The past few days have been horrible with a shift in my back pain and I am struggling to move around. It might be that I have pulled muscles on my right side but I couldn’t even climb into my car. Sue had to do the weekly shop instead. I suspect it happened when in the early hours a few nights back Wilf leapt from a cupboard and landed on my groin. I leapt out of a deep sleep and ended up falling out of bed! Needless to say he no longer sleeps in our bedroom. Whereas before this happened I could manage the pain and do things, I am now shuffling around like an eighty year old bent over my walking stick. It had even curtailed any modelling work beyond some rudimentary tidying up. Bugger and thrice bugger is all I can say.

The PR Spitfire is now finished as I have reached the ‘That’ll do ‘ stage and want to move on. It’s raining steadily as I write this and I am poring through my stash looking for an easy small kit to build. Prior to the Wilf incident I had tidied up my reference book shelf and moved some of the stash around. More space for the cats to hide in and I have put aside several books to move on. I usually deposit them at the nearest supermarket where people can pay a small amount to charity for a book. I read somewhere that younger people are reading less but I have also seen on-line discussions on modelling and music videos about young people having little interest in the hobby in the former and, their increasing general dissatisfaction with modern music in the latter. I’m not sure about the latter as I hear it on music reaction videos and I am biased anyway as I believe there has been little decent music over the past two or three decades. I either listen to rock / pop / soul / r n b music from the sixties and seventies, folk, jazz and classical. I would rather listen to Humble Pie or Led Zeppelin than some of the noise I heard from a young neighbour a few doors down this summer but, as I said, I am an irascible old bugger. Back to searching the stash and looking for inspiration. I will add a blog in the next few days with another story from my nursing career. I have two in mind, the ‘serial killer’ one or the ‘vampire’ one. 

TTFN.

 After an hour spent dozing in the autumnal sunshine surrounded by cats I came indoors to tidy up the model space, move some of the reference books upstairs and the above recently completed builds are awaiting a move to their respective display spaces. A modeller I follow on-line was discussing stashes and how healthy is a large stash. Happily, even with purchases this past few months my stash has been reduced  to about ninety kits although that includes a few kits I will donate to Models for Heroes. I tend to buy more books these days with recent purchases being ‘Vanity Fair’ by Thackeray and ‘The Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne 1812 - 1813’. Books are certainly cheaper and apart from the ones I intend to keep I tend to donate them on so that others can have a pleasurable read. 

The short run kit from Ventura Models of a Spitfire PR Mk.19 is nearly done, just awaiting a wash and a hand painted ‘The Last!’ Added to the fuselage. Ventura was a New Zealand company which eventually became the current day JAYS Models. I like their kits but postal charges now outweigh the cost of the kits so sadly I have stopped buying from New Zealand. The blue colour is too dark as I used some cheap acrylic paints but I can tone it down with a light wash.

It is a bright, sunny and warm day, very unlike autumn although the countless spiders and their webs tell a different story in the garden.  I guess I will enjoy it while I can before the weather shifts to the default which usually involves a lot of rain.

TTFN.

 It’s been a stressful few days courtesy of cats and their leaping menagerie. No.1 son didn’t apply flea treatments to the two Freds over the past two months until we noticed Winnie was scratching a lot and I found a flea on Wilf. No.1 bought the treatments and I applied them, treatments that are new to me and he had explained he could no longer order the usual Advantage treatment on-line from our usual supplier. I checked and he is correct, they can still be bought over the counter from supermarkets and ordered on Amazon but not ordered from the usual supplier unless a new vet prescription is provided. I had read several weeks ago about pressure on the government to stop the sale of flea treatments apparently based on ‘environmental concerns’ and I wonder if this is part of this. I will look into it further but we have liberally sprayed various areas of the house and I have reminded No.1 son about his responsibilities for his cats. I wonder why environmental concerns never apply to wars…

Wilf has responded well to the treatment but Winnie needed a second dose and several times a day we have combed her fur. All in all a very unhappy cat as we have also kept her in the house because of the escalation in the stalking and harassment of her by Mindy. The latter has now emulated her mother Maisie and refuses to come indoors unless it is for food. Rather than chase her about to come back in we now leave her to it because when the weather changes, she will soon come indoors, again emulating Maisie who does this every year. Wilf, bless him, has discovered he likes to sleep in our bedroom at night and every morning at 4 o’clock I awake to find him purring happily away on top of me! 

The on-going build of the Boulton Paul Defiant Night Fighter is almost complete. I have glued and taped a clear plastic to the port wing landing light and once that has taken, I will finish any touch ups and weathering plus an aerial. I have some photo etch parts to apply for radar antennae but, given that the resin guns on the turret have broken off several times I am loathe to add any further fragile parts. We shall see what happens next…

I have had a few new kits for my birthday and I am now only six months away from the state pension and a free bus pass. I like driving for its convenience and freedom of use but I now struggle with long journeys. This could be ideal for trips out but I guess I will do a combination of both. Given the current international lunacy I wonder if there will be any diesel for public transport next spring. Horse drawn omnibuses might make a return or bicycle rickshaws.

Otherwise my birthday was a quiet one, no alcohol but I did have some cake and a Cherry Bakewell Scone which was delicious. I was also up until 02.30 dealing with cat shenanigans so I needed an afternoon grandpa nap! Currently, it is a bright, sunny day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds and it is peaceful. Strange to experience this whilst the world is going mad. Take care folks.

TTFN.

 A very quick and easy build of an Airfix Hurricane Mk.1 in Belgian livery circa May 1940. I built and brush painted the kit as a break from the ongoing saga of the broken undercarriage of the 1/32 Bücker Bü 131D which has again been repaired. I might have to buy some thin brass rods to replace the somewhat weak plastic undercarriage. It’s irritating because I have attached the rigging to one Wing but unable to proceed  any further until this is sorted. I also started a 1/72 Spitfire, a model of the last operational sortie Spitfire from April 1954; A photo reconnaissance Mk.19 used in Malaya.

