Setting out.

I set out to do a lot of things. Sometimes I actually get them finished as I inform Mrs. Woody as she reviews her job list for me to do. This time though, the setting out is in relation to my 00 gauge layout. Having run the new Class 37 loco round it yesterday I had the urge to move things forward with the layout again so was in the right frame of mind to do some setting out. The crucial thing about any layout to make sure that trains run reliably is making sure the track is laid flat, level and it is aligned as required. With my layout the starting point is to get the point complex on the removable section aligned properly so that the rest of the track can be set out from that fixed point. Today, I have threaded all the already soldered wiring through the baseboard having put some petroleum jelly on the tie rods of the points to stop them getting glued up when I ballast the track.

Also I have removed the plastic sleepers at the baseboard joints ready for the copper clad strip sleepers to be inserted and the rail soldered to to to provide a robust joint. 

A true straight is useful to make sure the tracks are straight and this piece of aluminum I rescued from the patio doors that were removed as part of the building works earlier this year is perfect for the job.

With all that setting out done next job I need to set out to do is to glue this point complex down. I will be setting out to do that later!

A new arrival - the Accurascale 37402.

I had a break from the Panzer Ferry today to have a look at a recent arrival at WMD HQ.

I did pre-order this almost a year ago from Accurascale and almost cancelled it several times after being a bit disappointed by the robustness of the Deltic loco that I got from them. It wasn't the detail, finish, performance, presentation or value for money that I was disappointed by as these were all exceptional. It was the way detailed parts dropped off seemingly every time I ran it round the layout. I still have a bag of bits I need to glue back on when I am in the right mood! However I persuaded myself that with the Class 37 loco, which I do have a great fondness of, things would be better on the robustness front. What is more, I really liked the livery of the one I ordered - something about a blue Class 37 with full yellow ends and with the addition of the Scottish markers like the Scottie dog that really attracted me to it. 

It was with some trepidation that I opened the box and was presented with the usual wonderfully done owners manuals and booklet together with some spare etched name plates and the detailing pack for the buffer beam and snow ploughs. 

Getting to the loco itself, there were no loose parts in the packaging which I hoped bode well for long-term life of the model. After all, if it survived the in one piece the various stages of postage and delivery then it should at least stand my track laying skills! It is incredibly detailed and well finished and just looks right as a Class 37. However the real bonus comes with the sound chip in it. Class 37s were called Tractors by the train spotters I believe because of their engine sound. Whoever did the sound recordings for this one got it spot on. It really does sound authentic. If I had the time I could listen to it going round the layout for hours although no doubt Mrs. Woody might not think that a good use of my time!

The cab internal detail is superb. 

So am I pleased that I did not cancel the order? In one word - yes! 

Lets do some decking!

There was a time back in the 1990s when decking was not just what you found on ships. Made popular by the gardening TV program Ground Force, Tommy Walsh would lay wooden decking as an alternative to paving slabs. Thousands of gardens around the Country followed suit and many a forest must have disappeared to feed the fad. Nowadays it is not so popular I guess as it has just become old hat. Luckily for me, Mrs. Woody never liked decking, so my list of jobs never featured decking until today! It is now time to move onto the upper part of the hull of the Dragon Panzer Ferry kit. Even more luck for me, the deck on the model is just plain steel. All I have to do is add the various fittings.

This is the main part to which the fitting once built are added.

There are some odd things to add like the funnels - how many tans had funnels? This is also the point at which progress slows and given the nature and strangeness of the parts to someone like me who builds many tanks but only ever two boats the chances of going wrong are high! 

 

I get to propel this build!

Much as the title to this post sounds as though I have suddenly moved the build of the Dragon Panzer Ferry on by many stages actually I have fitted the water propulsion part of this vehicle. Just a few parts but a bit of a head scratcher when looking at the plans as to the orientation of some of the parts. However I think it is now right and with no contributions to the swear jar! 

Apart from the propeller I have no idea what the rest of the parts are supposed tp represent! I would never make a sailor especially as I refer to the ends of a boat as being the sharp and blunt ends!

Eat, drink, sleep and repeat!

Well todays work on the Dragon Panzer Ferry kit does seem to be a repeat of yesterday just with some eating, drinking and sleeping in between. I would add that that I should also add the work activity as I deal with jobs on Mrs. Woody's seemingly never ending list. I am sure some of those jobs on that list are repeats of ones done a few years ago - maybe I should just have made a better job of them so I would not have to repeat them!

Anyway, I now have the suspension and running gear on both sides of the hull.

Now why do I need to paint room again - I only did it twelve years ago!

Wet spring time?

With the weather doing is held in suspension doing its impression of a wet spring rather than a warm and dry summer, I have followed suit by moving onto the springs and suspension for the Dragon Panzer Ferry kit! Now whilst most vehicles will get a bit wet the amphibious nature of this vehicle means the running gear will get positively soaked. However building up the kit parts, there appears to be nothing special about the design used. It must have worked in real life but I suspect that the suspension must have worn fairly quickly just like Mrs. Woody's credit card does on an Amazon Prime day! 

The hull, which is upside down in the photo, does have some very nice detail on it.

With the suspension and running gear in place it does look good.

 

A smart bit of moulding.

