Circloy

Model railways has to be the place to locate alternatives. Dapols figures are ex-airfix & they currently list 3 different sets - Workmen, Platform Figues & Station Accessories all @ much better prices than the originals now command. A good place to see what's available is Gaugemasters - have a rummage around their site as they cover both 'OO' & 'HO' (the later being smaller) Have just located these which look to be well detailed an @ just over £7 for 72 figures look to be good value https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/gaugemaster-gm460.html No connection to any mentioned entity.

Any chance of putting the links to the mapin thefirst post so it can be located easier?

Ordered printer & 1 ltr of resin late monday evening and was advised 4 - 5 day delivery so expecting delivery from German warehouse. Recieved text this morning to advised shipment had been picked, at lunch further text to say expect delivery between 4:30 & 6:30 sure enough I'd received package @ 5:15. Looks to have been shipped fron Duunstable. No resin yet, I'm presuming this will ship seperately from Germany &that's where the 4 - 5 days comes in. Can anyone confirm?

Some impresive sculpting on those figures, although one or two have cheesey grins & the prices don't feel 'over the top' for 1/6th scale.

Unfortunately it's civil law not criminal law so it's down to the agrieved party to police. Thats why the big corporations make deal of it and the small players get shafted. Guess some people have morals and others poor excuses.

the same section that buys knock of Gucci, Rolex, etc. Whilst you may feel the original sculptor has not been deprived what you've done is encourage the thief to steal more. What if someone was to take your work, copy it and then sell it as their own for a lesser price. Your customer, or employer, would soon start wondering why you're so expensive & dispense with your services. You then been totally deprived of your income.

I wasn't but at that price ... I've a few projects in mind where this would pay for itself Thanks for the advice on resins relative toxicity

Surely a modelling forum is exactly the platform for those that who know to warn the unwary of such plagiarsm & IP theft. More so as it helps the modeller avoid inferior rip offs and puts food on the plate of the original artist.

Airfix magazine - Feb 1977

Being the city of my birth, & life so far, all 3 HMS Sheffield's hold more than a passing interest & I've too have had a desire to build a model, not just of the cruiser but of all three and have built up a small reference library. I gave up on the WEM 1/350th a few years back due to the price they were fetching. l'Arsenal showed masters for their 1/350 version at Telford 10 (or more) years back but I've never seen one for sale. I did fall lucky at Bolton in 2019 when Starling had a 1/700 on their stand which after an exchange of modelling tokens found it's way into my bag. If you've not got them I can recommend the following books: ARMS & ARMOUR PRESS MAN O' WAR 5 - TOWN CLASS CRUISERS - RAVEN ROBERTS 1980 - Aimed towards the modeller this covers the whole class but Sheffield probably has a bigger dedicated section than any other. Contains drawing of the camoflague used at various times. (Cardback) Town Class Cruisers by Neil McCart - Good general history of the whole of the class. (Hardback) HMS SHEFFIELD: LIFE AND TIMES OF OLD SHINY By Ronald Bassett - Detailed history of the first Sheffield from construction, through war service to it's ultimate demise. The fact I bought a second copy after I loaned my original out says how much I recommend this book. (The first did eventually return) (Hardback) Shiny Sheff: The Story of the Three HMS Sheffields: Story of Sheffields Fighting Ships by Alistair Lofthouse - much condensed history of all three ships (Cardback) Additionally I've also a card kit/book available from eastern Europe that could be useful as plans (two scales 1/400 & 1/200) I think I've the 1/200 - there are a few available on the 'bay. Sheffield City Archives research guide with various links - downloads as pdf file

Had a nightmare last night that it was December 31st & having gone to bed, woke the following morning to discover it was 2020 & we'd got to go through it all again.

About 5 years ago a group of modellers working on Leamington Spa had a similar question regarding the apparent 'colour coding' of 40 gal oil drums at locomotive sheds believing the different drum & lid colour combinations was an indicator of the drums content. Turned out that the colours were more an indicator of the manufacturer than the content of the drums and that the grade of oil was amongst the details stencilled on the lid. Whilst this is/was the case in commercial supplies it may still apply to bulk supplies to military main bases & supply depots to ensure drums are returned to the supplier. Under conflict conditions the prority wwould probably be that of concealment with the drums being in an appropriate camoflagued colour overall with added stecil markings to indicate content. To my knowledge jerry cans in the main were in the appropriate camoflagued colour those used for water being specifically marked in an effort to prevent contamination with oil & other such fluids when refilled.

