PhilJ W

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I for one like my toast only lightly browned. Thats because I only eat it when its under a layer of melted cheese as cheese on toast. Not all children have smart phones and many have to share computers with their siblings. Israel is in the same situation, like Brazil the government ignored all the warnings and now the populace is paying the price.

I thought you were referring to a certain multi-millionaire with his own Caribbean island.

Interesting as Ransoms offered both front wheel drive and rear wheel drive models. The above is front wheel drive, the motors turn with the front wheels which must make the steering very heavy. Even more so on the other preserved example that has solid tyres. The ex Ipswich tower wagon at the EATM.

It was a surprise that they sent it to Birmingham unless there is a similar postcode. If it was Bristol it might be understandable as the district I live in is called Kingswood and there is a like named district of Bristol.

Mercedes electrical problems:- https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/54096/mercedes-electrical-problems-a-feature-of-the-model/

They had a six cylinder as opposed to a four cylinder engine hence the snout. Its predecessor was even more interesting, it was a battery electric and can be seen in the Ipswich Transport Museum.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I googled 'smoked bacon' and I might be tempted by some of the delights on offer. One thing though there was plenty on smoking your own bacon including a few on YouTube. My printer will not now be serviced until Friday. The bits for the service were to be sent directly to my address for the engineer, they should have arrived today but somehow were sent to Birmingham. Now to catch up on RMweb, be back later.

Alonso back with Renault 2021. https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/54079/official-fernando-alonso-returns-to-renault-for-2021/

I have received notification from the first wheelbarrow vendor that I am going to receive a 'full' refund. I will now wait and see what happens with the refund. They are such a bunch of cockwombles I will wait to see if they mess up the refund before I make arrangements to return the second wheelbarrow.

What engine did they use?

I seem to recall that each letter was in a hexagon or an octagon not a diamond.

There are some models from other manufacturers that are 00 scale or very near. Best of all is Tomica, who have the scale on the box or stamped on the baseplate, their current Yanmar tractor for example is very good and can be placed on a layout 'straight from the box'. A couple of rather surprising models at or near 00 scale come from Hot Wheels. First is a 1938 Cadillac coupe-de-ville which can still be found at swap meets and the other is a c.1931 Packard. The Packard I wasn't aware of until last year when I found one at a swap meet for a pound. Someone had tried to make it into a 'gangster' car by adding bullet holes to the windows. Both will require re-wheeling and a few extra touches but both look like thet are accurate.

Oops, nearly forgot, glad to see Robert back. Another thing I forgot, it was mentioned on BBC Breakfast this morning that you could donate old computers and tablets so that they can be refurbished and given to school students who don't have them and are having problems during lockdown. Unfortunately I didn't catch who to get in touch with to donate as I have a couple of devices that I no longer use.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. No ones mentioned smoked bacon yet. I got the taste for it from my dad. He was from a large extended family and some relatives had a smallholding in Rainham (Essex). Their cottage was very old and had a wood burning grange with an enormous chimney. They kept pigs and most if not all members of the family purchased a pig every year. When the pig was slaughtered one side was washed, salted and hung in the chimney which could hold half a dozen sides. My dads job when he was a youngster was to go with my aunt taking an old pram to collect the 'family' bacon. This had been in the chimney for several months and was well and truly smoked. The rest of the pig was used as fresh meat or converted into sausages etc. Everything was used except for the oink. The side of bacon was hung in the larder and my grandfather would slice a piece of as and when required. Sadly the cottage was condemned and demolished in the mid 30's and where the smallholding was is now under Tesco's car park.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. This evenings dinner was chilli, again dictated by the use by dates though I could have had something else. It looks as if the next couple of days are going to be wet but after that the summer should be back.

The Husky Forward Control Land Rover is also 1/76 scale.

And now no longer available.

Another one started at a low price.

I have a book which lists the scales of Matchbox models up too the first Whizziwheels models. It does however quote the scales given by Matchbox some of which are somewhat dubious. Husky did not quote scales but many of their models were to or close to 1/76. The Matchbox Morris J2 pick up is almost spot on 1/76 scale and has a lot of detail such as the rear light cluster and filler cap cast in. It has some dimensional faults but they are not noticeable until you compare it with the Oxford J2 van. (Cab too short and back axle to far forward.)

To be fair to the vendor it did start at £65.

Its a laser printer, it wasn't the cheapest and the cost of cartridges was a deciding factor. The one complaint I had was the size, I bought it 'off catalogue' and thought it was the same size as a normal home printer, its as big as a small fridge. I had made it clear I wanted a small machine to the salesman and it was a shock when it arrived. I had to moves things around to fit it under the computer table. It is quite capable of printing up to A3 size but I purchased it with the idea of printing transfers, something I have done only a couple of times.

And this old chestnut. https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/54039/mercedes-play-down-vettel-rumours-we-re-sticking-with-our-two-boys/

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Thanks all for the birthday wishes and here's to the next 854 million miles (the distance the Earth travels around the sun in a year). I was reminded that I share my birthday with Ringo Starr, he was on the radio when I was listening in the car. I've still got another 8 years to do to catch up with him. Its also Bill Oddies birthday today (79) but he seems to have been in hibernation for the last five years, I hope all is OK with him. The wheelbarrow is still in its box, I was preparing to construct it a while ago but it was raining. I have made arrangements for the printer to be seen too. Its going to cost £130 + £70 for a new magenta cartridge, OUCH! I would like to point out though that the cartridges on my printer are rather large, about four times the size/capacity of an HP one.

Found this film of test firing of a French gun 1937.