Finishing!

Today I can actually say I have finished three things! Yes, I know that sounds very unlike me and to be honest these are small things I have finished but never the less finished they are!

Firstly, the bridge on my 009 narrow gauge layout is painted, weathered, varnished and now glued in place.

With that done I can now get on with ballasting the track.

Secondly, the last of the decals on the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier has been applied. Given the saga of these and the measures I have taken to maintain the integrity of 50 year old decals and the awkwardness of getting them off their backing sheet I am pleased that is a job finished.

Unfortunately I have remembered by means of look at the parts left over, that I still need to make the tool rack for the rear tailgate. Not a big job and it will add interest to the rear end of the truck but it is strange how you can forget about such things. Must be my age as I tell Mrs. Woody when I tell her I forgot about that urgent job she wanted done

Thirdly the brick laying on my step construction is finished! 

Despite the rain I decided I needed to get that job finished so I could get on with what follows on from it. So although I got wet I am happy!

Although the brick work is done I do still need to backfill and concrete the inside of what Mrs. W commented on when she saw it as 'my coffin'! I knew those murder mystery TV shows were a bad influence on her!

More bricks!

A day free of model making activities - unfortunately! However I need to progress this brick laying for the step so having got some more sand it was time to mix a barrow of 'gobbo', as mortar is referred to in the trade! Then down to getting some bricks down. It is fortunate that I am not a bricklayer by trade as I would never have made any money at the rate I lay bricks. Anyway it is not about how quick you do the work but the quality of what you do as I tell Mrs. Woody in a vain attempt to explain the slow progress. Strange that she is not so interested in me finishing my model making projects!

As you can tell from the darkness of the photo I am making use of the longer daylight hours. That reminds me that next weekend the clocks go forward to Summer Time - hopefully I will be able to 'step' into Summer Time if I have finished the bricklaying! Just hope the weather remembers it is Summer Time. 

Am I actually getting anywhere?

I have periods when despite working on projects the actual progress is visually minimal. I then think to myself am I actually getting anywhere? It is something that other modellers I have talked to also go through. The reality for most of us is that we are usually working on several projects all of which are at a stage where we have to spend time doing jobs on them which whilst critical to progress them to a finish don't actually show much progress.  I have to remind myself of that fact and in many ways this blog is a good way to have a look back and actually see the amount of progress made on things. Mrs. Woody would probably conclude that I make more progress on my models then her list of jobs for me. 

At the moment I am painting the Dapol Platform Figures, weathering the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier and trying to move my 009 narrow gauge layout on scenically. I may also dabble briefly in some other project that catches my eye in the Man Cave and as anyone who knows me realises, I am easily distracted!

This evenings work saw the bridge over the stream on my 009 gauge layout weathered. A steel structure like this is supposed to portray, will usually begin to show the signs of rust after a few years. In addition the white it is painted in just looks too clean! 

However I did not want to create a rust bucket bridge but one where it was obvious that it had been maintained but was getting to the point where some more paint was required. My chosen method of creating this type of rust was to use a small piece of sponge. This was dabbed into some rust paint and then further dabbing on a piece of paper towel saw most of the paint taken off! Even more dabbing with the sponge saw a random rust pattern applied to the steel sides of the bridge.

As I need the bridge finished in order to start ballasting the track I gave the base a coat of black paint. If  there are any gaps in the ballast then they won't show up as much as if I had left the base in a light colour. Just need to seal it with a coat of varnish and then the completion of this small project will enable much more progress to take place on the main layout.

Meanwhile on the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier I seem to be spending days adding an earth coloured wash to weather it. However it is beginning to get to the point where it looks as though it actually is a working vehicle and not a showroom special. 

So yes I am actually getting somewhere especially when I look back at what it looked like a few weeks ago. 

Another brick in the wall!

 Another brick in the wall by Pink Floyd was the ear worm song in my head as I started to lay bricks for my step up into the rebuilt conservatory. 

It may not seem as though many bricks have gone down but I have sorted out the levels and the squareness. Even experienced brick layers say the worse part of any build is the setting out so whilst I am sure they would still be much quicker then me at least I have something in common with them! I quite enjoy brick laying as well for some reason. Probably because you can lose yourself in the work and you do see something developing as you go along. Apparently Winston Churchill laid bricks as a hobby to unwind from the World of politics. I can understand that.

Before I go any further I need to get some more sand and hopefully the weather will stay dry and reasonably warm. The only thing about a job like this is I find my model making time limited but it keeps Mrs. Woody happy that a job on her chore list is actually getting done. As I will point out its just another brick in the wall!

