treker_ed

@John Tapsell in complete agreement with you there. The "suggested for you" most of the time are so far off the mark as to be laughable, and some of the adverts as well! One day last week, I kept a track of all the ads, and suggestions that I closed during an 8 hour period, close to 240 over the 8 hours! I just wish there was a setting to tell them "to get lost I'm not interested in all this crap that you are trying to sell me - I'm not interested!" But of course, that's how they make their money supposedly by "not" selling your details to advertising companies! I was about to come and grump about neighbours building stuff... For the last 3 or 4 years every summer without fail, we have had neighbours building stuff. One has built a "super shed" which took him 2 or 3 summers to finish and he still tinkers with it, every nice weekend, or evening out come the power tools - and all our windows get shut due to the damn noise he makes! Another neighbour has spent the last 2 or 3 years renovating a brand new house that's only 7 years old (we moved into ours in late 2013, and theirs was built early 2014. So again, most weekends, and evenings it's been out with the power tools. And now, another one directly behind us is building a bloody shed. So again, out with the power tools, drills, saws etc. Getting damned fed up with it. Cannot enjoy a lovely evening without some sort of noise from someone building with power tools! We have to keep all our doors and windows closed because of the amount of noise generated by them!

Lots of little storage boxes for all my damn USB cable floating round my damn drawers! Of course, every time you buy another gadget, they always come with another damn USB cable until they look like they've been breeding and you have hundreds of the ruddy things! All nicely tidied away now into my boxes, and one for the chargers as well (also got some for the wife so she can do the same with all her cables and chargers!) Also some slight larger ones (A5 size) for all my masking and PE sets that I have separated out into various kit makers. So one box for Airfix, one for Revell, and one for others. All nicely organised and labelled.

I think the site has been completely down for a little while. Using Edge Chromium and all i was getting was an "unable to resolve that dns" message. That is usually an indication that the site was down or that the hosting service was not refreshing properly so that the rest of the internet couldn't recognise the background DNS address. Seems to be ok at the moment though 😆

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57049639 Even Vlad is getting in on the jab! (Must admit, even reading the headline made me giggle just a little bit!)😁

@jeff72 This topic is discussed at great length in the FAQ section of the site

Cant help - but you might get a better response posting in the Modern Military section of the Aviation section. Mods can move the post for you.

nope - you pay extra according to the website - but as I said above, we stated to them that the whole reason we were upgrading to sky Q was for the UHD channels, and we haven't got them. So not happy at all. Update: So went along to the shopping centre stand where we arranged our upgrade, after talking to them for about 10 minutes, and showing them what they had written down, it turns out all they would do is ........ Nothing! As the person we spoke to is not in until Monday they wont deal with it until then. This is despite the fact that the person I spoke to today, was the other person on the stand on the day we went up there! So completely wasted journey. Oh and he told me that I would also have to speak to the customer services as well to get it sorted out. No chance, you messed it up, you sort it out. I have complete recall of the conversation, and what we told them as to our requirements. We would not have upgraded to Sky Q if we were not asking for the UHD package as well. If we had been staying on the HD, we could have stayed with our original Sky HD box and not bothered with the change, and would have saved us £99 for the privilege of this mess!

Signed up to Sky Q for the UHD service as we recently had to change our TV due to our old one failing. New TV is 4K UHD so we thought why not use it's capabilities and upgrade our existing Sky service. Popped along to our local shopping centre once we were allowed to after 12th April to chat to the Sky sales agents in there, and discussed why we wanted to upgrade, and we were told that the UHD part was included, and that there was no extra charge, and so our bill would not increase! Great - we signed up. Fast forward to Yesterday and get it all installed, only to find that the UHD part is NOT included, is extra, and will increase our bill. Sent off a complaint to the Sky customer services (sadly India based contact centre....) and requested a call back to discuss. No call back, received an email at 07:01 this morning to basically say that as this is not recorded on our account then we are not getting the upgrade unless we can provide proof! Luckily the sales agent wrote things down on the back of a Sky Q leaflet about wanting UHD etc. So I now need to go and discuss this "error" with them again! Not a very happy or impressed customer. Not received the service that I was expecting nor believed that we had signed up to, or that had been discussed.

