RHD? That's wheelie great!

RHD? That's wheelie great! Has Woody finally lost it you may be asking. Mrs. Woody thinks I did years ago but that is another matter! 

In this case I am talking about the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck that I started building a few days ago. The RHD refers to Right Hand Drive. Just about every 1/24 and 1/25 plastic truck kit produced is based on continental or USA brands with left hand drive layouts. It is not unheard of UK trucks being left hand drive, especially those that spent most of their time hauling through Europe into the Middle East and Asia especially back in the 1970s and 80s. However most UK trucks are right hand drive so if you want to build a genuine UK spec truck you need to do some work to convert it. Swapping the steering box over is fairly simple but once you start the more visual stuff such as the dashboard in the cab things get a bit more complex. Luckily there are some companies who specialise in aftermarket truck kit parts. Kit Form Services is one of those. They have, in their large range of items, a RND dashboard for the DAF95 so I ordered one of those yesterday. They also do aftermarket wheels which have a much better representation of the wheel nuts then Italeri wheels. So a set of those were also ordered. Lastly they also do the DAF drive hubs which are finned rather then the generic hubs that Italeri have. I already had those in the WMD stock room but I was pleased to see they still do them. The order arrived today which is great service!

Laid out next to the chassis are the various parts.

You can see the level of improved detail n the KFS wheels in this comparison with the Italeri wheels. 

They look wheelie great!

How much wood?

Tuesday - another day of grass cutting at the Rocks By Rail Museum! With the warmish and damp weather it just grows as fast as I cut it so for the next few weeks at least I know what I will be doing! I did have time to pop into the workshop where John was eyeing up the now cut to length wood that appeared last week to make the body for a wagon. Just how much wood is there?

I am not surprised he is eyeing up just how much wood there is as he has the job of painting it, If I know what I will be doing for the next few weeks, John also knows what he will be doing for the next few days!

Model truck wise, I am starting to glue some of the parts together ready to be smoothed off to hide the joints So far the engine block, two rear axles and the fuel tank are together. The chassis has dried nice and flat to which is good!

Getting it straight!

Time to start the chassis on the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck. This is probably the most important part of any truck kit build. Get it anything other then straight and the consequences on the rest of the build are enormous. Everything either fastens to or sits on the chassis and the whole truck will at best look twisted and at worse never go together as a kit. How do I know? Lets just say I have been there and learnt the lesson! 

Chassis sides and cross members glued and taped together.

And now with added weight! That should make sure it gets straight!

You may think all that weight is a little over the top but better safe than sorry. Talking of being over the top I had to look twice on a drive out with Mrs. Woody today when we came across this house with an obvious roof issue but with scaffold that might look more at home on a factory.

That is going to be a big bill for the home owner!

Time for something new!

It was a great day with warm weather just right for a bike ride or indeed two and some gardening. I also had the urge to start something new model making wise. The Tamiya Puma is nearly done but I really need several hours in one go to finish the weathering which I did not have today. So, something that has been lurking in the Man Cave for some time - I think several years actually, was unearthed.

It is a big box with a lot of kit in it!

I did not have a great deal of time but wanted something to show for my hour or so. Therefore I did what I always say don't and ignored the instructions! I have built similar kits in the past so I do know what you can build without causing an issue later on. Both the cab and the canvas cargo bed are such items. The cab exterior can be built without the interior which can also be built separately and slid in later. Building these two items first also means I can start the painting process early on.

From all those parts below there are only five main cab parts that are needed to get the basic cab together.

Likewise the canvas cargo bed is made up of six main parts. I have not glued the top on yet just in case I need to get inside to strengthen a joint.

It is a big beast as the 15cm/6 inch ruler illustrates. Going to take a lot of paint!

Coronation - a day to remember.

Well this was the first Coronation I have witnessed and although I may see one more in my lifetime I guess it is one of those unique moments in history - a day to remember. However, despite all the celebrations, the weather was unfortunately emulating what it did back in 1953 when the late Queen's Coronation took place and rained. The continued rain saw me seek shelter in the Man Cave where I spent a happy hour or so. 

The Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma had some more weathering added and the turret hatches added. The officer figure now has his binoculars added so looks a little less strange. There is still some more weathering to do but it is getting to where I want it to be.

Whilst I had my weathering head on I washed these sacks, crates and cable drums which I built a few weeks back with my dilute black wash to tone them down. These are for my narrow gauge layout Chalkdon.

Whether I will actually remember that I did these jobs on the day of the Coronation is open to debate but then I can always look back on this blog to remind me!

Dirt Time!

After yesterdays 'dressing the set' of the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma, today was the start of 'Dirt Time'! I used my favoured application of diluted Vallejo Flat Earth paint to in effect give the parts of the vehicle a wash of paint. The theory is that there will be a general light coat of the paint that will tone down the existing paintwork giving it a weathered look and that it will also accumulate around the edges and corners giving the affect of dirt having gathered as in real life. It is a long process that requires patience which is something that I have learnt to develop, after many years of failures due to impatience! Luckily Mrs. Woody has also developed patience over the years waiting for the jobs to be done on her list for me to do! 

First thing to do was to disassemble the vehicle in order to be able to easily weather the parts.

The picture below shows just how effectively the wash tones down the starkness of fresh paint. The wheels and tyres will get two or three washes to build up the level of dirt.

