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This will be my third build in this GB. The Higgins boat is nearly finished and I have committed to building a dockside for it (thread yet to be started) but any dock needs a crane so enter: the 50 year + old Airfix model now made by Dapol For an old mould, and "recycled plastic" the amount of flash is minimal, ejector pin marks are common, most are hidden but these need addressing, another major issue is the ladder which I am removing and replacing but progress is progressing fast

For no explicable reason 2022 has not been a good year for my modelling mojo, I have achieved very little in the first seven months, and my attempt to get inspired via the Revell / Monogram GB is moving a less than a snails pace. So hopefully rescue has come through an unexpected source, as I have recently acquired a Thomas the Tank Engine layout from a friend, as his son is now into X-Box games and they are about to move house. The Thomas engines have been stored but my first project, to fully reuse the layout involves these (sorry for poor photo but it is a small segment of a photo taken on my phone. the long term objective is to use the layout as the base for my second world war dated layout which has been a armchair project for over 30 year. So , I started looking at what I could do to the houses and the current result is this; For the moment ignore the house on the left. I don't know what the source of the design the Airfix designers had, but trying to envisage an interior for these buildings is impossible, as the internal chimney stacks line up with windows in some places and its hard to work out where a bathroom would be. My thoughts are that they downsized a semi-detached house, From a 140's view point the integral garage had to go, as I cannot find any pictures of similar houses of the 1930's with this feature. Indeed Mrs 821 lived in a very similar building of the 1930's at which point no thought had been given to parking. So the garage has gone on the righthand house. Yes the heaviness of the widows does offend me but this is a project about rescuing and reusing the buildings,

After overindulging in GB's over the last two years I set myself a rule for 2021, that I would only build items for my "Exercise Meteor" project. Apart from an Airfix B-17 all the aircraft required for the project have been build, I have plenty of lorries etc, so I thought what could I enter for this GB? The answer is this: The current price of this kit remains under £10 but as you can see I paid £3.00 for this. The railway element of Exercise Meteor will require six signals, so this will be a start. Due to the overall work required on the layout this It will be a slow build but should be completed within the timeframe of the GB>

Cannot really call this a sprue shot but it does count as a entry because it says Kit on the box and out host @Enzo Matrix has ruled on this one If it was an OOB I could probably start at midnight and have in the gallery at 00:05 However I don't intend starting at that hour and also these will play a large part in the build. I will be building two at the same time.

Belated thanks to @Enzo Matrix for setting this GB up. In the Christmas Blitzenbuild 2019 my build was based around a N Gauge Metcalfe card kit. this was a pre-cut card kit in 1:148 scale.. Although this scale and 1:148 are my main focus, I have also decided to use the period between now and a house move to complete a micro layout in OO gauge. This will be based around my collection of military vehicles. The first stage is to build a signal box. This is a Scalescenes model that is now available at https://scalescenes.com/product/r010a-arp-signalbox/ although mine was included free n the Hornby Magazine some time ago. The pages as extracted from the magazine the first task is to stick three of the pages to different density card. The first time I built one of these kits I used craft PVA but it was far too wet an the paper never dried flat. I now use Pritt Stick and a roller to remove lumps and ubbles. To avoid the card curling during drying it currently resides under a pile of books. More about the prototype in a future thread.

Having asked for permission for this build to be included and permission granted as it slightly bends the rules. The first official history of the railways during WW2 was published in 1945 and that stated "The four weeks following 6th June were the busiest in the history of the railways, During that period 17,500 special troop and stores trains were run. 4,500 more than in the four weeks preceding D-Day. ". My build is in tribute to the efforts of those railwaymen and women, Two kits of wooden bodied wagons that would have been pressed into service, in those weeks, to carry the bombs and shells used by the equipment that many others are building in this GB.

I'll be along with this in a while http://www.vintage-airfix.com/airfix/ho-oo-rolling-stock/lowmac-and-jcb3-p-409.html But being railway related, I feel duty bound to be a bit late with some photos! Anyhow, as you can see from the link it first came out in 1964 and has a rarity rating of err 'rare'. I'm saving some pennies with the Dapol pairing- Dapol hit upon the neat idea of selling the Job separately to the Lowmac so model building sites don't have to be rail served. I think they'll be plenty of fun ahead! Thanks to our hosts for conceiving this build to haze through the summer with.

Railroad Water Crane (35567) 1:35 MiniArt via Creative Models We're on diorama fodder today, and if you saw my review the other week of the rail track here, this might be something of interest. MiniArt's latest is a railroad water crane that trains used to fill up their water tanks from at the side of the track. They were a common site around the railways of the world until Diesel and electric locomotives became more numerous, but have since almost disappeared. The kit arrives in a long custom-shaped end-opening box, and inside are three sprues in grey styrene, plus one in clear, and a small bundle of grey thread. Construction information is covered on the back of the box, and begins with the support column, which is split vertically, and in its lower sections is conical. A number of additional parts stack on top of the conical section, along with a couple of fine levers that are used in the operation of the crane. The column is topped with a dome-shaped casting, from which a support wire stretches out to the feeder tube. Two lamps attach to the top of the arm with clamps, both lanterns made up from two clear parts each that are painted transparent red. The final section of the feeder arm is able to rotate around its end for fine-tuning of the nozzle, and this is held in place by a pin, so with careful gluing could be left mobile. On the real thing the nozzle is moved using a pulley and rope, which is where the cord comes in. Two lengths are used, one hanging down for the operator to pull upon, and another running from a transfer box to the end of the nozzle. On the base is a cut-off valve set into a flat plate, which is bolted down onto a (presumably) concrete base. Painting instructions are given throughout the build as numbers linked to a paint chart at the bottom of the instructions, which gives you options for AMMO, Vallejo, Testors, Tamiya, Humbrol, Revell, Mr Color, LifeColor and plain-old colour names, so you shouldn't be left scratching for the right shade. Conclusion An excellent addition to any railway based diorama. I have one formulating in my mind already involving a King Tiger and the railway track, or perhaps it'll end up next to my BR52 someday. Review sample courtesy of

Spent today with perhaps the major manufacturer of 'O' gauge (1:43.5) railway kits in the UK and whilst discussing future plans he's said that amongst the kits that he has in the pipeline are warwell's and warflats. Kits are designed using 3D software, nothing new these days, but he's been using it long before the like of Hornby, Airfix etc. The kits are state of the art using full multimedia techniques, pressure injected resin (no bubbles), etched brass, last wax and whitemetal castings. Not cheap but not lacking in detail. So what has this got to do with Britmodeller? He's recognised that these too could be of use to the military modeller and is looking at the possibility of releasing these in both 1:48th and 1:35th - and if these go down well there could be other wagon's (possibly loco's too) in the pipeline. The only downside would be everything he's looking at producing kits for would have been used by UK railways. Any takers? p.s. Bit of a scoop as the news has not yet been made to the model railway fraternity and is posted here with permission.