Bullseye!

Bullseye as in the darts score of 50. Yes it is the 50th post on this blog, Drum roll please. Probably the only accolade this blog will get is that it provides the ultimate cure for insomnia! Can't sleep, just read this blog for a few minutes and you are off to the land of nod quicker than Mrs. Woody can order the latest 'must have' product that has appeared in her email inbox! 

Back in the land of awake, here at WMD HQ it has been a busy few days. The Room of Gloom AKA my man cave now has shelves along the backwall where I can display my finished models or more likely my half finished models that will become Shelf Queens! I did sort out a few of those earlier this year and they featured in a few posts starting here so hopefully not too many new ones will find a restring place on these shelves.

I used some adjustable shelf supports and fixing those to the backwall was generally a trouble and swear jar free event once I had established where the hidden up rights were and the power cables. The shelves themselves are a furniture board which comes in 8 foot or for those metric buffs out there 2.4m. The backwall is 13 foot long. I decided that a bit of a gap at each end would be useful and to make best use of the boards I would make the shelves 12 foot long. This would mean no waste as one and a half boards would give me that length. For those thinking there are three shelves in the picture therefore there is half a board wasted, I will be adding a further shelf which will mean no waste! The next question was how to join them as the joint at 8 foot did not conveniently fall where there was a shelf support. As the shelves will not have to support any major weight I decided to use wooden dowels. The photos below show the process. 

In my new found older age wisdom of working smarter not harder I did make a drilling jig to avoid having to measure each board. I also used iron-on edging strip to seal the ends of the shelves and provide a sealed joint which came in useful later in this process.

The drill I used was one designed for drilling wood with a good point to it and a collar that acts as a depth gauge.

Once the holes were drilled a dowel locating peg was inserted into each hole. These have a point that when the other surface to be jointed is pressed against the peg it leaves a small hole that both marks the spot to be drilled and then provides a physical 'hole' into which the point of the drill can be precisely located into.

Once the holes in the other part of the shelf were drilled the dowels could be inserted and once the two parts were in place on the shelf supports - far easier taking an 8 foot and 4 foot shelf into a room then a one long 12 foot one - the two were pushed together.

On other fronts, the WMD HQ Deep Store where wonderous treasures bought long ago are stored out of sight of Mrs Woody, was searched to uncover a Hornby 9F Crosti. I also unearthed the TTS DCC Sound decoder that I bought at the same time. More details on the fitting of that another time but it was not a s simple as I though it was going to be! However it was successfully fitted and the 9F hauled an 18 wagon train which mesmerised me as it gracefully and with soothing sounds of steam, went around the loosely laid track on my layout. Wonderful!

Work on the Zvezda K5350 Mustang truck has also been done with progress now up to Section 33 of the plans. This means I almost have a completed bed to the load body. Luckily no mishaps after the various swear jar contributing moments that I had on the closing stages of the chassis build. Still impressed with this kit. The detail and fit of parts is superb.

Music was from two compilation cassettes, Soft Rock Classics and Sixties Summer Mix - Groovy!

Why don't I take notice of myself?

An odd way to start this post but in the last post I did highlight that I needed to do as I was told and follow the instructions for the K5350 Mustang truck kit produced by Zvezda to the letter. I did but still managed to get in a pickle. Probably down to me becoming over confident in what I was doing and whilst I was following the sequence in the plans I was not fully taking notice of the drawings. This resulted in two mishaps. Firstly the rear dual drive axles and suspension were upside down (compare the photo in this post to that in the last post and you'll see what I mean) and secondly the frame mounts for the fuel tanks were the wrong way round. Luckily after years of ending up in situations like this I did manage to rectify matters with only a small amount of damage that was repairable and a modest contribution to the swear jar. You would also think after all these years that I would learn! However, I once read that the art of a good modeler is how well they cover up their mistakes! Not sure if that makes me a good modeler but I have had plenty of  practice at putting my mistakes right! 

Well the chassis according to the plans is now complete. Strangely, completing the chassis, according to the plans, does not include fitting the wheels. These are fitted as the very last stage and given this and my previous posting on doing as I am told I am going to stick with the plans! Not only working smarter and not harder as I get older but also becoming more obedient although I doubt Mrs. Wood agrees with that last part! 

