treker_ed

The more recent F-35B have been painted in a single colour, and the RAM panels don't stand out as such. Not sure this applies to those being delivered to the RAF but certainly those currently being delivered to the USMC and USN have much reduced visibility in the paint differences of the RAM tape. It's one way to get round the need to mask and paint the different colours.

Took the spares team a week to organise, but the replacement sprue finally turned up today! Cut in half to fit in the box they used... But was packed in safely with lots of foam (now have a lot of foam packing to use to plug various orifices on models when paintingsunglasses

Several bits and pieces... From Antics in Bristol - 1/72 Revell MR.3 Shackleton & 1/48 FAA Corsair III. Direct from Airfix the post war release of the 1/72 Tempest MK V, and the 1/72 PR. XVI Mosquito. The Tempest is coming to the top of the build list... Back when I was a lad, and not that long ago either to those in the cheap seats commenting otherwise(!!!) I happened to be a member of the local Air Training Corps unit, 80(Bolton) Sqn, and we adopted the same sigil in our sqn emblem as 80 Sqn RAF, a bell. There maybe more of a historical connection, but it was never explained to us at the time. So there is a definite reason for wanting to build the kit, and for wanting to buy it in the first place. It's stuff like this, that helps keep the old modelling juices flowing and helps to keep the dreaded mojo loss away.

Well, after several emails backwards and forwards to the spares team, I'm finally getting the sprue. And I have to thank Dale @ Airfix for this. In the end, I had to email the product manager for Airfix, Dale Luckhurst directly to get anywhere. Spares would not send me the sprue despite the fact that this was a factory/manufacturing problem. The only answer they would give (and to be honest, it seemed like an automatic reply) was that they had none in stock, yet the kit is still on sale! It took them 3 attempts of asking for my contact details before they realised I had already supplied the information in my original email! On the final reply they stated no sprues available, try later on the year.... Over the Easter weekend, whilst the double value Hornby rewards points offer was on, I took advantage, and spotted the kit still on sale. I rang customer services, who agreed that they should be supplying a replacement, but that I needed to email the spares team again. Yet again, none in stock. In desperation I put out a plea for anyone's email address from Airfix that was a manager, and I was given Dale's. This morning I received an email advising a replacement was being organised. Public shout out to Dale @ Airfix for all his help.

For the first time ever (well since getting back to building in 2011) I have opened a new kit today to find a whole sprue missing! A06021 - Blackburn Buccaneer S.2C (RN) Sprue E is completely missing. This would include a lot of the ancillary parts, but also all the weaponry, and the bomb bay parts - and the most important of those - the bomb bay door! For pure ease, I tend to do mine with the bay door closed - save a lot of painting and hassle in that area. I bought it back in 2019, probably several months after it was released, but not directly from Airfix. Cannot remember who the retailer was. But sadly, due to several personal issues, I was unable to build it at that time. Then we had 2 years of a certain disease going round the world, and I was not mentally in a good place either and did not build anything at all! Come round to Feb/Mar 2023, and I'm getting back in the saddle, and have just finished A06022 Buccaneer S.2B (RAF) and was looking forward to building the earlier version from the RN. I was disappointed to find that the whole of a sprue was missing! After this long, I doubt that Airfix still has any spares, or indeed will be able to help at all in any way at all, but I have already emailed customer services to enquire. If not, I have quite a few bits of plastic waste just sat on my desk! Quite narked that this is wasted money now!

Company called EBMA Hobby and craft maybe the ideal company for you. They make laser cut wooden storage units for paints, tools etc. Have a look at what they have. https://www.ebmahobby.co.uk/ (No association, just have a few bits and pieces, and find them useful and I mean really useful!👍)

When you consider the lead time for idea, through research, to design, they have stated this can be 3 years. What we maybe seeing are the consequences of the pandemic and the inability of being able to get out to physically see what they want to measure, photograph etc. They have to rely on what they have available and adapt existing tools. This may be the case for a couple of years whilst it works through the system. Some of the items may already have been started when it all kicked off, so were put "in the sack " to tide them over. The gannet may be one such project, and that's why we don't have so many new tools this year compared to last the last couple of years.

