Is Mrs. Woody about to take up model making????

A visit with Mrs. Woody today to the garden centre to buy 2 bags of compost turned into 5 bags, some plants and this......

Mrs. W showed an interest in this and I thought that's good and bought it for her. It will either be made soon or Mrs. W has the beginnings of a stash of kits waiting to be built just like mine! I will report on progress - so dont hold your breaths!

Yesterday I spoke about a day of frustration and this related to the gear cable on one of my bikes which broke a couple of weeks ago. Luckily I was only half a mile from home so being condemned to top gear was not too much of a strain to my worn out legs! What should have been about a 15 minute job turned into something a bit more major as I found that the lever itself had broken. Thirty years or so ago derailleur gears were hanged by levers usually mounted on the downtube of the frame or on the handlebars. Changing a cable was relatively simple. However with new technology comes added complications. The new technology was that the gear lever was incorporated into the brake lever making life so much simpler as you can brake and change down gear without taking your hands off the handlebars. I have been using this type of lever for 25 years now and like them and never had a problem with them until now! The added complication is that the brake/gear lever becomes a lot more complex and if you read the forums trying to repair them, even if they are repairable, requires levels of calmness and perseverance that I just don't have! To that end I had to order a pair of new levers - you can't buy one on its own very easily. List price £240! That nearly made me reconsider my levels of calmness and perseverance but luckily I am still using old technology! With the advent of hydraulically operated disc brakes, cable operated levers have become outdated and so I was lucky to find a brand new pair of levers for £70! Now whilst still a lot of money it is a lot less, even by my calculation, than £240!

With new levers delivered I decided to just change the broken one.

The handlebar tape had to come off, the brake and gear cables taken out.

The clamp holding the lever released and the lever slid off. It all sounds easy but takes time especially when you have not done this for a long time!

With the new lever in place and cables refitted the gear cable had to be fed through the frame itself which involved taking this bracket out of the bottom bracket. 

Eventually, after several deposits in the swear jar, the cable was through to rear mechanism. Then I had to index the gears which involves adjusting the cable so that as the lever ratchets up and down the movement of the cable moves the rear mechanism enough to move the chain to each of the cogs.

With that done and as the old handlebar tape was in good condition that was reapplied and job done!

It was going to be tested today but the rain prevented that! Later this week though I will find out if I have been successful or whether I should take up building model greenhouses!

Mr Beechams Man Cave visit.

It was one of those frustrating days when a half hour job took four hours but more of that tomorroe! In the meantime I look back to yesterday when I visited Mr. Beecham, he of model making skills and cycling prowess that surpass mine, and was shown round his man cave. A great place with a wide selection of models both built and waiting to be built as well as the beginnings of a model railway.

I could have taken hundreds of pictures but I cannot do the justice that the models require so here are a few pictures of some great models.

This APC - Armoured Personnel Carrier took my eye with its internal detail.

It is based on a real vehicle too as shown in the photo.

These two Land Rovers were also some really nice models - so nice that the beige one gained a Silver award at Telford  - nice!

Lastly this diorama based on a scene in Bosnia brings back memories of seeing such things on the TV news.

 Always good to see someone else's models and Man Cave and inspiring it can be - I really need to get mine more organised like Mr. B's! 

Something finished!

 Yes I know I was working on finishing the DAF 95 Canvas truck but this sort of took over but I have finished it!!!!

Having yesterday created a sheet of in effect sandpaper for the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma to stand on I brought some life to it with some static grass and foliage to create a track with sparse greenery either side of it.

With that enjoyable experience out of the way it was time to add the model which I think looks good on this base but I am bias!

Nice to have something finished!

The sands of time mean a spare box is handy!

Following on from yesterday, when I probably unwisely announced I was going to finish off some of my outstanding projects in order to get rid of the boxes that contained the last few parts that these projects needed to be finished, I have actually ironically found a reason to have a spare box handy! Let me explain!

I was going to get the DAF 95 Canvas Truck completed but there were some parts to paint including the side under-run bars and the mounting parts for the windscreen visor. I painted these and left them to dry.

Finding something to do whilst the paint dry drew me to the Tamiya Sd.Kfz 234/2 Puma model that just needed the wheel hubs fitting. I had left them off as I was going to do more weathering on it but I now think it looks fine. Most of my weathering is quite heavy so it makes a change to have a model that looks as though it may not have been through a mud bath! The hubs were fitted without major incident which was somewhat unusual as I did not even drop one of the hubs on the floor!

I then thought that it would be nice to mount it on a diorama base so as I had one of my saved styrene pizza bases to hand from another job it got cut to a rectangular shape.

A coat of black acrylic paint was applied which dried fairly quickly.

Then the play PVA glue was applied.

