Destructive to be constructive!

Destructive to be constructive! The first word, destructive, in Mrs. Woody's mind, applies to me , the fourth word, constructive, is not a word she associates with my actions! However I will prove her wrong - one day! In the meantime, my destructive work on polystyrene and foam in the safety and refuge of my Man Cave has resulted in something constructive in the form of a basic landform that can now be carved to proper shape and enhanced with landscaping materials to turn this mass of white into a green and pleasant land!

There was not a great deal more to add to the basic structure but as I am using PVA glue it takes time for this to dry especially in the cold of the Man Cave. This means I can only add so many pieces before I have to wait for the glue to dry and give some integrity to the whole structure. I have, in the past, not been so patient and ended up with a pile of polystyrene and foam bits on the floor - not very constructive, just destructive!

Building this on a sub-base makes it so much easier to deal with as I can turn the thing round and work on the other side without having to lean across a baseboard.

As with all these types of projects, much of the work is mundane with cutting similar shaped pieces out of the polystyrene sheet but you have to stick with it and see it through.

With the destructive cutting of parts out of the way it certainly gives some body to the baseboard now. Just need to construct the landscape for the right hand side of the boards now. 

Whilst in the Man Cave I finished cleaning the Revell 1/25 Peterbilt 359 "Iron" truck and glued on the broken exhaust stack. In the photo, the pair look crooked, but in real life they are actually parrallel to each other. 

Meanwhile back in WMD HQ, the destructive to be constructive adage is really in full swing as I slowly dismantle door trims, fill cracks which turn into large holes and create massive amounts of dust sanding things smooth.

It will be a while before the constructive part of this project commences I told Mrs. W who is now worried as to be defines ' a while'?

Smorgasbord of 3D prints!

Just a quick catch up on the 3D printed items I picked up whilst at the narrow gauge show at Mansfield last month. 

A veritable smorgasbord of things to keep me amused including a steam roller, a Bedford CA milk float, a shed or two and various other items. I do love these 3D printers -0 they always produce unique things! Just got to find some time in my hectic schedule of chores to get these built and painted!

Winter Wonderland!

Even industrial scenes can take on a whole different look on a crisp but sunny Winters day with snow lying on the ground looking like a mystical Winter Wonderland! Maybe that is a bit far but it did seem that way at the Rocks By Rail Museum site today.

Much as it may have been pleasant to look at some things do not work well in freezing cold weather such as Betty the Sentinel who would start but refused to move out of the shed! 

Mr. D was substituted but needed his radiator filling first to stay cool - on a day like today. However, John obliged using a fire bucket as all the watering cans are locked away somewhere as it is not Summer. It all makes sense somewhere!

My day was to have been going back to vegetational butchery in the bone yard but obviously the weather had other ideas. There was no way I was venturing into that ice sheeted landscape!

So it was to be gabion basket/cage filling with hardcore coming from the upper part of the site where two tons of cement powder in bags had become water logged several years ago and had set into large bag bag shaped rocks! They may have been under some snow but it was a lot safer than in the bone yard.

I had to break up the cement rocks into smaller rocks so this lump hammer came in handy and saved me head butting them! It s very therapeutic smashing rocks up!

Filling a wheel barrow with the spolis of the rock bashing....

....these were then wheeled over to the edge pf the loading dock......

....and thrown over the edge, making sure Alex was clear first, before he put the rocks in a barrow....

.....and wheeled them up the quarry line.....

....before putting them into the gabion basket/cage.

We filled one of the gabions so just another two to go before the next three go on top and we start over again! Just another day at the Museum - just that today it looked like a Winter Wonderland!

Under estimaing!

In my inevitable way of under estimating things, my idea for painting the hall, stairs and landing in a couple of days has been totally trashed as I started that job (Mrs. Woody will be pleased!) having got the bi-fold doors into the kitchen finally painted and remounted (another job I under estimated)  - and working too!

Even though you see things every day I had not appreciated just how much preparation is needed before any paint goes on the walls. Looking closer revealed cracks and defects that need dealing with so much of the day was spent filling and sanding as will be a few more days yet! 

Under estimation is also the order of the day with the Revell Peterbilt 359 that I uncovered from on top of a cupboard yesterday. Half an hour should see it cleaned up I thought. How wrong was I? Very wrong! This is where I started from.

Using some warm water with a dash of detergent in it I used cotton buds and a brush to start to remiove the years of accumulated dirt and dust. It took me 15 minutes to clean that one mudguard which I forgot was a chrome finish! 

After an hour and a half, my half hour job was still not finished but it was looking a lot better.

I even discovered that the hood opened revealing a detailed engine!

I am not going to estimate how much work is left to do to finish this but hopefully not too long!

Top of the cupboard find on a snowy day!

Waking up, like most of the UK, to this.....

....meant that even Mrs. Woody had to agree that outside jobs were off the agenda for me today - tomorrow might be a different story though! However Chloe cat was not being put off her morning patrol round the garden even if her legs disappeared. Mind you it was a shorter time than normal before she was at the door ready to come in!

On a day like this, inside, you sometimes look in places you have not been for a while and I ventured to look on top of a cupboard to find this.....

It is a Revell 1/25th scale diecast model of a Peterbilt 359 truck which was sold as 'Iron'. 

