Saving money!

I will talk about saving money later but first off with the weather being more like it should have been in June, I ventured to the Rocks By Rail Museum. The event of the year is on Sunday and the grass areas where visitors walk has not seen my attention for three weeks or so! Therefore, after a couple of weeks of fun with the dragline excavator it was back to the more mundane mower! The grass had certainly grown but at least it is now looking a bit more cultivated then before after several hours of work! The temptation of getting on that dragline in the background was hard to resist but I did!

Meanwhile in the restoration shed John has been busy painting the chassis of the to be 3 plank wagon. It certainly looks smart. It is now waiting the return of the refurbished springs that should be back this week so it mat soon be finished - probably much to John's relief!

Meanwhile back at Man Cave the WMD HQ Stores have been searched and the stock of brick embossed plastic card uncovered ready for making bridge abutments. These were obviously purchased some time ago as the £1 price sticker evidences. As I say to Mrs. Woody when she rolls her eyes as more items are purchased - it will only cost more later on so I am actually saving money! I don't think she understands my logic!

Underside detail.

Well the steel girder bridge, which is actually card and plastic sheet but as it is a model we won't worry about that, has really come along. The outside jointing strips on the plate have been added which gives some interest to what was otherwise a featureless surface.

With the top side just about finished it was time to turn attention to the underside. Firstly I needed to make some triangular strengthening fillets to secure the side plates to the underside of the bridge deck. Whilst as a model the plates had already been glued to the deck so these fillets play no role in providing strength to the model, they do replicate what happens on a real bridge - so far as I can tell!

With the fillets in place the girders were cut to size. Originally I was going to put four girders in but it looked too crowded and unrealistic so I settled on the three that are now glued in place. As I said before I am no bridge engineer so I may have created a unstable structure but I am sure the weight of my 00 gauge vehicles will not bring it crashing down!

I think I need to turn my attention to the bridge abutments next.

Bridge deck!

The steel girder bridge for my 00 gauge My Last Great Project Layout is coming on to the point that the bridge deck actually looks like a bridge deck! I added a card road surface to the plastic card bridge deck. Onto that I added footways either side cut to a suitably narrow width - footpaths across older bridges were never that wide! Before adding the footways I used the back of a scalpel blade to emboss the kerbs. You can just about make the detail out in the second photo. It should show a lot better once painted. I have also started detailing the bridge plates with jointing strips made up of a cut strip of plastic card and then some Slaters strip added along the middle. From a distance it looks OK!

Plates!

Whilst I know a lot about plates, especially washing them if Mrs. Woody is reading this, the plates I am talking about here are the steel plate ones that form the sides of certain bridges.

For my model bridge it will have steel plate sides so having cut the floor of the bridge from plastic card I was then able to cut the sides to size. Replicating the construction of such plates I cut 4mm strips to fit around the edges of the plate to give the reinforcing strip that runs around such plates. In addition I then started to make some joining strips to fit along the plate. Its all a bit fiddly but somehow therapeutic! The photos probably illustrate better then I can write!

Going back to washing plates I may have earned my way out of this chore for a day or so at least as one of Mrs. Woody's jobs on her list for me to do is now done. I managed to turn this....

into this....

Even Mrs. Woody is moderately impressed! As you will no doubt note the WMD HQ fleet of cats is not just made up of the live ones but also the various novelty cats accumulated over the years. 

Building girders!

Back on the 30th September I pictured the beginning of a bridge over the tracks of my 00 gauge layout. I have started some more serious construction of this - it is the only way I will really see if it works visually on the layout.

Some of the main components of the bridge are the girders that support the road deck above the railway. To make these I had to make some judgement as to the size they should be. I am not a bridge engineer although I have worked with some in the past so my judgement is based upon a little knowledge and as it is a model if it is wrong it cannot hurt!

I started off getting a nice large sheet of 1mm thick plastic card from the WMD HQ Stores That was cut into 8mm strips about 18 inches long. I had decided that a scale 2 foot 6 inch deep by 2 foot wide girder would be the right dimensions. I had to get the strong solvent out to glue the plastic sheet as it is a robust plastic.

Three strips per girder.

Twelve strips soon had four girders made up. They certainly look beefy!

One thing that surprised me with the sheet of plastic card that is about 70cm b 70cm is that it cost me £4 according to the price ticket. I remember buying it many years ago and thinking it was a bargain then - you pay almost £4 now just for a A4 sized sheet. I always tell Mrs. Woody that I am saving money by spending now! She never sees it quite like that!

Tracks back on!

