lapford34102

As a neutral(Wales) thought that Italy edged it with a better strategic brain behind them. A bit tougue in cheek but Youth vs experience, a couple of very effective Italians looked like the're due their pensions soon. Regarding penalties - overall success rate 50%, England managed 40%. Practice makes perfect..... Stu

Both the wife and I have to decide whether to go back to activities opening after the 19th, her quilting group and my model railway club. I've restarted swimming after the Docs OKing it and that does seem well sorted. Otherwise things will stay the same with no intention of ditching masks. Have been pubbing knce a week but thats outdoors on a clifftop so not much of a risk. Stu

Earlier this week the weather wasn't exactly good so the weeds got a reprieve andtrip to see the Sand Martins postponed so I got a bit more time at the workbench. The pictures pretty much explain themselves. Have attched all the boiler bits plus some homemade lamp irons and fire iron hooks. One thing that came up was epoxy adhesives. Sometime last year ran out of my two tubes mix it yourself stuff and had to replace it with the double syringe setup. Anyone else find these difficult to use? In the end separated the handle to become two and mixed in the oild fashioned way, one part at a time. The chassis is coming together but with the wheels simply plonked in to see how it's looking. Ended up using some recycled Romfords, not strictly correct as the crank is in the wrong place I'll live with that. Looks a bit of a mess After a coat of paint Thanks for looking Stu

Think now Hancock is gone we'll see an increasing drift in a particular direction, one I don't think I'm going to be that happy with Stu

Ok, any old thinner, white spirit etc is fine I find with humbrol enamel. Get some old card and try some mixes out before putting on layout. Stu (in haste, being taken shopping!!!)

Looks good, a lot neater than my efforts. A darker grey/brown wash would tone it down, brush it on or if you have an airbrush even better. Curious about the name of your layout...? Stu

My only comment is feeling sorry for the children of both of them, can't be easy Stu

In my typically erratic fashion gone of at a bit of a tangent as browsing the Wizard Models site for something and found the old Mainly Trains Airfix/Dapol/Hornby 14XX improvement bits were back in stock. It's a loco I always wanted to have on Drewry but was always somewhat lukewarm about the Airfix version though do have the Hornby version and was disappointed with the DJM/Hattons effort. So having a gash body on hand got the kit and decided to get on with it. Did a bit of searching around to see how others had handled it and eventually found this which helped and actually inspired me to go a bit further. https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=6987&sid=2f824c3d6c994fd6ed6fe44bc2c31276 Now I'd quite like do a High Level Chassis but as they're on Furlough that side may have to wait though I do have a Comet chassis that I bought when I got the spare body. I'm going to do 1453, have the plates, so inspired by Mr Willis's efforts have been hacking the body around. Orginally didn't intend to remove the top feed or move the tool boxes but as 53 is top feed free and has offset tool boxes decided to go for it. This is progress so far. Will update as and when as we're due to have the grandkids to stay...... 'nuff said! Stu

Been doing a LFT regularly now just to check and uploading results. Doubt I"m telling NHS etc anything they don"t already know so no issue from MPOV. Schools, anectdotaly from 3 I've still got contcts in is that it is patchy but enough to pick up potential outbreaks and act on it. Stu

Best wishes and hopefully each day things will get a bit better. Love tha analogy about the medbots and Japanese battleships, know what you mean from a friend"s time n ICU. My only comment would be if one starts announcing Tora Tora Tora might be time to start wearing your bedpan...... Take care Stu

Hopefully meeting up with family over the weekend but awaiting rsults. No1 granddaughter home isolating after positive lateral flow test in her school bubble. However it seems the pupil may well have faked a positve so everyone awaiting results of PCR test. Apparently a couple of widely available items are all you need. Granddaughter and mates absolutely fuming so said lad may well end up wishing he'd actually caught it. Someone once said that if electricity suddenly stopped working about a 1/3 of the planets population would carry on pretty much as normal. Stu

Quote "The situation could improve," he says. But, slightly tongue-in-cheek perhaps, he has some advice for consumers: "If you want to get something for your family for Christmas, start shopping now." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57446437 Stu

Been for a walk from the NT's White Cliffs centre along to South Foreland Lighthouse and back. All very nice and quite a lot people enjoying the clifftop walk. What did surprise me was the number of apparently foreign visitors, heard a lot of French plus Spanish being spoken so assume they must be going because if they've just arrived something isn't working. Stu

My covid antibody test checked for 2 types, one from infection and the other from the jab and the paperwork mentioned "longer lasting" with the jab. One theory would have an extremely infectious but only mild variant that gets everywhere and crowds all the others out because no-one takes much notice. Need to re-read stuff on "spanish" flu Stu

Did the same, was saomewhat baffled by some of the results. They looked to have got the "deprived" areas pretty much spot on but the others looked to be lower bands than I was expecting based on 3 1/2 decades of teaching in the area. The Wikipedia page sort of helped explain it, getting marked down if a distance from doctor or public transport. The darkest green area wasn't where I would have guessed it would be Stu

A number of the questions had a "rather not say" option to be fair but I do agree with you on the excessive amount of information trawling there is around. In this case there were the usual bits about Imp College not sharing it with anyone and I felt it was in a good cause hopefully Stu

Have done my Covid antibody test. All very straightforward apart from dripping blood over the kitchen table which didnt go down well. Have to upload a pic of the test and answer a whole raft of questions which look a bit intrusive like income but suppose it helps build a bigger picture. If test was right do have antibodies. Won't change what I'm doing but a tad more relaxed. Stu

Have a look here https://www.sanddmodels.co.uk/images/ff001.jpg They were first done some time ago and the staff uniforms are definitely 70's HTH Stu

Son-in-law 37 and family friend 38 now both had first jab - Pfizer. Walking down high street from station to beach noticed 6 new businesses had opened, 3 seemed to have popped up almost overnight. Classy looking furniture place, 2 fast food, a couple og high end coffee places and a micro brewery. At least no more charity shops or national chains. As for the Indian variant so far it looks to have ability to derail things,if it does some hard questions need answering. Stu

The IJN were very well trained in night (and day) fighting when it came to ship on ship engagement, Jave Sea, Gudalcanal campaign. And their torpedo technology was the most advanced of any - "Long Lance" torpedo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_93_torpedo. However they didn't have it all their own way, The battleship USS Washington "the only American battleship during World War II to sink an enemy battleship in a "one on one" gunfight" used radar very effectively. The sections on Naval Battle of Gudalcanal are worth a few minutes read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Washington_(BB-56)#Naval_Battle_of_Guadalcanal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Augustus_Lee#Naval_Battle_of_Guadalcanal Stu

Looking very good Steve. Have you sorted out the running yet? Stu

It's simply different perspective on things and I for one am happy to accept that. Sure he'll get jabbed at some point. Stu

40 year old son-in-law to get 1st jab at weekend. Plus NHS letter today asking me to do a covid antibody test as part of survey so that"ll be exciting...... Stu

SWMBO and I had our 2nd O-AZ jabs this afternoon, that's just over 7 weeks from the 1st. Done at a local mass vacc centre it was busy but very well organised. No queueing but quickly processed for name etc and directed to a socially distanced seat set in twin rows and the vaccine brought to you, Very efficient. So far sore arms only. Stu

W55015, whiskers, Aug 64 Stu