Headless?

I have spent some time putting the drive sprockets and idler wheels together as well as preparing some more track links ready to be assembled once I have enough to do a full track run. The tank has an unusual sprocket drive in that unlike most tans where the drive wheels have teeth that engage in holes in the track, the T34 has a toothless drive wheel but the triangular guide teeth on the tracks are pushed by rods that are between the two faces of the drive wheel. It obviously worked!

Nothing too exciting with the work above but I have started to assemble the four figures provided with the kit. They are nicely detailed and come in a harder plastic than the tank kiy so are a little more robust when it comes to cleaning them up as they come off the sprue.

The first figure has been put together minus his head! I am thinking of leaving his head off whilst painting the figure as it might be easier to paint the face. Figure painting is not my strongest skill. In fact to use the word skill in relation to my attempts at this art is perhaps a major injustice to the word itself! Anyway I will see how this one goes once he and his three mates are in the WMD HQ paint shop. In the meantime here we have the headless tanker - for the moment anyway!

Making tracks!

I woke up at 4am this morning. By 5am I knew I was not going back to sleep so I thought I would leave Mrs. Woody deep in sleep dreaming about handbags or her list of jobs for me being completed! May be that was a nightmare? Anyway, the cats got an early breakfast, which they seemed to appreciate even if they were a bit shocked and the greenhouse plants got an early watering and by 6am I was making tracks on my bike for an early morning ride. Lovely, with few cars or people about and nature still doing things you don't normally see like these two swans and their seven signets making tracks through the green algae along the local canal. Makes a great start to the day!

Back at WMD HQ I am also making more tracks. This time for the Egyptian T34 tank. The tracks are made up of individual links which have to be cut from the sprue and then cleaned up. If that was not boring enough the joints also have to be opened up slightly with a file other wise they do not fit.

I need to assemble 144 track links in total and so far I have done 52! A long way to go and with all the work they need it will keep me amused making these tracks for many hours yet!

Heating up and pouring more water!

Out for my daily cycle ride this morning to avoid the heat of the day I passed the service station that I have kept an eye on with their fuel price. They went past £2 a litre a two weeks ago as I blogged here on the 8th June. Although the latest price has not risen as fast as previously it is still heating up with another 3 pence a litre.

Back at WMD HQ I mulled over the heat issue of fuel price and the weather and suddenly realised I needed to take advantage of the heat. The river on my 009 narrow gauge layout is created using a resin. I foolishly put the first layer down on the last day in a particularly unseasonable warm spell at the start of the year. I think I blogged the equally foolish words 'What could go wrong?'. Click here to see that post. Well what went wrong was it took about 2 months rather then the advertised 72 hours on the bottle for the resin to set as the cold weather returned the next day and continued, as you would expect it would in the Winter, unless of course you are Woody! Doh! Anyway I did vow that the next layer would be poured once warmer weather arrived. Despite the warmth of the past few months, in my usual way, I have put pouring the next layer to the back of my mind but sense and taking advantage of the heat has prevailed and so I have now poured another layer of the Jarvis Simulated Countryside Water into the river bed. I did firstly take the precaution of putting a spirit level on the baseboard just to make sure it was still level - no use in having a sloping river unless it is a rapids!

The spirit level almost makes it look like I know what I am doing!

A steady hand is required when pouring to avoid bubbles - pity my camera hand was as steady!

With the resin poured, a hot environment and the weather heating up what could go wrong? Why did I say that????

Back with the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank I have done some more track work but more on that another day as progress is slow with all those individual track links to assemble.

Fragile parts!

In the heat of my Man Cave I have managed to finish the turret of the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank. Amazing! However it was not a straight forward job! That would not be the Woody way! Apart from the photo etched parts that remained to be fitted =, there was a radio aerial to fit. Located on the sprue I knew it was going to be a problem!

Taking care to remove it from the sprue I did manage to get it off in one part. I then tried to clean up the various mounting points and the whole thing just broke up into four parts! It was just too fragile!

Rather than trying to glue it together I cut my loses and got into my 'working smarter not harder' mindset and found some thin plastic rod in my stock of materials. Some fiddly work with super glue but certainly easier than gluing the original and I have a new aerial. Result!

With that and the other parts fitted the turret is there and making the whole tank look ....well more tank like! I quite like that shovel although the photoetch mountings were horrible to do!

Hopefully once painted all the parts will fade together but I still have the tracks and a few other, hopefully not fragile, parts to do. More on that and whether the swear jar receives further contributions from me another time!

Moving on and turret progress.

We all have to move on from distressing events in life and sometimes just doing something different helps in that process. So today I took Mrs. Woody out into the depths of the Lincolnshire fens where is is so flat that if your dog runs away you can still see it two days later. This is big sky country though you do wonder if sea levels continue to rise will it be bid sea country in the not to distant future? 

