dekenba

Love those little Ercoupe's, they are so cute.

Impressive. You're even colour coordinated!

Good grief, you almost look normal! Almost...

I rest my case!

You look like the sort of man that - for the right price - makes other men disappear!

Do you not think that, if it were at all possible, the UK & US governments would have done so many years ago?

He built a 1/35 scale copy and knocked it off his workbench whilst painting it, and it survived the almost 3 foot drop with minimal damage, whereas his Blackhawk model took obvious damage, requiring filler and more glue...

For instance, look at the Seawolf class of US SSN's. They were planning on building I think 30 of them, but the first 3 ended up costing over $3bn each. So they cancelled the entire class, got a clean piece of paper & designed the "cheaper" Virginia class instead, saving a shedful of money & ending up with a more flexible design for the post cold war era. When lead times stretch over the course of 2, 3 or even 4 governments, contract flexibility is everything, albeit it can give enough leeway to really mess up a project. Look at the UK's pair of aircraft carriers, which after pulling the angled deck, catapults & arrestor wires, are really just very large F-35B carriers...

There is absolutely nothing simple about contract negotiation for military hardware! It's incredibly complex, and just not suitable for a simple contract.

We've all witnessed so, so many UK defence projects in action, and the number of them that have ended up in a huge mess is depressingly large. I'd be seriously considering just buying US or European hardware off the shelf, it would be so, so much quicker, cheaper and better value.

Exactly! Which is why we'll end up with something that isn't a proven design, hasn't got a history of years of operation, can't be easily & quickly repaired, exists only on paper, will cost twice as much and end up delivering precisely half of its capabilities, 10 years too late, with no interoperability with most of our allies, which we'll try to flog to other countries, who will instead by cheap, reliable blackhawks...

The 4 pro Welsh teams will each have a salary budget of £4.5m next season, which will see many of Wales best players going to France, England or Japan to play. Meanwhile, Leinster are rumoured to spend €18 million on salaries. Yet the WRU turns over almost £100m per year, roughly the same as the IRFU. That money needs to be laser focused on the 4 pro teams, just as Ireland do. I'm hopeful the new CEO will sort the mess out, albeit a season or two in the making. Personally, I think Ireland are the best international rugby union team in the world, shading South Africa & NZ. The Irish pack is bloody scary, with a bench most teams would start with. The Irish backs are collectively superb - pacy, strong but, more importantly, their decision making is first class, meaning they convert their chances most times they enter the opponents 22. And, of course, Ireland benefit from sneaking two different countries into one team!

Scary! Ireland are the best team in the world at present, and Wales aren't! If Wales can stay within 10 points, and blood a few youngsters, I'll be happy. Gatland turned Wales into a world class side during his last stint in charge, but he'll need a little more time, but he'll have Wales winning again within 18-24 months. Until then, it's going to be a bit choppy!

I've been away from the hobby for a good few years, primarily due to health issues, but things have improved & I'll be back actually building a kit before too long. I build in 1/32, which for us oldies is THE scale for aircraft! You youngsters can still do 1/72 & 1/48, but father time has you in his sights... I stick to pre-1946 aircraft as subjects, which still leaves WWI, inter-war & WWII for potential kits. My stash is primarily WNW, Roden, Hasegawa, Trumpeter, Revell, Silver Wings, Tamiya, Fly, ZM & Special Hobby, with the excellent ICM offering more great value kits. AM is mostly Eduard, with Pheon decals for WWI stuff & Eagle Strike for WWII. My airbrush is H&S, I use Tamiya acrylics, and I've got far too many kits & AM to ever make a dent in, but I'm looking to thin the stash fairly soon, down to a slightly less outrageous size.