Eric Mc

"No bucks - no Buck Rogers" - from the film script of "The Right Stuff". It was never mentioned in the book. As something becomes more routine, it becomes less newsworthy. That is fully to be expected. When an Avro Lancastrian took off from Heathrow bound for South America in 1946 it made headline news and the newsreel cameras were there to record it. Now, dozens of airliners take off every day for far flung destinations and nobody notices. Once something has become routine (or APPARENTLY routine, in the case of the Space Shuttle) news media will only notice when something go

Too many? He was involved in a wide variety of kits which covered a wide variety of subjects and scales. I have a few more S&M kits in the stash. I fancy having a go at his 1/144 UK MUSTARD space shuttle. I think it is probably the last thing I bought from him.

I'd be more than willing to help if needed.

DC-4s/C-54s often had their upper anti-collision beacon on the tip of the tail fin. This is the 1/144 Minicraft kit

Very nice - although as you can see from my avatar, I'm a flared wings kind of guy.

Very nice build and an interesting back story too. I'm gradually getting into the more modern airliners - having been a builder of what we would now refer to as classic airliners for a few years. The Sukhoi is an interesting design - quite modern in appearance but falling short of what is required in order to be commercially and technically viable in the current economic climate.

Completed build here - https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235093197-sm-vickers-viscount-1144/

What a good idea. I'd certainly contribute this Viscount to a tribute display. By November I might have some other S&M models built.

Thank you. I have very fond memories of watching the real things coming and going over my home in Dublin in the early 1970s. I was quite resentful when they started repainting them in British Airways colours.

I've been working on this model for quite a while and had almost finished it when I heard the sad news of the passing of Mel Bromley - the owner of S&M. So, inadvertently, this has turned into a tribute of sorts.

This one has finally been done so I will post up some pictures by tomorrow. And all the props survived!!!

I left a message of condolence from IPMS Farnborough on the S&M website last night using the e-mail address given on the site. I hope the relevant people get to read it. Mel was a welcome regular at our annual Modelfest show.

That looks really good. I have the Revell boxing. You cannot use the ICM/Revell Tu144 kit to make one of the early prototypes - which were virtually a different aircraft.

I am in the throes of finishing off an S&M Viscount. It will now be my tribute to Mel.

Quite upset by this. I always had nice chats with him at various shows and he always had an interesting selection of kits and decals for sale. I was looking forward to getting back to show-going partly with a view to being able to chat with Mel again.