The Knack!

For those of a certain age 1979 saw the release of one of  those timeless songs that still gets played repeatedly today. It was by a band called The Knack and the song was My Sharona. See a great live version by clicking here. At the time, The Knack was hailed as the new Beatles. Unfortunately they did not live up to that and as far as I am aware after a few more singles that never got that far in the charts the band faded away.

So what has all this to do with model making. Nothing directly but I am going to talk about 'the knack'. A term that is used in the UK to indicate that you have the ability to do something. Mrs. Woody for example has 'the knack' to find those things you never knew you could live without before finding them on an internet shopping channel. If you make models over many years you do develop 'the knack' with certain methods of doing things or in using certain types of materials. In my case I have developed a certain 'knack' in using an airbrush. Generally the paint goes on without too many disasters. I used to use enamel paints which are an oil based paint. They have good coverage and dry to a high gloss but they take hours to dry, stink of white spirit and it takes an age to clean the airbrush afterwards. However for most of my modelling life enamel paints have been the only accessible paints. Acrylic paints are water based, have little odour, dry quickly and you can clean the airbrush with water. They don't dry to such a gloss as enamels though but all in all I guess are better for the environment and my health!. With the advantages and the increased availability and increased range of products I moved across to acrylics about 15 years ago. It took me some time to learn how to use this new to me paint as they are different to enamels but eventually I got 'the knack'. 

Move onto the Italeri Scania with Cool Fruits trailer that I started to build back in 1999 I did spray the cab back then in Humbrol metallic blue enamel paint. The actual airbrushing was good and the colour looked great but probably because of where I sprayed it the paint was full of dust particles and you could see that in the finished paint. I therefore decided to respray the cab in the same colour and digging through the WMD HQ paint store found several part used as well as new tins of the required original enamel metallic blue paint. I decided to make use of the part used paint which as I will explain was a mistake that I should have avoided. 

The cab was flatted off with some fine wet and dry paper to get rid of the embedded dust.

The parts were then set out for spraying. The problem is that for the last 12 years I have been used to spraying acrylics. Enamels act differently and to be blunt I have lost 'the knack' of spraying these types of paint. The result is not brilliant but probably savable!

What has gone wrong? Well probably using old paint is not the best thing to have done. Old paint in an un-opened tin is one thing and will probably still be good to use but paint that was probably first opened 23 years ago is not going to be in the best condition! Secondly I think looking at the paint on the model that in one of the tins I mixed some silver paint in to give some 'sparkle'! Well I am not sparkling over the finish! Thirdly I probably over thinned the paint when I mixed it for spraying and so it is over transparent and has run in places. So having lost 'the knack' of using enamel paints I will have an opportunity to further re-educate myself as I am going to have to let this paint dry and then try again! So there you have it - not everything goes smoothly (literally with this paint) at WMD HQ!

On another front I can report that the decal paper ordered yesterday has been delivered. As I stated yesterday I have never used this before so I will need to develop 'the knack' of using it!

Feeling blue!

Without the assistance of Mrs. Woody's keen eye for interior decoration I have decorated the interior of the Scania cab using my somewhat less than flamboyant palette of colours so that it no longer looks like a rendition of fog and is more like a dull day but with the glimmer of sunshine - just right for feeling blue!

It may not stand out but it does look better than before. The seats and door cards have been highlighted with a light blue and the bed picked out in a range of harmonious blues! The 1/24th scale driver obviously has some sense of co-ordination with their bedding and are also proud to drive a Scania having a poster up on the backwall of the sleeper compartment. I added this by scaling down a spare decal from another kit and then printing it onto paper. A coat of matt varnish was applied and once dried the image was glued to a scrap of plastic card. Once all was trimmed to size it was glued into the blanked off rear window space. I still need to add the dashboard decals, steering wheel and various control levers but that is about it to this part of the cab.

