hmmmm....modelling...or working..

as the title says.... thats mostly what the happy smiley (caution may contain sarcasm)people here at norman's howse have been up to.....

the fun packed roadshow that is heavy transport continues apace at work...helping out ainscough with the very accident damaged AC2000 http://www.vertikal.net/en/stories.php?id=7129 if you havent already seen the pics...we recovered from site to an ainscough depot..and then it's going to germany to demag's to be rebuilt...apparently there's an ac500 coming from spain to cover/replace it...600 ton boxes on the docks at ellesmere port..115tonne generating rotors in newcastle..we've actually run out of axles and had to hire some in!!!!

plus trying to keep a brace of smaller trucks running during these "trying" times....all good fun..or so they say!

but anyway on with the modelling...WSI's very nice Scania R620 6x2 toplines have a had their first visit to the desk...

as you can see..a stunning model in its own right..it just looks right! the stance..etc one of my pet hates! is good...

but...we are not here to sit there and fawn over it! (a couple of hours with different trailers if your interested)

how do we take this apart.... as they dont generally supply instructions for this...we now have to enter the zen like mental approach of...."why the fishcake isnt this coming apart!". so an evening later...with a variety of sharp flat bladed tools and the latest weapon in the fight against ready built models...!!SUPERGLUE REMOVER!!! something every modeller should own! you should end up with stage one...

then more levering swearing and dissolving...

gets you to stage two as the next pic shows...

and then its upstairs for the first soak in paint stripper and into the paint booth...

and currently as i type this....chassis and mudguards are primered..awaiting purple...and the cabs have got their first shot of silver...along with the transit's....

more on airbrushing..motorart's jcb's meet the the desk...how to get orange spray paint of your fingers.. all this and more...in your next instalment of the non-award winning part work that is norman's howse......

Hello...Good Evening and welcome........

well...couple of random updates.....

first a handy guide to dismantling corgi's new ford transit which shock and indeed horror, is actually a good model!!!!!

so..if you've read earlier episodes of normanshowse...you'll know why the transit is on the desk...if not feel free to refresh yourself....

so anyway...back to the tale in hand...how in the wide, wide world of sports do we take it apart!!!!

right then...we are looking for screws or rivits in the bottom somewhere..

so flip it over and exahust off..and start looking for hiding places..spare wheel carrier at the rear

and a clipped in panel at the front...took a bit longer at the time mind.....

screws out..floorpan away...glazing and lights out.. and an ingenious way of holding on the rear panel.. and jobs a good 'un!!!

and next on the desk...WSI's Scania R164 6x2....possibly more of a challenge than the van.....

and the rebuilt compressor has been pressed in to action.....

My CAT 740 ADT has been for its first trip to the paint booth....

Here's an early build shot..

The idea came from Scott fenwick's website

http://www.earthmovermodels.piczo.com/closeInterstitial();?cr=7 where after working out the donors.....Cararama/motorart Volvo A40D..and Norscot's CAT 725...and lots of plastic.....!!!!!

so got the parts and game on!!!!.....anyway...got some CAT Paint via work...and here's he first build after a shot of paint...

Couple of shady paint finish bits....so out with he micro mesh...(6000+grit sandpaper)

and back to the booth....

Oh...and mostly this week i have been drinking Old Peculiar from california...and Tusker kenyan lager!!

So tune in again for another exciting normanshowse adventure...........

D

finally.....i finish another one!!!!!!

firstly my apologies for the tardy updates...

but this week i finally (at 2am on the day of delivery! i hasten to add) finished and handed over the Challenger tank and lowloader model...

The brief was to produce a retirement gift for someone at the MOD, a civilian low loader carrying a piece of military equipment...so....first thought was one of WSI's absolutely lovely Nooteboom Lowloaders....another check with the customer what did he want on the front...

i did suggested a GCS Johnson Titan, but as the guy i'm building it for deals with several Heavy Haul companies..so didn't want to favour one company over another...(But we are damn good!)

so i suggested a plain blue outfit..and found this from WSI...and for the load....An Academy Challenger 1 in 1/48th....so here's the first meeting of the components

So....with the truck i removed the operator logos from the front and sides..using nail varnish remover...and that was pretty much all the tractor received...until later...

basically a brief dip into the world of military modelling for the tank..revealed the kit actually isnt that good...

and as a big part of this build is that all uk military equipment has a scheme laid down for the securing procedures. so that means the tank has to acquire tie-down brackets for large diameter shackles to be fitted so it can be chained down to the trailer safely and securely!....in this case 40mm diameter shackles...so i've had to rebuild the rear of the tank to give it a more correct profile

and after moving the external fuel storage at the rear....and brief trip to the spraybooth...did you know that british army green is actually a mix of standard nato green and olive drab..everyday is a schoolday!

so here's a shot of the debadged DAF XF105 with green modified tank...look closely and you can see the shackles on the front

Now...got to chain it down...so we need securing points on the trailer..drilled holes with brass loops to attach the chain...4 chains at the rear... 2 on the front...crossed left to right...talk about bloody fiddly!!!!!

next step...got a glass case from DSC Showcases, I'd recommend them to anyone! absolutely topclass service and an outstanding piece of kit.

a small engraved plaque to go in it...and got to fix it to the case..drilled holes and fixed brass rod in the bottom of the model and matching holes in the case..some more epoxy and jobs a good un...

so with great pleasure...i'd like to unveil it!

and finally...a shot showing the cats cradle of knitting on the rear of the tank!!!

but the best thing was when the guy collected from me...he was over the moon with it!

and on that note....thats it till next time...where you can join us for norman's howse adventure!!!

wooo...package day!...ish...

actually it's the result of three deliveries but.....

