Iron Modeler

Stormy Weather

Howdy, all…

Every now and then during the day this past Wednesday and Thursday, I would check the progress of Hurricane Ian.  As landfall approached, my heart went out to the people in Southwest Florida.  Ian came ashore near Cayo Costa and Punta Gorda—nearly the same place Hurricane Charley landed in 2004.  Watching the TV coverage, my heart sank further.  The area is devastated.  We used to have family friends in North Ft. Meyers, and we used to take boat rides on the Caloosahatchee River in that same area.  Photos and footage after the storm show some extent of the devastation—a lot of what was there is gone and will never be the same.  Ever.

Ian wasn’t through with Florida, though.  He plowed across Central Florida, bringing heavy rains and flooding to Orlando, Daytona, and St. Augustine before taking his leave of Florida (as a Tropical Storm) near the Kennedy Space Center.  He meandered out to sea, regained strength, and took aim at the South Carolina coast.  Thursday night’s forecast had Ian making a second landfall in Charleston and basically following I-26 on a path that would have taken the storm over our house.  Ian had other ideas—he meandered north and east before making landfall near Georgetown, causing damage in Charleston, Pawley’s Island, and Myrtle Beach.  Currently, what’s left of Ian is soaking Virginia and West Virginia and is headed to New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

I’ve lived in South Carolina for 21 years.  Ian was only the second tropical system I’ve done any sort of prep for—Florence in 2018 was the other.  However, I’m no stranger to these kinds of meteorological events…

1972:  Hurricane Agnes was the first time I experienced a hurricane—only I wasn’t in the Southeast.  We were vacationing in New Jersey when Agnes blew through, dumping a lot of rain on the area. By the time she hit, she was a strong tropical storm.  Agnes was one of two events that keep the summer of 1972 vivid in my memory.  The other?  I came down with chicken pox while we were there.  Chicken pox and tropical rain—not a combination I can recommend to anyone…

1979:  Hurricane David was projected to make a direct hit on the Broward County coast on Labor Day weekend.  David reached Category 5 strength when he came ashore in the Dominican Republic.  After that passage, David weakened to a minimal hurricane, but gained strength.  My brother and I spent the weekend at a friend’s house in Sebring, since David was supposed to be past Ft. Lauderdale by Labor Day.  Yeah.  We drove home as David made landfall in West Palm Beach.  David would skim the Florida coast, barley on land, until he went to sea near New Smyrna Beach.

Honorable Mention for 1979:  Hurricane Frederic.  David was supposed to be a major storm when it came ashore in Florida and Frederic was supposed to be his weaker brother.  Sure.  Frederic would  intensify to a Category 4 storm when it came ashore near Dauphin Island, Alabama.

1981: Tropical Storm Dennis would come ashore in South Florida in August.  He dumped a lot of rain on the area.  I know this because I was camping that week.

1986:  Hurricane Charley came ashore near Apalachicola and  traveled east, finally leaving via the Carolina coast.  I remember it because for a while it was predicted to cut across Florida and pummel the Daytona Beach area.  Embry-Riddle cancelled classes for a few days…

1989:  Hurricane Hugo.  While Hugo only briefly brushed the Florida coast, he hammered South Carolina.  Friends of the family in Savannah and Hilton Head suffered some substantial damage.  Hugo would be a harbinger of future storms—he came ashore near Sullivan’s Island as a tightly wrapped Category 4 storm, and actually accelerated after making landfall, carrying hurricane force winds as far north as Charlotte.  The path of destruction was easily traced through the state, as it appeared someone took a 40-mile wide buzz saw and cleared a path from Charleston to Charlotte.

1992:  Hurricane Andrew.  Andrew didn’t seem like he would amount to much in his early days.  But as he approached the Bahamas, Andrew rapidly gained strength and passed the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm.  Once clear of the Islands, Andrew made a beeline for the Southeastern Florida coast.  Initially predicted to come ashore in Ft. Lauderdale, he jogged to the south and made landfall near Homestead, south of Miami.  Andrew was a tightly wound and very dry storm—some likened him to a 30-mile wide tornado.  The damage Andrew caused made him the most expensive storm to hit the United States at the time.  After wrecking South Florida, Andy zoomed up the Gulf of Mexico and made a second landfall near Morgan City, Louisiana.

