Very good news at last, it will be good company for the Beverley, I often wondered whether it might end up there.

Incidentally, having taken over Airfix, do Hornby now have the Humbrol brand name and still produce those famous little pots of paint somewhere else.

Having started to sniff about since writing this, Humbrol paint wasn’t part of the deal and is now manufactured in China, where else!
It would be interesting to work out how many those iconic pots of paint would be required to repaint the Hunter, it could be a good publicity exercise on Humbrols behalf, assuming they still have the name.
If there’s any mathematicians with nothing to do today it could be a good exercise for the brain, first dig out a pot of paint, it might tell you it’s coverage area, I’ll dig one out from the garage, then work out the surface area of a Hunter, we’ll assume grey/green top surfaces and grey underneath, almost there, just need the number crunching, who’s going to get there first, someone might be lucky enough to have an Airfix Hunter paint chart, unfortunately I haven’t.

Ok my friend we’ll agree to disagree without falling out, I ain’t bothered about going, I saw them perform it properly 30 odd years ago, bloody hell, is my maths correct, and yes, I went to one of their Psychedelic light shows in the 60’s, Set the controls, Not Arf.
My vinyl version of DSOTM, which I still have by the way, was bought the day it came out.
Let me know if some of the stalwarts off the album ie singers and sax player agree to play with him, I doubt it, but who knows.
As for being the guiding light after Syd, in Waters terms, possibly, but I was under the impression that it was more of a collective which fell apart when they brought out The Wall, which in my opinion is a bloody awful album, I hate it, it’s never graced the Truman shelves, I gave up on them after hearing that one.
I think that the problem was that Waters, rightly or wrongly, was a bit too avant gard and full of his own ideas for the rest of the band to go along with.
In some ways he was right, Wish You Were Here was a good follow up to DSOTM, but they couldn’t keep that genre going for ever, there had to be a change of direction, but I feel what he wanted was a bit too severe, I think he should have looked out of himself, taken the advice of the others, and seen the market potential of a great band and sound, it is important when you have a ‘World Mega’ band here, thats why I dislike him, he screwed up and won’t admit it, he sacked Wright and upset Gilmour, not a good thing to do, then forgot to keep the Pink Floyd copyright.
I’ve seen so many programmes about this band, they tend to be pleasant about each other when interviewed, seperatately of course, but it will never work again, Geldorfs gigantic effort at getting them to play in Hyde Park was amazing, but you could see the cracks and fissures when they performed.
Sad isn’t it, you would think that old gits like them, and me, would be able to settle their differences after all this time and go for it, whats the point, they ain’t going to take the world apart anymore, or would they, if they thought about it and worked together, who knows.

Hope he gets a new one before the 18th! I’m going to see him at The Dome,opps sorry,The O2.

Yes, which he keeps advertising as the last ever public performance of ‘Dark side of the Moon’ in it’s entirety.
Whats it got to do with him, haven’t his former pals and Pink Floyd copywrite name holders got a say in this, is he trying to say it was his baby then.
Sorry, but his ego destroyed a great band, I wouldn’t go and see him if it was for free, pity he wasn’t tied to the pig when it floated off, I bet our Dave thinks the same.

I would have thought that in most discerning minds sexy a/c could only date from WW2 and be American, to match the popularised image of the charismatic pilots that flew them, so wer’e probably talking P-51, ‘Cadillac of the Skies’ and B-17 here.
As far as my missus is concerned though, it’s the B2 Spirit, she loves that aircraft to bits. She hasn’t been to that many airshows but has seen the blooming thing three times. She nearly passed out when we went to the last Mildenhall Air Fete and it was actually parked up, I had to bolt down my Polish sausage and walk half a mile through torrential rain so she could get soaked and drool over it.

Spitfire, possibly Griffin variant, with Hurricane about 100m behind flew north along the eastern side of Braintree, then swung round over High Garrett in the general direction of DX. This was about 13:30.
About 20 mins later the Spitfire, too much of a coincidence to not be the same one, flew back on it’s own in the reverse direction, only it was much closer and probably overflew the town centre. I didn’t get the chance to get it’s ID, I was cutting the lawns at the time and my missus alerted me to it before I could grab the bins.
What could this have been all about then.
Could it possibly have had a little play over Wethersfield before returning south.
God, don’t we have boring lives, I’m sitting here hating every minute while I work out unprotected areas in a restaurant for Building Regs, on the other hand I suppose I’m lucky in that I can take time out, cut the grass, and watch these lovely beasts fly past, hello I think it’s coming back again, yup, can’t see it, but it seems to be heading towards Colchester, too many trees in the way.

