spruecutter96

Hi, Mike. Good to hear that the Buy/Sell section will re-open soon. I have a fair few kits that I am keen to move on, particularly as E-Bay seems to be actively discouraging private sellers in recent months. Cheers. Chris.

Yes, very much agree... a great event which is sadly no more. I seem to remember that it was stopped when the Obama government tightened the purse-strings of military spending. I was told that it was always on a Friday because this was the one day a week that most American personnel had off. Chris.

Thanks for sharing your images with us - they really bring back some memories for me. They were very relaxed and enjoyable days (usually held on a Friday, IIRC). I seem to recall that the Eagle flyby was a bit of an anti-climax in the end. The American commentator had been hyping it up all morning, saying something along the lines of "You won't believe it when the F-15's get here!" and all they did was a slow flyby in each direction, with one ship pulling up and banking hard, before re-joining with his buddies. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go to, considering the end results. Still, it was cool to see four F-15's flying together. I also remember having a walk around in the Hercules (MC-130 Combat Talon) and one of the crew-members being very reluctant to discuss the aircraft's anti-missile system, which I found very odd considering I had read about the set-up in Air Forces Monthly magazine sometime before the event. If it had never been made public-knowledge, then I could understand the supposed secrecy. Cheers. Chris.

This looks great to me! A real tribute to your building and painting skills. I think this is living proof that a kit's "inaccuracies" tend to disappear once its been completed. It's a shame that some folks spend so much time slagging a kit off and in doing so, put a lot of modellers off building the model. I guess that the flip-side of that is that you can pick up some nice kits for well below the list-price (as was the case here). Thanks for sharing with us. Chris.

The bottom part looks like the Airfix "generic" aircraft stand. The top section? Not a clue! Chris.

Great tip! Thanks for sharing with us. Chris.

This is coming along very nicely. Cain was a great character, played by Tom Noonan, IIRC. The only other films I remember seeing him in were Manhunter and The Last action Hero - he played a serial-killer in both! I remember the scene in which Cain climbs up the lift-shaft like a runaway train - very much the stuff of nightmares.... It's a shame the second Robocop was just a pale imitation of the first. Not great, considering it was made by the same director as The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner). Thanks for sharing with us. Chris.

She's a great-looking Shilka, my friend. Your painting skills are exemplary. Thanks for sharing with us. I love anything to do with Soviet-era Afghanistan, so this is very cool to see. Cheers. Chris.

Things could be worse, my friend. You could have stuff being delivered to you by Hermes Couriers. They suck BIG time! Not only do they lie about making deliveries when they haven't and if they can't deliver for any reason, then they happily pass the items to an auction-house in Birmingham. They are truly awful (but hey, at least they're cheap, eh?) Chris.

Once again, good luck with your journey, my friend. You might find it a frustrating one in places, but it will be well worth it in the end. Chris

Hi, sjsald. You are a brave person, getting started on figure-painting! As I remember reading years ago, if you can paint figures well, you can paint ANYTHING. They are arguably the most difficult thing to paint convincingly. First thing.... buy the best paint-brushes you can afford. Anything using red-sable bristles is usually a good start. Synthetic-bristle brushes might not be completely suitable (others might not agree on this one!). As for paint, a lot of modellers swear by traditional, artist's oil-paints. I have seen a couple of modellers who produce incredible figures using Humbrol's enamels. I guess it a case of "whatever works for you". One thing about oil paints.... squeeze them out on to piece of cardboard and let the excess "solvent" soak into the cardboard - you don't want that excess on your model. I think this takes about 20 minutes or so (just from memory). Use the maker's paint-thinner to make them easier to work with. There are numerous videos on youtube about this subject. There are also a number of books - I would recommend Francois Verlinden's "The System - Painting Model Figures", if you can find it on E-Bay or Amazon. The real skill to master is "blending" colours, which is one reason many modellers favour oil-paints for use on figures. This is something which can take years to truly master. The most valuable thing here is experience and practice. Buy yourself large, cheap figure kits (Airfix?) and build your experience up. No-one gets it right from the first attempt, whatever they might claim. Best of luck, my friend. Chris.

Great stuff. Certainly an amazing collection of airframes. I'd love to go there one day. Thanks for sharing with us. Chris.

This is in answer to the earlier postings about whether a Swastika should be present on Luftwaffe models... Our perception of history is a curious thing and it will always be filtered through our own standards of "right" and "wrong". Whilst I believe that the Allied conduct during the war was normally entirely justified as a response to the tyranny of the Nazis, we should always remember that British and American bombers killed hundreds-of- thousands of European civilians in those terrible years of conflict, sometimes deliberately, sometimes by accident. I am fully aware that German bombers did the same thing both in the UK and on the continent - we are extremely lucky the Luftwaffe did not devout much time or effort to developing a heavy bomber of their own, or the death-toll could have been far higher. The commander of US Strategic Bombing in Europe, General Curtis Le May, has been quoted as saying that he would have been found guilty as a war-criminal if he'd been on the losing side. For an American commanding-officer, that is an extremely perceptive statement to make. War is a horrible, squalid, disgusting and demeaning undertaking and should not be viewed as a path to glory or esteem by any politician who wages it. Isn't it strange how few politicians' offspring have ever been sent into combat? Having said all that, I believe that history should be taught with a "warts-and-all" approach and nothing should ever be glossed-over. Having an interest in a controversial subject does not automatically mean that you are "glorifying" it and, indeed, neither are you advocating it as a righteous part of history. Chris.

Bump 19/5/20.

No model is wasted, if you've learned something from building it. I hope that you can come out of your current situation and see things in a better light. I know that things can sometimes get overwhelming, but they are not usually as bad as they currently appear. Chris.