..finally it's all turned up!

from the top....

4 of Motorart's JCB 3CX's

2 of Corgi's New Ford Transit

2 of WSI's lovely Scania R 6x2 Tractors

plus 2 lion toys Nooteboom 4axle Ramped semi's to go behind them..

oh...and the JS330 in 1/35th.....

The best thing is when i've finished there wont be a trace of JCB Yellow amongst them!!!

An awful lot of silver...and Green is destined for them...

these are destined for a customer at work...here's the fleet inspiration

This is not the first i've done, that was a DAF XF superspace... but this time its scania's with 2 x 3CXM's on the back...no pressure but these are destined for the MD's desk....the transit's are intended for the same customer...as they run them as fleet engineers vehicles......

i'll stick something up here as i do each part of the conversion and repaints...as the first of the ford transit's is already on my desk in pieces.....

And a couple of updates from other projects......

Super Long Front.....Started on the base machine....http://www.land-water.co.uk/page.asp/LongReach25m.htm yep...one of land & water's Hitachi EX750's!...nothing like doing things the hard way!!!!....i'll try and put a more detailed post up eaplaining a bit more!

Challenger tank and Low Loader....not much really just got to chain it down and get a a case for it..apparently the recipient finishes with the MOD on the 5th of November!!!!!!! no rush then!

Dave

the middle of the week...

not much really.....

test fitted the dipper on the super longfront...required a touch of "adjustment" with a big file....seems to be somewhere like....

these are the times my mind tends to wander to what do i fancy building next....apart from some more green machines..(another commission.....watch this space)...had a wander to the dutch building machine forum....http://www.bouwmachineforum.nl/ click on forum...the dutch seem to be very happy to paint plant in company colours which has potential......

but then a quick look round my desk sorta quells my inspiration to start something new......it reveals....2 8x4 heavy haulers..4 econofrieght tractors...a selection of 8x4 tippers...cat scrapers...CAT 777's.....all at a point where i've come up against an issue thats stopped me in me tracks....but i need to motivate myself....

i've stuck a link up to Tim Cotton's Excellent heavy haul blog...and talking of the like...this weekend, we are moving some big crane pieces in sunderland, a HOOOOOGE big white box from acrefair to ellesmere port...photo's of the move will probably appear on the blog!

This weekend i have been mostly.....

apart from failing miserably to motivate myself to detail the car.....

i've been modelling!!!...first was some green action...i've had a 1/48 Challenger 1 on my desk as part of a custom comission from a customer at work...finally got got a blast of british army olive green...which is a bit of a custom mix..nato green and olive drab..couple of coats and i've got a pretty green tank!!!!

it's an academy kit...less said the better....not the greatest...but it does the job after a fair bit of furtling! especially..underneath and at the rear.....as the final destination is someone at the MOD my big worry is to get it to look right! and the more eager readers (are there any?) will notice it's sat on one of the very fine WSI Nooteboom low loaders...but the next step is to secure it to the trailer! using the appropriate MOD Tie-down scheme! so after this moment..i'm on a painting frenzy! so just after i mixed up some CAT Yellow...first shot on the scraper body...then my compressor called it a day!!!!!! turns out my pressure regulater has called it a day!!!!...so cap on the paint and back to the building desk...

And this is the result of yesterdays plastic bashing session....the main boom of a super long reach

excavator.. today i've been rebuilding the dipper which is sat next to me as type this drying....

as is normal with me it's been an on and off project for some time!!! Mostly off....but anyway after struggling to deal with laminating 2mm sheets of perspex to build up the main boom and the resulting delaminating and swearing!!!

I stumbled across some old perspex display stands in the warehouse at work...so these were dutifully claimed..the nice 10mm thick sections form the core..and after finding an easy way to cut it! (scroll saw cuts but it melts back together behind the blade, Jigsaw not too bad..tile cutter! the way forward!)and sanded to final shape with a laminate of thinner plastic coat of filler and bosh jobs a good un!, it must be right...i've left it alone!

notice i didnt mention the base machine....all guesses welcome!....

anyway back to work tomorrow.....

online pics.....

so in this web 2.0 world..(it's the new world of the internet if yer not sure)...

hosting your pics online and sharing them with your web mates...or random strangers....

i usually go have a trawl on www.flickr.com stick yer fave tag "heavy haulage" is a good one in the age of cheap portable digital cameras..lots of people are keeping cameras about..and with the easy to use video camera option... www.youtube.com but you've got to remember to use the right tags.....

some links i like include...
The wanderings of Dave weston.. http://davidwweston.fotopic.net/
Mally Haynes from ALES..top self escort provider... http://www.flickr.com/photos/14304449@N07/
classic commercials... http://ccmv.fotopic.net/

roly billings outstanding plant vids. http://www.youtube.com/user/RolyD8k


but in the cyclical world of interests on the internet...people posting pics on forums...which then close do you have a folder of links on your computer..unlike mine which decided to lose all mine..or the forums shut down....

Dave....
off the to trawl the net for pictures.....and i promise to post some soon.....

evening.....

so let's if we can grab hold of this t'interweb blogging mullarkey.....apparently it's the way of the future.............

so as i am the worlds slowest modeller...photographer.. etc....i thought i'd stick some "progress" (and i do use the word loosly!)pics up...etc also as i work for a heavy haul company in the north of england...i'll stick up some nuggets of info..pics...also my other interests include anything with an engine...cars.(v proud owner of a nissan 350Z)..plant...you know diggers etc..boats..

and if you wondering..norman is one of my cats Skweeks being the other.....and everything seems to belong to them or be really interesting to them