Oh Happy Days!!!!

It could be me,,, it isn't but it could be,,, what a classic photo of your archetypal late 50's early 60's trainspotter!!! Short trousers, long socks, a school tank top jumper and school tie and your Mum always insisted you took a coat with you "just in case it rains" and it usually did not that I ever bothered to put my coat on I was always too busy!!! And the hair style says it all,,, the only thing missing is the pudding basin!!! I do hope he realises the shed foreman is lurking behind the tender of that Riddles Pacific,,, ha ha how the memories come flooding back. During the summer holidays I had an ongoing battle with some miserable old git who worked in Doncaster Crimpsall Works,,, thinking about it he can't have done much work as he always seemed hell bent on ruining the collegiate fun of yours truly and his ilk,,, I learnt most of my early swear words from him,,, if only he knew what he was responsible for. Seems a waste not to mention the Chelmsford Bash on October 20th,, we have a team of 4 wandering minstrels assisting on this one,,, A suvvern git,, & 3 disciples of Swinedon [GULP] comprising of 2 retired Welsh Wizards and a genuine prodigal Isambard,,, how did I get involved with that little lot,,ah well needs must and I have to admit at the Sheffield Bash in 2009 not only did we tolerate each other but we had copious quantities of fun as well. [and the very occasional bout of serious refreshments!!!] Come along and join in,,, we have lot's of new bits to show you.

Paint yer wagon!!!! Lee Marvin eat yer-heart out.

Ha ha,, the thought of Lee Marvin singing his Stanley Knife music round the backstreets of Sheffield has stimulated my imagination considerably,,, "I was born under an empty pint pot" or "I was born under our back stairs" perhaps,,, WHO needs Lee anyway,,, what's important is that the wagon is acutally painted!!!,,, I read an article in some old magazine extolling the virtues of painting plastic in acrylics!!!!! now I've tried,,,

I have to say "virtues" is not a word that springs to mind!!!! I've got some of them acrylics I thought,,, now then where did I put them,,, 40 minutes later and choking on about 3cwt of cobwebs that accompanied the Master Class Acrylic Paint set and easel I decided to give it a go!!!! Ultramarine Blue,,, that sounds nice and nautical,,, just what I want for a bit of light relief against the backdrop of murky streets and a smoke laden atmosphere,,, YES aquamarine will do fine!!! So I donned my beret,, and waited for the right type of light,, Ah there it is let's get the first coat on,,, now the accompanying literature with the paint set which really should be called "Noddy's guide for acrylic numpty's" advised that the neat paint would need thinning down a bit,,, so out comes the plastic pipette complete with diluted cobwebs and we thin it down a bit,,, I then noticed the paint was hiding in one corner of my round mixing pot and the thining agent was swashing about all round it but there appeared to be some form of genetic disorder in that they were very reluctant to mix!!!! After several attempts there was some cooperation from the paint and joy of joy's when transferring it from the mixing pot to the plastic wagon body it had second thoughts and the paint wanted to hide at one end of the body while the mixing agent was happy to splosh anywhere and everywhere except into the area's where the blue acrylic was lurking!!!! Perhaps I do need Lee Marvin crooning away in the background I was beginning to muse after the 4th coat,,, anyway never admit defeat,, after some timely assistance from Mr Humbrol and his tinnie pals I offer a picture of the finished article!!! Surprisingly I'm quite happy with it,,, but the next time I do one I'll leave Noddy and his pals to prat around with the acrylics on plastic,,, I'll be staying firmly in the humbrol camp. Anyway enough of all this modelling twaddle,,, don't forget we are really looking forward to the Chelmsford Bash,,, 20th October just look for the baldies having a good time. Please make yourself/selves known and you could win the Polo!!!

The Owl and the Pussycat

Now if you have time to scan around this pic you will find another blip into my murky past. In the close vacinity of the "Gents" [thats the cast iron green thing, complete with blocked drain far left of the picture] we have 2 members of Her Majesties "Royal Air Farce", a comedy act close to my heart. Feeling fully relieved is an officer of at least Air Rank,,, [he's got scrambled egg on is 'at] In need of relief is a Senior Aircraftsman [probably photographer] about to do the needful. Now the interesting thing is the Air Commodore [or whatever] is on his wife's pushbike,,, and the SAC is in a brand new Morris 8 tourer!!!!! Ha ha ha,,, you don't get such social discrepencies in real life,,, but when you're building your own world you can do what you like. Don't get me going on the Paralympics,,, I feel embarrassed to be able bodied!!! How do they do that!!!

Don't time fly !!!!

