AlexN

Hello Ced, Tony and Tony, Thank you very much for your kind thoughts and words, greatly appreciated. While the cold shakes and deliriums have thankfully passed, I am still not out of the woods yet, the thing (or a secondary) having got into my chest. Still very weak and nowhere near getting back to actual fiddling with the Alouette yet. On occasions I've been viewing various photos in my Alouette II hoard, and noting other differences between kit and the HNZ machine. The most obvious of these is thar the HNZ helicopter has a thrre-bladed tail rotor, whilst the one in the kit is two-bladed - so the moulding putty may be making a reappearance in due course. The 'white roof' in the HNZ photo in my initial post appears, from scrutiny of other photos including one of another(?) HNZ machine, to be, in fact, an internal positionable/retractable sun-blind, not an opaque or over-painted canopy panel. The HNZ front seats are also the canvas sling type, not the Comfy Chairs with Soft Cushions that come with the kit - what a surprise, ha ha ha. Aplogies to the Pythons. A bit. I have fallen way behind where I blithely thought that I would be, which serves me right, I suppose. Cheers, the alex. <-- still in as rude heath as ever

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...I had to stop reading the Hyperscale site cluster and PMMS after unrestrained purchases after reading glowing reviews nearly resulted in divorce. I had better stop reading these too, pronto! It's bad enough when so-and-so or such-and-such start an interesting new model in the main forums! Lovely looking bits, though! And turnbuckles are also very useful for rigging (large) 1:1 boats . Cheers, Alex.

Great review, Mike - great-looking kit! I have an 'old' (for a given value of 'old', it's not as old as me ) Roden kit of the WV-powered SE.5a. I shall have to raid the lock-up and compare (although I suspect aleady that the Roden probably isn't going to be a patch on the Eduard profi). Cheers, Alex.

Hmmm... a bit similar to the RBP glue applicators, except with a loop tip, not (adjustable) prongs as with the RB item. I was going to add a laugh 'like' on your post for the amusing description of your trials and tribulations, so it's probably just as well that I'm out o' abreactions. I am currently quite ill and my brain is working more weirdly as a result ( no sympathy expected, by the way - just an explanation). Looking good, though - nearly done? Cough gurgle wheeze, the alex. <-- this ratbag is as fit as anything

Hello Tony and CC, Thank you for your kind words, and taking the trouble to read and reply to my febrile ravings . Since I had the chill, shivering ague last night, and the recurrence of a long-buried phd-completion nightmare, neither of which I've had for years and years, please forgive me not quoting either of you today . Here's a joke - well, it's not a joke, sadly, it's almost true: Q. What's slower than a 2.4kb modem? A. The 'internet' in the Blue Mountains :E <-- my trade-marked fanged smiley Leaping about like a cane toad on a BBQ plate (best place for the monsters, by the way - once you've run over 'em in yer car and squashed 'em flat as pancakes...but eating 'em is strongly contra-indicated)... I used to have a lovely drink for when I had colds: whisky (lots of it), lemming juice, cayenne pepper and honey, as taught to us by a Scottish lady in New Zealand back in January 1981. Sadly, since the advent of SSRI anti-depressents in my life - in particular the most recent one - I have had to stop drinking alcohol altogether, so that's the end on cough mixtures for me, including Mama Rossi's Patent Gunpowder Solution. Actually, it's not really sadly, since I am no longer perpetually down in the dumps or waiting in terror for the next disaster to fall. I approach the world with a lot more equanimity than I used to, as bizarre (from what I rant on and on about) as it seems... I occasionally missed the Shirazes, single malts and Bombay Sapphire (and much less occasionally, beer), but as time goes on that has faded into ye background. But thank you for your recipes, CC - I shall pass them on to Dr Mrs Alex, who still does have the occasional (EtOH-laced) drink (she stopped at the same time as I did in a determined example of solidarity . Loved the match joke, Tony . Regarding the rear fuselage framework, I had a careful look at the replacement parts under 10x magnification (The Boss bought one from Jaycar one the weekend when she also acquired a set of mini-scales to replace the set that I destroyed in the old Workswamp (read, that the old Workswamp destroyed for me) and the main girder regions are fine: no registration problems at all, and the same with a pair of shorter similar parts. The unfortunate exception is the upper diagonal segment that runs along the top of the side parts - this looks in parts as though it is made from I-beam section on some spots, and C-beam section in others. Walkaround photos on the Alouette-Lama website show these to be circular in cross-section. So - I shall use the kit side parts, and make up the upper piece from plastic rod. Note that the regsitration isn't good on the 'original' top part so also unusable. While recognisably circular (as opposed to the weirdness on the replacement part), the die slippage is far too large to correct and it will should be much quicker and easier to make a new one. Once I'm up and about again, I'll try using a very useful overlay pixel-measuring tool that I have on the iMac to measure up the float dimensions and their relative size to the rest of (or bits of the rest of) the aircraft. Which brings us back to Apple stuff again. Gurgle. Thank you for the heads-up on 'Photos' - it appears to have a few more features than I was willing to give it credit for. I still find Graphic Converter (clever German application) far more useful—except for dealing with the iphone. And speaking of the latter, thank you for the reminder that I can turn off the auto-corrupt in iChoons. I shall experiment very gingerly and with extreme caution. I seem to be out of the things formerly known as 'likes' again, so you will have to put up with virtual ones until I get in a new shipment. Better send out for 'em, he seems well enough. Cheers and wheezes, Cheese and biscuits, the alex. <-- disgustingly healthy PS: hey kids, there's a great new toy that Mike has provided us with, it seems: : ignore:. Now you can yer heads off at me to yer heart's content.