The upper part of the cab has an unusual arrangement in that the second bunk is above the drivers and passenger seats. It folded up when not in use but did give the option for a solo driver to use the normal lower bunk as a sofa with the increased headroom above and then the upper bunk as the bed. I don't believe that this is still an option on modern Scanias so I am guessing it was not too popular. On this part of the cab I just need to add the fold up access ladder and then that will be finished.

Having looked at the trailer just about every day it does look white! A lot of white indeed! It needs something to add interest. Whilst I have the kit decals, given their age and previous experience with Italeri decals that are many years old, they are very likely to disintegrate if I try to apply them. I have therefore used my limited and I mean limited IT skills to generate a potential design to to be applied to the trailer sides. 

If you are thinking that sticking a cut out piece of paper to the side of the trailer would look somewhat rubbish you would be right. However at WMD HQ I have a cunning plan. Well a plan anyway! Decal paper. This is a sheet of clear decal sheet onto which you can print whatever you want and then use it just like kit supplied decal. I do have some in stock as well. However can I find it? Somewhere it lies awaiting to be discovered but I just cannot find it. I have therefore done the sensible thing, well sensible for me anyway, of actually ordering some which hopefully will be delivered tomorrow by Amazon. 

To be honest I have never tried this method before so it will be a leaning curve and like most of my learning curves it might involve coming off the road! I could well be feeling blue if it all goes wrong. With that thought in mind I better check that the swear jar has some room in it for further contributions!

One shade or 50 shades of grey!

 Things are moving on with the Scania interior. The dashboard and steering column have been assembled. The seats have been sanded to remove the join line between the two parts of each seat and the bases assembled.

With all this complete I have given everything apart from the seat bases and steering wheels a coat of light grey paint to harmonise the previously somewhat poorly applied grey paint by me 23 years ago. All this one shade of greyness will be brightened up as I try to add some colour to the interior or it may well end up in 50 shades of grey! Interesting concept!

Interestingly, well to me anyway, is that Italeri in their older kits moulded the bunk with a pillow and sheet/sleeping bag which is something they no longer do on their modern kits. I quite like this little bit of realism though - makes the kit feel a bit more real life to me. I just need to remember that even though grey was an 'in' colour in the 90's I don't think grey bedding was! 

More interior makeovers!

The chassis of the Italeri Scania is now finished. Wow! That was quick for me! Well let us not consider that most of it was built 23 years ago otherwise it will be my longest ever build - apart from some of Mrs. Woody's jobs that still linger on her list decades after first entering it!

With the chassis now done and my increased skill level on interior decoration following painting two bedrooms and giving them a makeover recently I will turn my attention to the interior of the cab. For some reason 23 years ago I appear to have blasted everything with a light grey fog like paint. Probably the right generic type of colour for the interior of trucks in the 1990s as I remember but somewhat bland. Therefore I will be putting my aesthetic decoration and makeover skills to use, to try at least to make it look a little more welcoming rather than looking at fog! The good thing about this is that I only have myself to please so no having to take account of Mrs. W's view on colour schemes so in all likelihood it is going to look to the 1/24th scale driver of the Scania  'interesting' in that makeover cab!

Singapore

 A day at the Rocks by Rail Museum today and preparations being made for the commemoration of VJ day where the loco Singapore will take center stage as a registered war memorial.

As my Uncle was caught up in the capture of Singapore by Japan and spent several years in Changi POW camp these events are always poignant to me. This year there will also be commemoration of all the other conflicts that the UK has been involved in since WW2 including the Falklands and Afghanistan. 

Certainly at this time of issues in the World it would be good if we perhaps reflected on the costs of war to us all and seek ways to live more peacefully. A Woody thought that is unlikely to come about but we can hope!

Stay calm!

