A red day!

A red day as I was red in the face after several hours of grass cutting at the Rocks By Rail Museum. Not only the heat made me red but the mower broke on me again! Luckily John saved the day with a quick repair to get me back out there again! After three weeks not cut I faced a major uphill task to cut through the thick long grass. However most of it is done - until next time!

Meanwhile back at WMD HQ the red theme continues with the chassis of the taleri DAF 95 Canvas Truck now in red! A bit brighter then my face!

Hopefully tomorrow will not be such a red day!

Its sunny but it is a grey day in the Man Cave!

A lovely day which started with a nice 23 mile bike ride and then time in the garden planting out the plants that Mrs. Woody and me had grown from seeds in the greenhouse. Still more to plant out but there is beginning to be a bit of space in the green house. The only thing about plants and sunny warm weather is that they require watering so I am busy with the watering can!

In between planting I did have a chance to get in the man cave and apply some undercoat on the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck chassis. A nice light grey that will be ideal for the red top coat. It does make a big difference getting all the various parts harmonised in one colour - even if it is grey!

I am also getting the cab ready for paint. The cab shell was one of the first things I built but before painting I needed to ready the cab for windscreen wipers configured for right hand drive. Leaving them in their left hand drive configuration would mean that the driver would have a part of his vision area through the screen unswept by the wipers - not good for road safety! Luckily DAF appear to have a body shell that can easily cope with both configurations. All I had to do was drill out the blanked hole on the cab and fill in the redundant one which made the job relatively easy.

Cat Kit!

Today saw me assemble a large kit of parts for a cat climbing frame. In my ever continuing quest to clear my garage out I came across a box which I purchased some ten years or so ago (it is not only my model kits that don't see the light of day for decades after I bought them) from the middle of Lidl (other similar stores with middle aisles are available!). Today it got put together - with assistance from some of the felines who were keen to experience the finished product!

The scattered parts are reminisent of my workbench in the man cave!

That's the next part I need Marty!

Nothing like making yourself at home!

The finished product being enjoyed!

Meanwhile back in the land of plastic kits.....

The chassis is just about ready for paint. Maybe tomorrow.....

The hub of the matter!

After yesterdays moan about the slow progress and problems with the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck kit it has been a more positive day.

To get to the hub of the matter, the after-market resin hubs have now been fitted. The front ones were straight forward enough and just slid over the kit axle with the hub cover being glued on to trap the hub on to the axle. The rear ones were slightly more complex. Firstly they needed drilling out so that they could fit over the kit rear axles.

Finding a drill of the right diameter was for once easy enough. Generally my supply of drill bits contains everything apart from the one I need - but not this tine! Knowing things could go drastically wrong in a traditionally Woody way I was wise enough to realise if I drilled too far into the hub I could drill right through it destroying the outer part of the hub. Therefore a piece of masking tape was wound on the drill bit to indicate the maximum depth I should drill to without resorting to a very large sware jar contribution. The resin from which theses after-market parts are manufactured is not the best to inhale into the body so drilling was slow which avoided spraying dust about as well as avoiding heating up the resin and melting it! After drilling the debris were vacuumed up and I washed my hands. Working smarter and safer not harder as I get older!

Despite drilling as far as I could safely do into the resin hub I did have to shorten the kit axles to get the hubs flush with the backplate. As a note I am not sure if you really need the kit backplate or not but it is glued in place and I am not going to try to move it!

With the hubs in place I loosely placed the resin wheels in place. The mudguards are also not yet glued in place. However even with these parts not fixed the kit takes on a whole new look.

Temporarily putting the cab and body in place adds even more to that new look.

I do like those wheels and hubs! 

Coming together - slowly and with problems!

I have to admit that when I started the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck I thought it would be a relative quick build. However, being the ever optimistic type of person I am I have got that wrong! Nothing new there then! The chassis is taking a while to build. Some of that is down to converting to right hand drive and fitting aftermarket hubs and wheels but some is also down to the instructions. Italeri instructions for their truck kits have never been the best and become downright problamtic when they start mixing up kits. The canvas truck is a mix of a kit for a DAF 95 tractor unit and the body from another earlier kit. It all works in as much as there are the right parts in the kit to build the pictured truck on the box lid. However there are a great deal of surplus parts which are not always identified on the sprue layout plan as being surplus. In addition the instructions seem to be a cut and paste from several previous instruction sheets. For some strange reason there is a section of the instructions covering the fitting of the fifth wheel coupling. The kit is for a cargo truck not a tractor unit! There is also no reference to the fitting of the spare wheel carrier but it appears in some drawings as fitted to the chassis but from what parts? Those are just a couple of examples which take time to work out and resolve. 

