BANYAN

Big call Keith - I'll stay away from that debate - Luckily I stick to good ol' rum (Bundaberg preferably) cheers Pat

Looking good Keith; you're well and truly down the rigging path now. cheers Pat

Up to your usual very high-quality joinery work Richard; slowly coming along very nicely. cheers Pat

You're welcome to the Fosters Glen but I will try to warn you off that exported 'dishwater' . That diorama is starting to look really good. cheers Pat

That looks soooo good Glen, a great outcome for your painting efforts. cheers Pat

For a hull made from no plans that looks pretty good. Probably too late to add some additional filling/backing behind the ply to satisify those 'starving cows'; but if needed you can always glue a second layer in the 'holllows/flats to fill those areas out before sanding? cheers Pat

Visually stunning and a great testament to your skills Keith. cheers Pat

Ah so that's the trick - gradual grooming - puts paid to my 'shock and awe' approach Looking really good Ian, those line look really good; you must have put considerable effort into the fairing? cheers Pat

That is a very nicely detailed model; especially at the scale you are working at Eberhard. Impressive! cheers Pat

You're making great progress and she is looking great Keith. Very nice! cheers Pat

I have somehow missed this delightful build Chuck; looks great and up to your usual very high standard. cheers Pat

That's looking really good Steven, the sails and increasingly dense web of rigging is really adding interesting detail to show her off. Hat is 'doffed' for such great detail in such a small scale of working. cheers Pat

Hi Glen, I am sure you understood I was simply 'stirring the porridge' so to speak BUT, will be tickled pink if you do. You are developing a very interesting diorama and presentation of your latest creation. cheers Pat

That's looking so good Glen; you could get a second job in movie model making. cheers Pat

Looks good! Nice use of the tools to achieve this nice crisp bit of joinery. cheers Pat

Looks great Steven, a creative solution. Do you have any concerns that the PVA may be affected by humidity in the future? cheers Pat

I'll hopefully stay away from any inuendo and simply say your creations are looking great Glen . Oh, and I still think a couple of spears sticking out of those creations will look great Sorry, couldn't help it., my fingers just kept typing. cheers Pat

I hope all works out well for you Richard. this will be one eye-popping sight to see with the mechanism in place and working the oars. cheers Pat

Looking good Vlad, those carvings came up really well. cheers Pat

Great info Bruce, thanks. It helps to clarify some of the issues. Seems this Uni has a decent Maritime/Naval Archeology department as Mark Staniforth is a Professor here and he had produced a couple of papers on this subject also. cheers Pat

I hope it arrives soon Harry; hopefully all in good working order -- no trouble with mine as it was well packaged. cheers Pat

That's a very interesting find Druxey, thanks. cheers Pat

That's the sort of approach I am also looking at Keith. If I restrict its use to simply laying down primer then even if I only get 10 uses out of it, then that is probably 10 models as I use my high-end one (H&S) for the finer and smaller parts. The big 'seller' for me was the interchangeable larger volume paint cups which is what I needed. Roger, I agree, there is not much fine detail work I do with an airbrush. If I was an artist or doing heavy weathering of a plastic model then there is no other way but to go for a better quality brush. Harry, I think you are in an even more restrictive situation than me. I put some water through the other day it it worked fine with the two larger needles. I'll be putting some [aint down soon using the large cup, and that will be the real test. I wouldn't want to drop the thing though, it is very light weight. cheers, and many thanks for all of the comments and feedback. cheers Pat

What an outstanding model Keith; it has been a true pleasure to watch you bring her along. She is a testament to your skills. cheers Pat

HOF - I will see if I can find some Harry, I think the best bet would be to contact the guy that runs the Barbatos Rex YouTube channel as he seems to have an inside run with these guys. Will let you know if I find anything. Kurt, James et al. The great pity of all this is that I only became aware of a local guy (Scale Model Supplies - SMS - who lives just up the road from me) who makes great paint, but I just found out he also makes / has a range of airbrushes called DragonAir (probably made off-shore though) a few days after posting this. If I had known of him earlier, I would have ordered one of his airbrushes instead. Just to clarify, I wanted something cheap, with a larger needle and had an extra-large cup option simply to lay down primers. I did not want to spend the sums some of the 'brand names' charge for this purpose. I will stick with my H&S for fine work though. The problem with some Brand names however, is that to buy them or to get spares etc down here is SUPER expensive due to the high postal rates from the US and some other countries these days - this has done no favours for US companies we typically use in this hobby, and I have had to stop purchasing from the likes of Sherline etc as the postal costs are just not sustainable (the postal charges are the same if not MUCH more than the items). As an example: I wanted a glass bottomed airbrush cleaning pot. I very recently looked on Amazon and found one at a very good price (less than US$25), but only available through Amazon US - that price was inviting until they added US$83 for postage for quite a small item - GO FIGURE! For this very reason, while it is great to be able to support local businesses (and I fully support this intention) those kinds of fees/charges just do not make it viable to order from the larger companies. Prices within the US may be okay, but for us international customers to buy say a Badger, you can double or triple the prices down here for such items. That is why we look at these cheaper options occasionally. I am not trying to start a flame war here, nor to belittle any products or such, and actually agree with the sentiments expressed - its just that in reality it is hard to put into practice when these sort of prices affect people whom may be on a budget? This post, and the original, was simply intended to try and help out others in a similar situation - buying 'Branded' is sometimes simply not an option; it would help if these 'big brands' tried to do something about the exorbitant postal costs sometime applied. cheers Pat