Here is the latest arrival and yes, the box is battered and somewhat worn but it is over forty years old and when Sue texted me today it made my day! Earlier than expected and I have wanted one of these for a couple of years now. A good price and ten pounds cheaper than the next nearest one up for sale and free P & P. I have two Italian planes waiting in the wings (Groan!) now but I will save them for later and make some space with building some of the smaller fighters next. I sat at the table this morning and brought the Fiat CR 42 out for rigging when Maisie planted herself in front of me, belly exposed for some quality Maisie Time! Twenty five minutes later and she was asleep and purring with her head resting in my hand, absolutely relaxed, trusting and happy. A real change from the scrawny neglected just out of kitten hood and pregnant puss who moved in with us. Here's a photo of her supervising me last week.

So no quick half hour modelling fix this morning but I felt relaxed and happy knowing she is a very happy cat.

I have two colour schemes when I do build this kit but with aftermarket decals and a bit of jiggery pokery I might be able to build it as a Battle of Britain aircraft where several were used for reconnaissance. On one raid they were sent out to decoy the RAF fighters away from the real raid and remarkably these decoy aircraft were unarmed!  However, as I said I will...might...possibly...my resolve is already weakening build some of the smaller aircraft first.

Now to put my feet up, see what baseball game is being shown and watch that or finish off reading some of my books and losing myself for a brief while as I am transported elsewhere.

TTFN.

A quick midweek interlude as I finished work earlier today after a longer day than usual yesterday. I had to attend a telephone conference very early in the morning yesterday with another agency on behalf of a punter and I was duty person so no early finish. But I was also hit badly by hay fever today, so much so I had to remove my mask and splash some cold water on my face. 

As fast as we discharge someone another three are waiting to step into their shoes and we are getting a lot of people with complex needs compounded by the covid lockdown. Senior managers have also chosen this time to implement new 'initiatives' and decided we need to be more distanced at work! Not only has that horse bolted it is now being served in a restaurant in Boulogne! Apparently my manager told his manager that my answer of "Bollocks!" was shared by the rest of the team. From supervision I am apparently '...a negative and grumpy influence and burnt out...' and I suggested I will have that printed on a  T-shirt. 

Sigh...I suspect my retirement might come sooner than planned but I will plod on as my colleagues are a great bunch and there are patients whom I want to see do well and escape the system. But I am breaking a golden rule for me and I am having a beer this evening as I have an investigation meeting tomorrow morning into a serious incident from late last year. They will have read my report to the coroner's court so I'm not sure what else can be gleaned from this. I could be a devil and list covid restrictions, few staff, no manager, lack of any other agencies as they had all shut up shop including GP's and hospitals and again no resources especially staff! I'll see how it goes. Have a great evening folks and I think it is time for that cold beer.

TTFN.

 I love my cats dearly but although domesticated  and pampered pets, instinctively they are predators and can be vicious killers...

I thought at first it was a Goldfinch but the colouring was different and after some perusal of my birdwatcher's guides I think it might be a Siskin, a bird I have heard of but I had never seen one before. I sincerely hope it is not a Serin which has very similar colouring but is very rare in the UK and is unheard of in the north of England. Given the number and spread of Siskins my money is on that, although there is a ring on one of the legs. I did wonder why Maisie was excitedly rolling around that spot the other day and I can't say it was one of our four cats as there are several others that hang around the garden. There is a huge black and white bruiser which we suspect causes our two Toms some anxiety but there is also smaller black and white and ginger and white cats that cheekily pop by to pinch food if the kitchen door is open!

I got some quality build time at the table first thing this morning and made some good progress on the little Fiat CR 42 biplane. I brush painted desert yellow on the upper parts and a light grey below with a bright yellow on the engine cowling. Once dried a clear coat of pledge polish and today olive green and Nato brown brush painted on. I have another Italian WW2 aircraft in the stash, a Caproni CA 311 reconnaissance aircraft but I have finally ordered another Italian plane, a CANT Z1007 'Alcione' which has been on my favourites list for a couple of years. It is quite rare to find so spotting one at a good price and with free postage I was on it.

