MR2Don

Congratulations; how many, it's hard to count them! Being from UK, I wonder if you will name one Archie. Our cat, Jag, looked very much like yours and she produced five, two black and white, two ginger and white and a grey tabby - where do the colours come from.

All you need to finish it is Tony Curtiss and Jack Lemmon with a double bass full of bullet holes and maybe Maryln Monroe with a ukelele and you've got the entire business. That really is a brilliant interpretation of the kit.

Like it! "His human" - another way of saying "the staff"

On Alpines, here's one of the REAL Alpine, found on the web a while ago. Very, very rare now. First seen by me charging through a Scottish forest in around 1972 (not this one, though; works rally car, probably driven by Darniche or Therier); glorious sound, incredible cornering technique, entered a hairpin virtually backwards!

I thought they were an optional extra, like MCAS on a 737 Max.

Something has just woken up a few brain cells. For as long as we've been here (30+ years) there have always been cats, not only ours, but also various ones belonging to neighbours. We are now at a point where Jag has departed and all the others have moved away, so we are completely cat free and I now have five Dunnocks flying around our garden - never had that before. Neither of ours were birders, either, Wilf was too lazy and Jag would catch the odd mouse, but not birds.

"Lady and the Tramp" - "WE are Siamese, if you please"

No photo, sadly, as I was in the car heading the other way, but one of the new Alpine A110s. Must be pretty rare in the country at this time, but not so rare as the original one, although I happen to know where one of those is!

I was thinking that myself, some sort of "experiment" with the two to see what happens. I will "make it so" as they say.

Just stumbled across this thread. Seems to fit, so here's a couple: Our cat Jag on one of her favourite "beds" in typical pose with her paw stretched out. Taken about 5 years ago, at which time, she must have been about 15, as she moved in with us from a house behind us and presented us with 5 kittens on Easter Sunday 2000! We adopted her, had her neutered and she became our extremely well loved cat until earlier this year when age caught up with her. And an acrylic painting that my wife made of her, from the photo.

This may be marginally off topic and, more likely, lack of experience in myself, but... Being UK, I've taken a chance on Lakelands QuickShine. Does the business as a gloss sealer, although can look a bit "satiny" - is that just my airbrushing skills. However, what I may have just uncovered is, because I needed to give my Silverline airbrush a good clean and swished the needle nozzle, carrier and the outer needle protector ring in IPA for a short time (15 secs), I seem to have ended up with a guey residue around the ring, especially in the six cutouts, which has been an absolute pig to get rid of. The last thing that was brushed was QuickShine, so I'm becoming suspicious that the QuickShine is reacting with the IPA to produce the gunk.

Interesting. Having just fought through most of the Revell one, to see the entire fuselage length in two mouldings seems to indicate deep joy, provided they fit. Takes Revell 6 mouldings to achieve that (with difficulty). Look forward to your progress reports.

Sadly, not uncommon to not be able to find service info, regardless of what "Forces War Records" promote. My wife's grandfather went through the entire WW1 from France to Mespot to ending up in the RFC in Palestine, but, despite numerous searches and having his service number, no records can be traced; he hadn't got a common name, either. Also, my father was in the RAF in WW2 but I can find no record of him. Medals being "lost" is altogether too common (sold off or just dumped).

What a fascinating, emotional basis for a diorama, and so well executed. How many people might look at it and say "My grandpa was one of those". I've been to Omaha twice and, as with all military cemeteries, it is a humbling experience and magnificently maintained. P.S.: If you want to see a B26, go to the Utah Museum, there's a whole one there!

If we're discussing the Revell 03925 kit, then I bought one recently and haven't noticed any issues with the canopy...yet. By that I mean that I am a returning modeller so maybe not experienced enough yet to identify minor issues. It appears to fit OK (well, based on the general dodgy accuracy of parts fitment on this kit) and it is not yet fully in place, only been masked on while I painted. Will soon be able to say more about final fitment.

I have purchased a Hobbyboss 1/48 SU-27 Flanker B (kit 81711). I want to finish it as Ukranian, the kit has Russian decals only. Looking round Google, there appear to be a few issues with AM decals. 1 - Begemot has a set (48-005) that includes Ukranian decals, but it seems to be unavailable from anywhere. 2 - Foxbot has a set (48-009A) which is Ukranian and has digital camo masks, but I've seen references to it that say "for Trumpeter/Academy". There is also 48-026A, again stating "Trumpeter/Academy" which Hannants have got. So, mainly on the second option: Does anybody know if the Trumpeter/Academy kits are different enough to the Hobbyboss one that the masks won't work? They're all the same aircraft to the same scale, and, as far as I can see, approached the same way, i.e. complete wing/fuselage sections. I've seen an Ebay listing for the Trumpeter one that quotes the same kit number as the Hobbyboss - are they the same kit? Anybody know what the issue is with Begemot?

