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"Mystery! and Masterpiece Theater..." - Vincent Price and Alistair Cooke - classy!

I would once have said that "height of sophistication" and "Are You Being Served?" shouldn't be in the same sentence. Now, with the advent of 'Made in Chelsea' and other similar programmes, my views have changed. A lot.

Good save on the cockpit parts PC. I had slightly warpy wings on my Gift set Spit so I agree that they may well be the destination for 'slightly below QC pass' parts.

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If I may point out one still glaringly American part of your build PC, now that you have achieved Britishness, is the use of those clamps. We all know true Brits use the multi coloured clothes pegs. My eBay purchase below. Inexpensive ( actually downright cheap ) and free shipping. Just saying.

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If I may point out one still glaringly American part of your build PC, now that you have achieved Britishness, is the use of those clamps. We all know true Brits use the multi coloured clothes pegs. My eBay purchase below. Inexpensive ( actually downright cheap ) and free shipping. Just saying.

And yet...no link.

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And so another fragment of the Empire vanishes under the tsunami of 'Globalisation'... today, our pegs, tomorrow our... um, er, anyone think of anything that's left? :)

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And so another fragment of the Empire vanishes under the tsunami of 'Globalisation'... today, our pegs, tomorrow our... um, er, anyone think of anything that's left? :)

A thousand years of history, some of it bad, some of it ridiculous, some embarrassing, and some of it sublime and beautiful and worth remembering forever?

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Boys throw stones in jest, but frogs die in earnest, Buffers old boy. Mrs. P wanted to eat her own placenta, and only the combined disapproval of her mother and myself -- and most right-thinking people 'round the world -- prevented this.

After my daughter was born I asked the midwife if I could see the placenta - when the midwife had recovered enough to ask why, I said, not unreasonably, that as it had kept my daughter alive and well for 9 months, I wanted to see the marvellous piece of engineering that had done so.

My wife was not amused by my request.

And, although the midwife let me see it, neither was she, I think.

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A thousand years of history, some of it bad, some of it ridiculous, some embarrassing, and some of it sublime and beautiful and worth remembering forever?

Better make that at least two thousand - we don't want to leave out Boadicea and all the folks running wearing nothing but blue paint - if we are reaching for the embarrassing bits ( Mind you, that could have just been a Saturday night out )

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Mrs. P has decided to swan off to northern Michigan to see her parents this weekend (and take advantage of the last time she will probably be medically permitted to go on an aeroplane for a few months), leaving me alone with the birds and Madeleine. I'm getting a lot done, if you choose to focus only on my Spitfire-related endeavours.

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You have indeed got a lot done, sod any other 'work' you may have been charged with, if the good lady asks if you a sorting the birds you can confidently tell her 'yes darling the birds are coming along nicely'.

I have the clamps you use also but favor the soft touch or 'stew' (named after its founder) peg.... I even try to make then fit when I know they are too small.... odd really

Hmmmm I may attempt some work on the hurricanes tonight

Rob

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Work continues apace. I forgot to sand down the gear wells of the AZ Spitfire, so the wing needed some encouragement to go on:

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Both wings needed a little help, in the end.

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I also managed to get some liquid cement to pool around the claw holding the wing to the fuselage on one of the Airfix Spitfires, a new variant on the classic glue fingerprint. Mr Surfacer 1000 is coming to my aid.

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Mrs. P has decided to swan off to northern Michigan to see her parents this weekend (and take advantage of the last time she will probably be medically permitted to go on an aeroplane for a few months), leaving me alone with the birds and Madeleine. I'm getting a lot done, if you choose to focus only on my Spitfire-related endeavours.

Smart move. Once I had run up to San Francisco for lunch on a Saturday ( the travel biz does allow one some esoteric choices ) and ended up electing the last flight back to LAX that night - 1 am I think it used to be ( It was the 80s, lunches ran long ). Wandering through a dark and deserted SFO to my gate ( it always is the last, most distant one ) I turned a corner and found about 200 grumpy people all scattered about the adjacent gate area. "What's this?" I asked. Turns out a lady from Chicago ( too close to home? ) had wanted to have her baby in Hawaii, and the American Airlines DC-10 nonstop from Chicago to Honolulu had been forced to land in San Francisco as she went into early labour, and now the flight crew would be over their permitted operating limit, so AA was trying to rustle up a spare DC-10 crew in California in the middle of the night - apparently without success.