Musical entertainment to cover up the swearing was provided by a compilation album, The Very Best  of The Electric Light Orchestra or as those of a certain age know them as ELO. As that classic Mr. Blue Sky played it might have been blue sky outside of the Room of Gloom AKA My Man Cave but inside it was somewhat dark and cloudy over my workbench as I put things right on the kit! Guess having got the kit back to where it should be I am just a Wild West Hero!

Do as you're told!

No. Not a telling off from Woody but that does happen! In this case its a cautionary tale. The instructions by Zvezda foe the K5350 Mustang truck do state clearly that you should build the kit following the numbered sequence in the plans. Up until now this is exactly what I have done and construction of the model has been stress free. Of course being me I knew better when it came to the dual drive rear axle. Rather than follow the plans and cement the axles onto the leaf springs and then add the prop-shaft joining the two I thought I would construct the springs, axles and prop-shaft as a sub assembly and then attach to the chassis. Much easier in my mind and why didn't the guys at Zvezda think of this? I went on my way and put the sub assembly together and all went well. Congratulating myself on my brilliance I leaned back to admire my work. After a few minutes of self indulgent praise I went to fit the sub assembly to the chassis. At this point there was a realisation as to the folly of my idea. There is a tube joining the two sides of the chassis where the dual drive axles go. The prop-shaft had to go under these! There was a swear jar moment and then as luck would have it I managed to dis-assemble my sub assembly before the glue had done its job. 

Lesson learnt without too much damage being done other than to my pride! From now on I will be following the instructions because unlike many other kits these actually are written by someone who knows what they are doing  unlike the guy building this model!

The above incident and other matters slowed me down yesterday so the chassis still needs a little work but here is were it is at.

Yesterdays musical modelling accompaniment was provided by the first half of the compilations double album The First Summer of Love with songs from the 60s. The second part will come later on. 

Cats and chassis

 

Cats and chassis. What have they got in common apart from both beginning with the letter C? Nothing! However as I was doing some work on the chassis of the Zvezda K5350 Mustang truck I saw Chloe the cat finding some shade and relaxing just as cats do in the garden during the heatwave that the UK is going through at the moment. Not a care in the World! Sometimes you wonder if animals actually have the right idea!

Back in the heat of the Room of Gloom at WMD HQ work on the chassis continues with me now up to Section 24. I did come across the one area where the parts fit was not to the usual standard on this kit and that is where the exhaust pipes join as highlighted by the red ovals in the picture below. It is just a butt joint with no locating pin. However with a bit of use of  glue and prodding with tweezers a joint that can be cleaned up once the joint has set hard has been established. A little acrylic putty is probably going to be needed to fully disguise my ham-fisted jointing but it should work out. 

In spite of this I am still overly impressed with the kit. The axles should end up going on today having been built up yesterday and with a few other items that should bring the chassis to the built up stage. Looking ahead in the plans, the body is next which will mean dealing with much larger pieces so my eyes will get a rest!

Musical entertainment was provided by a double compilation tape that I bought in 1986. As the price tag shows £6.99 it cost which back then was getting on for about 10% of my weekly take home pay then, but hey, it has some classic tracks! I can remember buying this when I went to the petrol station to fuel up - the fuel only cost £12 for a tank full! Oh those were the days!

One for the birds!

In this case this is not an entry into this blog about the strange ideas I come up with which in many cases are indeed ones for the birds! This is actually about a bird table/feeder. 

Built by me back in around 1996 from scraps of wood that I had lying about it has lasted remarkably well to say that all that I have done to it is occasionally slap on some wood stain. However, as you can see from the photo above it had got to the stage where no self respecting bird would come to it regardless of the feathered friend style culinary delights that I would place on it. Time had come for a makeover. So, hard on the heels of the garden bench restoration here comes the bird table restoration.

Following examination the base was condemned and had to go. It promptly feel off as if to agree with the decision so that was simple. other wise apart from re-nailing a few of the roof slats and a paint job this was going to be reasonably easy and swear jar free! 

Whilst I was cutting the slats for the garden bench restoration that featured in an earlier post, I took the opportunity to cut the required pieces for a new base with the miter saw.

I took the opportunity to paint all the new parts before assembly so that they at least all had a coat of protection even in those areas where two parts come together. A few minutes with my drill and some screws and the base was complete.

