Always had manuals but my latest car is a two year old BMW X3 auto. Wish i’d switched earlier

How much are the repairs (aside from the tyres, they’re a consumable)? Are there any other issues, or likely to be any you don’t know about? E.g brakes,suspension, exhaust?

How much is the car worth?

If the price of repair is significantly more than the value of the car, i’d Be looking at a new one

I parked my car at Manchester airport recently, stupid early o’clock for a seven am flight. Coming back three days later,I knew it was in the yellow section of T1-3 long stay, but thought it was near a particular bus stop. Wrong. Took me half an hour walking up & down every aisle to finally find it parked right up against a fence.

Next trip out of Manchester I took photos of it & it’s surroundings

Undercoat of whatever the base material was, in this case aluminium. Layer of hairspray* on top, leave to dry. Next coat(s) the camouflage colours, again let dry. Then with an old brush cut down to maybe 1/5 of original bristle length, wet the top coat with the appropriate thinner – I use acrylics so water – and scrub away. Try to go In the direction of ‘traffic’, in this case the airflow or the pilot’s feet

After a while the bare aluminium underneath starts to break through in a random pattern. Not unlike the intakes of that Harrier up there ^. You can just make it out on the leading edge of the starboard wing in my last picture

* I used a pump action gel spray, decanted a bit into a spare Tamiya paint jar & diluted it with water. Much easier to manage than a can of Insette Spiky

Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire MkI – 610 Squadron RAF June 1940. Mostly finished OOB but with a bit of hairspray technique on wing leading edges, wing root where the pilot walks. EZ-Line for the aerial wires.

Next up? BSG Raptor by Moebius I think

Did we miss out “Valentine’s Day”?

Obvious ones are Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana. Lots of slightly less obvious ones if you are interested?

Doing the same with PJ & Soundgarden / Audioslave, but Nirvana not new to me. Nor Foos. QOTSA to a degree too. Need to listen to Kyuss too.

For a bit of background, i’m a sad old goth, converted from 2nd generation punk. Too young for Pistols/Clash at the time but caught SLF/Banshees/Damned fairly early

The snow we had earlier had turned back to rain. Which is odd as the car says it’s 0degC out there. Baildon, West Yorkshire

Is Ken Bates a musician?

Took my 78yo mother on holiday with us to Vancouver Island last year.

Not a great idea for two reasons (a) she can’t walk far or fast, at all and (b) her & my older sister, in whose holiday home we were staying, do not get on. I had no idea at the time, but I know a whole lot more now.

Atmosphere, knife etc

Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots for me. I’m sure there’s more out there of the same ilk

Ah, “exposure” , that old chestnut.

It’s like asking a band/singer to play your venue, “no we can’t pay you despite all the extra drinks we’ll sell, but think of the exposure you’re going to get “

I was never a fan. Mrs_D was as a kid. So when we were in Stockholm a couple of years ago, a visit to the ABBA museum was mandatory. Interesting even if you’re not a fan of the music

Trees. A couple of houses. More trees. One of the main roads through the village. A cliff with houses on top. In the distance, Thackley

No snow today though

USS Intrepid, One World Trade Center & 9/11 Memorial, Grand Central Terminal. Central Park.

Empire State has big queues even if you’re pre-booked, so the current advice is to go to Top Of The Rock (Rockefeller Center) instead – that way you also get to see the Empire State Building.

Make good use of the subway system, it’s pretty cheap and goes mostly everywhere. Walking across Manhattan can be a bit of a stop-start affair as you generally have to stop for traffic every block.

I’ve heard the queues for immigration at JFK can be horrendous; I flew into Newark and it was a case of “what queues “

David and myself would be at least the correct order

David and I, surely?

Well despite the whole 1.5cm of slush, A6038 into Shipley was queuing all the way back to Otley. People driving in the opposite direction at walking pace on a flat piece of road with no snow , slush or ice. There’s caution and then there’s timidity

Slippers? I’m not my grandad yet!