Well the tracks, suitably rusted and polished metalised where necessary, have been put back on the hull of the second amphibious vehicle.

Putting all three parts of the Panzer Ferry together now and it just gets more interesting - in my eyes anyway!

I still have a selection of smaller parts to add including the chains that fasten the two amphibious tanks to the pontoon. I fear getting those to fit may see the swear jar grow with a few contributions whilst I do that job!

Rusty tracks!

Having climbed all over the Rocks By Rail Museum's dragline excavator yesterday I was quite familiar with rusty tracks which was useful as today I had to make the tracks for the second amphibious vehicle rusty! Firstly though I had to finish assembling the second set for the other side. I followed the same method as the first and it went well - learning as I get older! The bits of card along the top of the track are there to induce the sag that the real track would have between the idle rollers. As I had used Tamiya Extra Thin glue the joints between the track links were still flexible some time after being glued allowing the sag to form

And this is how they set - nice!

With the tracks assembled on both sides they had to come off for painting. As I had not glued the drive wheels or rear idlers this was reasonably easy as the wheels came off with the tracks. Both sets of tracks went into the WMD HQ airbrushing booth (cardboard box!) where a mix of Vallejo Rust and Flat Earth was applied and rusty tracks appeared!

I just need to highlight the polished areas where the various wheels keep the track links free of rust and then they can be put back on the hull. Luckily these rusty tracks do not need to be greased unlike the dragline!

Grease monkey!

Today I was back at the Rocks By Rail Museum doing my grease monkey impression helping Rob grease and lubricate the drag line which we put a new steel rope on last week. Greasing involves uncovering the various grease nipples that are located all around the machine. Many were encrusted by old grease and dirt.

Some degreaser and rag uncovered many of the grease nipples.

No doubt we have missed some but Rob was on a mission searching underneath for those hidden grease points which ended up with grease pumped into them using a grease gun.

This is one area where you need to be careful with the grease and oil. These two drums are the winch and bucket spools over which the cables go. The drums wind in by power from the engine but wind out under gravity. The control of these is via large brake shoes that operate on the two drums controlled from within the cab by two pedals.. In effect it is almost like the old style drum brakes on a car.

Of course after hours of dirty work you have to test whether it has made any difference! Rob took the opportunity to not only test it but give me another training session. 

It is all about co-ordination between the levers and pedals and a gentle touch! I need to work on all of that but I am getting there with the bucket at least going close to where I wanted it to!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon by the Small Faces is a great song and if you need reminding it is on YouTube here. For me and the rest of the volunteers though it was no Lazy Sunday Afternoon as we were at the Rocks By Rail Museum welcoming guests to the Driver for a Fiver event. These have really taken off over the last two years with more people seeing it as a great value event and getting to drive a loco for £5 is a bargain! Last one for this year though so if anyone missed it they will have to put it on next years 'to do' list. Wish I could put Mrs. Woody's 'to do' list items on a list for next year rather than this year!

Panzer Ferry wise one set of tracks has been made and mounted over the wheels. I did this side in one session of gluing which made life interesting! 

Basically all 105 track links were glued with Tamiya thin cement which sets slowly. 

Using this to advantage I was able to put the completed but still flexible length of track over the wheels and because the cement had not fully set I could still get the required sags and bends in the track links.

Just the other side to do now - maybe I will wait for a lazy Sunday afternoon to do it!

Standing on its own wheels.

With the various wheels mounted to the hull, the amphibious tank can now stand on its own wheels! Because I try to anticipate what may go wrong, like in the future tracks breaking, I tend to glue tank wheels on to the hull using a glue like UHU. It provides a reasonably strong joint between parts but it is usually possible to separate parts in the future without major damage. Using a plastic cement would melt the two parts together bonding them into one piece. UHU on the other hand holds the two parts together without bonding them and given the flexible nature of the glue parts can be separated without damage in the future with some well placed but reasonable force 

Next thing is the tracks which will just about bring this model to the same level of completeness as its partner vehicle in this Panzer Ferry.

Despite having spent a fair amount of time on this model my mind has not been inactive in thinking about other projects. My 00 gauge layout has been developing at, for me at least, lightning speed and I am looking at the next stage. The photos below may show a white strip of card supported by a tub and a couple of bottles but this in my mind is the basis of a road bridge crossing the four railway tracks. 

Imagination is a great thing and I can already see in my mind a finished bridge with scenery crossing the railway and making a great scenic focus point. Now the difficult bit is transforming that imaginative image into reality! Will I produce what I imagine? I will let you know in due course - anything could actually happen!