Progress so far on the new build, the upper hull is just placed there, not glued in place as I have the interior to do next and I brush painted a coat of olive drab as a base colour. I plan to airbrush a stone colour over this base and add some shading in the recesses. Then the zen experience of track building, piece by piece and although I jokingly refer to it as a zen experience, I do enjoy the experience of track building, painting and weathering. A good distraction from all the madness outside with a pot of freshly brewed coffee and music / podcasts in the background. I shall hopefully crack on with each evening this week as the nights draw in early and I have now ordered some figures to go with the tank.

All the people I know who have children seem to be putting trees and decorations up early to cheer their children up during these crazy times. I don't blame them as it could be a bleak Christmas this year otherwise. I can't imagine what children think as they look at the grown ups acting like headless chickens with the media sending out contradictory messages. Keep safe and look out for each other during these surreal times.

TTFN.

Finally the finished Heinkel He 111 after a long time on the work table. It is one of my favourite aircraft and I enjoyed the build but I could feel a lack of interest in the last week as I wanted to move on. It will do as there are a couple of things that I am dissatisfied with including one error but it is now on the shelf amongst the others. I have run out of shelf space because the cats decided they like the shelves too. I am looking at other means of display and some sort of clear plastic to go over the front of each shelf, to reduce the dust and stop the cats climbing in. Sherlock is now a large beast whilst Mindy and Watson leap, land and crash!

The next build is lined up and I have some aftermarket New Zealand decals to apply over the Caunter camouflage scheme for a tank during the North African campaign. Unfortunately there are no figures with the kit so I am looking for suitable figures as I would like to place this in a small diorama. Given the speed at which I currently build and feline interruptions plus other demands on my time this will be my Xmas / New Year project. I am really looking forward to this build and with Tier 3 lockdown and rubbish on the TV I can spend more time on this. One other distraction has been reading as I  ploughed my way through several books over the last month. 

Work has taken a turn for the worse as it is now non-stop with managers nitpicking minor issues, crises every day, staff leaving and I now have a sudden death which will go to an inquest. That I shall say no more about but my anger regarding a lack of resources and these stupid covid restrictions stopping any reasonable amount of human contact and support for people is growing. We are run ragged but keep receiving pressure to discharge people and we question 'To what?' Everything is shut down, people are fearful and rightly say they need support which is no longer there. In the meantime we are assessing more and being pressured to take more people on to our caseloads. I could write a lot more but the usual caveats of confidentiality apply even though I give no information away about the people I work with. My catchment area for home visits also currently includes two neighbouring counties so a lot of time out on the road. Hence very little blogging of late and I avoided saying anything because I am angry with the incompetent wankers in parliament and I am very tired. I think I have had two weeks of very early nights and I have needed them. But a weekend off and I can focus the new build and some good music.

TTFN.

Finally,  the end is in sight for this build with some paint touch ups to complete, a wash and some weathering for a hard used aircraft at this particular juncture in the war. Supplying the remnants of the beleaguered sixth army in Stalingrad but nowhere near enough to ensure its survival. I have little spare time now I am back at work for modelling and ensuring I have the bench free from the various cats. I managed to work around Sherlock although a mishap with some microset liquid ensured we were both covered in it. I also had to repair some of the decals which had broken up with paint and I am pleased with the result.

I brush painted the plane and deliberately aimed for a washed out look as winter wash was exactly that, a white wash and the green paint would have been watered down before being applied. I am pleased with the result and once I have applied a light wash to bring it all together it should look better. I do have the next model lined up and waiting in the wings (Groan) and it is a flying boat. That should keep me busy over the next few weeks. No political stuff as there is a plethora of sites and opinions out there and I am heartily sick of it all. A plague on all politicians and work continues to be interesting. The covid stasi are checking our adherence to the rules with cold call spot checks on the wards and at each community base. It speaks volumes that home visits are the one place where normality and a sense of proportion and common sense continues. The lock down is still in place so back to books and history videos on line.

TTFN.

Progress so far but sadly ground to a halt as Sherlock has taken up residence on the table. Given the increased anxiety amongst the cats thanks to those bloody fireworks I leave him to sleep there, often sitting beside him as I read and listen to music. Gradually, something magical happens...the other cats invariably approach and find comfy spots nearby to sleep. Gods forbid Sherlock moves away because within minutes his place will be pinched by one of the others. The record so far is four cats on the table but that included Fluffy when he was a guest here.

