Insulated, boarded, hatched and time at the Museum!

 Its hard going at WMD HQ as I get involved in the kitchen rebuild but I did have time for a few hours at the Museum where work on the vacuum compressor saw some head scratching as the pulleys didn't match the drive belts available.

 I thought that three people on the job was a little top heavy and then I saw John emerge from underneath!

I also had some time to work on the Dragon Tiger 1 kit where the turret is coming together and put on the hull it looks so much netter.

Several hatches left to build yet  and given the number of parts that Dragon seem to like to make assemblies they won't be a quick or easy build!

Somewhat quicker is the kitchen rebuild where the ceiling was bought down enabling the electrician to have an easier job and the void is now insulated which should help with heat and noise. It just needs boarding and plastering. 

The back wall has now been rewired and boarded out ready for the plaster work. If only I could do things this quick!

  

Things move on!

Things move on! Firstly the turret of the Tiger 1 tank kit by Dragon is coming together with work on adding the various details and hatches. There are a lot of parts!

Plumbing in the kitchen rebuild has been going on with pipes installed for the sink and washing machine. 

The plaster board on the back wall was in such bad condition that the best thing to do was rip it off and reboard it. The plasterer will find it easier and quicker to skim new boards rather than patch in multiple holes and dents in old boards. Having ripped off the plaster board, Phil the builder revealed the horror of what lies under it. Not a great stud wall which literally had been thrown together by the looks of it. Phil was going to get some timber to strengthen it all but luckily WMD Stores had some in stock so that saved some time!

It certainly looks better for it.

Hopefully tomorrow things move on further with the electrician coming. Wonder what he will find!

Lets start putting it back together!

I'll talk about the WMD kitchen rebuild in a moment but first a bit on the Tiger tank build which despite the chaos is still being worked on. Continuing to build it gives me the sanctuary of my Man Cave where the normal level of chaos that I work in is less then that in the main house!

I have moved onto the main gun which needs to be constructed before the rest of the turret. As with all the other parts of this kit there are many more parts than some other kit manufacturers would include. The barrel is made up of eight parts with more for the breech. Most other kits would have two or three. I'm not complaining though! One thing that did surprise me was that with the inclusion of a metal spring the barrel, when assembled has a recoil action!

Some of the parts assembled.

The barrel assembled (apart from the muzzle) along with the breech and it all being mounted in the mantlet.

With everything square and straight I used a clamp to raise the assembly and left it to dry.

Meanwhile, Back in the chaos of WMD HQ, there has been some plumbing work. I always thought that the water pressure was not that great and Phil the builder found out why! As a new stop tap was required he was going to try to move it into the concealed pipe cover. Digging through the floor he found that whoever originally put the pipe in bent it almost crushing it and therefore reducing the amount of water that could get through. 

You can probably see the bend and crushed bit better in this photo.

Having worked his magic the crushed part is cut out, the new, can't seize stop tap is now located inside the cover and all looks good.

Well that is the first step forward on the kitchen rebuild and putting it back together. Lots more steps to go - just like the Tigger tank build!

Chaos at WMD!

 At the start of the day WMD HQ had a functioning kitchen. It may have been old like me but as I had debated with Mrs. Woody on numerous occasions it still, just like me, functioned. Mrs. W's counter was that like me it showed its age and was somewhat tatty round the edges! Fair enough! I can not argue with that!

Before.....and I have to give credit to Mrs. W for moving a lot of stuff out yesterday as I was at the Rocks by Rail Museum....

During... and Phil the Builder has been brought to his knees by the enormity of the task or discovering my bodges over the many years that I fitted and adapted the kitchen or as it was the nottest day of the year or by the fact that I was hindering helping him!

After......  well those are still to come!

Meanwhile yesterday stint as Second Man on the diesel during Driver For a Fiver which at the time felt exhausting now feels as though it was a breeze! It was a great day with about 25 more people able to say they have driven a locomotive!

Now what's for dinner Mrs. W given we don't have a kitchen!

Brassed off!

The inside of the lower hull of the Dragon Tiger tank has been painted white. I am thinking of leaving the hatches open and whilst there is no full interior detail to the tank, at least seeing some white through the hatches might give some impression of something being in there!

