Iron Modeler

And, like that, December is upon us...

Howdy, all!

As I get older, it seems that time passes quicker.  I know it is cliché, but it is true and I don't know why.  I do know that of late I have been less inclined to do things and more inclined to watch the Idiot Box--and another cliché is also true, we have (through DirecTV) 200 channels with nothing on.  I've been trying to make efforts that change all that, but I fall back into bad habits most of the time.  I've been fighting a bit of a cold lately, but that is only part of the answer.  I've been working some long hours, but not anything out of the ordinary, so that's not the answer either.  I've tried to limit my time on the other Idiot Box (this Idiot Box ), so that's not the answer, either...

If I really examine the issue and come to a definitive conclusion, I think I can go back to the "200 channels and nothing's on" theory and find my answer, at least in part.  Yep, I may have too many models.  Maybe not too many in the stash (I mean, can you really ever have too many models in the stash?), but too many in work.  All of them are to a point where I need to shift focus onto them individually, and that's where I get stuck.  I have six on the go, and only two of them are still more or less in the basic construction phase (the TR-1/ER-2 and the Gloster Gamecock), the rest are in the last phases of construction before finish (the F-111F, the USS Cowpens), while the others are in paint (the Macchi C.200 and the StuG IV).  As I sit, I ponder what needs to be done, and after a while I have found that my thoughts are all over the place, and I have lost focus.  So, once the hubbub of the holidays have passed, I think I'm going to try putting everything out of reach of the workbench except one model.  It will be the only model in work, and will remain so until it is done, then lather, rinse, repeat, until they're all completed.  Maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but I gotta do something to break the logjam.

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I may have some extra time to get things done here in the near future.  We found out in August that my employer has decided to move the shop--greener pastures, so we've been told--and our location will have to close since they are transferring the FAA Repair Station Certificate rather than applying for a new one in the new location.  New Repair Stations can take up to two years to be approved, the company is hoping that a transfer will be approved quickly.  In any case, I don't plan on moving with the company, which will mean that I will once again be unemployed.  I have a few irons in the fire, and it may require some assistance from a CPA and maybe an attorney (I'm strongly leaning to forming an LLC and working for myself, for a while at least), but I'm in a little better situation now than I was when I was laid off in 2009--if you can call losing your job a "better situation" at all, ever.  But what I'm looking at doing is something that I excel in (or so I have been told), and something I may be able to do mostly from the house.  I'm actually letting things idle right now, but upon the New Year I plan on attacking the new venture, and I think I might actually enjoy the challenge. 

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I don't normally get political on the Iron Modeler blog, for a reason (actually several).  What I believe and what you believe may well be at opposite ends of the spectrum, and I have found that rarely does one enter into a political discussion or debate and instantly change the other person's mind.  I enjoy the fact that we all think differently, but I also was raised in a house where politics and religion weren't discussed among polite company.  I'm on Facebook, and I have found myself hiding some people's feeds simply because they are 100% political, 100% of the time, to the point where I have become sick of reading the vitriol from both sides.  Guys and gals, put it away.  Please.

With that being said, I am also amazed at the number of people who, being ignorant of World History--or not(!), are buying into some of the ideas being hammered home on the various media sources.  I can't understand why educated people will take their news from a single source, or automatically believe one person simply because that's what they want to hear.  I urge everyone to open their eyes and ears, listen to everything they can from all sides, and then employ the good old Mark I bullshit detector to separate the signal from the noise.  Make educated decisions for yourself, not based on what some talking head tells you.  You will lead a richer life, you will be better informed, and you might just become more worldly.  Whether your decisions fall on the Left or the Right, you have educated yourself to all the options and made your decision for yourself.  Isn't that what civilized people are supposed to do?

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New stuff in the house?  Of course...

Our friends at Sprue Brothers had a sale on Wingman Models kits a few weeks ago, and I had to take advantage.  Having purchased the Wingman Models Kfir C.2/C.7 last year, I just had to complete the collection of Israeli deltas with the acquisition of the Nesher and early Kfir kits.  I also have the Kinetic Kfir C.2/C.7, and if I play my cards right I can use some of the leftover parts from the Wingman C.2/C.7 on it.  Those, and the Eduard Mirage IIICJ, will make a handsome collection once they're all completed.

I also had opportunity to purchase the new-tool Airfix Beaufighter TF.X in 1/72 scale, and what a treat it is.  If Airfix does the rest of the Beaufighter family, I may be compelled to sell off my Hasegawa kits...

An interesting find, and one I may have briefly mentioned, is the reissue of the AMT 1/25 scale 1969-1970 vintage Chevy K/10 Blazer.  A friend of our family had one for years, and I just had to have the kit.  This friend and his father bought a lake house near Sebring (right on Lake Istokpoga--so close you could hear the cars at the Speedway if we were there on a race weekend), and we would all pile into the Blazer for weekends on the lake.  I plan on building and painting it just like his was.  He wound up selling it years ago--and, like all favorite vehicles, he wishes he had not done so...

I also finally picked up the Eduard Royal Edition Spitfire Mk.IX set, the Eduard Aussie Eights Spitfire Mk.VIII set, and the Eduard Cactus Air Force P-39 sets, al in 1/48 scale.  I think I'm now set, as far as these subjects are concerned.  I may begin selling off my ICM Spitfires shortly...

Speaking of which, I may be getting ready to have another SIDNA cull and sale.  Stay tuned...

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As the holidays approach, I would like to wish all of you Season's Greetings and the best of cheer.  May you have what you need, get what you want, and enjoy the company of family and friends.  For those who have an abundance of riches, share your bounty with those less fortunate.

(My wife and were talking about this a few days ago--while everyone is sniping back and forth over the various holiday greetings being used these days, "Season's Greetings" seems to have fallen out of the lexicon.  Let's bring it back, shall we?)

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and, especially at this time of year, I bid you Peace.

Back on the road again...

Howdy, everyone!

From time to time, I go on the road for work.  Sometimes it is to actually work airplanes, sometimes it is for trade shows, and sometimes it is for training.  This road trip is for the latter two, and I managed to fit in some sightseeing and visiting while I'm travelling.  More on that in a minute...

The Story of The Old Guy

Last week, as I was getting done with the last tests of an air data computer that had been exchanged, I came to a stark realization.  Back when I first got out of school and was as helpless as a newborn kitten, I learned the bulk of my trade by doing.  And, of course, the first time you get thrown out on the hangar floor and told, "There it is kid, have at it", you start thinking you may have just bitten off more than you can chew.  Everything you do takes too long, or isn't working like they told you it should in school, or you screw it up.  In my case, I was patient to a point, but got frustrated very quickly--the frustration killed my focus on the job.  The frustration coupled with some of the Old Guys on the floor made it worse for me--I'm an introvert, and don't like being criticized in front of God and everyone, all it does is make me even more frustrated.  So, invariably when I was on a task new to me, I'd get frustrated and lose my cool. 

Usually, what they do next is to send the Old Guy out there to help you, since he usually has been at it longer than anyone else, knows the most, and can fix anything with a small screwdriver and a tie wrap.  As you get to work with the Old Guy, you wonder if you'll ever have the same knowledge and abilities as he does--and if you ever do know that much, you wonder where you're going to learn it.  See, back in the day, a lot of the Old Guys didn't want to share what they knew.  What they knew was their job security.  If they let you know what they knew, they lose that job security of being the only guy in the shop who can do that particular task or group of tasks.  Personally, I don't subscribe to that train of through for a few reasons--one, I don't want to be 60 years old, fat and arthritic, and crawling around on airplanes.  Second, the more people in the organization who know how a certain task is done gives that organization flexibility.  If both my technicians can do all the tasks I can, we don't have to rely on one guy to do this and the other guy to do that.   

