Edge

Happy birthday for yesterday Edward. Happy to see you have entrusted the present buying to yourself and what a great selection you've made! Edge

I think I've seen a request from him for the loan of a set of these decals, so perhaps he's looking to reproduce at least some of the schemes.

I agree but was pointing out that Hornby need the full support of their retailers if they are to survive and prosper. Getting one over on each of the 2 largest is, I feel, contradictory to that aim. I should add add that I am not a rail enthusiast, simply interested in seeing the company succeed. Edge

Seconded! Oh and the TT.18 too. Edge

I guess we were watching the same set which sold for £52 today! Edge

My point was that Hornby appeared to slight their 2 biggest UK retailers on purpose. And whilst I understand business is business there is also a strong human element to things. Both clearly want Hornby to succeed and the sheer size of their orders last year show this, Hornby carried out, seemingly out of spite, particularly in the case of the Hattons Class 66. The Terrier was in design before the Sheffield guy announced his, but that is not the case with Hattons. Sure business is hard nosed and tough and I am not suggesting Hornby roll over. What I am saying is that in my opinion, they would have been better served to be open with these big players rather than embarrass them on national TV. The last thing they need is for their big retailers to look elsewhere for stock. Edge

Having watched both episodes now I can see that Hornby has some steel behind the slightly nerdy exterior, as exemplified by them bringing out rail products to compete directly with their 2 biggest retailers. Yes I saw that those retailers both placed larger orders than a year ago, after the 2019 reveal, but I can't help but think that there will be some plotting to give Hornby a poke in the eye in return. Im not a railway enthusiast, but as the rail side of the business is by far the largest slice of the pie, it's a concern that Hornby would do this without, as was pointed out to them, at least having a conversation in advance. On on a happier note, I thought James May did a great job of presenting/voice over with the right balance of fact and ribbing. Great also to see a female product designer being employed - both youthful and female, that was great to see as we all worry about the average age of Hornby consumers. Edge

Please accept my deepest condolences Eric.

Gaz I am so sorry to hear of your step daughter's passing. Thoughts are with you. Edge

Great looking beau Tony.

So sorry to hear the sad news Stu. We have 2. Lola a big dollop of lovely chocolate Lab & Velma an 11 month old lab/retriever cross. Lola is our 1st and my kids have grown up with her & we dread the day when she leaves us.

Blackbird Models did produce. a Sea Gladiator conversion, in fact I think I have one somewhere. It's been out of stock for some time but perhaps the re-release will spur another batch of conversion parts. Edge

Nice work! Aoshima/Beemax have quite a few Celica kits (TA64 and ST165) which I'd like. Have to save my pennies! Edge

I managed a little more time with the Catalina over Sunday. Moving on to the gunner's position & walkway I was disappointed to find the inner face of the forward bulkhead badly marked. As I had opened the plastic bags that the sprues were originally packed in, this must have been caused during production. RIMG0932 by edge957, on Flickr RIMG0933 by edge957, on Flickr Not a great piece of work and something I might have tried to remedy by replacing with some plastic card (had I any thick enough) but I want to crack on & get this built as I seem to spend far too long looking at bits of plastic or faffing as my dad used to say! So I glued the 3 parts together & used a fuselage half to set them at the correct angle. Hopefully the marks won't be too visible once painted & the cupola's in place. RIMG0934 by edge957, on Flickr Edge

I managed to get a couple of hours in on Saturday afternoon. There doesn't appear to be much movement, but I put that down to the fiddliness of the Eduard etch, it's so small! I managed to wrangle one of the rudder pedals into shape then promptly snapped the next 2. Perhaps I should have tried annealing the fret beforehand? Anyhow a couple of pics to show the (lack of) progress: RIMG0929 by edge957, on Flickr RIMG0930 by edge957, on Flickr RIMG0931 by edge957, on Flickr Edge