Another reason for the temporary halt to the build is that during a tidy up earlier this week I managed to lose an important clear part so I will have to scratch build a replacement. Happily or not, as the case may be, lots of packaging has unnecessary clear plastic wrapping so I will find something soon enough. I also added some oil paint to the yellow sections of the wings and that takes time to dry. The camouflage is a winter one of dark green over white for the Stalingrad campaign as any and every aircraft was used to deliver supplies to the doomed sixth army. I am back at work next week so it will be back to weekends modelling although dark evenings now encourage opportunities for building.

As for the news...FFS if you've lost pack your bags and go! If the people have made their choice go gracefully and we'll see what the next four years bring under President Harris. Sue has been following it all avidly and keeps me informed whether I want to know or not, so I have no need to look at the news but I have had the occasional peek. Life goes on, politicians of whatever ilk tend to make promises, get into power and then the realities of office ensure they fulfill the minimum of their promises. We have enough nonsense here at home to deal with as the country is again in lockdown. I popped out the other day to visit a couple of churches but ended up chatting to a couple of people as the churches are locked up and the whole experience was surreal. Empty roads and such an air of quiet desperation as I wandered around. All very odd.

My final two days of freedom and I will spend them ensuring the cats are safe at home and maintaining as stress free an atmosphere as possible for them and us! I think a few beers tonight as my return to work on Monday will see me returning to my diet routine. 

TTFN.

 Progress of a sort with the latest build as I have spent some time researching the aircraft more and applying more paint and clear coat protection (Pledge floor polish!). My right hand is ok but my back and legs are very stiff following the fall. Gentle walks and doing little as possible has helped plus the attentions of the cats who, unsurprisingly are needy because of the bloody mindless idiots with their fireworks. 

I like the Heinkel He 111 possibly because of the greenhouse like cockpit, an iconic image albeit a very unwelcome one wherever they were sent! 

The first layer of paint on with white camouflage above and the usual light blue beneath all brush painted as is the clear coat which is now left to dry. Slow work which isn't helped by the feline supervision which usually consists of sitting or sprawling on the table.  The next planned build is behind, another flying boat and I will spend time researching that and looking to scratch build parts to improve the build as it is a basic kit. Sadly, the price on the front was not the price I paid for it.

Writing of iconic aircraft and the above was my last purchase via evil bay and apart from paints and tools I have restrained myself to just that one kit over the last three months. It is in a larger scale at 1/48 and it was incredibly cheap. My stash is slowly decreasing and I have some repairs and previous builds I want to place in dioramas as below.

That Airco DH 2 biplane is a real bugbear for me as it is extremely fragile and I have repaired it once already. The Messerschmitt Bf 109 and ground crew will be updated as time goes on for a small diorama set in the Spanish Civil War. 

Given the further lockdown, although I will be busy at work I will now have lots of time to attend to these builds at weekends and during the evenings. It is supposedly until December 2nd but I don't see it being lifted until next year now. By the spring I can only imagine what will be left of the economy. We are setting very strong boundaries on the work we do now as there is constant pressure to do more assessments, take more allocations and discharge people more quickly with fewer staff available to do the work. There is again talk of redeployment of community staff to crisis teams and wards as this whole shitftest is taking a toll on staff. I think it will be unlikely as we are few in number and I believe a second lockdown is going to play havoc with peoples mental health. Apparently the London Ambulance Service  reported it is responding to 37 attempted / completed suicides a day now, an increase of seventy percent on last year. I don't know what the answer is because it will get worse over this winter with the usual winter flu beds crisis and anger and despair will grow and people will turn on politicians and the authorities. Hopefully I am wrong but I think things are going to get worse and the usual answer is for authorities to clamp down further. Hence my retreat into more modelling and the stock of books in my to read pile. I found an interesting you tuber who has made some predictions about what is coming. I don't necessarily agree with all that he says but it does provide food for thought.

My car is in now having a full service, a new CV joint (That knocking noise) and new brakes as I suggested these really need looking at too. I'll have it back tomorrow and Ouch!...it will cost me. I have two options...cash which is cheaper or on my card plus 20% VAT but there is then a receipt for when I sell it at a future date showing work done. I'll opt for the latter and pay my taxes as I can't really criticise 'celebs' who do various shenanigans to reduce their taxes but then criticise all and sundry regarding a variety of favourite leftwing causes. Eh. Lineker and Rashford, you hypocrites.

Stay safe and look out for each other...throw another politician on the fire to keep warm!

TTFN.