The rear of things!

Treating Mrs. Woody to lunch out today - a £3.75 Spar Lunch Deal (25pence cheaper than the CoOp - every little saving helps!) - we took a ride out to enjoy a walk in the countryside. Having highlighted the early harvest that is currently happening here in the UK it was somewhat inevitable that our view of the countryside on our journey was at times compromised by being behind a tractor and grain trailer. 

However we were in no rush, the farmers need to do what they are doing and driving slowly saves fuel too! 

I certainly would rather see the rear of a grain trailer than the a T34 tank although continuing my modelling activities on the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank I have added slightly to the rear of that as I have painted the Jerry cans that fit in the holder on the hull. Using the opportunity to add some colour one is green and the other red. No idea if that is prototypical but you do see these cans in all sorts of colours and it adds a bit of interest to the rear of the tank unlike the grain trailers I keep following!

They need to be weathered and made to look battered as most such cans look especially when in operational use.

I have also added further colour to the DShK 12.7mm anti-air (and everything else that gets in its way for that matter) machine gun which is taking on some character.

 I have also glued the drive wheels in place which will enable me to do a final test fit of the tracks before painting those separately. The rest of the wheels are loose at the moment which allows me to remove the tracks. I had to fit the drive wheels because of the way in which MiniArt choose to mount them to the hull. As they engage with the tracks they have to be in the correct position on the hull or the premade tracks will not fit. If that explanation sounds confusing then just put it down to my poor choice of words! 

With the DShK gun temporarily mounted on the turret things are really coming together.

Is this really only the middle of July?

 

With warnings of a hot weekend I still had to remind myself that it was only mid July whilst out on my bike ride this morning seeing harvested fields, hay stacks and tractors out ploughing - sights normally for late August and September!!

Back in the relative sanity of WMD HQ I was pleased to have a visit from Mr Beecham, he of modelling fame and cycling prowess! It was only a flying visit but always great to have a chat with him and he had a look at my Egyptian T34 on which I have added the hatches to the turret which now require weathering, weathered the wheels some more and highlighted a few more parts of the hull.

Out of interest I dug out my Italeri Russian T34 that I built a year or so ago just to see what the two look like together. Interesting comparison and whilst you can see differences in the level of detail between the two kits they do look very similar from normal viewing distance. 

Probably the tracks are the next thing to do but with a hot weekend that may make the Man Cave somewhat oven like and delay progress. However it will be a good excuse for an ice cream!

Creating dirt!

Mrs. Woody would no doubt highlight that I can be good at creating dirt. Give a freshly cleaned floor and it is almost inevitable I walk in with muddy boots. However in this case creating dirt relates to the T34 Egyptian tank. Military vehicles, unless on parade, do not get cleaned very often especially if they are on the front line. Even if they did get cleaned they are working machines and will pick up dirt quicker then Mrs. Woody can pick up on me wearing muddy boots on her clean floor! 

Model wise, the idea is to try to create that dirt and the weathering that vehicles who spend most of their time outside pick up. I have initially used a brown paint thinned and using a small brush tried to highlight areas that would have a stain mark around them.

I then mixed up several different shades of the base colour - mostly darker - and airbrushed these into the crevices and edges around the hull and turret. In daylight you can see the variety of colours and how these highlight the various parts of the hull. The pictures below don't show this up as well but at least you can see a difference to what the tank looked like when first painted which is the first photo.

Now with added dirt!

 Next up is to matt varnish the various parts and then a bit more dirt creation - now where are my boots!

Hats off - hat on!

Well I have always said I am not a figure painter and I take my hat off to those with the skills to paint perfect miniatures. However, now with hats on and indeed heads, the former headless tankers are now just about done for the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank. From a distance they look reasonable and that will do me. I just need to finish the eyeballs (which defy my abilities to produce anything realistic!)and a coat of varnish and they will be complete. Strangely enough, I believe you can buy decals for eyeballs - I must try those!

The tank itself has had the rubber tyres on the wheels painted and I have used a slightly darker main colour to highlight a few areas. This does not show up too well on the photos but it is there!

More bacon cobs and ice cream!

Another day at the Rocks by Rail Museum where preparations were in progress for Sundays running day. It was to be a steam day but given the hot weather forecast it is not a day to be in the cab of a steam locomotive without fear of heat stroke and the dryness of the vegetation and the proximity of corn fields means that there could be a fire risk. So it will be a diesel day with cab rides. This meant some stock had to be moved which gave visitors an opportunity to see some shunting in action.

Whilst this was going on I was doing my culinary bit serving up bacon cobs and selling ice cream both of which went down well.

Back at WMD HQ and the headless tankers are now semi headed! Need more work but getting there.

Maybe they want an ice cream?

Hot, Hot and hotter so Woody sprays a tank!

We all knew it was going to be a hot day. The weather forecasts and the newspapers have been full of it. However nature has its own ways and these sheep hadn't seen the weather forecast or tuned into a suitable media source for an update - they just knew! I saw them at 7.50am on my morning bike ride so given that early time the sheep probably had the right idea.

A clear sky also produced something that I have not seen since before the pandemic - jet vapour trails.

Back at WMD HQ I sprayed the top coat onto the hull of the MiniArt T34 Egyptian tank - just the thing to do on a hot day but I took it in stages and was in some shade as I sprayed. It is beginning to come together now and I am happy so far!