 

Leaving it to dry and I tackled the garden, grass cutting, clearing some weeds and that was when I discovered the dead bird. I kept the work to an hour only as yesterday my hay fever was off the scale and I felt very unwell with an early bedtime for a Saturday night! A pot of coffee, a hot shower to wash away any pollen and a Piriton tablet should help keep things controlled. Many of the seeds are sprouting  and there should be a good number of chilli and tomato plants to transplant come May into the raised bed and several pots. Next weekend will see me getting rid of a load of garden waste that has piled up over the last few months which will allow me space to get in and repair the fence.

Now to look forward to a lazy afternoon and my usual Sasquatch podcasts, possibly an afternoon nap as Piriton knocks me out.

TTFN.

The nearly completed build as it still requires an aerial. A Fiat BR 20M 'Cicogna' in the colours of a Battle of Britain aircraft circa Winter 1940 -41. I have started on a Fiat CR 42 fighter to accompany it and it is progressing well. A biplane and it will require rigging so I will approach it with care and some trepidation because it is tiny.

I am currently full of cold or my hay fever has notched up several gears because I am sneezing a lot and my nose and sinuses are bunged up. We get some decent weather and I feel dreadful. Hey ho! This happens every year but hopefully I won't be sent home as happened last year by panicked work colleagues who thought I had the plague despite telling them I suffer from hay fever.

This was my view in Mablethorpe during one day at work this week...marvellous. I took some time owing after a failed visit and enjoyed the sunshine, watched people play bowls and listened to the ducks and geese noisily run riot. In other work news it has been agreed that I work four days a week from July and I will have Fridays off. It feels like a new chapter in my life and a very welcome one. I will have time to do more around the house and do some more local trips out, walking and otherwise anything but work which is beginning to feel like a treadmill. Depending on how things pan out I intend to work  possibly four more years but during that time I intend to reduce to three working days at some point before calling it a day. I have seen too many people either having to work until they become ill or drop off the perch and moving the state pension to 67 years hasn't helped, particularly women who were born in the fifties. I will be eligible for my state pension in 2027 so another six years to go and Sue will get hers this autumn but it won't be much as time away from paid work raising children means not enough contributions paid in. Raising children, the future workers that politicians are so fond of saying are needed somehow does not count as work!

Otherwise it does feel like the world has returned to normal with busy traffic, shops open and very busy and inadequate lying politicians scrabbling for another excuse to continue the lockdown. It does look like health passports will come in despite statements they won't and I guess I won't be travelling abroad for the foreseeable future. The ridiculous extreme green agenda announced by the government plus the inevitable fall out from shutting the economy down is likely to lead to fun and games. I have no idea really what the future holds but it will continue to be interesting times as food and fuel prices continue to rise and the parlous state of the economy begins to impact upon people. It might behove the government to look back at history and possibly to learn from it but I may as well prepare the landing strip for the Porcine aerobatics team to land safely on.

Hopefully your weekend is a warm and sunny one. Stay safe and TTFN.

 Another spring weekend but a return over these last few days to winter with a noticeable frost early this morning. A long weekend as I had Friday off and my car had its annual MOT with two new front tyres and no other problems found. I had an air con re-gas but I was told there might be a problem with the air con compressor as the gas levels dropped again following the re-gas. But the weekend sees me readying plants for the garden and work on a new model build.

Three pots with Naga, Habanero and Thai Birds Eye chilli seeds planted and the tray planted with some Minibel Tomato seeds and Marigolds. The latter will go in the raised bed with the tomatoes and chillies as well as some pots around the garden. I will also move the chillies from the small pots into some larger pots so here's hoping for a sunny summer. I also have some grass seeds for the bald patch in what I laughably call the 'lawn'. I don't plan to grow anything else as the wall, gate and generally clearing out the rubbish will be a priority this year and prepare for the years ahead. 

I started on the Fiat BR 20 and I have ordered some decals for a plane from the Corpo Aero Italiano campaign as well as a Fiat CR 42 fighter plane model to join the bomber. I bought and read this excellent book  a couple of years ago about the Italian air campaign against the UK in 1940 - 41 as part of the Axis air effort. Even back then I had this build in mind as I am fascinated by this particular subject and hopefully a small effort to dispel some of the comments about the fighting prowess of the Italians during WW2. 

 As you can see it was on offer at a local cheapo store and I bought this with several other books. As an aside, doing this research today and I just discovered the author Peter Haining also wrote and edited ghost and mystery stories, a man after my own heart but sadly passed on and I had read many of those anthologies during the seventies and eighties.

