Thommo

Nice!

NRL model for mates 60th - he's a Dragons fan, I'm Sharks 😉 Thatched English cottage for my mother for this Xmas Grosjean F1 crash Hubert Wilkinson, Aussie explorer (1/72) From a Frank Frazetta pic The lost & recently found Aussie Catalina Max Verstappen for the young bloke who pumps petrol at local garage & is a huge fan (1/24) Starwars scene for eldest daughters boyfriend

I don't really make kits much any more, mostly just scratch build diorama's for family and friends. Will buy figures/models and modify them for the dios though. Mostly 1/35 scale. From a Frank Frazetta pic 10th Dr Who for our eldest daughter Elden Ring for eldest daughters boyfriend Pod racer with working plasma bolt Princess Mononoke for a niece Model of a mates old Holden near a local bridge Youngest daughter commentating at Winter Olympics Niece surfing

Built this for our niece who is a keen surfer. First time playing with resin & making a rubber latex mold. Steep learning curve but lots of research & advice from the company who sell the resin got me there. Flexible blue LED lighting added into the base (runs off a 3V button battery).

Excellent. I know about snapping drill bits. I use those tiny little 0.2mm hand held ones you buy in packs of 10 from China for about $3 a lot. Very fragile, can't handle any sideways movement. Not sure how the tiny fibre-flood lighting will go? The only times I've used fibre I still a small hole in the end of the LED and glue the fibre in it.

I figured I should be able to sort it out too 😁 $5,500 at the panel beaters later....

I'm in Sydney visiting our daughter and just showed her your progress pics. She said "JE-SUS!"

Done up in the livery of the captured aircraft displayed in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Lots of extra detail added esp. engine, guns, cockpit, lower radiator. For some bizarre reason, the museum repainted it, painting over the fuselage cross & tail ID number though these are still vaguely visible through the green paint. And it seems they repainted the other crosses. And left the starboard flap with the lozenge markings. Someone told me this mold is still the one from the 50's, despite it being in a new 'Red Box'. I think they are right. It was ver

University of New England. I did both my degrees there in the 80's when it was really good. From all accounts, it has gone downhill a bit lately. Covid did not help. Staff redundancies. Online courses. Colleges closing. A VC who seems crazy as a cut snake (why do Uni's not vet better people who they are going to pay $600K pa???). The old New England Hobbies were in Armidale & Inverell but both gone now (owners retired, Armidale closed first then Inverell). There is a new New England Hobbies just down the road from us in Uralla - https://newenglandmodelsandhobb

Not far from there. Armidale.

Our daughter just moved to Brissy, living in Sherwood which is quite a nice suburb as far as cities go (I could never live in a capital city, love the country life & outdoors too much. Fly-Fishing!). I bought her a dash-cam for her little Yaris 😬. She is a very good city driver having lived in Sydney. City driving does my head in. We get a lot of Qld drivers down here in Northern NSW. Many just seem to be very unpredictable, do completely random things with no indication. And as for 'Keep Left Unless Overtaking', don't get me started 😄

Wow, this is fantastic. Just be aware, when you move to Brisbane & put Qld plates on your car, this will automatically disable your indicators 😉.

Just completed. A build video here:

I got this set recently, comes with a cheapie airbrush which works fine so far. https://www.dicksmith.com.au/da/buy/frontline-hobbies-hseng-hs-as186k-air-compressor-with-holding-tank-kit-includes-hose-hs-80-airbrush-hs-as186k/

I've got the same problem, displays cabinets full & I don't want to buy another, at least not till we move into our final retirement house in a few years. Not looking forward to trying to move them in one piece either. Scares me witless. I'm mostly building models for family & friends etc. now to give away.

BTW here is the build video.

Thanks mate. Next one will be little known Australian explorer Hubert Wilkins with his Vega 1 aircraft on the snow. Got a book about him for Xmas - fascinating bloke, no idea how he survived past 25!

The body is foam. Should add, I've never caught anything on it, but I've hardly used it so far. My epic Murray Cod spot was devastated in the 2019 drought (dead cod floating everywhere), and I doubt it will recover for several more years. For hooks on my big cod flies, I just use whatever I can find at BCF, usually thumping big saltwater bait hooks. For my bass/trout/carp/saltwater estuary flies, I'm a bit more discerning hook wise (though for carp it does not matter so much). I probably should take a bit more interest in the hook choice. For bream (saltwater), I always add a

And then we have these The epic Australian Murray Cod. The dream is to catch one over a metre (about 40 inches), though these are usually caught on bait or lures. But I'm aiming for one on fly. So far my best is about 75cm (29 inches). Murray Cod hit surface flies/lures just like your bass - a big explosion that scares the Hell out of you. Yes, I've tied some rat, mouse & big lizard flies for cod, but have not caught many on the surface yet - you can't strike on the hit (hard to resist), need to let them turn down with it. Used the airbr

I got a carp on Sunday that went 28". Struggled to lift the slippery sucker. Think it might be my biggest yet. Bit of a fluke as the river was quite flooded, but I thought I could see some telltale bubbles in a quieter backwater. Dropped the fly in, saw no action on the indicator, lifted to cast again & fish on! Interestingly, most carp fly fishos don't seem to use an indicator, but the I use the New Zealand coloured wool indicator system (https://www.strikeindicator.com/) & think it is critical over here as the take is so delicate, you never feel a thing. But the indic

I'm a keen fly-fisher too (trout, bass, Murray cod, carp, saltwater species) and even do a little guiding. I'll be doing more when I retire, but TBH, I still get to do a lot as I've only been working 4 days/week for the last 3-4yrs. I'm actually a bit tired of trout, carp on fly are my new obsession. 100% sight fishing, casting accuracy is critical & they are HUGE! A 20+ lb carp on a 6wt fly-rod is a real handful. Here's a video of one of my recent carp on fly sessions here in Oz - I'm also really enjoying learning saltwater species - bream,

1/24 scale. I'm storing my BMF in the fridge to hopefully keep the adhesive working? Holden's became a bit rubbish here on Oz in recent years. Pieces of junk like the Cruze and the Captiva (locally called the Craptiva) which had all sorts of problems. I had an old 80's VL Commodore which was ok, but started developing overheating problems. For reliability, it's hard to go past a Toyota!

Yes, I thought that too. I have some decanted hairspray that brushed on might do the trick.

Luckily in Australia, everyone gets free Medicare. Though if the surgery is 'elective' not critical, you can wait up to 12 months for surgery, though it is free. We pay for our own private health insurance which means you can get the doctor of your choice, and get surgery done fast, but you will pay again for having it done in the private system. Health access is also a consideration for us - how far will we be from medical specialists, can you access a regular doctor in the town. Many smaller towns in Oz are short on doctors, with some doctors not taking on new patients so that

What's just as important for a long healthy retirement as walks/aerobic exercise is regular strength work 2x or more per week. Wife & I compete in duathlons/triathlons which is great for aerobic fitness (a bit extreme really) but I noticed I got physically quite weak over the years. After my knees put me out of triathlons for about 7 years, I got back into the gym and found the strength I gained made everyday household tasks so much easier. Back into short tris now, but still try to get in my strength work 2x/week. You don't even really need a gym, a lot of the stuff we do i