David Grummitt Managing Editor Guideline Publications david@guidelinepublications.co.uk
Ialways think of the months of July and August as the end of the modelling year. Working in education for much of my adult life and having school-age children, my year is still framed around the start of term in September and the summer months usually mean packing away the modelling material for an annual blitz of cleaning, gardening and DIY. Another factor, especially for modellers in parts of the US and southern Europe but increasingly, it seems, for the rest of us, are summer temperatures. During the recent heatwave in the UK, I found my Vallejo acrylics drying too fast on my palette; time to put away the modelling materials for the summer, then! What I tend to do in the summer is to plan my modelling projects for the year ahead (more often wishful thinking than reality, I’m afraid) and the contents of the magazine for the next twelve months. I’m sure the next year will bring more of the challenge and opportunity, ups and downs, that we’ve all experienced over the last few years, but, as a modeller, the amount of material, both kits and reference material, available to us has never been more and I’m looking forward to what the next year has in store for us.