Just look at this we are nearly a quarter of the way through September and not a blog to be seen,,,,, but don't time fly when your bashing your head against a brick wall,,, and that lovely semi-conscious feeling and jibbering smile when you stop. What's the picture all about,,, well if you look closely you will see not only were we at the Great Dorset Steam Fair again,,, it's not an event it's an annual pilgrimage,,, but that is Winston Churchill in the background being pulled on and off,,,, it's trailer,,,, about every 2 hours. The Wednesday was a complete washout,,, the organisers stopped all movements of anything,, but one,, cars and caravans were sliding down hills at 45 degrees to each other,,, great fun,,, the somewhat soggy Dorset Constabulary were turning people away with gay abandon,,, 25 tonnes of groaning Burrells were making lovely trenches in somebody's corn field and the only movements that were allowed were pedestrians into the largest beer tent in Europe!!! and there were lots of them,,, all happy most soggy, damp, some were even moist,, perhaps nothing to do with the inclement weather but more related to my over active imagination. A sing song ensued,, the Garrett supporters trying to out do the Fowler types and everyone completely ignoring the usual bunch of Swinedon supporters with their manchy top hats and pewter tankards dangling from their waistcoat belts,,, wittering on about the benefits of 7' as against 4'8n half" Oh get a life will yer,,, yer curdling me beer. Anyway don't lets forget October the 20th where we will be strutting the Chelmsford boards just for a change,,, I'm looking forward to this one,,,, as I'm stopping with an old RAF Germany calling colleague from circa 1968-70. HO HO there be no blogging after that weekend for a bit. Enjoy,, and if you'd like to make yourself known you could win the Polo,,,, if you like mints that is.

Mr Brunel and his ilk!!!!

We've had quite an exciting time at the pastures,,,, the opening ceremony of the olympics didn't go unnoticed,,, perhaps not unexpectedly the GWR and all the disciples of Swinedon got some popular actor to dress up as IKB and hold court of the proceedings,,, they just can't help themselves can they!!!! Mind you the next bit with all them smokey chimneys and forging driving wheels 12 feet above the audience was much more aligned to what we see as entertainment here at the pastures,,, very impressive,,, and just think we used to be good at that sort of thing 7 days a week,,, not at some once in a lifetime sporting occasion!!!! Mind you I bet the H&S stormtroopers had a field day with that little lot. Anyway whilst rambling on things western I had the pleasure of helping Mr Josh Courtney on his GWR Potterbourne layout at the Southwold show yesterday,, you wouldn't have recognised me,, but I did find operating his layout with a paper bag on my head somewhat claustrauphobic and not conducive to smooth shunting,,, a thoroughly enjoyable day,,, and nothing to do with watching intently on what was going on in The Gresley Beats fiddle yard which was about 3 feet away. Then it suddenly occured to me that if someone could trap the aroma of a good vindaloo based cow pat in an aerosol can they could make a fortune selling it to GWR exhibition layouts,,, to add to the overall bucolic haze they could spray it all around just to add to the rustic pleasures of life they all seem to be addicted to,,, Mr Gaugemaster,,, if your reading I want 10% of the annual profits!!! And before the GWR society legal department start drowning me in writs pointing out that bucolic actually refers to sheep not cows then all I can say is GET A LIFE!!! Hopefully see you at the Chelmsford bash,,, don't forget Oct 20th!!! No paper bags required for that one!!

Chelmsford Exhibition Oct 20th 2012

Here we go again,,, it's time to giggle our way through another exhibition,,,, this time it's Chelmsford. A nice place with a lovely cathedral and it used to be famous for radio waves and a company called Marconi,,, who were at the cutting edge of all manner of radio development and then caught the uncompetetive disease and promptly followed the trend set by other well known British names,,, Matchless, Arial, Atkinson, British Leyland,,,yo ho,,why is it in the past we were good at all sorts of things!!! Better leave BL out of that profound statement,,, does anybody remember the all singing all dancing All AGGRO with the square steering wheel,,, what a hoot,,, no wonder they went broke. Anyway if anyone would like to join in the merryment just send a sae with a suitable financial inducement to yours truly and I'm sure we will be able to find you a couple of feet of spare floor space to stand in behind the pastures. You'll be surprised to know this is the first wireless driven blog,,, now you know why I was wittering on about Marconi,, so we should be able to blog much more frequently from the kitchen, lounge, bath [probably not a good idea] shed,, garage just look at the photo's,,, the possibility's are endless. T'other photo was taken whilst I was swanning about in my virtual

imaginery Mk16 photo recce Mosquito,, a different view of the pastures,,, thinking of you father!!!!

Out of chaos comes order!!

There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach yer about the benefits of Plastikard. Just take a look at the first digipic,,,, a very busy day in't shed!!! Having viewed the blog for the first time in a couple of months it became evident that it was some time since I had actually featured any actual modelling,,,not to mention I was in danger of falling behind my blogging targets for the year. So a couple of pictures to allay any fears that I had taken up basket weaving or philately,,, thats Phil's main trouble,,, he has a definite problem with punctuality. I woke up with a sudden urge one spring morning and experience told me I knew how to get rid of it,,, so off up the shed for a fiddle and rumage through my variety of scrap boxes. I occasioned upon some old PD Marsh horse drawn wagon wheels and various off cuts of plastikard. I then bumped into a picture in the GCR Album by the venerable George Dow of a GCR horse drawn 8 ton wagon. It then dawned on me that you see very few horse drawn wagons on layouts and that was it I had to have one. Its been amazing fun,,, especially the tarpaulin cover,,,, ho ho,, getting that to stick where you wanted it,,, and not sticking where you didn't want it was almost as good as 3 dimensional chess,,, but I am relatively happy with the results,,, so far,,, I would have preferred vertical as against horizontal creasing but at least I now know how to achieve it. Oh Dinners ready so I'll have to pull the chain on this one,,, and the D9 is rapidly cathching up with my Lord Faringdon in the quick start but slow finishing stakes. Hope you like the photo's. SAD