R T Fishall

What could be better than an armoured vehicle operated by the Royal Naval Air Service? I'll be following along.

A beautiful build of an unusual aircraft. There's just something about these interwar schemes! Great work. That rigging is absolutely superb. Cheers, Richard.

The Bin Clock? Tells you the time and also whether today you need to put out the bins or the recycling, or the food waste or the garden waste or whichever combination thereof. See also The Bin Bang Theory which explains how it is impossible for your neighbours to put their bins out quietly when you are doing something that requires utmost silence.

Okay, I've been focusing on the handcart to get that finished and ready for later mounting. Quick squirt with some Black Mr.Finishing Surfacer to prime all that metal. Ready for some Tamiya XF62 Olive Drab and XF85 Rubber Black on the tyres. And one with some stowage chucked in just to see how it looks. It won't have this is it upside down on the carrier but I'd imagine they spent a fair amount of time loaded up hauling stuff around. And I've made some progress on the Universal Carrier itself as well; tracks and running gear are assembled and mostly painted, some touch ups needed but at least it's starting to look more like a Carrier. There's still quite a few bits on the sprues and I've got a lot of stowage to add so it's some way off the finishing line but I always get a little boost when the tracks are on. Cheers, Richard.

I started this build over in the D-Day 80th Anniversary GB to form part of a 1/48 diorama depicting Sir Tasker Watkins VC, leading B Company, 1/5th Battalion, Welch Regiment, back to Battalion HQ on 17 August 1944 after the action where he won his Victoria Cross. As an overambitious plan everything got scaled back so the Universal Carrier didn't get completed in the GB; I figured I'd now get round to picking it up as a regular WIP. Original thread below. This is where the Univeral Carrier itself got to. I got distracted because I found a photos on the IWM website marked "Carriers of 1/5th Welch Regiment, 53rd Division, crossing the Meuse into Holland, 20 September 1944." https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205206353 ©IWM (B10138) The Universal Carrier is loaded to the gills with kit which is what I wanted. There's an especially interesting bit of kit balanced on the top of the Universal Carrier. A Wireless handcart; the Royal Signals museum has one at Object 31 of the below. https://www.royalsignalsmuseum.co.uk/history-of-royal-signals-in-100-objects/ So a sort of secondary build began to try and create a 1/48 Wireless handcart. This wasn't completed either, got to here, with two sides made up. Now I'm finishing the handcart first. Added a mesh bed to join the two sides. Added some cross bars and the folding legs. And finally the wheels. They're 3d printed ones intended for WW1 aircraft and the actual wireless handcart wheels are cruder and chunkier but I suspect that given the dodgy soldering and general mess it's all in the wheels will be the last thing to attract criticism... But I'm kind of hoping that once painted, filled with 'stuff' and in place on the back of a busy Universal carrier it'll pass muster. At the very least I hope it's something different. Next update will hopefully be more progress on the carrier itself. Cheers, Richard.

I'd been thinking to get some time today to progress this close to finishing but we went to see my Dad for his birthday and, thanks to Storm 'Bert' (I presume Storm Ernie will be along later in the winter?) the drives there and back ended up taking twice as long as normal with flooded roads everywhere (rural Somerset). The pub we'd booked for lunch was down a road that was basically a river so we couldn't go out for food and the electric at my Dad's was out so we celebrated with sandwiches, cake and squash (fortunately spoke to him earlier this evening and it's all back up again now). I'd like to blame non-completion on force majeure but I've got to be honest that it would have taken a heroic effort to get this one completed today. At least the timing means I can roll it straight into the KUTA GB! It's taken far longer than I thought to get all the seams tidied up to the point where I'm even close to satisfied with them, but I sort of got there, got the canopy on and masked then gave everything a squirt of XF-19 Light Grey (which I will note for future builds is identical to the Tamiya Grey primer; don't know why I bothered with it!) and got everything masked up to spray Dark Grey on the upper surfaces. Undercarriage and other 'sticky out bits' are painted and ready to go so once the Dark Grey uppers are done it should just be decals (fortunately being the X-35 it's lighter on these than the F-35s!), a wash, add those last pieces on, then a coat of varnish. Finish line in sight at least! Even though I haven't finished I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the GB for some great entries and of course our esteemed host @Wings unlevel for his encouragement and support to all the builds. Cheers, Richard.