This is the current state of play and yes, those are the instructions. Ventura / Tasman / JAYS models are New Zealand companies with JAYS models now flying the flag for ‘garage’ short run kits which are basic but require a lot of modelling skills and patience. I thoroughly enjoy building them despite or because of the extra work required during the build process. 

As I write this with the build set aside it is raining but not too cold outside. I have the back door open to allow the cats in and out because there is some noisy building work going on at a neighbouring property which sends them running for home. Otherwise a quiet Sunday here in the slow lane after a late night watching ‘The Blue Lamp’ with Dirk Bogarde and Jack Warner. It’s the first time I have watched the movie and it is fascinating to see London in 1950.Having watched that and the original ‘The Ladykillers’ with a stellar cast the other night, I am catching up on the classic British black and white movies from the fifties.

TTFN.

 This is a test to see if I can upload photos and guess what? I cannot upload photos!! I am at a loss as to what is going on because I seem to solve the problem and then it returns. I shall investigate again but today will mainly be looking at the last of my small pension pots and sorting that out. I have six months until I receive my state pension and I can also apply for a free pensioner bus pass which still makes me chuckle. How did I get this old! 

Speaking of which, I watched ‘Seven up’ over the last couple of days with the ‘Seventy up’ episodes and the final episodes. For those who don’t know it, Seven up started with a group of seven year old children back in 1964 and every seven years they would be filmed and a discussion had about how their lives had progressed. I have to admit I was moved to tears watching last nights episode. As an experiment it was fascinating but also applying it to one’s own life makes for some reflection and brought home a couple of revelations to me which I shan’t be going into here. 

Otherwise, it is a dull autumnal day with showers but the back door is open allowing the kitties ingress and egress although Winnie, No.1 sons smallest cat generally disappears for the day to escape the attentions of Mindy who continues her campaign of bullying and harassment of her. From her tracker we can see she has a favourite spot where the birds, squirrels and we assume the rats are. With the nights drawing in we are already seeing a change in their behaviour but it is still quite mild.  Once the cold weather arrives they will spend more time indoors glued to various radiators!

TTFN.

Update: Now it works!

A model kit I have long wanted and today it finally arrived. I found a model shop in Kent of all places that sells Japanese model kits at very reasonable prices without having to pay ridiculous prices. Not only very cheap but free P&P plus a complementary packet of Haribo sweets as well and a voucher for future purchases. 

Of the several kits in various build stages, three of them are completed or very near completion. I finally finished rigging the Breguet Br.14 (on the little stand) and it is clear coated awaiting decals. The other two in the photo (Oxford Airspeed and Phönix DIII biplane) are done. The other photo shows the 1/32 scale Bücker Bü 131D but I have twice broken the undercarriage whilst rigging it. So each day I spend five minutes to complete repairs and add rigging and then I leave well alone! 

The Boulton Paul Defiant is also nearing completion with weathering and paint touch ups required plus the photo etch brass radar equipment to be added. The latter I might leave off as it is fiddly, easy to break and apart those knowledgeable about the night fighter version, no one will know the difference.

I plan to complete all of these before considering what next to build although there is a Matilda Mk.II in 1/35 scale which I had started and then boxed away whilst I researched the back history and colour schemes. I haven’t yet decided on a major winter build as the last few days have been warm, sunny and I spent them in the garden. Grass cut today and some weeding done so some semblance of order is noticeable. What used to take me ten minutes now takes twenty followed by a rest!

After chasing around google to try and resolve the issue of uploading photos to the blog I find today that I can do so. Mind you, I thought I had cracked it previously and google again refused to do so. I think it is a cookies issue but who knows.  Hopefully it is now resolved and I can start posting again.

TTFN.
 

 After a week of the plague in the house with No.1 son catching a horrible cold and then Sue and I succumbing to it. Mine has almost gone although yesterday’s grass cutting added a dusting of hay fever to the recipe and Sue’s cold is still lingering. 

The grass is a lovely verdant colour after the rain of the past ten days and the weather is cooler, decidedly chilly in the mornings. One ‘bonus’ of back pain is that some mornings I am up very early and I usually have the back door open for the cats as I enjoy a cup of tea, pain relief and the Tens machine to get me moving…it takes a while! I have certainly noticed the change in the seasons. I managed to cut the grass yesterday with feline supervision and my plan is to weed and clear the garden beds, pots and raised bed over the next two weeks for a clean start. We discussed methods of making the garden easier to manage for two oldies who are gradually falling to bits. Luckily the garden isn’t that big and I enjoy being out in it. Our two oldest cats, Sherlock and Maisie have slowed down and prefer to stay in the garden or next door, not going too far away so I shall create some aids for them to climb up onto the walls and fence. Poor old moggies, it’s hard watching them grow old.

I am still having trouble uploading pictures to the blog hence the lack of entries lately. I suspect goo gle is attempting to nudge me towards using their platform instead of my usual one. I have six model builds in various stages but having the cold meant I had to abstain from airbrushing paint onto the builds. The latest one was a ‘gift’ from a vlogger I follow whose group I am a member of. It’s a German Bücker Bü 131D training aircraft, a two seater biplane and this one has skis instead of wheels. I bought aftermarket figures, rigging points and seats with attached seatbelts as it is in 1/32 scale and I really want to do it justice. It’s made by ICM, a Ukrainian model company that continues to produce some of the best kits on the market despite the Russian efforts to destroy the country and people. Astonishing really. 

Otherwise not much has changed here but today my thoughts go out to those victims of 9/11.

TTFN.