spruecutter96

Bump. See everyone tomorrow! 21/5/22.

Thanks for the extra information, Rod McQ. Chris.

IIRC, he was a composer who never learned how to read music. Some of his compositions for Bladerunner were incredibly evocative for me. A sad loss. Chris.

Hannants sell a product called "Purisol", IIRC. They claim it will strip most paints off styrene kits (I have some tucked away, but have never used it). There is also a product called "Model Strip", which appears to be a caustic paste, which dissolves paint overnight. That I have used and it's good stuff. Hope this helps. Chris.

Bump for added visibility. It's this Sunday, folks! 19/5/22.

Bump 18/5/22.

Bump 18/5/22.

Bump 18/5/22.

It's not just the more obscure, Eastern-European makers that don't worry too much about accuracy. I remember that the very first version of Tamiya's 1/48th A-10 were produced from photos/measurements of one of the prototype airframes. This meant it had a 20-mm Vulcan cannon sitting in the nose (the 30-mm GAU-8 wasn't ready to be fitted at that time, so they went with the much smaller gun). Also, the vertical tail-surfaces were much smaller than in production aircraft, IIRC. Now, it can be argued that Tamiya's efforts were pretty accurate for that A-10 ONLY, but not for any subsequent ones). I believe they produced new sprues for operational aircraft a few years after the initial batch. Chris.

I'm guessing that a conceptual model of the type went missing from a Moscow armament trade-fair...? Chris.

There is a small airfield on the East coast of Scotland, which I've read used to be the site of a lot of SAS exercises. Apparently, it officially doesn't exist.... Cheers. Chris. PS: As some may be aware, there a village in Wiltshire (IIRC) that was taken over by the government in WW2 and used for army-training. The local population were given very short notice that they had to abandon their homes and were given vague promises that they could return one day (it never happened). It seems a great shame, even in times of war.

It doesn't fit into the description of "hidden" places, but Kelvedon Hatch atomic bunker in Essex looks well worth a look. Now that the Covid crisis is close to being over (?), it should be open to the public again. Not been myself, but a genuine slice of Cold war history. Cheers. Chris.

This is an excellent diorama, my friend. I would be delighted to produce something even half as good. Thanks for sharing with us. Chris.

This is some excellent work! Thanks for sharing with us. IIRC, the Stress Mig-21 was destroyed in a mid-air collision with another Mig. I don't know if either crew survived the incident. If it's true, it is a very sad ending to such a colourful airframe. Cheers. Chris.

To be honest, the presence of UTT sales at a show won't make that much difference to how successful traders are at a particular show. A MUCH more important factor is that many of the larger shows are now heavily "over-traded". I was selling at the Milton Keynes show on Sunday and the event seemed to have more traders than it could really handle. I believe there were around 42 traders at MK (OK- not every trader was selling kits, but you get my point). How do decide which traders attend your show and which to exclude? Obviously, there is no fair and reasonable way to control that aspect.... so it's back to square one. This debate could continue for a very long time. Chris.