Coming together - slowly and with problems!

I have to admit that when I started the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck I thought it would be a relative quick build. However, being the ever optimistic type of person I am I have got that wrong! Nothing new there then! The chassis is taking a while to build. Some of that is down to converting to right hand drive and fitting aftermarket hubs and wheels but some is also down to the instructions. Italeri instructions for their truck kits have never been the best and become downright problamtic when they start mixing up kits. The canvas truck is a mix of a kit for a DAF 95 tractor unit and the body from another earlier kit. It all works in as much as there are the right parts in the kit to build the pictured truck on the box lid. However there are a great deal of surplus parts which are not always identified on the sprue layout plan as being surplus. In addition the instructions seem to be a cut and paste from several previous instruction sheets. For some strange reason there is a section of the instructions covering the fitting of the fifth wheel coupling. The kit is for a cargo truck not a tractor unit! There is also no reference to the fitting of the spare wheel carrier but it appears in some drawings as fitted to the chassis but from what parts? Those are just a couple of examples which take time to work out and resolve. 

Moans and excuses over with, there has been some progress with the build with yet more sub-assemblies being built but now beginning to be fitted to the chassis as well.

You can see the size of the truck by the 12inch/30cm ruler sat at the side of the tempoarily combined chassis, cab and cargo body..

I am particularly impressed by the fit and detail of the dashboard conversion from Kit Form Services.

At least that has not been a problem!

The unanswerable question.

Out today with Mrs. Woody and passing a Hobby Craft store we stopped as I needed some Tamiya paints. Not much in stock but I got what I needed! 

They also had this rather natty razor saw set. Been after something like this for a long time so having it hanging from the display in front of my eyes made it almost rude not to buy it! 

Mrs. W did not see it quite that way though as she produced a cross stitch kit for me to purchase for her! 

Why does it always cost me double when she accompanies me??? That is a question I will never be able to get an answer to!

A little grey!

A little grey - just as Mrs. Woody describes my thought process when I come up with one of my less well thought out ideas! However a little greyin this case is what I painted up the engine and gearbox of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck and whilst there was still some paint in the airbrush cup a few other items were undercoated in it too. Having researched DAF engine colours - you can tell my spare time is well spent! - they appear either red or grey. As the chassis is to be red I thought that the contrast of a grey engine and gearbox would be a good idea.

Meanwhile I have been busy putting together various sub-assemblies that will go on the chassis. Progress doesn't look much but it will all come together - eventually! It is just a little grey at the moment!

The inspector calls!

Rocks By Rail Museum today which did see me grass cutting but not a lot as I had to take care of some guests and then this afternoon take a tour of the local area putting some banners up roadside to advertise the Museum's next event this coming May Bank Holiday.

Before I did leave I had to go and see what was happening with this loco. It was having a boiler inspector - hence the inspector calls.

 To do the inspection a lot of the loco has to be stripped out.

Being over the pit I could not resist having a look! One of the bonuses of being a volunteer!

And a peek in the cab!

Those strips of metal on the ground to the left of the loco are the fire grate which all had to come out.

I have no doubt it will pass but I had to leave before the inspection was complete. However I did have a few minutes to pop my hjead in the restoration workshop where that pile of timber from last week that will make up the body of a new wagon is still being painted by the ever patient john!

First it was a wood treatment, now a grey primer and then a grey top coat. I am betting John wishes another painter would call!

Instant flower pot!

Not a post about gardening although I did do a fair amount of hedge cutting and weeding today. These flower pots are from the scenic bits I bought at the market Deeping model Railway Show the other day.

I saw these and thought they might look good on the platform at Chalkdon my 009 narrow gauge layout.

I think they add that little bit extra!

No doubt Mrs. Woody will now be thinking that I can do much the same on a one to one scale basis!

Mrs. Woody shares her cold!

Not the best of days today. Mrs. Woody had a bad cold last week which she has now shared with me! Of course being a man it is far worse for me! Luckily I did not feel too bad yesterday as I went round the Market Deeping Model Railway Club Exhibition. The narrow gauge layouts that I featured yesterday were complimented by some small and large 00 and 0 standard gauge layouts. A few pictures here just to give a taste.