The old base had rooted from the bottom up. Where the wooden 'feet' of the base stood on the ground, water had impregnated and started the inevitable wood rot leading to this.

Nice! In an attempt to avoid this happening in the future I used part of an off cut from some roofing felt to put on the feet. The theory is that the felt should stop water impregnating the wood - we'll wait and see if my theory works!

A large screw sourced from the WMD HQ collection of screws that might come in handy one day was greased and joined the base to the post. Further screws saw the supporting pieces reinstated and low and behold and much to my amazement the bird table stood straight and solid! 

Some nails in the roof slats and a couple of coats of wood paint and the end result was something that perhaps birds may indeed feel inclined to use now - better put some food on it! 

Another item saved from the scrap heap!

More on the Straight and Narrow!

Whilst WMD HQ has been busy with the garden bench restoration highlighted in the last post there has been some progress with the Zvezda K5350 Mustang model build. The chassis continues to develop and I just cannot believe just how detailed it is. Most of it will no doubt be lost as the cab and body go on but its been a pleasure to build so far. Here is where I have got to - Section 23 on the plans.

Motivational music provided by the compilation album The Greatest Hits of 1993. Was it really 28 years ago that Relax by Frankie goes to Hollywood was number 1? Time flies!

Are you sitting comfortably?

For those of a certain age this is not the introduction to that radio programme Listen with Mother from a time so long ago I will not admit to having remembered! In this case it refers to an old garden bench here at WMD HQ that is about 33 years old which you would not be comfortable sat on in the state it is in the pictures!

To be fair it looks 33 years old and apart from slapping the odd coat of varnish on the wooden bits every now and again it has perhaps not received the care that it should have. Mrs W was of the view that it should go but I had other ideas! You can't simply throw something away on the basis that its a bit old and looking worse for wear otherwise I would have been on the scrap heap years ago!

The bench had a positive lean to it and the varnish was peeling. The main issue was that the wooden slats had rotted where the bolt goes through to fasten each slat to the cast iron metal frame. The frames themselves were fine - no corrosion and probably cast from metal previously used in a tank or warship so likely to outlast me! My plan of action was to shorten the slats by about an inch and a half, approximately 40cm for metric users, at each end which would cut the rot out, drill new holes for the bolts and strip and re-varnish. Well I had to pick the warmest day of the year to do this task! However it was pleasant in the garden and some of the activities were carried out in the shade.

First job was to remove the slats from the cast metal sides. Luckily I had greased the bolts years ago so there were no incidents where the swear jar was needed! Next up was to strip the old varnish. There are all sorts of ways to do this including varnish stripper and sanding. Both get the job done but being me I went for the more unconventional approach - the electric plane! My theory was that if I set the plane on its lowest setting it would strip the old varnish and leave a smooth surface to the slats - cunning! For once, unlike Wylie Coyote from the Road Runner cartoon, my cunning plan worked! About 25 minutes saw the 12 slats stripped and where there was some varnish left a few minutes with an electric sander sorted that out! Working smarter not harder as I get older! On examination there were a couple of spots of wood rot in other areas on three slats and ideally all the slats could do with replacement. Given the difficulty in getting hold of decent wood at the moment due to covid and the high demand from house builders I decided to leave replacement until another year.

Next up was the use of one of my best buy tools, the miter chop saw. Guaranteed 90 degree cuts even with me using it. Some careful measurement of each slat ensured that all 12 were the same length when I finished - Result! 

Drilling the bolt holes followed on. Here my Working smarter not harder philosophy came into play again as I made a drilling templet from a scrap piece of wood to ensure all the holes were going to be in the same place and more importantly allow the slat to be bolted to the bench.

First hole was a pilot hole. As the bolts are recessed into the slats a flat 16mm drill bit was used to sink a recess into the wood before drilling the final hole for the bolt.

It was then time for varnishing. Search the WMD HQ garage or as it is better known, The Room of Doom, I found a half full tin of exterior varnish. Several coats of this was sucked up by the wood as though it was thirsty for some liquid! I left them to dry over night and then gave them a final coat with the remains of the varnish this morning. 

This evening the kit of parts shown above was bolted back together with some new bolts from Wickes. I found their 40mm roofing bolts just what I needed. A spot of grease was put on the bolts before the nut was fastened so hopefully they will come apart again in the future without any swear jar requirements!

