Kitbasher's blog: City slicker turned beach bum

[DogfighterZen]

Very nice work on all of them but my favorite is the Viper 3.  

[kitbasher]

Well done Dave!  I hope that you all find it a positive experience. Our village are supporting three families as a  total community effort and so far everyone is making positive noises. We have tried to find interests people have in common and so I offered  some kits from the stash.

  One 13 year old boy is railway-mad and has started on a couple of  Dapol  locos but isn't interested in the concept of Whiffery.  Two of the 11 year old girls, however, are fascinated  and armed with my book of Rowland Emmett cartoons  of the Far Tottering and Oyster Creek Railway  and an assortment of Dapol bits and pieces are trying to make rolling stock for the supposed Lllandrindod Wells, Sarnesfield Bottoms and Lesser Dylwin branch line............so far, the thinking appears to be a cattle truck with gingham curtains  and a tank wagon converted into a mighty tea urn. Dave down the road has offered to run these models on his layout when they are finished

Our local Ukrainian  temporary residents are still enjoying life in rural Herefordshire and well settled in to  school/village ladies craft group etc.  The young ladies have finished their tea train    ( Emmett would be proud of them)  and between Christmas and New Year I had the somewhat surreal experience of listening to a volunteer from the Severn Valley Railway, a retired mechanical engineer and t\he 13 year old Ukrainian youth discussing the finer points of Walschaert's valve gear on a locomotive.  As one of the  old ladies in the village shop said  "I'll be sorry to lose them when they go home!"

PM to follow, old chap

[kitbasher]

Bugger.

Tested positive for covid the day before yesterday, still showing positive.  Realy annoyed because
a) unable to attend family funeral today (the last of the parent/uncle/aunt generation passed away in mid-December), and
b) was determined never to get it.

Thankfully its only like a heavy cold and I feel better than I did yesterday.  SWMBO is insisting on 2 metre social distance (she's testing negative), which guess is better than the 5 metres she usually insists on.

Every cloud, etc, means I'm able to fit in some modelling time.

[NARSES2]

Hopefully your immune system will now take the relevant anti-bodies onboard 

Take care mate

[kitbasher]

    How can the carpet monster claim a decal sheet?     

[PR19_Kit]

They have very wide mouths.

[kitbasher]

Found it.  Thankfully still it's plastic zip bag it had somehow stuck itself to the bottom of a plastic tub.  Searched everywhere for it!

In other news.....

The March 2023 edition of Scale Aircraft Modelling is out.  New approach to binding feels odd; don't immediately like it but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. 

This month's typographical howler involves the Beaufort line drawings.  They look very nice but - and I've not taken a ruler to them 😉 but I'm pretty damn sure they're not the stated 1/72 scale!

I'll hazard a pre-measurement guess at 1/96.

Come on SAM people, the monthly gaffes have gone beyond a joke now.

[NARSES2]

Found it.  Thankfully still it's plastic zip bag it had somehow stuck itself to the bottom of a plastic tub.  Searched everywhere for it!

This new fangled thing called static electricity ? 

The March 2023 edition of Scale Aircraft Modelling is out.  New approach to binding feels odd; don't immediately like it but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. 

No what you mean, feel exactly the same way.

Come on SAM people, the monthly gaffes have gone beyond a joke now.

Have you tried reading Phoenix Aviation Modelling ? The errors in that per month are mind boggling 

[kitbasher]

Actually Chris that new fangled thing called plastic tub removed bar code sticker sticky bottom

[kitbasher]

Great day at The National Archives delving further into my late Dad's fun and games with 2 Loyals in Italy (1945).  Took a few minutes out to rummage through Hawker's P.1003 tender submission to Aircraft Specification F.155.T (as written on the cover) - some fantastic 1/24 scale GA drawings in the file.  Must visit again soon to go through this and the other tenders in a bit more detail.

Some real dogs and monsters submitted to F.155.T - to my eye I'd say only the EE P.8, DH117, Fairey FD3 and Hawker P.1003 look like 'proper' aeroplanes, the others are a joke.  In my humble opinion that is, merely judging metaphorical books by their covers.

[NARSES2]

Had some great days at the National Archives helping a mate research his grandfather's WWI RGA battery's service in World War I. The Spring 1918 entries were particularly fascinating.

[PR19_Kit]

Took a few minutes out to rummage through Hawker's P.1003 tender submission to Aircraft Specification F.155.T (as written on the cover) - some fantastic 1/24 scale GA drawings in the file.  Must visit again soon to go through this and the other tenders in a bit more detail.

Are they the actual documents, or copies on microfilm, or photo-copies or....?

[kitbasher]

Yer actual originals.

[PR19_Kit]

That's amazing, you were holding real history there. 

[kitbasher]

Before then I was going through 2 Bn The Loyals' war diary for 1945, got as far as 2 May when fighting ceased in Italy (April was an incredibly intense month in the Monte Grande area).  Next trip will take me to the end of 1945.

And more F155T delving.