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A bit disappointing (unless you're in need of a B-24) for 1/72nd. Makes me wonder why they released the Me 410 'early' - it would have made the 2024 range a little more exciting Cheers Colin

My assembly line experience is in a GM car factory (pre robotics age). The work was not difficult, but mind numbly tedious, and in some cases physically exhausting. If a worker (perhaps not well educated, totally disinterested, and possibly under the influence) at the end of a long shift makes a mistake, is it the fault of the worker or the process? I must admit working there (summer job while at school) was a real eye-opener ... and certainly led credence to the adage 'never buy a car built on a Friday afternoon'! Of course practice has improved a lot since then (I hope). Cheers Colin

It shouldn't. Typically people start with a hobby, sell a few items, then try and turn it into a business. There are advantages to doing this, as you can offset a lot of your equipment costs against your total tax bill (including your 'normal' salary if you have one). The people who would need to be careful are those receiving benefits as any extra income could put those at risk - this what is called the 'poverty trap'. As I understand it, the sharing of data comes into effect from the end of January, and I've seen nothing to suggest it can be applied retrospectively - legally I don't see how it could, as the service would have to let you know they are sharing data before they share it. Also, the banks already share data with HMRC - if you've been doing anything dodgy, you're already at risk regardless of the new ruling which really only makes it a bit easier for HMRC to target undeclared activity. Cheers Colin

As can mileage if you drive to your storage, post office etc. If you are doing this as a 'business' in your home, you can also claim either a proportion of your electricity and heating or opt for a flat rate. As presumably you need a computer to conduct your business, this too is a legitimate overhead (though read up on the rules for this). Cheers Colin

I think this would depend whether BM is registered as a business otherwise I don't think HMRC could even request the data from BM. Unlike Ebay etc, BM does not make money out of sales - it is 'just' a message board. Individuals selling stuff on BM may choose to tell HMRC about the vast income they are generating, but it has nothing to do with BM anymore than putting a 'for sale' sign in a local shop would affect the shop owner. Cheers Colin

True - but then the same could be said about all kits. Many of us buy kits with grand ideas that never get completed. How many are on your 'shelf f doom' Seriously, I do think many will be sold with a diorama in mind (completion is another matter, but do manufacturers care?). But I could also see that 'cross genre' builders may like the idea of having all their models to the same scale (I know I would). At the same time, a good number of modellers don't care about constant scale, and will buy a kit for the quality - and these seem to be of high quality. Will 1/35th take off? When I paused my modelling 30 or so years ago, for aircraft builders in the UK 1/72 was the 'one true scale' with some going big with 1/32nd or 1/24th. 1/48th was very rare. Coming back to modelling I was surprised to discover how popular 1/48th had become and increasingly so. Last time I visited my LHS, I couldn't find anything in 1/72nd I didn't already have and 1/48th was using the majority of aircraft shelf space. Not sure of the reason, but one might be that aging modellers are struggling with the smaller scales and prefer something bigger to work on. If so, perhaps current 1/48ers will soon be wanting to move up a scale again and Border Models wants to be in that market. There is nothing magic about 1/32nd so unless you already have a 1/32 collection, 1/35 is just as reasonable an option (and takes a little less shelf space). My only concern is that if 1/35 catches on, companies will decide to produce new releases of guaranteed sellers in that scale (Spitfire etc.) instead of producing lesser known types in the existing scales. I think this is exactly what Airfix did when they started making 1/48th kits - the 1/72nd line suffered. From the business point of view, perhaps it is more cost effective to produce the same type in various scales than to research a new type for a given scale. Cheers Colin

As I understand it, HMRC are trying to identify those who may be generating large amounts of income which is not being declared. I very much doubt they will be going after 'casual' traders generating less than 10K or so - the effort of recovering any tax owed would surely outweigh the income gained. For a number of years, I was registered as a sole trader for a photography business. I did keep meticulous records of income and expenditure, and dutifully filled in my tax return each near. Over a 10 year period I was never questioned over my figures, even first couple of years when I recorded a loss (due to equipment purchases). As others have said, going forward, it is probably a good idea to keep records of income and expenditure. I'm not sure 2 accounts is a good idea unless you want to register yourself as a sole trader (ie. set up a business) as I think 2 accounts belonging to the same person might look dodgy and raise a red flag. Cheers Colin

