A flurry of activity these last two days with a trip to the vet for Sherlock and the poor auld fella howled all the way there and back. With the howling in stereo as he and another cat joined noisy forces in the waiting room. He is on pain relief and booked in for dental surgery in two weeks time. Bless him.  A trip then to the GP surgery for Sue and then a large shop completed. My car in for tracking today and I received a phone call saying they need to replace a tyre. Same duly ordered but unlikely to arrive until tomorrow so I have left the car with them. I wasn't surprised as one front tyre started to look in need of a comb over! One of the pleasant things about a week off from work is that I don't have to fill up with petrol and I don't have to travel anywhere unless I choose to. The appalling weather has helped as well as it remains wet and cooler than average for August. In fact, there are weather warnings for storms in southern England and the predictions from the Met office is for this weather to continue for the next three weeks. As always, there is the latest build on the desk to work on...

This was the progress yesterday with the wings assembled and dry fitted to ensure a good fit before any glue is used.

This is from this morning after the wings glued on and a black primer lightly sprayed on. The airbrush as usual needed a thorough cleaning despite it being done after the last time I used it. I might need to consider a better airbrush and compressor but this one works despite the need for frequent cleaning before, during and after use. This particular aircraft, the Heinkel He 177 was Germany's heavy bomber but it had a reputation for catching fire. Two very obvious propellors but it had four engines as pictured here with two engines crammed into each nacelle as a double motor powering the prop. There were problems with cooling hence the frequent fires and thankfully senior nazi mismanagement, bickering and stupidity saw this development take too long to cause any major issues for the allies. As ever, I am fascinated by this aspect of WW2 with night bombers and night fighters. I am working my way through a number of second hand books about bombing campaign, the experiences of those who took part and the developments from 1939 through to the end of the war. The build now put aside to dry and next step will be to airbrush the various paints on plus clear coats in between. Now for tea and more reading as the brief episode of dry weather has once again turned to rain.

TTFN.

n.b. Looking forward to the Viking weekend with the itinerary now on-line.