Aircraft of the PDRV - zenrat's flying circus

[NARSES2]

I worked in Henfield for a short period renovating a well known humourous novelists house.  As with many "well off" people when it came time to pay my boss he suddenly had cash flow problems and tried to get out of coughing up (those with little money pay promptly because they carefully work out what they can afford to have done - not just assume the money will be availible).  His wife had pretentions to be an interior designer and was a real PitA to deal with.

Friend built a garden wall for the late Harry Seacombe. Wasn't a case of not getting paid more a case of not getting work done. As soon as Mrs Seacombe went out Harry would bring the workers some tea and spend the whole day regaling them with stories. In the end Mrs Seacombe had to take Harry on holiday as no work at all was getting done 

[zenrat]

I would have loved to have met Harry.  As long as he didn't sing...

The bloke we were doing the work for would get up late, type up the previous days notes, smoke a few joints and then spend all afternoon sitting in the corner of the pub nursing a few pints and writing the next chunk of humourous novel.

[Weaver]

The Henfield sounds like it's going to be epic, and the Scooby Gang look great. Is the C-119 going to be in a matching colour scheme?

When I was on a cartooning night-school class in the late '90s, some other people from the class (i.e. the ones who were actually good at it) got hired by an agency to decorate a big house in Alderley Edge, belonging to a well known footballer and his well-known wife, with life-sized Disney characters for their kid's first birthday party. Apparently the wife was a total PITA and when it came time to pay up, the agency had endless trouble getting the cash out of them. This at a time when he was earning more in a week than most people earn in a year....

[PR19_Kit]

I once did some work for a 'Major Company', after driving 150 odd miles south from Derby and back, and they didn't want to pay for the travelling time, despite it being clearly stated in the quote. As it was a complex calibration job there was nothing to 'reclaim' but some months later I got into the plant under a pretext of 'regular maintance' on another of their systems and then phoned the Finance Dept with my screwdriver already inserted in one of the calibration potentiometers, saying unless they paid up I was going to UN-calibrate it.  

Talk about panic, within 5 mins I had about 15 of their staff all round me 'discussing the situation'.  

Needless to say I left with their checque in my pocket.

[Weaver]

Yep....

My mum did some work for a regional TV company in the late 1990s. Lovely people on the creative side, all went swimmingly, until it was time to get paid. Then their **** of a finance director decided that little old ladies were perfect for stringing along and lying to. Mum literally had to get a lawyer to phone him before a checque arrived by despatch bike.....

[NARSES2]

When I was working for British Steel under its various names we were under instructions to pay small traders/businesses as soon as we received the invoice, none of this 40 days nonsense. The problem was getting the invoice  Took months sometimes and I couldn't pay until I had it. I know the reasons for the delays but that is why so many small tradesmen fail, they forget there is a lot of paperwork that is necessary in order to run a business. I also never got an answer to "what defines a small business ?" either.

[zenrat]

When I worked for British Rail it was company policy that all invoices were paid on six month terms.  While this might have been acceptable for British Steel, Plasser und Theurer and Exxon-Mobil it was hell for Joe Blow working out of his lock up who'd welded us up a prototype ballast plough from square tube and chain.
We could get them paid on reciept of invoice but it involved filling in 23 forms in triplicate all to be approved by the department head and countersigned by the regional finance director.  And this had to be done for every single invoice.  You couldn't get a supplier approved and then keep paying them propmtly.  Oh no, that wouldl have been too easy and sensible.

[PR19_Kit]

When I worked for British Rail it was company policy that all invoices were paid on six month terms.  While this might have been acceptable for British Steel, Plasser und Theurer and Exxon-Mobil it was hell for Joe Blow working out of his lock up who'd welded us up a prototype ballast plough from square tube and chain.
We could get them paid on reciept of invoice but it involved filling in 23 forms in triplicate all to be approved by the department head and countersigned by the regional finance director.  And this had to be done for every single invoice.  You couldn't get a supplier approved and then keep paying them propmtly.  Oh no, that wouldl have been too easy and sensible.

Now why does that process sound horribly familiar?

During my time in BR the Advanced Projects Division tended to deal with contractors who were out of the normal circuit of suppliers and who responded with an 'On your bike!' when presented with the 6 months payment idea. It took a LOT of wrangling to get the Finance people at Euston Rd. to understand that if they didn't change their ways for the APD suppliers there would be no Advanced Passenger Train.

[zenrat]

I was there in '89 so it was the run up (down?) to privatisation.  We were having stuff made in factory units on industrial estates which could have been easilly made at one of the plant depots or at the crane repair depot except they were so starved of personnel and resources that they could barely carry out scheduled routine maintenance.
After privatisation it got worse...

[NARSES2]

Flippin eck. The British Steel system was very supplier friendly in comparison.

We used to have problems with British Rail and demurrage (however you spell it) They used to get quite annoyed with us over how long we had some of their waggons, years in the best/worst cases 

[PR19_Kit]

I could tell you some long and hilarious tales about lost wagons, but this thread is already MILES off track.

Perhaps I'll save them for Kit's Kolumn in the Newsletter Chris. 

[NARSES2]

I could tell you some long and hilarious tales about lost wagons, but this thread is already MILES off track.

I've a few as well from when I took over the demurrage stats - shall we say a few ended up in the furnace 

I likewise shall stop diverting this thread now. Apologies

[zenrat]

No apologies necessary.  It's not like i've never sidetracked (sic) a thread.

[zenrat]

So, not much modelling time over the last few days due to Uncle Taxi Driver duty and the Bonza Shiela taking a day off today meaning I had to look busy around the house.
However I have been thinking about the 1/72 Academy Starfighter (a much better name than Voodoo IMO BTW) i've been chopping up.
It's got a new longer nose (1/48 drop tank) which i've been toying with the idea of putting cameras in.  I've shaved off the gun and filled the missile mounting holes so it's going to be unarmed (I did consider wingtip mounted torpedoes but that wont work with the new wings - might work with the XFV-1 though unless I save the torps for the Hind...).  If not a PR plane it'll be a VPSA (Victorian People's Science Agency) research bird in bare metal and dayglo(s).

And to answer your question of a while back H, yes the Boxcar will be in Mystery Inc colours.  At least the bottom half of it will anyway.

[zenrat]

I've started PSR on Henfield wings and have attached 40% of the engines to wings.  Also built a biplane tail so i've got enough parts to make something resembling an aircraft.
I'll endeavour to blu tack and tape components together for photos tomorrow.

First coat of paint went onto the 262 today.  I'm having another go at chocolate chip camouflage but this time with more variation between the colours.

Starfighter got more PSR.

The potential possible parasite fighter (scaleoramaed 1/100 Cropsprayer) now has cockpit detail.

I've dug out an Airfix DH88 Comet that I paid the grand total of $3 for.  I think I was done.  They really should put something on the box telling buyers how crude this thing is.  Maybe call it a classic mould or some such bullshit.  Time they knocked out a new mould of this one.
I was just going to build it OOB with non standard paint but I had to cut the (moulded in place) pilots heads off to get the canopy to fit so i've cut out the cockpit and will scratch up a basic pair of seats set up for 2 of my crew stash.

And finally, i've started assembling an Airfix Buffalo IV with a view to whiffing it into an amphibious flakpanzer.