Foundation time.

It is another day of back ache! It was another reasonable day so having drained myself yesterday moving the drain to enable me to put the foundation in for a step into the rebuilt conservatory I did actually put that foundation in. My back is again aching! Mrs. Woody tells me I am over doing things! I think it is more that I am getting older and my back just isn't as hardy as it used to be! Anyway the foundation is a two step one which means one side will have three courses of bricks to bring it up to the level where the step needs to be whilst the other side will have two courses. The ends will be a mix! It makes sense in my mind but how that equates to a workable solution is as usual open to debate! The foundation had to be dug out and concrete hand mixed which is probably why my back is somewhat aching.

I was hoping that the base left from the lifted slabs would be a suitable foundation but unfortunately it was very thick in the first place I tested but very flimsy in all the other areas so it had to come up!

The rear of the foundation in and three couses of bricks will go on that.

The front and ends are at a higher level.

A smaller cat audience today and Matty was probably wondering why I was out in the rain which came during the last hour of work.

I did manage a half hour or so continuing to paint my model people from the Dapol Platform Figures. It is one of those jobs which if you just have a half hour or hour every so often is quite therapeutic and more importantly back friendly! They are almost at the point where I will varnish them and then cut them from the sprue to paint hair/hats and shoes. Leaving them on the sprue makes it easier to paint and avoiding handling them means the risk of rubbing the paint off with fingers is minimised. Once the varnish is on they will be more robust to being handled. 

You may notice the plastic pot lid that is my paint pallet - very handy and once it is too messy it can be washed clean and looking like new. Wish I could look like new when I wash!

The drain has drained me!

I am well and truly drained today. The cause - a drain! Going back to the conservatory rebuild at the beginning of this year, a drain was installed to take one half of the roof water. The other part went into an existing drain. When the guy installed the new drain it was a horrible wet and cold day and I guess it was not conductive to doing much digging. The result was that the drains position was such that I did not have room to put a foundation in for a step to the doors.

I have been planning to move it for some time but with this continued winter weather I guess I felt like the ground worker did when he put the drain in - I just wanted to be in the warm and dry! However until the drain was moved just about all the other jobs to sort the WMD HQ garden out could not get done. So this morning it was dry and warmish so I decided today was the day. However the job was bigger than I thought it would be. Where the pipe goes through the lawn it only had about 3 inches of cover. I could easily have put a fork through it and in a dry summer the grass above the pipe would just die. 

So the whole pipe was exposed, removed and the trench dug down another 9 inches. That doesn't sound much but it will be enough and it was a tough dig in clay so I think that its is about as much as my back can stand! Anyway my back lasted long enough to put the pipe back into its new deeper home and backfill. 

I did have a bit of an audience who were probably bemused by what I was doing just as Mrs. Woody was when I told her what I was doing!

The foundation for the step will need a bit more digging out but that can wait for another day and a better back!

Back in the comfort of my Man Cave I was able to remove the various weights that I had placed on the sub-assembly for the gardens to the thatched cottage and shop on my OO9 narrow gauge layout that I glued down last night. I have used PVA and whilst it gives a good bond once dry it does take its time to go off and during that period it is best to weigh down the surfaces.

Everyuthing apart from the kitchen sink weighing the car base down!

The sub-assembly now well and truly flat and stuck down!

At least I won't have to dig any drains for the 4mm scale houses on the layout!

Many things happening at the Rocks by Rail Museum!

Another day of many things happening at the Rocks By Rail Museum today. Firstly in the Cafe, Jane came in to do a collage on the front counter.

Jane is using parrts cut out of magazines to build up a train themed collage.

Its a long job but already it is looking good.

Jane has an artistic talant as proved by her camper van customisation!!

Meanwhile I was still painting! This time above and behind the cleaning cupboard that I painted last week. It was quite dirty up there and had not seen a paint brush for some time. I could tell why as I had to do contortions to get up there!

The paint is taking ages to dry but it is cleaner looking - honest!

Meanwhile more painting has been going on inside the LMS brake van that is needed for this season. It is looking great and as I had not been in for a while it was a bit of a shock to see just how much has gone on since my last visit.

Back outside work on putting the roof on the storage shed for Harriot the JCB and the CAT is progressing but slowly! It is one of those jobs which will suddenly jump forward but not sure when!

A mixed bag!

