Recommendations for a book on plastic kit building

In that case don't rely on Amazon. They're seldom known to deliver a book on time.

(kim)

Completely off topic but I would say, in my experience, completely the opposite - I order a technical book late on Friday and the bl**dy postman woke me up at 07:30 the next morning delivering it, everything else I have ordered through them has been of similar standard or I have been told of any delay and made my choice based on that.

Cor! We haven't had Saturday delivery since the 1960s. Even the Post Office is closed on Saturdays, and there's no weekend collections. As for 07:30, we are lucky to get our post delivered to a box down the street by 14:00.

Okay, that's one experience, here is another.

Order Vol 1 of a book on local history from Amazon.co.uk because my local library only had Vol 2. Was told it was a rare/hard to find title, there would be a 5-6 week delay and asked to pay a search fee over and above the full retail price, plus postage of course. Two months later there is no news from Amazon, check my account details to find they have deleted the order without my knowledge or consent. On my very next visit to W.H. Smith there is a stack of shiny new copies sitting on their display stand and for half the price Amazon would have charged me. So much for it being rare/hard to find.

That is a very typical of my experience of ordering a very large number of items from Amazon over the years and according to a presenter of ITV's website review programme, very typical of hers as well. I'm not saying no one should ever order from Amazon, only that they shouldn't rely on them for presents for birthdays, Xmas, etc.

(kim)

Have a look on the Hannants website

Select "Books (on modelling)" in the search engine and you will find a large selection there. I'm afraid I can't recommend a specific one but I'm sure there will be something to suit.

Now comes the problem of getting hold of it quickly. Although Hannants are very reliable, they are not particularly quick. If you order from the website, you will probably get it in a week or so. However they are very helpful indeed, so it may pay to phone them with your order and impress upon them the need for a quick turnaround.

Alternatively, if you are anywhere near the east of England, a trip out there might be worthwhile. Oulton Broad is a really nice touristy place in the summer and you can easily lose an hour or three wandering round Hannants' warehouse. They even have some *real* Harrier jets for you to look at, one of which was my responsibility back in the day!

Hope this helps.

Can't think of anything that is *just* plastic modelling but any of Chris ELLIS's books on modelling should be well received, particularly "The Modellers Scale Handbook", very good all round read with a shed load of tips and tricks.

In message , MartinS writes

You must live in the sticks then.

In Beckenham our normal post delivery comes at any time between 09:30 (rare) and 12:30 (rare), with the usual delivery time being within the half-hour centred on 10:30. The abnormal post delivery (that's things like books and other packages entrusted to Royal Mail rather than ParcelForce, and which it is not fair to give the humble postie on his bike to deliver so they come in a van) comes before 07:00. This applies equally on Monday to Saturday.

"David Skipsey" wrote

Don't know what's going on BUT Parceline tried to deliver a trade delivery to us this morning. We've never had trade deliveries on Saturdays!

Maybe someone wanted some overtime?

John.

We could be described as "remote" yet we have a post collection & delivery every day except Sunday, times vary according to ferries & fligths (and weather!). Sub-post office opens six days a week, four half-days (0900-1300), two full-days (0900-1600).

Yeah, the sticks of East Central Ontario, not far from a conurbation of

5 million people. It's the same there, with communal boxes for 30-40 houses if you live on a housing estate built in the last 20+ years.

And the winner for going off - topic the quickest is..........

Ah, I see, you are in the colonies. In that case, God help you.

:-)

I have ordered a copy of Chris Ellis book as advised by Chris Wilson and I'm getting second hand from amazon.

Delivery time doesn't bother me as I leave for work before postie leaves depot, I get a card and I pick it up the next day as the depot is at the end of the street.

Of course if I need something urgent I just phone the depot the day before, pick it up, and miss out the postie/card hassle.

Andy

Hope it suits

Should do :-) It has a bit of everything.

In another group in which I most, that winner is usually me!

I'm sure that MartinS will back me up on that! :-)

Post certainly!

And your point is what - *you* did't try hard enough ? You hijacked a completly different thread to rubbish Amazon.

As stated I have ordered from Amazon for Christmas and birthdays and other reasons and had *no* problems however others can judge whether your point could have been made independantly of an unrelated request for information.

Did I? That's interesting. My first reaction was to recommend any book by Chris Ellis. Then I checked for availability with Amazon's web site. Did you? Based on the lead times quoted on their web site and my previous experience of ordering items from Amazon, it was obvious to me they were unlikely to be able to deliver one of these any time soon. Hence my warning.

They certainly can.

(kim)