Added chipping And, following remarks on one of the other Boomerang builds in this GB on the exhaust staining on them I went to town with it. I think that I overdid it so will probably try and tone it down later. The customer has seen and I felt that his 'flying' it round the room with 'BRRRRRRR' noises and a grin counted as acceptance trials passed; unfortunately on seeing the underside he said "No daddy, I wanted dark blue"... I think we've negotiated that I can just apply some additional dark blue recognition markings on the outer wings so, with that and the issues with the exhaust staining it'll probably be back to the paint shop soon. But I'm pretty much out of time for what I can do in the timescales of this GB so I'm calling it done, more pictures in the gallery. It's been fun just making something up from an older kit without trying to improve it, and masking the markings was also some interesting practice; decals is usually the bit of a build I have to force myself to complete so being able to skip that step made it a little more fun! Thanks to our hosts and all those who dropped in along the way! Cheers, Richard.

Commonwealth CA-13 Boomerang Made from a recent Vintage Classic issue of the 1965 moulding. Built as a 'play plane' to try and distract my three year old son from trying to play with my other builds and so built out of the box with any delicate parts left off to ensure maximum survivability. Colour scheme was also dictated by him so we've got a 'What If' Boomerang operated by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force as a trainer. Build Thread below. My thanks to our hosts and all those who stopped by along the way; cheers all! Richard.

That is a very tidy looking Tiggy, nice work. Those Brooklands Red and Black schemes look like a great choice for a future build! Cheers, Richard.

A squirt of Tamiya XF-26 Deep Green on the top, a little masking then XF-23 Light Blue on the undersides and then it's time to take the masking tape off. Some paint bleed to be fixed, some dodgy areas that can hopefully be disguised with paint chipping, weathering etc. and some touch ups on the markings but overall I think it's worked well enough. Exhaust and spinner added, I've decided to leave off the tailwheel becuase 1. it would stick out and be easily broken off and 2. I've managed to lose it. The underside is a bit messier but hopefully some touch ups with the brush will sort the worst of it. Forgot to mask the wheels so will have to repaint those. Touch ups, a tiny bit of weathering, exhaust stains etc. (given the intended audience I'm not going to go to town!) and a coat or two of varnish that'll be things done. Not that much orange on there but I'm hoping I've met the "Blue, Green, Yellow and Orange" design brief... I hope so too! He's just being allowed Lego now so I hide Lego sets in my office/workshop for him to find and we then do them together up here. My plan is to get him used to the environment and working with me making things. Don't tell his mother but I've already let him 'help' with a couple of kits... He's enthusisatic at the moment so we'll see if it lasts! Cheers, Richard.

Oh, that's lovely; certainly catches the eye! Good work on that old kit and doing that camera bulge, nicely done. Cheers, Richard.

It's been a while since I've made any updates but things haven't entirely stalled; there's been some slow progress. I cut triangles from Tamiya masking sheets using a borrowed cutting machine and had some painting sessions; this is where things are now; a mass of odd colours and masking tape shapes just waiting for a coat of some sort of green on the top, some sort of blue below and then will come the moment when I take all the masking off for the big reveal and realise that trying to mask Dutch markings was a horrible error... Cheers, Richard.

They're looking really good Bill, spot on I'd say. Great work, looking forward to seeing more of your diorama on here! Cheers, Richard.