Andrew brought a lot of issues to light.  The housing boom in Florida through the late 1970’s and 1980’s saw housing developments spring up seemingly overnight.  One such development, Country Walk, was leveled.  It was discovered that there were some construction anomalies—the roof trusses were only tenuously attached to the house, and the roof sheathing was likewise poorly attached.  In one study, one out of every ten staples meant to attach the sheathing actually hit the truss—the rest missed entirely.  The building codes were reviewed and reworked after Andrew.

The insurance industry took a huge hit from Andrew.  Several companies went bankrupt.  The Florida legislature enacted several joint underwriting groups in response.

Homestead Air Force Base was heavily damaged, and expected to be closed under BRAC.  However, the base was repaired under an austere budget.  The active-duty unit, the 31^st Tactical Fighter Wing, was dispersed and later reformed at Aviano AB, Italy.  The Air Force Reserve unit, the 482^nd Tactical Fighter Wing, remained at the renamed Homestead Air Reserve Base.

In addition to all this, there is a very real psychological effect on people, as they see their homes and everything they ever had swept away.  South Florida saw a marked upswing in divorces and suicide attempts.  I went to Homestead a few times to help my boss at the time rebuild his mother’s house.  I had been there before, and I could not find any landmarks.  The area was more or less devoid of trees.  Roofs were torn off.  It was not a pretty sight, and I can see how stress would take a very large toll on people.

There was a rash of looting after Andrew, too.  It took President Bush to activate the National Guard and impose curfews to slow the crime wave.  Imagine—you’ve lost pretty much everything, yet here comes someone who wants to steal what little you have left.

FEMA was slow to react—they had never dealt with anything of this magnitude.  Relief supplies were slow to arrive on site.  This issue afforded me a ride on an Army CH-47 Chinook.  The Florida Aero Club started a relief drive, and a week after the storm a friend and I went to help them at North Perry Airport.  As we loaded carts of water bottles and dry goods, a UH-1 Huey would land, we’d load it, and the helicopter would depart.  Another one came in, loaded, and left.  Then the Chinook landed.  We packed it per the crew chief’s instructions, and then we looked at him.  “Who’s going to help you unload?”  He looked perplexed.  We both volunteered.  So, that afternoon I found myself following I-75 south to Homestead General Airport.  We unloaded, and took a quick look around.  I looked into a hangar.  The doors had been blown in, and in the far corner of the hanger stood a mountain of airplanes.  As we departed, we flew east and then north along the coast, where I got a good look at the damage along Cape Florida and the Miami Bayfront area.

After Andrew, people started paying attention to warnings when the National Hurricane Center started tracking storms—and this not just in Florida.  As history has shown, Andrew set records.  Records are made to be broken… 

1998:  Hurricane Georges.  He was supposed to make landfall in Ft, Lauderdale.  I was in an apartment that was little more than a double-wide, so I went to stay with my brother in his apartment—a concrete-block-and-steel (CBS) building.  As it turned out, Georges remained south, and came ashore in Key West.

Georges would be the last tropical weather system I would, by necessity, need to track to see if it would hit close to where I lived in South Florida.  I did follow the 2004 season, where Charley, Frances, and Jeanne criss-crossed the state, and 2005, when Wilma came ashore late in the year and wreaked havoc in South Florida. 

Of course, everyone watched as Katrina devastated New Orleans, much as Harvey did in Houston and Maria did in Puerto Rico.  Andrew’s crown as “most expensive disaster” has been given away several times since 1992.  I believe Ian will now wear that crown.

Each of these events made impressions on me.  When Florence looked like she would be a strong storm and head inland, I did full-on hurricane prep—I stocked up on batteries, bottled water, provisioned with non-perishable foods, filled my bathtubs, and was ready for a bad time.  Florence stayed near the coast and dumped lots of rain over the Pee Dee region of SC and Wilmington and Fayettville in North Carolina.  As with Ian, we dodged a bullet…

To my friends who have been affected by Ian, my heart goes out to you.  I’ve contacted most of you directly, and if you need anything, anything at all, please get in touch.  I may only be able to lend moral support, but every little bit helps.  For those who want to help who are able, the American Red Cross is one of several groups who are taking donations.  Again, every little bit helps.  Some things will take many months or years to recover.  Some things will never recover.
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As a further point to my last entry, I want to recommend several YouTube Channels to my scale modeling peeps.  These modelers do great work, and each of them will be the first to tell you that in some cases they don’t know if what they’re doing will work, but are willing to try and deal with the results rather than throw their hands up and say “I can’t!”

