Rob G

Progress. Fuselage together. Minimal filler, due to careful fitting and a basically sound kit. A touch at the nose and of course at that tricky fuselage / tail joint. I've also slapped a bit onto the wings leading and trailing edges, just in case, but they're pretty good. A bit of work to the radiators - hollowed out the rear and added a couple of bits of sheet inside each one to simulate the radiator cores. They need a scrub and a clean up to remove the fluffy bits, which will happen before I fit them to the fuselage. Engine nacelles. These are the bits that I mentioned earlier, that went a bit pear shaped. "Open up the intakes, it won't be hard", thought I. Then I forgot, and had to do it after I'd glued them into place. That went about as well as can be imagined, so they were forcibly evicted and a lot more work than I had intended is taking place, basically involving a complete reconstruction of the underside of each nacelle. Again, things are a bit further on than the photo shows - it's easy to do one of those little recess whatsits, not so easy to make four the same. Never mind, I didn't need those marbles anyway. 🤪 And finally for this dreary update, here's some little bits. I've long added metal tube to prop shafts, it saves things breaking when the inevitable finger is flicked, usually just before the idiot asks "Do the props spin?" and it falls off. The drop tanks aren't bad, even if the struts are somewhat overscale - I could replace them, but my Matchbox kits tend to be built as Messrs Smith and O'Dell intended (especially when there's other, better kits available). Other parts are the instrument panel and the RDF loop. Right, that's it. More next weekend when I return from work.

Arrived yesterday, Kinetic's 48th Pucara in RAF markings. Appears to be a lovely kit. It can go into the stash alongside its 72th brothers from Airfix and Special Hobby.

WW2, technically. It's basically a turret swap, and the turret (or a variant of it) is available in the Takom M3A1 Grant CDL kit. Somewhere, I have an article in an old Airfix magazine about doing the conversion in 1/76. This may be of interest. https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/canal-defence-light-cdl-tanks/

What ^--- they said, plus- Glue - something PVA-based and non-marking is what you need for clear parts. There's a number of hobby-specific brands that will work well, at a pinch you can use standard woodworking white glue, but its structural strength isn't the best for plastics. Sanding sticks - I use coarse, medium and fine sticks that I buy from a beauty products shop. Intended for nails, they work excellently for modelling. And they're a darn sight cheaper than anything with a hobby brand on it. I also make my own with lolly sticks or plastic rod, double sided foam tape and sand paper, cut to whatever size I need, for custom applications. Takes mere moments. Tweezers- I bought a set intended for electronics many years ago, they're still going strong. You should be able to source something similar from whoever supplies electronic parts and tools there (are Maplins still running?) or ebay. Pointed and flat tips are good, bent tips also have their uses. They're usually available in sets. Buy good ones, they'll be a one-off purchase.

Steve, You best bet would be to get online and see if you can find the Airfix instructions for the mark that you'd like to build - a bit of comparing parts to be used vs parts available should answer your question. I may be able to help with a set of Airfix decals, I'll try to remember to have a look when I'm back home in a couple of days. PM me if / when you work out what can be made / what you'd like to make.

They Googling 'ships rudder' and look at photos. Basically, there's seldom any detail on a rudder, as lumps, bumps and hollows increase drag, which works against speed or fuel economy. Smooth is the go, from a radius at the front, tapering to a sharper, thinner edge at the rear. Just like a wing with mirror image surfaces. The lower arm that extends from the hull is a support, and the base of the rudder pivots in it. (Very basically) the shaft that runs upwards goes into the hull, where there's a horizontal arm that connects to the ship's steering gear - moving the arm left and right moves the ship right and left. This model seems to have a poor representation of a balanced rudder - while I cannot find anything specific on Shell Welder, this link may help you to better visualise what changes to make (generically, at least). https://www.britannica.com/technology/rudder And this photo of a famous ship should show you what it looks like in dry dock. http://www.codex99.com/unclassified/images/fitzgerald/launch_lg.jpg

Thank you, gents. While the yellow on this one is quite bright (I cannot speak for any previous incarnation, as this is the first Matchbox 110 I've ever seen), IMO the green and blue are among the best colour choices that Matchbox ever made - while possibly not completely accurate, to my uneducated eye they capture the 'look' of a Luftwaffe aircraft quite well. I may try to find another and do it sans paint. One day. I've done a few small improvements (only a few, this is being built pretty well OOB) and sadly some went awry. Fixing these will make life more exciting... Photos etc when I'm home from living in the boonies for work.

I was sitting under the fan the other evening, eating fresh-off-the-tree mangoes and feeling glad that the extant cyclone wasn't going to come near me (they're no fun, I feel for the people that it did hit), when I remembered that even though I no longer had the Matchbox Beaufighters that I had originally planned to enter into this GB, I did still have a Bf110. I washed the nectar from my hands and went digging in the stash. Ta-dah, there it be! It's a Hong Kong production kit, so I don't feel in the least bit bad about building it. The colours, as always, are glorious. The decals have apparently been feeding the cockroach population for a while, but I think that they'll be OK. If they're not, the LHS has an Eduard 110 with almost the same markings, so I'll go and buy that if necessary. With the decision made, clean up and assembly was started. Photos of progress will follow in due course.