Evening Bill, sorry for the delay in replying. Probably need to empahsise again that I'm not an expert but I'll give you my best steer. Looks like you've been having fun modifying those figures! Okay, Tank Phone. Assume you found something like the below to base it on? I like the pose and the look of the handset; it may be a little big but scratching something like that in 1/35 is a tough job. I really like the little braided wire. http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?p=288457 Quite why they didn't just use a standard field telephone handset I don't know, maybe those things aren't designed to work at the back of a tank next to a noisy engine. Radio Infantry - Wireless Set No. 38 Really like the work on the headset and wires to it. Size and postioning looks good. Looks like you've gone for the 'skeletal' webbing over the radio casing with plastic strip? I suspect even the thinnest plastic stip is going to look too thick, you might want to look at something like masking tape strips or wine bottle foil to make it look thinner and closer to the real thing? Is that a carbon fibre aerial? It looks a little thick but probably more durable than something like stretched sprue. Officer / Sergeant on the radio looks pretty good; handset might be a little bit big but again, not always easy working with smaller parts. Where's the lead going to trail back to? Now; have you got the Masterbox British Infantry Western Europe 1944-1945 set there? Because that set comes with a weapons sprue that is from an earlier 'generic' WW2 British Weapons set so it's got weapons that you might have seen both early war and late war. The Lewis gun was replaced by the Bren and while you might have seen them in the early war period (especially after Dunkirk) or in some second line uses later on by 1944 they'd probably nearly all have gone to the Home Guard or into stores. I can't imagine that an Infantry unit would be using Lewis guns during an assault in Normandy. If you've already adjusted a figure to a pose maybe see if you can replace with another Bren? Hope this helps and looking forward to seeing your progress on this one; your builds always seem to be inventive! Cheers, Richard.

Evening Bill, Having recently been building a 'Wireless Handcart' for a Normandy diorama (also featuring a Churchill) I'm not an expert but I've been poking down this rabbit hole a bit before! I think you're looking at either a Wireless Set No. 18 or Wireless Set No. 38. There were other radios but those two were the standard ones and probably most likely to be seen. If they're assaulting a bunker they're probably not going to be carrying the big 'backpack' radio with them; that's a Wireless Set No. 18 issued at Company HQ or higher level and is more likely to be hunkered down a little further back. I'd say that if there's going to be anything up that close to the action it would be the Wireless Set No. 38 which is the smaller one carried on the chest (well that's where the books say they should be carried, from the photos I've seen they seemed to migrate down closer to the waist or the side or get taken off and put on the ground to use) with the battery pack in the small pack on the back or in a side satchel. Looks like you've found some pictures and manuals of that one, for modelling you're probably whacking a carrier / pouch (A pouch that covers the whole thing rather than a 'skeleton' webbing carrier over the radio casing might be easier to model and you've got photos of both types...) on the chest with the aerial poking up, a few gubbins for dials and so on and a little line reaching either to the small pack on the back or a satchel on the side? A head with headphones you should be able to steal from another figure, plenty of tank crew models have them. Sadly because I think the No. 38 used throat microphones you won't get the classic "Handset in front of mouth, screaming for fire support" look which will probably mean no one will actually twig that it's a radio. But maybe they could be used with handset microphones, I'm running out of knowledge now! There was also a version of the Wireless Set No. 38 that was carried in tanks for cooperation with the infantry so if they're working with a Churchill I'd say a No.38 would make sense. If you wanted something different you could also model someone using the phone on the back of the Churchill (box on the rear left if I remember) to speak to the tank crew but I'm not entirely sure I'd want to use that on a Crocodile; not only are you putting yourself at risk of being run over by the trailer but said trailer is also full of horrific fiery death that personally I'd not want to get too close to. I've found the website below to be very useful for an indication of what kit an Infantry unit might have had at any given time (weapons, vehicles etc.) http://www.bayonetstrength.uk/BritishArmy/BritInfBn/OrgBrInfBn-headerpg.htm You might want to take a look at the British Infantry Battalion organization 1938 to 1945 documenton there; this has an Annex on Signal Communication and gives the TOE and rough distribution of radios in an Infantry Battalion. Also; In Normandy in 1944? I'm sure someone with more and better knowledge will be along but hope this helps a little. Cheers, Richard.