Anyway, I did what everyone has done in the past--I found a guy who was older than I was, but younger than the Old Guy was, tagged along with him, listened, and learned.  There was a lot of trial an error, there were times that nothing made sense, there were times that it was frustrating as hell.  It came to me, though, slowly.  That's why, last week during that seemingly inconsequential air data test, that I realized that I have become the Old Guy in the shop.  My guys, though older than I am, come to me for answers to questions that crop up on the airplanes we work.  They haven't had as much corporate jet experience as I've had, so they come to me for the answers.  And I have learned over the years, too, how to deal with frustration.  I no longer allow the airplane to fluster me.  Which is good... 

Certain tasks that used to fill me with dread are child's play.  I no longer have trouble diagnosing pitot-static system or autopilot system problems.  Part of it was learned via the sink-or-swim method, part of it through the immersion method, and part of it was through a few good, learned people (other old guys) who weren't afraid to answer my stupid questions or tell me where I went astray.  There's a lot to be said for schools, but there's even more merit in the apprentice system.  I wish it were better organized in the avionics industry, because it is alive and well...and working.

I went back to my city, and my city was gone...

Do you recall my two-part post where I gave you a tour around Daytona Beach?  Well, forget most of what you read... 

I stayed in Daytona last night on my way to my training/trade session.  I had some time late in the afternoon, so I took a drive.  I first took a drive around what the signs say is Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.  I recognized three buildings.  Out of about two dozen.  I could barely navigate the campus.  Nothing was the same as it was thirty-some years ago except the University Center and two original dorms--at least that I could see.  I know time marches on, and progress needs to be made, but as I drove around campus, I began to recollect those six years I spent there and was again made pain fully aware than I am, officially, The Old Guy.

Then I took a ride around town.  The Speedway is in the closing stages of their renovation and the completion of the Daytona Rising project--the whole look of the speedway from U.S. 92 is completely different.  The Holiday Inn (later Ramada Inn) across from Turn 4 is gone--replaced by a Bahama Breeze, IHoP, Olive Garden, and Cheddar's.  I wondered about that, because the Olive Garden is next to the Hampton Inn...er, was next to the Hampton.  That property is under construction--the sign says a Houligan's is moving in.

The look of Beach Street hasn't changed, but the shops out there sure have.  Dunn Hardware and Dunn Toys and Hobbies are long gone, but so are some of the older Mom and Pop shops, too.  Stavro's Pizza is still hanging in there, though...

Another Daytona Beach constant is still hanging in there, too--the Streamline Hotel, long little more than a flophouse, is being renovated and restored as is fitting the birthplace of NA$CAR.  I was glad to see they hadn't plowed the old place down in the name of progress.

The rest of the beachfront is depressing--it is becoming more and more another coastal concrete canyon, much the same as Miami Beach.  But I did stop in at the Oyster Pub for supper--much the same as I remember it, I must say, and well worth the visit.  That is one of two watering holes from back in the day (Razzle's being the other, fans!) still open and looking much as they did back in the day.

Without family, what do you have?

I got a chance to spend a few hours with my brother and sister-in-law this afternoon on my way through O-Town on my way to Tampa.  I hadn't seen either one on a year, and wish I had a few days to spend catching up with them.  Alas, I had to get on down the road, but we will have to get together again soon...

 

Planning for both the 2016 AMPS International Convention and the 2016 IPMS/USA National Convention is going smoothly.  Both shows will be First Rate, and I hope to see you all at one or both.  I'm the seminars coordinator for the IPMS Show, and I do believe you'll like the slate of speakers we've put together.  If you are interested in hosting a Seminar for either show, please contact me through the Seminars link on the 2016 IPMS/USA Nationals site.

With the Big Shows coming up quickly, you need to get your models ready...

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

Photoetched brass is...THE DEBIL!

There are two products in the world that I consider to be the work of Satan.  One is Styrofoam packing peanuts, the other is photoetched brass parts for scale models.  I'm currently working on two models that feature photoetched parts, both of them (surprise, surprise) are Dragon Models kits.  Both are long time residents of my "In Progress" stack, too: The much-discussed 1/35 StuG IV and my 1/700 scale model of the Mighty Moo, the USS Cowpens CVL-25.

First, the StuG.  Answer me this: why, oh why, did the minds at Dragon decide to use nickel steel for the schurzen parts?  Sure, they need to be rigid, but wouldn't brass of a similar thickness work just as well?  Not only are the parts hard, they have styrene parts added to them.  Even though I cleaned the parts AND scuffed them, the itty bitty plastic parts still pop loose if you jar the part by, oh, dropping them.  Yeah, I know, you're not supposed to drop the parts, but let's say someone were to drop one.  The bolt heads stay put, but the hanging brackets pop loose.  So, you have to clean them up and re-glue them.  Even applying a primer beforehand doesn't totally fix the problem--the primer AND the glue peels off.  Had they offered the hanging brackets as additional PE parts (and the schurzen in brass vs. steel), soldering would be the way to go.  As it is, you can't really solder plastic to steel...

Now, the Mini Mighty Moo:  The instructions are altered for the releases that have the full complement of Dragon PE, yet they still tell you to assemble the superstructure with the plastic parts.  Now, that's easily dealt with--just don't use the plastic deck and bridge.  Now we get to the PE replacement parts--I've been bending PE for a while now, and the trend with Dragon parts is this: unless your bends are millimeter perfect, the folded parts don't always align properly.  I've gone the straightedge/razor blade route, and I've used a folding tool (more anon).  Neither yield a perfect result without much gnashing of teeth.  I did manage to get things more or less correct with the bridge houses, but that tower, hoo boy.  No matter how careful I was, the tower would not line up and behave.  I finally took matters into my own hands and removed the support structure from the cross structure.  I built the cross structure (basically a box) and let the glue cure.  Tonight--given that I have time to do so--I'll re-attach the support structure to the sides.  Once that is all secure, I can go ahead and add the searchlight platform.  But it seems to me that Dragon made it more complicated than it needed to be...

Anyway, I am happy to announce that progress is being made on both projects.  The hull and flight deck of the Cowpens has been painted and needs only touch-up, and the StuG got an initial coat of dunkelgelb this week.  I need to attach a few parts and fix some glitches, and I can continue with the paint work on the StuG.  I still have a bunch of itty bitty anti-aircraft guns and other bits and bobs to paint and install on the Cowpens, but work does continue.

I've also made progress on the 1/72 F-111F Aardvark and 1/48 Macchi C.200.  I'm planning a photo shoot tonight, I will try to post photos in the next update.

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I told you I was looking for a photoetch bender.  Well, my wonderful wife bought me a Small Shop "Bug" for my birthday.  I took it for a test drive on the bridge parts for the Cowpens, and it is one nifty little tool.  I still have some playing around to do with it, but it should handily replace the steel straightedge and razor blade method I had been using up to this point.  There may still be times when I'll need to resort to that method (like when I don't plan my folds correctly), but I thing my Bug will now be handling 99% of my photoetch bending duties from now on.

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The work front is heating up.  We sat for most of the year so far with little to do, but the last few weeks (and the next few weeks, too) have seen more airplanes in the hangar and on the ramp.  Surprisingly, I've managed to keep the avionics team to where we're not working killer shifts.  Don't know how I managed that, but I'm trying to do the work and not burn either of us out at the same time.  So far, so good...

Well, break's over--time to get back on our heads.  Be good to one another, thanks for reading, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

Lunchtime musings

Howdy and all that...

I've been pondering a few things of late.  In no particular order:

1. I really need to do some Spring Cleaning.  There are things I have hidden away that haven't seen the light of day in years and probably should go.  And I'm not just talking models--there are things that I have accumulated that have moved with me everywhere that haven't been out of the moving box they were packed into since the mid 1980's.

2. I'm going to (finally) purchase a photoetch bending tool, since the itty bitty 1/700 scale Independence-class CVL has even ittier and bittier photoetch, and the ruler/razor trick ain't getting it done.  I've settled on "The Bug" from The Small Shop, I'll let you know how it works for me.  Others rave about it, so I think I've made the right choice.