A bit of a mixed bag of model making activities today - just like the weather at the moment! I thought it might be a nice day for a bike ride but as I was getting ready this morning the wind suddenly increased as indicated by the bird table going across the garden at a rapid rate of knots and then the rain started! Every now and again it would go sunny for a few minutes then the next influx of rain. Oh well, a good excuse that I can't do anything in the garden Mrs. Woody (although I am sure she would point out I have a perfectly good weatherproof jacket), so I had a couple of hours in my Man Cave!

On my 009 narrow gauge layout I have commenced gluing down the card sub-assemblies of the road through the village and the then the thatched cottage and shop base will be glue onto that once the glue is dry.

The bare baseboard - looks strange!

Always best to weigh the card down as the glue dries.

Whilst I wait for the glue to dry I did some weathering of Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier. Using a dilute brown wash I have started the wheels and a bit more on the trailer and the main carrier itself. It is a slow job as I need to wait for the paint to dry before doing more but an ideal one to fit in around other jobs.

Another slow job is the painting of the Dapol Platform Figures. However it is a job that if you take your time and accept that it is going to take a while can be quite therapeutic. I am not sure if my sense of fashion is right (Mrs. W would say categorically no!) but these figures are supposed to represent the 50's/60's so I am sure they will be OK - I hope! At least my OO gauge figures don't have to face the wind and rain in their small World on my layout!

 

Figure it out!

A quiet day today and one where I figured out that my 009 narrow gauge layout will eventually need some figures to give it life. I could buy ready painted ones by a variety of manufacturers at a cost of somewhere in the region of £1 to £3 a figure. I know you can get bundles of 50 to 100 ready painted figures on eBay but the ones I have seen do look as though they have been painted with a tar brush using colours from a clowns make up box. I figured that I would be better off painting some figures myself especially as I had a pack of Dapol's Platform Figures in stock. In fact I had used three of them to populate my Leyland National bus that I built last year.

I think I paid about £4 for them not so long ago but I see they are now about £7.50. That is still cheaper than buying ready painted figures even allowing a few pounds for he paint used. First stage in painting them was to give them an undercoat of black primer. However whilst I had the airbrush out and before loading it with white paint I had the unusual inspirational idea that I could spray the cattle grid gate and track bridge from my 009 layout white to move that project on. This would mean I would only need to clean the airbrush out once at the end of the session of spraying as loading it with black paint after the white would produce a still suitable dark grey undercoat.

With the primer dry the job of painting the figures commences. They are actually nicely detailed figures which I think do not date back the 60 years to the Airfix figures but are more recent. As usually the power and resolution of digital photography makes my painting abilities look bad but in reality from normal viewing distance the nearly finished ones look OK - honest!

I figured out that it would be easier to leave the figures on their sprue at the moment to ease the painting. Their hats and shoes will be painted in once the rest of the body is painted and the figure removed from the sprue.

Testing times for Woody!

The last thing you expect to be doing on a Saturday is an exam and its been a while since I last sat down to do one. However that is exactly what I found myself doing today. In order to go trackside during operating sessions at the Rocks By Rail Museum I have to pass certain competency tests. The first one is the understand of the Rules Book. All railways have a rule book which puts into formal terms how the railway is run and operated and the responsibilities of the various levels of staff. 

Two hours and a bit after starting I finished - it was not a short exam! I will find out my result in a few weeks time.

To be honest I felt somewhat fuzz headed after that exam but having got back to WMD HQ and after a short nap on the sofa I was back in the zone as they say! It was time to do a bit more testing of myself with some modelling. I did add a couple more decals to the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier. However as this is a slow job I decided that I would commence a critical element for my 009 narrow gauge layout that would enable me to move on with the scenic work. I have a cattle grid made for the road at the back of the layout. Cattle grids are there to stop cattle and sheep from getting out of an area but there are times when there is a need for someone to get passed the grid with an animal such as a horse. Therefore there is usually a gate to the side which allows passage by our four legged friend when accompanied.

I could have had a dig around for a suitable gate either in my scrap box of useful parts (or junk as Mrs. Woody would call it!) or looked for one on the internet. However I have materials and a pack of plastic strip was dug out of the WMD Stores and so further testing of myself commenced!

I usually keep a pack of these small plastic strips in stock as they are so handy. I thiunk that they are produced by Slaters and I usually end up buying a pack from Squires when they are at a model railway exhibition that I attend.

The basic gate is made up - nothing is planned apart from a basic size which is one of my usual traits!

After an hour or so I have what I want. Mounting it on a small piece of plastic sheet should make it easier to install on the layout - note the word 'should'!

Testing it in position on the layout and I think this is one test that I have passed!

Just needs painting and then I can get on with the scenic work. Hopefully that won't be so testing!