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Well, I've just started my policy with my new insurer. All the bells and whistles of my old policy (protected No Claims Bonus, legal protection, uninsured driver cover, windscreen cover, contents cover etc) at a little over a quarter of the cost of my old policy. I then phoned my current insurer to cancel my current policy. Lo and behold, they suddenly found that they could insure me for £5 a month less than the new insurer! 😮 I declined.

hung, drawn and quartered

Love this, the pose and the details with the paint give it some real character 👌

I think the mustang gb in 2018 was one of these as we had Jadlam sponser is so the rule was we had to use the series 1 airfix 1/72 and ideally buy it from them so we could do the same again

Or even Being Boiled

Very nice job with the Bloodhound and a great little presentation too - well done!

I must try this. I'm sick of getting pylons or their loads knocked off.

Once again Steve, I admire your extraordinary attention to detail!

Thanks for you comments, guys, really appreciate it!🍻

Very kind of you as always G. Many thanks Bill: it's taken a while to get round to posting it up as I kept finding another flaw at tht point wher you think you've caught them all. Gives you a whole new level of respect for those who have to do it on the real thing! Cheers T. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that - for reasons I'm not entirely sure myself - those carriers were a source of personal satisfaction. The various racks and carriers on period aircraft always draw my eye - possibly as there's something very Victorian-engineering about their structure that persisted into the modern era... Generous sentiments from you as always Chris - my thanks. Sincere thanks. It often - not out of any personal hubris - amazes me that we can make these kinds of things ourselves now. Being of a certain age I grew up with this kind of 'materializer' idea as a well-worn trope in all the 70s scifi I ingested from Bargain Books in Kingston! Thanks Colin. Yes, we're of a like mind on the glazing - vacforming is the tool of choice. I've the bucks designed: - but as it'll take a while to dial-in how much allowance to make for shrinkage and cross-section of the transparent material, am only in the early stages of test-printing the bucks for both scales: N.B to self: remember to write the reduction factor on each one. With regards to the roof windows - this is a downright frightening image: Actual operational incidents here, complete with an unorthodox submarine recovery procedure... https://hmsnaiad.co.uk/naiad_flight.html Gracious of you Kev. My thank; and decent of you Neil to avoid appending 'of aberrant obsession' at the end of that sentence! Cheers Simon. It seems to be a universal law that the closer you get to the end of a project, the more it seems to slow down and you think you'll never get there... 😁 Kind words and nice to feel missed Pete. Likewise fond felicitations to yourself. How's retirement treating ye? Cheers Ian. That's interesting about the nature of the problem with Siraya stuff: I've only used their purple and blue Tech Cast stuff for metal casting so no experience to draw upon with their ABS I'm afraid. Odd that the flaw exists between supports - could you post a picture of the issue? For the main parts like doors, torps etc. in the previous post I used Elegoo's 8K Space Grey resin: at a 3 micron layer height (and slightly under-exposed) the stuff gives beautifully crisp renditions of the CAD designs. For larger surface areas with sparser detail like the rear fuselage/boom assemblies I still use Elegoo's standard grey which I've been using for years. Anything printed in black is using eSun's hard Tough resin for extra strength. That's very kind of you to say so and I'm grateful. Cheers Dave. Reading about Hawkwind recently - only saw them once at the Hammersmith Odeon in the early 80's - but what is possibly the most-Hawkwind anecdote ever regarding one of their solstice gigs at Stonehenge during that period: (Source: The Saga of "Hawkwind", by Carol Clerk.)

Thank you for the kind comments. It's rare for me to actually be pleased with something I make, but do I love those guns. Now all I have to do is make the 12pdr even better... So, as inspiration, I thought I'd share this image of a wonderful presentation model of a Victorian 12cwt 12pdr on a pedestal mount that I found on line Just beautiful! Cheers Steve

THAT is really absolutely extraordinary, the clean details, the rigging and the weathering! Even the crew is well positioned - although I'm not a big fan of figures on deck, but these look really good! Andreas

Folks: I am mightily disappointed, but Sword is putting this project on ice at an advanced stage (resin prototype) given what it describes as market uncertainties and the need to count every penny. I spoke with Milan at Moson, and he was emphatic of the need to retrench given high variable costs in Central Europe, e.g. electricity. He has six other projects in various stages he thinks will outsell the Dominie, whose market, he believes, is almost 100 percent limited to the UK. I expressed understanding and empathy for his choice, and made a direct suggestion that he pursue the C-140/Lockheed Jetstar for its Goldfinger, USAF flight inspection/VVIP, and President Lyndon Johnson appeal, to name just four. Milan believed this subject was more in A-Model's ballpark, but could not confirm that A-Model actually has a project in the works due to A-Model's opacity. Wish I had better news.

especially in hard times

After a bit of a gap because of other commitments, I made it back to my workbench last night and spent most of the evening working on the engine nacelles. Because Matchbox allowed you to build two quite distinct variants of the Halifax, they supplied various permutations on the engine nacelles, such as different exhausts and different air intakes. Some cleaning up and filler will be required.

😉

Got one underway at the moment. Nice to see a finished example. Nigel

Thanks all for good wishes and shared experiences. Well, May 2nd is the day I take over from the carers, social services have been very helpful in steering me towards further benefits. It's still going to be quite a drop in income (see below for how my outlook on such matters have changed), but as I'm sure some of you have noticed, I've been busy stockpiling items to see me through the coming years. And now for one of those punchlines that life throws out... A few years ago, I came within a cigarette paper's width of landing my dream job. On the doorstep, doing something I'd have loved doing (basically getting paid megabucks for this area wages for playing with WWII vehicles & artifacts). The job's come around again, tentative feelers were pointed my way, and do you know what? My perspectives have shifted so much that I'm really not that interested. Funny how it works out sometimes, isn't it? 🙂

Thank you James

The thinner is going to depend on the paints you plan to use. If you have a preferred paint type/brand, I can probably give you some tips James

One wonders Martian, if like me you tend to get involved deeply into the actual research which then shifts your mojo's emphasis into actually unhelpful channels? The Mariner has for so long been just over the 'interest horizon' for me, thanks to alien intervention I am now aware enough to be following the topic avidly. 👏

I agree with you I think that Tamiya is no longer interested in WWII kits in 1/72 scale when it would be nice to see some new P47 Thunderbolts too ... Best regards Patrice

Now let's hope they'll do them in 1/144 aswell.

for being so understanding