Stew Dapple

... like a bullet off a chrome potty Cheers, Stew

Do try to remember mate, it's always good to hear from you, the modelling would be a bonus Cheers, Stew

I can't speak for their 1/48 kits, but their previous 1/32 kit, the P-40b, is beautiful (disclaimer: I haven't built mine, but it looks amazing in the box and the builds I have seen have produced a really nice model). However they aren't cheap, roughly equivalent to a Kōtare kit in the UK at least, so I think you'd have to really like the Hellcat to justify buying one. Cheers, Stew

Top-notch mottling mate, I doff my cap That engine is indeed a thing of beauty too Cheers, Stew

I'm desperately trying to come up with a joke that has a punchline along the lines of "bit below the belt"... I may be some time Good to hear from you again mate, those Spitfires look right up your street, glad they made it okay and I hope you enjoy them Cheers, Stew

I haven't done any modelling at all since January, my beloved sidekick and avatar Jack suffered a rapid deterioration of health and (to my eternal guilt and shame) I had to have him put to sleep in February. I haven't so much as glued two bits of plastic together since and although I vowed, as I expect we all do, that I would never get another dog, this happened: Her name is Lola (she's not a showgirl, and I didn't meet her in a club down in old Soho) she's now 9 weeks old and she came fully assembled. She has three modes, as far as I can tell, as shown above: 1) Adorable Bundle of Cute; 2) Mini-Velociraptor; 3) Sleep Mode. Strangely getting her has not ended my Mojo-drought, as I now spend a fair amount of my time mopping up urine and picking up tiny turds... but I do feel so much better having a dog in my life again, so that's something Cheers, Stew

Those were great days for me too (and not just me, I'm sure), and you never know, we might yet see their like again. If not, at least we had the pleasure of experiencing it the first time round Thanks for a most amusing update too Cheers, Stew

It's always good to hear from you Edward, Spitfire or no, I enjoy your writing in any case and I'm glad to hear things have at least apparently levelled off a bit; you have my best wishes and hopes for further improvements in time. You've done a lovely job on the Dreadnought/Terminator fellow (sorry, I have little to no knowledge of the terminology), please let us know how you get on in the competition as I know that even if you don't win you will be able to wrangle an amusing anectdote from it. I'm genuinely pleased to see you back, don't be a stranger, eh? Cheers, Stew

Hi Lewis and welcome from erm, Dundee Cheers, Stew

Could you vague that up a bit for me? I hate being bombarded with technical details So, what sort then? Cheers, Stew

And another vote for separate hubs please

I think I remember seeing that on t.v. - I'm sure it was called "Granny gets the point". In the film she said to the boy "If you can't decide which [model] you'd like I'd better get you both". Totally unrealistic, they had obviously never met either of my grannies Cheers, Stew

Happy Birthday Mr.T And a Happy Birthday to Dennis @spitfire too

Hello gents Here's my first completion of 2025, a Christmas present from my Dad, the Tamiya P-38F Lightning, representing White 33 of the 39th Fighter Squadron based at Port Moresby, New Guinea in late 1942: The kit has a bit of a reputation of being a lovely build and I'm pleased to say that reputation is well-deserved, there are some really nice engineering choices made so you get a nice easy build of a well-detailed kit. The majority of the parts fit just like Lego, things just click into place and if you are the sort of modeller who likes to get elbow-deep in putty and solve problems... well this may not be the kit for you There are various part options detailing the difference between the F and G variants and markings for a G are also included in the kit. I didn't quite go OOB on it; I bought the Eduard T-Face mask set for the canopy (becaused I like them) and the Eduard resin wheel set (because I don't like trying to hide the central seam on diamond-tread tyres, and the detail on the Eduard wheels is really nice). I painted the aicraft in Colourcoats US Olive Drab 41 over US Neutral Gray 43, with US Interior Green for the internals, US True Blue for the propeller spinners and AK Extreme Metal Matt Aluminium for the wheelbays, with the detail painting in various Vallejo and Citadel acrylics. I used the kit transfers, I feel that in a way they are the weak spot of the kit, being a bit thick (I know, pot, kettle, black) and some of them were frankly rather strange (yes all right) - like the ones used to represent the cooling holes in the .50 cal barrels... however when all was varnished with AK Ultra Matte they look fine. And finally, I got another outing for the Coastal Kits 'Japanese airfield' display background for the photos Thanks for your attention Cheers, Stew

Ed, apologies for butting in Duncan, air accident report is here Cheers, Stew