5 1/2 years ago (Dec 2015) we had solar panel installed by a company called Clean Green Home Energy, just before government of the time changed the subsidies and payment scheme that homeowners could get. It was assumed that 50% of any energy generated would be fed back into the grid, and you get a payment from your energy supplier based on KWh generated. These changed (if I remember) in the Jan of 2016. Anyway, due to the withdrawal of the installation grants from Government to supplier, it increasingly became less profitable for companies to install, and the company we purchased from, decided to put themselves into voluntary liquidation in the middle of 2016. Now, a major part of their assets was their customer list - which I know for a fact was sold on by the liquidators. For 3 years, until we changed our number, we were plagued with phone calls from energy companies, green energy companies, warranty companies etc all claiming to be now looking after the warranty on our solar panels. No matter what we did, we would sometimes be getting upwards of 10 calls a day! In the end, all we could do was to change our phone number with BT. Thankfully, this stopped all these calls (didn't stop the cold calls from spoofed or overseas, but that's another story completely!!!) Fast forward to April 2021 and we receive a letter out of the blue from a claims company called Solar Claims UK LTD, in a hand written envelope (which made me think it was from family initially, until I saw the mis-spelled, and mis-addressed details). Sadly, it would seem the curse of the sold on customer list has struck again, they are contacting all the company's customers to "invite" them to participate in a mis-selling compensation claim. Now, whom they are claiming from I don't know as the company no longer exists, nor it would seem that they have not done any homework, as we did not purchase our solar panels with any home-loan or grant as we purchased our panels outright, no finance company involved at all. Contacted them to request our details be removed - sorry that team is busy, can I hold?, no you cant - don't have the facility to put you on hold, they will have to call you back! First company I've ever called who are unable to put someone on hold... Anyway, few minutes later, call back from someone, who would appear to be one of the owners/directors of the company (had been doing a Companies House search on them to check them out) and he doesn't seem happy to be making the call, and his first words were I believe you've asked for a call back as you want your details removed....? No I was told your team was busy, so I had to have a call back! Not happy about the letter being sent out, not requested, its really a junk letter, and our address is incorrect. Well as we are removing you from our database it doesn't really matter does it.. (in the back of my mind I'm thinking, yes it does, if you are trying to find our address and you've got it spelt incorrectly, you wont find it will you! Let's wait and see if we now get any more letters or contact about any mis-selling - we'll know where they'll have come from. Oh yes, we are supposedly on the Mail Preference service DO NOT MAIL list (same as Telephone preference service, but for mailing)

1/72 Dakota MKIII for £20 from the works. This is the boxing that included the Willy's Jeep. Not too bad I thought, looked up and seems to be around the £28+ mark where available elsewhere. Also on the way from Big H at Lowestoft, Kinetic FA.2 Sea Harrier, Eduard canopy mask, and the 1/48 Blenheim reissue. Also some etch for the Kinetic Gr1/Gr3 (one of each for each type)

Not too interested in AFV's but the BBC article has been changed to now reflect what it is actually called, and all references to a "tank" have been removed. "Crowland WWII Buffalo LVT dug up after 74 years underground" I must admit, it annoys me when they cant get information correct. A few weeks ago they had an article talking about USAF aircraft, but the picture they had illustrating the said journalistic piece was a French Dassault Rafale! Quick email to the editorial team complaining about their accuracy and pointing out the glaring error, and about an hour or so later, it had been changed to an F-15E Eagle!

I'm not doing any mods or scratchbuilding to an existing kit. I already have the Kinetic FA2 & FRS1 kits in my stash, I am buying another FA2, but because the Eduard masking kit is no longer available, I needed to confirm the details about the canopy as the FRS1 canopy mask is still available and as such, it should fit the FA2 canopy. Thank you for your information, I did already know most of that from the references I already have - it was literally just the canopy information I needed to check.

Many thanks for that, I thought as much. I knew that the radar was upgraded, and a fuselage plug to the rear of the cockpit (along with avionics etc) but nothing that I read stated that the canopy was ever changed. So I'll go with the mandate that kinetic has used the same canopy parts between the FA2 & the FRS1 kits (FA2 came out first, and then the FRS1).

Quick question for the Harrier/Shar experts out there. After looking at literally dozens of pictures and references, as far as I can tell, after upgrading from FRS1 to FA2 there was no change to the canopy on the Sea Harrier. Could anyone confirm or deny this assumption? Looking at getting another Kinetic FA2, but as I'm a bit kack handed with masking canopies up, I was looking at getting the Eduard masking set, but this has been discontinued, however, the FRS1 set is still available, and looking at the design of the canopies in the kits that I have, they look exactly the same. So it would be just as easy to use the FRS1 set on the FA2 kit😄

I use a 0.35 needle/nozzle and mainly use Tamiya acrylic paints. Provided they are thinned enough, a 0.4 should be more than adequate. I would say a ratio of at least 60/40 thinner/paint with several light coats to build up the colour should do the trick. For the majority of my metal colours, I tend to use either Vallejo metal color acrylic or (now discontinued) K-Color. These were imported by Model Innovations, but the Italian manufacturer has now discontinued them, so I stocked up on them from the importer last year, so I have enough to last for a while.

Tamiya XF-81 is my go-to for RAF Dark Green - thinned (usually) 60/40 thinner/paint. Once cured, I find gives a fairly durable matt finish. But once under varnish of choice, doesn't really make any difference.

Two books which I had been looking for for a while but was unable to get until now. SAM publications (before the switch over to MA Publications) Modellers Datafile 17 BAe/HS Harrier Modellers Datafile 11 BAe/HS Sea Harrier Reference material for my multi-builds of Kinetic Harriers that I have in the stash - 2x GR1/GR3, FRS.1, FA.2, T2/T4/T8 plus a Hasegawa GR7/GR9. More than enough for me as I don't go OTT with any AM stuff.

Received mine direct as well, but no problems with any short shot parts at all - fuselage is fine and all major components are ok as well.