3. Progress is once again being made on the bench, albeit slowly.  I have one more color to squirt on the hull of the aforementioned 1/700 scale USS Cowpens I'm building.  So far, it looks real nice.  Then again, I still have to un-mask the hull.  Time will tell...

4. I'm still trying to finish the camouflage on the 1/48 Macchi C.200.  Two steps forward, three steps back, it seems, but I think I'm closing in on a result that I'll be satisfied with.

5.  The StuG IV is also progressing.  I finally got a coat of primer on the skirt armor--and knocked off three of the mounting points doing so.  Once again, did we really need to use nickel-steel for those?  Brass wouldn't have been just as nice?  Anyway, a little super glue and I should be ready to paint it--once I get the little ship and the Macchi complete.

6.  After the StuG, I have a 1/72 F-111F in work.  I'd like to get that one done soon, but it all depends on the rest of the backlog.

7.  Just for fun, I pulled out a 1/72 Special Hobby U-2R/TR-1/ER-2 kit that I had started for a now-abandoned project.  I'm picking away at it as time allows. 

In the meantime, other events are in the works.  It would seem that the U.S. plastic modeling world will descend on the Greater Upper Midlands Co-Prosperity Sphere in 2016--the AMPS International show will be held in Sumter, SC in April 2016 and the IPMS/USA National Convention will be held in Columbia, SC in August 2016. I sit on the planning boards of both local Chapters of these organizations, and I can tell you that we are all working hard--even at this early date--to bring our attendees the best in plastic modeling.  Stay tuned for further details, as we can't really ramp up the full-on advertising campaigns until this years' shows have been concluded...

On a sad note, another mom-and-pop brick and mortar hobby shop has closed.  The Great Escape in Greenville, SC has shut down the hobby shop completely.  Last year, they consolidated the shop to the Greenville store and moved all the stock that had been in Spartanburg over.  We went to the Greenville store a few weeks after, and all appeared as it always did--the shop was fairly busy, mostly in RC sales, and the shelves were full--more so than they had been in a couple of years, in fact.  Apparently, right around the end of the year the new owners decided that all they wanted to concentrate on were bicycle sales and shut the hobby end of the business down.  When we went, they were down to a couple of paint racks and some orphan kits.  I managed, somehow, to get two of the new Special Hobby 1/72 scale AH-1G Cobra kits and some of the long defunct Testor's Acryl marine colors for the little Mighty Moo.  Otherwise, there wasn't much left, and they were only going to continue for another day or so. 

Sadly, this is becoming more common as fewer dollars chase more products.  The brick-and-mortar stores can't possible stock everything that the large mail order companies can--even if they could, it would be financial suicide to do so.  But we also have played a part in this--modelers are notoriously cheap, and in chasing the bottom dollar bargains we tend to forget the little local shops.

As always, support your local shop.

Well, the back-to-work bell is ringing.  Be good to one another other, and I'll see you later.  I bid you Peace...

So, here we are...

Howdy again.  Been way too long...

I've actually been off on a self-imposed digital vacation of sorts.  I was finding myself getting too wrapped up in the computer and all the series of pipes the Interwebs was bringing me, to the point that I wasn't enjoying any of my other hobbies--and I was not having any fun.  So, I decided to step away for a few weeks and only check in for about 10 minutes a day until I got some of my mojo back.  It worked, I have been churning things out of the model workshop on a semi-regular basis and I have regained some of the lost momentum on a few long-term projects.

So, lets review what's been going on...

1.  Eduard released a 1/48 scale Bf-109G that is actually 1/47 scale.  Or is it 1/45?  Or is it actually okay if you lop 2mm off each wingtip and re-work the ailerons?  Don't know, don't really care--I have a moving box full of Hasegawa and Fujimi 1/48 scale 109's.  I sold off all the others (Hobbycraft, Revell) that I had in the stash a few years ago.  I think I'm good for a while...

2.  Kittyhawk released their 1/48 scale F-101A/C kit, and it has errors.  Yep, and dogs chase cars and eat their own shit, and cats get hairballs.  I have said kit.  I can spot the errors, and the good news is that I can also fix them rather easily.  It seems to also be a bear to assemble, but what does one learn from a falls-together kit?

3.  Kittyhawk also released an "unbuildable" 1/48 scale F9F Cougar.  Funny, I'm seeing a lot of built examples that look mighty fine to me, including the one the wife is in the middle of building.  "Some modeling experience helpful" seems to be the watchword here, and that means you need to have been taught how to test-fit parts and adjust it where needed.

4.  Airfix's new releases seem to be getting better and better.  I bought the Blenheim and the Lightning in the past several weeks, and all I can say is "wow".  I thought the little Gnat was a nice kit, but the latest are even nicer.

5.  Revell finally got the shapes and proportions correct on a Mopar E-Body with their new 1/25 scale 1970 Barracuda.  I bought one, and it won't be the last.  Also, I got to thinking...what if the current group at Chrysler resurrected the Plymouth name badge?  More on that at some point...

6.  I have had opportunity to check out the Vallejo color kits for armor models--in this case, the U.S. Olive Green vehicle paint set and the Green Vehicle Weathering set.  So far, results are pretty good.  More on that later, too...

Fast forward several months...

I originally penned those words last September.  And, as with the Road to Hell, I had good intentions of completing the post and getting back to business.  But, as so often happens, life got in the way.  Again.  And I got sidetracked.  Again.

But here I am, back in the swing of things.  Sort of.  I still have some ruts to get out of and a bit of a funk I need to give up, but (as the song goes) I'm alive and well and living in.

And news, boy is there news...

Since September, I've been more than a little lax at the workbench.  I have a few projects close to completion, and one that, if I put a little effort forth, will also be looking to cross the finish line soon.  I've also started a new project, too, and all I need is the motivation to get to work on all of them.  Stay tuned.  I have a plan...

I have managed to accrue kits, though--that never ends for those of us afflicted by the bug.  To wit:

Eduard's 1/72 MiG-15 kit is every bit as nice as we hoped it would be.

Trumpeter's 1/48 F-106A is a mixed bag if you compare it to the now 32-year old Monogram kit, but it does have the benefit of recessed panel lines.  The biggest discrepancy I can see with the kit (aside from the soft detail, which is fixable) are the stoop-shouldered intakes.  They appear to round off too much for my liking, but it is not a deal-breaker if you get the kit at a discount.  I plan on using some parts from a long-stalled Monogram model to improve the look of the kit.  I like it, and the fact that they're doing the F-106B, too.  Like the Kittyhawk F-101A/C, it isn't perfect but it is certainly not beyond the skill set of most modelers.  Given that the later issues of the Monogram kit (and all Monogram kits) are in that awful softish, vinyl-like plastic, this one arrived at just about the right time. 

(Do you remember the old Monogram plastic?  Hard, but not brittle, nice smooth and glossy surface...those days are apparently gone.  And my nostalgia affliction wishes they weren't...)

(Hey, Meng--how about a 1/72 F-106A that matches your F-102A in detail and finesse?)

Airfix keeps on trucking, their 1/72 Supermarine Swift FR.5 is gorgeous.  And every time I see what they're doing in the smaller scales, I get more and more tempted to acquire their 1/24 Hawker Typhoon.  What I will do with it, and (better still) where I will display it, well, since when has that ever mattered before?  As M and the Minister of Defense have been known to say to James Bond, "Control yourself, 007..."  (And yet Q would probably have it delivered to me and then take hours to explain how it is such a neat bit of kit, etc...)

And, in the Christmas Mother Lode, I got a few neat items:

RusAir's Tu-154 and Tu-134 kits in 1/144 scale.  Gorgeous.  The 154 makes it so you have a friend for your Zvesda Tu-154M.  (And I'm looking forward to a 1/144 Il-62 this year, as soon as I can get my mitts on one.  Those old Soviet airliners have character out the whazoo...)

