It's not often I swear out loud but I just opened an email from my gas supplier for the annual cost this coming year and I swore very loudly. I knew the increase was going to be high but that high!! Nearly a fifty percent increase. For fucks sake!! A good percentage of that is the useless green taxes and profits for the greedy bastards who bought the publicly owned utility when Thatcher flogged off the silverware. I haven't yet seen what the electricity bill will be but this will hammer in the final nails in the governments coffin when people receive their energy bills. I am thankful I revalidated and I can afford this but there will be millions who can't afford the increase and combine that fear regarding eat or heat, anger and the generally raised levels of anxiety from the last two years plus Russia invading Ukraine. I suspect the latter will give lots of people ideas and a long hot summer in the cities and an exciting new police bill in parliament could create the perfect storm. My worry is that the increased utility bills will cost the lives of the poor and elderly. I can immediately think of many of the patients we work with struggling to pay this and this will break people.

Getting off my soapbox and I have made progress on another model as I await delivery of the new gun for the Sherman tank.

A late WW2 British jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor which saw service from mid 1944 on, initially against the V1 flying bombs and then in Europe. Another early jet to add to my collection. It had already been started and someone had airbrushed it in a hull red colour.

It is assembled in the above photograph and ready for the application of the appropriate paints airbrushed on.

A mid grey Tamiya acrylic paint airbrushed on all over the kit followed by...

RAF Green acrylic paint from Tamiya airbrushed on as camouflage for a late war camo scheme. I had scraped the seams prior to adding the a further layer of grey where required and before the green was added. Now left to dry and I will clear coat and once dried, I will tape off the upper part of the plane and airbrush a lighter grey underneath.

I should have what is a very quick OOB (Out of the box) build finished tomorrow and so far I am pleased with the work in progress. For the rest of today, I will listen to cryptic podcasts, drink tea (Tetley's Extra Strong tea bags are excellent) and avoid the news and social media as I can no longer make sense of the incessant babble and noise. Much better for my emotional and mental well being.

TTFN.