Hepster

Not only do I agree with the issues regarding the pace of Rendezvous with Rama, I would also argue that James White's 'All Judgement Fled' tackles the same storyline far more effectively and would translate to the screen more readily. For sheer sensawunda, James Blish's 'Cities in Flight' would be good. Incidentally, I can vaguely recall BBC doing a one-off production of Asimov's 'The Naked Sun' back in the late 1960s for TV... Its probably been wiped long since by now.

And they have managed to spell Panzer wrong on the dragonusa site!

I built the Revell 1/72 Tornado GR1 some years back, and came away from the experience convinced that it was the best Tornado kit that you can get in that scale. I didn't have any of the problems that you mentioned, but I did have problems with warping on some fuselage parts which, although a serious problem, I regarded as a one-off and couldn't blame the kit, and would love to build another one day.

For me it was the Hurricane IV(RP) in about 1968, possibly a little earlier. Nearly 50 years later, I'm still churning out Airfix 1/72 Hurricanes, with several in the stash. But they have moved with the times, three of the stash are the newish fabulous fabric winged Hurricane I, a far cry from that rather dubious old kit of the Hurricane IV(RP)!

Lovely job, much better than my attempts at this tank. Minor issue, I think that the secondary armament should be an MG 34 Panzerlauf with the shrouded barrel

I agree with Jure that whilst the Fw 190D prop is the way to go, it may need a minor rework. I have built Fw 190Ds in 1/72 by at least five makes, and they all seemed to have slightly different interpretations of the prop, an needed minor rework just to meet their intended purpose in some cases. For example, I think the Academy props had pointy tips... Also, Pavla do a set of replacement blades for the Fw 190D-9 and D-11, that is two sets of blades and two spinners. Also IIRC,an old Airfix mag article converting an Me 109G into a Mule used a prop and spinner from a Ju 87G, but I guess accuracy standards were a bit lower back then (1960s).

Best - 1/72 Hasegawa Bristol Beaufighter TF.X - terrific fit of parts and well engineered. Why have they not reissued this? I'm sure the new Airfix is more detailed, but Hasegawa did more versions... Worst - 1/72 Roden He 111B - it fought me all the way and the decals were the wrong colour!

Which kind of illustrates that most people will accept bad CGI in SF/Fantasy, but not in a WWII movie. I suggest that Jackson calls the dog 'Gollum', just so that the movie has one of these unsubtle nerd references that all modern movies are obliged to have..

1/72 Hurricane I (fabric wing) - new tool 1/72 Spitfire I - new tool 1/72 SA Bulldog 1/72 DHC Chipmunk 1/72 Lightning F2A - new tool

It is indeed 'Waste Paper', as in Waste Paper Bin. Too many years spent working in an office.

File them under 'WP' and move on to the next build. Too many kits in the stash to waste time on failures...

Very nice, although I would suggest for realism not obstructing the viewing ports for driver and machine gun operator and the sights for the main gun...

Seen Star Trek: Beyond, and enjoyed it despite it having a lack-lustre villain with no charisma - the dead opposite of the excellent Cumberbatch performance in the previous movie. I have enjoyed all three reboots, despite them all having plot holes big enough to fit a Borg Cube through, it makes the plot holes and backstory flaws in Voyager and Enterprise seem minor by comparison. Nevertheless, very enjoyable thanks to the awesome pastiche characterisations by the main stars, and fast moving ebullient plots.

Really enjoying SS-GB. My hearing is not perfect by any means, yet I have had no problem with this programme and wondered what all this 'mumble-fest' talk was about. I noticed that the Spits are incorrect late versions, but didn't care, it's just not important to the story. I was impressed by the idea of Helmut Wick appearing briefly in the first episode, that is a very subtle aspect of Germany winning the Battle of Britain. I read the novel about 20 years ago, but don't recollect the plot sufficiently, just that it was damned gloomy - they've achieved that alright.

As I acquire guite a few bagged kits at shows etc, the tougher boxes sometimes get reused for them. Some of my boxtops have been used to decorate the storage boxes that I transport models to shows in, it gives that personal touch.