Eduard's reissue of Academy's F-4B (as an F-4N) in 1/48 scale with the U.S. Navy Bicentennial schemes and upgrades.  Sweet.

But enough about plastic.  What else is happening?

Well, we're in that alternating feast/famine cycle at work.  I did manage to get away to a trade meeting in September, as well as a return trip to Richmond.  Trade meetings are always good, since I get to get brought up to speed on new stuff and re-connect with people I've met throughout the years.  The weather was awful the day I left, so I still have to plan a trip to the Virginia Aviation Museum. 

I have had a chance to catch up on some reading, notably "The Eagle and the Rising Sun" by Alan Schom and "Neptune's Inferno" by James Hornfischer.  Both deal mainly with the naval battles around Guadalcanal during the campaign to take the island.  Both are very good reads, and I recommend them to any WWII Pacific Campaign fans.  Beware, modelers--it will make you want to build at least one ship model!  I know I keep eyeing the 1/350 kits of the USS San Francisco in the stash...

Along with everything else, there are a few modeling events coming up in the area, and we're in the planning phases of all of them.  More as the time comes, but they ought to be barn-burners.  Stay tuned on that, too...

As for the other big event coming up this weekend, I really have no dog in the hunt.  I can't root for the Patriots, it goes against every fiber in my being--growing up in South Florida and being a Dolphins fan will do that to you.  But I can't get excited about the Seahawks, either.  The Seahawks I used to remember were in the AFC, had better looking uniforms, and were a dome team...I'm sure the Big Game (tm) will be good, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it...

And, finally, this past weekend was the 53rd Annual 24 Hours of Daytona.  And it was a great race, with great weather.  One of these days, we'll get back there in person...

Until then, I thank you for reading, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

 

1984

Greetings!

Now, before you get all excited and start running about, I'm not referring to George Orwell's vision.  Rather, I'm looking back 30 years and remembering some of the things that made 1984 a sort of comeback year for me...

For starters, I found myself unemployed and not in school for the first time in my life on New Year's Day in 1984.  I had taken my leave from the Harvard of the Sky--engineering physics and I didn't get along, especially when physics had backup on the beat-down in the form of Calculus 3.  Between those two courses, I had a dismal GPA for the Fall 1983 semester and decided that engineering as a career for me wasn't in the cards.  I went down to the AFROTC Detachment (I had an AFROTC Scholarship at the time) and spoke a bit with my advisor.  He and I talked for about an hour, and both came to the conclusion that all the summer terms in the world weren't going to suddenly make me a mathematical genius.  My math skills were pretty good, but not good enough.  So, I didn't register for spring semester and came home.

Funny how things can happen--I went looking for a job on 2 January 1984 and was hired almost immediately as a parts driver for a local HVAC parts house.  After a week or so of that, one of their systems engineers found out that I wasn't just doing this because I didn't know any better, and I would sometimes be called in to watch how home and industrial HVAC systems are engineered--so many square feet of space called for so many tons of capacity, so many BTUs were required to heat X amount of space, etc.  It was all pretty neat stuff, and I appreciated all they were doing for me.  Between parts runs, I learned quite a bit--and was tempted to pursue a career in that.  But aviation, once it wiggles down into your blood, tends to have a strong pull...

I worked there all summer.  One day I got a phone call from one of my advisors at Embry-Riddle, wanting to know what I was doing and what my plans were.  At the time, I was still trying to just chill out a bit and leave the stress and, well, disappointment of engineering behind me (and earn some coin, but that should be obvious).  I let them know what I was up to, and that I had several things banging around in my head, and that I'd let them know when the time came.  That time came in June--I took a Friday off work and drove back to Daytona Beach.  I met with some folks, and found out how easy it would be for me to come back--I never formally withdrew from the school, so I was still carried on their rolls.  I first visited my AFROTC friends.  We spent a few hours speaking with some of the other Department Chairmen, and after speaking with the man heading up the Avionics program, my mind was made up.  I would return in August.

With my future now decided, I went back to work.  I don't say this to be self-congratulatory, but I was the hardest working parts driver/stock man/all around helper that location had.  I know this because the higher-ups told me so.  They were especially let down when I gave them my notice, but when I told them that my two choices were to learn--unofficially--from them, or go back to school and learn aviation electronics, I think it got them to understand.  I was told that if I needed summer work, they would be there.  So, I ended my employment with them in mid-August.

Remember that 1984 was an Olympic Games year, too--back when Winter and Summer games were held in the same year, no less.  The Winter games were held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.  I paid little attention to them, because work and the time difference made keeping track of the events a bit difficult.  What saddens me know is to see what has become of the venues built for the Games--most of them are crumbling, the result of the unrest, fighting, and other issues between the ethnic factions that finally led to the break-up of Yugoslavia into its constituent Republics.  Sad...

The Summer games, on the other hand, were different--they were held in Los Angeles in 1984.  The overshadowing news was that the Soviet Union, acting in response to the West's boycott of the 1908 Games, had decided to sit 1984 out.  They, along with the majority of Eastern Bloc countries, sat at home while the Games went on.  The reason I remember it so well was than coverage of most events came on right as I was getting back to the house after work, so I could pay attention to all of them.  It was the last Olympic Summer games that I really paid close attention to.  Since then, various reasons have kept me from watching...

On the modeling front, I actually started to keep a log of kits I completed.  The first for 1984 was the ESCI 1/48 scale Fieseler Storch.  It was an easy build until I got to the part about sticking the wings to the greenhouse.  I used 5-minute epoxy, and got a fairly decent result--I amazed myself that I didn't wind up with epoxy all over everything! 

I next turned my attention to a Tamiya 1/48 Brewster Buffalo.  It was probably the quickest "serious" model I had built to that point--everything just clicked together.  I was tempted by the early Navy scheme, but I settled on the Dutch scheme, because my metal finish techniques were sorely lacking and I didn't want to ruin the model.  My impressions of Tamiya airplane kits would be reinforced soon...

Next on the hit parade was the Nichimo 1/48 scale Ki-43 Oscar.  If you read opinions on this kit, they're all almost universally positive.  And for good reason--the kit packs a lot of detail into a small airplane, the fit is superlative, and this all in a kit dating from the late 1970's.  I tried some weathering techniques on this one--I used a silver Tamiya paint marker to prime seams back then, and I would paint the seams and rub the excess paint off with a paper towel.  I reconed that if I added blotches of silver here and there, I could "chip" the Polly S paints I was using for the camouflage.  It worked out fairly well, I think, and I kept trying to expand my horizons from that model on to the next, and the next...

This was also the summer when I attempted to build Monogram's 1/48 scale F-84F.  For a reason or reasons lost to history, I cannot recall why I never finished the model.  All I have from that model is the dolly and a few bits and pieces.  After that, I wound up building Monogram's 1/48 scale F-100D in Arkansas ANG colors.  I did that because, as I said before, my metal finishes at the time looked like dog poop...

Last for the summer, I decided to refinish a Monogram 1/48 scale B-17G that I had built in the late 1970's, maybe 1979.  I had airbrushed it, but it was one of my first airbrushed models and looked the part.  There were visible seams and some other issues with the model, so I took it down from the shelf and started working on the bad areas.  Within a week, it was ready for paint again.  I had used a Microscale sheet to finish the F-100 and was suitably impressed--first time using them, you know.  So, I went in search of a sheet for the B-17.  I found one I liked (unit and aircraft are again lost to history--I didn't log how they were finished, just that I finished them) and set to work.  I used a combination of Polly S and Tamiya acrylics for the finish, and this one was the best, to that point, airbrushed finish I had ever laid down.  The model went back on the shelf, an old girl in a new dress.

(That Tamiya Buffalo would also get a re-work in the early 1990's--which is how it still resides, hidden away in a box upstairs...)