A couple of compact layouts that are nice and easy to transport for the exhibitors.

Full of atmosphere was this layout complete with a rarely modeled burnt out brake van. Brilliant!

I did purchase a few items including some DCC chips, a new cutting mat, a few scenic bits and these two coaches.

I have two HST power cars and two coaches so I am trying to get a few coaches to make it a 7 or 8 car unit. These are in the right livery but are Mk 4 coaches whereas the HST used Mk 3 coaches. Am I worried? No! Its my layout and when the train runs you would not even notice! Just wish Mrs. Woody would not notice the bag they were in as I brought it in!

Taking Mrs. Woody for a day out - to a model railway exhibition!

Probably not her first choice of destination but Mrs. Woody does like to accompany me on trips to model railway exhibitions. She does enjoy looking at the layouts - the more unusual the better. She does also keep an eye on my purchasing which actually is a good thing!

Todays trip was to the Market Deeping Model Railway Club exhibition at Stamford. A medium sized event which is large enough to have a variety of layouts and traders but small enough not to be over crowded. The Club has certainly recovered from the 2019 vandalism that they suffered at the start of that years exhibition and it is good to see.

One thing I have noted over the past couple of years since the pandemic is that there are a lot more 009 narrow gauge layouts being exhibited. I guess that with the increase in ready to run products modellers are keener to build in the scale. There was certainly a variety of layouts in this scale at this years exhibition. They ranged from these two small ones...

This one which was actually 7mm scale running on 9mm track representing a farm/miniature railway.

For me though, the layout I would like to build myself was the Hornby magazine 009 layout. It is large at I guess about 8 foot by 3 foot but so well done.

I will just drool!

There were other layouts and despite the keen eye of Mrs. W some purchases too but more of that tomorrow although I can reveal I did buy Mrs. W some chocolate!

Bollard Crowns!

A day out for WMD saw me heading to a talk at a local railway society. Really good talk with a lot of photos from the 1950s, 60s and 70s of the East Coast Main Line from York to the north of Scotland at Wick and Thurso. The photos of steam engines made me want to get my 00 gauge steamers out but that will have to wait a while yet. 

If you have read this blog before about a year or so ago I posted about post boxes having knitted Easter bunnies (here) and knitted crowns for the Queen's jubilee (here). Whilst walking to the venue for the talk I came across these.

There were about 25 to 30 of these what I will term as Bollard Crowns that I could see so there was certainly an investment in time by who ever made them but they looked brilliant!

Back at WMD HQ the steering box of the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck received some attention. This is the item and it needs some surgery to 'reverse' it.

Mr. Saw came out to cut the parts that needed reversing.

With the reversing completed the brackets from the chassis that are used to mount the steering box were sawn off and mounted onto a replication of the existing reinforcing plate on the chassis. The glue needs to harden and then it should be ready to mount on the chassis. It will make sense once finished!

Meanwhile the overlength propshaft has been rebuilt. I cut off one part and substituted it with some plastic tube. That way the smaller middle part could slide in and give the right length of shaft - working smarter not harder as I get older! If only Mrs. Woody believed that!

Maybe not as simple a job as I first thought?

My idea to convert the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck may not be as simple as I first thought! Now it is not unusual for Woody to underestimate things as Mrs. Woody will confirm. The front steering axle has had the various linkages for the steering redone without too many issues but the idea that I had that the steering box fastened to the chassis would just involve gluing it to the other chassis rail was shattered when I actually looked at how it attaches. There is a moulded on reinforcement plate and two mounting tubes that I either need to cut out and transfer or scratch build a replacement. One to ponder over tonight!

Putting the rear axles in place I found that unusually the joining propshaft between the two is actually slightly too long which goes contra to my experience with other Italeri kits where the shaft is too short. Not too difficult to sort but will be time consuming.

The engine and gearbox are coming along and almost ready for paint. A few moulding sinkholes that needed filling but mostly the parts have gone together well.

The chassis as a whole is beginning to look interesting and more truck like with various parts being added but it is not the simple job that I first thought! I never learn!