Are you still messing about with that bit of polystyrene?

The words of Mrs. Woody the other day as she read my blog, "Are you still messing about with that bit of polystyrene?". Well. I am, but progress is made! It is now painted in an initial coat of dilute brown paint which highlights the rock strata.

Having got to this stage I thought that it would be best to see if it still fits onto the layout. It still needs some work such a s dome greenery on top but that will come later.

It does and is looking good! Now I have to construct the hills on the side of the tracks nearest the camera so that question from Mrs. W may still part of my life!

Other supermarket bags are available!

Gone is the polystyrene which is now all covered with plaster impregnated bandage. Now it is the turn of the bandage to be covered up as you can see from the photo below, it looks nothing like a rock face! In fact,, those of a certain age may see similarities to the punch cards that computer programmes were once written on!

Anyway, enough about punch cards and lets get on with the covering! I mixed some plaster up to a thickish consistency and added some brown paint and PVA glue. The paint was to tint the plaster so it was not a glaring white if chipped and the PVA to help it adhere to the plaster bandage. Then it was a case of stippling it into place to give a rock face finish.

The Iceland shopping bag was there to catch any spills but given that the Man cave was cold it did seem an apt choice - other supermarket bags are available! This job will keep me busy for a while now!

Cover up!

The scenic base for my Last Great Project layout is coming along with the patchwork of plaster impregnated bandage slowly covering up the polystyrene. Once it is all covered I will be adding some plaster to add texture to the rock surfaces which is usually a messy process! 

Smallest manhole?

Arriving at the Rocks by rail Museum today I found that last weeks hole digging had now been partly filled with what is commonly termed as a 'manhole'. Now, quite what sort of person could access this manhole is open to debate.

Those responsible for its construction seemed happy with it though!

After some backfilling the original excavation was almost invisible - in the dark when looking from the other side of the car park!

Meanwhile I set to with Sammy Strimmer back in the Bone Yard!

This is what I started with and after a days strimming, hacking and cutting there was a bigger clear area!

Slowly but surely the area is being cleared but there is a lot more to do which should keep me busy for some weeks yet!

It's a frame up!

Much as I do explain to Mrs, Woody when things go wrong and I appear to be at fault, it is not actually me being at fault, but I am subject to a 'frame up' by others which she never believes. I must admit saying that the cats have framed me up is perhaps a bit on the optimistic side of believable so maybe I can understand her doubting my claims! 

Anyway, in relation to todays post I am framing up the cats or will be when I find the time! Let me explain! Mrs. W. and me were out today so we popped into a discount shop which stocked picture frames, For more years then I care to remember, Mrs. W. and me have bought pictures on our visits to various places that interest us but most are not framed. Hence once back home they go into a stack with the intention of getting frames and then hanging them on the wall. It never happens or should I say happened as I am now going through the stack and getting frames and hanging the newly framed pictures on the wall of WMD HQ, much to the amazement of Mrs. W. Today's frame purchasing was for a number of pictures including six in a series called - Railway Cats. To be honest, despite normally having a memory to recall such things, I cannot remember where we got these from. It was probably either Ireland or Yorkshire! 

They should look good once in  those frames and hung on a wall. So long as I don't end up with a stack of pictures and a stack of frames all will be well!

For those interested in such matters, my cycling journeys past the local canal have seen this year produce some remarkable scenes from a near normal canal back in March when it was being dredged....

.... to May which after the driest Spring in many years meant the canal was more river like than canal....

......to June when it was then more stream like..... 

....then in September more like a swamp.....

....to now looking like a canal again after its filled back up and been dredged again! 

Looks like the whole saga has been a frame up where I will no doubt get blamed for the woes of the canal having visited too often!

Back to the scenic base!

With my distractions of the Lima DMU and the 3Dtractor out of the way it is back to scenic sub-base construction for my Last Great Project layout. Having created a sub-base from mounting card formers and polystyrene it is time to put a layer of plaster impregnated bandage on top to create a hard shell. The WMD stores have recently had stocks of said plaster impregnated bandage replenished so there was now no excuse to delay!

It comes in a 3m long roll but rather then try to deal with such a length of what is to be a wetted and slimy item I do the sensible (me be sensible???) thing of  cutting it to short lengths. Much easier to handle and get into place.

