Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies

It won't help you a jot Edward, but misery loves company. I understand. I love my family, but watching my children expend energy feels like watching someone set fire to my own to torture me. I am everyone else's backup plan, and have no backup or safety net myself. I must perform. I'm an introvert who needs to earn money in an industry environment where extroverted emotional vampires need constant attention and the feeling like I actually care what they did at the weekend. We must listen constantly to campaigns to bring everyone back in to the office because the noisiest extroverts feel "energised" by it. Ergo those of us who communicate only when we need to and perform very well the way we want to do it are actually just energy sources for extroverts to consume because they lack an energy source of their own. I made the mistake of starting a side business 8 and a bit years ago thinking it would be fun. It's got good points and some isn't so fun. It's a drain on time. I enjoy problem solving hobbies like old cars and stuff like that, but it's energy intensive and I don't have it to spare. I'm knackered after having to maintain people all day every day. The role I have is a bit hard to describe, but in essence I fix things which go wrong, am to develop processes (or convince their owners to) such that things don't go wrong, stay ahead of our competitors and generally get to reconcile contradictory things which nobody else knows what to do with or develop material nobody else seems able to articulate. I enjoy my model making, but the truth is I feel guilty about even thinking of doing it if I have outstanding more pressing tasks. As all will know, there is always a list of outstanding more pressing tasks. Thus, motivation for model making is usually close to zero - especially when it's a stage I don't really like doing. And then the guilt trip messages from relatives who are frankly a net drain that I haven't spent time on them arrive. Did you know that lots of modern, sage, sayings are complete contortions of the original meaning? 1) "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps". Written by privileged people who incorrectly attribute their fortunate circumstances to their own hard work. Actual origin is attributed to a late 19th century physics book with the question “Why can not a man lift himself by pulling up on his bootstraps?”. When someone asks you this idiotic question, just remember that it was originally written to make it obvious that this was an impossible task. 2) Blood is thicker than water. Written by toxic relatives who feel owed more than we might think. Originally it was "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb", i.e. meaning the exact opposite. Relationships between people who mutually value and accept one another are worth more than shared DNA.

We know for certain that designs were requested for most ship classes around 1941. We know the Job Number for HMS Prince of Wales (and many others) for the camouflage design drawn by the Naval Section at Leamington Spa. Publications like CAFO679/42 and CB3098/43 were intended to offload the requests for designs for dozens of smaller ships by providing standard designs for those to choose from from a catalogue. Cruisers and larger classes were still given camouflage designs produced by Leamington Spa. Sometimes these were unique, and sometimes they were class designs. It would take a braver person than I to use the word "exact" here, and there are certainly examples of massive screw-ups in lining out camouflage designs on the ship. There are many, many examples of subtle differences in shape of colour panels from designs as applied to real ships. Generally though it wasn't chaos either. The ship was marked out in chalk as EJ shows above and the painting crews painted by numbers within the lines. The lining out was done "reasonably" in accordance with the drawings but they were probably never exactly as per the drawings, not did they need to be exactly as per the drawings. Here's another photo posted by @dickrd on modelwarships.com showing another examples of chalk lines to paint to. http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/download/file.php?id=122385&mode=view

I had a bit of a demon with this for a while. What's important about the surface to receive a decal is that it is smooth, not that it is glossy. I applied gloss clear coats and still had silvering. Now I can fairly consistently apply decals to matt finishes without silvering. I use Infini Model 2500 grit sanding sponges and sometimes 4000 grit (but not always) to ensure there are no high spots before applying a decal. One key thing I was doing wrong was using water which was too warm to wet the decals out, which has the undesired effect of dissolving the decal's glue. I do now like a dab of setting solution on the surface before applying a decal. I don't wet out too many at once and leave them sitting wet (again this disperses the glue). I do apply my decals with tweezers, cocktail stick or a brush as required and will press them down with a tea towel using a rolling action which will displace any liquid underneath progressively rather than trap it under. I'll coat the decal with setting solution again, then usually apply some softening solution. I can however get fairly repeatable results now by adhering to this, even on matt (but smooth) finishes. A gloss finish is IMHO by the by. The surface needs to be flat. Reflective can be a by product of being flat, but a textured gloss coat is no better for avoiding decal silvering than having not bothered with it.

I believe Duncan (BlackMikeModels) is working that weekend and may attend Sunday as a visitor. We ourselves will not be there this year either which will be our first absence since we started. (as I'm going to learn how to be a sail maker in Orkney instead - there's only one set of dates per year for this course)

Ahh ok. Maybe I should think about whether there's anything I can do about that for the future. Glad those filters worked though - we keep a stack of them as sometimes even the 20 litre drums we buy in have some crud on the bottom of them.

Hi, I'm mortified to see that was my paint with crap in it!

Aye that's normal. We (all) take care of our own finances at shows and the only interaction we have with the show organisers is when they come round on the Sunday asking for table fees. TBH and speaking purely for myself, it's cash that's the hassle to deal with! We wouldn't normally deal with it running an online business and our preference will always be electronic means as it avoids having to work out how and when to make a journey to a bank while its open.

Nice job of this less-than-stellar kit. It's a shame these handsome battleships are so disdained in model scales.

Definitely

Seems a little harsh really even if quite amusing. The poor Fulmar's maximum takeoff weight is apparently just 10,200lbs, or 4.6 metric tonnes.

If that doesn't work, these things are pretty handy. https://www.amazon.co.uk/PAINT-STRAINERS-NYLON-FILTERS-190microns/dp/B013NQDO1Y/ref=asc_df_B013NQDO1Y/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310744208542&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18280882817800132071&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006886&hvtargid=pla-752815264447&psc=1

Those usually smaller brands who put in all of the expensive legwork working out what colour some stuff actually is (i.e. which are not simple colour standard call-outs - which many bigger manufacturers still seem to get impressively wrong) do not / will not post accurate RGB renders online for obvious reasons; They (quite reasonably, I'd hope most would agree) would like some potential return on their substantial investment in research and not to literally hand all the homework answers to to a brand of generic high-street brands of paint so people just buy that instead. It's not that it couldn't be reverse engineered by someone particularly motivated to copy someone else's homework, but there seems to be little sense in making it easy for them to do so.

That's beautiful

In 1979 the average house price in the UK was under £14k (with the average single income male salary just under £3.6k p.a.). By 2025 the average house price is forecast to just over £251k (with the average salary last year just under £28k p.a.). I'd suggest inflation doesn't tell much of a story in real terms about how much stuff costs.

There's little which gives me sticker shock as much as house and car prices. I'll soon turn 42 and unfortunately that means that by the time I was earning the (above average) income necessary to consider buying a house the prices were increasing faster than one could save. 10 years ago £30k would buy a new very nice car. Now £30k will buy a Fiesta. Naturally the main reason for sticker shock those is that our incomes have tracked at about inflation whilst the cost of essentials like shelter and transport have gone absolutely bananas. In that context, the price of boxes of plastic model parts really doesn't bother me at all as toy planes/boats/cars/tanks/whatever really are luxury items so we can just not buy models if we don't like the price and nothing bad happens. That's also a good thing about stashes generally - one just needs to look at the stash and it should become obvious that we don't actually need that new model, we simply want it. If the asking price exceeds what I fancy paying I'll pass. I have plenty other ones I need to build. As a final thought, I don't think @Dogtail2's attitude here is vulgar or toxic at all. These models are absolutely not essential at all, @RobL and it's not as though he's jacking the prices of medication, shelter or food. They're literally just toys for adults and bigger children to glue together to entertain themselves.