I returned to good old Humpty Diddle in August.  I had to register for classes.  I had remembered to change my major and catalog at the Registrar's office when I was there in June, so half my battle had been won.  Then I get to the registration lines.  I think it is a universal college policy that beginning of the semester registration is meant to be as huge a pain in the ass as possible to all involved.  See, during my engineering days, I had to re-take a few courses.  As far as the Aeronautical Studies/Aeronautics courses were concerned, I was through with all of my math classes by virture of my Calculus I and Calculus II courses.  During those engineering semesters, I had managed to complete all but maybe one or two Humanities/History courses, too.  I was only looking to register for the required Physics and first semester Aero Studies courses.  I couldn't get into any of the Electronics courses since all the sections were filled, so I settled for what I could get.  After I got through that, I had to go play housing lottery.  After about two hours of back-and-forth, I managed to get into Residence Hall 2, aka Dorm 2, aka "The Embry-Riddle Holiday Inn".  I had lived here through my engineering days, so I know what to expect.  I met the roommates and suitemates (two rooms to a suite, three people to a room), all of whom were Aero Science guys (they were all working towards pilot certificates)--except one.  He was in engineering.  He was a quiet kid, and engineering wasn't any kinder to him than it was me.  I kinda felt sorry for the kid...after all, I'm now the older, wiser me...

Classes were literally a breeze.  By the end of that semester, I would have all my prerequisite courses behind me and the next three and a half years would be solid electronics and avionics courses, along with the Aero Studies courses.  See, there was no single avionics major, you took a major and added avionics.  You could take an Aviation Maintenance major and avionics (you wound up with an Airfram and Powerplant certificate and the avionics degree) or Aeronautical Studies with avionics, which is how I went.  Basically, you took all the ground school courses for flight, but no flight courses.  So, I learned basic aerial navigation and meteorology to go along with my electron theory.  Over the years, the school changed how they treated avionics until finally phasing it out a few years ago in favor of an Electronic Engineering degree program...

More modeling?  You bet--I had spare time, so I decided to build a Tamiya 1/48 A6M2.  This was another fall together kit, it was done in a week.  Yep, a week.  Needing something else to occupy my time, and figuring that the ESCI Storch was a cool kit, so I decided to build ESCI's 1/48 scale Hs-123.  Now that one was a challenge--first serious biplane, first masked camouflage scheme with Polly S, and the kit was rife with minor warpage--typical of ESCI's kits of that era.  Well, I managed to beat it into submission, and painted it up as a Spanish Civil War machine.  I may still have it in a box here somewhere, too, and I was sure to pick up the AMTech "enhanced" reissue of the kit a few years ago.  After all, who else is likely to do an Hs-123 in 1/48 scale?

The best part of the year?  Going back to school.  I never had any intention of *not* going back to school--my father wouldn't abide it.  He was always pushing for education-I guess it stems from the fact that he had a GED when he started working, and worked hard in correspondence classes to earn a degree.  Dad was a self made man, and he did so through hard work and trying to better himself.  I was thinking about these "good old days", and once again realized what my parents did to make sure my brother and I were ready to face the cold, cruel world--the sacrifices they made to put us both through post-secondary education, the hard work they put in to keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and lights on in the house.  So, by going back to school--even though I wasn't overtly pushed--I was doing as they wanted. 

On reflection, maybe I should have worked for a year after high school, then gone to college.  Maybe I should have examined engineering closer and realized that it was a bit beyond my abilities.  You can reach for the brass ring, and if you grab it on the first try, great.  I seem to reach for the ring, get a light grip on it, and then lose that slight grasp.  Rather than giving up, I'll take a breather and try again.  I usually grab that sucker for all I'm worth on the second go around, and once I have it in my grasp I never let go--I seem to cherish it more when I do that.  It has worked for me my entire life...

Oh, yeah.  The Apple Macintosh also goes on sale in 1984, Constatin Chernenko succeeds Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pierre Trudeau steps down as the Canadian Prime Minister, and Marvin Gaye's father shoots and kills the singer. 

Musically, Van Halen released their "1984" album, giving us "Panama", "Hot For Teacher", "I'll Wait", and "Jump".  Duran Duran were touring, suppoting "Seven and the Ragged Tiger", which gave us "The Reflex", "Union of the Snake", and "New Moon on Monday".  Meanwhile, Prince and the Revolution topped the Billboard Top 100 with "When Doves Cry".  What was #100?  "Yah Mo Be There", by James Ingram and Michael McDonald...

(I can't poke too much fun--my beloved Jethro Tull released "Under Wraps".  Not one of their best albums ever.  By far.  Even Tull's then-bassist Dave Pegg said the songs cut from 1983's "Broadsword and the Beast" would have made a better album.  Trivia time--it was the only Tull album with no live drummer--drum machines were used instead.  Doane Perry would be hired shortly after this album and was their full-time drummer until 2011.  He still occasionally tours with them.)

The big news items in the United States for 1984, though, were generated by President Ronald Reagan.  In August, during a sound check for a radio broadcast, he says "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.  We begin bombing in five minutes".  He alos is re-elected (with George H. W. Bush as his Vice President) in a landslide victory in November, beating Democrats Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, carrying 49 states and 59% of the popular vote.

 Oh, and as an aside:  When you get an ROTC scholarship, you are basically sworn in as enlisted personnel.  Because I vacated my AFROTC scholarship, a Review Board convened.  It was decided that I wasn't vacating the scholarship for any reason other than it would be a waste of money to have me keep banging my head against a wall as an egineering student.  For my troubles, I received a package from the United States Air Force sometime in April.  Now, some fellow scholarship recipients were receiving orders to attend basic training at Lackland AFB, Texas.  I was slightly concerend until I opened the envelope.  I was granted an Honorable Discharge from the United States Air Force.  As an Airman Basic.  No orders.  One of my roommates at the time wasn't as lucky--his orders appeared a week after he got home in December, 1983.  He showed the Air Force, though--he went down and joined the Army before the Air Force caught up with him.  Many who knew this guy swore he joined the army only so he could get a good, up close look at an M1 Abrams tank so he could build a superdetailed model of one...

I hope this finds all of you in good health.  Thanks for reading, and be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

 

 

More memories from back in the day...

Nostalgia hit again.  With the events of the past year, I have a lot of my family's keepsakes in the house that I still need to go through and catalog--I imagine my brother still has to do the same with a lot of the stuff he has, too.  With the holidays approaching, I got to thinking--which can be a dangerous thing, especially when you're doing the 7 days, 12 hours a day thing...

I was remembering back to the early days of FineScale Modeler, back when it was the fresh face on the plastic modeling scene.  Why?  Maybe because the first several issues came out in late 1982, my first year in college.  When I needed a break from the academics, I'd reach for FSM.  Why?  In no particular order:

The early issues were cover-to-cover reads for me.  Usually, I'd read it at least four times in order to make sure I could catch every work of every article and every ad for stuff I had never heard of before.  FSM wasn't afraid to publish full-blown scratchbuild articles, or involved conversion articles, or even superdetail articles.  In fact, I have two copies of the Fall 1984 issue with Bob Steinbrunn's article on cockpit detailing--my original copy is so shop worn and dog eared that when a club member was giving away his collection of early issues, I snagged his nearly new copy.

Compared to the competition, FSM gave me something that the other guys wouldn't, couldn't, or didn't--advanced projects, complete with either in-progress photos or drawings that helped explain what the builder did.  It really helps to see what the author did when he says he "used 5-minute epoxy to reinforce the area" rather than just read the words. 

The articles covered the subject from beginning to end, more or less.  What finally got me to end my subscription was the simplification of the projects, or the "let's condense a large project down to a Top-10 bulleted list" mentality of the late 1990's and early 2000's.  That, along with the semi annual "How to apply decals" and "How to use and airbrush" articles, soured me on the magazine.  I had been a continuous subscriber since the introduction of the magazine (I actually found the cancelled check from my initial subscription when we cleaned up Mom's condo!), and believe me, it was hard to ignore the renewal cards.  But I did, and every time I pick up a new issue on the newsstand and flip through it, I am reminded that nothing has really changed.

