Rob998

Eek!

I’m building this with Fruit of Loin #2, not done any mods and the last 2 issues haven’t arrived at my newsagents yet, so am a little behind you. Also, because I’m buying from the newsagent I haven’t got the gun, wonder if Hachette will sell me one, or is there someone 3D printing them?

Sorry to butt in at this late stage, but have you seen this? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Original-U-S-Navy-Blueprints-British-HMS-Bulolo-Normandy-D-Day-HQ-Landing-Ship/163563639986?hash=item26152714b2:g:absAAOSwaAlccuJX Fantastic model btw. Is it me or is the transition from the bow to the rest of the ship a slightly unusual design? It looks a bit, erm, awkward to me, but I have literally no ship knowledge at all, so I’m probably talking bulwarks...

Lovely job there. I wonder what they were like to fly in as a passenger, I can’t imagine they were too refined...

Iirc, you couldn’t actually touch the surface, just like the the paint on Disaster Area’s stunt ship. All you need is the RAL code...

Interestingly, Royal Mails previous CEO was a Canadian called Moya Greene. Employees of Canada Post seem not to have a great deal of nostalgia for her tenure as CEO of their own company...

Thanks to everyone for your support. It’s a very weird situation, there’s no reason why the current management team should renege on a really quite modest pay and conditions agreement. Eveything was costed out and deemed acceptable by the previous administration. Stuff like the reduction of letter mail and having to manage its decline has been part of RM strategy for years now and the unions accept that we have to deal with this transition. It’s really odd that the new management team are trying to weaponise this accepted change in the business. I am a postie, but I am also a relief manager, so get to see both sides of the argument No one I know understands the intransigence of our new CEO. This is really an utterly avoidable dispute. We’re not asking for anything extra, just to get what was already agreed. It’s really quite bizarre.

Part of the problem @Rob G is that Royal Mail is bound by legislation. They can’t operate as a fully competitive company, even though they’re a fully publically listed company now, due to their legacy network, but OFCOM doesn’t recognise the speed that other companies have been able to construct more efficient distribution networks, whilst simultaneously preventing Royal Mail from rationalising their own network, under anti monopoly rules. Add in to all that, a notorious anti union asset stripper being appointed as CEO, it’s obvious that there is an invidious strategy in play.

It will be brutal, I’m afraid. The strike strategy is both flexible and aggressive to exert maximum pressure on the board of directors. It’s extremely unfortunate that loyal and valued customers will be adversely affected by this entirely avoidable dispute.

If you are planning to treat yourself to a nice little treat for Black Friday/Cyber Monday or Christmas, I suggest you should get your order in sharpish, as there is currently a strike ballot being conducted over the entirety of Royal Mail. Current polling predicts that there will be an overwhelming mandate for an intensively disruptive strike over the peak delivery period. The background to the dispute is that just over a year ago, under the tenure of the previous CEO, Moya Green, a comprehensive package of employee benefits was agreed. This included a pay rise over a 3 year period, a reduction of 1 hour in the full time working week from 39 to 38 hours (achieved by reducing the working day by 12 minutes per day) and a comensurate pay rise for part time staff, plus some improvements to working conditions. When Green left and the new CEO, Rico Back, took over he was obliged to purchase a certain amount of shares so that he had a vested interest in the company he was heading. One of his first actions, prior to the deadline for his share purchase, was to issue a statement that immediately depressed the value of the shares... He then reneged on the previously agreed settlement and has unilaterally cancelled everything agreed therein. He also sacked every member of the Board of Directors involved in the negotiations of that deal, including people who had served RM for 20+ years at very senior level, and has installed his own handpicked replacements. Furthermore he refuses to even acknowledge the existence of the CWU Union, and, at a crisis meeting recently, told the most senior negotiator in the union to leave the room as he did not recognise his negotiating authority. I am sorry to say that there will be an overwhelming vote for extensive industrial action upto and including the Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Christmas period, and as a result there is a strong possibility of disruption to Royal Mails usually excellent service over the peak festive delivery period.

Woooahh! What an awesome result! Amazing paint skills.

Mine came today! Impressed with the detail, and there doesn't appear to be much goo to drain out, just some in the engine bell. Not much cleaning up either as far as I could tell from a brief inspection.

I've got a Rocinante from The Expanse on order from www.printedplanes.com. It was £55 and that is for a 300mm kit, which I don't think is too expensive for a niche kit. @Mike has one too, and also has a Canterbury from the same place and he reckons the quality is up there.

Nice work! Stallone actually looked the part, fully uniformed, and your model is spot on. I had high hopes for Stallone as Joe, after all he definitely had the chin... and a friend of mine worked on converting ex army 101 Forward Control landrovers into prop vehicles so I really wanted to enjoy it... But then he took his bloody helmet off, ffs. The Karl Urban Dredd was really good, true to the original ethos, and I really hope they decide to make more.