Moans and excuses over with, there has been some progress with the build with yet more sub-assemblies being built but now beginning to be fitted to the chassis as well.

You can see the size of the truck by the 12inch/30cm ruler sat at the side of the tempoarily combined chassis, cab and cargo body..

I am particularly impressed by the fit and detail of the dashboard conversion from Kit Form Services.

At least that has not been a problem!

The unanswerable question.

Out today with Mrs. Woody and passing a Hobby Craft store we stopped as I needed some Tamiya paints. Not much in stock but I got what I needed! 

They also had this rather natty razor saw set. Been after something like this for a long time so having it hanging from the display in front of my eyes made it almost rude not to buy it! 

Mrs. W did not see it quite that way though as she produced a cross stitch kit for me to purchase for her! 

Why does it always cost me double when she accompanies me??? That is a question I will never be able to get an answer to!

A little grey!

A little grey - just as Mrs. Woody describes my thought process when I come up with one of my less well thought out ideas! However a little greyin this case is what I painted up the engine and gearbox of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck and whilst there was still some paint in the airbrush cup a few other items were undercoated in it too. Having researched DAF engine colours - you can tell my spare time is well spent! - they appear either red or grey. As the chassis is to be red I thought that the contrast of a grey engine and gearbox would be a good idea.

Meanwhile I have been busy putting together various sub-assemblies that will go on the chassis. Progress doesn't look much but it will all come together - eventually! It is just a little grey at the moment!

The inspector calls!

Rocks By Rail Museum today which did see me grass cutting but not a lot as I had to take care of some guests and then this afternoon take a tour of the local area putting some banners up roadside to advertise the Museum's next event this coming May Bank Holiday.

Before I did leave I had to go and see what was happening with this loco. It was having a boiler inspector - hence the inspector calls.

 To do the inspection a lot of the loco has to be stripped out.

Being over the pit I could not resist having a look! One of the bonuses of being a volunteer!

And a peek in the cab!

Those strips of metal on the ground to the left of the loco are the fire grate which all had to come out.

I have no doubt it will pass but I had to leave before the inspection was complete. However I did have a few minutes to pop my hjead in the restoration workshop where that pile of timber from last week that will make up the body of a new wagon is still being painted by the ever patient john!

First it was a wood treatment, now a grey primer and then a grey top coat. I am betting John wishes another painter would call!

Instant flower pot!

Not a post about gardening although I did do a fair amount of hedge cutting and weeding today. These flower pots are from the scenic bits I bought at the market Deeping model Railway Show the other day.

I saw these and thought they might look good on the platform at Chalkdon my 009 narrow gauge layout.

I think they add that little bit extra!

No doubt Mrs. Woody will now be thinking that I can do much the same on a one to one scale basis!

Mrs. Woody shares her cold!

Not the best of days today. Mrs. Woody had a bad cold last week which she has now shared with me! Of course being a man it is far worse for me! Luckily I did not feel too bad yesterday as I went round the Market Deeping Model Railway Club Exhibition. The narrow gauge layouts that I featured yesterday were complimented by some small and large 00 and 0 standard gauge layouts. A few pictures here just to give a taste.

A couple of compact layouts that are nice and easy to transport for the exhibitors.

Full of atmosphere was this layout complete with a rarely modeled burnt out brake van. Brilliant!

I did purchase a few items including some DCC chips, a new cutting mat, a few scenic bits and these two coaches.

I have two HST power cars and two coaches so I am trying to get a few coaches to make it a 7 or 8 car unit. These are in the right livery but are Mk 4 coaches whereas the HST used Mk 3 coaches. Am I worried? No! Its my layout and when the train runs you would not even notice! Just wish Mrs. Woody would not notice the bag they were in as I brought it in!