John Tapsell

Over the last 20-30 years, China in particular has benefited from a massive increase in western-style economic expansion. That's created a huge volume of people with disposable income and therefore a massive increase in the appetite for 'luxury' (non-essential) consumer goods. Models fall into that category. To service that market, a lot of new Chinese model manufacturers have appeared. The brutal reality is that the asian hobby markets are far larger and more lucrative than established western markets. Traditional first generation manufacturers like Revell and Mongram (and Airfix

I made a semi-regular visit to my favourite Night Shoot location last week - not the best turn-out ever but definitely colourful

Tamiya offer both enamel and lacquer paint ranges in addition to their acrylic range - not used either yet but they might be an option to consider.

If you're going to get it wrong, at least you should be getting it consistently wrong... 🙂

Orientation of the insignia on the cabin roof?

Most liquid cements are suitable for creating it - All you need is a cement that melts the plastic. It's been around for decades (used to be called 'plastic soup' in the 1970s and 80s).

We were about a 1000 visitors down on 2019, but we still had 9000 through the doors over both days and we're confident that we'll be back up to normal service in 2023. On average, about 500 of those visitors are arriving from outside the UK. There are lots of reasons traders didn't attend. Some long term supporters, such as Collectakit, are no longer trading. A number of European traders feel it's too difficult to get here now (after Brexit and the VAT changes) but others seem to find it practical to do so. I suspect some of the reluctance is around perception, so we'll be working

As a UK resident that view does not compute. I've never had any issue buying what I want, from where I want, at a decent price - whether that be locally in the UK or from overseas vendors (including paints and glues).

T'was ever thus... Unfortunately, model companies are commercial operators who make their profits by producing kits that sell in large number to the masses, rather than products that appeal to the cognoscente. That's why certain subjects will always be kitted by multiple manufacturers, whilst more 'interesting' (to us) subjects are ignored.

I use the Albion Alloys brass tube all the time (various sizes down to 0.3mm internal diameter). I find that rolling it back and forth (with a little gentle pressure) under a sharp scalpel blade will cut it cleanly and not collapse the tube. As Rob says, the slide-fit packs are great, not least because they give you a selection of sizes to work with in one pack. A mitre box is also a good alternative.

October 2014 this time

Some from 2016

The first RAF Northolt Night Shoot since 2019 took place last Thursday. It was great to be back photographing hardware under floodlights.

You are talking about an established concept called 'scale effect'. I don't think there is a defined ratio but in principle, you go for lighter shades as the scale gets smaller to match the visual impression of viewing the real thing from further away. There are those that argue in favour of it and others who dispute its validity. Personally, I tend to lighten the manufacturers' colours with a touch of white when I'm building smaller scales.

I'm posting this question a number of forums so my apologies in advance if you have seen it elsewhere. I want to get a broad overview of what our community thinks and whilst there is an overlap in membership in many forums, there are also many modellers who stick to one modelling forum. If you had to reduce your modelling toolbox to just six 'essential' construction (not painting) tools, what would they be? My pick would be: -craft knife (my weapon of choice is a Swann Morton No.3 handle with a 10A blade) -needle nose tweezers -Metal ruler -sprue nippers -pin