Getting plastered!

It was not as messy as I thought it might be! That is plastering the hills on my 00 gauge layout. First off though the plaster needed mixing. Plaster powder, some PVA and brown paint were mixed to a consistency that would be seen by Bake Off judges as being somewhat lacking in taste! Well it was just to my taste to plaster the hills.

Plaster applied with ripped up paper towel makes a good ground cover. Having the hills as separate modules at the moment means that it is a lot easier to work on them and made it easier to minimise the mess. Working smarter not harder as I get older!

With both hills in plastered and back in place the scene is coming on - I like it!

The hills are alive and carrots?????

Here at WMD HQ the hills being constructed around the girder bridge on my 00 gauge layout are coming alive! Well they have a basic shape carved and mutilated from insulating foam and they are now ready for a topping of paper towel soaked in filler - that will be nice and messy!

This part way through with some profile boards glued on the back of the initial foam hill.

With additional foam added to match the profile boards they are now a reasonable size.

The carrots? Well whilst coming in from the Man Cave having brought the hills alive, I picked some home grown carrots to go with dinner. I would never make a farmer but at least two of the carrots are a reasonable size just like my hills!

Santa's Post Box!

After two weeks since my last visit there has been progress with a number of projects at Rocks by Rail Museum. I had spent most of the day retrieving advertising banners from around the area as the Museum is now shut until next Easter so it was good to catch up on things when I arrived to off load the banners and posts.

First off in the restoration shed the new wagon has made progress with the newly refurbished springs back in position.

The wagon now has a floor!

The ever resourceful John is now adding the sides.

I'm not quiet sure how this works but John assures me that these bits of timber are a guide to getting the sides straight. Knowing John's ability to create solutions I am in no doubt that it will work even if I don't know how!

Harriot the JCB is slowly coming back to her former glory with more paint. No one will be allowed to use her once finished!

Outside, Mr. D the diesel lock is slowly coming back to life with work now going on to fix the brakes - somewhat important with a train!

I never kn=ew the brakes were worked by a chain!

In the Exhibition Center the Janus diesel is looking smart after its repaint. Just needs the connecting rods putting back on the wheels.

Singapore was the center of attraction last Tuesday with a service where white orchids, the Far East version of the poppy, were laid br relatives of those involved in the conflict back in WW2.

Whilst out looking at Mr. D I did come across this. Sadly I don't think my letter to Santa will make it if I post it there!

Making hills!

After the drama of the last few days it was back to some less dramatic model making on my 00 gauge layout. This involved turning an off cut of insulation foam, rescued from the skip during the building work at WMD HQ at the beginning of the year, into a hill or two.

I have never used this foam before to make scenery having usually used polystyrene. I have been told this foam is much easier and cleaner to deal with rather than polystyrene but I am not sure given the amount of cleaning I had to do to get to this stage! Both materials carve easily enough and whereas with polystyrene you end up with small spheres of the stuff that cling to everything, with the other foam you get a fine dust that covers everywhere! I guess you could say both are as good and as bad as each other!

It is beginning to take some shape now and hopefully with the structures the landscaping should turn this once bare baseboard into something much more interesting! 

If only I could make a hill to put my Man Cave on safe from flooding!

A new day, a drier day!

After yesterdays shook of my man cave nearly flooding as a result of the torrential rain there has been some relief with it being a drier day today. I must admit I did not have the best of nights sleep and was up several times to see if the flood was rising or receding. At about 4am it looked as though it was beginning to recede and by the time it became light this is what greeted me.

It was great to see the water gone but I will need to find out if any damage has been done to the floor joists of the man cave. In the mean time there is going to be some work to do to clean up. Behind and to the side of the man cave the flood water has dropped a load of soil and debris that covers the paths and the its the same round the back of the green house. It all needs to dry out and in the meantime I ma hoping to get back to some model making!

Yet more eating out for Mrs. Woody and flood alert at the Man Cave!

Mrs. Woody and me headed to the delights of Norfolk on a far from delightful day of rain to have lunch with some friends which was actually delightful! However as we set of to return back to WMD HQ a phone call from a neighbour warned us that our back garden was flooding. A few photos sent by phone revealed that the green house was definitely flooded with the Man Cave close to being flooded. The desire to get home quickly was tempered by the fact that the roads were truly bad to drive. If there was going to be flooding it would happen regardless of whether Mrs. W. and me were there or not. So a safe drive home found us back still with some daylight to see how things were. Luckily they seemed no worse than the photos showed that had been sent to us. I rolled up my trousers and waded out to the Man Cave just to look inside. At the moment it is dry inside and I just hope it stays that way! The weather forecast says another two hours of rain so fingers crossed!!!!!

More eating out for Mrs. Woody and more signal box building for me!

Mrs. Woody and me went to Skegness today. It has been about 6 weeks since we last went but what a difference. Back at the beginning of September the place was still packed with visitors but today we and a handful of other people were the only ones about. 

Mrs. W did get to eat out again but after the luxurious afternoon tea of yesterday it was a Dominos pizza eaten in the car followed by an ice-cream whilst having a walk along the beach. 

It was actually quite warm today with the temperature at 16C which for mid October is good! A walk back along the main road saw us pass the local theater where this somewhat interesting musical is being performer - could be interesting! 

Back in the non-musical calm of WMD HQ a bit more signal box construction has taken place. This is about as far as I can go at the moment and I need to get some paint on parts. I have left certain sections lose so they can be painted separately which should make the job easier - hopefully!

Placing the bridge and signal box into their respective locations on the layout is giving an idea of the eventual scene. 

I like it!

Well, tomorrow Mrs. W gets to eat out yet again! Can my wallet stand this strain???? Find out tomorrow!

Mrs. Woody has afternoon tea and I start building a signal box!

As part of Mrs. Woody's recent birthday, I had organised for us to have afternoon tea at Belvoir Castle. It is one of those bucket list items that Mrs. W has made mention of before and whilst she may not think I am listening she has said it often enough that I must have heard it at some stage! Anyway today saw us take the steep walk up to the castle which does look good.

Both Mrs. Woody and me were most impressed by the tea room, its décor and service and the food was wonderful! 

Back at the relative dowdiness of WMD in comparison to Belvoir Castle I have had a few minutes to start adding some detail parts to the girder bridge.

And as I will need a signal box I have started that!

It is going to be a modern look signal box too!

Gullies!

Although slow because of a lack of time there has been progress with the second bridge abutment. I did find a pack of etched gully covers. Theses came from the deep store at WMD HQ and Taylor Plastic Models no longer exists and I think has not existed for well over a decade but you can find similar items from other companies.

Gullies are not something often modelled so these two may just add that little bit of extra realism to the road surface 

The second abutment now has the footway walls added to match the first so just a few jobs left to finish - just need to find the time!

Nearly there!

The road over bridge is nearly finished construction wise. A spare hour, (don't tell Mrs. Woody) has seen the road and footways made in card fitted to the second abutment and the supporting pillars are in place. There are just the walls either side of the footway to make and a few details to be added and the next stage will be painting. I did buy some paint today as I have a feeling this bridge will need a lot!