I have assembled the interior and dry fitted and taped the fuselage as I have the crew to paint up and position them as well as a few other internal parts. I have some research still to do as there is some contradictory paint schemes for this particular campaign and aircraft and I hope the decals when they arrive will clarify that. But having dug this book out to photograph it I shall once again dip into it.

I hope you have a great weekend and keep safe during these crazy times.

TTFN.

 

No doom and gloom this time but I am pleased I cracked on with the garden. It took me a couple of hours as I had a couple of breaks to rest and refresh myself. The above shows the cleared space and below is where I moved the bed to. Yes, its original place but I am determined the tree will stay.

I need to buy some more compost and there is a load of garden rubbish for the green collection to be moved. I will do that another day as I have showered, changed and taken a pititon and some pain relief as I can feel my back and knee stiffening already despite working at a gentle pace. But too good an opportunity to miss with sunshine and dry weather. On my to buy list is compost, tomato and chilli plants plus a new garden hoe. The old one rotted through and on my first task to remove a tough weed it snapped and I went into the wall nearly breaking one of my fingers! Evidence of the neglected garden over the past eighteen months. Time to relax, listen to some music and rest under Sue's strict orders!

TTFN.

 Now it is finally completed...

A light black wash to make the rivets, etc...stand out and the aerial added. A simple out of the box build and fairly quick to complete. The Fokker DXXI is already built, painted and clear coated ready for the decals. There was nothing apart from a bare seat in the cockpit so I scratch built a few details in from my spares collection.

Unfortunately I didn't realise until I glued the canopy in place that I forgot to add the scratch built seats made from paper and plastic nor did I tidy up the painted canopy!

Interestingly, yellow is a difficult colour to paint on and there will be a second thinned coat to add to the patchy first coat. I usually paint a thin coat of white first as a base but decided to see how this turned out without that. I am considering a snow diorama for this as it wouldn't take much and is small enough to use a tin lid as a base for it.

The police are doing themselves no favours with their on-going interpretation of the law and a two tier approach to policing. If it applies to one group it applies to all in enforcing this nonsense. The drip drip feed of a digital vaccine (Health)  passport is coming in and people are still cheering it on. Best I get in the garden and prepare it for those necessary vegetables. This system of a digital I.D. will soon be heading our way and yet people who predicted this was coming were decried as conspiracy nut jobs. Once in place it will not be going away and health issues including what is deemed to be in the public interest ( obesity, alcohol and drug use, wrong think ) can also be monitored by the state. Potentially it will be a cleaner, safer and quieter sanitised society with all of those irritating nuisances quietly removed from sight to a re-education camp  or, if deemed no longer useful or necessary to a productive society, expunged. No more drug, alcohol, obesity, mental health or disability problems...no need for pensions either, job done.

You might say delcatto has gone beyond tinfoil hattery by now but twelve months ago I would never have imagined where we are now. Three weeks to save the NHS has morphed into the current craziness where this latest legislation has been rushed through and it seems everyone is angry with the government, the state and how the past year has shown up the huge disparities in society as lives, freedoms, jobs, livelihoods and the basic social interactions were and are being destroyed. Absolute madness!

I'll stop there. get some sunshine and fresh air in the garden and avoid going into a rant. It's interesting. one of the main themes I studied in history was protest, revolutions and dissent, from the Levellers to the Gordon Riots, Women's suffrage to MLK. The French revolution and the Russian revolutions (yes, there was more than one) and I would add to the mix the agrarian and industrial revolutions. The latter two because the world and societies have changed and in this post industrial society where so much has changed in the last forty years we are seeing, to use a film analogy, a quickening of the process of change and the state attempting to manage and direct that. It will end messily...

Happy Easter!

TTFN

 I finally completed the build of the Messerschmitt ME 410 'Hornisse' although I have an aerial wire to attach and a dark wash is still required but otherwise done. Apart from the replacement canopy it has been built out of the box. The kit canopy was truly awful and did not match the plane at all. A nice and quick build and I am making progress on the next one, the Fokker DXXI on skis in Finnish colours.

A very lazy day apart from some tidying up, a few hours at the modelling desk and a brief foray to the shops for essentials. The four day break is much needed and although the weather is cold I hope to be out in the garden tomorrow. Today...it is wonderful to do absolutely nothing and have nothing to do with work. Fish and chips tonight and perhaps a couple of large G & T's accompanied by music. I hope you all have a pleasant and restful weekend.

TTFN.