Well yeah, but we're not built to run on hard surfaces, or while carrying as much mass (muscle or fat) as most Westerners do, for as long as most runners run. We're built for running down prey, on grassy plains, burning energy while doing it, and then having to share it with the rest of the tribe.

I bet that they don't enjoy that (and where do you connect the air hose?) Ahem. Any compressor with an air receiver will have an on/off pressure switch. Sparmax have a good reputation, at reasonable(ish, depending on your budget) cost. The Chinese compressors on eBay are pretty well all the same, with different paint and stickers - buy the one that has the best seller ratings, or buy from a local shop that will warranty it. They seem to last well enough for what you pay. I've seen reviews of the Voilamart brand, and they're generally positive. Iwata sell nice gear, but it ain't cheap - the usual recommendation is to buy Sparmax instead. Personally, I'm still using my old Paasche D500, even though it's due for some maintenance. I also have a semi-industrial compressor on wheels for the bigger jobs - it works in the house, but it's a bit noisy (doesn't worry me, it's my house and I'll make as much noise in it as I want to, but for those who are under the thumb, it'd be a no go, I imagine). And I've recently bought a battery powered rechargeable compressor - first tests indicate that it may become my go to painting tool for smaller jobs. Magic.

Even though it IS a vehicle, it's an airfield accessory much more than it is a vehicle, and it's definitely not armoured, so I would suggest that right here is completely appropriate.

I've had a bit of a spending spree in recent weeks, everything from a Dragon StuG III G that, while nice, isn't, on reflection, what I actually wanted, to a Bronco StuG III E (that was intended for the diorama that the Dragon Ausf G was bought for, but is much too nice for that fate, so now I'll need to find a cheap Dragon or Tamiya E or F), to one of those dinky little battery powered compressor / airbrush combination gadgets. I don't need another airbrush (or compressor), but... shiny. Thus far, I've been quite impressed. The airbrush is OK, and the compressor happily runs my Iwata HP-C if I want to to. It will allow me to be mobile with my hobby, and take models out to work with me to spray while I'm away. There's been much else, as well, but these are the highlights.

Nice. I'm glad I sold on my Revell versions (I once owned 3 of them, sad I know) a number of years ago.

A phone, while not optimal, is perfectly suitable. What you most probably need is more light, as what you think is bright, isn't. Add a tripod, a small desktop one with a phone holder wotsit will do nicely. DO NOT expect good results using fluorescent tubes, or those horrible 'energy saving' abominations from 10+ years ago. Get a couple of good quality LED globes (nice bright ones) in a cool white colour, and mount them in desk lamps with a bright white interior. Position lamps to give lighting that pleases, mount phone to tripod, frame, focus, and make images. A phone upgrade will pay dividends, but I'm not sure that I'd be buying another fruitphone. The cameras mentioned above are also viable options, there's no need for a DSLR or other interchangeable lens camera for this work.

No, I never have. As a child, model kits (and indeed toys in general) were too few and far between for me to be casual enough about their possession that I would be ok in treating them in that way, and now that I'm an (alleged) adult, I work too damn hard to waste my money on throwing away something just because it's annoyed me. It may go on a shelf for a while, but I've never smashed a model - I come back to it when I've grown up a little.

Build from the stash? LMAO. I'll be building from the shelf of doom, just like I planned to in 2023 (and made no inroads). Build from the stash indeed, I ask you...

The Brits also used lbs to define armament calibre, should we refer to the 8.8 by the weight of its shell? Also, the MP40 could correctly be called 'Schmeisser' by English speakers, coz that's what the Allies knew it as. Not going to get into an argument over this, I will say no more.

You need a '64 Impala lowrider, some reeaaaaal gooood friends and a cool soundtrack. Oh, not that chemical smoothing. Sorry. I can't help with the other.

Because the beer's cold, you don't freeze when you go to the beach (even in winter, although them down south do) and you can train our spiders as saddle horses!

Only in its FlaK versions...

Please... eight eight (or more correctly, acht acht). The Germans measured cannon (anything larger than 20mm / 2.0cm) in centimetres, so it was an 8.8cm, not an 88mm. I have several 8.8 guns, most notably the AFV Club PaK 43/41 (with upgrades, IIRC), so... put me in the mix, tentatively.

Looking good so far. A real rally monster. The trick with panel lining is to use something a bit more subtle than stark black - medium grey looks good to my eye, enough to show a shadow line, but not in your face. IMO, anyway.

/me laughs in Australian.

Umm yeah... proposed for 2025. I like making sure that preparations are in place well in advance... <ahem>

I had considered doing a Matchbox Beaufighter here, to see if I can actually complete a GB in the time allowed before I line up for the Hurricane STGB later in the year. However, just before Christmas I gave both of my copies of the kit to my ex-missus for her and her son to build together. I still have options, but they're a mite more complicated than Matchbox kits, and me and complicated kits and GBs aren't a good match. Hmm. Thoughts will have to be thunk.