We all have a moment when we think what have we done and a sort of panic sets in. I must admit that was my reaction yesterday evening when I started painting the walls in the bedroom with what Mrs. Woody and myself had chosen from the vast range of possible colours that can be mixed at our local DIY emporium. What was supposed to be Soothing Sage looked more like swamp mud as I painted around the edges. I had visions of having to go back and choose a different colour and in effect scraping £40 worth of paint - oh the pain in my wallet! However, I stayed calm and waited for it to dry as that surly would brng out the real Soothing Sage. It dried and still looked like swamp mud. So I left it for this morning hoping that things would change in the natural light of day. It didn't. The photo below perhaps doesn't show just how brown this paint was looking but believe me it was.

However I continued to stay calm and decided to paint the whole wall just in case my colour awareness was being hindered by the peppermint coloured original paint. Luckily it came out well. With the peppermint covered and the walls fully covered in Soothing Sage I was, well, soothed. Probably not as soothed as these two having a kip in the cat conservatory but I certainly was calm.

With a full days work the walls are all painted. The ceiling was painted yesterday so all that remains is to paint the window sill, radiator and door and refit some skirting boards that needs shortening to fit where the wardrobe is fitted.

Mrs. W has suggested that the side of the wardrobe could be used as a chalk board for the list of her jobs for me to do. I remain silent on the matter!

All in all I am pleased that what looked early on to be turning into a mud swamp has indeed turned into a soothing place. One thing though I am not calm or  soothed about is the fact that there is an awful lot of empty space in that wardrobe at the moment. Even as I write this, I can see Mrs. W pursuing the internet and its retail outlets!!!! Stay calm Woody!

Sunday - The day of rest?

Well it was a sort of day of rest at WMD HQ today. I did paint the ceiling in the bedroom where the wardrobe has been fitted and Mrs. Woody started putting her things in it whilst at the same time filling several bags to go out leaving space - for more new stuff!

A doze on the sofa after doing the painting took me back to our recent visit to Norfolk where I managed to visit several railways including the Bure Valley Railway based at Aylsham and running on 15 gauge track, 9 miles to Wroxham which is known as the gateway to the Norfolk Broads. I could give you a history of the railway but Wikipedia does a far better and more detailed job and you can see that by clicking here. I can however put some photos up of my trip and doze back to that delightful day with no wardrobes, painting duties, lists of jobs, etc!

Scania progress!

The pictures are probably the best at telling the story on progress. All that remains is to fit a couple of cooling pipes, the spare wheel, a side skirt, three light lenses and the landing light and then paint the exhaust and that is the chassis finished. Before I get any comments that radiator in the above photo is slightly off level but there is nothing I can do about it at this stage without a major risk of damaging the rest of the model. As it is unlikely to be seen as there will be a cab on top I am leaving well alone! I have learnt the hard way over the tears that trying to achieve perfection can in many cases lead to achieving nothing apart from filling the rubbish bin!

Talking of cabs I did pull out the cab from the box and just temporarily place it on the chassis to get a look at how it will all eventually look.

I think I will at least need to gently sand the bodywork of the cab and give it another coat as it looks as though I was spraying it in a sandpit with the present paint job. However, that aside it does look good - to me anyway!

The Great Wardrobe Project - finished?

 Its finished! The wardrobe is complete! Yippee!

The 'Expert' fitter was more than just an expert. He was a perfectionist and a really nice guy who it was a pleasure to have at WMD HQ. Now that the wardrobe is fitted Mrs. Woody has said that she will be having a clear out of her stuff which means she will be making room for more things! Oh well!

For me this is not the end of the whole project which will not be finished fully until I have completed painting the room which is something I will be doing next week after a hopefully restful weekend! Unless Mrs. W has other ideas!

On the Scania build, the lights are painted and most lenses fitted and I have fitted the fuel tank as well as finally fixing the wheels in place. The mudguards and front panel are temporarily in place although I suspect I may have issues with that front panel fitting properly. The semi gloss finish to the parts is giving a nice contrast to the matt finish on the chassis. Getting those mudguards and the front and side panels fitted properly is my next job. 

In the meantime I will be getting the bed back into service - sofas are not comfy for sleeping!