Heather Kay

Having peered, prodded and poked, I think Steve had in his first reply.

Well, XR219 is built. It was done a long time before I joined BM. I’ve been slowly acquiring various ancillary vehicles. I did start to build a Leyland Hippo refueller, then realised it was the wrong version! I’ve also got a few other bits of GSE from Flightpath. One day, one day.

Indeed. I’ve been working on exactly this diorama based on other photos from this period for years. With this clear image of the ground markings, there’s another impetus to get it finished one day!

Drop me a PM and we can discuss terms.

I have a couple more if you want them. In other news… I already have one on the shelf, recently refurbished. I had said I’d like another bash at the build if I came across a kit, so when Airfix announced the reissue I sort of accidentally on purpose preordered one. Thing is, I don’t need another MkV for the 1940 collection. However, Flightpath, care of Mr David J Parkins, makes a conversion kit that will give me a Tiger radial engined MkII or MkIII, both of which were still lumbering around in training roles in my chosen period. Or I could just build it straight. Decisions, decisions…

I passed my test in 1982 at the second attempt in my instructor's Ford Escort Mk2. I think it was the four door, and it was metallic bronze. I learned the basics with my Dad, in the family Datsun 120Y coupe in a Waitrose car park in Godalming. It was yellow - the car, not the car park. I remember the first time I sat in the driver's seat my Dad went through the controls, and then told me two things. First, he told me to remember I was in control of a lethal weapon. Second, I was told to consider everyone else on the road as an idiot. Those basic tenets have stuck with me ever since. I then went on to pass the IAM Advanced Driving test in 1987, in my pale metallic blue Vauxhall Chevette 1.3L.

Hard to say. I’ve been keeping clear of most GBs this past year. Life’s a bit too full of other stuff right now. One problem is, while I do have some personal railway kits about, they’re of the cast and etched metal locomotive variety. I really don’t have the space or time to devote to them, even if I decided to build them as static models.

Here’s my rendition of the Dapol/Airfix Scarab kit. I went to town and rebuilt the Scammell Coupling setup so it matched the real thing better. I also did the Watneys special tanker version. It really did exist, but was only seen round London streets. The obvious corrections to the kit are the windscreen central pillar, thinning the bumper bar, rearranging the coupler so the trailer sits in the right place, and adding a few details to the trailer, like the brake cables. In larger scale, David J Parkins will be reintroducing the former Classic Commercials 1/43rd scale kit at some point.

Not sure about those aftermarket red blades you have there, Bill.

So, does this excellent news mean I can finally uncross everything? I’ve been finding it hard to see straight, do any fiddly work, let alone walking without falling over for ages now.

Release was March '24. It’s slipped to April. Still, I’d rather it was late and good. I can wait.

Wow! That looks amazing!

While I need this model in my collection (damned completist that I am), if Hannants had posted better images I might well have passed it over. It’s going to be some time before I even begin to think about building this kit, though, so plenty of time to work out potential solutions.

Putting my analyst on standby… Vaccum? Oh dear. Oh deary deary me. I suppose this should be classed as an aid to scratch building. No wonder the previous owner(s) never quite got round to attempting to build it.

The backscene photo is actually edited montage of a view only a couple of miles away from here - in the back end of the Medway Towns - that I photographed some years ago. I’ve stitched various bits together in software, and added a gradient haze effect to knock the colour back. Im fairly pleased with it. I think I may have found somewhere that could print it in a single sheet. More on that when it happens.

A project that’s always bubbling under is improving my "universal airfield" photo plank. It’s been a mission of mine to try and disguise the abrupt join between the ground board and the backscene board. I acquired a laser-cut fence and gate kit, dug out some old scenic flock and scatter, and set about things in a generally slapdash manner. I find that’s the only way I can do scenery: fiddle about with stuff until it sort of gels and looks about right. First up was to form some balsa wood into a low bank. I mixed some earthy colours into some Polyfilla to plug any gaps. Colouring the filler meant it wouldn’t show stark white if it got damaged later. A trial fit of part of the fence. A liberal coat of PVA over the "bank", followed by old school scenic scatter. It’s the same stuff I used for the main ground cover a couple of years back. It must date back to the 1970s or '80s, back when Best Beloved and I were building model railways. Rather than run fence the whole way, I let it get lost behind a scrubby hedge. Again, old school scenics: rubberised horse hair with scatter glued to it, plus some more recent scenic mat material that can be stretched out to give the appearance of clumps of brambles. I stopped at this point as I’d run out of time and needed to get on with other work. This morning I built up another gate and length or two of laser-cut fence. I then added some further flock material and "brambles" to merge the bank into the main field. I couldn’t resist digging out the backscene board to see how it looked. When viewed from above, the abrupt join between foreground and background is more evident. From lower down, nearer scale eye level as it were, the effect works well. Here’s the whole assemblage, propped on the bench and lit with a single bench lamp. I need to get the background landscape montage printed properly. At the moment, it’s three bits of A3 paper glued to some foamboard, and you can see the joins! Finally, a quick setup with a Hampden. I think I’m happy with that. The appalling lack of depth of field is due to using my phone camera. Using proper gear, I’d hope the whole scene would be in focus.

You’re thinking of Hattons. The Big H out of Lowestoft is in rude health, and I’ve bought something from them only yesterday.

Coming along nicely. Although it doesn’t look it, the model is a bit of a tail-sitter. I glued some ballast behind the cockpit bulkhead just to keep the nose wheel on the deck.

I’m afraid I’ve resorted to stripping models back to bare metal for a model railway layout. The fine detail in the castings is often lost under the factory paint.

Huh, yeh, like, whatevs.

Here’s one I lay completely at the foot of our American cousins: "celebrating our 10 year anniversary". I'll leave that one to stew.

Impacted. This has replaced "affected". It grinds my gears.

Oh, hello there. It’s, um, been a while hasn’t it? Lots of excuses, I’m afraid. The Manc is currently on the Shelf of Doom. The workbench is currently filled with commissioned model railway work, which has spontaneously developed a deadline of sorts. I’m also dealing with a fair old lump of adulting, which is never my favourite thing to do at the best of times. Needs must, as they say. So, styrene and resin bothering has been very low on the agenda of late, and I fear it might be a while longer before I feel up to mixing two-part epoxy to glue wings on the proto-Lancaster. I am still lurking here, keeping up with everything as best I can. I hope to be back at the Bomber Command builds soon enough.

Mine was an old Humbrol-era boxing. The transfers were rubbish. You are tempting me to get another one… so many things I’d do differently to the old build.