Onto which my favoured kiln dried sand  or the sands of time as I now call it because it's the same type as found in hour glasses, was scattered and this is where the spare box comes in handy! All the mess is contained in it and the surplus sand, once the glue dries, can be put back in its container for reuse!

Which, once all the base was covered I soaked the sand in dilute PVA using a syringe.

Then another layer of sand!

It just needs to dry fully now and should do as I sneaked it passed Mrs. Woody into the airing cupboard where hopefully she will not find it. If she does, she may well find having a spare box around is also handy for her, as she can use it to hit me with it! Aren't boxes great!

Time to finish off some things as Spring has indeed sprung!

Anyone who has read this blog will know I have a habit of not finishing projects. The reasons are numerous and probably completely unjustifiable but every so often something coerces me to go back and do the finishing touches. This time it is the number of kit boxes scattered about the Man Cave with the last few pieces of kits that need finishing that is the coercing factor. If I get rid of the box before finishing the kit I will end up mislaying the parts so the box stays until the parts are used up! 

These ar just a few of the boxes!

With the recent clear out of magazines I now have that desire to get rid of the boxes so I am starting with the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas Truck which is just about finished apart from mirrors, windscreen wipers, windscreen sun shield and side under-run guards. 

The box still has a lot of parts in it and I had to remind myself that I had replaced the wheels and dash board with resin items and did not use the air deflectors. Those parts can go in the spares box - oh dear yet another box!

This is what I am left with to fit. Hopefully should not take too long - in my inevitable famous last words!

On non-model making matters I did take Mrs. Woody to see the snowdrops at Easton Walled Gardens and if snowdrops are the indication that Spring has sprung then it certaily has with the number out. It did look impressive with carpets of white all over the large garden.

Apart from the delight of seeing so many snowdrops I also learnt that there are nine varieties in the Gardens thanks to this very informative display unit. Who says that learning has to be boring!

Where is that pot of gold?

According to the old saying, there should be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but in this case which end? Being serious, which will surprise Mrs. Woody, this is perhaps the best rainbow I have seen for years. It just suddenly appeared whilst out on a bike ride and no rain in sight!

It certainly brightened my day as much of it was spent on those admin type things you have to do to ensure the continued functioning of financial matters so that things like Mrs. W's internet and physical shopping activities can continue without interruption and my life is, as a result, relatively blissful!

On a more mundane note more magazines to the recycling centre! You would think that there can't be many left - but there are! However, despite looking there was no pot of gold under that lot!

Mrs. W is impressed with this decluttering so that is all that matters for a continued blissful life!!

Oooops and back to vegetational butchery!

A really great day at the Rocks By Rail Museum today where vegetation clearance was the days task but first I had to look at the 'Ooooops' situation out on the sidings.

Not sure quite what happened but obviously moving this wagon was not the best thing to do! It will never ride the rails again as it is too far gone in terms of deterioration to be restored but the metal parts may provide spares for more savable wagons.

Meanwhile the aim of the vegetational butchery was to clear around the back of the cafe and hopefully solve a damp issue such as that caused by the blocked gutters.

It took a while to get to this point and even longer to get to the point below!

Like all vegetational butchery activities there is always something to be found that has been lost to the overgrowth for years and this was it today! No idea what it is and no one else knows either. I suspect it may have been a coaling point for steam engines but no doubt its true use will be found eventually!

And all this clearing and butchery to try to prevent the cafe gutters blocking up like this! There is almost a mini garden of growth in there!

Talking of clearing, it will be back to clearing magazines from the Man Cave tomorrow - Oh joy!

Something different.

Just for something different to the piles of magazines that I am continuing to sort through, here is a Heljan Class 58 locomotive in 00 gauge. In their very smart EW&S livery, the real locos were once a common sight as a freight loco hauling coal trains to the power stations when coal was perhaps looked at in a different way some decades ago!

In the meantime the pile for the recycling centre is building up. I will be taking Mrs. Woody on my next trip although she may want to leave me there as well as the magazines!

Really!

My clear out continues and I had to send to the unbelieving Mrs. Woody the photo below of the back of my car to prove I was on my way to the tip! Really! and for another really moment read to the end of this post!

I have about 25 foot of bookshelf space in my Man Cave which is all full, or was all full, plus a few boxes of magazines. My plan is to try to reduce that by half! So far I have emptied about 8 feet and two boxes so still some way to go!

This clear out is causing chaos in the Man Cave but I did get to see my USA switching layout for the first time in a few months which reminds me I need to have play operate it!

Clearing out magazines does bring about some interesting things. I used to take a USA magazine called Bicycling back in the 70s.

Some interesting adverts for top range bikes which nowadays look so old - just like me!

The advertising methods are somewhat of the time too!

and I do remember this advert which I think at the time made me say 'Really' and still does! I don't think I need Bummer power!