The first is David Damek, aka PLASMO.  If you look through his history, you will literally see him try new things as he makes an effort to expand his horizons.  He’s gone from basic kit construction to 3D printing and resin casting his own parts.  https://www.youtube.com/c/idaemonplasmo/videos

Armor modelers, here’s your guy.  Martin Kovac, aka Night Shift.  His results are stunning, and he’s very much a teacher.
https://www.youtube.com/c/NightShiftScaleModels/videos

Another guy who covers a multitude of subjects is Metodi Metodiev, MM Scale Models.
https://www.youtube.com/c/MMScaleModels/videos

Greg Phillips will plainly tell you that he does what he does--and he does it well.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uGdoOTmEsyn7m3ewRVDeQ/videos?app=desktop

Jen Wright, aka Jenesis, is another modeler who shares how she does things.  She reminds you, like all the others I’ve referenced, that SHE does things this way, but it might not necessarily be the way YOU would do them. 
https://www.youtube.com/c/JenesisDesignsandModelcraft/videos

Scale-A-Ton also shows some interesting techniques, such as using kitchen plastic wrap to texture fabric.  He’s another jack-of-all trades, and I enjoy his presentations.
https://www.youtube.com/c/Scaleaton/about

Finally, if you build ships, you need to follow Ebroin Song.  He does everything using hand tools, and isn’t afraid to rebuild assemblies to fit his resources.  His sculpting work is excellent, and all in all his work is exquisite.
https://www.youtube.com/c/EbroinSong

Take a look at these channels.  There are literally thousands of scale modeling channels on YouTube, and I’ve found these to be the ones I go back to time and time again.  Some of the others are fun to watch if you want to get the ASMR feels, but for learning content, these are my go-to channels.
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That’s all I have for now.  Thanks for reading, and if you can, please consider making a donation to help the victims of Ian.

In other words, be good to one another.  As always, I bid you Peace.

“I Can’t”

Howdy, all!

I’m going to discuss something I have noticed more and more over the past few years.  My discussion (as usual) will pertain to the hobby of scale modeling, but I see it elsewhere, too.

It usually begins like this—someone displays their model at a club meeting, online, or at a show.  As people file by and look at the work, I hear the comments: “I could never do that.”

Why is that?  What is preventing anyone from doing similar work? 

For the tl;dr crowd, my reaction towards this attitude can be summed up thusly:  When you say “I can’t”, it usually translates to “I won’t”.

Let’s get back to the discussion.  In many cases, the answer comes down to curiosity, time, budget, and the desire to do what it takes.

Lets look at several categories:

“I do not have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do that.”  There’s no crime in this.  Take the time you need to learn the techniques and skills to “do that”, whatever “that” is.  Learn basic scratchbuilding.  Take time to perfect your assembly skills.  Practice using the airbrush wherever you can.  Be curious.  Be willing to try new stuff.

“I don’t want to spend the time it takes to do that.”  Fair enough.  I know a good many modelers who simply do not want to fool around with advanced techniques, and most of them are happy to knock kits together in a few nights, apply basic paint jobs, and use the kit decals.  That’s fine.  The issue I have comes when someone verbalizes their desire to make their models better but refuses to acknowledge that it does take additional time, both practicing the technique and applying it to the model.

“I don’t want to spend the money to do that.”  Again, this is a fair comment.  Some modelers lack the financial wherewithal to go and buy ready-made detail sets.  However, there’s always a way.  When I started adding details to my models, the materials came from stuff lying around the house.  My mother’s sewing box provided thread and other “soft” materials.  Dad’s workbench provided scraps of wood and metal.  Packaging provided thin plastic sheet.  When the Bell South guys did work on the lines, we could usually talk them out of scrap wire.  Add to these paper clips, staples, foil pie pans, and other stuff that was usually thrown away, and you have a trove of stuff to make details from.  The garden provided dirt and gravel for groundwork (for as often as I did groundwork—which was almost never).  So, you don’t have to dump a ton of dough on special stuff—look around.

When it comes to assembly materials, instead of buying dedicated “hobby” putty, there are alternatives.  I learned early that I could use Hot Stuff (our standby CA back in the day) and baking soda as filler.  In fact, I still use CA—but not the baking soda.  Instead of forking over a few bucks for a 2 oz tube of Squadron Green Putty, for a few dollars more I could buy a tube of automotive scratch filler that was twice the size for a buck more.  I could buy those little tubes of Krazy Glue for a buck, and it worked the same as Hot Stuff.

