LSP_Kevin

This is really sad news if true. I have several HpH kits in the stash, but so far haven't got around to building any of them. I must change that soon! I was also planning to purchase their Ar 196 catapult and canopy sets, but it now sounds like I might have left it too late. But before we hammer the last nail in the coffin, let's see if we can't get something more official than a compelling rumour. Kev

Love it, Jim! Kev

Howdy folks, I've just published this week's What's New update. Enjoy!

That link takes me to the Imgur pages that hosts the image, rather than directly to the image itself. It also complains about my ad blocker, and won't let me access the page without white listing the site. (There's a reason I avoid the free image hosting sites after the Photobucket debacle.) Kev

I forgot most of it! With around 700 models in the competition, and probably 2000 when including the club displays, I really only saw a small fraction of what was there, in between gas-bagging. Kev

I also took a few snaps of some other things that caught my eye, but there was a lot of stuff I missed, and many great models beyond just these ones. This thing was gigantic! 3D print I believe: Some civil stuff: But the non-LSP highlight of the show for me was this gigantic-scale Back to the Future DeLorean, complete with animated lighting and a superb display: I really should have taken a video of it! Among all the other excitement of the day, the fire alarm went off at one point, and we all had to evacuate the venue, which ended up looking quite surreal from the outside: So there we have it! Good luck to all the entrants with their models in the comp, and hopefully next year I'll be in a position to not only attend more than one day, but also enter something! After all, someone needs to hold down that last place... Highlights: great models, great people, and catching up with the guys from Kotare; Lowlights: the food, and the trip across town. Kev

Locals will already be aware the The Australian Model Expo is currently on this King's Birthday long weekend at the Sandown Racecourse. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I was only able to attend yesterday (Saturday), and have posted photos of the Kotare Bf 109K-4 and Spitfire Vb in the relevant thread. Here I'll show a selection of photos I took of some of the models on display. I didn't take many, and mainly focussed on the LSP stuff, so apologies in advance for that. So, let's look at those first: Airfix 1/24: Airfix 1/24: Kotare Spit: Kotare Bf 109K-4 test shot build by Sam Dwyer: Quite amazing to see two 1/32 Liberators on the same table, along with 3 Lysanders! Oddly, the only LSP jet I came across was this one: There was probably an entire table of them somewhere that I missed. The stand-out LSP entry of the show for many of us (including myself), was Les Applebee's amazing conversion of the HK Lancaster to an RAAF Lincoln: Suffice to say that my photo hardly does it justice. More in the next post... Kev

Sorry about the duplicate image at the end of the post - the forum software won't let me delete it! EDIT I figured it out... Kev

Looking good! And congrats on the new baby! Kev

Great project, Jim! About as old-school as you can get. It's amazing that we have builds like this here, alongside 3D-printed kits and other modern marvels. Vive la difference! Kev

Fantastic work on the rivetting, John! Kev

Lovely paint work, Sasha! Kev

Nice progress, Leon. Great hobby room, too! Fire away on the 3D printing topic. Kev

Fantastic result, Tolga. And so fast, too! Kev

OK, here's the update. Model Expo in Melbourne is a 3-day event that takes place over the King's Birthday long weekend, but I was only able to attend yesterday (Saturday). Even so, it was a great show, with many magnificent models on display (not the least of which was Les Applebee's 1/32 Lincoln conversion). More pertinent to this topic however, was that I was able to speak not only to Richard Alexander about the status of the K-4 release, but also to Mark Robson (Kotare owner), who made a surprise appearance at the show. The official word is that the kit is now in production, with the exact release date down to the vagaries of that production schedule, along with the logistics involved with shipping them hither and thither. But for now, they're on target for the end of this month or early next for the kit to hit the streets. Here's a few (admittedly poor) photos of the production sprues: And finally, a sneak preview of the Spitfire Vb (early) kit: I was very pleased to hear that Mark is a fan of LSP, and he is of course a member here. Perhaps forums aren't dying after all! Kev

You should try the Aussie dollar right now! Kev

That's true enough - but given the length of time till now since the original announcement, I'm not convinced we'll ever see one from Special Hobby. That said, there's still scope for a decent, mainstream bubbletop kit... Kev

They announced one years ago, but there's been nary a peep about it since. This announcement will only serve to delay it even further (or kill it altogether). Kev

Beautiful job, Daniel! And now the subject of this week's banner image on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/largescaleplanes Kev

That's looking great! Kev

Brilliant! Kev

Peter has already made the announcement and started a build thread here: Kev

Lost for words... Kev

I probably won't even be able to get near the table! Kev

That would be Model Expo in Melbourne, happening this weekend. I'll be there tomorrow (Saturday), and hoping to check in with the guys (Richard, presumably). Kev