Before the naysayers start to pile on with the claims that "You've just improved your craft, FSM is as good as it ever was!", I'd like to say hogwash.  Not true.  If that were true, why did the short-lived Aerospace Modeler Magazine hit me the same way that that the first FSM issues hit me?  The projects were complete, they were fully explained, and in some cases matched those early days of FSM.

Alas, I fear the day of the print magazine has changed drastically.  I was hoping for good things with AMM, and a few months ago I saw a rumbling that something might be in the air (no pun intended).  But these days, niche magazines certainly must walk a razor's edge between profit and loss.  I would imagine that breaking even is the goal for some of the smaller publications.  One can see why FSM, with the might of Kalmbach Publishing behind them, still soldiers on while the others tend to fall by the wayside...

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With the holidays approaching, my mind tends to also wander back to those days when I would go to the hobby shop with Dad.  We were looking for one thing--grass mat for the train platform.  Once we had that, we could set the trains up under the Christmas tree.  I haven't set up a train under a Christmas tree since my short affair with N gauge in 1990 or 1991, but I do remember the Lionel set under the tree as a kid.  One of the other things that I now have in my garage is the 1972-era Lionel set Mom and Dad bought us when we first moved to Florida.  That train set was rode hard and put up wet many times, yet it still runs.  I offered to let my brother take the Lionel set since I had the Scott Paper HO gauge trains our Grandmother got for us (and the other grandkids, too) one year.  My brother let me have both sets.  If I can find a way to one day get them both up and running, I plan on doing so.  I've always wanted to actually construct a full-blown HO layout anyway.  All I need is another room on the house...

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Speaking of model railroading, one other Christmas time attraction in South Florida used to the the National Enquirer's shindig.  They'd get one of those huge (very tall--like in the neighborhood of 100 feet tall) spruce trees, light it up, set it up next to their National Headquarters, and charge admission to see it.  Along with the huge tree, there was this HO gauge layout housed in several large tents.  It was the product (if I recall correctly) of several railroad clubs, and it took maybe an hour to walk through the whole thing.  When you have relatives visiting, you have to find some interesting things to go see--this was one of them.

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I'll be back soon with more holiday memories.  Until then, be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

 

A quick one while I have a minute...or two...

I'm back...

I may as well start with the bad news.  My mother passed away on 26 February.  Her health never recovered from her two falls, and to be honest, it was more relief than sorrow to me when she crossed over.  She's with dad and the rest of the family that has gone before, and I like to think they're catching up on old times...

Funny thing, though--after the memorial service, my sister-in-law kept on saying that Mom was going to mess with her.  The family wanted to get together and do something after the memorial.  When we last were together in December, we went to Joe's Crab Shack (Mom loved her seafood), so we decided that we'd all go back there after the service.  There were 13 of us, but we told them 14.  First weird part of the story--we got the same exact table we had in December.  There were a few different faces this time, but those of us who had been there in December pretty much all sat where we had back then, and we left the seat Mom had been in back then vacant.  Next, it got really weird--those who wanted appetizers ordered them.  They arrived, and no sooner had the plates been cleaned, an order of mozzarella sticks arrived--an order that nobody had placed.  The server says, "This has been happening to me all day, sorry.  Enjoy them on the house."  I looked at my brother and sister-in-law and said "There's your sign."  See, one of mom's favorite appetizers was mozzarella sticks.  I imagine she and dad and everyone else up there got a good chuckle out of that one...

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Between the end of February and the service on 9 March, I had some time to go through some boxes of stuff I brought to the house when I last visited Mom.  Going through the photos, I found several years' worth of Christmas photos, and in most of them were pictures of our stacks of Christmas SWAG--and in most of those pictures, there were model kits.  I say it often, but it is true--back then (1970's-1980's), that's something kids did.  We had video games (Pong, Atari), but we also still built models.  I'll share some of those photos at some point in the future...

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My wife has a librarian friend who came upon several large boxes of modeling magazines.  Since her library had no use for them, she called my wife to see if she would like to have them.  My wife said yes, made a donation to the library, and hauled the collection home.  There was a mix of plastic and radio control modeling magazines, and among the boxes were some issues of "Scale Modeler", "Scale Aircraft Modeler" from the UK, and some early issues of "The Squadron", the magazine the Squadron Shops used to sell.  Interesting stuff, and I'll share those with you, too.

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While I was in Ft. Lauderdale dealing with Mom's estate, I found the time to stop by the IPMS/Flight 19 meeting.  While some of the faces have changed, and the venue had moved, the meetings were much the same as when I was General, President, Doctor, and Dictator-for-Life for about seven years between the early 1990's and about 2000.  They had just held their annual contest the previous weekend, and from what I heard they had quite a successful show, indeed.  I was happy to see that the Chapter was as healthy (healthier, actually) as it was when I ran the show.  One of the Old Guard had sent some books in so he wouldn't have to toss them.  Among the boxes I found Volume 1, Number 2 of "Scale Modeler".  An interesting observation--back in the day, they ran articles on all sorts of modeling, both static and operational (slot cars, radio control and free flight, model soldiers, etc.)--about the only thing they didn't cover was model railroading.  One piece that caught my eye was a two-page spread by some guy named Bill Koster on scale radio control airplanes.  If the name rings a bell, it should--Bill was a long time employee at Monogram Models, and has his own one-man cottage industry that makes vacuum form conversions and kits called Koster Aero Enterprises.  I've met the man several times--although I doubt he remembers--and he's always been a wealth of information, information he is not shy about sharing.  Back at the 2005 IPMS/USA Nationals, he sold my wife a 1/48 scale PB4Y Privateer conversion kit for the Monogram standard, and he spent nearly a half hour giving her tips on how to get the best end product out of the conversion, even examining the kit and replacing some parts that we wasn't happy with.  On the spot.  Bill Koster is an example of a true gentleman in every sense, and it was interesting to read his tips on scale radio control airplanes.

I also got to see some folks that I hadn't seen in a very long time.  It was a joy being able to catch up with so many old friends.  I'm only sorry that I didn't have enough time to spend with each and every one of them.  Next time, though...

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I think that about wraps this installment up.  Until next time, be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

And then, things got hectic...

Yeah, yeah, I know...

See, its like this:  I finally had enough time to collect my meager thoughts.  The new car was running nicely (and still is), work was humming along, the family stuff was on an even keel...

I even got to take a vacation.  What happened after that?  See the title to this post...

We're a small shop at work--we do with five or six technicians what other shops won't touch unless they have at least ten people available to work the job.  We schedule things pretty tight, too--remember what I've said in the past about the empty hangar not making us any money?  With things packed nose to tail, everything has to pretty much run like a Rolex (by the way, did you see the Rolex 24?  More later...) or the whole schedule turns into a logjam.  Yep.  You guessed it.  Unforeseen problems with parts, unexpected findings, and some aircraft sales issues clogged the pipeline a bit.  As a result, we're trying to unburden ourselves from said pile of airplanes.  We have two in the hangar, two on the ramp, and two stashed in various hangars around the airport to keep them out of any inclement weather that might move in.  And, get this--we have two more on the way early next week.  So it kinda goes without saying that we're working overtime.  Lots of overtime.  As in seven day a week overtime.  The money's good, yes, but you have to be alive to enjoy it.  Fortunately, we're on schedule to deliver one by the close of business Monday, and another a day or so after that.  But we're still up to our eyeballs in aviation fun...

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To add to the array of spinning plates, my mother is again in poor health.  She was improving when we saw her in December, then she suffered a pretty significant setback, one which the family is dealing with.  Lots of issues there, not least of which is I'm going to have to carve away some time to visit.  Or clone myself.  Or both.

