pigsty

"Well, Mr Jenkins, we've had your results back from the lab, and I'm afraid you've got hermes." "Hermes? Don't you mean herpes?" "No, you're just a carrier."

Another thing to think about is whether you have a one-piece engine, or fourteen separate cylinders and a crankcase. Dry-brushing is a lot harder with a one-piece because you have to get the brush between the front row cylinders to do the back row - and even if it's just one row, your efforts will stand out better on the tops than down the sides. Normally that's not too great a problem within a cowling. But for an even effect all over, a wash is likely to be easier. I've just used neat Tamiya Smoke (X19) over some Mr Metal Stainless on a couple of BMW 801s and it's just the effect I wanted.

Plus a ?Twin Otter a little further west. Is it me, or is only one of the Airbuses grey and the other two are white? The one facing the A400 seems to have some sort of airline livery round the rear fuselage, and the ghost of a title on the front right side.

I had a similar quandary when I needed a handle for my Lion Roar photo-etched razor saw blades. The solution was to take it to my local ironmongers and explain what I needed, and we tried different options until we found one that fitted. Turns out there's a retracting holder from Stanley, like the ones carpet fitters use but much smaller, that suits it perfectly. How that could be when they come from opposite sides of the world, I don't know, but I've been using it happily ever since.

Funny this thread should pop up again now, because I was thinking only the other day: what happened to all the sand and dust that these filters kept out of the engine? Was it dumped overboard, or did they wait til they'd landed and tip it out like an ashtray? Was there a limit on flight time after which the filter would be too bunged up to work any more?

Nnngg ... This is why I insist on using polystyrene for what we makes models out of. The S in ABS is styrene. It and polystyrene are different polymers for which one of the starting points is actual styrene, which (being liquid at room temperature) isn't a lot of use for modelling. (Sorry, completely irrelevant to the question, just going off on one ...)

Extra thin cement has one problem: it tends to evaporate quickly. That doesn't matter if you're holding parts together and running the glue into the joint, but not all joints work like that. Revell's Contacta and Humbrol Liquid Poly aren't bad for the times when you need to place a dab of glue first and then add a part on top. But I agree that the old-fashioned stuff in a squidgy tube has its place, especially for long joints that'll take a load. At the same time, there's the super-strong ones - ProWeld, that sort of thing, made of methylene chloride. They evaporate even quicker, but they're great for running into a joint and setting very quickly and very strongly.

There are many, many suppliers out there (possibly fewer in Norway) and there's not much between them on price. I'd recommend you take it in this order: choose what colour shirt you want. When IPMS Kent went for maroon I couldn't find another club at SMW who were using it, so we were unique. For about two years - copycats! Now I've seen two clubs in orange, which I wanted but wasn't available at the time. This is because different suppliers have access to different shirts (there are many manufacturers too) and different ranges of colours, and those change with time. So if you really really want eau-de-nil or candy pink you may have to wait; while, if you're in a hurry, you may end up with blue like about a third of the clubs out there. design your logo, if necessary taking the shirt colour into account. Some mixes of colours just don't look right. don't go for a printed logo. It's probably cheaper but it won't survive repeated washing. check whether the maker will charge extra for adding names. The production run will usually work out cheaper if every item is the same, but some may throw in personalisation as a free gift. be careful about how you want people's names to look. I saw one chap at Telford who had a very embarrassing combination on his shirt. He's probably used to it by now. ask about delivery times. Again, it depends on whether you're in a hurry. Some firms might offer a speedier service for an extra charge.

Here's what it says in the latest IPMS magazine: If you are just dropping off items on the Friday [so you're not one of the four who are setting up on Friday - you're giving stuff to people who are] you will be able to obtain your general show admittance band from the desk on production of a valid and in-date membership card. This is helpful, but it still leaves two things less clear than they could be: 1 Can you pick up a wristband even if you're not dropping anything off? (How will anyone know?) 2 Is a "general show admittance" wristband different from a set-up one? (I'm assuming it is, because of the colour-coding, and so anyone in this position will have to wait until 9am to get in on Saturday and Sunday, but at least they won't have to line up for their wristband.) I'm sorry to say - because everything else is so well organised - that this whole business of picking up a wristband on Friday has never been made as clear as it needs to be. Even the pre-show report in the magazine doesn't spell it out in full - and that's only just hit my doormat, three days before set-up begins. It would be good to know the exact position soon, so I can tell my club members who are planning to come up on Friday.

There's a sort of analogue alternative. At the bottom of the page there's a page count for navigation, so that you can go up one or down one, or more. It has only so many pages in view, but if you press the "Go To First" and "Go To Last" buttons that'll tell you how far you are from the start, and how far you have to go to get to the end.

That solitary comment says it all, really. But hats off to the Echo for the highest filler-to-content ratio I've ever seen.

Pity it has to be Telford, cos there's a stonking one in Eccleshall. I heartily recommend London House to anyone who can make it over that way.

Leprosy seems to be getting less and less popular - in fact, it's really dropping off.

Are people born with photographic memories, or do they take time to develop?

I don't think so. The Panther D was definitely an improvement over the A, based on user experience, and the Panther G an even greater improvement over the D, as it included builder experience too. And the Panther was built in at least three factories at the same time, each standard replacing the one before it, so the letters weren't distributed among the factories. Hmm. Two decent gags in four months, and a lot of head-scratching ... it's a mystery, ennit?