Severn Class lifeboat

 Friday 2nd April 2021

Severn class lifeboat - work-in-progress

Airfix were the pioneers of plastic modelling. They arose from producing other items from 1939 and produced the first plastic injection moulded kit in 1949 when they were commissioned by Ferguson Tractors to make a model of the Ferguson TE 20 tractor. In order to make that worthwhile Airfix made this in quantity to retail through Woolworths as a kit to assemble at a cost of two shillings.

Airfix were taken over by Humbrol and then both by Hornby. The history is quite interesting and worth a look on Wiki.

From my re-entry into this hobby I have concluded that the quality of Airfix kits, although pretty good, has been overtaken by the Japanese Tamiya who produce kits of outstanding quality. I have built from both these sources including this current effort from Airfix.

Quality is defined by:

1. Detail and crispness of moulding.

2. The way parts go together. Airfix have a lot of butt joins whereas Tamiya more often engineer proper joints.

3. Clarity and accuracy of instructions. I have found a few wrongly described positioning with Airfix and a scanty colour identification of parts. Even when indicated they just show a colour number which one then has to cross-check with their colour catalogue - Tamiya give you the colour and number on the instructions.

4. The parts come on several "sprues". With Tamiya parts are numbered and the numbers are logically close together on the  sprue in number order. With Airfix they are scattered over four sprues at random on this current kit. It can take lots of time searching for a particular part  - very irritating.

Kits from most manufacturers have highly attractive artwork on the boxes to lure you in, but they are also useful as reference during the build.

With this kit there are four of these sprues. Some parts have already been detached here. From the start the sprues are washed in warm soapy water to remove injection moulding release agents. Most modellers then spray prime all the parts in situ on the sprue

Here the hull parts are held together with masking tape to keep the butt joins in place while glue dries

I bought a set of 1/72 scale figures to paint and add a more lifelike presentation

Hutton Roof trig and crags.

Tuesday 30th March 2021 - Hutton Roof crags and trig

There have been many interpretations of "stay local." I have complied and only walked from home during this lockdown. Even though this is an AONB I have become, perhaps ungratefully, bored with repeating the same ground time after time.

Arnside has been overwhelmed with visitors at various stages of the pandemic and now national newspapers have included our village in a short list of the most recommended places to visit. As I drove out this morning the place was heaving with not a single place left to park a car and a long queue outside our local shop who, to give our friendly proprietor his due, has stuck rigidly to masks and limited numbers at a time. I was going to buy a sandwich for later but just drove on.

I drove ten miles deliberately parking in a remote spot to avoid the Hutton Roof trig carpark.  Strangely when I arrived at that carpark it was not full and I tramped onwards ascending through scattered woodland and archetypal limestone scenery. After twenty minutes I only needed a short sleeved shirt. The ascent was demanding but not too steep, just a good workout. There were only a few others about and after the trig, when I headed into more remote terrain, I saw nobody. Once walking on more level ground across cropped turf, and well drained dry limestone paths I had a feeling of euphoria not experienced for many a month. It was like  reading nothing but the back of the corn flake packet every morning for a year and then suddenly finding yourself reading Evelyn Waugh's Scoop, or Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana, both books reaching for me the pinnacle of enjoyment and humour with two authors, otherwise serious, having fun, but with such style and skill.

What a feeling of liberation, but with a hint of foreboding fearing that we will be scuppered again by those who are selfishly in denial of the blight. As one who has no problem with walking alone or with a like minded companion I have absolutely no understanding for or empathy with  those who gather together at popular honeypots with hundreds of others they do not know. Rather I would gladly pay not to have to do that. 

Walking into Dalton from my remote parking further up the road

What I thought was a stone circle at Dalton. A local resident told me it is the remains of a medieval village from the 1500s - Google gave more info:

http://www.matthewpemmott.co.uk/2006/09/dalton-deserted-medieval-settlement.html

What my friend Pete would call a proper garden: interesting plants almost as per nature - no regimented geometrical patterns

From the road on the way to the Hutton Roof trig car park

Zoom to yet another shot of Ingleborough

Closing in on the trig. Down to shirt sleeves only now

 

Yealand Storrs

 Wednesday 24th March 2021.  Yealand Storrs, Leighton Hall and Cringlebarrow Wood

Just a quick stroll taking advantage of blue sky and sunshine, but cold wind. Spring flowers now abundant. The main purpose of this post is to record a little crag I found in the woods which looked as though it might have seen a bit of bouldering action.

