Greetings. Albert here. Would you believe the last time I wrote a blog post about Little Walt it was nearly Christmas 2020...Just to keep this going along with the public holiday theme it is now nearly Easter. Yes, Easter 2021. What happened over the last 3 months? Phuff, shi# happened. Big time. Not only were mutant Covids running loose everywhere at the end of 2020 but..... Brexit Blighty became officially severed from the E.U. umbilical, cast out with a bad fish deal and now known only as a naughty 3rd country.
Ah fear not, your Uncle Albert is a wily old duffer. Keeping out of the way of the nasty germs meant he could spend christmas in his personal grotto. A.K.A. The Old Sidevalve Bar. No harm in that !!!! But the Brexit bit could be a bummer when treasure needs to be transported between 'The Old Sidevalve Bar' and 'The Arcade' in Belgium. We will see....where theres a will, there will be a way....there has to be....
Back to the shed - Proper productive I was, doing vintafake that would surpassing any known vintafake. So vintafake it ceased to be vintafake and became pure art !!! The quest to obtain documents and legalise Little Walt was the priority and needed to become a reality before the big cheese D.V.L.A. restarted inspecting vehicles rather than relying on photographic evidence
Little Walt needed to look fit for purpose, even if many hours of engineering were ahead. Hold on !!!! Cut the engineering to a minimum and use 'Blue Peter' style constrution for the missing parts. Cardboard, string, glue and any other household material were the favourite skool building blocks, use the lessons learnt and do it again.
I was quickly on the phone to Basil Splutterpipes polishing shop, time was of the essence ..Hey, Basil I've a task for someone who can safely use 'grown ups' scissors and isn't frightened of hot melt glue. "That is I" was the reply. "What ya got planned?" Top secret at this stage but I'm sending to your abode (in a plain brown envelope to avoid suspicion) scale plans. Show them to nobody "What ho old chap, I'll keep a look out for the postie". At this point Basil didn't know he had been comissioned to make a fuel tank in 'The Spirit' of a 1920's Brooklands flat tanker. His skills with Airfix kits are known throughout 'The Shire', working with cardboard would be a cinch.
Drawing the plans - String has many uses. Here's one of them, the first imaginary line and a start point to take measurements from.
About this long will be ideal.
1/2 scale.
A couple of days later the plans landed at the polishing shop across the valley. Basil messaged - Wow, most excellent draughmanship old chap. The detail is astonishing!!! I shall go in search of strong cardboard. First stop the skip at the local supermarket. They'll have plenty of 2 x wall corrugated.
In no time the snips were busy snipping... and the glue was melting.
A smidge of filler and ready for paint, pinstrip and decals.
Mounting brackets formed, oil and petrol fillers (milk bottle tops sprayed silver) in place, manufacturer and dealer decals to finish off ! YOWSA!!! A genuine Basil Splutterpipe work of art.
Banksy and Splut, two of UKs finest...or are they the same person? Nobody knows.
Once more an undercover meeting canalside to pick up the finished article and in no time the replica 1920's race tank was in place on Little Walt. One small step for man, one giant leap for Little Walt.
