Uncle Pete

I like to have them able to rotate if they're engineered specifically to do that. It never occurred to me to just slip them on. I usually mask the tips for the yellow... My freehand is atrocious. I probably won't act on it but, out of curiosity, what's the neat trick? As long as you keep it to the modelling... I can't afford to give away any more houses!

That's it... I'm chucking away my tools, giving my stash to the poor and turning my workbench into a card table... Just as soon as I pick my jaw up off the floor.

It's brilliant! It knocked my on my dupa!

I know... But I like 'em shiny!

Is it just me or does anybody else find a “honeymoon effect” with kits? I open a kit up and throw myself into it with great vigour, sticking and painting, painting and sticking, and the enthusiasm tails off as the kit nears completion and working on it becomes a bit of a chore while I start eyeing the pile of unbuilt kits in the stash with a new hunger. Coincidentally I’ve been divorced four times… This Wimpy languished on the bench for a month, 90% complete, 90% painted among a little heap of antennae, gun turrets, props, spinners and wheels while I couldn’t motivate myself to run it over the finish line but last week I finally got around to final assembly and touch up. It’s the 2018 Airfix with all the highly detailed but ultimately invisible interior, satisfying to make but disappointing to see vanish when the fuze was closed up. As we all like to say, though, “I know it’s in there”. Squadron Leader A.C. Plonk, VCR, MOT, SOB and bar, has been transferred from the Shepherds Bush Air Force in London to the Buckley Air Force in North Wales and is now a bomber boy. This is his current aircraft. The boarding ladder, by the way, is just leaning in place... I've yet to figure out how to attach it properly without introducing a massive and ugly blob of glue and/or positioning it too high or too low. The instructions called for painting it silver but having seen pictures of WW2 bombers with yellow ladders I thought the hi-viz had a bit more zazz. On the subject of yellow, I forgot to paint the tips of the props. Too late now, I find that difficult enough even when they're in a position where I can actually handle them. If you've seen my builds before you'll know I'm not very good at it but, dammit, I'll show them to somebody and the members here are the only people I know who are unlikely to remember a pressing appointment when they see me select "pictures" on my phone. You pros are very indulgent of my efforts and for that I thank you... Reminds me of when I was 17 and playing on bands with musicians my dad had played with in the 40s and 50s. The bomb bay and wheel bays came out not half bad. But efforts to see even the map table inside merely reveal flaws in the paint job. I know the windows are supposed to be blacked out but I thought it would look more interesting if I left them clear (alright, clearish!) I think I can say it passes the "Two Metre Test", although if you've just cleaned your glasses it might be 3 metres. And while I'm not sure an RAF crew would park it without centering the turrets and control surfaces, Squadron Leader Plonk is a casual type of guy. I also suspect, looking at the numbers, he's also a Cornish pirate... "AAR"! Now maybe I'll get around to finishing that Me 109 I started in August. Not long after I'd cut the painting handle off the pilot's bum the Wellington shouldered its way into the queue. Thanks for looking and any tips you can give me will probably be futile but I'll continue to build to the best of my limited ability. It's probably the best 1:72 Wimpy within a 50 metre radius of my house...

Cracking good job, mate... All it's missing is Hawkeye's golf clubs!

Horrible kit? Splendid result!

I'm TOTALLY stealing that idea next year!

Daughter and granddaughter came over for Xmas dinner. I've been hinting about kits for months. Pajamas and socks again, dammit!

Merry Christmas to all my fellow plastic-stickers and thank you all for the lessons you've unknowingly given me. Here, for your amusement, s a blast from my past when I was music director on a cruise ship...

The only Richard III I can think of is in Cockney Rhyming Slang...

Wasn't he the "My kingdom for a horse" bloke? In which case wouldn't it have to be a Mustang?

Hmmm... I suppose I could get a Revell Kustom Chopper and do it up like ...

I wasn't really after the Batman look but I suppose it's inevitable!

Yeah, baby! I gotta get some decal paper for things like that (and learn how to use the stuff). I also have in mind getting another Wimpy (I'm on final assembly of one right now) and creating a 1946 luxury airliner with a fictitious company, maybe something with the wife's name involved. Speaking of the wife, I'd also had thoughts of doing up a Spit for her in pink and blue camo with Marks and Spencer logos, credit cards, shoes and handbags replacing the regular roundels and numbers.