Harrogate Model Club Something for the Weekend

As the Honourable Member for East Lancashire has covered the Bolton show elsewhere I will add little beyond the thanks and congratulations of all the Harrogate Model Club members for a cracking day out.

- Gary Hatcher

Myself, my son Hugo, Colin ‘Flying’ Pickett and Mr Chris Williams displayed with some aplomb, although I was obliged to pack the Jetstream and the Day-Glo Meteor away early in the proceedings to clear up some space so Hugo could build his Airfix faux Lego Spitfire. The usual fun was had with kits bought, deals struck and of course the ever welcome opportunity to browse through Paul the decal man’s fascinating boxes of pretty things.

On the home front I have the usual pile of kits under way, chief among them at present a Revell Tornado GR.1 that I am taking some pains to finish accurately as a (very) early 9 Squadron machine. A number of fine resolutions to finish various essential projects has been shaken recently by the imminent arrival of the Gaspatch Hs 123s, for which I will probably drop pretty much everything, and this has led in turn to my digging out a number of part built 1/48 Luftwaffe kits, including two Eduard Fw 190s that had progressed well into the paint stage and in one case beyond. These are an A-8/R-2, which I now regret having made an R-2 because I don’t like the empty cannon ports in the upper cowling, and an A-5 that I wish was an A-6 because I wanted to do a chequered cowling but cannot find any schemes I like that are not either an A-5 or an A-6. In fact I can’t find any A-5s I like at all at the moment, so these particular builds are still waiting for inspiration.

Actually in spite of this I have finished quite a lot of model kits in recent weeks, albeit not without a little assistance. Hugo has developed a considerable taste for plastic of late, and not unlike his father his enthusiasm for the hobby currently outweighs his technical ability to build the things. This has on the one hand eaten into my already scarce modelling time while on the other it has allowed me the opportunity to slap a few interesting kits together out of the box for all the world as if it didn’t really matter.