Sadly if the Medway Queen cannot be preserved, as a Dunkirk veteran, then I can’t see any future for big ship preservation.

It is possible to anneal dural, but it is harder to judge the temperature at which it is annealed; the standard guide of soaping it and waiting until it turns black, is unreliable because soap turns black way before dural is annealed , (I am reliably informed that soap turns black at about 275 deg wheras dural anneals at 475deg or thereabouts), and once the soap has turned black ,it can’t really get any darker!

One way, is to fix said piece of metal at one end and apply pressure with one hand whilst heating it with a torch(not a battery torch!) with t’other ; as it starts to become maleable you can take the flame away ,and feel the metal tighten up and pull the other direction, works best when the bit you are holding is at least a foot away from the naked flame!

They’ll never run ,the rocker covers are all dented.

You will all be pleased to know that the remorsefull youth who climbed the war memorial and broke off the cross has organised for it to be repaired in quick time and the work was completed this week, ( and featured on Anglia News ), good for him, wev’e all done silly things in our miss-spent youth, I suspect that he prevented an accident waiting to happen, a loose cross falling on a group of wreath laying Cubs could have been a disaster.
As AG mentioned, the incident of the German pilot breaking his leg on the war memorial beggars believe.
A Heinkel attacking Bocking Courtaulds factory was shot down by a Hurricane, though this pilot was also shot down and killed by return fire.
The Heinkel crew bailed out and landed in a string across Finchingfield Green, the pilot hitting the war memorial and breaking his leg.
The crew surrended without any trouble and were arrested by the local copper, who took them to a house nearby, now the Swan Gallery, which was inhabited by a Danish female spy, the only person in the village who could speak German.
After a bit of medical treatment and a cup of tea, they were taken off to Dunmow by their military garrison, the mysterious Danish spies son was consequently given quite a bit of stick at the local school after the event.
I know that she was parachuted into Denmark later and was responsible for a succesful guerrilla campaign, I would love to know whether any of these people, German or Danish, still survive.
See you Sunday AG, yes I will be wearing the A-2, some of my other old uniforms may be considered unsuitable, pint in the Fox afterwards perhaps, except it’s Greene bloody King.

Is it possible the damage to the war memorial was caused by the German airman colliding with it in 1940? I presume that it pre dates that encounter.

A cautionary tale (if one was needed),involved a chap I new at school, he decided to climb up a rather large monumental angel in a local churchyard, it fell on top of him, and that was that; he’s been “pushing up the daisies” for about 25 years now.

“Model aircraft making 13 year old teenagers?”

Is he having a go at me again?, I’ll get me Dad to sort him

He’s right about one thing though, mention DB at your peril!!

I do love the way that you produce superior quality items, and then say its the best that you can do!

Incidently your project has been mentioned twice today already, and I was going to ask how you were getting on, so ,”how are you getting on?”

Does the list include the Jag engined prototype replica?