Dave Hunt

Is that a picture of the latest Muddy Hollow barrage balloon?

Dave

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

The laser unit of course has been adapted to shoot down marauding flying machines of the Red Baron....or maybe Puppers?

Shhh, don't give the game away. So far the UPCS* hasn't heard about the latest AA defences.

*Ursine & Pachyderm Cake Stealers

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

  That'd be a "Blue on Blue"......

 

Oh, too late.

Dave

It seems that TNMs are heavily in to recycling, which in my opinion comes into George Orwell's 'good thing' category. A few years ago I dismantled a dead CD player and so far the motor unit has been incorporated into a friend's model railway turntable, the steel sheet carcase has to date provided the material for two sets of locomotive frames, the acrylic sheet over the front display panel has produced window glazing for several buildings, and the on/off switch is part of a layout control panel.

Dave

Chin up, HH, you may, like us, soon return to normality at the Muddy Hollow. The last of our visitors depart today but unlike the exhortations of the country code, as well as footprints they are leaving behind a trail of near devastation (or so it appears to my jaundiced morning eye). How STPs cause so much chaos in such a short time is a source of mystery. The likelihood of any modelling time in the near future is unfortunately akin to the longevity of snowballs in the Sahara or cake in the vicinity of bears and hippos.

A little bird from another thread tells me that our exiled correspondent from the Charente and his good lady celebrate 42 years of wedded bliss today so congrats to Jamie.

TTFN people.

A jolly fine time was had at Attingham Park although there was no sign of the Muddy Hollow gang. I had a nice chat with Coastalview, who recognised me straight away by the row of medals I wore in recognition of leading the successful hippo wrangling expedition on the Limpopo in '98 with my old mucker Major Dennis Bloodnock. 

Have a good night/day/somewhere in between depending on which part of the globe you currently inhabit.

Dave

That's easy for you to say!

Dave

OK, I'll bring it with me when I land my Sopwith Camel in front of the mansion (after having strafed the HH party).

Dave

PS, if you see someone quite tall wearing a Stetson and black jeans, ask him if he knows me.

Happy birthday for tomorrow Mike and welcome to the septuagenarians club. Keep making those marvelous wagons.

Dave

2 hours ago, coastalview said:

I start at 1330 and will be on (I think) either the entrance or exit to the mansion basement which you get to through the rear courtyard. 

 

Be good to put a face to an avatar

 

Chris

 Chris,

I'll try to call in on you. 

Dave

Our arrival time at Attingham tomorrow is 1200 - 1230. Where will you be stationed Coastalview? I'd like to say hello.

Dave

Yesterday's BBQ went well but has left me exhausted. No. 2 son and DiL leave today for an undisclosed destination to celebrate their 20th anniversary, leaving granddaughter with us while No. 1 son and tribe, who are staying in Dad's house overnight, go back to Derbyshire this evening. Then tomorrow Jill, granddaughter and I meet up with No.2 son and DiL at Attingham Park before they come back here until Wednesday when normal service resumes. It's delightful to see them all after such a long hiatus but I'm afraid that my stamina isn't what it used to be. Unfortunately I don't have HH's option of a retreat to the workshop as such a thing has been specifically banned in routine orders.

Our next social event isn't until the end of next month when we are supposed to be going to London for a reunion lunch at the RAF Club, providing, of course, that the government's road map doesn't run into road closures. We shall see.

And now back to the fray with the small pink terrorists. Wish me luck.

Dave

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

I will reiterate that if you had flown with the pilots I have, (including some from Crab Air) being able getting out of the aircraft at the earliest opportunity and not have to endure the sometimes  almost controlled crash at the end of the flight is merciful release.

You've flown with some of the good ones then!

Dave

A work colleague of mine used to say that anyone who washes the car without being instructed to do so by a higher authority, AKA SWMBO, is right up there, in his opinion, with those who jump out of fully serviceable aeroplanes without a really pressing reason.

Dave

I've obviously either woken up in some other dimension or been transported to a far-off place as by my reckoning it is a ban cauli day weekend but the sun is shining and it's warm with just a gentle breeze! As luck would have it we are indulging in the first family get-together complete with BBQ for well over a year so my amazement is unlimited. Added to that, I managed to fool the bear and hippo gang with dummy cardboard cakes so grandad's chocolate cake is safe and well and waiting to be consumed this afternoon by the marauding horde grandchildren. Prior to that, Jill has promised them that Grandad will show them his trains running so I'll even get to spend some time in the shed.

Have a good day everyone.

Dave

31 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Today we have been mostly....

 

 Deeeelightful! I'm envious.

Dave

Forgot to add last time that since the grandkids are coming there has been a grand baking session of Grandad's chocolate cake so ground and air defences have been set up to guard against raids by bears and hippos. Details are, of course, highly secret but include state of the art traps and deterrents along the lines of those developed by our Swiss correspondent.

Dave

16 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

You need a brass magnet!

I have one in my workshop. It's called paint. Every time I paint something, even if I clean up first, assiduously make sure the model is devoid of all contamination and take all sorts of other precautions there are generally some particles that find their way onto the freshly painted surface. Mind you, I hate painting at the best of times and if I announce that I'm going to be spraying a model, Jill tries to make sure she's out. It's not unknown for me to strip and repaint a model twice. My greatest disaster was when I had sprayed a tender and as was my usual practice had put it in the oven at a very low temperature of about 70 degrees for a couple of hours (enamel paint). Unfortunately the oven thermostat failed and two hours later I found an intensely hot oven containing a kit of parts with a firmly baked on dark brown glaze lying on the shelf, so goodness knows what temperature it had reached. I think that my sons learned some funny words from Dad that day. That was one of those occasions when the thought of taking up stamp collecting came to mind.

Dave

One thing you shouldn't be short of, Douglas, is adhesion weight - all that brass plate must weigh quite a bit. Is the boiler silver soldered together or just soft soldered? I'm not an expert on pot boilered models by any stretch of the imagination but I thought that boilers were generally silver soldered? However, the experts such as HH will have a much better idea than I have. I admire your determination to saw thick brass like that as having to do that is something I really dislike.

Dave

20 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

EU membership doesn't have anything to do with it. It's run by the European Broadcasting Union, whose membership is geographically diverse and by no means limited to Europe. Are any of your local broadcasters members of that organisation?

I did think it a bit bit odd that Israel was involved but was never interested enough to find out why. Wasn't it Israel that once fielded a woman with a beard?

Dave