Smallspace 2026

Check me out! I am full qualified to dock a Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS!

OK, a few caveats. I docked it on a simulator provided by the British Interplanetary Society. I bounced off the first time, and the controls, and the level I was working at, only allowed me to line up on the target using up/down left/right forward and back thrusters. No yaw control, that's for more advanced pilots. Mind you, I did this after 2 minutes of tuition, and only bounced off once. And that wasn't catastrophic. Not bad then, and fascinating. 

Smallspace was it's usual friendly mix of modelmaking, original props and replicas, along with slightly more trade than normal. All this in a village hall. 

Obviously, the car park was home to some Daleks. 

There were some Dr Who lookalikes, although this is stretching the term a lot. The Second Doctor's wig was spectacularly unconvincing. Oddly, no Tom Baker, but we did get a Sylvester McCoy, a Doctor I thought badly served by the TV show. 

"There's no railways here.", said a chap from Milton Keynes model club, but we enjoyed a good chat with one of the exhibitors over the best sci-fi spacecraft (Eagle transporters obvs) and how the genre holds a mirror up to current affairs.  

Anyway, enough of this. Go and look at my photos over on Flickr.  

Saturday Film Club: Tin baths on the Isle of Man

A quick look at the Tin Bath racing that I saw on my visit, along with the skateboard racing I missed because Groudle was calling. 

Manx tat

 

Obviously, I bought some tat from the Isle of Man. This was limited because I already have so much Manx tat from previous visits, I always buy a couple of Groudle dayglo pencils for example, that I have to work harder to search out the junk. 

But a visit to Peel soon sorted me out. 

From the Bonded Warehouse, I bought a Summit Hotel plate. 8 inches in diameter, with real gold (yeah, right) edges, the picture shows the current Summit of Snaefell. The name "hotel" is due to there being a bar inside, otherwise it's just a nice cafe with rather good cake. 

The building shows dates from 1984, the previous stone finish with castellations version from 1902 having burnt down in 1982.  

The back of the plate tells me the maker is J.Jackson of Dewsbury. The telephone code is 0924, which dates it before 1995. 

The second bit of tat, came from a charity shop on Peel seafront. 11 inches across, it features crude paintings of "Kissak" around the Manx triskelion. 

On the back we have the letters Shd, and a sticker telling me that this isn't either microwave or dishwasher safe. I think this tells me it isn't particularly old. 

Worth the six quid? Well, I've never seen one before, and there is a picture of a locomotive on it, and the money is going to a good cause. It just seems so amateurish though. Surely a better illustration of a loco could be found? Or was this some design competition for kids? 

Feel free to tell me that either, or both, of these is incredibly rare and valuable! 

Painting Binface

 

This blog firmly supports Count Binface in the upcoming Clacton by-election. It is time for an elected representative with sensible policies such as bringing back Ceefax, and stamping down on the price of a 99 ice cream. 

Some time ago, before all this was fashionable, I bought a miniature Binface from Troublemaker Games, and with everything in the news, it was time to paint him up.  

Work started with a coat of black primer from a rattlecan. Then the silver parts were picked out using a steel colour MiG oilbrusher, a handy test of the new painting thing. 

Then the knee pads, gloves etc were painted with either Humbrol 66 or 67, close inspection of the costume shows two shades of grey. Once dry, the finishing touch was a wash of black Citadel ink.

At some point, I must have has a base for the figure, but it's gone missing. I'll make something up. 

Waterborne Wedneday: Tin Bath Racing

One of our Manx highlights was the Castletown Tin Bath races. It's one of those events that people on TV travel shows seem to find, and the rest of us never see. 

Taking place in the middle harbour, it's a big deal. OK the town isn't huge, but we found ourselves parking on a lane a good few minutes from the water. Not a problem, and when we arrived, it became obvious why. This is popular!

There are three main events. The first involves a rope strung across the water. Competitors take turns to ride along this, trying to drop into a giant rubber ring in the middle. 

Then there are more giant rings for the snake racing. Several are tied together in a line, and the competitors lie in them and backstroke their way along. Quite how the steering works is a mystery, but it's all good, splashy fun. 

Finally, the main event, which takes place in several heats during the afternoon - the tin bath races. 

These are real tin baths, some decorated, with a bit of wood across the back holding a couple of big plastic bottles or fuel cans for extra buoyancy. Competitors have to row from one end of the harbour, around a buoy, and back again. This looks fun, if you like close proximity to dark, wet and cold water, but it's also hard work.  Baths don't exactly sythe through the water!

Not all the competitors make it, and the local sub aqua club is on hand to pull people out of the drink, and just to be sure, the lifeboat is moored up with crews on board.  

We all loved it. I'm sure there is modelling potential here, but I'll be happy with a fun afternoon at the races and some nice beer. Mum would have been even happier if the lobster buttie stand hadn't sold out by the time we found it though!

Visit the official World Tin Batch Championships website. 

A few more photos on Flickr.