Once complete the bench was moved to outside my man cave other wise known as The Room of Gloom where it was tested and provided a solid seat - I was indeed sitting comfortably! Even Mrs W approves! 

Small and Beautiful!

 

The picture above illustrates the size of many of the parts I am dealing with - they still need cleaning up with the removal of the plastic from where the parts were located on the sprue. You have to admire the guys who developed this kit and that is something we model makers sometimes forget. We admire completed models and praise the builders for their skills and abilities but usually forget that there was an immense amount of skill and ability put in by people into developing, making the patterns and sorting plans out for the actual kit itself. I am still very impressed by this kit so for those at Zvezda I respect you and thank you! Please note the £1 coin is this week's pocket money from Mrs W. Just enough for a small ice cream!

Progress has continued with the chassis so I am now up to Section 21 on the plans. Its beginning to look like a truck - well in my eyes anyway! We will see how progress goes with the impending heatwave coming this weekend in the UK. It could be ice creams all round here at WMD HQ! Well a small one maybe!

Music for the latest build was provided by that great band Level 42 with their album Running in the Family and then to a compilation album from the 80s Our Friends Electric. Strange how you forget about certain songs which were big at the time and the memories that they bring back when you hear them again for the first time in years - oh happy days! 

Keeping on the straight and narrow!

Building a chassis for a model truck is a bit like keeping on the straight and narrow. The chassis has to be straight so that all the wheels touch the ground and everything is level and it is narrow meaning the chances of getting it straight are difficult. Luckily this kit of the Zvezda K5350 is great in that the parts fit so well that you have confidence that it will have a straight chassis even with me building it. I am further amazed by the detail in this kit. For example all the valve blocks for the air brakes are included. Although I am down to using a magnifying glass to clean the joints up from where I cut them from the sprue and to actually fit them, they are there which is something I have never seen on the bigger 1/25 scale kits of trucks that I have build. My build yesterday got me as far as Section 16 on the plans which means I have a basic chassis to which all the other parts will eventually fix to. As well as this progress I also managed to prime the engine/gearbox and fan and surround in Vallejo black primer ready for top coat. 

Cassette tape music entertainment was supplied by re-listening to Sounds of the Suburbs and then moving onto Soft Metal - It ain't heavy (various artists) and 18 Driving Hits (again various artists) Those of a certain age will remember the continued release of complication albums claiming to be The Best Driving Hits, The Ultimate Driving Hits, The Greatest Driving Hits Ever Vol 96 and so on and so on to the point you ended up with 17 tapes all with Free Alright Now and My Sharona and many other duplicates. Those were the days! 

Back to the model where breath taking progress has been made so far on this kit which is unusual as here at WMD HQ progress is usually measured in geological terms! Will this keep up or will Mrs W find some important, must be done now, not to be questioned chore for me to do???? Stay tuned! 

Back to the 70s and 80's!

Well my music choice for today's model making session was Hits of the 70s, An anthology of Supertramp and Sound of the Suburbs! That all added up to about 4 hours of music/model making as the Hits of the 70s tape is a double one.

The time saw me complete the engine and gearbox of the present build of the K5053 and even get as far as starting part of the chassis with the winch which fits in-between the chassis rails. 

The next stage with the engine and gearbox is to get it painted The instructions don't indicate what colour it should be but a brief internet search reveals that the colour is usually aluminum/silver as I guess the components are mostly aluminum! A coat of black primer should give a good base for the aluminum paint that I will be using and then it will be picking out the few components such as hoses and fluid reservoirs in the appropriate colours. Having used a magnifying glass to see various parts of the engine I can see the hose clamps have even been included on the moulding. I continue to be impressed by both the quality of the mouldings, their detail and the fit of them. Despite so many parts the locations are all positive and when you bring sub assemblies together all the parts meet up where they should which given my ability to get things wrong is amazing! Hopefully the rest of the build proves as good as these first stages. There are a couple of small areas at the bottom of the engine where I had to fill a gap in the plastic. For these small areas my filler of choice is Vallejo acrylic putty which literally can be brushed into place, dries quickly and sands easily to a smooth finish. 

I have now completed up to Section 11 on the plans which totals about 50 parts so far. Given that there are 69 sections in the plans and over 400 parts there is still a long way to go! Good job I have a few hundred music cassettes to go through before I even start on the CDs!