Eric Mc

I have no time for this type of utter nonsense. I thought this was the forum for those who wanted to discuss REAL space related matters.

Expecting WH Smith buyers to be completely up to speed on the provenance of kits is just not realistic. In fact, I would argue that youngsters aren't worried about accuracy and fit issues the way us curmudgeonly old modellers are. I expect that many the old kits that don't get finished by youngsters is because the "helpful dad" is making comments such as "This kit is rubbish" or "Airfix/Revell should have binned the mould years ago". If the child was left alone to get on with it, they'd enjoy the experience.

Not all rockets use nasty fuels. And I'm sure the daily road traffic in the Cape are puts far more pollutants into the air than the average rocket.

In one of the canals?

It's getting like the M25 up there. When the first humans get to Mars they'll be tripping over bits of tin, plastic and parachute cloth.

He can't have much of an imagination then.

Apart from the fact it won't fly in space. Seen it been discussed elsewhere on the net. My hunch is that it won't ever be built.

What about Guildford then? The Farnborough manager told me there would be a Modelzone opening in the Guildford store.

Put it this way, for the cost of a Hollywood movie about a trip to Mars, India is sending a REAL spacecraft to Mars.

That post certainly puts things in context.

I have about three Minicraft ones to build. That's the problem - my stash is becoming obsolete before I get to build any of it.

That's a bit harsh. As a kid, I bought nearly all of my models from local newsagents and Woolworths. I am pretty sure I knew far more about the subject matter than the newsagent or the shop assistants. However, even as a ten year old I didn't base my decision to buy on the perceived knowledge level of the person I handed my money to. I am all for models being sold outside of what are now very specialist venues - such as dedicated model shops or (as you suggest) museum shops. We need to get model building back into the mainstream and not treat it as a rather nerdy little hobby carried on by nerdy 40 plus year old blokes.

They must have hired Ernst Blofeld as a consultant.

It's pretty incredible - but not unbelievable. I remember reading a book on the subject a while ago where an eyewitness in Norfolk said they could see the V2s approaching over the North Sea at night - just like the way we see the Space Station or satellites today - and this was in 1944. If fired straight up, an unassisted V2 could reach an altitude of over 200 miles - well above the altitude of many orbiting satellites.

Sounds like it should be good. It's hard to realise that 70 plus years ago a major world city was under bombardment from hypersonic vehicles approaching from the edge of space.

I wasn't taking it as a given. However, I doubt that they will open a Modelzone section is a location where there WASN'T a Modelzone shop previously. Basingstoke will be an interesting location to see what happens there.

Not all PM kits were awful. Yes, they were basic but in some cases they provided a decent simple little model.

I think there will be two criteria used by W H Smith as to which shops will feature a Modelzone - the size of the store (obviously) and whether the town had a Modelzone store previously

Had a quick chat with the manager at W H Smith, Farnborough this afternoon. The Farnborough store will NOT be featuring a Modelzone section. The nearest one to me will be the W H Smith in Guildford.

Old moulds never die - they just get passed around the industry. I wonder why they have decided to close shop? What with the closing of PM not too long ago, not such great news for the industry.

When you buy one of these lunar sites, do you get a specific geographical location on the moon or is it pretty vague. Are any of the sales for land on the far side?

I hear that you can buy the Eifel Tower too.

Up until the early 1960s, astronomers were split about 50/50 as to whether lunar craters were of volcanic or impact origin. British astronomers tended to be on the side of the "volcanic" theory. There were a number of reasons why vulcansim seemed to be a logical explanation - it was obvious that the moon had had a long period of very active vulcanism - the great lava plains (the "Mare") were signs of that it had been shown through experiment and mathematic prediction that an erupting volcano in 1/6 gravity would throw material out in a rough circular pattern - which would explain the crater rims most craters had a central peak - which was thought to be the actual volcano Impact became more popular as the 1960s progressed, mainly because during this period, qualified geologists began, for the first time, to study the lunar landscape - essentially as part of the unmanned and manned lunar missions that were taking place. They had a better understanding of vulcanism and were much more in favour of impacts as being the correct explanation. Further exploration of the solar system revealed that craters were common on other worlds as well - even worlds where earth like vulcanism would be virtually impossible - such as the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. It was also realised that the fundamental way in which solar systems formed resulted in lots of objects, colliding and falling together under gravity, which would naturally result in evidence of the latter stages of this coalescing being in the form of extensive cratering. By the 1980s, the debate had more or less settled in favour of impact cratering - but Patrick Moore held on to his old ideas for a long time after. However, to give him is due, he eventually relented and accepted that cratering was essentially caused by impacts and that volcanic craters would be very much in the minority. About ten years ago, he published a completely updated edition of his book "Patrick Moore On the Moon" and explained why he had changed his mind.

They don't (normally). Having said that, on Apollo 14, Alan Shepard had to make four or five attempts to get the Command Module to dock properly with the Lunar Module on the outward bound leg of the journey.

I bumped into Patrick Moore at Dublin AIrport once. He was buying an ice cream in the American Ice Cream parlour thet used to be sited in the main terminal back in the 1970s. I also went to a talk he gave at Trinity College Dublin around 1983 or so. I even managed to ask him a question from the floor - on the origin of lunar craters - a subject on which he held quite controversial views.