Procopius
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And after all God can keep my soul
England to have my bones
But don't ever give me up
I could never get back up when the future starts so slow -
As fundamental a song for my own adolescence as it was when it came out twenty years before. So long Pete:
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Experimenting with Mr Surfacer, a syringe, and the Airfix 1/72 Spitfire I's panel lines.
2018-08-06_10-07-28 by Edward IX, on Flickr
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Hey Troy, I apparently can't send you a PM, but I need to discuss something with you privately -- is there a way I can reach you?
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I apologize for not being around much, but I miss all of you immensely. Some day hopefully I'll be able to go back to the UK. Not soon enough, though.
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We miss you too PC! Try as I might, I find my erudition to be nothing but a lame attempt to fill the void left by your absence. Come back soon so our fellow modellers won't be subject to my babbling any longer!
Cheers,
Bill
PS. Let me know when you are up for the return trip. I'll help with the oars on the way over.
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I can't get over the incredible value of the IWM's oral history recordings of Battle of Britain pilots, all freely available online. There's not really anything like it here in the USA.
Just a few:
Christopher Foxley-Norris in 1988
John Willoughby De Broke in 1981
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Inexplicably tempted by a BEA Trident.
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It sometimes feels like every recent Airfix 1/72 new-tool kit is like HMS Hood: splendid to look at, but with a hidden flaw*:
Typhoon: too short, rear fuselage too slender
Hurricane: Incorrect canopy framing, erroneous fabric behind the guns
P-40: too tall canopy
P-51: Incorrect tailplanes
Bf109: Canopy framing again
Spitfire 22: Nothing comes to mind
Blenheim: Nacelles too portly, Bolingbrooke details
Harrier GR3: Too short tailfin
Wildcat/Martlet: Some sort of endemic shape problem
Fw190: Who cares, Fw190s suck.
Lightning F.6: A right bitch to put together.
I mean, obviously, their track record might be pretty good if you were to compare it to other manufacturers' clangers in the same timespan. But Airfix makes a large proportion of the kits I want to build, so I feel it more.
* I know the loss of the Hood was the result of a confluence of factors and had little to do with a design flaw per se, but bear with me here.
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Much of it is detailed here, chum:
"The outside of the kit’s collector rings feature a cooling air intake and bulged segment ahead of the exhaust pipes that is incorrect for a Blenheim. This feature is apparent on at least one of the extant restored examples, but relates to the Canadian Bolingbroke, and supplies warm air to the cockpit. Fortunately it should be easy to remove with some quick sanding.
"Staying with the engines and the Bolingbroke theme, it is worth mentioning that Airfix seem to have confused the nacelle shape by including some of the Bolingbroke’s more swollen upper nacelle shape, particularly in plan view. I think the effect is possibly due to basing the kit (in part) on a Bolingbroke restored to look like a Blenheim, as the nacelles are too bulged and swollen for a Blenheim, but not enough for a Bolingbroke!"
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I guess one factor might be the laser scanning of museum examples that have been restored?
Or, as Cookie says, the wrong plans.
A friend of mine is NOT a fan of modern CAD methods as it allows the designer to create 'pretty designs' rather than using 'stock' or industry standard parts... maybe there's some of that in the Airfix offices too? They certainly seem to be re-using some component designs... yes, I DO mean rubbish pilots!
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Gee Mr. P,
TOO MUCH ANGST CAN BE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH!!!!
This is a warning from the Surgeon General!!! So listen up, Son! (I always wanted to call up someone Son, like the Duke did (not Ellington, the other one).
I tend to disagree with the Bf 109: the extra canopy framing is not actually a frame, but where the sliding perspex join.
Only horses and fools would paint this canopy frame!!!
Oooops! Did I really day that?
As for the FW 190, it does a lot of things, except sucks!
Hell, these kits may be flawed, but they still look good!
Pretty much the same with us...
Long live Airfix!
JR
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Not dead, just devoid of mojo and overworked.
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Okay you guys, I'm gonna need some help applying for this one.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/world/europe/queen-elizabeth-social-media-manager.html
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Take me back to beautiful England
And the grey, damp filthiness of ages,
And battered books and
Fog rolling down behind the mountains,
On the graveyards, and dead sea-captains.November can't come soon enough.
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This is also basically the story of me and Britmodeller.
https://www.theonion.com/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-world-of-diy-mustard-1819571371
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Today in 1940, the Luftwaffe launched Adlertag, the beginning of Unternehmen ADLERANGRIFF.
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Torn between the desire to do 1/700 ships and the desire not to do something that looks insanely difficult and frustrating.
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