Whofan

I saw Terry Reid last thursday night at a pub in Birmingham, now Terry Reid is one of the guys who can be called the unluckiest man in rock. Among other things, he recorded an absolutely killer version of the Whole of the moon, only to find his record company failed to release it as scheduled, and released the single in the same week as some young band called the Waterboys released their version ....... And then there was the time when, a few days before his band were off to the States for a fairly extensive tour, he was aproached by his mate who was trying to form a band, and asked Terry if he'd like to be the singer. "Sorry Jimmy", said Terry, "I'm off on a big tour of the States in a few days, we're pretty big there, so no, mate." "But,", said Terry, only willing to help his mate Jimmy Page, "I know of a bloke called Bobby Plant who you might want to speak to, he'd make a good singer for your new band, and the drummer in hs band, Johnny Bonham, is pretty good, too." And then his fantastic album - at least, receiving fantastic reviews from critics all over the UK and the States, River, was about to be released, and his record company went bust the day before release date. It's no wonder that after he fell out of favour with audiences in the States he decided to pack in this group stuff and began a long career as a session musician, and singer songwriter and singer in various clubs in and around LA. Anyway, he came back to the UK this September/October, playing venues as diverse as the Jazz Cafe in London, the Cluny in Newcastle on Tyne and the Hare and Hounds in Birmingham. Nothing too big, I think the Hare and Hounds has a 250 capacity, just him and a young British pedal steel guitarist called Chris Hillman (ot the guy from the Byrds, as I first thought), and he was great. Tremendous, soulful voice, great guitar playing wonderfully highlighted and fleshed out with the Pedal Steel guitar, and here's a sound only track of one of his best tracks; So I just listened to his first album, Bang Bang - after his version of Cher's "Bang Bang he shot me down" on the album. Now I'm listening to The Who live in Paris 1970. The set list is pretty much the same as that on Live at Leeds.

@airscale , Hi, I've followed this build with some admiration; it makes my 1/72 Airfix sea fury look like I'd made it back when I was 10 or 11! - and I wondered if you will e bringing yours to Telford?

There is nothing I can say except to agree with everyone else. WOW!! This is a wonderful demonstration of model making which results in an outstanding build. Five stars at least!

@John Tapsell, thanks for this. I had been told previously that it was an OT-64, but it’s nice to get confirmation of it. I do wonder who it is who is transporting these military loads into Kidderminster, but I doubt I’ll ever find out.😕 On a slightly off topic note, will you be at Telford this year, displaying on a club table, and no doubt missing the excitement of being press officer up til 9 am Saturday?😎

I noticed that too. The lorry plus AFV had gone a couple of days after the photos were taken, hopefully the lorry lasted for whatever journey it made!!

In May last year I posted what I thought was an amusing sight; a tank turret on the back of a lorry! Now I can post some photos I took recently of a whole AFV on the back of a lorry in the same place in Kidderminster. Here it is; I'm told it is an OT-64, possibly Polish or Czech, but I'm not an expert on these things. There's clearly someone close to the place where these lorries and cargoes were parked who is either into AFV's or is buying them up for scrap value. Please NOTE: I did put this incorrectly in vehicle spot of the day.

| 1/2 would do nicely. | This must be a typo but a really think that 1 1/2 scale Jaguar might be a little bit big. Paul, indeed it is a typo, edited out now!! thanks for pointing it out. And yes, I wholly agree with your sentiments.

thanks for this. I believe it was announced at the 2022 SMW!

As soon as I saw this thread I thought - aye aye, Telford is a coming! Once you get the provisional floor plans from IPMS, the wishlist for Airfix in 2025 comes out, and the next thing will be "will airfix have a showstopper at Telford"? I think we can confisdently say that what ever airfix will release next year, and perhaps at Telford, is that for many, they will be the wrong subject, the wrong mark of the subject, the wrong scale, the wrong paint schemes, the wrong decal options, and they'll sell by the truck load ! My personal hope is that they include in the release schedule a Jaguar, preferably with parts to do several RAF variants, or even parts to do an Indian or other overseas operator. 1/72 would do nicely. I believe Dora Wings are doing a 1/32 Sea Fury which might see light of day this year, but if Airfix did do a 1/32 or 1/24th Sea Fury I expect I'd buy one. Who am I kidding? like a shot !! A 1/48th Westland Whirlwind helicopter as used by the Austrian Air force would also be welcomed by my stash.

@gengriz , This is a very nice model indeed. I've made this particular kit recently and agree with you that it can be an easy and quick build. For someone as skilled as yourself, because while I had no major dramas with mine, I did have a few seam problems and the U/C felt a bit flimsy on mine, so I bought the Aerocraft brass undercarriage set. My word, that certainly does feel sturdy! https://aerocraft-models.47.ekm.shop/general-atomics-mq-9-reaper-undercarriage-for-172-kinetic-kit-69-p.asp I was also a bit concerned by the painting instructions, but I painted mine up in as close as grey as I could find in my paint store to what it seemed to be painted in. Some of the decals went awry, so some of the red and white circles are painted on, by my fairly reliable method of dipping a cocktail stick into the paint and then carefully touching the model with it. Most of the time the paint formed a small circle that matched the size of the decal ! I used the RAF decals on mine, too.

Alain, I have, and again, excellent builds.

Alain, another fantastic model. And what a subject! The first photo I was convinced showed a plane 60% completed, i.e. with no fuselage or tailplane, till I looked closer and saw it is a flying wing! I must also add that you must have spent weeks, if not months, scouring model shops for these obscure manufacturers and kit subjects.

Thanks for posting these, they show that modelling is very much alive and kicking in Australia! I was particularly impressed by the Junior models on dsplay, they looked far superior to my own somewhat amateurish efforts. And it was nice to seethere were a couple of Japanese aircraft model of kits I have in the stash, too - And it's an amazing thing how great minds think alike; you posted a photo of a CIA/USAF classified photo of a stealth fighter, and I'm pretty sure I;ve seen almost the exact same display with a slightly different title at a model show here in the UK ! Even down to the ladder to the cockpit being the only thing you could see!

John, I was reading an article in the Guardian earlier, What books I read in September- it's an article every month for guardian writers and then members of the public to say what they read in the month - and one of the contributors said they'd read this very book and like you, gave It a very good rating. I've just finished Chris Bryant's Code of Conduct, about how parliament is so dysfunctional, and how he'd like to see it improved, and am halfway through a crime novel called Conviction, about a barrister conducting the defence of a man, who's blackmailed into throwing the defence so the (innocent) man gets convicted ... And whose terrible secret will be made public if she doesn't throw the case.

Many thanks for that Steve, I do hesitate to recommend books - and records, films, tv or radio programmes because my taste can often be different from most others. It’s nice then to see someone else find something I’ve enjoyed (I’m sure you understand my meaning here about a history of war) at the very least interesting. I do agree with you about the lack of maps to cross reference text to, but other than that it was a book I found emotional and hard to put down.