Army_Air_Force

We are still looking for some more Purple Rock Cress, to make a more solid boundary between the plants and the ballast. Other than that, for now, the planting is done and we need to wait and let everything grow and spread. Next year, we can take another look and see if anything died and whether there are still spaces that could do with filling. There's one chair screw left to fit on the rear sleeper - the "Golden Spike" to complete the railway. I need to drill the sleeper for this, then the family will all take turns on the two feet stilson wrench, to complete the railway! I'm looking forwards to the Summer, leaning on my crossing gate, with a cold drink in my hand, watching the buzzy things going mental around all the flowers!!

It took a little rethinking of where some of the plants would go, because the replacements were the wrong colour or would spread further or not as far as planned. Obviously they need to grow and fill out the area properly, so it still looks a bit thin for now. The pictures below show the completed embankment, one with all the plants identified. All around the back of the planted area, we sowed wildflower seeds, to form a backdrop to the rest. We also bought five more spreading plants, to continue the plants along the hawthorn hedge, up to the garage. That's thirty four along seventy feet of hedge.

April 13th On the 13th, we had another push on the railway embankment. After dropping my daughter off to see some friends, Lynne and I continued to a garden centre and splashed out on more plants, compost and some small garden tools. By the time we got back home, it was lunch time, but after a quick bite to eat, we were out working at the railway. The first job was to dig more sand and compost into the embankment, to break up the clay soil. With that done, the exciting bit, planting. We couldn't get all the plants I'd picked out two weeks ago, so had to get some alternatives, but it all worked out.

For those who are green fingered, here's what we have planted so far. It's so close to being finished in this area. I'm looking forwards to seeing the rest planted, though it is going to look a little thin for a while until the plants get established and spread out.

In early April, I spent a day weeding the small border along the hawthorn hedge - 70 feet out of 100 feet. I've left the bit behind the garage for now. I then dug in a load of sand to help break up the clay soil and help drainage. A week ago, Lynne and I went to a few local garden centres and came away with £120 worth of plants. These were planted a couple of days ago and calculating for their future spread, they only did 60 feet of the border! I've got some other stuff that I'm growing from seeds, but wanted something down that would eventually help to control the weeds which spread from the other side of the hedge. We also made a start on planting the railway embankment. Up by the kitchen, there's an area where we are going to enlarge the patio. It's a bit small with a few people, chairs and a table out. So from the area that is going to be buried, we've dug out several plants which have moved to the railway. These include "Lady's Mantle", "Purple Rock Cress" and "Water Avens". I also dug out some "Forget-me-not" from the edge of the lawn. We still need to shop for more plants, but I also have some wildflower seeds that I will spread around the back edge of the embankment.

It's been a while since I updated this thread. I want to finish the story of the garden rework, which is almost complete. I left the story with news that was garden wall rearranged, thanks to an icy road and a BMW that buried itself in my front garden wall and snapped the telegraph pole in December. Here's some pictures of the fun! I haven't done any more of my back garden wall rebuild. The weather has been very poor over the Winter and even now, well into Spring, it has been chucking it down or blowing a gale. I'm still hanging out for a few warm, calm and dry days! Another Winter project, built inside in my workshop thankfully, is this Anti-butterfly air defence system. When we put the veggie planters in, the neighbours warned us about slugs. Nobody mentioned butterflies laying eggs and the hungry caterpillars! This frame has a 5mm mesh, which I'm told is too small for the butterflies. The 7mm netting we had over the planter last year didn't stop them.

I might have more wall building to do after this morning. At about 7:15am, I think due to icy roads, someone buried their BMW in our front garden wall, also snapping off the top eight feet of the telegraph pole through whiplash! Phone lines and internet down for us and our neighbours!

Finished, with the addition of the black lines on the leading edges of the tailplanes and Ezra Stiles now sitting in the cockpit.

What was worse, is that in the best traditions of British Rail, it was the "Wrong type of snow", so all trains were cancelled again! and we'd only just recovered from the leaf tragedy! 😁 So here's my wall today, December 2nd, lost under a plastic sheet, several more blankets and a couple of inches of snow. I did get the fence across the end of the garage done before the frost and with the lawn, railway and path complete, all the main goals for the year were achieved. If it warms up after this snow goes, I'll get back to the wall, but overall, I'm very pleased with year's work.

November 28th By the end of the 28th, I'd got two courses of cleaned up bricks, rebuilt into the wall. Towards the end of the day, the temperature began to drop, so it was all covered in some fleece blankets. November 30th Thursday the 30th dawned very cold and very white. With very cold weather forecast for at least a week, building work stopped. Without the effort and expense of warming water, bricks and sand, my mortar wasn't going to cure properly, so garden work has paused.

I'm hoping it won't take 11 more months to get Ezra into the cockpit, then some final photos on my proper camera, rather than my phone.

So, it's not quite finished here, but very nearly. It's a bit rough in places, but for a battered 1970's model, brought back to life in a new form, I'm quite happy. At 1/72 scale, it's quite small and my hands are much bigger than when it was first built. My hands aren't so steady these days and my eyesight now needs lenses and magnification to work!