It has languished on top of the cupboard for many years and judging by the dust and cobwebs, which I cleaned off the sleeper roof, Mrs. Woody needs to do some more dusting - Oh, that's my job!

For a diecast mode it is nicely detailed and realistically weathered with all that dust!

I did think that I had bought it about the mid 2000s but doing some research reveals that the model was made in 1990 so it must have been between then and 1995 that I bought it. I can recall buying it from a local model shop for about £10 as one of the exhaust stacks was broken off. I can also recall fixing it but obviously not very well as it is broken off again. I can only find one on line for sale which has a broken exhaust stack and is dusty, no it is not this one, for a price of £109.99! You do get free postage though and if you are interested it is on eBay - click here. Not sure if I have a collectors item here or someone is just seeing what the market will pay.

Much as I could have spent the day inside repairing this and cleaning it up there was painting to be done! The bi-fold doors that were fitted during the kitchen rebuild  need painting and the two door frames that I did paint all the components to before they were fitted, did get a bit of a bashing as the kitchen units and appliances were moved in so they needed a repaint. First job was to dismantle the bi-fold doors and get them out of the way as it is far easier to paint the frame and indeed the doors once they are stripped of the components that enable a bi-fold door to work. Just hope I can remember how it all goes back together! 

Unlike yesterdays dust storm, my sanding requirements today only produced limited levels of dust that were easily cleaned up.

Once sanded the bare wood areas were treated to a coat of acrylic primer - this is just like painting a model I kidded myself!

Once dry the top coat was applied and all looks good!

Having the doors off their hinges makes it far easier to paint as for one thing access to all the edges is easier and with the hinges off there is no need to mask them up. Working smarter not harder as I get older!

The doors come coated with a white primer which when you apply top coat doesn't look very white to me! Anyway, hope fully the doors will be finished tonight and then tomorrow the great re-hanging can commence when anything could happen!

Making a mess!

This job has been on the 'to do' list that Mrs. Woody updates and extends om a regular basis for some while now so I thought it was time to earn some credit points by getting it done. When the kitchen was rebuilt most of the room had been re-plastered and I painted what was in effect an empty room. However there was some trim around the window which we decided to remove after the plastering and painting was done. The removal of the trim revealed holes in the plaster which needed filling which I did at the time. Telling Mrs. W that the filler needed time to harden works for a week but after that even she knows it is ready to be sanded and painted! The problem is that whereas before there was nothing in the way to get clear access to the job there is now a counter top and sink in the way. So with some contortions I managed to get the filler sanded causing what looked like the aftermath of a flour bomb and that took longer to clean up then the sanding! It is amazing just how far dust travels!

The actual painting was the relatively easy part of this job and has made a difference - hopefully Mrs. W will notice it!

With the mess of the kitchen dealt with the last thing that I really needed was another mess to clear up but that is exactly what I had in the Man Cave. Delighted with the painting job in the kitchen I thought I deserved an hour in the Man Cave doing some more hill work. I had cut some more polystyrene strips and glued them last night so it was time to add some more. 

However in searching for the paint for the kitchen job earlier in the day I came across a piece of insulation board that looked ideal to use in the hill job and would save a lot of cutting of polystyrene strips and speed up the job. So into the Man Cave it went along with a saw and that is where the mess began! Nothing like the dust storm of the filler but foam when cut with a saw does produce a lot of dust and creates a mess. However, with the mess my Man Cave is in at the moment some additional dust is hardly noticeable!

Once a few extra bits were cut and glued into place I put the subbase back on the layout where hopefully the glue will dry and I can finish off the contours with some more polystyrene which should hopefully be a simple task! Famous last words!

Making hills!

At least I am not making mountains out of molehills as Mrs. Woody sometimes claims as in this case this is a 4mm to the foot scale hill for my Last Great Project Layout. As with the other bits of scenery on this layout, this hill is not constructed directly to the baseboard but on a sib-base of mounting card. This does mean that I can construct the hill away from the layout and on the relative comfort of my workbench or even on the slightly less comfortable floor! It also means that should I have to move the layout or this particular baseboard in the future I can reduce the weight by taking the hill off.

It all starts with a card base. 

Laying it out on the baseboard and taking various measurements the card is cut to the rough shape that the hill will cover and side pieces cut to match the already installed profile boards.

As this was too big to go on the workbench I moved to the floor where The WMD Stores stock of polystyrene was raided to start off the hill construction. Not the cleanest of jobs as when you start cutting polystyrene it breaks down into those small spheres that are electrically static and stick to anything that is close - usually me ending up looking as though I have been through a snow storm! However it is light, easy to cut and cheap - this came from some packing around a Mrs. W purchased item - say no more!

A small start but I am letting the glue, PVA, on these first few parts dry with the sub-base back on the layout before adding anymore. Add to many at once and it can all end in tears as I know from previous hill building adventures! Another case of working smarter not harder as I get older!

Sorted!

The issue of the bent point on my Last Great Project layout that I posted about a few days ago is now sorted! A new one arrived and luckily, despite my history in ordering the wrong things, was actually the right one!

Luckily, I was able to get the old one out and the new one in without any damage or contributions to the

 swear jar!

You may just see with the old point resting on top of the new one, the slight bend along what should be the straight section of the old point. It may not look much but it was causing problems with the running of trains but that is now sorted!