Setting off from Yealand Storrs

A bit of nostalgia from the days of my youth - parked at Leighton Hall

The rock looks fairly sound. The crag is bigger than it seems in the photo and looks to possibly have some chalk marks. There could be some savage moves on those overhanging cracks

The pin marks the little crag I found - SD 498 756 

Trying for something out of not much

Monday 22nd. March 2021 - Sandside quarry circuit

Along with fellow bloggers I seem to be continually trying to squeeze the last drop of something new from my locale. For ages I have only walked from home but today I gave in and drove about two miles to Sandside and parked for the climb up the side of Sandside quarry. I have featured this several times before here but it is spectacular. I don't know how big this ranks in the UK but the amount that has been extracted since around 1900 is colossal. I took a three-shot panorama and stitched it in Photoshop but barbed wire fencing in the foreground has found its way into the result, but at least you get some idea of the scale.

Further on I think I willed myself into having a mini epic exploring for the third time the derelict Observer Corps installation.

An extract from a previous visit:

Further on I re-visited the ruins of a WW2 Observer Corps post that I thought I had posted about a few years ago - I found the photos but not the post. It was of personal interest to me because my father, being deaf was unable to be in the conventional services in WW2 but served throughout at an Observer Corps post on Otley Chevin in Yorkshire. The purpose was to spot and report enemy aircraft.

I lost my way in the surrounding thorny, birchy, brambly woodland enclosed by various high wire fences with intermittent limestone pavement underfoot, all a bit treacherous. I found a plastic bag to safeguard me over a barbed wire fence and emerged with blood and scratches on both hands, but I was now in  a welcome verdant sheep cropped field. From here I have one of the three best views in my area looking right up the Kent estuary with the backdrop of the Kentmere hills way in the background.

Photo from a previous visit.

WARNING!

 Friday 19th March 2020. 9:00 am

Ten minutes ago I am sat with my son in my study we are chatting about all and sundry. During the conversation my son mentions Farrer's coffee. By the way he has just acquired a new Mac Book. Five minutes later son W received an advertising email from Farrer's coffee.

That is beyond all possibility of coincidence in my opinion.

We immediately thought of Siri but this was not enabled.

SCARY !

The Challenger

I reckon I can be pretty patient and I have no problem with my own company so up until now Lockdown hasn't been too much of a burden for me. I have explored my local area with more intensity than at any time in my twenty years residence here. It seems crass to complain but I now have to admit to myself that I have no huge motivation to explore further even though this area is an AONB with classic limestone scenery. I keep reading back about all the encounters and anecdotes from my long walks and more and more yearn to be off again to find new ground and have mini adventures.  In the first part of Lockdown I was sufficiently motivated to go for a walk every day for 100 days but that urge has gone and it seems to be just a couple of times a week now just to ensure my body doesn't seize up completely. Since the 100 days period I have had some salvation by taking up modelling which was something I did in my youth.

When I first rejoined the modelling scene I was aware that without use of an air-brush everything would be limited, but I also knew that its use is difficult to learn  never mind master. I bought one including the compressor and struggled for a long time blaming myself before I realised that it was just yet another inferior product. I then bought a better one and the difference is marked. It happens all the time for people embarking on some new venture when they are fobbed off with "starter level" equipment just at the time when they need the most help and quality equipment whereas a professional  tennis player with years of experience would probably perform up to standard with a cheapo racket from the Pound Store (until it disintegrated.)

I have now been able to use the airbrush on this latest model in a more sophisticated way creating a modulated, weathered  effect on the tank's paintwork and some darkening on the engine compartment covers, and also hints of rust and wear and tear on more used parts. All that is not too obvious on the photos but I feel I have certainly made progress and am now encouraged to experiment further.

Please click photos to see enlargement

The tank commander came with two options for arm positions but I either lost one arm or one was missing. He should have had his bent arm stretched down onto the turret so he now looks a bit odd. The other option had him with both hands covering his ears, I suppose reacting from from the noise of the 26 litre Rolls Royce 1200 hp engine of this Challenger Mk1.

The next few show the Challenger on patrol in my garden - trespassing cats beware. Definitely worth clicking to enlarge (I think)

Models update (Lockdown anti-venom)

I have just noticed that reading this live you get so far down then there is a note in small print saying "read more" which you need to click to se the complete post - what a nuisance!

This all started with a chat with my next door neighbour telling me he made plastic model kits. Lockdown was keeping me close to home and I have form in model making going back to my teens. Casually I started looking at what was going on in this world these days and browsing on You Tube I came across a Land Rover kit and I was launched.

Below is a summary of my efforts so far. The Land Rover has been featured previously along with its own little fairy tale.

Click to view if you want

I have not made a strenuous effort to display the models realistically except for the Spitfire, although even that needs setting up properly to exclude extraneous background.

Worth clicking photos to enlarge for slideshow

The pilot is just climbing in and his WAF girlfriend has come to see him off.

I used emery paper for tarmac and modelled the wind sock and used dried mixed herbs for the grass stuck down with watered  PVA glue

Just another angle but a bit of a Photoshop disaster