Biggles87

that well known spy ( is that a contradiction in terms? )

So much for weekly updates! In the last week I have been trying to make extra boxes and gizmos to add to the pretty bare kit cockpit with limited success. I found a bulkhead in my spares box which was roughly the shape of the frame which fits behind the seat, chain drilled it and removed the middle and now needs tidying up. The kit does not include rudder pedals and after two failures I have settled for a simple rudder bar with toe straps, I don’t think much of it will be visible anyway once the lower IP is in place. The kit supplies one compressed air bottle which is moulded in the wrong place so I have removed it and again found some substitutes in my spares box, this time a pair of tank shells which will be suitably adapted. I have made some adjustments to the throttle quadrant and am now concentrating on the handbrake type lever beside the seat. This is shown on the right in the kit and bears little relation to the real thing which should be on the left. Sorry no photos this time, I’ll post some when I’ve got something worth showing. Stay safe everyone. John.

yellow with black stripes

don’t hold your breath

where pasties have knobs

It’s Autumnal garden clearing time. We’ve been out in the garden with the dogs ( helping/supervising ) for the last couple of days while the temperature is still mild, and although it will be another month before all the foliage has gone from the trees, there were enough on the ground to make a start with the leaf blower. Ursino who is now 18 months old and 45kg loves it and has a great time chasing the leaves, while Rosie, now 10 1/2 just sits and watches. When he gets bored with this he does what we call ‘ Olympic Running ‘ around the patio, he discovered last year that the slabs are slippery when wet when he went base over apex when trying to do a handbrake turn on it in the rain and does figures of eight around it instead now, clever dog. We extended our garden into a small plot given to us by the local farmer about 6 years ago when we bought a field from him, and spent the first lockdown clearing lt. It was shoulder high in brambles which were hiding a couple of fallen trees and a pile of rubble and was larger than we’d anticipated ( probably about 1/2 acre ) and also a couple of young oaks about 2m high, which have since doubled in height and are spreading out nicely. We eventually decided that we didn’t need all of it for garden so fenced it off down the middle, we have aimed at keeping a metre wide clear path on the other side of the fence, but the rest of it is returning to nature with a good crop of brambles about shoulder high again. Nature always wins in the end. John

Hi Nick, welcome to BM hope you enjoy it here. There are some very knowledgeable and helpful people around so don’t be afraid to ask questions. Like Noel, I can remember the cancellation of TSR 2. I worked at an ATC radar unit when the trials were carried out and we used to watch the supersonic runs over the Irish Sea when the Lightning chase plane was easily outrun by it. John

from your oesophagus quickly

I’m seriously debating ( with myself ) about one of these after attempting my 21st Century ‘202. Does it look like Italeri have addressed any of the shortcomings found on their ‘202? John

as if by magic

We’re planning a couple of days in Paris next January, so I looked online for model shops and was very disappointed to find only two ‘ proper ‘ model shops and one of those is temporarily closed! Hope it will be open again by January.

I’ve just been looking at review of the ICM Marauder and am tempted except for two things, I would probably never finish it and even if I did it where would I put it. I built the Monogram kit many years ago and it ended up hidden away in the loft. ‘ Hairy Bird ´ has always been one of my favourites. John

The cowl joint looks good, I’ve taken the easy way out and bought Ultracast and Barracuda one piece cowlings for mine. I pulled out one of me Eduard Spitfires ( a Mk VIII ) and quickly dry fitted the wings to the fuselage which looked OK, so I don’t know what went wrong. John

calling it junk mail

Oh dear! I’ve often have problems with other Spitfire wing tips but not usually Eduard, perhaps you got a ‘ Friday afternoon ‘ job. John