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All isn't gloom and doom, though.  I have actually tried to get back to the workbench and get some stuff done.  I broke my vow of not starting anything new until the backlog was done and started on the new Airfix 1/72 scale Folland Gnat T.1.  It has been a relatively quick build, and I hope to be able to get some color onto the model shortly.  There were a few minor issues.  The fit of the wing to the fuselage can be tricky--be careful once you get everything ready for the glue.  If you don't get a good, tight fit where the wings meet the inlets, work on it before you get out the glue brush--if you don't, you'll wind up with a slight gap that could set your wing askew.  I'm speaking from experience, here.  Also, watch the part numbers when you build the slipper tanks--I didn't and got the left top on the right bottom and vice-versa.  By the time I noticed, the tanks were permanently fused.  I had to trim and shim to get them to fit.  I hope that those of you reading this take heed and learn from my ignorance.

I'm gonna build this one up using the kit decals.  I figured it would be a good slump-buster, and I was right--were it not for all the overtime and other things, I'd have it finished by now.

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Other things, you ask?  Well, in addition to the family stuff, the court date for the guy who caused the accident in November came up a few weeks ago.  I think I told you all at some point that the man is 82-years old.  Well, when I saw him enter the courtroom, it reinforced what I had been thinking--he's indeed 82, has two hearing aids, two canes, and glasses with lenses thicker than any I've seen on a pair of glasses.  How this man--a fine man, I'm sure--can hold a driver's license evades me.

Anyway, he wanted to speak with the judge.  The way traffic court works in South Carolina starts with your ticket.  If you pay it and take the points, your case is removed from the docket.  You also have the option of holding the court date and speaking with the law enforcement officer who cited you.  At that point, the two parties usually work out what amounts to a plea agreement with reduced fine, you pay the fine and take the reduced points, the case gets closed, and all is right with the world.  If you either don't want  to speak with the LEO or don't like what he or she is telling you, you appear before the judge.  This session was to start at 10AM.  The trooper was in a jury trial and was not going to be able to appear until just before the judge was ready to take the bench.  By the time the trooper showed, there were about five minutes left before the judge entered the court.  An interesting conversation took place:

"I want to talk to the judge.  I want my ticket throwed out."

"Sir, I doubt the judge will do that, especially since there are several witnesses to the case present in the courtroom today."

"I wasn't speedin'.  There was other cars passin' me like I was on flypaper."

"Sir, you weren't cited for speeding.  You were cited for driving too fast for conditions."

"But them folks wuz speeding!"

"Sir, I run traffic stops there all the time.  I understand what you're saying, but I didn't cite you for speeding.  We weren't running a speed stop that day, and while they may have been exceeding the speed limit, that's not what you got the ticket for.  Traffic was stopped, and by your actions, you damaged seven vehicles."

This went on for a while.  Then, he changes the subject:

"My van was totaled!  They gots to get one of them lit signs warning about congestion or sumpin' on the road.  I've been driving for seventy two years, and ain't never had anythin' like this..."

"Sir, I understand you vehicle was totaled--so were three others.  As for the signs, the judge here can't help you.  All he will want to hear from you is guilty or not guilty of the charge of driving too fast for conditions."

He pressed that issue for several minutes.  Then, another quick sidestep:

"My brakes musta failed or my foot musta slipped."

"Sir, we tested your van's brakes--even with all the damage, the system was intact and you had a firm pedal.  But that's also something the judge isn't interested in..."

The trooper had to explain this to the man at least three times before he switched tracks again:

"The hospital cut me loose and I wuz still hurtin'!"

"Sir, You'll need to take that up with the hospital.  This judge won't rule on that.  All he wants to hear is guilty or not guilty to the charge."

Then the guy's wife starts chiming in:

"Can't you reduce the fine?"

Ma'am, the fine is $81.88 and two points, the lowest traffic fine we are allowed to levy on this charge.  The judge will not reduce the fine lower than that."

"You really think not?  My husband's a Veteran and everthin'."

"Ma'am, even if the judge thought your husband was the finest man he'd ever met, he can't, by law, reduce the fine.  He could be a Saint, and the law still applies."

Finally, the couple decide that maybe it is best to pay their fine, take the points, and move on.  Much to my delight and to the delight of the other witness.  Of course, by the time they decided this, the judge entered the courtroom.  We did the polite thing and sat until the trooper and judge dismissed us.

There's several hours of my life I'm never gonna see again.  But if he made his appearance with no witnesses present, the case would have likely been dismissed.  So, I did my good deed for the day, and got a few hours away from work on top of it all.  Sometimes life is like that...

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During one of the lulls in the action, my wife and I paid a visit to one of the smaller hobby shops in the area, one that we hadn't been to in quite a while.  When I say small, I mean it in size, mainly--what the shop lacks in size is usually offset by some of the stuff held within it's walls.  We poked through the stacks, and I noted that the owner must have bought parts of a collection.  One man's trash (or SIDNA) is another man's treasure (or future SIDNA, depending on how the stars align):  I snagged a Fujimi 1/72 scale HSS-2B Sea King in JASDF markings for $12 and a Hasegawa 1/72 scale F-111F for about $20 and some change.  Not bad, considering Hasegawa is pricing the kits of the Pig that they do re-release at nearly double that.  I also noticed some HO scale/gauge Proto2000 Atlantic Coast and Florida East Coast locomotives priced nicely--I didn't get them yet, but will soon do so.  It pays to shop local, doesn't it?

The Fujimi Sea King is a nice kit that can be difficult to find.  It had most of the detail differences included (sponsons, short and long horizontal stabilizer, ice shield) in the box.  I'd like to have some fun and maybe build this one as one of the CH-3B's that the U. S. Air Force used to resupply the Texas Tower radar sites or to recover drones.  Eventually, I will build a Navy version or three, but the Air Force titles on an engine gray and orange helo intrigue me...

As for the -111, I may again break my vow in order to do something I've meant to do for years.  Stay tuned.

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On our trip to Florida, we stopped by the usual haunts and came up with a few hits.  I bought the wife a copy of the new Kinetic T-45 Goshawk.  It is a nice kit--she has already finished the model, and it looks quite nice.  I also managed to snag a Revell Germany issue of the 1/72 scale MPM A-20G kit.  Just as nice at half the price.  Really.

She found one of the new Academy 1/48 scale F-4B Phantom II kits, which she promptly wrapped and gave to me on Christmas.  Personally, I think it is a superb kit regardless of the hubbub on the 'net.  Mine is destined to wear the Top Hat of VF-14...

She also was directed towards a Zvesda 747-8 kit that I had spied for an oh-so-nice price.  So she's got that going for her...

Before we left on the trip, she had pre-ordered a couple of the new Meng 1/72 scale F-102A kits.  All I can say is that if you are a Century Series fan, get one.  Or two.  Or a half-dozen.  Yes, they are that nice...

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The 51st running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona is history.  Scott Pruett won for the fifth time, tying Hurley Haywood in the most wins in "Daytona's twice 'round the clock classic" department.  Let's say that I'm not Scott's biggest fan, but I do appreciate the achievement.  Winning once is a lifetime goal of so many people, so to win it five times is truly remarkable.  And I'm glad that Charlie Kimball was on the team for this race--Charlie races in the IndyCar series even though he has Type 1 diabetes--he carries a Novo Nordic FlexPen in the car with him, and he's done quite well for himself on the track.  He's also a nice guy, and I'm happy that he now can say he was on a winning team in Daytona.  Wayne Taylor Racing and their new partner Velocity Worldwide was on the second step of the podium this year.  The BMW's were the class of the field, so Wayne's Corvette DP just didn't have the muscle to keep pace, even with Max Angelelli, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Wayne's son Jordan sharing the duty.  Last year's winner, Michael Shank Racing's #60 car, finished third but was later fined and stripped of all the winnings and most of the points because of a rules infraction.  Part of the fines go to Camp Boggy Creek...