So did I ... but now the French colours are discontinued (Xtracolor had also discontinued them some years previously). I guess not many people are building French Air Force subjects. I had put off building French types for a while due to this, but then discovered Hataka does an 'Early WWII French Air Force' set which I used on my recent Dora MB 152 build. I used the lacquer paints, but the set is also available as water based acrylics. I can't vouch for their colour accuracy, but compared to models painted in Colourcoats, I'd say the colours are very close, but somewhat lighter (possibly built in scale effect?) Anyway, the lacquers were a joy to use. Haven't tried the acrylics, though I believe there were some issues with early batches which have since been addressed. Cheers Colin

I use AK Extreme metal over Mr Surfacer and it works fine. The label says it is enamel based. I've used colorcoats over extreme metal with no problems. Afraid I can't help on the chipping fluid. Cheers Colin

Having broken my fair share of parts in the past, I now study the instructions and look for ways to avoid adding fragile parts until the bulk of assembly, masking and painting are complete. For example, the instructions may say to add antenna to the fuselage in the section on building the fuselage, but there is often no reason this can't be deferred until the end of the build. Instructions are written to efficiently illustrate how the model goes together, but this is not always the optimum way to do it. In particular they generally seem to overlook problems you might encounter when masking for painting. Sometimes an alternate build order is not possible - guns may have to be placed in turrets before the turret is included in the fuselage. In this case I'll often surgically remove the gun barrels and re-attach them at the end. How far I go with this will depend on how much the fragile bits will get in the way - sometimes they can cause a problem at the masking/painting stage, other times not so much. In short, I'll opt for 'controlled breakage' over accidental breakage (and possible loss of parts). cheers Colin

I think it is worth keeping in mind that you are never building an exact replica (e.g. the thickness of many plastic parts will be overscale), you are building as close a representation of the item as possible. For example, at least in the smaller scales, producing an exact copy of a cockpit interior would be next to impossible, so we aim for a good representation of the interior. One might be able to build and paint a kit perfectly from the box, using all the aftermarket parts you can get your hands on, but the builds that are on the next level involve artistry - getting the impression of wear and tear, illusions of depth etc. the people who can do this have both the skills and an artist's eye. I doubt I could ever achieve anything like the best models I've seen, nor could I paint a Rembrandt or play in the London Symphony. All I can do is build to my satisfaction and accept the some people simply have more talent. Cheers Colin

Thanks for the kind words ... as to your questions. Yes, the panels are bare metal on both sides. This aircraft depicts one found in May '45 at Oberpfaffenhohen. Possibly these were unpainted replacement panels, or delivered from a sub manufacturer unpainted. Brushable metallics are tricky - for this reason I avoid it except for smaller areas, that said in my pre-airbrush days I found some of the Humbrol MetalCotes paints quite good (Polished Aluminium, Gunmetal and Polished steel) quite good - though matt aluminum is rubbish. You can mix them for different shades and as they are buffable, you can eliminate minor brush strokes. The La-5FN is an old Zvezda kit - dark green plastic and raised panel lines. I got it for a fiver, but to be honest, its not worth more. Tea bags were new, but old ones might give an interesting colour. As this was Churchills plane, I figured he might like some privacy Valom kits are strange - esoteric subjects, and quite good detail but assembly can be tricky with often fairly vague instructions. I have an DH Albatross in my stash for the next time I'm feeling brave. Cheers Colin