Re Everard, I've found this on a Newbury Diesel Company web page about F.T. Everard, so the tug has got a family connection to the barges "With the introduction of the Sirron L and F range of engines in 1937, they were initially installed in MV Serenity and MV Signality and the range included 4F engines for the converted sail barges, MV Fred Everard and MV Alf Everard. An 8L engine was also supplied for the Thames tug SA Everard. This tug was originally designed for a 7L but this engine was used in MV Sodality built in 1938 and so the more powerful 8L was used instead. The number at the front of the engine designation indicates the number of cylinders. As the engine design was modular, adding or reducing the number of cylinders was fairly simple design wise." Also found this - is that your tug?

Sideways question. Does the Everard tug have any relationship to the set of Thames barges built for any operated by the Everards, the only one of which I understand to still exist is Will Everard, now known simply as Will, based in St. Catherine's Dock and modelled (if you can use that term) by Billings. I know, I bought one with the idea of turning it into Thistle (Top Sail, Maldon), but gave up as I just couldn't get it to work. The plastic parts in the Billings kit are crude and vastly overscaled and the scaling of the whole kit seemed wrong. I haven't got the skill or patience to do what you're doing and think you deserve all credit.

Aha! IanC 1 - True 2 - True 3 - True 4 - True 5 - True 6 - Tamiya acrylic, IPA and Amtico flooring, wipes clean easily. 7 - True; and also what exactly is that shade of grey 8 - True 9 - True, sometimes even Microsol doesn't seem to work. 10 - True. And then, after all that, go and get another one! Such Fun!!

Very good build log. I empathise with your ejector pin issues, I've got the same on my Revell 1/48 Tornado ADV - lots of ejector pin problems, both sinks, projections and up the side of the pin extrusions. I wonder if their moulds are getting a bit worn, but there's no excuse for letting product out the door like that!

Student apprentice with Ferranti in Edinburgh (student because I'd got Highers). Happy days; apprentice booze-ups in Rose Street. That saw me through Brunel, then personal reasons brought me south and I ended up with GEC-Marconi/Marconi Radar/Alenia Marconi/BAe for far too many years (virtually all of it in the same town, just different mergers/takeovers)!! Ferranti gave me my first contact with a military jet. They had a Canberra which was used as a flying radar test bed. My dad had to go out to it one day to check some equipment and took me with him. Didn't get off the ground, needless to say, but it was mightily impressive to a naive 16 year old.

Excellent shots. One thing catches my eye. There appears to be a sort of ripple pattern down the fuselage side just ahead of the wing root. Is that the paint scheme or it is rippling of the panels?

There's weathering and there's weathering and what you've done there is stupendous weathering! Brilliant presentation.

Reading these, one theme seems to be "why are we so anal now?". My thoughts...it's our own fault! Just look at the number of posts on here talking about intricate details, and why do we have them? Because of the internet, Google and this site. I know because during my anguished fight (and I mean that most sincerely, folks) with the Revell ADV, I have had several recourses to the walkarounds, just to work out how the actual plane went together, not to mention hours trying to work out what the h*** shades of grey to use. None of that was in any way possible back in the early 60's, when we would have been as likely to build a plastic bag Airfix Spit and just leave it blue, but we've got it now and we use it. BTY, just remembered another bit about my dad's Spit attempt - he had no idea how to apply decals, so very carefully cut round the roundels and stuck them on the wings with ordinary paste; not a good look. He was very good with old valve radios, but model aircraft were not his thing.

Let me throw in another "recollection of the past". Way, way back when I was a young lad in the early days of Airfix, my dad took it into his head to build a Spit himself. He took ages to get the wings dead level with no dihedral. It hurt me badly to tell him he'd given himself a load of grief in order to get it wrong! Even worse when you consider he was in the RAF during the war, but he was a radio techie, spent the war in Egypt, Kenya and Palestine and worked with Kittihawks/Tomahawks and Baltimores, so maybe an excuse.