Work starts on the Dragon Panzer Ferry kit with the various wheels for the tracks. Sometimes the mould makers do something to make life easier for the kit builder but never publish what they have done. Having built kits, or at least tried to build them, for more years then I can really remember you get wise to what some of these things are. In this case the top running wheels are small in size and are made up of two halves. 

The smaller the kit part the more difficult it is to handle without dropping it or loosing it as it shoots off into obscurity when you try to cut it off the sprue. However if you cut the two roes of four half wheels out from the main sprue without separating the induvial wheels you can have the ease of gluing them together because the spacing of the wheels on the two sprues is identical. as you can see at the bottom of the picture below.

All I need to do now is to cut the now easier to handle larger wheels from their neighbours. As I usually mount the wheels onto the vehicle hull after painting to make it easier to paint both the hull and wheels I will await seperating the wheels until the painting stage.

I also left one half of the running wheels on their sprue and then glued the separated other half onto them which again made things a bit easier. Looking at the sprues I think you could probably have treated them much the same as the top running wheels but I missed that one!

A Panzer Ferry?

For no other reason then I wanted to do something different from track laying, wiring and ballasting as I outlined in yesterdays post, I dug out a kit from the somewhat growing pile I have. If Mrs. Woody is reading this then the pile is actually only small! This one is a Dragon Smart Kit 6669 and is Panzerfahre: Fahrendeck mit Gepanzerte which translates in very basic terms to Panzer Ferry! I am assuming it was developed as a means of ferrying tanks and other vehicles across rivers when the bridges crossing them had been destroyed.

I bought the kit second hand from the Sleaford Model Makers Show last October. It dates from about 2011/12 and the box art is a bit misleading as you get the ferry deck but only one of the boats which are actually tracked amphibious vehicles. You could buy the second amphibious vehicle as a separate kit. The gent I bought it off said he has a built up kit of the second vehicle which if he remembers will bring to this years show and give me. Hope he has a good memory!

The kit itself is Dragons usual quality with sprues individually wrapped and individual track links which do make a big difference to the finished vehicle. Should hopefully enjoy this build!

Time, slow progress and points!

Time! I never have enough of it. Lots of things done today, especially on Mrs. Woody's job list for me, but very little time for model making activities! I shouldn't grumble as I probably do, over the course of a month, spend a good few hours in my man cave producing things that will eventually end up in a skip! However that will be someone else's problem, so in the meantime I carry on. 

Back to my Last Great Project 00 gauge layout which has made some progress over the last few weeks but not as fast as I had hoped. Progress is progress though but I am getting to the stage where this particular job of getting the track laid, wired and ballasted on the removable section is becoming a bit of a chore. I may need to divert onto something else for a couple of weeks and come back to the layout when refreshed and keen to progress again. I do admire those people who can work on a project for months and years without deviation but I cannot do that and as it is a hobby its has to be relaxing and fulfilling so I do it my way!

Anyway that does not mean I am not thinking about what I need to do next with the track laying/wiring/ballasting on the 00 gauge layout and I have made sure that stocks of necessary materials are available from the WMD Stores when needed. Sometimes it is the small things that cause delays but make a difference to the model. There are several points on the removable section. They will be operated by under board point motors but in real life points were operated from on the ground systems. Basically there are three ways of operating a real point. Firstly by a lever next to the point. Secondly by point rodding leading to a remote lever on a lever frame that could be located in a signal box. Thirdly by an electric motor controlled usually from a signal box. With the first option the lever has to be next to the point so you need to walk between points which would be fairly exhaustive in a large yard. With the second option there is a mechanical limit to how far point rodding can effectively operate so the levers need to be in the vicinity of the points. The last option means that a point can be operated by a signal box literally tens or hundreds of miles away from the point. That last option is the modern way that railways have gone. On most model railways there is usually no above ground point operating system modelled but it is one of those little details that makes the difference if modelled. Point rodding looks great but it is a real pain to model. I therefore have decided I will model the electric motor point control which makes life easier and saves time for me - working smarter not harder as I get older! Suitable model point motors have arrived in WMD Stores together with a kit for a couple of relay boxes where in real life all the electrics and control relays for the point motors are contained.

The point motors look good when temporarily put in place.

Coping!

I understand that the World's perception of the UK is that it is a usually wet country climatically wise. Given that the last decade or so has seen some really hot and dry spells you would think that perception would be on the way out. However given today, yesterday, the day before that and so on, maybe that original perception is still valid! It has been a real rainy day and I think that the Burning Woman Festival that I talked about yesterday is probably more like a Somewhat Damp Festival as from what I understand it is mainly taking place in the open or in tents. Not something I could cope with these days!

However, I think I can cope with the wet weather better than the 40C temperatures in some parts of Europe at the moment. Anyway, whilst it is very British to talk about the weather, there are other things in life, as Mrs. Woody tells me as she hands me another list of jobs to do! To cope with doing those I have, however, managed to get out to the Man Cave between jobs and without getting too wet! Having found the missing safely stored coping stones to the two viaducts I thought it best to actually now attach them before they became missing safely stored again.

I had thought that I was only missing four coping stones but it was actually eight - the other four were in the bag - luckily! Anyway with them all in place it just makes the viaducts look better - you could even say coping well!