Just socks, until it’s time to go out , or i’ve Just come back in

There was a bit of slushy stuff in Otley this morning. And some thin wet snow coming down as I drove over Timble moor to Blubberhouses. Nothing in Ripon yet

Nice

I think what has happened here Harry, is the paint has dried before it’s hit the model. You can get inhibitors that slow the paint drying, or you can use a thinner paint, closer in, with less pressure. I run at 10psi from about 6in for flood coverage, 5psi for a ‘mud mist’ or for exhaust & gunfire stains. Mix of Tamiya & Revell acrylic paints thinned with Tamiya X20A thinners.

Sometimes I do camouflage free hand, but I’m just in the middle of a Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire MkI build where I’ve used a mix of paper masks and Tamiya masking tape cut to shape. I have tried masking camouflage patterns with Humbrol Maskol, but that tends to leave a ragged edge when you peel it off. Nearly all my aircraft builds are 1/48 unless it means a humongous finished article… military models I like in 1/48 & 1/35. I can’t be doing with 1/72 (or 1/76), the parts are too small for my sausage fingers

Ghost Castle was called Haunted House when I was a kid (born ‘65)
I remember Buccaneer, my stepdad had it from when he was a kid.
I had the FlightDeck thing, and the helicopter on a stick, which never worked. Maybe that’s why I now have four RC helis and a quadcopter…

We also had a board game called Movie Maker, that was excellent.
A friend had Treasure Of The Pharaohs. Same idea as Haunted House but set in a pyramid and with Mummy / Carter related props

Oh yeah, Killjoys is good too

once a week with the trimmers vs. every day with shaving cream, razor and lots of faff

sod that. I shave once a week, either with electric razor or wet shave. the latter is quicker, even though I tend to trim back to stubble first.

Daren’t let it grow into a proper beard for fear of looking like Ken Bates 8O

or there’s The Expanse on Netfilx. OK it’s a series (two actually), not a film, but it has ships and SFX and stuff

BSG +1 (the reboot, not the 80s original). Start with the pilot…

or BSG Blood & Chrome, that’s a good stand alone film

Nervous as the initial contract was just two months & no guarantee of any extensions. But that was balanced against the imminent prospect of no work at all, having been made redundant.
Nearly three years later, i’m still here…

Whitby, Robin Hoods Bay, York, Leeds.

Ok, maybe not Leeds

Have you fitted the weapons pylons already? Are there any underwing decals to do?
I tend to leave off the hardpoints on fast jets until i’ve done the decals and clear top coat, whether Matt or gloss

Don’t forget to mask off the canopy first. I use Tamiya masking tape. Palest colour first

BMW auto box on the X3 is lovely. I assume the same auto box is used on other cars in the range

Camden Court Hotel is quite pleasant, just south of the river. Bleeding Horse pub next door is nice too

I booked a Ford Escape (Kuga) “or equivalent “ as that was what I had at home at the time; when I got to the Alamo desk I ended up with a Jeep Wrangler. Which my mother could hardly get into so we had to buy a “caravan step” to help her get into the car. I got about 650km out of a tankful of unleaded. Wallowy ride & vague steering but it was comfortable. Got the ‘buy our insurance or pay the thousand dollar excess now” hard sell as per usual

Yes I have them, work a treat for me, but I also have varifocal glasses that took me two attempts to get used to. There is a bit of a compromise for me for distance but not enough to be a problem, outweighed by the fact that I can also read and do my day job

I’d suggest a boat trip but it maybe a tad nippy in February

That kind of makes sense. But also how often do you look at your scale models in true daylight I.e. outside? And how often do you look at the full size object indoors (unless you happen to have access to your local hangar / tank museum)

Nice Gannet Harry

The grab handles on the roof were a PITA. More in the carpet monster than on the model in the end. Other than that it wasn’t too bad

https://www.modelhobbies.co.uk/shop/tamiya-weathering-stick-87081-p-8583.html

It’s like a really soft crayon, in mud colour. I’ll see if I can find a liink. But available at Hobbycraft if you have one nearby

Last one from me for 2017 – Tamiya 1/35 M113 ACAV Vietnam era. Built OOB with some Eduard photo etch detail.

Airbrushed exterior with Tamiya XF62 Olive Drab, misted over with XF52 Flat Earth from below, together with their mud stick for the tracks. Just the commander to add but he’s not dry yet

Some WIP photos now: