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.

And if it DID say Wednesday, I'd look for another calendar, such is the Express - and its stable mate, the Mail - and their reputation for outright lies.

In the process of getting my biannual haircut. My good wife is in the background on her mobile, probably selling some of my stash whilst I'm out of the house.

How can he provide a breakdown on how its been spent, when he's not the one spending it? Other companies are in receipt of the $41m. They decide where they spend it, not WNW or PJ. That holding statement from WNW is them attempting to sit firmly on the fence, neither one thing nor another. No denial, but no admittance either. Perhaps a 3rd party is negotiating to purchase the business, and wants WNW to keep the business "warm" until the new owners can kick on? Or perhaps WNW aren't shutting down? At present, I am confidently predicting that WNW may or may not close, that another party may or may not purchase the company, that the Dr.I and Lancasters will or will not see the light of day, and that future kit sales may or may not start up again. If pushed, I'd have to say I still think WNW is closing down, but it will effectively reopen under new management before too long. Perhaps. But perhaps not......

He doesn't "take" $41m per year from NZ tax payers. That money is supplied, in the form of grants, to help companies in the NZ film industry. Those companies spend the grant money - as they must - and use some of it to purchase goods & services from WETA, because WETA are the best. So WETA earns the $41m by providing services to the NZ film industry, which has help from the NZ government. It's simply payment for services in an open market. NOT a subsidy to PJ at all.

WNW chose WETA as distributors for the kits, when they stopped free delivery. However, WETA made a bit of a pigs ear of it - quite why WNW had to create their own distribution system and thought they could do it better than wholesaling to model sellers, I'll never know. So WNW decided to go the wholesale route after all, as well as selling direct, and WETA were binned. But it was a business contract, with WETA buying from WNW at wholesale discount, and then reselling with their mark up. Unless WNW sold them the kits at very low prices, it's all legal and above board. If the rumours were false - sourced from multiple WNW connected people - all WNW had to do was put a notice up on their website, or send an email. The WWI 1/32 community is small, and word would have got out very quickly. The fact they declined to do so says a lot in my eyes. I would hazard a guess that their website sales went ballistic as well, as people scrambled to buy before the demise. WNW are renowned for selling out, and modellers didn't want to miss out. In either case, modellers carry no blame as far as I can see. Of course, that's just my opinion - I'm not claiming to know more, or that I must be correct, and my opinion is worth no more than the same as yours. I suspect the truth will come out before long, and I'm expecting it not to be simple, whatever happened.

No, he's not "under investigation". It's all been done legally, there is no investigation. Other companies got the grant money, then used it to buy products & services from WETA. So WETA earned the "subsidy" perfectly legally, nothing to do with WNW or TVAL.

The world is on the cusp of a historic recession. Businesses are struggling and going bust every day. The unemployment rate in the US is heading towards 20% - unheard of - oil is at $20 a barrel or so, as the world battens down the hatches to fight the coronavirus. Interest rates are around zero the world over. The New Zealand economy has been hit harder than most, as they've shut down everything for longer. It's working, but the effect on the economy is profound. WNW are unable to operate at all, except taking orders on their website, because of NZ government rules. They outsource pretty much everything - tooling, decal printing, instruction printing, packaging, PE, etc, from around the world. International trade is severely restricted, so much so that WNW may be powerless to do anything themselves. With all of that happening - multiple, historic, unique events the world over - quite why do you think that the modelling community had any impact whatsoever on WNW's decision making?

Calm down, Darren! This is not "on one man's word" - several sources have said the same thing i.e. WNW is in deep trouble & may close. The WNW website has a holding statement, I'm sure it will be updated next week. WNW are, I'm afraid, very reliant upon us customers for a future, so we need information as well. Nobody is " running around commenting that your money isnt safe with a WW purchase"(Sic). The information is out in the wild. It's been affirmed by various WNW related people. Who is benefitting from this "to score internet traffic"? The "pretty grim" comment was in reply to a request for information. It was given voluntarily, knowing it would go to a forum & then the world. It's up to PJ to decide, but it's also up to all of us to decide if we should buy more kits, order from retailers, etc. Knowing WNW's plans makes this a lot simpler! "Its up to WW to broadcast their intentions which they have now very clearly and nobody else". Dude, seriously?! "Very clearly"? Where?!?!?! WNW's sales have gone through the roof, as people look to stock up, just in case. That has not "damaged the brand". With what is happening around the world, this is the hill you chose to die on?!

I admire your optimism, sir.

The money WETA got was legal, there is nothing dodgy about it. The government has a film development fund and, of the fund, $41m finds its way to WETA via 3rd parties who contract WETA to undertake work for them. I don't think PJ has done anything wrong, but it seems to me he is pretty wee weed off. He lost $3m in the TVAL con, people are trying to insinuate something dodgy about a government fund that is just plain wrong. He's kicking up a stink in Wellington over planning permission granted next door to one of his homes. He's unpopular with Unions, as he worked with the US film industry to keep the workers rights low. He set up his WWI museum last year, lending it a lot of his military paraphernalia. It was supposed to stay open 4 years but the government closed it after 7-8 months. And he's taking fire in some media for pushing his weight around - he's considered to be too influential in NZ I fear he's just had enough of all this crap, so he's closing up & moving on.