chuckb1

Going to be epic, love the dog boats. Looked the up armoured business in their day. Good luck sir. One Small thing, god I sound such a pedantic devil. "Mess Room" sorry it is "Mess Deck" Washroom is the "Heads and Bathrooms" and Galley Room is the "Galley Flat" Chuck former resident of the Marines Barracks on various DLG's and LPD's Avast me hearties some filthy bilge rat has scuppered me wet!

Troy my friend your statement is so true. I am so pleased that the Evening Standard is now getting behind the Ex Servicemen's charities and raising awareness. After leaving the forces, i had my wilderness years, luckily I had a supportive Mrs B who stood by me when I re trained. For me its been about grafting and digging deep to get what you want in life. Finally made it at last, sadly there are many who have not. Fair breaks my heart. We have always followed the make do and mend philosophy, best trained but with gash kit. The standing joke with the Pongoes and the Marines in the 80's and 90's was the fact that the Royals and pretty much all other Commando forces from the RA, RN, FAA and Army became known as the "Millets or Silvermans Commandos" Due to the fact that many of us bought our own Gucci kit from surplus companies due to the fact that what was issued was frankly pony and fell apart. Thanks be for companies such as Arktis and Lowa, At least Lowas or Altberg soles didnt rot and fall off the uppers of your boots, or Combat jackets that did not dry out properly. no thermal layers issued like a Norgie top or a Helly base layer. Water Proofs that literally boiled you alive and had the water proof properties of a tea bag. The biggest step forward was proper Garry Gortex being issued to us all. Now as for the pale blue jobs dripping about their accom, food and how hard they graft. True they are being dumped on, true they are techies. However they are front line operational personnel. Therefore you will have to rough it, so is life. It will be galling that the opposite shift get hot food and a marginally better life.Does it really matter when what they are doing will hopefully deny the expansion of a bunch of murdering fiends. Gradually exterminating the indigenous population. One final thought for all the old soldiers sailors and airmen out there...... Babies heads, potmess, square sausages, biscuits fly, biscuits brown, burger n beans, sausage and beans, screech lemon, limers or orange powder, corned dog, tinned spuds, tinned mixed veg, madras curry powder, pot noodle, (nutritional value of a flip flop) and tastes about the same. Better with the curry powder mixed in and 2 slices of bread and butter mashed into it, powdered soup and the makings for freeze dried tea with milk. Oh and that oat meal/shortbread biscuit thing that resembled a cross between a Farleys Rusk and a dog biscuit, so sweet your teeth screamed! Rat pack curry today seems like cordon bleu compared to the food of the old school. Right Im now pulling up my sandbag, swinging my lantern and making a wet of tea on my hexi. None of that jet boil malarkey here young man!

Love it! If you cant take a bag meal, you shouldnt have joined up!

Check the Avatar !! For me if its ok I will attempt the Trupeter 1/32 P40 with Barracuda decals and Eduard etch in the stash ready and waiting. Got two weeks to finish the second Spitfire 1a for a friend and then I will get on this P40 Osprey books at the ready

Well, after living like that for six months at a time over a 22 year period, in various salubrious locations all over the world from the South Atlantic, Central American jungle, various delightful desert locations and the snow covered land of the midnight sun the term "Man up" is on point you have food, you have a pit to sleep in, and a wash every day. Cyprus is not Helmand, that would give the writer something to drip about. Personally never had to drink Camel widdle, eat a cockie, or gnaw on grass not even on a SERE course at RAF St Mawgan with the crabs. That was more bunny rabbits, chicken, more bunny rabbits and fresh water. Not a camel or its deposits in sight. I have to say though, after Peru Lama was quite tasty in 87 Is what it is, cant change it its the might of the machine. So, count the days, tick them off your gozome chit and wait for the flight home. Always seems better when you drop your grip off on the bed at home, run a bath and wait for your first decent scran in months. The phrase if you cant take it PVR springs to mind. Its military life meh is what it is. Do it or sign off. Ah they were the days Corporal Jones, They just dont like it up em!

