Catching up on the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma.

It seems as though someone has forgotten to tell the weather it is no longer Winter! Another day of cold wetness that made me think it was January not April. However at least it was relatively warm and certainly dry in the Man Cave where I was able to enjoy the delights of having a clear workbench. 

With space comes a desire to fill it so the half built Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma that I started at the beginning of the year (when the weather seemed to be equally wet and cold as now) came out of storage.

I had got to the stage of putting the jerry cans in their cradles and putting the etched brass straps on. I had actually completed one so there were another five to do.

I did use acrylic varnish to fasten the etched brass parts which as I have pointed out before can be used as an adhesive. You can see the size of some of the parts with one of the smaller ones highlighted by the red arrow. They can test your eyesight!

After a couple of hours the jerry cans are done and four of the tyres smoothed off at the join line. I will probably leave the jerry cans off and paint them separately for ease of  applying paint to both them and the hull of the Puma.

Anyone who thought my newly cleared workbench would not last more then a day I am afraid is proved wrong! However, tomorrow is another day where in the World of Woody anything can happen as Mrs. Woody will freely testify to!

The decks are clear - well clearer!

As I posted several days ago I need to clear the decks on my workbench as it was just becoming too crowded with unfinished projects, paints, glue, tools and various bits that I just don't understand how they arrived on the bench! Anyway the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper truck is just about finished and can be taken off the bench following the application of some spare number plates left over from the build of the Leyland National bus last year.

With the truck removed the bench itself was looking like this!

Following some serious sorting out it does look somewhat clearer and organised! 

How long this will remains the case is open to debate but if you are into betting I would be putting money on not long! However in the meantime it has at least raised my spirits - nothing beats creating space on the decks!

Mirror, Mirror, on the truck!

Just a few minutes out in the man cave today which was enough though to put together some door mirrors for the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper truck. The arms were bent from some brass wire and the mirrors were simply cut from a scrap of plastic card. 

They were then fastened to the truck with some superglue into the small holes I driller in the cab doors. They were then painted black and the mirror faces silver. I will never see a reflection in these mirrors which is good because I don't really want to see myself! 

Whilst I had these paints to hand I also finished painting the grill on the front of the cab.

It will never win any trophies for detail but as a layout model in amongst all the other models it will look fine - I hope!

Legless!

A bit more work on the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper. It now has a driver although the only suitable figure to hand was one of the Dapol Platform Figures that I have been painting. The problem was that he was in a standing position. No problem - he became legless to fit in! You cannot really see my crude operation through the cab windows and it si something that is done a lot for passenger figures in model railway carriages so I don't feel too guilty about it.

The problem with fitting the cab in the right position was taken care of by cutting the engine block back. You cannot see it as the cab does not tilt and it was the only way to get the cab to fit properly. The engine is probably down a cylinder but that is no problem in the model world!

The tipper side has been adorned with some name plates - Bobby Beets, Quality Chalk - which I did using WORD. There is a story behind the choice of name but I will cover that in another post.

In the meantime I would just like to make some door mirrors and maybe a bit of weathering before I can call it finally finished.

Whilst making the name plates I also did a larger one for the quarry access.

It needs some legs to stand on - I wonder if the drivers legs are up to the job?

Almost finished!

It is almost finished - the Knightwing Foden Haulmaster tipper that is. I have started fitting some glazing and need to fettle the cab to sit a bit lower but it does look like a proper tipper!

I feel almost finished too after a morning putting out banners for the Rocks By Rail Museum event over the May Bank holiday. At least it is done having visited various locations to put them in place and dragging all the stuff from the safe parking place to the visible location which are never conveniently in the same place! Oh well the exercise will do me good!

Broken things!

A day of broken things at the Rocks By Rail Museum today! 

The mower broke on me with the drive to the front wheels failing for no obvious reasons so that is in the workshop!

Also in the workshop is the Shark brake van with some rather broken wood panels that Andy is chopping out ready for new wood to be let in.

This steam loco has a broken tube in the boiler which has had to be repaired - no easy job!

However on a more positive note hopefully all will be ready for the My Bank Holiday when our next big events are.

Hopefully the gate will not break!

Clearing the decks!

After yesterdays filming for the YouTube video that I did on my Last Great Project layout which did show my workbench/desk in all its mayhamic (is that a word - well it is now!) glory, I thought it about time I cleared it up a bit and clear the decks as they say. I could just put everything in a box and kid myself it is clear but there are a few unfinished projects on there which really need finishing so I can clear the bench with a clear conscious.

First up is the Knightwing Foden tipper kit in its half finished state that has been seen in many photos of other projects on the bench. Dragging it from its corner of the bench I was amazed that all the parts are there which is a good start. 

One of the axles is broken so that has been glued and six if the wheels are now solidly attached. The rear mudguards have also been added to the tipper body. I also needed to re-glue the tailgate to the tipper which came off in my clumsy maneuvers to glue the mudguards! 

If I recall correctly the cab does not fit particularly well on the chassis so that may be a challenge to correct but first I need to glaze the cab - that should be fun!

Meanwhile if you are interested in seeing some trains running on my Last Great Project Layout the video is here. When you see my work bench you will realise why I need to clear the decks!

Growing!

With some warm and, amazingly, dry weather it was time to sort the green house out a bit. Mrs. Woody and myself had planted various flower and vegetable seeds some weeks ago which have equally amazingly have mostly all grown! The tomato plants that I grew from seed on a windowsill inside (away from prying cat paws) were potted up today and some marigold seedlings taken onto the next stage of small pots. The trouble with this sort of work is that you do loose yourself in it and before I knew it several hours had gone - several hours I planned to do some model making in! Oh well - I can always make models when it is raining (Mrs. Woody allowing of course!) but I cant always get into the garden and greenhouse if it is raining - that sort of makes sense!

I did want to try out my DCC controller as posted about yesterday so that does work and I did take some video for another insomnia curing YouTube video which I will do in the next few days. I had actually prepared some trains for it with a focus on EWS, Freightliner and DRS diesels. 

I will have to see how unpopular my choices are with viewers! Hopefully I can keep my viwer base growing!

Failed!

Last night was a bit of a failure as my Bachmann Dynamis DCC controller failed! Not sure what is wrong with it but I have got used to it over my three years of ownership so it was natural to want to replace it like for like. So today, as I put it to Mrs. Woody, was a good day for a random trip out for her pleasure. The fact that the random trip took in a model shop which had a controller in stock and the Rocks By Rail Members Annual General Meeting was pure unconnected coincidence!

Back at WMD HQ I will be trying the controller out tomorrow with hopefully no issues or problems or my mission to replace will have failed but as Mrs. Woody has pointed out many times I should be used to failure by now!

Finished!

The £5 broken, quarter built and glue bomb Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier, bought without really knowing what it was as it was in a plastic bag with no box is now finished - well as far as I am going with it! I am really pleased how this turned out and given with what I started with somewhat surprised that it is finished at all! Anyway a few pictures of it on its finished diorama base that was completed today.