Tiny Tim-ber kits

 

An email arrives from Hobbies, and in it are deals (half price!) on some tiny Timberkits kits with a festive theme. I decided not to be a miser, and ordered four, because I like making fun things. 

First we have Santa. I spent quite a long while on the painting as my tinlet of matt white had gone off, so I sanded the nearly dry paint away to replace it with a spray of white primer. The red is Precision buffer beam red, which I think is a nice colour. 

Rudolph is simpler in the paint department, but both can be a little fiddly to assemble. Santa has a guide block in the chimney that needs care to position, and the string from Rudolphs neck has to be set correctly in the push putton block. Not a problem for the experienced, but I can see some beginners struggling to make the things work. 

On the plus side, since glue is included, you could sit at the Christmas lunch table and build them without needing any other tools.

Festive Lego tradition

 

One Christmas tration I've made my self maintain, is to build the ever growing collection of festive Lego sets, to decorate the bookshelves. In a week or so, I'll take them all apart, so they can be built next year. 

Anyway, first up, is the oldest item in the collection, the Elves. 40205 Seasonal Elves Workshop is reasonably absorbing, but I put it, and all the other sets together, while watching Richard Osmans House of Games. 

40498, Christmas Penguin came next. The odd thing about this set is the giant snowflake hidden in the base. You spend several minutes assembling it, and then it's hidden from sight. A bit wobbly this one, that penguin is heavy, and only attached to the base with a single stud. 

Now we have a mixed bag of Father Christmases, including 40206 Christmas Set with Rotating Arms, at the back, and the weird looking 30478 Jolly Santa Claus Polybag Set. A Playmobil figure has crept into the scene too, because I played with both as a kid. 

Finally, we have 40744 Christmas Ornament Selection, which I picked up in the Lego shop in Battersea Power Station a few months ago. These are really clever, not many pieces, but the results look fantastic. 

Anyway, that's the first festive post this year. Look out for more to come. You have been warned...

Saturday Film Club: Secrets of the Coventry Ring Road

What could be more festive then a trip around the Coventry Ringroad? This is a surprisingly interesting visit to the road of death around Coventry. 

Up on the wheels

 

Time to flip the coach over and fit some running gear. 32mm gauge wheelsets are included in the kit - and nice heavy metal ones they are too. 

Brass bearings are provided, and these are fitted into holes in some somewhat square supports. The holes are a smidge larger than I would like, but a dollop of superglue fixes them well enough, and I left the parts alone overnight to dry so the bearing didn't drop to the top or bottom of the hole. 

After this, the supports are glued into place with wheelsets trapped between them. Sadly, the tabs fit very losely in the holes, so you have to leave the model upside down while the glue dries, or they simply fall out. 

I did this, then when the glue had grabbed, flipped the mode back over, and stood it on a mirror. One support needed to be shoved down half a millimetre to ensure all wheels touched the glass, but after that , all seems to be well. The supports might benefit from a little extra woo glued around them to beef up the joint, we'll see about this.

Stripwood details

 

Straight from the packet, those coach sides look far too plain. No problem, I have a big bundle of various sizes of stripwood, and I know how to use it!

Some square section around the door, and flatter stuff for the ends and sides. It's not a lot, but I think this looks better. Less cheap box, more proper model. 

It also justifies all those materials bought on the offchance they will come in handy one day. Well, I can't be the only one who thinks like this can I?