The Night Mail

[BR60103]

Back in the '70s, to combat inflation the government brought in Wage and Price Controls.  One point was a limit on wage increases for workers in the same position.  A lot of people in our company suddenly became Associate Vice Presidents and Assistant Vice Presidents.  At the time I thought it was a sop to make up for not having a better increase.  I later became more cynical and realised ...

 

When our motor home was damaged (back corner seam ripped open) in a storage accident (hit and run), the insurer waived the deductible for us.  The assessor thought it should be totalled but when the shop looked at it the estimate was low enough that the insured paid to have it reassembled.

 

 

[jamie92208]

6 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

A little bit of unknown history. Don't read this however if you are about to eat anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_latrine_disaster

Thanks for that Phil. It has given me something to chortle over whilst having my breakfast.

 

Jamie

 

 

[AndyID]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

A little bit of unknown history. Don't read this however if you are about to eat anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_latrine_disaster

 

Well they probably didn't know how to swim but they could at least have gone through the motions.

[Happy Hippo]

6 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Not always. Power tools are cheating, what's wrong with a good old fashioned handsaw?

I'll send you my address.

 

I need it all neatly cut and stacked by Thursday lunchtime.

[Happy Hippo]

5 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

In Rome you have to drive with your right hand on the wheel and your left arm hanging out the window to permit sudden gesticulation.😀

I can really become Italian in my present state.

[jjb1970]

The late PJ O'Rourke wasn't joking when he referred to the horn as the Egyptian brake. I think the most dangerous things I did in life (other than arguing with the wife) are taxi journies between Cairo airport and Abu Qir outside Alexandria when I worked on one of Maersk's offshore vessels based there.

[jjb1970]

14 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Pah!  You mean South Shields Marine and Technical College! 😉 😆

 

Living a stone's throw from it, they sent me to Riversdale!  🙄

 

I believe it is now South Shields Marine School. They could never make up their minds what they wanted to be. One minute marine courses were yesterday's business and rather uncouth, the next minute they'd look at how much money marine students brought in and be eternally committed to their marine roots.

I had a great time in Shields and went back for seconds and chiefs.

[SM42]

In Poland you drive to overtake. 

If that isn't your thing then you have to drive to let others overtake you in sometimes the most inappropriate places. 

It can be a bit unnerving with a 44 tonner glued to the back bumper at well above the speed limit. 

 

Often it is good not to be first in the line. Having a local up ahead you can keep pace, with weeds out any speed cameras and speed traps.

 

Limits seem to be suggestions and change so frequently  it is hard to work out what the limit actually is. ( any minor hazard, such as a gentle bend, crossing or traffic lights have a limit that may apply at just that location or could go on till the next sign. Who knows?) 

 

When in Poznan  do as the potatoes do.

 

Andy

Edited July 31, 2022 by SM42

[Happy Hippo]

Not a bad seat for the morning session.

 

 

1114 is England v Wales.  Ought to be interesting

[Canal Digger]

Please can someone tell me what this wet, watery stuff is coming out of the sky?

[New Haven Neil]

6 minutes ago, Canal Digger said:

Please can someone tell me what this wet, watery stuff is coming out of the sky?

 

We sent it from yesterday.  Agricultural show day, wasn't it......and the second day of our hosepipe ban, so its not stopped raining for two days!

[polybear]

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

In Poland you drive to overtake. 

If that isn't your thing then you have to drive to let others overtake you in sometimes the most inappropriate places. 

It can be a bit unnerving with a 44 tonner glued to the back bumper at well above the speed limit. 

 

If videos on the tube are anything to go by then Russia isn't a good place to drive a car.

[SM42]

We had rain yesterday afternoon and most of the night.

Glorious sun and enough blue to make a regiment trousers today 

 

BBQ later.

 

This morning has been spent reading and gluing plastic together.

 

One thing I've learnt is that the words "test" and "build" have never appeared together in the same sentence at Revell headquarters 

 

Andy

[jamie92208]

18 minutes ago, SM42 said:

We had rain yesterday afternoon and most of the night.

Glorious sun and enough blue to make a regiment trousers today 

 

BBQ later.

 

This morning has been spent reading and gluing plastic together.

 

One thing I've learnt is that the words "test" and "build" have never appeared together in the same sentence at Revell headquarters 

 

Andy

Do they employ Alan Gibson and the proprietor of Mercian.

 

Jamie

[SM42]

27 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Do they employ Alan Gibson and the proprietor of Mercian.

 

Jamie

 

I don't know but they must do a roaring trade in filler.

