Pallet dismantling and major wood butchery!

As a byproduct of the recent building work at WMD HQ I have acquired a lot of wood in the form of things that were removed during the work as well as some pallets that had building materials on them. It doesn't look particularly attractive strewn on the drive and no doubt is commented upon by passers by. However there is a reason I asked the builders to leave the timber. Firstly some is useful to construct outside things such as bird tables or compost bins. Secondly there is an open fire in the lounge and on a cold evening having a fire does make it nice and cosy. So having a supply of redundant wood to burn is useful! Just that I had to sort out what was suitable and what needs to go to the recycling center. If its painted it can release harmful fumes when burnt so is best dealt with by the experts who recycle such things.

Now much to my amazement the World of pallet dismantling is a highly specialised one with various websites and YouTube videos demonstrating the ideal tools and methods as well as how to identify the type of pallet! No doubt all very useful for those into such things but for me a selection of large hammers and cold chisels are my preferred tools of butchery!

The first pallet to be tackled seemed to be made from fossilised wood as the stuff just shattered at the slightest tap from the hammer although the nails just would not come out. The other pallets were a lot easier and after a few hours it still looks a tip but a slightly more organised one!

Whilst in the working outside mood I also tackled some of the many sprouting weeds. All in all a good result but I am shattered. So I am going to play operate some trains and just sit back and watch them go by which should at least calm any nearby surplus wood from fears of my butchery. However in the meantime the WMD Film Division has been busy with the latest escapades on my 009 narrow gauge layout. For your cure of insomnia just click the video below!

Decal disaster day!

 

I guess you can not realistically expect decals from a near 50 year old kit to still be unscathed by the passage of time as the above photo shows. I had anticipated that they would be likely to be fragile so whilst spraying gloss varnish on the areas of the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier that would have decals applied to them I also gave the sheet of decals a coat to. I just tried these two decals from the sheet to see if my experiment worked but as you can see they will not release from the backing paper without breaking into small pieces.

The theory is that the varnish bonds to the decal preventing it breaking up when soaked to release it from its backing sheet. Well the theory did not meet expectations much as I probably don't meet most people's expectations of a modeller! My next step could be to source some aftermarket decals which might give some similar designs but the cost would probably be £10 to £20. However the WMD HQ stores does have a stock of unused decals from previously built kits and I may be able to cobble something together from these. They wont be right or accurate but they may just be enough for the truck to look interesting!

With no decals to put on for now I did some more painting of the figures. The closeness of digital camera photos does me no favours with these figures showing I have failed to properly deal with the mould lines and the painting is not the best. However from normal viewing distances they look OKish and that suits me! I could spend hours on this kit but fundamentally it was a part built glue bomb when I bought it and the drive train is assembled wrongly so it will never be a museum quality model. Strangely Mrs. Woody thinks I should be in a museum!

Despite the decal disaster tomorrow is another day as they say!

Now I am getting somewhere!

My famous last words - Now I am getting somewhere! Well, whilst a number of things in my life have not progressed much, Mrs. Woody's list of chores for me for instance, I do actually feel as though I am getting there with the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier. More painting of the figures today. Never sure of uniform colours but a search on the internet seemed to indicate that for USA WW2 GIs the jackets were a lightish brown with the trousers a darker shade. Whether that is right or not is almost immaterial as my painting skills will no doubt produce some unrecognisable and horrendous rendition of WW2 fashion! However the truck and trailer are looking more like they should. Amazing to remember that this was a £5 part built glue bomb kit when I bought it late last year at the Slaeford Model Makers Show. 

Even more amazing is that the kit has got this far in just a few months! That really is me getting somewhere!

Detail time!

Detail time for me on the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier involved picking out some of the deails in appropriate paints. One thing airbrushing can not do without a lot of detailed and sometimes impossible masking is to touch in those small items where a contrasting colour makes them stand out such as instrument dials. My choice is to use a small brush just that my eye sight these days requires magnifying glasses to try to get the brush and paint in the right place! 

The seats, instrument dials, lights, mirror, gun and the straps on the canvas have all been detail painted and I have started the figures - I just cannot paint figures but I will give these another go!

I think that Mrs. Woody wishes I was as detailed in painting the house as I am my models! 

If you want to see the ultimate in how not to paint you home have a look at this classic Mr. Bean sketch which as I have told Mrs. W is something even I would not consider - just yet anyway!

 

Whats on the menu?

A wet and cold start to March which pretty much follows on from much of February. I did manage to get out on my bike building on the 320 miles I managed last month which brought the total for the year to 527. Whether March will see that increased much is debatable following the weather forecast that suggests snow is on the menu next week!