Here are my efforts for 2023 - better than 2022 which was so poor I didn't bother with a year book! 1. Special Hobby North American Harvard Mk. II 1/72 in an RCAF scheme Typical Special Hobby kit, built OOB, no surprises, Xtracolor paint. 2. Aoshima Focke Wulf Ta 152H-0 1/72nd This one had been in the stash for some time, but the schemes included were dull. Eventually found some Eagle decals which allowed me to do a scheme with the home defence bands. Nice kit, but with some fiddley photo etch. Xtracolour paints 3. Hobby 2000 Dornier Do 335 A-1 1/72 This is a re-package of the Dragon kit. Like all Dragon kits I've made, looks great on the sprues but assembly seems more tricky than it should be. Xtracolour paints 4. Special Hobby Seversky P-35A Philipines, 1941 1/72nd Strictly speaking, this one should be painted in olive drab to fit my 'operational in WWII' criteria, but I couldn't bring myself to spoil it's pretty NM looks. I'll pretend they didn't get this one re-painted by the time of the Japanese attack :). Painted using AK Xtreme Metal polished aluminum. 5. Hobby 2000 Martin B-26B 1/72nd Another Hobby 2000 re-boxing, this time of the Hasegawa kit, with a lovely decal sheet. A bit disappointed with this one as I used 2 different tins of Xtracolour Olive Drab (both the same number), but the colours didn't match exactly. I can suppose the same may have happened in the field. Straight forward build, but a lot of lead (hidden in the radio compartment) needed to stop it being a tail sitter! 6. Italeri Macchi MC.205 1/72nd A fairly old kit and some tricky fit problems. Colourcoats paint, but I felt airbrushing the rosettes would be too much of a challenge so opted to try the Eduard decals. Too my surprise I had no issues with silvering, and the decals conformed beautifully. I think the feathered edges are very convincing. But not a quick fix - probably spent 3 nights applying them. 7. Airfix North American B-25C Mitchell Probably my least enjoyable build this year - seemed to cause me problems in unexpected places (probably my own fault). Particularly disliked the use of transparent panels for the rear fuselage sides. Another devourer of lead weight. Xtracolor paints 8. Dora Marcel-Bloch MB.152C.1 1/72nd My favourite this year largely due to the colour scheme. The kit itself was a bit fiddly and I find myself torn between photo etch and the incredibly tiny plastic parts Dora seem enamoured of! I was forewarned by reviews that the decals were very transparent, so all the white areas were painted, and white discs painted for the roundels. The tail stripes were also painted and I found Humbrol 89 a good match with the roundel blue. For me the most important part of the build was the camouflage. As my go-to enamel makers seem to no longer produce French WWII colours, and I don't like water based acrylics, I decided to give Hataka lacquers a try. These were a revelation - easy to spray with a fantastic finish. As I finish up my enamel stocks, I'll be switching to lacquer paints as my standard. 9. Lavochkin La-5FN 1/72nd A pretty basic old kit, but with some decent cockpit detail for the scale. And an excuse to try out another set of Hataka lacquers. I'm definitely sold on them! 10. Valom De Havilland DH-95 Flamingo 1/72nd 1940 You gotta love Valom for producing subjects which no one else wants to. And, for a Valom kit, a pretty straight forward build for the most part. However, while the cockpit is well detailed, there is nothing at all in the cabin area. I toyed with the idea of scratch building, but references were very limited. In the end I opted for curtains (bits of tea bags) for the windows. I diverted from Valom's suggested scheme slightly as I couldn't find references to match but did find a good pic of the aircraft dated as 1940. The trickiest bit of the build is the landing gear with plastic and brass parts which need shaping and gluing. The attachment point is a single butt joint which I think needs to be reinforced with a brass pin. Back to my existing stock of Xtracolour paints for this one, though I also used the new Mig A-Stand metallic lacquer which impressed me. Once applied it seems very tough and gives an excellent finish (though on reflection, my choice of polished brass seems too bright). Cheers. Colin

No sorry - I don't do WIP - I have trouble enough with paint and glue without adding cameras to the mix But FYI, the kit itself is pretty straight forward for a Valom, but no cabin furnishing whatsoever (I've added curtains to my windows as a preference to scratch building with very little in the way of pics). However, the landing gear is a bit of a pig!! Cheers Colin

I suspect this was a bit of an experiment for Airfix in producing something that could compete with the best some Japanese and Eastern Europe countries can do. It certainly looks like a step up in kit quality. And of course they had access to the real thing at Cosford. Risky? I think anything Luftwaffe is still a fairly safe bet and the 410 doesn't have a lot of competition. As to my wish list, I'd go for a 1/72nd Anson and of course a 1/72nd Walrus (which has been no.1 on my list since the 1/48th release!). Of course that won't happen til I come across and buy the Matchbox kit Cheers Colin

I'm strictly 1/72 WWII aircraft. The impossible dream is a collection of every type (would need to have started 100 years ago). Why? Mainly because of the variety of that period (biplanes to jets), the myriad colour schemes and the practical issue of availability (and cost). I include anything that was in service in that period, including impressed civilian types. Although it may seem pretty mainstream, I do tend to pick up rarer types when I see them - currently working on Valom's DH 95 Flamingo which I suspect doesn't appear in many WWII collections. Cheers Colin

They are enamel, but I've found generic mineral/white spirits can be a bit hit and miss when it comes to thinning. I'm guessing there's a reason why the 'low odour' types are just that ... possibly something is added or left out of the mix that makes it different from Tamiya enamel thinners. My rule of thumb - use generic thinners for cleaning, but when it comes to mixing with paint, stick with the recommended product for best results. Cheers Colin

I wouldn't risk it on Ryanair - you'll be charged for the extra space used! Cheers Colin