Fantastic picture, trouble is, you can’t see their knees. I presume Mr Tuck is wearing the white scarf.

Don’t get me started on the workplace…… I’ve noticed interviews with the early 20 set is worse and worse….. a classic reply to “what can your bring to the team?” type question “well, if I get through the day without loosing my temper its a good day as my family all have short fuses” – or my personal best…. I work for a large Japanese electronics company with 4 letters in the name….. we get to the Q&A at the end of an interview, first question from himself “whats it like working for the Japanese? I don’t like them funny little blokes”…….:eek: No lie, no exageration, word for word…. still, another 18 years and I can retire, after I end up working for HIM….!:(

No, no, no, don’t think that way, staying at my kids student place is fantastic, they are such amazing youths, they know so much and are keen to do and learn much more from an old git like me. When I was a student, I would have been appalled at my old man staying over for a weekend, but this generation is totally different, I get nagged all the time to come over and stay, and comment on the progress of their Airfix kits, as well as other matters. I love them to bits, they really are the future, I’m really impresssed with their attitude.

Having been involved in the model trade since 1982 including 7 years in th late 80’s/early 90’s when I ran my own shop I can honestly say that it is very difficult now to make a living from a model shop selling at full retail price let alone discount prices. The truth is that the turnover is comparatively small and the profit margins are poor compared to other “hobby/luxury goods.
Sports shops, jewellers and most gift shop items give a profit margin which is anything from twice to four times the margins available to model retailers.
I worked out that to pay rent rates and electric a back street model shop would need to turnover at least £100,000 a year and that is a tall order when you are in a back street. Don’t forget the above turnover is to pay the basic overheads from the profits and doesn’t include paying the owner any wages costs for employing staff or costs of extra stock to expand the business.
Modelzone are in a different situation as they are owned by a major importer who is able to finance stores in major shopping malls. The big malls have more visitors than the back streets so by being able to afford a prominently positioned shop they are able to attract more of the passing trade. You could argue that everyone else has the same opportunity but the financial risk and initial outlay involved to establish a shop in a modern shopping mall (including fitting out) costs is likely to be at least £100,000 to £150,000 and then you have to have more money to keep it stocked and pay the rent and rates until the cash flow picks up.
Unfortunately many small shop owners seem to forget that a smile and friendly advice goes a long way to helping ensure customers return but it seems to be the ones who offer poor service who survive.
Corgi have lurched in and out of trouble for a long time now. Modelzone have been buying Corgi overproduction at silly prices for a long time (by that I mean for years rather than months). Modelzone can afford to buy large qualtities if the price is right and Corgi have often chosen to sell them stock cheaply rather than continue to rent warehouse space to store the unsold stock so the arrangement has worked OK for both parties but there is only so long that a manufacturer can overproduce and then sell off the excess for peanuts before the whatsit hits the fan.
The problem is that there has been so much cheap Corgi around that it made it hard to sell new releases at full price because many collectors decided that it was better to wait as the model they wanted was likely to be available at a clearance price within months.
I suspect Hornby have the market knowledge to get Corgi back on track and the massive dumping of over produced stock should become a thing of the past. Stable prices for new releases should also mean that you can buy with confidence and not have to worry about your full price purchase being devalued by dumped stock a few months later.
Hopefully the Hornby buy out will prove to be a positive move. One thing is for sure and that is that Hornby have rescued Corgi from the abyss – they have definitely not bought Corgi to prop up Airfix.
From a retailers point of view the move to get youngsters interested in Airfix by making Dr Who kits (something which should appeal to the young and many older people) was a good thing. I know from running a shop that building kits is a lost art amongst the younger generation and the Dr who strategy just might get some building kits who will then move on to the aircraft ranges ensuring a good future customer base for Airfix and helping secure the future of Airfix for future aircraft kit enthusiasts.

Brilliant reply TJ, I thank you for that.
My son is 22 now and at Uni doing his finals. Possibly due to me, well parents can have influence if they try hard enough, he was an all action kid, Airfix models, scouting, everything you wanted your kid to be, but at the same time he was ‘cool’, he managed to combine childhood with Eminem, he was never forced into being something he didn’t want to be, I’m very proud of the fact that he is the only western true Masai warrior.
On the other hand our other youth, who was 14 last week, has never shown any interest in model making or whatever, he’s just obsessed with heavy metal music and girls.He’s a nice kid, but where will this go.
I told him last week that when I had my 14th birthday, my presents consisted of Hornby Dublo stuff, it’s a different life we have to face isn’t it.