I see there's been an article in the Yorkshire Post saying that Fort Paull has been bought and all the items within are up for auction, so if you've got £1100 to spare and the room you can have your very own Blackburn Beverley or if you want something smaller the Hawker Hunter that used to be outside Humbrol on Hedon Road. Wonder if Trevor is putting a bid in? Don't despair you 'Tankers' there's ordnance for sale and bits and bobs for Howard too. Not sure if there's anything for you nautical chappies apart from the damp. The article said the site had been refurbished in 2002? I was there after that and you needed scuba gear in some places the damp was that bad!!!!

Zak recently kindly passed on this part made Modelcollect kit which contains two launch ramps and V1s. A total of 29 softish grey plastic parts make up each ramp and missile and once complete each ramp will be 16" long. The instructions show standard Luftwaffe crosses on the wings but I've yet to see photos showing this in real life, plus the unit insignia are the 'standard' ones in all the other Modelcollect kits I've built i.e. E-50 and E-100.

This weeks filler is the Mirage kit of the Vickers E Mk B kindly donated by Zak. There are more parts than I care to count, so won't!! Markings are for one used in Shanghai in 1937  3 colours, another just says China 1936, 2 colours and lastly on used by Finland in 1940. The colour quoted for this is Humbrol 30, Dark Green, but one reference says they were delivered in Bronze Green so I'll be using Vallejo Primer which is a close match for this. They were delivered without armament and in order to ensure compatibility with the Renault FTs they were equipped with the same Puteaux SA 17 37mm gun and Hotchkiss MG. When Russia attacked in November 1939 the only unit to have a full complement of 16 tanks was 4 ErHvK, with 3 ErHvK only having a handful. After an unsuccessful attack near Viipuri in February 1940 the inadequacies of their armament and poor performance in the snow led the Finns to learn some lessons and so at the cessation of hostilities they upgraded the tank with Russian 45mm guns from burnt out T-26s and these were used in the Continuation War But that's another model.

This is the vintage Heller offering of the F-84 G and comes complete with free raised panel lines, little internal detail and a see through body!! The kit consists of only 43 grey plastic pieces one of which isn't used in my build, the closed air-brake, and two clear parts for the canopy and four clear for the landing lights. I didn't know until reading the notes that this was the first American jet capable of carrying an atom bomb.
The completed model will join my 'Places what I have been to' collection. As some of you are aware I go to Norway regularly to ring birds on the island of Store Faerder (Stoora Far der) in Oslofjord. To get there I fly into Sanderfjord Torp and on the airfield perimeter is a small collection of aircraft which have been used by the RNoAF including an F-84 G marked up as from the same squadron as the kit decals. Do you now see the connection? The one at Torp is T-FN so I'll have to alter the unit codes.
Once the cockpit tub and intake/front wheel well were in place it was obvious you could see through into the space where the weight would be put to prevent a tail-sitter, I've also put weight at the front of the wingtip tanks to help, so a blanking plate has been fitted. The a/c at Torp is sat with the air-brake open so I've had to open the 72 holes out using a 0.3mm drill.

On my way to logout I saw a photo of Tracy in the header so followed it to the 2016 Show page. As this was before I was savvy enough to get online with the Club I'd never seen the photos before. I really enjoyed looking at them and it brought back memories of how much fun our Shows are/were. Bloody Covid!!. It was great to see Ron Ward as well, gone but not forgotten though sadly missed. Hopefully we'll be able to pick up where we left off next year?

Whilst waiting for Me 262 to set it was time to start researching the next project. This is the old PM Model kit of the Ta 154 Moskito, the proposed equivalent of the D.H. Mosquito. I also have this kit, along with the Fw 190A-8, in the Airfix Mistel boxing. I knew when i got this kit that the interior was sparse, to say the least, so ordered the Airwaves etch set, but even this asks  for some parts to be made from plastic card.
The markings are for TQ+XE, the much photographed Ta 154A-0, but I'm going to convert it into a late war A-4 ground attack a/c fitted with wing mounted FuG 218 radar instead of the nose mounted FuG 220 array, using Airframe Detail No.6 by Richard Franks as a source of detail. 

As rain meant I couldn't do jobs outside whilst waiting for the putty on the Lippisch to set thoroughly (I did the housework yesterday!!) it was time to raid the stash again for a 'filler'.
This is the Special Hobby 1/72 scale model of the projected Me 262B-2 3-seater, utilising the wings of the Me 262 HG III design, not to be confused with the 2-seat B-2a which had the engines under the wings. The kit contains 41 light grey parts, a clear vac canopy and an etched brass fret which provides some internal detail, though more will need to be added, but no fan blade for the HeS 011 turbojets in the wing roots so the spares box will get raided again. Also missing is any indication of the two 30mm Schrage Musik cannon either side of the cockpit. There is a small amount of flash present and minimal location tabs so a clean up and care will be the order of the day.

I bought this book in TheWorks and it contains over 450 unpublished photos from the former Soviet Archives of previously unseen action action from the Eastern Front in WW2. It covers all aspects including land, sea and air, of various campaigns and locations, with photos of equipment on all accounts, some of which have lots of detail, others are dark and some are 'staged' by the wartime photographer for public consumption.
The author, Will Fowler. specialises in Military History, Defence Technology and Current Affairs and has published several books as well as having been the Editor of the 'Defence' magazine from 1983-90. So why are there many technical and grammatical errors in the book? I will list 3 of the obvious examples. 1) info next to a photo of a Ju 87A says it's a D or a G with a bomb load of 7000kg. That's twice that carried by a He 111 with an external rack. 2) describing a Katyusha on a 6x4 Studebaker chassis it says the launch rails are 5334yds long and 3) (my favourite) it has a photo of an Arado Ar 232B sometimes known as the Tatzelwurm due to the set of wheels under the fuselage which helped with crossing soft ground or when the undercarriage was in the kneeling position for off loading. The caption says it's a BV 222 flying boat on a trailer. Make that a 50ft plus trailer!!!
I suppose he could make the excuse it was printed in the UAE and after all we know that books in TheWorks are seconds. Was it worth £2 definitely. The original asking price of £14.99, definitely NOT!!!