The green, green DAF truck!

In yesterdays post I highlighted my interior design skills or more to the point lack of them! I also made mention that the canvas part of the cargo body of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck needed a contrasting green to the metal lower sides - all part of my exterior design skills or indeed lack of those too! Well I have painted the canvas part and to be honest I like the contrasting green and how it works overall. Having looked through the WMD HQ paint store Tamiya XF26 deep Green was selected as a suitable colour and after some careful masking of the gloss green lower panels it was airbrushed on. 

 I still need to paint the underside of the body which will be aluminum applied over a black undercoat. The body and cab will need decals nad I have some for a UK company that should work well - hopefully!  

As I write this a YouTube video from the WMD What's On My Bench series is uploading and should be available showing where I am up to with this kit. If you need a cure for insomnia this will be it!

Interior design!

Doing some work on the cab interior of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck it was evident that the stark greyness would be somewhat uninspiring to the driver so a bit of interior design work was required. I guess I will never end up being asked to refurbish the interior of some exotic beach side pad with my abilities but I can add some light blue highlights to the cab! With a bit of masking and some light blue paint it looks a little better especially with the seats and bunks now glued in place.

I just tried the wheels on the chassis - just to see!

and with the wheels on the chassis it would almost be rude not to try the cab and cargo body on!

Don't worry! The green on the canvas of the cargo body is just what was left in the airbrush when I painted the gearbox. The final paint for the canvas will be more in keeping with matching the cab - all part of my exterior as well as interior design skills. Just don't tell Mrs. Woody or she will want more jobs done!

Lets give it some bling!

I gave the wheels, fuel tank and air systems of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck a coat of Vallejo aluminum paint to give them a bit of bling! Once dry I gave them a coat of gloss varnish just to seal in the finish. They should look good once they are on the chassis - I hope!

On Rocks By Rail Museum matters there are a couple of new videos on my YouTube channel featuring some of the action from the Bank Holiday Monday operating day and are available by clicking on the links below.

Or you can visit my channel to find your cure for insomnia by clicking here.

Vegetation Butchery and the art of rusted bolt removal - another day at Rocks By Rail Museum!

 Back at the Rocks By Rail Museum - only seems like yesterday when I was last there. Oh it was! Today back to mowing and hedge trimming. My corded hedge trimmers at home broke so I bought a cordless set that I have now tested at the Museum - they work well! Too well probably as I have been asked to trim more hedges!

Starting my vegetation butchery....

 

The results - it may not be Chelsea Flower show garden standard but its now under control and looks wider with the hedges trimmed back.

Whilst I was butchering vegetation, John was performing more technical processes in the restoration shed. The art of removing a rusted bolt - one large hammer and a cold chisel. It works!

As work continues on restoring the Shark brake van, John sweeps up the remains of some of it following his various 'removal' processes!

The perfect time for a Magnum ice cream!

Another great Quarry Operating Session at the Rocks By Rail Museum today. I was acting as one of the shunters so had the delights of points and couplings. Having done this a few times now I was taken aback by the number of visitors who took up position to watch the activities in detail rather than glance and walk on. Hopefully they enjoyed it as much as I did. Unfortunately for them they would not have been early enough to see the Museum come to life. The steam loco being fired up, the diesels warmed up and the excavators readied foe action - all fascinating stuff to someone like me!.

Once visitors arrived it was action stations with shunting and wagon exchanges all day.

It was both a warm day and hard work so at lunchtime it was the perfect time for a Magnum ice cream!

I am back at the Museum tomorrow probably at the helm of a lawn mower - maybe a day for another ice cream!

Sunday spray!

It is Sunday so it is a day to spray - for me anyway! The spraying I am talking about is more colour added to parts of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck which is progressing.

The cab is now a satisfactory glossy green following the issues I experienced earlier.

Whilst the gloss green was in the airbrush I also sprayed up the drop sides of the cargo body. The canvas will be a slightly different shade of green when I get round to painting it.

The gearbox has also been painted green having masked up the join with the engine giving a bit of a contrast to the grey of the engine block.

I have also been busy with the black paint. Many of the parts will be sprayed aluminum or silver so the black is the ideal undercoat. There are a few parts such as the radiator and air intake which will remain black.

A day at the Rocks By Rail Museum tomorrow with a quarry operating day where I have been posted as a shunter which means I will be shattered by 4pm! Given that I think all this paint will be having an additional day to dry as I will probably be asleep on the sofa tomorrow evening.

A real garden!

As it was a Bank Holiday, a warm day and a way of avoiding doing any gardening myself as I still feel shattered, I took Mrs. Woody off to Easton Gardens near Colsterworth in Lincolnshire to see the hard work of others in producing gardening magic. I thought that we had gone there last year but through the magic of being able to go back through this blog it was actually August Bank Holiday 2021! Click here for that post. Time flies! Anyway, despite it being nearly two years much was the same but much was different with a different season displaying itself in the garden. I do love those little spots where something has been created or there is just so much character.

Take a look at the gable end wall of this building. So much history with various builds, alterations and repairs. To build a model of that would require real skills - so I won't be building one!

This little bench set under trees with a few pots scattered around it just looks so simple but just so right.

 Then you have the bigger picture that is some view!

Going back to the character of the place there are these two metal giraffes that are welded up from metal sheet of all things!

 Then you get the oddities such as this rather tall post which seems to have no purpose.

But all is explained by this notice.

Then I came across something I did remember from the last visit - the robotic lawn mowers. This one, having completed a day of mowing, was on charge. 

Maybe this is something that the Rocks By Rail Museum should invest in!

Back in the reality of the WMD HQ Estate the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck cab has been rubbed down, washed and is currently drying thoroughly before going back into the spray shop, hopefully tomorrow.

The heat got to me!

Over the past few months I have complained about the miserable cold and wet weather so this week I have really been enjoying the much warmer and sunnier times especially out cycling and in the garden but I think I might have over done it! Did not feel particularly brilliant today and a 22 mile bike ride felt more like one of the 100 mile time trials I used to ride many years ago! Seeing how I have caught the sun during the week I think that may have something to do with it. I will inform Mrs. Woody that I will need to cut down on gardening for health reasons! However, if I do tell her that I will actually have a higher risk to my health from her reaction then from the sun! 

Hopefully I have now acclimatised to the warmer weather so I can continue to enjoy it and get out more on the bike (and garden) to take in sights like these which were on my cycling route this morning. 

I really do appreciate I am lucky to have such sights near to me.

Venturing out to the Man Cave this evening saw the various interior panels for the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck given an overall coat of light grey which appears to be the spec to these trucks from my internet trawling. The greyness will be broken up here and there with a splash of colour once I get my interior design hat on. Talking of hats maybe I should have worn a hat this week to keep me cool? More to the point a hard hat for when Mrs. W finds the gardening not done!

A green day!

It is all about the colours in the past few days. Grey, red and now green. The green in this case refers to two things. Firstly the cab parts of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck are now in green. The paint job needs further attention as I made the mistake of washing the cab which was in grey undercoat and although it was dry it was not really dry! The paint had absorbed moisture which really needed a day to dry off again. Oh well lesson learnt!. I will leave this a day or so before giving another coat which will hopefully dry glossy.

Meanwhile the cab interior is progressing. The right hand drive dashboard has been glued in place with super glue and the pedals and gear leaver added - on the right! 

Strange thing is that although Italeri make this kit as a left hand drive I noticed that on the floor pan there are location points on both sides for the pedals - most strange but very welcome!

The second part of the green day was a further day of planting out the flower beds. The other side of the garden is now done. 

With the space created in the greenhouse as the plants have come out I was able to pot up my home grown tomato plants that I am proud of!

It will be a red day once they hopefully start producing!

Starting the watering season!

A day of gardening here at WMD HQ taking advantage of the warm weather. Today saw the main flower bed planted out which was a task and a half as despite all the recent rain the ground is rock hard. A combination of watering, compost and sheer determination saw about ten trays of home grown plants set out, planted and watered. No idea how it will all look if they survive. I am no Alan Titchmarsh in gardening knowledge but if it all comes out green with some coloured flowers I will be happy and I am sure Mrs. woody will be - especially since she did not have to plant them!

Of course this now means that I have additional watering duties every day!

I did take the occasional break - important when it is hot outside as I have informed Mrs. W to justify the breaks - and managed to undercoat the cab parts to the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck. The same grey that I used for the chassis was used and will be ideal for the green top coat.

It certainly looks a little less plastic and toy like with the grey applied. Hopefully with the warm weather it will dry fairly quickly. At least I don't need to water it!