In Milton Keynes there is an extensive network of Cycle Paths we call the Redways (because the tarmac used to pave them is coloured red😀), however... there are a significant number of cyclists who refuse to use them and will use the main roads. The roads are organised in a grid pattern of V & H named & numbered (V1, V2,V3 V4 etc, H1. H2, H3 etc) the majority of which are either 70mph if they are duelled or 60 if normal national speed limit roads. This is why the network of Redways was constructed to remove cyclist from the main roads for their own safety, to separate them the fast moving traffic. The significant number of cyclists who refuse to use the Redways have the opinion that they are entitled to use the roads just as much as any other road user. They then blame motorists if they get injured! There are also (usually 3 or 4 underpasses on each of the roads, one at either end of each section of road, and one in the middle to allow pedestrians to cross the roads between estates. Over the years sadly a number of people, including children, have been killed crossing the main roads between estates because they have refused to be sensible and use the underpass as it was "quicker" to cross the road instead of going down to the underpass, and going about 30 seconds out of their way to get to the underpass. As a result, some roads have been downgraded to 40mph due to the "inherent unsafe nature of the road". Barriers have been installed on some of the duel carriageway roads down the middle, and yet people still do it. I have had a number of near misses where someone has appeared out of bushes at the side of the road on 70mph stretches and had to swerve out of the way whilst slamming on the brakes. The amount of abuse shown by the person when this happens is unbelievable!

When spraying metallics, I use Ultimate Modelling Products Black gloss primer, which I leave to cure for about 12 hours, then a light coat of Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black. This is left to cure, then a heavier wetter coat, and then usually a 3rd wetter coat. This usually gives me a very glossy, mirror like black finish ready for the metallic coat. Sometimes, but not always, I them varnish this with Tamiya X-22 gloss varnish to protect the black paint. I'm still learning how to spray the metallics, and sometimes get brilliant results, and sometime crappy results. Just bought a new airbrush, UMP Apex (which I believe is a rebranded Badger airbrush) but have not yet tried any metal paints with this. I use Vallejo Acrylic Metal Colour, and also K-Color metallic paints (this is an imported brand but I understand that it's been discontinued by the manufacturer now though 😞)

Tamiya X-22 is my normal go to gloss. Might need a couple of coats over matt paint, but normally gives a lovely gloss finish, and once cured, gives a fairly tough finish. I almost exclusively use Tamiya paints, so any that need Sky I use XF-21, and this will usually take 2 or 3 coats of varnish to get a decent glossy finish. I have about 25 1/48 aircraft of various types that have all needed the same treatment over the years, and have experimented with various varnishes, including the newer Humbrol Clear (but that takes so long to dry, and stays tacky for a couple of days!) Finally settled on X-22 which I thin with either Tamiya X-20a or the thinner from Ultimate Modelling Products, around 60/40 (thinner/paint). Gives a good finish which is touch dry after about an hour, so you could spray a second coat. It's fully cured after about 12-24 hours though.

Been using these for a few months as well. I find they perform very well, and have got decals bedding down very nicely, especially awkward instrument panel decals. Not had any problems with the extra strong eating through any decals yet though, I've used them on Airfix (cartograph) & normal Airfix, Revell, Eduard, Xtradecal & Hobby Boss decals without any problems.

on the one occasion I did reverse/move out of the way, I hit a granite block that was put into the ground to prevent cars hitting the corner of a building, dented and scraped the side of my car, damaging the passenger door, and side of my car trying to get out of the drivers way. Ultimately it was the other drivers fault for driving the wrong way on a one way street; yet I was hit with a massive repair bill and lost no claims as the insurer refused to accept it was the other drivers fault - who also admitted it was their fault, and with dash cam footage of the incident. As a result, I will NOT move out of the way now. If the other driver hits me, it will be their fault entirely for driving the wrong way in a clearly signed, and designated one way system.

Winds me up as well. If you would not do this on a road signposted as one way, why do it in a car park that is sign posted as having a one way system - it causes other users problems and if you caused an accident, you will immediately be liable, indeed if your insurer will cover you at all for such a culpable act (driving otherwise in accordance/dangerous driving?) I refuse to reverse or get out of the way if I am driving the correct way and a driver comes at me the wrong way in such circumstances. As far as I'm concerned it's legally my right of way, and they can do the moving. The number of times it's caused the other person to explode in anger is unbelievable, 90% of the time, it's caught on the dashcam we have in the car, and when I point out they are on camera, for some reason they seem surprised!

There is anecdotal evidence that it does help! A recent article that I read discussed this and actually stated that the body remembers having had covid, and so will start to produce antibodies quicker, and in larger quantities due to the fact that it recognises the proteins in the vaccine as belonging to the Covid-19 virus. As a result it stimulates the bodies immune response system, and provides a better response to the virus. It doesn't matter if Pfizer or Oxford-AZ, the response was the same - if a person has had C-19, the immune response was higher and produced more antibodies quicker than if a person receiving the vaccine had not had the virus and was receiving the vaccine "cold" so to say - IE had not previously contracted C-19. It also went on to say that the bodies responses were different. Those who had the virus didn't have the same side effects receiving the vaccine as those who had not had the virus. Again, they think that was down to the way the body was producing the anti-body response to the vaccine.