Rising prices!

I guess like everyone else, here at WMD HQ the cost of living has its affects. Money does not go as far as it did a few months ago but sometimes you do not notice until something suddenly hits you and gives you a jolt into reality! That goes for model trains too. About 10 years ago I bought a Lima two car DMU in good overall condition for £15 and a three car version about 8 years ago for £20. Here a couple of pictures of the two car one - I like it and for the money at the time this and the other were good value

So, whilst casually browsing eBay the other day when Mrs. Woody was distracted from watching over me by being busy catching up on the latest handbag styles, I saw a three car Lima DMU in blue and white livery which looked nice. On the basis of what I know of them the price at the time on the auction was £30 which sounded fair to me and as there was only two days left before the auction closed I put a bid in at a few pounds over. I was given that jolt when two days later i found that I had ben outbid and it actually sold for £76, well over my maximum bid! I am not saying it is overpriced at that, more that I have probably lost track of prices and it surprised me, for a model about 30 years old, that it achieved this price. I assume that given the prices of new models a larger number of modellers are looking at buying second hand which has to some degree increased prices of such items. 

Lesson learnt and with my convoluted thinking maybe investing in more models would be a wise move. Whether Mrs. Woody would see it that way is doubtful though! All I can conclude with is that if I leave this World before Mrs. Woody, I hope she doesn't sell my models for what I told her I paid for them otherwise someone will get a real bargain!

Light and dark.

I went out to the man cave with the intention of doing some airbrushing. The Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma needs its interior painting so I can glue the upper and lower hulls together before I can really move much further with this kit. The Italeri SU-100 assault gun needs to be painted as does the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier. 

The bad news first in that I did not have time to even show the Airfix Dodge 1 1/2 Ton Personnel Carrier the airbrush so that awaits attention on another day. However Mr. Airbrush did get some white paint on the interior parts of the Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma. Most armoured vehicles were and as far as I know still are painted white inside to try to bring some light to the interior darkness. With that done I can paint the seats and other parts and perhaps just add a quick bit of weathering. It is not as though the interior will be on full display - just what you will be able to see through the open turret hatches.

With that done I moved to the dark of the black primer for the eventual top coat on the SU-100 assault gun. I have done a post or two before on the advantages of a dark primer in painting armoured vehicles but basically it means that you can get a shadow effect and any parts that are missed with top coat do not stand out. The picture was taken with the vehicle looking a bit like a beached whale in the 'spray box'! However it should look OK for the next stage once it has dried over night.

Talking of light and dark brings me onto the conservatory rebuild. There has been further progress as this picture in the light illustrates.

And being desperate to get away from my catering skills (i think they are joking!) they are working into the dark to try to finish the brickwork so they do not have to come back tomorrow! Amazing how versatile a mobile phone is with its torch facility!

Positives!

A day of positives today - well I look at it that way! It did not rain, the wind died down, Mrs. Woody didn't want any jobs done today, the builders came and I made some more progress on the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma. Not a great deal but I am being positive! The turret is just about complete which brings about a near finished look to the model. There are lots of little details to add yet which will take time and being positive, I am positive I will probably end up making a contribution to the WMD Swear Jar as I try to fit these especially those etched parts!

On the conservatory rebuild half a days work - well it is Sunday - saw two pillars finished. That's a  positive step forward. You have to love the temporary down pipe from the gutters - at least I hope it is temporary!

 Hopefully this day of positives will continue tomorrow. Then again...... 

A windy night doesn't go well!

It was windy through the night. In fact very windy. Just how windy woke me at 9 minutes past midnight when I heard a bang. I knew what it was but still had to get up and stick my head out of a window just out of curiosity. I was right in that two of the pillars had blown down. Nothing I could do and from what I could in the light of the moon there was not going to be any further damage so I went back to bed! No point in getting cold!

The morning light revealed this.

Not good but it could have been a lot worse like ending up going through the window if it had fallen the other way.

To have strength the block work needs to be secured by the outer layer of bricks. I thought that the bricks and blocks would go up in parallel supporting each other until the mortar dried. However I am told that insulation regulations require the insulation fastened to the blocks and a gap between it and the bricks. This means, I am told, that the blocks have to go up first. I am no expert but I have given the builders, who turned up today, the 'benefit' of my advice on how it might be prudent to proceed from now. Either they humoured me or it made some sense to them as I am still here to tell the tale without having disfigurement from bricks and blocks! The builders are back tomorrow as the wind is supposed to die down so I will find out if my advice is of any use!

