I bought about three months ago was £40 and this week it has gone up to £42. Apparently had we bought it last week it was still only £40. Just my luck! I didn't think it worth pointing out to Mrs. W just how much model paint £40 would buy. Sometimes it is just safer to remain silent!

So last week was busy and this coming week will be no different! However at least taking a break to do some model making provides a well deserved break! Which brings me onto the Italeri 799 Scania with Cool Fruits trailer. I did actually get some matt black paint onto some more parts for the tractor unit chassis without the paint drying in its short journey between the airbrush and the surfaces to be painted. Yes it was that hot today! The parts were touch dry within about a minute of painting. I even managed to paint the engine cooling fan yellow and add it to the engine.

To add a little interest to the engine, rather than it looking like a red blob, I have painted in the rocker covers and various pipes in aluminum and steel. Some parts need a second coat which will hopefully be something for tomorrow. In the meantime I will get over the price of paint and prepare myself gor the joys of the coming week!

 

A busy week!

In the background to model making I have been spending most of this week sorting out belongings and having a good clear out of rubbish and things no longer of use. Those CD games that work on Windows 95 are perhaps things that should have gone out some years ago but once on a shelf, in a box or in a cupboard they remain forgotten about but adding to the general clutter of WMD HQ! There are a lot of similar things and much as it hurts to dispose of things that still look good I have to accept that most of what I am getting rid of is useless. There is however a sense of well being at seeing the space created and the possibilities of what could fill it! At least Mrs. Woody has not disposed of me yet but if I do add more stuff I could well find myself in a skip! 

Talking of Mrs. W she has decided that a  new fitted wardrobe in our bedroom is the way to go so that arrives in kit form on Monday with 'an expert' fitting it on Wednesday. My claims of also being 'an expert' who could fit wardrobes apparently went unheard as Mrs. Woody at that precise moment suffered from one of her intermittent moments of deafness. How convenient! However my expertise at clearing things has been used to clear out most of what is in the present wardrobe so things are looking good for Monday when I have to dismantle the present wardrobe, dispose of it and paint behind before the new one is fitted. Something nice to look forward to!

Model making has therefore been a nice break from the sweat of sorting stuff out during a week of heat wave and the Italeri 799 Scania with Cool Fruits trailer is progressing well. I have been working on the tractor chassis and taking time to reacquaint myself to where I got to with this kit some 23 years ago. Latest progress has been to paint the wheel centers in black to match the chassis. I have also painted the mounting straps of the fuel tank. Going through the instructions I am able to find the parts still to be fitted so these are being taken off the sprues and prepared for painting. Hopefully this progress will continue but I will have to see just how smoothly the wardrobe job goes or whether I do end up in a skip!

Chassis examination.

Things are moving on with the Italeri Scania with Cool Fruits trailer which is good although if I finish this too quick Mrs. Woody may think I have not been concentrating on her jobs list! 

I have painted in the rear lights and the brake wheel on the trailer which has brought some life to the rear. Still got the latches to do.

I have now examined the chassis of the tractor unit and it looks reasonable. It is painted in matt black which I might not do nowadays but I am leaving it in that paint as a tribute in this time machine build to how I built models 23 years ago. 

To move things forward the I found the fuel tank in the box of bits and that requires painting aluminum so that along with the chassis walkway and cab steps were sprayed aluminum. I think I may have to respray the cab though but that is for another time - I need to finish the chassis first.

Trailer Tales!

For me this build is advancing quickly - if you discount the work I did 23 years and 2 years ago! The wheels have had their centers painted in chassis colour and added to the axles with their end caps. 

Whilst painting the wheel centers I also painted the axle end caps, the number plate mount, the grills for the refrigeration unit on the trailer body and the door latches. 

The spare wheel has been added to its carrier and the chassis is now mainly finished. There are a few minor jobs to do including fitting the number plate mounting, the king pin that the fifth wheel on the tractor unit engages to pull the trailer and I also need to paint in the rear lights.

On the body itself, the refrigerator unit and pipes were painted silver before the grills that had been sprayed grey were fitted with a few spots of super glue. 

I just need to add the latches to the rear doors and think about whether I risk using the original 23 year old decals that are likely to break up on application as they are so old or do I come up with an alternative decoration? However at this point it is looking good - to me anyway!

A lot of paint!

I have started the Italeri Scania Cool Fruits Time Machine build with getting the trailer sorted out. Having had a closer look at the chassis there were a few parts broken off and a few remaining to be attached. Luckily the box had all the necessary parts! Result! The backing plates for the brakes were added together with the rear under-run bar that had broken off. Oddly for now, but I guess not at the time of the kits release, there are no side underrun bars to prevent vehicles from going under the trailer in a side swipe accident. I am not adding any - the kit will be built as intended back in 1999 which makes it nice and simple for me!

The chassis was sporting a rather matt and somewhat poorly applied coat of blue paint so it needed sorting out. As Mrs. Woody was out the chassis migrated into the kitchen for a pre painting wash to get rid of 23 years of dirt and dust. As Mrs. Woody would no doubt point out it might have been useful if I also cleaned the kitchen but as Mr. Beecham - he of modelling and cycling prowess - called round I had the perfect excuse to leave the kitchen well alone! 

On the departure of Mr. B the chassis was taken to the WMD HQ spray shop where I was surprised to use a full jar of Tamiya gloss blue paint to cover the original paint. I guess the trailer chassis being a shape with so many small surfaces means a lot of paint is wasted in over spray. However eventually I got a finish that I was reasonably happy with and I then added a coat of Tamiya clear gloss just to give a bit more shine. 

Next step is to paint the wheel centers in blue - luckily I have another jar of paint in stock - and then get them attached to the chassis (although looking at the photos I am not so sure I previously assembled the wheels properly but that will become evident when I look closer tomorrow)  after which it will be time for looking at the body. In the mean time I better at least do some cleaning of the kitchen before Mrs. W gets back.