Sadly, I think this year will not feature much plastic being boughtcry My other, large time wasting(!) hobby is PC gaming. 3 Years ago, in Jan 2020, I updated my gaming PC with some fairly beefy components, and fairly high end stuff at the time. The rig it was replacing had lasted nearly 9 years, with just a few bits replaced - extra storage, extra RAM, new graphics card; but in the whole, it had lasted fairly well. But the time had come, to do a fairly major rebuild (nothing survived except the storage drives...) Fast forward to Jan 2023,and I had started to replace little bits - extra storage, new graphics, new cooler for the CPU, nothing too major. However, over a couple of weeks, an annoying tapping/clacking noise had made itself known. Hours of diagnostics followed. Tracked it down to a small, cheap, plastic fan that cooled some small motherboard components. For a really expensive, top end motherboard, it was let down by a cheap plastic fan that failed! Worst of all, it could not be replaced. Lots of research showed many users in the same position. And... the same part number from the fan was being used across multiple iterations of the fan, all with different configurations. So could not identify the correct part! The manufacturer would not replace, as their argument was that this part was not a "user-replaceable part". Ah well, time for another upgrade methinks.. So I've updated my gaming rig with new motherboard, new processor, new memory. Apart from a slight hiccup (tends to happen with new tech) system is running smooth as silk. Downside - no buying any new models until this lot is paid off!

If you choose to upgrade to express delivery service, instead of the standard service, that will be delivered by DPD. However... there have been quite a few times when ordering that the system has not allowed me to upgrade the delivery, and I've then raised this with customer service. Initially I was told to put it through, and then ring back when I received my oder confirmation and they would then be able to upgrade it manually, no problem. Put the order through, rang back - oh no, sorry we can't change your order once it's been processed, and cannot change the delivery type! Several emails sent off at the time about that and have also now sent another about this latest farce of a delivery. When will they learn that this is having a detrimental effect on their company!

Airfix Club package 2023! Ordered Tuesday, 24/01/2023. And arrived on Friday as my renewal was due on that date! Lovely looking kit, and box is filled to the brim... One massive negative though about the delivery (which has been reported to Airfix/Hornby customer services), Evri decided to just dump the parcel on my doorstep and not bother knocking on the door to let me know it was being delivered! Didn't even have any notification from Airfix that the parcel had been despatched. Not too happy about any of this really. Where I live, we seem to have a lot of doorstep parcel thefts, so I was lucky it was still there when I found it on the way out of my house at 16:45 to go and run some errands. Mind you, I suppose the other only positive, unlike a lot of my neighbours, at least they found the right house, on the right street! Half the time round here, they can't find the simplest of addresses correctly! I do wish Airfix/Hornby would get rid of Evri/Hermes as a delivery company, they really are the worst in the UK (offically as per a CAB survey in Nov 2022!)

Key publishing are producing a guide to building the Airfix Spitfire IX. https://shop.keypublishing.com/products/step-by-step-spitfire?_pos=2&_sid=0659a322b&_ss=r

It may be a little bit of thread revival - but I think in this case it's fairly worth it. Going back to the whole "is it worth it?"... This years club membership (purchased in the UK) was £30, they gave an automatic 10% discount, so saved straight away on that. Of the 2022 releases, I've bought all that have come within my interests, saved over 60 flying hours and manged to order a copy of the Avro Anson with the accumulated hours. In total that's over £70 in discounts - twice the cost of the club membership! I would say that membership has definitely been good value this year! Not including the club kit of course which is also adds to the value. I will more than likely renew next year, especially after seeing next years kit at Telford. Exclusive 1/72 FR.9 Meteor!

No pics at the moment, but just had notification that my 1/24 new tool Spitfire is on the way. On top of that, had call earlier to pay the postage for my flying hours kit! As I had 60 hours saved up, I decided to go the whole hog and ask for a new Anson! That should be with me during next week!

UK law states that if you have any issues with a purchase, your initial point of contact to resolve any problems is with the company you purchased from. They in turn will deal with the manufacturer. Airfix have had issues in the past with "unscrupulous" people claiming multiple parts missing. Who can blame them for now having this policy in place. In addition, they do not carry thousands of kits in stock for every kit they make anymore like they used to, so do not have a continuous supply of spares. As stated, your first call MUST be to wherever you purchased from for them to resolve any problems, it is their legal responsibility to deal with.

I've only just seen this response - I may have been able to get it cheaper (possibly) but then that money would not have benefitted Airfix directly. I will only buy from 2 or 3 retailers online; Hannants, Wonderland Models (in Edinburgh) and Airfix due to having had really bad experiences with others. I will not purchase from Amazon or E-Bay, prices may appear to be better, but I prefer to place my monetary support where I know it will be welcomed such as Airfix, or Hannants etc. That's my choice to make!