John Tapsell

Impossible question to answer. With more than 45 years of modelling under my belt I can't actually remember the first time I looked at a finished model and thought 'that's the best one so far'. I'm sure I did at some point but if I looked at the same model now I suspect that my reaction would be 'what planet were you on?' 😀 You never stop learning and never stop improving. However, whilst at first your rate of improvement can be quite rapid, it slows down over time so you often don't notice the changes from model to model.

I believe that the British Army used Jeeps as late as the mid-50s in decreasing numbers. The Paras were still using them in 1956 for the Operation Musketeer drops. It's not exactly the timeframe you are looking for though.

I've seen photos of the units in Alsthom livery and it would make sense - ALE acquired the Alsthom fleet (mostly Fauns).

Slighty off-topic - The two(?) Unipower M Series prototype tractor units ended up in civilian heavy haulage use with Abnormal Load Engineering (ALE), since bought out by Mammoet. Living where I do, it was quite common to have to dodge them as they came in and out of the local ALE depot. ALE eventually manufactured a small number of 8x8 tractors in-house, with a passing resemblance to the Unipower wagons.

I think one of the boxings of the Italeri Series III also included the yellow stripe. Correction - I think it was the Revell reboxing that contained the RAF markings.

Thanks Stuart - much appreciated. The Flail hamper is all scratchbuilt using some scaled-up plans from an old MAFVA Tankette magazine - Vol. 23 Issue 4 (1988) - 1/76 scale plans for the Scorpion Mk II.

No - that's what you are doing. You are judging the quality of an entire range (100+ models) on the basis of a photo of one model in the range and one of Tamiya's earliest releases in 1/48 scale at that. I build 1/48 kits almost exclusively these days. About 10 years ago I dropped down from 1/35 scale to 1/48 scale and I have never regretted that decision. Here's a challenge - pick up one of Tamiya's more recent AFV kits and give it a go. I'd consider their M4A3E8, T-55, Abrams, Type 10, T34-85, Panzer IV Ausf H and Matilda to name a few, to be excellent kits, having built all of them (amongst many of the rest of the range). They can be built out of the box or detailed or converted as extensively as you might wish. Are they perfect? No they are not, but they are great fun to build.

This is what the Charioteer looked like with Panzer tracks (not my model but the display example on Mike Belcher's stand at Telford a few years ago).

Have you actually built any or are you basing you opinions on photos of models?

I believe that Fat Frog are part of Hobby Easy. I can definitely recommend their resin wheels for the Tamiya K2 Ambulance. I did a Charioteer a few years ago, (a Belcher Bits conversion for the 1/48 Tamiya Cromwell) and used Tamiya Pz III tracks for that, plus some spare lengths of the short runs of stowed track that Tamiya include, to make up the difference in track length. It's not a perfect solution but it will survive a casual inspection.

Never really had a problem getting to sleep and often sleep through the night, but I go through phases where I dream very clearly and it wakes me up - usually dreams where I'm struggling to explain myself or to sort out a problem. The subject/circumstances I dream about are generally irrelevant to the actual issue, but I've learnt over the years to take it as a warning that something is unsettling me more than I want it to (even if I haven't yet identified what it is) and that I need to find and address that 'something' before it becomes a larger matter.

1960s and 70s US serial numbers and markings were applied directly onto the base paint colour (OD in this case). There are some instances where a vehicle was repainted in a different colour, the marking might be masked off to avoid re-applying it. That would leave a rectangle of the old colour visible but would be very rare on a Vietnam era vehicle in OD. If you are building Vietnam-era US armour, the Olive Drab shade was much darker than the wartime shade. Tamiya's XF-74 JGSDF Olive Drab is considered a good match for this later colour, rather than their standard XF-62 Olive Drab..

There is stuff available on Shapeways that may be of interest. Small selection of links below https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace/miniatures/vehicles?tag=m-atv&sort=&facet[pdcId][]=91&facet[price][min]=1&facet[price][max]=2500&facet[price][from]=1&facet[price][to]=2500 (1/16) https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace/miniatures/vehicles?tag=1%2F16&sort=&facet[pdcId][]=91&facet[pdcId][]=462&facet[price][min]=1&facet[price][max]=2500&facet[price][from]=1&facet[price][to]=2500 (all this is generic post-2000 stowage and components) https://www.shapeways.com/shops/mikesmodelshop?section=Military+1%2F35+and+1%2F16&s=0 (1/35 and 1/16) One tip for searching Shapeways - search on Google instead for what you are looking for (eg 1/16 fuel cans) but always include 'Shapeways' as part of the search string - eg 'shapeways 1/16 fuel cans' - as that gives better search results than using Shapeways' own search function

Just finished 'War and Coffee' by Joshua Havill. It's a personal memoir of his time in Afghanistan as a UH-60 Blackhawk pilot. Not much for the adrenalin junkies in the book but a fascinating (to me) account of the day to day activities of an aviation company in a war zone and the various personalities within. It's given me a yen to re-read Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, a Huey pilot in Vietnam. The book charts his year 'in-country' and is packed with random technical detail about flying Hueys.