That was overly brave of you, since I may yet pester you around the twist regarding Seafire information, if I ever get my 1945 HMs Indefatigable(?) Seafire (Mk III) mojo (what is this word 'mojo') back... Run out of loiks again. Mañana, as they say in Southwestern Europe... Cheers, the alex.

That miniature vice looks suspiciously like the vice that came with my Minicraft (remember them, you Poms?) drill stand. When I'm well enough again, I'll go out to the shed and have a look. Aaargh! A pox on it - I hate being the one who flips the page. My apologies. Anyway, your Dornier is coming on like a hou— oops, not the best analogy to use given recent events... Nice . Gurgle cough wheeze, the alex. <-- fit as a fiddle, curse him!

Was there an RFI link wot I missed?

That's a shame. My previous bottle of Maskol met a similar fate, only more so: a congealed blob o' purple rubber. It was such a nice bottle, however, that I extracted The Thing1 with a pair of sturdy pliers and I now use said bottle to hold a small amount of xylene for various solvent purposes. Maybe next time, Chris - if you ever get a new batch... Cheers, Alex. 1 Possibly from the Planet Zog

Oh dear, oh dear, I twitch every time that I see the gent with the groinal tent-pole. Must mean something - probably that there's something wrong wi' me . Nice scratching there too, ahem... And I don't mean pork scratching, either. Gee whiz, those two were almost worthy of Ced. Well, it is the internet, after all. Cheers, Alex.

Oops! Lucky that you'r not in the Southern Hemisphere with its Big Ozone Layer HoleTM (still ), or you would also be in danger of a nice dose o' skin cancer (if you kept it up ha ha and continued to go out without yer titfer - but you would learn sharpish anyway). Nice to have you back, sorry to hear of the 'Montezuma's Revenge' (sort of), too. What now? Cheers, Alex. just whispered in my ear that we forgot all about having a thread(bare) party whilst you was gorn - he specs that everyone was too busy! And just as well.

Pop! 'Likes' will follow when they replenish in twleve hours or so... This'll be good . Cheers, Alex. has the out too

Beautiful looking flying boat! A rare wee beastie that kit, by the looks. Nice . Cheers, Alex.

Crikey! Big isn't in it! It will be fascinating to watch this one unfold. Cheers, Alex.

Neat work - hat off to you, sir!