On the menu today though was some more work on the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier. the body and trailer got another coat of Olive Green and the canvas top was painted a stone colour. The tyres have also been painted in grey. It all looks a bit bright at the moment but it will all tone down with some weathering. I still need to paint some details in like the seats and instrument dials before that happens though.

Not sure whats on the menu for tomorrow apart from more rain by the looks of it!

Looking brighter!

A wet day at the Rocks by Rail Museum today found me looking for an inside job. That seemed to follow a theme for me with several painting jobs over the past few days and I found myself in the dry of the cafe with the job of freshening the paint. Almost a ground hog day in that the cafe is painted white - just like my rebuilt conservatory! So out came the paint and brushes and following the removal of the Winter cobwebs painting started. I also cleaned up the various sockets and splash backs that had suffered from previous paint jobs where the painters were perhaps a little less concerned about keeping the paint just to the walls!

It may not look that different from the before picture above but believe me it looks a lot brighter - visitors may suffer from snow blindness if I get the whole cafe done!

Meanwhile back in the rain the new garage for Harriot the JCB and the CAT has a the beginnings of a back wall so the future is looking brighter despite the grey skies!

Back home I also had time to start painting the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier in olive drab green. It needs a second coat but that too is looking brighter!

It gets dark before it gets light!

Very philosophical that it gets dark before getting light but in this case I am talking about the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier! I can not believe I built this at the end of December last year! It was a bit of a half built glue bomb bought for £5 at the Sleaford Model Makers Show. It had a host of issues with the chassis but I did manage to make something of it. How good that something will be is going to be subject to the painting. Today I dragged the built kit out of hibernation and started the painting process. Being an American WW2 vehicle it will be olive green but before that is applied I primed the parts with my usual Vallejo black primer. This gives a great base upon which to start painting. Being black, any difficult to get to parts missed with top coat will, or rather should not stand out. And boy is this kit difficult to get the airbrush around! It took me about two hours in total to prime it. It is not going to be an easy paint that is for sure!

The main body of the kit. Luckily I had the foresight not to glue the wheels and several other parts in place to make painting easy - well easier then it would be if they were all in place.

Two hours of airbrushing later and it has all gone dark!

A bit of gardening.

Despite my garden still looking like a mud swamp as an aftermath of the recent building work I did do some gardening if you can call planting some seeds gardening. Tomatoes, lettuce and spring onions are planted in a hope that we can have some salad items this year following the shortages in the supermarkets! With the excitement that caused I thought I would continue work on a smaller scale with my 009 Narrow gauge layout.

The bridge built yesterday was sprayed in a base coat of light grey and awaits weathering but the grassed areas either side of the stream are now looking a bit greener and probably unkept with undergrowth!

I have applied some of the Peco glue for static grass which are the whitish looking areas.

Static grass applied and the glue needs to dry before I vacuum the surplus up for further use.

 

With the surplus static grass removed I added various types of foliage mainly from Woodlands Scenics to give the impression of undergrowth.

 

The painted bridge is in view in this photo - certainly needs toning down.

This is exactly the look I was hoping to create - amazing that I actually managed it!

Well if I carry on tomorrow I can tell Mrs. Woody that I have been busy gardening!

Crossing tha gap!

In my usual butterfly way of wandering from one project to another I did some work on the 009 narrow gauge layout today. The bridge taking the track across the stream needed building to cross that gap. The track had been held in mid air for some time which probably frightened the 4mm passengers and train crew every time they went over it! 

However their days of dare devil travel are now a thing of the past - almost! Originally when I constructed the bridge abutments before I poured the stream in resin, the idea was that that piece of grey card on the left would go over the abutments and stream forming the track bed for the bridge. Unfortunately and not noticed until now, the resin moved the abutments. The movement was such that I needed to alter my ideas and I eventually came up with this.

It needs painting but I think it does the job! It certainly takes a train....

Unlike the Fourth Bridge painting this should take a matter of a few minutes - a job for tomorrow if Mrs. Woody does not decide we need to get some pots going in the green house with tomato and lettuce plants to do our bit to survive the salad shortage!

 

Whether I will like the weathering? 2.

Well it is finished with a dusting of weathering powders and matt varnish added. The photos are a cruel close up. It does look slightly lighter in real light and from normal viewing distance. 

I did add a tail lamp to show that red light to any following trains.

Putting next to a similar van you can see just how weathered and dirty I have gone!

This is the first wagon I have done. Am I happy with it? I have probably gone too dark with the black wash but overall this exercise has served its purpose in that I have learnt a great deal and hopefully the next one will be a little better but I can live with this! After all this is a hobby!