As an ex member of HM Forces, GET OVER IT YOU WHINING (*&^%$£ 1. A crabfat. pongoes, matelots or bootnecks bag meal is notoriously gash. Be it from 1940 to 2014 Normally consists of the following; Sarines x 2 for the eating of. Curly dry and packed with no love or care filled with 1 slice of plastic ham, tuna mush or rubber cheese Crisps x 1 soggy and salted dated from god knows when and non descript naafi brand Biscuit x 1 packet lucky dip, normally out of date and a left over from the Suez Crisis usually digestive, bourbon or custard cream 3 in a pack Fruit x 1 battered with more wrinkles than my gran (Shes dead btw) Drink X 1 non descriptive brand panda pop or worse fizzy and warm Sausage roll or "Oggie" dry flaky with some sort of mush that represents over spiced to kill the germs meat. Finally breaking into rations or the cookhouse or galley. Been there done that. Ever aquired a 5 lbs block of pussers cheese 10 tins of mackerel in tomato sauce, 12 jars of baby sick, (Matelots and booties know what this is) man size tin of lemon curd, jam and a box of butter pats and 12 loaves come and see me! My lads dietary needs come first sod the tight fisted chefs and stores R***S Eating cold rations on ops............ Been there and done that more times than you can shake a stick at. Person who wrote the letter, son or miss; Man or woman the hell up grow a pair of what you have and god gave you. Its life in uniform Mind you it was a crab whining............. RAF check in, Royals and Pongoes dig in....................... says it all really

If permissible I would like to be in with a pair of his and his matching 610 squadron Supermarine Spitfires if I am allowed? Yours grovellingly (Not a real word grammar police) However I like it Chuck B

1/144th MY EYES MY EYES! (Temporary blindness ensues)

Im doing 1/72, 1/48, 1/32 and at some point the mighty 1/24 Tiffie. 1/72, eye ball killing scale, bring me my magnifying goggle thingumy majigs. If your eyeballs are not burning then its not a good session

Have a Heyford in the Stash. Good reference material many thanks for posting this. Regards Chuck

Oh my oh my oh my oh my oh my oh my oh my oh my oh my oh my More excited than a bag of excited things, so that is two off my 2015 post answered. New Heinkel in BoB and the Defiant. So for the loft insulaiton there will be one Heinkel and two Defiants. All Im waiting for now are the Beaufighter, Beaufort, Hampden, Shackleton and the Manchester. Further to this if they really answer dreams can I have a new 262 as well please? All in the Gentlemens scale as well preferably so A. The boxes fit in my rucksack and can be smuggled in. When I get home from work B. The dont chew too much into my "Black ops" funds for kit purchasing. Chuck

Ok I kind of am about to stick the old Cajones on the cutting mat here, I have just about finished the old Monogram P38c Hawk. Devoid of any internal details apart from a blobby molded pilot and a basic seat. No flooring no wheel well details raised panel lines, sink marks void for an engine space, no exhaust stacks and a thick as a brick set of canopy parts. sink marks and flash. Oh and gaps that ate evergreen strip and filler. Know what, after detailing the wheel wells, tubing for exhausts and a scratch / Eduard P40 cockpit adapted to fit, some swearing sanding and a cut pinky later all it needs now are decals and a weathering. That and the Academy B17C are on hold due to a Spitfire Build taking precedent over my Pearl Harbour Theme builds. Have to say a kit dated 1967 really challenged me and I loved building it. at times but got it together Not every kit has to be "Shake and bake baby"!! As Ricky Bobby said in Talladega Nights

I have been priming, painting cockpit Green, silver and black. sanding wings.folding little bits of etch and generally getting eye strain. Cockpit number 1 is under way, did consider tandem builds. However i struggle with one let alone two. Bring on the Citadel ink washes and the weathering powders its grime wear and dust time......... Now where is my trusty Rowney silver water colour pencil ? Its chipping time (Better than clobbering time)

Thanks for the tips on the Airfix build Troy, The Eduard etch I have is for the Tamiya so will be using that for the cockpit. On it now so no more tinternetting time for sanding

Eddy is key to quality control. He casts a critical eye over my efforts! Time is tight on this, I have just rollered the new extension like Im possessed so that I can crack on with the Airfix Spitfire. Found my old Airfix Hurricane in the Stash nicking the prop from that as its a better shape. Kettle on sprues out. Got to love half term!