To get out of the house and away from the carnage of collapsed pillars I did take Mrs. Woody out this afternoon to the Rocks By Rail Museum Members Day. Well she is a member too! As last year, it was raining. Seems that is a common occurrence but I guess if you hold events in January the weather is unlikely to be your friend! However a bit of wet was going to stop me having a good look round as I have not been there since mid December. Mrs. W. perhaps had other ideas and found the café the place she wanted to look at. We did actually have a good look round and had a brake van ride hauled by one of the steam engines. 

As a development, (and with my lack of technical expertise I cannot believe this even works!) WMD now has a YouTube channel and a video of the Members Day has been uploaded. You can either go to YouTube by clicking here or watch it on this page by clicking on the picture below.

Another brick in the wall?

Well some good news and some bad news today in respect of the conservatory rebuild. The good news is that the floor slab is laid.

The bad news is that the bricks sent for the outer wall are not only rejects with damage but the wrong face to match the existing bricks. Not good. No doubt there are reasons why all this has happened and my measure of how good companies are is by how well they resolve problems when they arise. I will probably have to wait until Monday to find out though. Certainly for the moment there are no bricks in the wall!

On a more relaxing front and not needing any bricks in walls I had a half hour in the man cave. 

I originally talked about my Hornby Northern Rail RAF Class 156 back in November.

At the time I said it looked better on the layout then in the box and it did.

The only thing was at the time it could not run as there was no DCC chip in it. That has changed!

It should be a simple task to put a chip in but to actually get the body off the chassis is a horrible task. I thought it was all going to break at one point. The issue is that there is no way to access the middle four clips to release them so you literally have to force the body and chassis apart and hope nothing breaks.

 Luckily for me I got enough separation to allow me access to the motor and DCC socket. Excuse the screwdriver being used like a car jack!

With the socket revealed on top of the motor the blanking plug could be removed and the DCC chip plugged in.

Its simple once you get in! On the layout it runs but probably needs running in to get smoother movement. At the moment at slower speeds there is the slights of jerkiness unlike me where a slow speed I just jerk!

Pillars!

The conservatory rebuild is finally coming on with the builders making steady progress. Today saw the block work for the pillars erected and the stone for the floor slab compacted in place and the damp proof membrane in place ready for the delivery of concrete tomorrow morning.

It has been a long day and being a good host I am spending a great deal of time feeding and watering the builders! However, I did manage a bit of work on the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma. There is a bit of an interior with the dual driving position that enabled these vehicles to be driven from either end. A nice feature and no doubt the crew could get themselves out of trouble just as quick as they got into it! The strange steering wheel angle must have needed some skill to operate though. I have left the seats out at the moment so they are easier to paint and can be glued into position once the rest of the interior is also painted. 

I have also started building parts of the upper hull but need to wait until the interior is painted before joining the upper with the lower hull. In amongst the parts are six jerry cans which need the dreaded etched brass parts to fasten them to their carriers. I am not lookig forward to that! 

The turret is coming on and the two parts of the gun barrel have been glued together ready to go into the turret. Have to see how much catering I need to do tomorrow and what time that leaves me to finish the turret.

Call it a win!

Yesterday I wondered if I would get the wheels on the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma finished before the builders returned and finished the foundations on the conservatory rebuild. Well they returned and have got underway but the floor slab won't be in until Friday whilst I got the wheels finished today! I am calling that a win!

I have also managed to start the interior and piecing  together the upper hull. 

The brickwork to floor level is in so the next big stage is preparing for the concrete to be poured for the floor slab. Hopefully that will go smoothly and indeed be smooth!

Will I finish the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma before the slab is poured? Doubtful but I may finish the build before the rest of the consevatory is built - now I have set a challenge......

Building the foundations!

Unfortunately the foundations for the conservatory rebuild have not progressed as the builders have been suffering from pneumonia but hopefully back tomorrow! However I have been building the foundations for the Tamiya Sd Kfz 234.2 Puma and progress has been made. 

