Heather Kay

I'm sad to say I had to say goodbye to this adorable floofball last week. My late husband, Paul, and I homed Billy-puss from our local Cat's Protection centre in May 2016, when Billy was four years old. A couple of months ago, he was diagnosed with renal failure. Despite the best efforts of the vet and me, he declined quickly. After Paul's death, Billy was the rock keeping me centred in the maelstrom of a life turned upside down. I miss them both deeply. Traditionally, I should now go to the homing centre and be chosen by another moggie. I have decided not to do that right away. Instead, I’m making plans for some worry-free travel, to do some exploring for a bit, and think about making a new furry friend in a year or so.

Wherever the BoB 85 display appears, you can sure there’s something of mine in there somewhere! Stuff was scattered through the display, so it’s difficult to be specific. And yes, a stray kit did find its way home with me. I’ve somehow ended up with a Special Hobby Short Sunderland. I already had an Italeri one in the stash.

Hello all! Back after the SMW weekend, I was rearranging my stash storage to make room for new boxes . I came across an Airfix Gloster Gladiator with some extra bits to make a Sea Gladiator. It made sense, at least to me, to add the Glad to this thread and make it a two-header build. FIrst, though, I really should try to get that damned paying work out of the way.

I'll be honest that it didn’t take me all that long to put my models back in their boxes. I think one model got damaged, but that was my own clumsiness - and it’s a model about to replaced by a better version anyway. Like sensible people, I stayed one more night in the hotel and made the return journey to Kent in daylight. Well, it was light, when I could see through the torrential rain and spray that followed me from the M6 all the way home! I’m just enjoying a well-earned brew, and will begin unloading the car shortly. To everyone that stopped by the BoB SIG display to say hello and comment on the display, my models, and my forum and IPMS magazine articles, thank you. I couldn’t always put a name to the face, but it was nice to meet the real person behind the forum personality. I hope we can do it all again next year, though with a slightly smaller display!

Well, I made it! The Battle of Britain SIG setup crew were allowed in from 1pm. My journey from north Kent was happily uneventful. I got to the venue just before 2pm. Really looking forward to seeing everyone. Do say hello.

If you want an exercise in brain ache, take a look at the specifications for painting Great Western Railway locos of the early 1900s. By the way, I must say you’ve made a fantastic job with that old kit. I think it’s one of the best renditions of Evening Star I’ve seen.

For black lined locos, it’s much simpler. Everything is black! My understanding of the 9F tender top is everything inside the grab rails around the tank filler would be black. Perhaps it makes it easier to interpret if you think that black covered areas where crew members might need to walk.

I wasn’t going to stick my oar in, but as railway liveries was something I needed to understand as part of my professional modelmaking career. This might help you work out which bits were black, which bits were green, and where the lining was supposed to go.

A quick update on the packaging/transport setup. I acquired, some time ago, a convertible sack barrow-cum-trolley from Machine Mart. The handle used to propel the thing in barrow mode can be unclipped and mounted so the thing becomes a trolley. I felt it sensible, with just a week to go before I hit the road to Shropshire, to arrange the boxes on the trolley, with suitable bungee straps to ensure I can move the entire display set in one go from car to exhibition hall and back. Turns out I can. In another development, I learned I can actually remove the back seats of my car - a Škoda Roomster, if you must know - and convert it into a van. I won’t go so far as to black out the rear windows, but I can get all the carrying boxes, the trolley and my luggage in the space. Getting excited now!

Fair enough, if interaction is what they want. That said, my blog allows comments (not that anyone bothers as only a few people follow my wittering there!). Facebook is free to use, but we must remember their business is selling you to their advertisers, and your content to feed their Large Language Models to further pollute the World Wide Web with their slop. I'm not coming at this from a purely anti viewpoint. I used to have a Facebook account, and ran a page for my modelmaking business. Using it as a searchable resource was a complete waste of time. Once a post dropped off the bottom of the screen it was all but invisible for ever more. I never got any new clients through my efforts on that site, and spent more time dealing with rubbish and idiots than anything worthwhile. I don’t miss it. When I get a few minutes to myself I will start to rebuild one of my web sites. It’ll be just like the olden days or the early 2000s again.

Why can’t they run their own web sites? If Facebook crashed and burned, all that useful stuff would be entirely lost. As it is, not having accounts with either Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp, that information is a closed book to me. Somewhere along the line, mega-corporations convinced us we should play in their walled gardens, instead of posting stuff to our own spaces on the internet where it’s freely available to anyone with a browser.

Thanks Troy. I had clocked Murray's post earlier. Unfortunately, I don’t really have an answer. Wikipedia tells me the Islands were demilitarised in June 1940, and the Germans occupied them early in July. Italy declared war in June. It occurs to me the crossover between being able to use Jersey airport as a refuelling/rearming point would be very limited, as bombing operations in northern Italy probably wouldn’t have occurred before the end of June, by which time the Islands had been left to their own devices by the British government. I've read that Whitleys would be loaded up at their bases in East Anglia, and make a refuelling stop at Bicester before heading over occupied France and the Alps to bomber Milan and Turin. I vaguely recall a similar stopover happening at Manston, but can’t verify that. So, unfortunately, I don’t think a diorama of a Whitley being rearmed at Jersey airport is likely. EDIT: Wikipedia comes up trumps: Haddock Force. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haddock_Force Refuelling diorama a distinct possibility, then.

Wait, what?! Oh, I remember. I’ll add that to my List. Thank you for the nudge!

I am helping Neil and a couple of other SIG members set things up on the 65ft of tables we have this year. I plan to be in the halls Friday afternoon, and in early Saturday, and then helping round the display for the weekend. Please, definitely say hello!

That’s a shame. It would have been nice to catch up in real life again. I shall make an effort to take photos, and not miss the Bill Meetup, like I did last time I attended SMW.