And then there were six…

But…he was only temporary as we found his owners via social media and they collected him yesterday afternoon. Ash, an intact male cat who was very friendly but unfortunately he sprayed liberally in various spots around the house! We cleaned up various areas and fussed our own cats who were very much discombobulated by his presence. He was outside all night and he managed to get in by following his mate Sherlock who wasn’t bothered by his presence. He was very wet and hungry and suggestions were made to his owners that neutering will stop him wandering as he is search of female cats. A happy ending for once for one of the waifs and strays that turn up on our doorstep.

The weather has been horrendous with sudden deluges of the monsoon variety and then a full twenty four hours of heavy rain. However, today is bright and sunny but cold with the next seven days predicted to have more rain. Hence the soggy moggy allowed to come in briefly.

Work continues on the Stranraer with rigging coming along slowly and I have some CA gel glue which Sue spotted in the shop yesterday. I am taking my time with this as accidents of spilled glue and struggles with the rigging means I take a slow but steady approach. The little Gloster Gauntlet beside it now has an undercarriage cut from plastic rod and another coat of clear coat. I also bought some metallic ink pens which is excellent for painting the small metal parts such as the cowling rings on the Stranraer. A copper colour applied and with a wash to darken it, it should be an approximate colour to the real thing.

They are from the same company that made the new compressor set I bought earlier this year. There are several acrylic colour pen sets and I want to see how this one pans out. They will be useful for those small areas which are difficult to paint and are also very convenient. I bought them at a reduced price and it was further reduced using a code provided by one of the modelling yt channels I follow. 

Otherwise little to say as we now approach countdown to the festive season, holiday adverts already on every media but mute button deployed. I have discovered ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’, an early seventies TV programme set in a wealthy home looking at the fictional lives of the wealthy and their servants. A sort of early Downton Abbey without the 21st century nonsensical hindsight. I never saw it the first time around and I gather there was a remake a few years ago…always a bad idea. I am surprised producers haven’t made a new version of Colombo. But enough old man’s grumpiness…

TTFN.

 Cold, wet and grey out there…as always, perfect for modelling but accidents do happen. Yesterday I was working on the Matchbox Stranraer and I finally decided to crack on with the rigging. I had been avoiding it for some reason and had built three other kits in the meantime and I am working on two small biplanes.

The CA (super) glue was knocked over, by me I hasten to add and not the cats. Cue much swearing and clean up with various tools and cardboard glued to each other and my thumb covered in glue. 

The clean up took a while and I spent a few minutes in the garden for fresh air. Modelling stopped, some parts then cleaned up and this morning I made a small foam support for the CA glue. I have similar boxes made up for the ordinary plastic cement so a salutary lesson learned. 

This is the state of play from this morning and I will rig the aircraft slowly and carefully but I will need to order more CA glue. Luckily, Winnie was not on the desk as she does like to watch me at work and occasionally offers a helpful paw!

We are also trying to sort out our mobile phone provider as they have moved us both to cheaper tariffs but it appears that payments for Sue did not go through. It is the usual ‘progress’ where we have to register with the provider again and use their app to top up our pay as you go each month. The old way was easier where Sue received a text and I topped her phone up once a month. Mine is sorted apart from cancelling the DD I previously used but Sue’s is taking some sorting out. I wonder why if something works it can’t just be left alone but I suspect money is at the root of this change. It bodes well for the proposed digital ID and smart phone technology for us old folks! On the plus side, our monthly payments have been halved and are cheap as chips but that could have been done under the old system of payments. C’est la vie…

TTFN.

 We had snow! I guess half the country also had snow but it was also the day to venture out for Sue’s hospital appointment but we were on our way when she received a call cancelling it. Bad weather and traffic had delayed the health staff required for the appointments! We shrugged, decided to go for a drive and get some necessary shopping in. As expected, the cats do not like this weather, cold, wet and now snow which sadly didn’t last. Perfect weather for modelling…

The Tiger Moth has been airbrushed in its primary colours and the delicate task of cementing the wings will be the next job on it.