As I hoped, Tamiya have given an uncomplicated kit to build where whilst there are plenty of parts there are to a buildable level. All the lower suspension was completed in about three hours which for many other kits I have built takes double or even three times this due to the number of parts, the complexity of their assembly and the smallness of many components. I do like lots of detail but sometimes assembling 5 parts when 2 would do can be frustrating. Anyway that is my view at the moment! 

The suspension is basically a build of 8 near identical components. Note that phrase 'near identical'! You need your wits about you as there are subtle differences with near identical parts. Get it wrong and it will fit but won't work later in the build! 

There are a number of steering linkages and similar which also need care in assembly but take your time and all should go well.

Hopefully I have got over this stage of completing the suspension with only one point where I had to go back and get a part off and relocated. Luckily the glue had not hardened and no visible damage was done.

All I need are the wheels to have the foundations of this vehicle done. I wonder if that will be done before the builders return and finish off the conservatory rebuild foundations?

Looking back and more importantly forward!

It is 2023 and on the 2 January 2022 I posted a few things that I would like to complete in 2022. I don't tend to dwell on the past but every now and again it is good just to take a quick glance back and see how unsuccessful I was and this blog does this for me exactly as I hoped!

A year ago I wrote the following and I have added my note on the success or otherwise: -

For this year I am going to try to do 

• the jobs on Mrs. W's ever refreshed list! 
• Partial success - Well first off Mrs. Woody's list of jobs is like the universe - ever expanding but I did do a few on there!
• cycle 5200 miles
• Success - I actually smashed my target ending the year on 6060.
• build at least 12 kits of scale 1/35th or greater from my stash 
• Fail - This is where it all starts going wrong! I actually fully built three kits and half built 5.
• finish the narrow gauge railway layout  
• Partial success -The narrow gauge layout progressed and is nearly finished - honest!
• finish laying the track and wiring on my Last Great Project layout and try to get some basic scenery on it
• Fail - My Last Great Project was completely rebuilt into a new configuration and still needs wiring and basic scenery.
• complete as many Shelf Queens as I can
• Fail - I completed one shelf queen - others await and in fact the shelf is bending further under the weight of new additions!
• sort out/tidy/de-junk my man cave AKA The Room of Gloom
• Partial success -The rebuild of The Last Great Project did some of that.
• try to spend one day a week volunteering at the Rocks by Rail Museum
• Success - I spent 66 days at the Museum 
• finish sorting out my parents affects which although I have not talked about it on this blog has taken up so much of my time last year and is an emotional business. I would like to complete it.
• Partial success - I have probably a large garden shed worth of stuff and a lot of paperwork but a lot less than a year ago but it has not been an easy process

9 things in that list - 2 successes, 4 partial successes and 3 fails which in very approximate terms to me means I achieved about half of what I set out to do which I am thinking is not too bad!

So what are you planning for 2023 then Woody? you may be asking. Well actually I think exactly the same as last year. As Mrs. Woody points out I usually only do half a job so on the basis that last year I completed half of what I set out to do this year I should achieve the other half if I do exactly the same! There is some odd logic in that but it will keep Mrs. W quiet for a while as she tries to get her head round it!

Talking of Mrs. W., as I had dragged her round the Newark Toy Fair yesterday we did go out today on a non-model related trip and discovered a couple of things we never knew about. Just outside of Lincolnshire village Bicker we ended up driving down a fen road which was more like a track. It was off route but I don't follow sat-nav instructions very well! Anyway about 2 miles from the nearest village we came across this memorial to a crashed Lancaster bomber and its crew. Took a minute to reflect.

A bit further into the depths of the County near to the village of Sempringham we came across this rather isolated church. 

Not too unusual but what was nearby was certainly strange in that you do not expect to see a monument to a Welsh Princess from the 1200's and with it being in the Welsh language in Lincolnshire. She spent most of her life as a nun in Lincolnshire of all places. 

There is the full history to this on the Historic UK website that you can see by clicking here.

Now with a positive attitude and looking forward, will the builders finally return tomorrow???

                                                         Happy New Year!

 Hope that 2023 is good for you!

Be happy, keep safe, build models or just chill out like these WMD HQ cats!