Some thin acetate was heated over a soldering iron to bend it into the small windscreen and this was attached with some PVA glue. Shortly after this, the prop was fitted. At the end of the afternoon, the Stiles Skystreak was parked in my photo booth for some pictures, just waiting for Ezra to dry.

On the film aircraft, the rudder had black painted along its rear edge, I think to give the fabric a scalloped look. This was done on the model with a black Sharpie. Ezra Stiles was also painted today, with a brown flying jacket and helmet, silver for his goggles and some cream seatbelt straps. He needs to fully set before he can climb in.

Rigging done and pitot fitted! The centre pylon was also painted black.

For the bottom, it appeared there were only rigging wires from the wings to the wheel. As the wires were non-functional on the original Chipmunk conversion, I don't think they fitted bracing wires inboard of the landing gear. For my wires, I folded one in half and glued the point of the 'V' to the centre of the wheel and left it to set. The other ends were then pushed into the wing holes and glued. The pitot tube was soldered up from some brass rod. The round section was hammered flat for the pitot mast and soldered to a tapered piece for the pitot head. That was also glued into the wing with cyano.

So with the wifey and daughter out all day, the workshop cleaned and tidied yesterday and unable to work in the garden, out came the Skystreak. Time for rigging. I've used various methods for rigging over the years, but for this, the finest wire I could find that looked right was some 0.1mm stainless steel wire. I did the top first, gluing one end of each wire into the port wing. The cyano was left to set for a minute or two, before pulling it tight up to the top of the pylon and gluing again. Once that has set, it was fed through the holes in the starboard wing and a small clip fastened on the end to keep the tension. Another drop of cyano in each hole secured them and then the excess wire was cut off.

Things have been very quiet on this thread for most of the year, however, I actually did some Skystreak modelling today! More of that shortly. As you may have seen from my garden railway thread, I've been working in the garden non-stop this year since the start of February. This has left me little time for modelling and I've been too tired when I have had a little free time. The basic build of the observatory was completed in 2022, but there was still lots of landscaping to do around the area. This involved some vegetable planters between the shed and observatory, a new lawn, a 1/1 scale railway garden feature and a 100 feet long path along the hedge and garage. See below. One of the last jobs of the year was felling my neighbour's tree, which was pushing over the garden wall. The wall was dismantled and the tree felled. A few days ago, I'd just got the first two courses of bricks laid, then the frost and snow came! It's all lost under fleece blankets, a tarp and a couple of inches of snow right now, so I suddenly had some free time to do modelling!

Tragedy struck the Carr household on Sunday the 12th. It was bound to happen sooner or later..... Leaf on the line!! 😁 I'm working on a replacement bus service!!

I'm planning to add a six feet tall fence, next to the garage door, blocking the path access from the front for better security. I also need a low fence to fill the gap in the fence, currently filled with a shipping pallet. We're well into the Autumn/Winter weather now, so my next priorty, as the weather allows, is the rebuilding of the garden wall, damaged by the tree.

The last stretch took two full paving slabs and a twelve inch cut slab, which were laid on November 5th. At some point, I need to build a low retaining wall next to the path behind the garage, due to the ground height along side the path. I also want to make a gutter along the rest of the path, down to a soakaway at the bottom by the railway. That's not a priority right now.

October 26th ~ November 5th From late October to early November, I was working on the path behind the garage. There was a lot of earth to dig out, around two and a half 850Kg bulk bags worth. Foundations were prepared, paving laid and repeat. The area of the last three slabs was tarmac covered hardcore. It wasn't flat and was a bit too high, so I took an inch or so off the top by slicing it with the diamond cutter and breaking it out with a hammer and chisel.

October 23rd The final paving stone was cut and laid on the 23rd of October, along with a 10 inch tall slab cut and fitted vertically to end the path and hold back the earth and gravel behind. Poor weather is delaying further work right now, but the next stage will be to clear out the rubbish behind the garage. When that's done, I can rake out all the dead plant matter, prior to starting to dig out in preparation for the garage path foundations. I probably won't post again until this path is complete. That will complete the garden landscaping part of the project. The thread will then probably go dormant until the Spring, when I get to plant the flowers in the railway embankment. That will be the final act to complete the whole project. I'm looking forwards to seeing some colour in the embankment, but for now, I'm really happy to get so much of the path done this year. Fingers crossed for a few more dry days to complete it.

October 18th The last strip of foundations by the railway, were completed on the 18th. Then there was a brief intermission on the work, to allow storm Babet to do its thing. On the 22nd, the ground had dried up and the weather was dry, allowing me to add the next four paving slabs. The last slab wasn't laid, as that was where the cement mixer was located. That slab also needs cutting, so figured it would be easier to work there after the current four slabs have set.

We did look, but nobody locally supplied anything suitable. We quite like the colours in the river gravel and it was half the price of decorative stone ( a consideration in the overall garden budget ). It is a garden feature after all, not a functional railway.