POND: Attached is a photo of the community pond in Connecticut that I have my eye on for early spring toy boating. Every time we walked over there this autumn I forgot to take a recent purchase of a battery powered Police Launch with me.
DECK: A picture of the table on our deck Sunday morning. I'll have to shovel the snow away if it's still there to put up our winter bird feeder.
BATS: One of this weekends projects was a painting progress photo of Dan, Digby and Sir Hubert meeting an alien life form. Photography is the best way to see how a paint job is progressing.
St. LOONEY: I finally added a church to Northern Heights. In my head before construction there were always going to be lots of bridges and church spires. Some bridges happened, this is the first church, the name is taken from Monty Python.
GLADIATOR: I don't know if kit building was one of your childhood hobbies but I'm old enough to have been in at the beginning of Woolworths and Airfix. Back in 1956 I think, the Gloster Gladiator was the first biplane kit.
I remember both my mother and father getting glue every where when collectively we failed to add the upper wings.
I had the worlds first monoplane Gloster Gladiator with Biggles flying it complaining about the lack of wings, I was recreating the action of Biggles Sees it Through. This had Biggles and chums flying Gladiators in Finland.
Around that time I also read the WW2 propaganda stories of the three Gloster Gladiators on Malta, Faith, Hope and Charity.
I had planned to one day build all three, but first I build a FROG kit which was an easier model to build. Over the years I had acquired two other old kits and last year I bought the latest Airfix version which was pretty much unchanged from 1956.
The beauty of the last kit was it came with a decal sheet for all three aircraft, Faith, Hope & Charity. Last week I built them. Given all the kits I've built over the years I should have done a better job with the top wings, still they do have top wings this time!
The picture shows Biggles about to lead Faith, Hope & Charity on a dawn patrol. This project was much less effort than that of the James May show a couple of years ago when he had built a full size Spitfire Airfix Construction Kit.
Regards,
Terranova47
USA
I like those diorama shots, very nice. The James May lifesize Airfix Spitfire is on display at the RAF Cosford museum. I saw it last year.
ReplyDeleteMe too Kev. These are great projects Terranova. Is NYC well stocked with model and old toy shops for all your modelling needs?
ReplyDeleteSadly there are few traditional hobby shops in NYC. There are a couple of model railway shops one of which has a wider range of diecasts and plastic kits. If visiting NYC there is Jan's on Madison Avenue in the 80's owned by a master modeller. If anything I did was a fraction as good as his work I would be very happy. I have my own trove of old models that I do not have room for once completed, Sunderland flying boats in 1/72 scale are not small!
ReplyDeleteThere are the occasional old stores that have art supplies and modelling and some modern chain hobby stores with limited ranges but if wanting something specific ebay or on-line has become the place to go to.
Over the years when visiting London there have been fewer and fewer specialty hobby shops, but there are a growing number of on-line marketers that for me have the advantage of shipping to the US VAT Free, that pretty much means that shipping is free.
I know what you mean about Ebay Terra. Its been an absolute boon for me as a Project SWORD collector and only this winter its come up trumps again! I shall blog about my latest bounty in the new year once I open it over the holidays.
DeleteI also recognise your description of disappearing shops. I was shocked to learn that Comet Miniatures closed in London. I must have read their entire double page advert in Model Mart magazine every month for 10 years in the Nineties! They seemed like pioneers of sci fi model sales to me.
There was a large model shop in Leeds called Beatties but I think thats gone too. I always visit model shops in smaller towns in case they have any vintage toys!
Beatties I think started on Holborn in London then became a national chain. If they could not survive with their buying power what hope small retailers. Dear to my heart was the Comet Miniatures model of Dan Dare's Anastasia, his personal spacecraft.
DeleteCorrection: Jan's Model Shop is on Lexington Avenue between 93 & 94th Streets
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