Truro Model Builder

I remember as a kid my poor old Grandad lying upstairs in bed dying with cancer, thin as a stick and not having eaten for days. My Nan was boiling a ham in the kitchen and Grandad shouted down the stairs. “I could just fancy a bit of that ham.” “You can’t have any of that," Nan told him. "It’s for the funeral.“

The joys of modelling.

That could be considered to be stretching a point. I like your reasoning, mind. Seriously, can the use of a balloon by an army unit be considered as a constituted air arm?

My modelling mojo has been in decline over the last few weeks, but I am finally back at the modelling bench again courtesy of a Special Hobby 1/72 Spitfire F.22. Nice little kit, a bit more work to it than the Airfix F.22. Anyways, there I was having decided to use Microscale Kristal Kleer for the ID lights under the fuselage as the parts supplied were far, far -ridiculously, in fact- too big. In goes the KK last night, this morning lovely and, well, kleer. I point out the oversize parts on the sprue to SWMBO with a laugh, remarking that Special Hobby really got those wrong, and show her the little holes in the belly of the Spitfire. She frowns and looks at the sprue. "Perhaps they want you to use those parts there?" she suggests brightly, pointing out three much smaller round parts at the other end of the sprue. At which point I realise the parts I had been critical of were actually camera port covers, and had I looked on the parts diagram they would have been crossed out as not used in this boxing. "So what do you know about modelling?" I grumped as I slouched back to the mancave. Oh boy, did I feel stupid...

I think this is why many of my kits grind to a halt at the painting stage. Despite the fact that I am competent with the airbrush, produce results that I -and others- like, I do seem to have this irrational fear of using the wretched thing and screwing up the whole job. I cannot explain it.

Overly optimistic intelligence conclusions (yes, Beppo Schmid, I am looking at you), ordering escort fighters to maintain close formation to the bombers, and to top it off switching the bombing to London.

Twenty minutes? Go on, knock out another trio. You're obviously on a roll.

Heretic! I have known men to have their tongue removed for less! There is but one Queen of the Skies, and she came from Weybridge, not Everett.

Everybody and his wife will be bringing out decal sheets for this one.

Some of the more recent intercepts have been over the Mediterranean. Last time I checked, Giorgio, Russia does not have a Mediterranean shore... I agree with you about the EA-6B and the cable car, however. That was disgraceful on the USN's part.

That DC-2 looks rather smart.

What a shame they haven't included markings for the totally incorrectly WW2-painted AS.6 without ball turret in the Fleet Air Arm Museum... (removes tongue from inside cheek)

A friend of mine (and fellow modeller) is a retired RAF Nimrod navigator. He relates the story of the time his aircraft formated alongside a Bear during an exercise. After some waving to each other and mutual photography the Bear started to pull away from the Nimrod, its smoke trails thickening as its engines wound up. The Nimrod pilot pushed the throttle forward to keep up, but eventually they had to settle for watching the Bear leave them behind.

Horrible finish, frankly. He is evidently a talented modeller, but I don't think he actually looked at a photo of a real NF.14 before he painted it. Two seconds and here's one that tells you what they actually looked like. From flickr.

Thank you for that link, Blimpyboy. At some time in the far distant past I came across something similar in a NATO publication regarding internationally agreed protocols for both intercepting AND intercepted aircraft, but I wish I'd made a copy at the time as I have never seen it since.