Time is tight, so its going to be six weeks of as and when. The Tamiya will be straight forward I think. Im not too worried about shape just want to get them both done in time. Should look good together.

You know what T Bolt I totally agree with that. I have noticed that many people worry about the n'th detail that they do not produce much to see. Or worry about the day the paint for the cockpit was mixed and did the painter stir the tin correctly. I try my hardest to get it right, however I know the devil is in the detail some seem able to take it further than me. I agree with the last bit we are all modellers, one and all. From the mirco detailer to my daughter building her first Red Arrows Hawk after seeing them at Lyme Regis this summer. Assembler modeller we are all part of the clan

Good start, for some weird reason I enjoy the masking process, as for painting in mirco detail, I use my trusty magnifying glasses and my glasses and a very steady hand.Wait until you progress on to using etch then the patience really gets tested!! Looking good on the Chipmunk sir!

Good luck with the build, must be Spitfire season, Im doing a pair myself. I think I built this kit way back in 1980 if I remember, sky blue plastic and coded RF D won many a dog fight against the Heinkel HE 111 on the ceiling. Are you painting with hairy stick or rattle can in lieu of the air brush?

Hi all, I have been asked by a work colleague to build a pair of Spitfires for her father who worked on them during the late 1940's early 1950's. The only script she has given me is that they must be from the Battle of Britain era as he commented that this was "When the aircraft was in its purest form and un cluttered with cannons, rockets, bombs and bubble tops" as he put it. I have until Christmas to do this, so wish me luck!! I have chosen from the stash / expensive loft insulation the two following kits. Tamiya Mk1 and Airfix Mk1/1a/Mk2 kits So no point lingering on the sprue shots heres what I am starting with (Also with my faithful assistant inspecting the kits for flash ejector pin and sink marks) Will update as I go, Just spent tonight evo sticking sheets of Wet and dry to MDF to sand down the trailing edges rudder internal surfaces of the Airfix kit, should be interesting, Im not going to hack about at the main body and nose area. Time is tight, and I need to crack on. Will build the Airfix first as this requires the most sanding, scribing and filling. Got my Eduard etch ready lets see how it goes. Wish me luck fellow kit stickers and plastic fettlers

Got it in one Troy, Im going to build the Tamiya Mk1 and the Airfix Mk1. I was interested in your comment of modeler and assembler. I see my self as a bit of both. I build models OOB, I try with my limited skill set to improve them using what I need be it by removing what does not need to be there, for example the strengthening strips on the Spitfire Vb wing, used etch for the cockpit, stretch sprue and other bits and bobs such as a resin seat as i lost part of it somewhere in the living room. So here I sit gluing wet and dry to squares of MDF to sand back the trailing edges of the wings, the tail and anything else that needs it. Got my Eduard etch for the cockpit, Im ready to go. So modeller or assembler? I build models me!

Ok shameless kit plug time, thread hijack and general I love this kit moment. Now, currently in build I have B17C, to go with my P40 and P36a. Im going to stall on this (Puntastic moment there aero modelers) and start my build of the older Spitfire MK1 from Airfix.Just to see how they build up differently. Also got the Tamiya MK1 to build, Should be interesting. Here is a gratuitous shameless kit photo of my effort Im hoping the other two turn out better than this one, made some mistakes. must paint in the front of the rear view mirror and add the final Arial wire.

For the 11th time. 1/72 Beaufighter BP Defiant Beaufort Manchester Shackleton Heinkel He 111 Junkers Ju88 Messerschmitt 262

As a confirmed Hurricanefanatic in my opinion that is absolutely brilliant well done sir.

Hoofin finish on that aircraft. Absolutely cracking well done sir.