The two areas I didn’t skimp on were paint and cement.  I would be wise in what I bought--$2 for a 2oz bottle of Plastic Weld vs. $1.98 for 1oz of Micro Weld—and I would do my best to make sure it didn’t get wasted.

Oh yeah—if I wanted something, I’d save my money.  I knew that there was no such thing as instant gratification.  My parents would chip in from time to time, but only to an extent.  So, yeah, I learned to plan and budget.

“I don’t want to be criticized/shown up/embarrassed.”  Aha!  Now we’re getting closer to the truth. 

I have only once in 45 years witnessed someone belittling someone else’s work.  Modelers are generally helpful people.  Ask a dozen modelers a question; you are likely to receive a dozen equally valid answers to that question.  We all want to be told we’ve done a good job.  We all want acceptance.  But with that territory comes being counseled.  Most modelers I know want to help you, and my best advice is to listen.  If you ask a question, listen, then take the advice to heart and try the techniques you’ve been taught.  That’s how we learn.  Making mistakes is part and parcel of everything we do…how we deal with those mistakes is what can encourage or discourage.

“I don’t want to.”  The truth for a lot of this is that some folks simply do not want to vary their routine or get out of their personal rut.  They love looking at the results of these techniques on other people's models, but they don’t want to make the investment in time, practice, and learning to apply it to theirs.  Which is fine—again, there are as many ways to enjoy the hobby as there are people enjoying it.

Notice I said “investment”—that’s what one needs to make in any endeavor.  Decide what it is you want to do, take some time to learn and practice until you get where you want to be.  As you achieve each goal, find new goals.  They need not be huge goals—in fact, small steps are more desirable than major goals.  Write them down.  And know this—some of these goals will take some time to achieve and may stretch over several projects.

Perhaps the one goal I cannot stress enough—Finish the model you are working on.  Don’t worry that there are issues with it.  Why?  Finishing a project is a goal in and of itself.  And honestly, many of the issues you know exists on the model will probably not be seen by most other modelers.  I’ve seen several instances of someone going back and forth on one model for years, reworking minor issues so many times that they become large issues.  Do your best, and move on.  Do better on the next project.

By all means, if (more like “when”—I make mistakes on my models all the time) you make a mistake, take some time to analyze what went wrong, what you need to do to fix it, and make an attempt at rectifying the problem.  Tossing a model into the wastebasket teaches you nothing.  Yes, there are times when the solution to the problem is to bin the model and start fresh.  But don’t automatically think that is the solution.  Set the model aside.  Let it sit for a week.  Then take a look at the model.  You might be surprised at how easy the fix is.

As I tell folks in Model Building 101, there isn’t a whole lot you can mess up that cannot be fixed.  You simply need to be willing to be patient and spend the time it takes to do the job.  There are no secrets—most techniques you will learn are out there in the world, in magazines, books, online articles, YouTube videos, at the local hobby shop (if you are fortunate enough to have a good one), and at club meetings.

Most of what we do—in any endeavor—is fairly simple.  It just takes a little curiosity, small investments in time and money, and the desire to make it happen.

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Work continues on the F-16’s.  I’ve spent the last few weeks working on the 1/32^nd Hasegawa kit.  It has some issues—most of them stem from the fact that the basic molds date back to 1978.  The cockpit tub is probably the worst example of the kit’s problems—the consoles are way too short, and short of replacing the cockpit, you have to deal with what you get.  Going back to what I said earlier, I used scrap plastic to fix things to the best of my availability without having to resort to a complete re-build.

I also cut out the trailing edge flaps so they can be shown in the lowered position, and cut the leading edge flaps to show them in the +2° position as shown in F-16’s on the ground. 

Some of the small bits were missing, and some weren’t provided.  I scratchbuilt the beer can antennas on the leading edge of the wing and the two antenna fairings on the nose from scraps of Evergreen styrene.  I also reconfigured the gun covers to better match photos.  I also had to revise the way the gun barrels got installed—revising the covers required the rework.  I think I got everything looking good…

The kit canopy was missing the aft fixed portion, and someone had thrown in a spare Tamiya canopy (at least I think it is Tamiya).  I did a little work to revise the hinge area and fit the Tamiya parts to the Hasegawa kit.  The result will be a lot better than the original kit canopy.  It is another one of those areas Hasegawa didn’t quite get right back in the late 1970’s.

Next up will be revising the bomb’s fuses.  The kit parts look like they have the transport suspension plugs installed.  I think some Evergreen rod and sheet will fill that bill.  Photos are out there, and I think I can do a creditable job.