The Gloster Gauntlet has had the wings and struts cemented together, again a delicate and finicky job as the struts are manoeuvred into position, glued and held in place with an appropriate amount of pressure! I have had wings and struts collapse or break on me so I can only do this task when cats and other distractions are absent. I had to break the wings at the fuselage and reglue using flexi CA glue. Messy and filler will be required to fill the gaps but the dihedral of the wings was wrong and the struts weren’t fitting into place correctly. This particular model will be an East African campaign circa 1940 so I will have to repaint the underneath in black and white. The struts I cut and trimmed from plastic rods as they aren’t supplied with the kit. These old Pegasus kits are very basic and difficult to build and one reason why I enjoy building them. 

In other news my back problem has worsened over the last several days and I had a sleepless night last night despite strong pain relief. Oddly enough I have identified my comfy armchair as a main culprit and I will be looking for a more upright supportive chair. This one is large and very comfortable, too much so and not supportive enough. Sue has gently reminded me to see my GP and she also suggested that given my poor and limited mobility I might be eligible for a disabled blue badge. Sadly I fear she is right but I really want to avoid going down that route and I have avoided doctors since the faux pandemic. Talking of which, my hearing and sense of smell have returned since both were damaged by covid. I could smell my coffee wafting from the kitchen this morning which hasn’t happened for six years. Yes, covid was real and no, the pandemic measures were unnecessary. Sue says I am a grumpy old man and I asked for a T shirt saying that for Xmas! I have watched the Scrooge movie twice already, sentimental old fool that I am. Hopefully you are all keeping warm and dry in this cold weather wherever you are. I think we will be getting more rain later today and that northerly wind is bitterly cold.

TTFN.

 We have had several days of rain, on and off and at times heavy and as I write it is again raining. It’s only to be expected for this time of year and naturally it is the perfect weather for modelling! I ordered some glazing masks for the large Stuka and a good reference book as I would really like to do this model justice in building it. Whilst I await the arrival of the above I started on a new build, tiny in comparison to the 1/24 scale aircraft. 

It is a 1/72 scale DH-82A Tiger Moth, a lovely biplane used for training for many years by many countries and now owned by many private operators .

 I have built one previously, an Airfix kit which was mainly blue and with a Portuguese livery. This AZ model kit is better with more parts, a detailed cockpit and photo etch brass for some of the smaller parts. It is tiny and very delicate so I have spent the last three days building it slowly, filling, sanding and recutting the panel lines. 

I had a good look at the various colour schemes and I opted for the Swedish one, red and yellow which is very colourful. 

Having replaced the bent needle in my airbrush I was finally able to add paint this morning and I am happy with the result so far. I will leave it to dry overnight and clear coat tomorrow and once that is dry I can mask and airbrush the red paint. I am aiming for a clean training aircraft to display alongside the Portuguese model. It will be no surprise to you that I have a third model in the stash, an Airfix kit which I can do in a third colour scheme. I like the Tiger Moth and it might be that I buy a couple more as the old Airfix kits are very cheap.

I finally caught Sues cold but I just seem to have a sore throat and excessive tiredness rather than the full blown leurgy she has. It is coming off her at long last but it still has its claws in her. This the season for colds and a hot curry might help blow it away.

TTFN.

 It’s arrived! The biggest model kit I will be building in 1/24 scale. Most of the aircraft kits I build are 1/72 or 1/48 scale and I have built a 1/32 scale Me 109 in the past. This one is a beast and I am like a dog with two tails. The box covered most of the table and as is usual with the Airfix older kits, there were a lot of loose parts broken from the sprues which I checked and rebagged. Bubble wrap has now been inserted between the sprues and around the clear parts. 

I placed my coffee mug beside the box for size comparison but the photo really doesn’t do it justice.

