pigsty

Hooray! Amazing - we never even got to try the replacement venue in Sovereign Harbour, and now this ... Looking forward to it already.

According to the news that chap who's just had a transplant from a pig isn't all that happy about it. He said "It's bacon, my heart."

Here's the runners and riders. Clubs Aldershot BMSS Cambridge MAFVA East Kent club Hailsham Scale Model Club Horsham Modellers Club IPMS Gravesham Military Modelling Society Shepway Military Modelling Society South Downs Model Club Welling Model Club Traders Elan 13 Miniatures Guideline Publications Tony Bareham Simon McArthur books M.D.P John Pol Mezzer’s Miniatures Sovereign 2000 And the good news is, we have a waiting list. See you in a few weeks.

North Surrey's back! Our annual show's scheduled for Saturday 5 February, 10 until 4, at the usual venue of Banstead Community Centre. All, of course, restrictions permitting. I'll update this with the clubs and traders as soon as I can.

I'm going to start a business specialising in cleaning toothpaste specks off bathroom mirrors. It's a job I can see myself doing.

This is my latest - Hasegawa’s 1980s-vintage A-7E, from the Revell box. I remember seeing this kit when I was at university and being impressed by its standards, and it still holds up today. For instance, I’m sure it has a better intake shape than the newer Hobby Boss job. There are some nice little features, especially the pylons. They come with good sway braces and a chamfered top to fit the wing anhedral - and the locating pins are handed, to make it even harder to fit them under the wrong wings. The wing isn’t a great fit to the fuselage, but you can minimise the problems by not pressing it too tightly home (mainly at the front), leaving only small steps to fair in at either end. But it’s not all roses. As I prefer my aircraft fairly tidy, I closed the boarding steps and avionic bays, and they were hard to do neatly, just as I’d expected. And the joint between inner and outer wings was poor, as it seems always to be with naval kits. I thought the outboard pylons would be trouble too, as they attach right on the hinge line, but that worked out okay. (Still, if I had my way I’d include two completely separate sets of parts for wings-up and wings-down, and hang the expense.) The other big problem was that all the cockpit glazing was much too wide. I had to pin down one side with Plastic Weld, let that set, and then pinch the parts and do the same on the other side. It only half-worked. Tidy, but not clean. Corsairs were grubby things in service, so I’ve given it a fair bit of weathering. I might have underdone it with the wheels. The decals are mostly from Eagle Strike. They went on well and I had no real problems with long ones tying themselves in knots, but once on they were strangely fragile, which made panel lines a bit of a problem. The Sidewinders come from the kit; the Walleye and the Rockeyes are also Hasegawa, from one of their weapons sets. They never produced a targeting pod, though, so I got mine from Daco (under their Astra brand). It was nice - but it was quite expensive, one end was larger than the other, and it had shocking decals that needed Klear to get them to stick. I suspect I could have bodged one fairly well from an old rocket pod. So there’s a learning point to take forward, eh.

Any actual aerofoil would generate a slight yaw moment so, unless there was a problem with engine torque and swing that couldn't be fixed with rudder trim*, they'd make the fin symmetrical. And as rossm says, the shape would be streamlined: thicker where the rudder post is, and thinner at either edge to reduce drag. * it happens - hence some like the Hurricane having a slightly offset fin. But even then it wasn't a full aerofoil.

Hattons in Widnes is pretty good; don't know if that's close enough for you? It sells itself as a model railway shop, but there's kits too - I got my 1/48 Javelin from them at a good price a few years ago.

Thanks for that. I knew about Hataka's stuff, but it's expensive and I much prefer enamels. FS numbers (even rough ones) would be great - though there doesn't seem to be a chart in your post, just the material from the side of the Hataka box. I've checked good old IPMS Stockholm and they seem to have only Ilmavoimat colours. Was something else meant to be there?

Could someone drop the text in for we Luddites who stay well away from TwitFace?

Next on the bench is a Leopard 2A4 to be done in Finnish splinter camouflage, using Echelon's 1/35 decals. I'm having a spot of bother with their colour suggestions. The near-black is fine but the two greens look far too dark. They want FS 34077 and FS 34102 - I know these are only approximations, but even so, 34102 is the lighter green in the old USAF Vietnam scheme and the colour used on the real thing looks a lot lighter and a bit yellower. Much the same goes for the other one. So, does anyone have any suggestions? Ideally from the Humbrol range or Tamiya or Revell, but I can work from a decently accurate standardised colour and explain it with weathering. The dark green's not NATO green, is it?

Just had the strangest accident putting up the Christmas decorations. I broke one of them and managed to get some lodged in the back of my throat, and now my voice is all hoarse. "Don't worry," the doctor told me, "it'll be gone by the sixth of January." "How d'you know that?" I asked. "It's tinsellitis."

So, for the thread on show economics ... what are the costs that are scuppering these shows, and how do they differ from before?

Fresh from the Branch & SIG leaders' briefing at Telford: IPMS UK is looking at charging for some display space. They've had the same complaints that have been rehearsed here, about traders having to subsidise show costs, and their proposed solution is that all clubs and SIGs will get six feet (two tables) free, and every extra six feet after that will be £10 for the weekend. (For two extra tables that's cheaper than the rates some other shows have charged, worked out per-day.) Anyone can bid for as much space as they want, though whether you get it all will depend on numbers. This went down fairly quietly in the meeting, so perhaps there's a general feeling that something in the economics will have to change - though this applies only to Telford, which is uniquely large. Unless someone comes up with an alternative, it's almost certain to be how next year is organised. Any alternative will have to meet the same condition of taking some of the load off the traders, without being resisted for "charging people who have no interest in coming". And all ideas may involve some tricky tax treatment, so the details may change. Personally, it's a bit of a shame, but it's not a lot to pay in the great scheme of things. Take your minimum five IPMS members along for the weekend and they're effectively paying a pound each per day.

That's like the TV trick when they interview Arsenal players outside the stadium. As if by magic, the frame always shows the first four letters of the club's name, right above the player's head.