I've got very little modelling progress to post as I am in the middle of a house move, so why not go way off topic!

I'm staying up late having a few beers so here are a few pics of some of my pets!

This is Stephen. He is a Hadrurus Arizonensis, or more affectionately know as a hairy desert scorpion. Those of you residing in the southern US will be quite familiar with this little chap. Stephen has been bred in captivity though and is rather mild mannered compared to the little guys you have to check your boots for in the morning.

I have a massive interest in arachnids, the more exotic the more fascinating. When I was younger I had three spiders. A pink toed bird eater named Kinky John, a Mexican black velvet named Swiss Tony and a female Goliath spider named Cupcake.

I would keep many spiders now but unfortunately Claire has a terrible phobia of them... The scorpion was a compromise! She was very brave though and handled a Chilean rose at the Edinburgh creepy crawly house! But keeping them domestically is still a no go.

I also have an interest in aquatics. My pride and joy is my spiny peacock eel, named Peahan. He is native to south east Asia and can grow up to a foot in length allegedly. Our Peahan is still a shy youngster at the minute though and tends to hide a lot, only venturing out for his feed of frozen bloodworm.

Also in the aquarium are my Corydoras catfish. These guys are native to South America and shoal in their hundreds in the wild. They are named Les Dennis, Peter Baxendale Thomas, Benjamin Netanyahu and Bill Oddie ( not pictured ).

Also in the pics there are my bristle nose catfish and twig catfish named Tom fun and Derek. And the little black and grey fellow with the large dorsal fin is an Indian butterfly catfish named Sir Alan of Partridge.

Last but not least is my Bamboo shrimp, Mika Hakkinen.

If anyone has got the references I'll be well impressed! Most of my pets are named after comedy characters or sketch references from back in the day, mainly Reeves and Mortimer I think!

Apologies for going miles off topic but I was bored and had nothing else to post about!

You have to keep yourself amused!

Nice collection, but I,m kind of with your partner here on keeping them in the house...any found in our house tend to get very much bigger very very quickly, albeit microscopically thin...!

The trick with pets is to get them to help with modelling, can you train your scorpion to hold small parts whilst you paint/glue them...it has built in clamps! Our cats, Patrick and Jess, on the other hand, tend to have an opinion on when I am allowed to model, but serve no practical modelling purpose, despite much trying...!

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That was how most of my early models met their demise, Craig! I remember when I was a kid, I had almost finished building an Airfix Harrier gr.7. It was on top of the wall unit out of the way whilst some glue was setting when the cat discovered it!

Still, I have the big Trumpeter 1/32 Harrier to start soon! And neither my eel or scorpion can sabotage it!

I quite like them Ian, although I do have a natural phobia of them! Tarantulas don't bother me, but house spiders make my heart miss a beat when I see one! Once I know it's there though, I can rationalise my thoughts enough to pick it up and put it outside. Yeah, cats and models don't mix! I don't think Stephen would be much use, but I might make him a tank for his desert terrarium. That's a diorama in itself there actually...

Craig, that is my favorite cat picture! My daughter is staying with us, so there's 4 cats wandering around my house. I tell folks that I've added "catherd" to my resume, and it's cirque du chat at times.

I like your pets Richard, especially Stephen, I keep most of my spiders outside but some like pic2 are more than evicted, think of Daleks, pic1 is my ex cats, Snugglepuss in front with her daughter Kalamazoo, in training for the pet olympics event of synchronised sleeping, also like the other cats featured.

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Toby looks rather innocent there Robert, but I'm sure he's just putting it on for the camera!

Hi George, we used to do that with the construction workers when I was up in Shetland! There was Stone face, Tippy toes, Kevin Keegan, Krangs body, Tony two things, and many more. They were all unaware of this obviously, apart from Tippy toes who we befriended and told him his nick name! Some of them had names which I could not post on a polite website such as this unfortunately, but that was due to their lack of manners!

Spiders fascinate me Allan. Are they all taken in your garden? Are those Gladiator spiders there with the nets? An amazing example of the magic of evolution...

I would keep a Latrodectus (pic2) in my house as long as I was confident that the lid was secure! I think I would be more scared of the Huntsman spider to be honest, even though it's nowhere near as dangerous. Their size and the speed they can move at is what scares me! You have the 2nd and 3rd most dangerous species of spider on the planet over there actually, the Hadronyche and the Atrax, ( funnel webs ). Have you ever encountered them?

A pet funnel web! I would love one but really don't think Claire would give it the thumbs up... She has to feed Stephen when I'm away on the rigs which is traumatic enough for her!

You need a dangerous wild animals licence for anything like that in the UK, which is tricky to get and rather expensive. It's about £450 to obtain, and about £200 each year after that. I wouldn't qualify for one because I live five minutes away from a school and work away from home. From what I hear though, most people don't bother getting them for arachnids, you just need to know an exotics dealer well enough to be trusted.

Dangerous spiders are risky to keep though as they are very good at escaping! The most dangerous spiders belong to the family Phoneutria of South and Central America. They are commonly known as wandering spiders. They are lightning fast and very aggressive, and they do not run away neither! There have been numerous cases of them making their way to the UK in bunches of bananas!

The pic below is our common house spider. I found this one on my towel when I was getting out the shower! This is quite a big one to be fair, but nothing compared to a huntsman... I really don't know how you can live with them, I would be a nervous wreck if I had to put one of them outside!

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