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......

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!!!

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.....