In the GT ranks, Audi and Ferrari came to play, and play they did.  Audi Sport/AJR took first, AudiSport/APR took second, and AIM Autosport/FXDD took theird in their Ferrari 458.  And, the new GX class had mixed results--the three top finishers were all Porsche Caymans.  Three Mazda6 GX entries met with misfortune early on, all of them dropping out due to engine and mechanical problems after 50 laps.

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So there you are.  We covered a lot of ground this time--some work woes, some family woes, some interesting disorder in the court, some plastic tales, and some racing.  I hope that holds you for a while. 

And I hope to be back sooner.  Can't make any promises, but I'll do my best to fill your head with useless trivia, questionable knowledge, and goofy tales from back in the day.

Until then, thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.

Support your local museums

I'm back...

September saw the first of what turned out to be a rash of traveling, both for work and for me.  I had to head up to Richmond for a few days for work, and while I was there I noticed the Virginia Aviation Museum.  I was on a tight schedule and couldn't swing a visit, but next time I'm in the area I do want to have a look.  I'm going somewhere with the aviation museum thing here--I used to try and stop in on the various museums I passed in my travels, but at some point I stopped doing so.  I don't know why, although part of the reason might come from the fact that I have seen far too many of these small efforts die or worse--someone there gets an idea, and it gets executed poorly, which detracts from the visit.  For instance, one Southeastern museum has (or at least had back in 2000 when I was there last) an F-101B VooDoo that they've tried to repaint--poorly.  Instead of the proper color, they used what appears to be a generic hardware store gray paint--and applied equally generic hardware store self adhesive letters to replace the "U. S. Air Force" titles on the fuselage.  Things like that make me cringe.  I know the exercise was done with the best of intentions, but it costs just as much to do it wrong as it does to do it right.  Actually, doing it wrong costs more, because at some point you'll have to go back and correct your previous actions.  I'm just sayin'...

The first week in October found me in Tucson for training at FlightSafety International.  Now, anyone with an interest in aviation knows all about Tucson, home of several sightseeing targets.  I was supposed to come to Tucson in May, but was glad it worked out so I was there in October--the weather was, in a word, perfect.  I also managed to schedule my trip so I arrived with a day to spare.  Why?  One word.  Pima.  The Pima Air and Space Museum is one of the only places in the world where one can see such aircraft as the Budd Conestoga, Boeing XC-14, Curtiss O-52 Owl, and more.  Most of the museum is open-air, as the rainfall totals in Tucson are low and the soil is slightly alkaline, which keeps corrosion down.  The only thing that they have that is detrimental is sunshine, and plenty of it. 

I went that Sunday and within an hour had killed the battery on my digicam (note to self--you said you needed a spare, take the hint!).  Still, I wandered the museum grounds and saw everything I could.  They've done a remarkable job at preserving many airplanes that are one-of-a-kind now.  Where else are you going to find a restored B-29 indoors, with a full gallery of other airplanes--including a Nakajima Ki-43--and memorabilia?  There are tons of history there, and I took lots of pictures both that Sunday and later in the week (I had to go back and get some of the pics I didn't get on Sunday--call me crazy, but...), and once I can get them all sorted and titled I'll post some of them here...

Later that week, class was dismissed early.  So, I had choices--if I hurried, the last tour of AMARG (the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base) would be just leaving when I arrived back at Pima.  Knowing that I'd have to break most land speed records to do so, I decided instead to head down to Green Valley and check out the Titan Missile Museum.  I knew that the museum existed, but I wasn't sure how they ran the tours--since 99% of the museum is underground, I was certain that you weren't allowed just to wander.  I was correct.  They take you into a room and show a short video, then a guide takes you down to the control room.  There you're told how the whole deal worked, how it was constructed, and you then went through a simulated launch.  Eerie.  Really.  Anyone who grew up under the threat of "The Red Menace" knows what MAD meant, and here you saw it up close.  One thing the guide does emphasize is that had these missiles been fired, it meant that Moscow had fired theirs first.  And, in the end, all of our destruction would be assured.  They also emphasize that these missiles did exactly what they were supposed to--make our enemy think twice before he launched his...

You get to then walk to the actual silo and see a Titan missile.  After that, you head topside and are allowed to wander the grounds.  Here's some trivia for you:  movie-goers with an interest in the Star Trek franchise have seen this museum and this missile.  It plays a role in Star Trek: First Contact, it is the boost vehicle for Efrem Cochrane's warp drive test flight...

I never did have time to do the AMARG tour, but on the way back from the Titan museum, I did make the re-visit to Pima.  After I left Pima, I still had daylight left, so I took a cruise around the perimeter of D-MAFB, and did manage to see some of their cocooned airplanes.  On one lot, it was wall-to-wall C-130's, on another it was C-135 variants as far as the eye could see.  Amazing.  You don't realize how many of these airplanes have been built until you see them all in one place like this.  I will be back--with my wife--and we will do the AMARG tour next time. 

With my re-born interest in aviation museums running strong, a few weeks later we took a trip back to the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte.  We had been there when everything was in their old location, so we would get to not only see their new digs, but we would also get to see Cactus 1549, the USAirways Airbus that ditched in the Hudson.  We were fortunate in that a passenger on the flight was there, and he recounted his memory of that day.  I must say, the first several times he did that must have been both difficult and therapeutic.  He gave a very interesting talk, and he answered questions afterward.  You can read "Miracle on the Hudson" all you want, but until you see the airplane and hear the stories, you don't get the full impact...

Things pretty much had settled down by last week, but a late trip to Dallas led me to the Frontiers of Flight museum at Love Field.  I had noticed the museum a few times when we were there last year, but we never had time to stop in (plus, my boss and colleagues don't have the same interest in history as I--they all tell me that they "see enough airplanes every day, why look at them when you're not required to?"  The poor devils.  They'll never understand.).  I found it to be a very well run museum.  One side contains most of the historic stuff--including a large amount of Chance Vought equipment and one of the only two surviving LearAvia Lear Fans--and the other end is a tribute to Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines.  I was especially interested in this one for three items:  the Apollo 7 Command Module is housed and displayed there, next to the prototype Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake", and tucked in the corner behind them is a  Regulus II missile.  I was overjoyed at the Braniff exhibit, too...

Since my visit, I have become a member of the Arizona Aviation Foundation, and am contemplating membership at our "home" museum in Charlotte--and a few others, too.  If it helps them in any way preserve these historic craft, I'm all for it.  If you live near one of these places, visit.  Help out, if you can.  Donate, too, if you are able.  Let your kids and grandkids see these same artifacts...

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The past few months have been a little bit weird, and a bit trying at times.  In the end, though, I have a lot to be thankful for...

We had a bit of a family crisis in early September--my mother fell and nobody knew about it for several days.  A long story short, she's doing well now, but that added a week of travel that I hadn't scheduled.  Fortunately, the week after she had her accident, my brother and sister-in-law went to be with her and start getting things back in order.  It had become apparent that it was also time to get her somewhere where she would be close to health care professionals in case she had another accident, so they got the ball rolling on that.  I went down there the week after I returned from Tucson to get the rest done.  She's in her new place and doing fine, but there were more than a few stressful moments along the way.

And, to add to the stress of the holidays, I was in an auto accident Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  It was a mild doozy, too, with seven vehicles involved.  It could have been much worse than it turned out, though--only three people were transported to the hospital, and we were told all of them would be okay.  That being said, I think my little truck is at the end of the road.  It still runs fine, and the damage is mostly twisted sheet metal, but I fear that my 13-year old Tacoma with 375,000 miles under its wheels will costs more to repair than what the book value is.  I was looking for a new commuter vehicle anyway (and I already talked about it a little), but this makes that more of a necessity than an option.  I will miss my reliable, utilitarian little truck.  This has been the best vehicle I have owned, without a doubt.  I hope to get as much satisfaction from my next one...

Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.