Another week full of distractions that kept me away from starting the bodywork of the Special.

An outlet for a feed hopper in stainless steel, though it looked simple enough, was a challenge to get the bend allowance right for the internal tabs - which I then spot-welded to the top and bottom sheets.

I didn't explain properly how the tuck press male and female dies would be made. This picture demonstrates more clearly how the size of the tuck can be adjusted by simply altering the position of the panel in the jaws.

The irrepressible Jan sent me some pictures and a couple of videos of his latest adventures with the Hillman Special. I cobbled to together this compilation - it's a first for me to edit stuff together; I normally just clip.

In a recent clear out, Learned Counsel got rid of a spare Locost chassis he had hanging on his workshop wall. It's inspired me to do something about my spares department. There's a lot of things in there which I'll never need (until they're no longer there of course).

The Other Wright Brother has been experimenting with a new tissue covering method for some of his models. A very thin shrink film is first applied and secured with tissue cement, and then covered in a stronger than normal tissue applied with a cheap acrylic sealer thinned to 50%. The combination is almost bomb proof. This Spitfire wing had Solarfilm type covering on it, but over time - probably ten or more years - the wing had developed a twist over its span. The test flight on which this anomaly was discovered, was quickly aborted - happily with no damage.

I found two more candlesticks to go with the pair I purchased recently...

... and, entirely unconnected, I took a picture of the bales awaiting stacking on the farm.

Also awaiting attention is the ancient double-curvature machine I rescued from The Great Collector's emporium.

And the next thing I knew, I was looking at some alien spacecraft skudding by, from the window of a hotel in Blyth...

... where we were sent to load the brand new Van Oord cable layer, Calypso.