jean

Hi, I am afraid I can't see any of your photos. Are you doing something different? Cheers. JR

I love your model! And I love Dassault's aircraft. Every one of them is a pleasure to look at. Have fun! JR

Hi, beautiful kit! Well done. I have never seen photos of this plane with yellow nose and tail. Looks good though. I suspect that the small hole at the base of the canopy is for the support of the gun sight. Great show. Congrats. JR

In true Scottish fashion, have they stopped the trains crossing? JR

Ah, the elusive glorious shine! I will see a unicorn before I achieve a shine, even half glorious. Beautiful kit, that puts the Heller one to pasture. And a great build. Good luck with the window cleaning! JR

Hi Pat, nice progress on you cat. Re your al fresco modelling time I am, for once, jealous! Here it has been dark since 6 PM, and it is freezing ! No Highland cow would survive it! Modelling "inside" when we have no windows on our home is a mission, especially with skying gloves! I suspect though that the bottle of single malt is just outside the photo... You forgot to remove the glass from the table. Great show mate, and enjoy your two hours of summer! JR

Hi, I did manage to give the body a second coat of grey primer before the spray can died on me. As Sod's Law would have it, in its last splutter, two small blobs of primer landed on the outside of the front left door.... Rats! I nonetheless resisted the impulse to remove them there and then, knowing it would be a total disaster if I tried. So now that they are dry I can attempt to do something with ultra fine sand paper and polishing cloth. No guaranties, but that is the only way forward.... Here is a photo of the body. Work in progress and really fun. Cheers everyone. JR

Hi, your greyer blue is so much better and looks just the part. Great progress. JR

Bonsoir Patrice, your little diorama is superb, and your build is fantastic. Congratulations! I see that you do not use gloss varnish before and after the decals, with the mat varnish last. Do you have any problems with decals cracking with age, or turning yellowish? I know that here I have had that problem until I started using gloss varnish.... Great show. JR

Hi Pat, great choice! Is there a single FROG kit that you do not have in the mine dump-sized stash of yours? It took me all these years to finally understand why FROG kits were always in short supply in France... They kept blaming Scotland... I was too stupid to understand... Now I know. Beautiful plane and I shall definitely follow your progress. Have fun. JR

Now, @Max Headroom, David Gilmour, that I like very much! I was getting worried. JR

Hi Trevor, I did see a J-M Jarre light show at Paris la Defense in the mid-1980s, for a "Fete de la musique" evening. Surprisingly fabulous for me, who was staunchly anti-electronic music (when one is young, one has to be stupid... I sure was!). Anyway, with Peter Gabriel, you are in the same groove as my wife. She loves his music, his voice, etc. Me? I hate his music, his voice, etc... Rather conflictual. For a while now, I have been feeling very romantic: Beethoven (overdosing on his 7th), Mendelssohn (overdosing on his Octet!), Schubert (13th and 14th Quartets. Overdosing on them, of course). My wife hates them all with a passion! So I switch to my beloved Carla Bley ... My wife wants to vomit when she hears her and her "big band" At the end of the day, who needs politics and religion? Music will do the trick. Cheers JR

Hi everyone who knows how to read, Something unusual has happened to me. A good friend of mine had taken over the farm of Ian Smith, the last Prime Minister of Rhodesia, after working for him as a manager. Obviously the farm in Shurugwi was "liberated" as a result of the land invasions that raged through Zimbabwe from 2000 onward. My friend Owen was given most of Ian Smith's possessions when the latter left for South Africa a sick, old man. Recently we visited Owen in Harare and he offered us to choose whatever we wanted out of a big pile of memorabilia having belonged to Ian Smith and his wife. Now, for those of you who do not know, Ian Smith joined the RAF while studying in South Africa, in 1941. He became a fighter pilot, first flying Hurricanes with 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron in North Africa. then Spitfire Mk IX in Italy and all the way to Germany with, if my memory serves me right, 130 Squadron. He even survived a terrible accident in North Africa and was shot down by flak in Italy. So he sure did his bit for King and Country. Anyway, beside a beautiful white metal Spitfire IX mounted on top of a Spit cylinder head, I found two books, which I am finding rather fascinating. Here is the first one: and the second one, which is a limited first edition, and written by one of my "heroes": The cherry on top of the cake is what I found, once back at home: So I have become unwittingly the custodian of a very small piece of history, meaningless but for a very few of us. Have fun and never stop reading! JR

Hi John, I have been lazy and not checked all the threads I had promised myself to keep an eye on... Shame on me. Your drummer is fantastic and looks the part. His face is really well painted. Congrats. I would suspect that you are painting frescoes on chapels' ceiling in your spare time... This is the boost I needed to finish my own drummer. JR

Good day all, glued the steering column, and it fits nicely. I was worried as the shaft was broken in the box, being so fragile. Two attempts with Tamiya green top sorted that out. This pretty much ends the interior of the car. Now all is left is the painting and detailing of the body. I guess I should try and scratch build a pair of wipers... As if life was not already difficult enough. Here is a pic of the finished seats on wheels. Have fun with your respective models. JR