3DStewart

I think there's room for a 1:72 Ki-21 Sally in Airfix's range. As far as I'm aware there is no full-run tool in the world after the only previous one sunk in Tokyo Bay many decades ago. It's just what Airfix need to establish dominance in the Japanese market. This suggestion isn't entirely serious, but I'm always surprised that one of the most important of WWII bombers keeps on being passed over by manufacturers.

I spent the working day in an air-con building at a pleasant 23 deg. The only downside is that I'm responsible for the air-con (and all other building services) and I know that one of the roof chillers has a circuit with a refrigerant leak and its other circuit locked out due to a software fault. Fortunately the other chiller took the load and we got the software problem sorted out, so 3/4 circuits available for tomorrow. Peak temp in Birmingham (according to my system air sensor) was 35 deg, so a few degrees less than forecast. I was surprised as I was expecting a heat island effect.

Spend to save, if you can. I will be having wall cavity insulation installed. Turn down the flow temp on your condensing gas boiler, so it works more efficiently. Most houses have oversized radiators, so running them a bit cooler won't be a problem except when it's really cold and then you just turn the flow temp up. Expect to reduce gas consumption by 2 - 6%. Buy fewer kits and spend longer making them. Don't buy etch sets. If the detail is really important scratch build it. Move to smaller scales as the kits are cheaper.

It's worth remembering that VAT has gone up considerably. I remember it being 8% (it may have been lower on introduction in 1973); now it's 20%. There's nothing Hornby can do about that.

If newly released kits rapidly sell out and then shoot up in prices as collectables, it's a sure sign that they went on sale at too low a price!

Are you sure? That link is dud.

Comparing model shows with professional football matches is like comparing apples with radiator hoses! By way of balance, there are plenty of day long activities I enjoy that I can do for nothing, which makes £10 look very expensive.

The SMW website is currently saying "TBC", so no official news. If it doesn't happen then I too will be disappointed.

Lots of different points being raised here. For what it's worth here's my view. Under table sales are a key attraction for me. I like looking for oddball stuff or bargains. Stop under table sales and I probably won't be attending your show, unless it's near and I'm part of a club display. How does my absence help the traders? Entrance fees. I'm happy to pay these, but they've got to be proportionate to the size and interest of the show. £2-3, I'll pay without thinking, £5, beginning to be problematic, unless it's a premium show. £10, forget it, that's a No from me, unless it's a two day event. Club displays and free member entry. Difficult. You need decent displays to have a good show, but some clubs can abuse free entry and have clouds of members who display little. I'm happy with, say, four members getting free entry and the rest having to pay. The club can then decide how to divide these up. At Shropshire we've decided to reimburse members who have to pay, provided they are displaying with us. Clubs paying for tables. Again, difficult, but I can see the need to discourage clubs asking for lavish table space that isn't really justified by the quality of the display. We debated this at last week's club AGM and a motion was passed that the committee does NOT book additional paid for tables, unless in exceptional circumstances which must be supported by members in advance. Partly this is a response to financial pressures and partly because less members seem to want to display at shows. I would be interested to know if the last two points about club financial pressures and dwindling exhibitor enthusiasm are apparent in other clubs. If they are then expect the show scene to evolve quite rapidly.

Turning left at the M54 Junc 4 onto the A464 towards the Telford International Centre. I did it this morning taking my son back to school after a dental appointment and it (as it always does) gives me a feeling of happiness and excitement! And taking a 20 year old abandoned project from the Box of Doom and now having the skills and experience to overcome what made it stall, and completing it.

No photos!

I've never thought of the Do-335 as a Luftwaffe '46 type. It was produced, it did fly (at least the fighter-bomber version) and it even saw (very) limited combat. There's also a real one still in existence. In my view it has just as much claim to be kitted as any other twin engined WWII combat aircraft, possibly more so due to its unusual configuration and shape. People will model what interests them, and successful kit producers simply go with the money. It's sometime hard to accept this when our favourite subject is ignored, but alas that's the way it is. Just embrace the inner '46 modeller inside you!

I think the attraction of Luft '46 is that they never had to survive contact with physics, usefulness, maintainability etc. They will forever be exciting and fantastic in the minds of people who like that sort of stuff. I live six miles from the RAF museum at Cosford which has a hanger full of research planes and prototypes that have never been kitted, certainly not by anyone mainstream. The difference with these RAF/UK 'weirdos' is that they all made contact with reality and were found lacking. So they have little mystique.

So did the green Spitfire get to shoot down the silver P-51?

I have stopped using photoetch and don't feel that my modelling pleasure has been diminished. Instead I build a bit faster and spend less on the hobby. A double win really. For seat belts I make my own from thin strips of masking tape. Exceptionally cheap and you can get quite an illusion of detail with careful painting, at least in 1:72.

I didn't know him well, as I met him only once at Telford a few years ago. He was a talkative and engaging person. I enjoyed reading his posts here. My condolences to his family and friends.

Suspect that the wrong file extension has been typed, should be .jpeg.

Photos aren't displaying.

A quick web search on euro-book.net suggests it could be problematic, but it's not full flashing red light with klaxon, see https://www.scamvoid.net/check/euro-book.net/ I've no experience of using it. It seems to be a subscription based service which is associated with moreebooks.club.

Volume is essential for a mass production technology like injection moulding. The tooling costs and press set-up costs don't allow boutique sales, as I discovered! That's why I take the claim with a pinch of salt.

Or maybe what you were told isn't true, or out of context?

If true very few retailers will want to sell Airfix with just a 10% mark-up. You offer substantial discounts to retailers to get your products in front of customers you can't reach yourself. They won't get most of the sales currently made through shops if they try to do it on-line. The casual buyer, the impulse buyer, the buyer who likes to examine before buying - you'll never see them in your on-line shop. Even more so overseas buyers.

Hornby have a warehousing and packing function, but I don't know if they do that themselves or subcontract it. It's worth writing to them with a CV (resume in North America) and see if they have any opportunities, but first check if you can work in the UK without a visa, as Horny probably won't want to go to the bother of work visas etc if they can hire locally. I have a second cousin from Victoria who moved to the UK twenty years ago, but she was able to get UK citizenship because one of her grandparents (my great uncle) was British.

Wasn't Mary Rose a war grave? It was certainly a grave as human remains were found when it was raised. I might be wrong, but I thought no one died on the Endurance, or if they did they were buried somewhere else. Huge achievement by the team who found it, not forgetting the even huger achievement of Shackleton in rescuing his crew and making the ship famous in the first place!

I see you're based in Canada. A first step is to check you can work in the UK. Hornby will be like most other small to medium sized manufacturing companies with I assume opportunities in product design/development, sales & marketing, accounts, HR, IT, procurement, quality and manufacturing. Maybe also building maintenance, but that's probably subcontracted. What areas interest you?