Quite ... I do think we tend to view old series through rose coloured glasses. Eg. Monty Python produced some timeless sketches, however, watching entire episodes can be tedious. IMHO the original reboot series with Ecclestone was the best of the lot, esp. in terms of writing. Many of the original Tennant ones were excellent too, and I think Tennant was the best doctor - in terms of giving an 'alien' vibe. Subsequently the writing just went down hill. I had hopes for the latest trilogy, but while better than the nauseating wokness of the Jodie Whittaker series, it didn't really work for me. The last episode showed signs of promise with a decent villain well played by Neil Patrick Harris, but then decended into banality. Cheers Colin

Maybe - but this is a general sale, I doubt many (if any) modellers were in the room/online! Had there been 3 or 4 present (as would be the case on ebay), I suspect competition would have driven the prices higher. I think the auctioneer's values are based on the expected audience ... on occasion I have heard them say something would make more in a specialised aution. Cheers Colin

Don't forget that any original colour slide/photo you see online must have gone through a scanning process to digitise it. Scanning is an art in its own right with all kinds of opportunities to adjust colour balance, sharpness, contrast etc. To my eye these K64 scans look a little enhanced in both sharpness and contrast - though not overly so. It could also be that the original scans were done to a very high resolution (for print perhaps), then further processed to reduce the file to something more manageable for online use. Size reduction often involves additional sharpening. In short, any 'original' photos you see online are at least 1, probably more, steps away from the original and what you see will be based on the skill and equipment of whoever did the digitisation. And don't get me started on the effect various display devices can have!! Cheers Colin

MCLT will do the job, but as you say its an expensive cleaner. For cleaning I use generic cellulose thinner (5 litre containers) from Amazon. But if your airbrush uses rubber seals it will eat them. I don't use this for thinning paint though, only MCLT which I find works perfectly for both lacquers and acrylics. I've only recently started using lacquers (moving from mostly enamels and some acrylics), and find them better in every aspect, and as my current paint stock needs replacing will go for lacquers. Juts remember that lacquers are 'hot' and will eat into any underlying acrylic or enamel (though you might get away with a very light spray). Cheers Colin

You are over looking the predations of the carpet monster! More than a few times the spares box has come to the rescue for parts that I have lost or destroyed. Apart from that my building seldom seems to draw on large replacement parts, but I do often use the spares box to improve undernourished cockpits or similar areas of detail. Cheers Colin

I think the big change between 'modern' and early HS is 'society'. Early HS had to be a master of many tasks to survive, and while small bands may have worked together, all were still using most of their time to gather sufficient food to survive and build shelter. The big shift comes with agriculture and the opportunity to create (in good times) a food surplus allowing for some members of society to specialise in other tasks. While the average HS intelligence may be similar, within a group there is great variation in abilities and talents. Agriculture allowed these to develop - at an individual level, you don't have a lot of time to ponder mathematics if you're spending the day hunting mammoths. As HS has become more efficient - mechanisation, industrial revolution, more time and resource was available for specialisation. Currently we are in the middle of our next big change (digitisation and computing) which should allow for an even greater rate of change (for good or ill). 'Man' as an individual may not have changed much over 20,000 years, but 'mankind' has due to social interactions. While we may not be able to improve our individual brain capacity much, through advances in communication and automation, our collective ability has increased - we are much closer to a 'hive mind' than our ancestors. In some ways we have become more like ants than our direct primate ancestors. It is particularly interesting in evolutionary terms - our existence, including all hominids - is a just a blink of an eye, possibly an evolutionary dead end, given our limited physical capabilities, Socialisation is what has given us a competitive edge (like ants). Will it be enough? Cheers Colin

The chisels may well work like that, but I don't think that was what they were designed for - basically all you are doing here is scratching a line, whereas the pull/hook carves a neat profile. While the chisels might suffice, you'll get the same result using the back of a #11 scalpel blade (for a lot less money!) To be honest, I don't think the hook scribers are great for this anyway, and rubbing the blade round a metal template is probably not great for the tool. For scribing with a template I always use a pin scriber - I have one that came with my Hasegawa templates, but a normal pin held in a pin vice will work just as well. I use them too - the main problem I find is that the blade can be tricky to get into tight angles (e.g. at 90 degrees to a vertical surface) - the hook/push scribers are great for this I was always taught (by my wood working father) that every tool is designed for a specific purpose and should only be used for that purpose if you want the best results. That said, you could spend a fortune on modelling tools designed for X or Y. I think most of us have a few special favourite tools and tend to improvise for the rest! Cheers Colin