South Yorkshire Police have just stopped a dozen amateur after dinner speakers going into a bank advising that whilst it is currently acceptable to walk into a bank wearing a mask 12 bore are definately out

Have since located the entry for the Mack NO which puts it back into the frame however the photographs lack key features of the NO. Official (British) designation for the various models are: NM - 6 ton Heavy Artillery tractor (fitted with gun cylinder in British use) NO - 7.5 ton Artillery tractor NR - 10 ton General Service or Tank Transporter depending upon body style Both the NM & NO would be capable of handling the 155mm along with crew and amunition. As the NR lacked the same adaptation as the NR can be ruled out. As to why? Probably comes down to availability & expediency at time the guns were needed in theatre.

No plans but if you head to the IWM website and search the objects you'll find 20-30 detailed photographs which can be downloaded.

Bet that Rolls of the tongue.

When gluing avoid glues containing solvent as this will eat away at the surface unless protected in some way - a coating with PVA glue suffices. Foam board, in my experience, is not stable, I've got two unused boards that are bowing due to uneven stresses caused by the factory applied bond between foam & paper. Worse still if you apply a layer of anything to it's surfaces it will within weeks warp quite severely.

Is there a specific reference to Mack NO's. IWM online has a few pictures of your grandfathers unit equiped with the US 155mm Long Tom's in Italy https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205532910 https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205532912 https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205204699 which show them being towed by trucks of US design and in US service this would normally be the NO type. However the NO used a special hitch to tow the gun directly by the carriage which negated the use of the two wheel limber. The limber then being towed behind the gun. The pictures on the IWM site show the limber in use between the gun tractor and the gun carriage which suggests the trucks are not NO's. Additonally the NO had fixed lifting gear at the rear by which the carriage hitch was lifted and lowered, again there's no sign of this in the pictures further suggesting these are not NO's. Checking the HMSO book on 'Army Transport 1939 - 1945' which lists, with few exceptions, all vehicles used by the British, the Mack NO is not listed however the Mack NM is - reference snce found. This is shown as The Mack NM is shown as being a 6 ton truck also used as a gun tractor is it possible that the Macks referred to in the diary are NM's? That said there's no model of the NM either so doesn't by itself appear to help. Hobby boss however make the White 666 which is almost idential dimensionally to the Mack and a possible starting point for conversion. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hobbyboss-83802-us-white-666-cargo-truck-soft-top--253872 I guess the key is finding proof of which model of Mack the unit was issued with.

Another question to add to the original list and hinted at by @armored76 is the long term stability of the various materials used by these affordable printers. A printer capable of printing acceptably smooth & detailed parts becomes pointless if those parts deteriorate in shape and size as a consequence of properties of the materials it uses.

Wespe's looks to be the only one currently available. Adzimut used to do a resin kit but that's long out of production. Unfortunately all resin is not the same that used by Wespe is of the harder type and is more brittle than resin's used by some other companies. The hard resins tend to warp a little more but nothing that's not rectifiable by hot water. The main problem is that small parts are brittle and can break when removing from the casting blocks - Wespe appear to have acknowledged this and the Leyland retriver kit I've in the stash has the smaller parts already detached. Detail looks cleanly cast - Credit to wespe. If you don't feel you can build in resin Wespe also offer a 'factory' built option - there's one on the bay now. Being of US origin there's plenty of resources available at Armorama, including some scratch/heavy conversions.

... only to find it's not that lost part but a pen top.

not sure if this is the photo reference you have https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1502126 certainly look like the Rotary Club emblem

Spoke'n like a true man. Excelent work

Anyone got 1200 euro for a 1/24 mig-29 https://www.model-space.com/build-the-mig-29-model-plane-uk.html https://www.model-space.com/construye-maqueta-avion-mig-29-es.html Diecast not plastic

Around the size of a 1/72 Concorde & how many of those do you see built? If you were to look to Airfix to do a 1/24th jet the selection criteria would probably be British, WWii (if possible), Small, Iconic/Milestone, Popular. British, WWii & Milestone Meteor, WWii & Milestone Me262 British, Small, Iconic/Milestone, Popular Harriers (revisited) British, Small, Popular EE Lightning, Gnat, Hawk (last two as #iainpeden said have the added popularity by virtue of the links with the Red Arrows) & as rank outsiders NA Sabre MIG 15 Anything bigger you'd probably not be able to manhandle, have room to display, or be able to reasonably afford.