The top of the hull and turret have had a first coat of wash. The underside will also get a wash as this is fairly visible  even with the wheels on.

Hopefully tomorrow will see some more 'Dirt Time' but I think it will be more likely to be 'Clean Time' if Mrs. W decides I need to do some cleaning!

Dressing the set!

Something they do on those make over TV shows where after a frantic session of building and painting the bare room is then dressed up with accessories to make it 'homely'. This of course is something this Mrs. Woody is never able to do as I never seem to manage to finish those make over jobs she has envisaged in her mind. 

I don't think you can make a military vehicle 'homely' but I did 'dress up' the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma today. All the various pre-painted tools and jerry cans were added using gloss varnish as an adhesive. It certainly brings the vehicle to life. In addition the two figures are nearly finished - the officer does need his binoculars adding. Normally I would have glued them to an ice cream wooden stick but I cannot find my stock and unfortunately the WMD HQ Chief Ice Cream Buyer (me!) has failed to have stocks of ice creams available to consume just for the stick of course! Oh well, they are on the shopping list! In the meantime I will complete painting the figures without the aid of the aforementioned stick.

The wheels still need attaching and the eight small discs on the masking tape are the hubs to fasten the wheels to the axel. In addition the two hatches have had their inside faces painted white before being attached to the turret.

Unlike those TV make over shows where the lucky recipients basked in the delights of a newly created and dressed pristine room, this vehicle, after its 'dressing' will suffer the onslaught of weathering but that is for another day.

Gardening, rusting, cute cats and a mauled toilet roll - welcome to a day in the life of Woody!

Nobody I believe can accuse me of not having a variety of things going on in my life. Mrs. Woody would like to see those things expanded to include more of the jobs she has lined up for me but as I tell her I have lots on! Today was a case in point. An early morning bike ride and a bit of cleaning house started the day before a bit of a gardening as the weather was good. What remains of my lawn (after the builders destroyed much of it at the start of the year) was cut and edges trimmed. The reseeded areas of lawn are beginning to grow to so hopefully before long the mud pit will all be green! A bit of greenhouse work saw lettuce, spinach and radish seedings planted out so those together with the tomato plants should see some salads on the menu - then again with my growing skills......

In the sanity(or should that be insanity?) of the Man Cave I did have an hour doing some rusting of the tools and jerry cans that I had painted for the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma over the past few days. I also did a bit more on painting the two figures.

For the rusting I used Vallejo rust paint applied with a sponge. The procedure is to did the sponge into the paint, then dab it off on a paper towel until very little is left on the sponge. Dabbing the sponge on the item to be rusted then leaves a random pattern of rust paint that should replicate what happens with rusting metal in real life.

Some two weeks after having had a clear up of my work bench I can say that it is surprisingly uncluttered!

Going back inside I found these two cute cats - a real Ying and Yang. 

How wonderfully incent I thought as I headed upstairs. That thought soon went out of my mind to be replaced by !!!!!!!! (cue contribution to the swear jar) as I found this mauled toilet roll that those two cuties had got off the holder and proceeded to destroy!

Now I need to get the hoover out - again! Just another day in the life of Woody!

It's a fair cop!

As I drove into the car park at Rocks By Rail I thought either the Police were visiting the Museum in connection with the vandalism over the bank holiday or, as Mrs. Woody would probably hypothesised, they had caught up with me! Much to Mrs. W's disappointment it was the former reason!

 There is not much they can do but, with all such matters, an individual incident can provide a piece of information that makes building a bigger picture a lot easier.

In the meantime it was a day of grass cutting for me but not before catching up with some projects going on.

In the exhibition center the Yorkshire loco DE5 that I have shown being rubbed down in preparation for a repaint is now in primer ready for its top coat.

In the workshop John was busy fixing the disabled access door to the brake van that is undergoing a quick makeover by, as he stated, disabling it! With John's skills it will no doubt soon be back in place and looking good.  

However behind him some rather chunky planks have arrived. Not for the brake van but another project that I was introduced to.

It might not look much bot under the dirt and vegetation is a solid wagon chassis that will be a three plank coal wagon once the wood has been cut to size and fitted for the floor and sides. John looks impressed that he has another project to under take!

One of the great things of being behind the scenes as a volunteer is that you do get to see things that you would be unlikely to unless you are involved in such things. A case in point are the springs for the buffers and coupler that I never knew how they were constructed - now I do!

Back at WMD HQ I continued painting parts of the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma ready for fitting.

May Day Misdemeanors at the Museum!

Todays Quarry Day at the Rocks By Rail Museum was a success but somewhat dampened for the volunteers by the fact that vandals had visited overnight and their misdemeanors were concentrated on window smashing of the various excavators and excavator cabs that we have. Unfortunately the face shovel excavator was that badly damaged that it was inoperable. 

Why did someone do this? Who knows? It is upsetting, costly and difficult to deal with getting repairs on machinery decades old. However this didn't stop the visitors having a great day with both the quarry still operating which was where I was based as Shunter...

 

as well as brake van rides behind a steam engine.

.The Shark brake van that was undergoing a rapid makeover last week was looking good out in the fresh air.

Last week the buffer beams on this Yorkshire loco were in primer but now looked stunning witha fresh coat of gloss red.

Back tomorrow to probably cut more grass but hopefully I will not ne seeing any more misdemeanors!