With th previously painted fans and radiators masked the white could be sprayed to the interior of the lower hull.

With the masking removed it certainly all looked different!

At this stage it was time to be brassed off with trying my hand at creating some of the small etched brass parts. First off are the holders for the tools mounted to the hull top. There are three parts. the lower one and then two on top which involves creating a hinge type joint. Given the size and my inabilities it is a miracle that these are actually being made by me. So far I have made three taking 45 minutes to do! That brassed me off especially as I have another four to do!

Front end work means double the work!

Time to do some work to the front end of the Dragon Tiger 1 tank kit. First off was to construct the two hatch covers. Now most of the older kits that I have seen for a Tiger do the hatch in two or three parts. This one takes six which means double the work!

The front mounted machine gun would have normally been about 3 or 4 parts but on this kit eight!

The lamp is four parts as opposed to the usual two.

Whilst it may be slow and painful to construct kit parts like these there is a sense of satisfaction that it has been done and with minimal contributions to the swear jar - although that is not always the case! Anyway the front end is coming on but I still have to deal with some tiny etched nrass parts which may see the swear jar swell!

Exhausting!

A day at the Rocks by Rail Museum is usually exhausting for me with a fair amount of physical work. However in this case I am talking about the exhaust on Mr. D the small diesel shunter.

The ever resourceful John is finding the parts that are scattered wide and far over the Museum and getting them to actually fit as originally intended.

I see John even found the horn! Not sure what will be louder? Horn or exhaust?

The weighbridge project is coming on with the door now in its company maroon colour thanks to new volunteer Steve - we don't give any new volunteers much chance to escape!

He also gave the weigh head a fresh coat of green and it looks really smart.

For me, despite a days mowing I had a half hour at the end of the day to remove another builders bag of rotting vegetation from the pile that has built up near the quarry.

It may be exhausting and may only be a bag or so a week....

But over time it adds up! You can see how the pile has been reduced. Hopefully by the end of the open season it will be gone!

That's why they hinge!

 A couple of posts ago I talked about the fan detail of the Tiger 1 kit that I am building at the moment and the fact that it would be lost under the grills once those were fitted. I should really have looked further forward as when I came to fit them I found that they are designed to hinge! Good job I did paint the fans! I did wonder if there was a reason for them opening such as a cooling issue with the real tank that required additional air flow but all I can find is that the grills hinged to allow maintenance.

Anyway the rest of the build so far has been adding small details to the upper hull which is beginning to make it look a bit more interesting. Adding a the hull top to the lower hull and adding the front plates and you can begin to see the Tiger emerge!

Small things can be frustrating!

Small things can be frustrating and are what many model makers dread - well I do at least! You can see the size of some of the parts on the Dragon Tiger 1 tank kit in the photo below. They actually look bigger in the photo then in real life!

However, as you might expect from a model maker with many years of bodgery under his belt I have developed ways of dealing with such things over the years and I shared them with the World in this YouTube video! It won't be an epic viral video but if it helps someone out it has been worth it!

Fantastic!

Having built the cooling fans for the Dragon Tiger 1 kit I needed to paint them. Given that there are grills that go over them and that there will be painting and weathering of the hull I am not sure how much will actually be seen. However, rather than not paint them and then wish I had I have taken the option that it is best to do the job just in case!. The plans give the required paint colours which seem a bit bright but I am sure they must be right! First off was a general coat of silver to both the fan sub assemblies plus the part of the hull interior where they fitted.

Then the fans themselves were to be painted copper but strangely WMD stores only had brass coloured paint in stock which was near enough for me. The etched panels around the fans were painted red which was the colour which struck me as being most unusual for a tank but there you go! The radiators were painted steel which given the silver surrounding it did not really show up but then all of this will be seen through a grill anyway!

With all the painting done the fan sub assemblies were glued to the hull interior.

I had already had to shave off the tops of the radiators so that the hull top would fit and I just checked that it still did fit before the glue set. It still did. Fantastic!

There are a host of small parts to deal with next as I move onto the top surface of the tank so the swear jar may well so some contributions!