Looking at those photos I have a need for an ice cream for some reason!

Am I really seeing that?

One of those strange, unsurreal moments this morning on my cycle ride when I thought I am I really seeing that? I am riding along a road which normally is quite busy with traffic when coming the other way casually walking is a Dachshund dog! It was on its own just walking down the road with no owner in sight. I knew there was a boarding kennels a few hundred yards further up the road so flagging traffic down to slow and highlight the dog I sprinted up to the kennels. I finally found two ladies at the back who were looking for a missing Dachshund! I told them where it was and cycled back flagging down an approaching car whose driver said another cyclist was following the dog. I told the driver the owners were on foot coming down so she went to pick them up and I carried on back towards the dog. As I approached there were three cars pulled up and a six people including the other cyclist standing around one of the cars. I feared the worst! However luckily all the cars had stopped and the dog in fright had taken shelter under one car and would not come out. The cyclist had attempt to coax it out but had ended up being nipped on the hand!. By this time the owners had arrived and with five of us lying on the ground around the car one guy managed to get hold of the collar and pull the dog out. Mitzie, as it turned out she was called was freighted but uninjured and her owners much relieved to get their dog back. 

It was one of those moments when a group of strangers all got together and worked with each other for the sake of an animal - one of those moments when you appreciate there are still a lot of good people about! Strangely, I did wonder afterwards what the approaching vehicle occupants must have thought was happening with five people lying in the road around a car and two bikes dropped in the verge!

The rest of the day was hot - too hot to do much other than eating ice cream and collecting more wooded handles, but as the coolness of the evening came in I did put the final pieces on the Egyptian T34 tank that I needed to start painting the hull. 

Even in the relative coolness of the evening the airbrush still had a few issues with paint drying in the nozzle but eventually I did get it the hull primed and ready for top coat once fully dry over night.

If you think that the tank looks odd with a black hull it certainly is not as odd looking as seeing a Dachshund walking on its own down a country road!

Maybe a change of clothes is needed?

One thing about military uniforms is that they look smart on the parade ground but once out in the field they do get dirty and especially in combat conditions. The four, so far, headless tankers that come with the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank had been painted in a shade of sand colour. This needed to be 'dirtied' as it was parade ground clean and the creases and folds in the clothes highlighted with shadow.

I initially used some Vallejo Game Wash that is a brownish colour. I did not dip the figures in this as the jar suggests but painted it on.

Leaving that to dry, I thin used a coat of thinned black paint to further highlight the shadows and creases in the clothes.

Finally I used a dilute coat of the base sand colour to harmonise the brown and black washes which appears to have been successful. I also used a light grey wash over the boots so that they look suitably dirty as well. Once back at base this crew will no doubt welcome a change of clothes given how dirty they have become!

  

Eating ice cream!

Summer finally appears to have arrived here in the UK. Hot weather means time for an ice cream and one of Mrs. Woody and mine favorites is the Magnum Ice Cream - other similar ice cream products are available, etc., etc, and we have consumed a few of these over the last few days. As the Magnum ice cream is basically a chocolate covered ice cream on a wooden stick, once consumed the wooden stick has a model making use. Handy as I will explain! 

Having seen examples from other modellers, these sticks can be used to fasten model figures to making the painting task much easier by providing a stable means of holding the figure steady. By using a blob of superglue on the soles of the boots of the figures they can be quickly glued to the wooden stick and more importantly, because of the nature of superglue, easily snapped off when needed. 

I had used some acrylic putty to fill some poor fitting joints on the figures and these were cleaned up ready for a repaint.

Having all four figures glued to the wooden sticks, it was an easy job to paint in the uniforms, hands and boots as well as the heads and helmets which are still on their sprue.

Think I will have another ice cream now that is done!

Taking stock.

A busy day at the Rocks by Rail Museum where my culinary skills were put to use again in providing snacks and beverages to our visitors. The day continued busy with other things so no model making time at all. However I did have time to take stock of what is on the WMD workbench so to speak.

Anyone having read this blog will have no doubt deduced that I jump from project to project with several on the go at any one time and glacial progress in their completion. Those with any sense of organisation will no doubt shake their head at my unorganised World. However I do on occasions take stock of where I am and make plans to actually move projects on and finish them. This is usually initiated by me realising my working area is becoming a tip! In this case though my whole Man Cave AKA The Room of Gloom is also becoming a tip. Now whilst Mrs. W rarely visits the WMD HQ nerve center to make comment on the state of my domain I do have some pride - honest!

At the moment I am getting close to finishing my build of the MiniArt Egyptian T34 tank. However on the side lines still awaiting finishing is the Heller Scania 144 LB It is so near to being finished and yet I have left it sitting there awaiting the final work on the cab.

Then there is the 009 narrow gauge layout which again is so close to being finished. The various sub assemblies that I have worked on for the last six months need a little bit more work and then mounting to the baseboard and the track needs ballasting. A few other details added would see that substantially finished.

Then there is the 00 gauge layout - My Last Great Project - which whilst I can run trains round it is a long way off being finished and yet it is the central part of much of my modelling interest in railways.  

So my main aim over the next few weeks is to get the two kits and the 009 narrow gauge layout complete and then have a good sort out and tidy up. Once done I should feel rejuvenated to get on with My Last Great Project.  That is my plan in the calm of my mind away from WMD HQ but you never know where that plan will be at when I have time to take stock again!