 

Anyhow, lack of paint has stopped play for now.

 

Andy

[jamie92208]

7 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

I don't know but they must do a roaring trade in filler.

 

Anyhow, lack of paint has stopped play for now.

 

Andy

Oh dear Andy are you having to fall back onto plan C........

 

Jamie

[SM42]

Just now, jamie92208 said:

Oh dear Andy are you having to fall back onto plan C........

 

Jamie

 

Nope.

 

A BBQ and RMWeb have come to the rescue.

 

Andy

[jjb1970]

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being best and MTK being -728, where would you put Revell?

[iL Dottore]

2 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being best and MTK being -728, where would you put Revell?

I think it depends upon the model and the age of the moulds. I have a 1/12 scale Routemaster which looks very well designed and moulded (I haven’t started the build) whereas the Revell 1/48 Bell Iroquois UHD-1 “Huey” is a bit of a pig to put together- mainly because of the less than exemplary instructions. So I’d say an average of 8/10 for Revell.

 

I’m also building an ageing Hasegawa 1/48 Dassault Falcon which is going together quite well, as is a1/72 Airfix HS Dominie - but both are showing their age and neither have particularly good instructions.

 

Whilst on the topic of model kit quality, I saw on YouTube a video by a British plastic modeller who said he would never buy Tamia kits – simply because they go together so well there is no “modelling challenge“ in them.

 

I don’t know about you, but I like my modelling challenges to be something other than trying to get the damn thing to fit together properly in the first place

[jjb1970]

I actually think Tamiya are a big part of why I've always struggled to get into railway model kits. The exemplary fit, excellent instructions and overall professionalism of Tamiya kits led me to bench-mark against them. I found most Airfix kits fine, although some of the older tooling could show its age with warping and flash I found in most cases they were a bit basic but went together well enough. Hasegawa I found a bit jeckyll and hyde, some were outstanding but they had some poor efforts. Revell were all over the place when I used to be into kit building. Nowadays I don't recognise a lot of the names in shops but I've made some Takom armoured vehicle kits which were pretty good, and Trumpeter. I still enjoy Tamiya 1/35 military vehicle kits and figures.

[SM42]

In this case I would say around a 6 or 7

 

It's a reasonable fit of parts, but some bits are too small for the holes that they supposedly flll. Very awkward for a turret hatch 

 

Other items are just too small to be anything but a gluey blob after fitting  if they don't ping off into the far corners of another dimension beforehand.

 

The frustrating thing is that some of these small parts are bigger than some of the other moulded on detail and could easily have been moulded to the larger part. 

 

Still I will persevere ( I've built worse) once I have some paint to paint those awkward to paint at the end parts. 

It's also an excuse to visit a model shop ahead of the allocated time slot in the diary ( Mrs SM42 is very organised, as am I as sort of collateral damage)

 

 

Andy

 

Andy

Edited July 31, 2022 by SM42

[Happy Hippo]

Well, New Zealand and Fiji in the first semi final was worth it. Edge of the seat stuff, and then everyone standing up to see the winning try.

 

The finals this evening are going to be fun.

 

Currently off site in the local M&S cafe.  Not prepared to pay £11 for a pretty mediocre looking cheeseburger in the ground.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

The exemplary fit, excellent instructions and overall professionalism of Tamiya kits led me to bench-mark against them

If only I offer the same praise for their weathering powders.  Far too greasy and make-up like for railway use in my very humble opinion.  But they do find favour among the war-gamers and other sectors.  

 

Having had my first show yesterday since the dreaded Chinese Market Virus arrived one of the questions I was asked most often was which powders do I recommend for weathering.  I use the stock of Carrs which I built up some time ago but which are not readily obtainable now - a few places still have limited stocks.  I also use Monroe powders  which come from the USA and which usually attract import and handling fees in addition to the purchase price.  Not cheap.  But then you don't need much.  

Edited July 31, 2022 by Gwiwer

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

I was asked most often was which powders do I recommend for weathering.  

I have only ever used MIG powders so can’t compare with any other brand. I think they were originally marketed to military modellers.

I have used Tamiya 1/48 scale military figures chopped about for populating my (now in storage) ON3O layout. 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

If videos on the tube are anything to go by then Russia isn't a good place to drive a car.

We were driven round St Petersburg for a couple of days in a mini bus. We saw a lot of collisions and near misses. More than any other city I have visited. Before driving in Italy it looked a bit scary but once you were actually driving it didn’t seem so bad. 
Tony