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My Uncle Bill was a TV engineer. He had a shop where he sold tellys, radios, lamps and assorted other electrical items and a workshop through the back where he repaired the same types of things but especially televisions. In his shop he also had a rack of bagged Airfix Series 1 kits. I don't remember any in boxes but he may well have had some of these too. The shop was located in Bainsford, an ironfounding village a mile or so North of Falkirk town centre, where my Walker ancestors come from. It's pretty much a suburb of Falkirk these days and of course the mighty Carron Company and the many smaller concerns are long gone. Every Thursday during school holidays my dad and I headed to Bainsford to visit my Grandparents and other members of the extended family. If I was lucky, and if Uncle Bill wasn't too busy, there would be a visit to the shop, where if my luck held I'd get peace to study the rack of kits while the adults had a cup of tea and a natter. My uncle and aunt had 3 sons who were all keen kitbashers, so I've occasionally wondered how much profit Uncle Bill actually made from his Airfix kits. Probably not much 🙂 Occasionally, but by no means all the time, dad would tell me to pick a kit before we continued on our travels. I'd usually made a selection well in advance so the kit would be plucked from the rack fast, in case he changed his mind... One arm of the rack held 3 or 4 Gladiators. I was a bit wary of biplanes so it took me a while to pull one off the rack and present it to Uncle Bill. "One of your dad's favourites" he said. "Remember when we used to cycle down to Grangemouth airfield to plane spot and there was a squadron of those sitting on the grass?" That was the first time I'd ever heard that there was an airfield just down the road. It has to be said that the Airfix Gladiator was a disappointment. It was clearly a product of an earlier era than the Spitfire IX and Bf109 I had in my collection. In any event it was built and presented to my dad, who had the good grace to study it gravely and pass a favourable opinion, followed by more tales of visits to Grangemouth in 1939 and 1940. Years later I built him a much better model from the Heller kit. Uncle Bill had an accident which robbed him of the sight in one eye so he decided on a career change and took up a post teaching at Aberdeen Technical College. That opened up the opportunity for holidays in the North East and access to some really good model shops. I have 2 or 3 Gladiators from Humbrol era gift sets but I also have a bagged Type 3, which I'll use in this build. We'll see how it goes. John

Here's my take on the T3 camper. It's what may or may not the campsites of Europe would have looked like in 1979 if GB and its' allies had not prevailed in WWII! Was once a proud owner of a T2 bay window Westfalia that took myself and the missus around Scotland. Anyone know of a T2 kit out there? Thanks to Ronald ''Dillon'' Watkinson my work colleague and also my friend for the sun visor and signage. Thanks for looking, regards Siffo.