I painted some PVA glue onto the polystyrene before starting to place the lengths of bandage in place. Once I had a first layer of several bits I simply painted on water with a paint brush. This is much easier and cleaner then dumping the bandage into a bowl of water and trying to then transfer it to the scenic sub-base and then mould it to shape. With an initial layer in place another two layers are added to give some thickness and strength to the shell of bandage.

A couple of hours of therapeutically pleasant work whilst listen to the radio saw progress although there is still a few more hours work. However as it was getting cold I thought that I would leave that for another day!

Showroom condition!

It may need some weathering but the 3D tractor is finished! All that I had to do was finish y=he painting and assemble the four parts that make up the kit. There were no instructions but even I could not go wrong!

It just needs some weathering to take away that 'showroom' look and make it look a bit more like a working piece of agricultural machinery!

I made sure to park in such a way that if Mrs. W had to push us out it was not going to be too far - thoughtful as always!

Mrs. Woody took me out for a change! She took me to the Makers Show at Spalding. It was not the greatest of days to travel but we got there and found the car park somewhat wet, muddy and fairly full! With warning signs about soft ground the omens were not looking good for this trip out.

However we parked and I made sure to park in such a way that if Mrs. W had to push us out it was not going to be too far - thoughtful as always!

Going into the building I thought that whilst the coffee and pasta vans may get trade the ice cream van was perhaps clutching at straws!

Once in and as no stranger to the building I am much more used to that place being full of model railways so it was a bit of a shock to see stall upon stall of arts, crafts and eatables!

Much as I had in my mind that it would be similar to the small shows in church halls and similar where the quality of items can sometimes be, lets say, a bit dubious, this show was actually about 150 stalls of very high quality products.

I always like a bit of a play on words and this top caught my eye.

Only available in child sizes though! Shame, as even though Mrs. W thinks I am a child at heart, there is no way I can fit into that!

We did buy a few items including some very nice fudge and some Christmas presents so it was nice to both get these and know it was supporting small local businesses.

Looking round the retail park that adjoins the show building it was obvious that Christmas preparations had been ongoing for some time although I had to feel sorry for those running the Winter Wonderland Walk as it looked more like the Winter Wetland Walk as the guys were trying to get the water off the paths.

A great day out and one that Mrs, W wanted to do for some time so that was nice!

Blue is the colour!

Feeling as though I was Scott of the Antarctic, which was possibly an over dramatisation of the coldness in the Man Cave but it was cold, some progress was made on painting the £D tractor print. Having actually turned the heater on, it was warm enough to airbrush some paint so undercoat was followed by painting the wheel centres white.

After that, the tyres were brushed painted. The separate mudguards and bonnet were airbrushed in blue whilst the main body has had a first hand brushed coat of the same blue which by this time matched my complexion with the cold!

Once finished it should find a home on one of my layouts but in the meantime it is back to the warmth of the house!

I looked back on my work and had a pleasant feeling of achieving something!

Like my Man Cave, the rocks By Rail Museum was cold! In fact even the heater in the lunch cabin had stopped working so I joked that we should open the fridge door to warm the place up! I think it would have worked too! However with some outside jobs to be done most people were being warmed by the work they were involved in including the continued work on finishing the land drainage schemme started last year.

Obviously the work is going well if the smiles on faces are to be believed!

Sammy Strimmer was back with me for the day as the seemingly never ending task of clearing the bone yard continues! Now David believes there are some weighbridge parts in the undergrowth and stated a mission to find them - brave man is all I can say!

If he goes much further he could be lost!

He never did find them but I, on the other hand discovered these two RSJs just lurking in the undergrowth as such things do!

I showed Richard them and he recalls about 20 years ago using them as cross members under a loco to jack it up and move a wagon under so that the loco could be moved! Well, if we need to do that again at least we now know where the RSJs are!

This collection of various shaped metal parts are from a long ago dismantled ore wagon David informed me! May come in useful if we ever find the rest of the wagon and it could be out there in the undergrowth!

I didn't think much of this as it became visible with the work of Sammy Strimmer.

However, lifting it up revealed that this and the one under it were the side panels to the engine on a Janus locomotive of which the Museum has one.  To be blunt, they should be rusted out but despite them being in the bone yard for at least over 20 years they have survived reasonably well unlike me!

As the sun set I looked back on my work and had a pleasant feeling of achieving something! Not sure what but it was a pleasing feeling!