The Wife Is Back At School... Phew! Now, What Was I Doing? ;)
HRxxxxxxx
Two Week Spring Break Seemed Like A LONG One!
As usual, I disappeared for a while as the wife had a short holiday from teaching and so we spent some 'quality' time together. Seriously, its nice to spend time together even if it does interrupt my hobby time, especially as we get to do some really fun things and get away for a few days.
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| Above: While enjoying a relaxing drink at our hotel on a visit to Hull we found a friend! |
This holiday also included us joining a gym - something I really need - as we both are trying to boost our fitness as we enter our 'middle age' (booooo)! 😝 I also wanted to try and strengthen my left side, which was left a bit weak after my stroke/s (the doctors never did decide whether it was one, two or perhaps even three small strokes, of TDIs), so working on my legs was particularly important to me.
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| Above: Hull City Museum. |
Finally, we also got to visit a terrific museum, which is one of out favourite holiday activities. Though, sadly, the April Showers precluded a visit to the Bempton RSPB bird sanctuary to see the Puffins this year (maybe we'll try again if the weather improves at Easter).
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| Above: Hull Museum's Iron Age exhibit. People tend to forget that prior to the Anglo-Saxon immigration (irony there), what is now termed as 'England' was originally Celtic!
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So, What Am I Getting Up To Now?
Well, there were several projects gathering dust on the workbench over the holiday and I did have to try and remember what my plans were for them (this is the worst part about taking a break, you kinda lose your momentum).
The most complex project is my 'Dolls House' Takoyaki Restaraunt model kit and this is going along quite slowly as there are a LOT of individual parts to make for this. For the first time I may even have to divide the video of the build up into several parts!
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| Above: All the components for my Takoyaki Restaurant build! Phew! |
Aside from this I am also tinkering with a smaller 'experimental' project, the 1/12 Japanese vending machine model. This is sorta a spin-off from the Takoyaki model as I was curious to see if I could manufacture my own scratch build items rather than depend of a pre-manufactured kit. Here's a couple of pic of the design stage of my project, made in the vector drawing software Affinity Designer...
This job includes me trying out a few new model making techniques - hence my saying that it's an experiment really - including my trying to make and print my own model sticker decals.
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| Above: My first attempt to make a printed sticker decal. This one was created using a transparent vinyl sheet, but it wasn't great! |
I've always been curious about printing my own custom decals which I could then apply to my models but have been a bit scared of dipping my toe in the water with water-slide decals (pun intended). But, I am now trying the simpler sticker transfer paper sheets to make basic decals and decorative stickers. Just to get the experience and see what I can do with them.
And finally, my model railway collecting goes ahead quite nicely as I am pleased to say that I have completed two different achievements! (Not bad for me!)
First of all, I managed to sneak off during the wife's break and do a tiny bit of model making and I finished my N Gauge custom loco body project! Whoo-hoo!
And secondly, the final locomotive for my little N Gauge Japanese fleet arrived this week. Right from the start of this ambitious project I had it in mind that I only wanted a limited number of locos to run on my small layout (having said that, I still ended up with more than I intended) and this KATO DD51 diesel is the LAST of my collection. So I feel quite satisfied with myself (as I never expected to have collected all the locos that I wanted in such a relatively short amount of time).
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| Above: My new BIG DD51 loco compared to my 'little' DD10! |
And that's it really. I still have a pile of COBI brick models to make and I will be starting on one of these next week. But for now, I hope to get a video out showing off my fleet of little model railway locos! So, bye for now!
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