This will be my main winter build as I intend to build it OOB and any necessary parts required not in the kit I will scratch build. Having bought it at a very good reduced price and free post, I intend to keep costs down although I might have to buy some more paints. The small Leichttraktor has the tracks on but not completely sealed as they aren’t the best and will require careful cementing into place. 

I will add a mid thirties style camouflage as an alternative history tank where Adolf and his minions did not come to power but were consigned to the dustbin of history where they rightfully belonged. Sadly the rise of religious fascists and antisemitism is once again very prevalent. 

Finally, I received an excellent book today about Roman or not Roman Britain, an interesting discussion about how truly Roman was Britain. I shall dive into that over the next few months and it provides much food for thought. Sue is still full of cold but fingers crossed it will start to dissipate but it has knocked her off her feet. Plenty of fluids, olbas oil and tinned rice pudding as she little appetite but no hot toddies as she hasn’t drunk alcohol for nearly four years. I might buy her a cream cake later as a treat.

TTFN.

 Where has the time gone with a new month and Sue’s birthday, a significant milestone as well. We celebrated quietly and yes, cake was had. We also watched the shenanigans as a variety of large vehicles arrived overnight to strip and re-tarmac the small road leading to the new youth centre opening up across the road. This alongside the other road works plus a couple of local road traffic accidents led to gridlock on one day with a lot of anger on social media directed to the council. Sadly, those responsible for the general road nonsense turn off their social media and remain unaffected by that anger. Happily, today is a quiet day although set against the appalling tragedy in Cambridgeshire but, given the police activity directed against free speech I shall avoid making any on-line comments.

What I shall comment on is the new arrivals from New Zealand, the canopies for the Airspeed Oxfords in my stash and to make the postage worthwhile another Spitfire kit.

The two Oxfords lacked canopies which I hadn’t realised until sorting and checking the box out after Winnie had discovered the elastic bands around the box holding it together. All parts are now present and correct for the future builds.

I ordered two new kits, one shown below cost £10 with free postage and another which had 40% of the price knocked off in a sale, again that has free postage and will arrive later next week. The latter is a big kit, the biggest build tackled by me so far and I shall reveal all when it arrives.

I started this new kit as an out of the box build to give me a break from the Supermarine Stranraer flying boat. I dropped the Stranraer and the newly assembled and glued wings collapsed. A couple of lost pieces replaced and it is now reassembled, securely taped up and put away until fully set.The little tank was an illegal test bed for the German army in 1930 and apparently only four were built. I intend to build a ‘What if’ Indiana Jones tank for the unmade movie ‘Indiana Jones and the Honest Politician’, rarer than the Holy Grail!  The two Spitfire builds are nearly completed with aerials and light weathering required but I again ran into the problem of display space. 

I have various older tank models boxed up already but having cleaned and dusted the models I finally removed several early aircraft builds which are destined for the charity shop or the bin, sadly the latter as they are damaged from the predatory cats. Winnie has caused more damage than the other four cats together…she is not a delicate creature! I will also be sending some of the unbuilt tank kits from the stash to  Models for Heroes , kits I had already made and planned to build again in dioramas. They are good starter kits for newbies or returnees to the hobby. I tend to build aircraft these days apart from some specific armour / vehicle builds and the older simpler armour kits can go to a good cause.

Otherwise, some gardening earlier this week with the rose bushes pruned and a general tidy up. I still have some work to do around the gate and clear a space so I can eventually open up a cat gap for the oldies. I also spent much of my time catching up on reading and reducing my time spent on social media. The latter creeps up on me as the nights draw in .

Hopefully all is well with you as we settle into the darker nights and the inevitable deluge of far too early advertising for that event I shan’t mention. Time to draw the curtains, ensure all the cats are in and music on as the fireworks are once again frightening the cats…except for Winnie who sat at the kitchen window watching it all last night! 

TTFN.