I was hoping this would not delay my little MD-80 down to LAX, as 2am is the California alcohol shut off time - but we left on time, and scored champagne all the way down.

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Mrs. P has decided to swan off to northern Michigan to see her parents this weekend (and take advantage of the last time she will probably be medically permitted to go on an aeroplane for a few months), leaving me alone with the birds and Madeleine. I'm getting a lot done, if you choose to focus only on my Spitfire-related endeavours.

11950303_1030470593644419_25483680425405

What other endeavours could you possibly focus on....

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What other endeavours could you possibly focus on....

Nothing comes to mind.

It was the 80s, lunches ran long

While if I could go to any time, it would have to be 1940, I would choose the 1980s if I had to live day to day in an era other than my own. What an amazing, uncertain time, I feel that living as an adult in the 1980s would be the closest one could get to the delicious uncertainty and hope of adolescence.

Got a little more done.

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Now it's mostly on to filling and sanding until the canopies and other bits go on.

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Also, I may have a small Vietnam problem:

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They come along nicely. It will be interesting to see how the AZ Spitfire compares to the Airfix kit. A shame about the huge panel lines on the Airfix Spitfire as it would be the perfect Mk.I otherwise. They look much better on the AZ kit.

Also, I may have a small Vietnam problem:

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This is a nice problem to have.

Cheers, Peter

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They come along nicely. It will be interesting to see how the AZ Spitfire compares to the Airfix kit. A shame about the huge panel lines on the Airfix Spitfire as it would be the perfect Mk.I otherwise. They look much better on the AZ kit.

The two are very, very close in shape, and if it weren't for differences in how the parts are engineered to go together, the wings would be interchangeable; the spinners can also be swapped, which is good, because I have a spare Airfix and the AZ one is probably the kit's worst feature.

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They're coming along nicely PC... how did you attach the cannon-bulges on the AZ kit in the end, and how did they fit?

Er, well...I haven't yet, truth be told. I have the undersides prepared for the smaller bulges, but the AZ instructions were drawn by Degas or Monet or one of that...crowd, and so they're not very precise on where the bulges need to be situated. I've been looking for a decent photo to go on, and also putting it off.

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Re Vietnam problem, it was with some difficulty I did not buy a book on Skyraiders in USAF and VNAF service yesterday. I do not need a book on a type I don't even have in the stash yet...

In my experience that invariably leads to acquisition of a kit soon thereafter. There are about a jillion Skyraiders in the USA still flying, and I saw a bunch last month at Oshkosh. Immense, tough-looking things they are, too.

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Er, well...I haven't yet, truth be told. I have the undersides prepared for the smaller bulges, but the AZ instructions were drawn by Degas or Monet or one of that...crowd, and so they're not very precise on where the bulges need to be situated. I've been looking for a decent photo to go on, and also putting it off.

Oops, sorry to have brought it up in that case *blush*

My gods, I see what you mean, I've just had a look at the instructions on mine and the indications offered are the graphical equivalent of "Stick the bulges on the underside of the wing. What? I don't know, anywhere. Use your initiative, I'm not your mum."

Also, despite being undisturbed in a cupboard since December, the kit box has fallen apart :D

Cheers,

Stew

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Good to see some Spitfires taking shape there sir.

Now, with reference to your Vietnam GB conundrum, how can you possibly have a problem with a MiG-19 in the stash?

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In my experience that invariably leads to acquisition of a kit soon thereafter. There are about a jillion Skyraiders in the USA still flying, and I saw a bunch last month at Oshkosh. Immense, tough-looking things they are, too.

Pugnacious is the word that comes to mind. I think I (or possibly my younger brother, but probably me) built the Airfix one in 1/72 many years ago.

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