19 October 2025

Spent the whole day at the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition. It advertises that it is the biggest which I think means it's one of the only ones left? It was always too expensive for my budget when I was just doing the Bristol and Harrogate Shows, and while it had the extra space provided by the tent, I think there was more prior to the Covid kerfuffle.

I took the time to sit through the three lectures. I remember them being in one of the buildings out the back in the past, so the noise from the rest of the show was a little distracting, but all the talks were well presented and interesting. I'd not got a lot of money to buy stuff, but took the opportunity to pick up a set of lathe tools with 6mm shanks which will go nicely with the taig lathe when I finally get around to setting that up. I also picked up an assortment of tweezers as it's something I have not actually worried about in the past, but the next jobs would be easier using a pair rather than getting super glue on my fingers which I normally do.

One of the things preventing me spending any more was that I'd blown £53 on part 88 of the Flying Scotsman kit. The one part that had gone missing and which everybody seemed to be searching for. I'd already picked up a chassis from Partworkscollectables and I'm not sure why I went and checked availability on Thursday since I DID have my name down for an email if it came into stock! But it was in stock, and when I added it to the basket it 'adjusted' the quantity since it was STILL in my basket from over a year ago ... It should be with me Monday and then there is no reason to preventing me starting to build that project. First step, I think, is to scan the magazines and sort the assembly instructions over the earlier section as I know there are corrections and a couple of changes that occurred once deliveries of the parts started. Flying Scotsman Build will stay with projects on the MEDW site.