Quarter-scale has never had the necessary traction amongst armour modellers to reach the threshold to tip over into a mainstream armour scale. As Troy says, it's been around for a long time but never as a headline grabbing scale. The Airfix vehicle kits (Op Herrick and Battle of Britain ranges) were never intended to be a stand-alone range. They were released to support ranges of new 1/48 aircraft (Lynx and Merlin helos plus the Hurricane and Spitfire kits). I'd be somewhat surprised if we ever see them re-released, All of the above might sound like I'm being disparaging about the scale. I'm not. I am a dedicated 1/48 scale armour modeller and have been for the past 10 years after down-sizing from 1/35. There are a lot of kits out there - mostly Tamiya - but several other manufacturers too. RFM have recently released a stunning M-ATV. Kittyhawk (now defunct) released a pair of Ural trucks t go with their aircraft. Hobbyboss have started releasing new kits again (Pz IV and Panther so far) and promised more in their catalogue (no guarantee they will ever be released though!). There are quite a few resin kits available and the 3d printed market is ballooned in the past 2-3 years with a lot of small manufacturers designing and producing a huge variety of vehicles in 1/48.

Try Gaspatch - one of their .50 cals should be close enough for what you need? https://www.gaspatchmodels.com/machine-guns-148/?page=2 Outstanding casting and quality.

Advocating early entry and seeing it happen in reality are two different things. Tony and I have compared notes over the years and we had different approaches, but neither of us was able to shift the balance towards earlier registration for the bulk of the entries. I also see no reason to close registration earlier because surely we are trying to encourage more entries rather than less? Yes, it's an assumption that numbers will drop but are you prepared to take that risk (and should IPMS)? Ultimately, it's the Competition Secretary's call so if you want to suggest it, contact Andy Brown directly. Nearly half our traders re-book at the previous SMW and pay the necessary deposit (or in some cases, the full booking fee). Therefore parts of the floorplan start to solidify even before the previous show is over. We already have large trader bookings in place for 2024 that may impact on where we can locate the competition area in November, but we don't know for certain as yet. That's how far ahead we have to operate.

I disagree. Extensive experience of running the competition indicates that most modellers won't commit to entering the competition until they are confident their project(s) will be completed before the show. That often means they will be working down to the wire. Closing the competition entry earlier would reduce the number of entries we receive. We can swap exihibitors and traders around within the confines of a fixed table layout (we do that all the time, up to and including set-up day), but what we can't do is start tinkering with the physical layout of the show at short notice (taking out an entire island of exhibitors for example to expand the competition area), because that fundamentally changes where we can place exhibtors and traders across the rest of the floor area. The layout of the competition area itself is the responsibility of the Competition Secretary. They are given the floor space and the tables and set it up as they see fit. Over the years I've seen good and bad use of that space, but it is often how that space is used, rather than how much space is allocated, that makes the difference.

The SMW organisers don't have a crtystal ball so we can't predict how many entries we will receive each year. All entries must be pre-registered and we open registration in August/September, but 80-90% of entries get registered in the last 2-3 weeks before the show, far too late for us to be able to think about moving the competition area or enlarging it. Neither can we predict the size of the entries. A sudden influx of larger 1/48 scale multi-engine aircraft entries or a glut of 1/32 or 1/24 aircraft for example, will cause no end of hassle as we try to re-organise the available table space to accommodate them. We have to 'fix' the location and space allocated to the competition months before we open competition registration because we need to confirm trader space and pitch locations when they book and ensure that all other aspects of the floorplan have adequate space to operate safely. It's a massive jigsaw puzzle and whilst the fundamental layout looks similar each year, there are often significant changes going on in the background.. Deciding how much space to give to the competition is therefore something of a guess. We had more entries than expected in 2023 so the space that had looked appropriate (based on previous years) in mid 2023, turned out to be tighter than we would have liked. Ultimately of course, space costs money and we have to balance our ability to generate revenue (to pay for the show) with the equally important need to provide sufficient space for the competition and all the Branch and SIG displays.

We specifically set aside a batch of tables to be hired out to individual members or groups and advertised that to members. The take-up was zero so we ultimately released them and allocated the space for additional traders.

The easiest way to encourage the competition to increase in size and prominence is to encourage more modellers to compete. The competition at SMW (and most other UK shows) reflects the level of interest that 'competition' has amongst most UK modellers - lots of people go and look at the entries but very few choose to enter. Suggesting that this situation is unique to SMW is disingenuous. Over the past 25 years (the period I've been involved in various aspects of SMW). a fairly steady average of 5% of IPMS (UK) members have chosen to enter the competition. You can read that statistic in many different ways but for me it indicates there is not so much a change in the level of interest in the competition per se, more a case of other aspects of the event expanding over time. There are more than twice as many Branch displays now as there were 25 years ago and 3-4 times the number of SIG displays for example. The average number of competition entries has increased (roughly doubled) over that same 25-year period but despite the membership also increasing three-fold, the overall percentage of UK members entering has remained fairly static.

I know this is a random query, but are there any purveyors of aftermarket uniform decals suitable for 1/48 scale figures? I'm specifically interested in 8th and 9th AF shoulder patches for a couple of figures but I'm unsure whether any such items exist? Thanks, John

The greatness of a book is in its power to inspire you - all other considerations of quality are irrelevant

Thank you all for the replies - really useful. One last question - I assume that most/all of the 'new-build' USAAF airfields in the UK were built to British designs (since they were officially RAF Stations) by British workers and would have followed the same principles? Thanks again, John

Not sure if this query sits best here or elsewhere but looking at wartime UK airfield images (mostly B&W, but not all), the concrete colour of the various taxiways and associated roadways often looks very dark brown, or black for example). I assume this was to make them less conspicuous but my question is whether this was achieved by dyeing the concrete when it was laid or whether it was painted over at a later stage? Either way, any suggestions as to the colours used? Many thanks, John