Putting those thoughts to the back of our minds we ended up near to Fosdyke which is next to the River Welland close to where it enters The Wash. There is a small copse and a nice set of walks along the flood defenses which we walked part of after eating our £4 CoOp Lunch Deal (other lunch deals are available, etc!). It used to be a £3.50 Lunch Deal but that is inflation for you! On the walk we came across an Environment Agency compound which was certainly secure. .

The EA appear to drag abandoned boats to this location which I guess makes it a boat graveyard. Looking at the condition of them I can see why they were abandoned. I certainly would not be taking to the water in one of these

Back at WMD HQ, an hour with the T34 Egyptian tank turret saw a few more parts added including some lifting points and grab handles. I must be getting better with the etched parts as the six handles on the back of the turret only took about 20 minutes to do. I did not even bother with the three plastic grab handles on the two sides and rear of the turret. With the previous experience of similar parts on the tank hull I just made the parts out of brass wire and used these instead. Again this only took another 20 minutes. There are a few more etch handles to add and a couple of other parts and then the turret should be complete.

The World still rotates!

If you have read my previous two posts you will understand that Mrs. Woody and her siblings have lost their mother and me my mother-in-law. I did say that no matter what affects us, the World continues to rotate and life continues although somewhat differently for those affected by a loss. 

With the above in mind I did take a short break out in my Man Cave which allowed me to reflect on matters and do this whilst making some progress on the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank. Nothing too taxing but the main components of the turret are now together and with the main gun barrel added it suddenly looks like what it should do. There are still a number of smaller parts to add including the dreaded photo etched parts so that will give me something to look forward to. 

At the moment the hatches are not glued down as I will wait and see if the figures supplied with the kit are in suitable poses to use open hatches.

RIP.

Following on from yesterday's post the inevitable has unfortunately happened. 

I will say no more but in death comes peace.

Dealing with the inevitable.

 

No use in trying to be upbeat today as Mrs Woody's mum and my mother-in-law is very ill. It is unfortunately only a matter of a short time until the inevitable. We all deal with such things in different ways but as I say to people, the World will continue to rotate, the sun will set and then rise again and life will continue - just a bit differently for some of us. The important part though are the good memories - no one can take those away! Treasure them for always!

Woody's got a fan!

Well what a difference a day makes! 32C yesterday and 12C today. The heat did carry on through the night so out came Woody's fan. Bought by my parents in 1972 when we lived in Malta for a time this magically quiet piece of electrical equipment still works as well 50 years on as it did when it was new and kept me and Mrs. Woody cool over night. If only all electrical equipment was built this well maybe the landfill sites would be a little less full? Anyway it has a certain 70's style which apparently is in at the moment - Woody being in with current fashion??? Whatever next? Me finishing models? 

Chloe the cat is not sure about this wind creating machine but did eventually stand in front for a cool down.

This evening I did go out to my now cool Man Cave and finish off the DShK 12.7mm anti-air machine gun for the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank. It looks good from a distance but these in close shots show my ineptitude with the assembly of it but hopefully once painted and part of the main tank it will fade into the overall scene. There is certainly a lot of detail including the bullet belt, sights and trigger. 

Back on the turret itself, there was a problem with the main gun breach not staying fixed in its mount. It is supposed to elevate so the breach fits into its mount without glue but for some reason that I could not get to the bottom of it kept slipping out. Not wanting this to be an issue with the finished mode I drilled through the mount into the breach and inserted a piece of brass wire which I super glued into place. It appears to have done what I hoped and all is secure in place without the elevation movement being adversely affected. Result!

Hopefully over the next few days I can get the turret finished so that I won't have to balance parts temporarily as in this shot! 

Hottest day in the UK and not the day to be model making - for too long anyway!

Here in the UK today is the hottest day this year for most of us with temperatures of plus 30C. May not sound much to some people living in hotter climates but here we tend to suffer as we are not used to it and most of our buildings are designed for wind, rain and cold! I went out for a bike ride early this morning and stopped by a local canal thinking that looking at the water might make me feel cooler! Well that didn't work out as I ended up actually feeling sorry for the two swans swimming through this pea soup looking scene.

Back at WMD HQ and a few 'in the shade' not too strenuous jobs from Mrs. Woody's never ending list saw me stay coolish and this afternoon I felt confident enough to go out to my summer sweat box and winter freezer Man Cave and have a further session on the Egyptian T34 tank. 

Today, still working on the turret, I started work on the DShK 12.7mm anti-air (and everything else that gets in its way for that matter) machine gun that is mount on a swivel mount on the main hatch. Progress has not been quick but then again the machine gun is almost a kit in its own right with about 25 parts including some of the dreaded photo etched brass parts. It certainly is highly detailed but it takes an age to build. With the heat building up inside my Man Cave I abandoned it with the gun half built waiting for my return once it has hopefully cooled later this evening. Then again I could always take a cool dip in that inviting canal water! Think I will leave it to the swans!