The two 1/48^th scale F-16’s are ready for paint, and the 1/32^nd scale kit will be to that point soon.

I’m still trying to figure out if the decals I have for the 1/32^nd scale kit will be viable, or if I should finally pull the trigger on a plotter/cutter and design paint masks. 

Stay tuned.

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The shadows and the sun’s angle in the sky are changing.  The temperatures are starting to moderate.  I believe autumn has arrived.  I’ve always loved this time of year.  I can’t explain why—maybe the change of temperature, I dunno.  But I’m enjoying it.

That’s all I have this time.  Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

More Reunion Stories

Howdy!

Something I was not aware of before I arrived in town for my class reunion was that the Navy’s newest San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock (LPD), the USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28), was in Port Everglades for her commissioning ceremony on the same weekend.  Had I known, I would have tried to visit the port to see what I could see…

Ft. Lauderdale is, generally speaking, a Navy town.  The Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport made a name for itself as NAS Ft. Lauderdale, where naval aviators were trained—one of the most famous was George Herbert Walker Bush, who would later fly TBM Avengers in WWII and become the 41^st President of the United States.

Most of the smaller airports that dot the landscape around Broward, north Dade, and southern Palm Beach Counties were outlying fields, or satellite fields, to NAS Ft. Lauderdale.  The Navy visits every year for Fleet Week, and it was a popular Liberty port.  In the mid-1970’s, the HMS Ark Royal made port for a visit as well, and other navies have visited the city as well.

Throughout the years, there have been naval vessels named after many cities in Florida and after the State itself, but up until now, the Navy had never named a ship for my hometown.  Initially assigned to a littoral combat ship, the name was reassigned to the LPD in 2016.  The Fort Lauderdale and the next ship, LPD-29 (USS Richard M. McCool, Jr.) are the final Flight 1 ships of the class, and are transitional—the first ships in the class featured large, boxy composite masts, while the last two feature more traditional steel pole masts.

So, what’s an LPD?  In short, it transports a Marine Corps amphibious landing force.  The ship can carry one Landing Craft, Utility (LCU) or two Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) amphibious landing craft along with two MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors.  The ship features a well deck from which the landing craft are launched.  The ship also features 2 each 30mm cannon and 2 each Rolling Airframe Missile (RIM-116) air defense missiles. 

She will call Norfolk, Virginia home—but I imagine she will be no stranger to her home town.

Bless you, good ship, and all who sail with you.

And, for those who know me, yes, there are kits available.  They’ll need work to convert them to the proper configuration, but when has that stopped me before?  At some point in time, a 1/350^th scale USS Fort Lauderdale will join my kits of the USS Florida and USS Miami in the queue…

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Last time out, I told you about the fun and excitement there exists when organizing a large event. 

We were busy.  Aside from our normal reunion committee duties, we were housed off premises.  We shared a nice little airbnb that was quiet and secluded, which was fun.  However, that means that everything we did required driving to one venue or the other.  There were things we needed to do at certain times.  Our schedule looked something like this:

Thursday: Begin decorating the Friday night venue (we started around 2PM), grab some supper, and move into the house.  By the time we were finished with all that, it was 10:30.  By the time my head hit the pillow, it was close to midnight. 

Friday:  Up early (6AM).  Finish decorating the Friday venue, go pick up a rental van (we ran a shuttle between the host hotel and the Friday night venue) and a rental car for a classmate, drop a few items off at the hotel, and try to grab a quick lunch.  Go back to the house, clean up, and head out to the Friday night class mixer.  By the time we were back to the house, it was close to 11.

Saturday:  Up early (6AM).  Return the rental van, decorate the hotel ballroom, return the rental truck, go shopping for a house party (that never happened—it was a great idea, but by that point in the weekend we were all exhausted) and get some lunch.  Back to the house, get dolled up, and head to the reunion for the 5:30 cocktail hour.  We left a little early, but didn’t get to bed until close to midnight.

Sunday:  Up early (6AM—again).  Pack the bags, load up the car, do the required tasks for the cleaning crew, and close out the house by 10AM. 

(To be clear, I made the decision to stay "off-campus", as it were--it was by no means a requirement of the job.  So I'm not complaining--only describing.)

What that means is that any catching up time I had with my friends was limited to the event itself.  And because both the Friday mixer and Saturday reunion encompassed multiple class years, there were a lot of people to see/meet. 

Remember, too, that I had not seen the majority of these folks for 40 years.  There was so much catching up to do, and far too little time in which to do all of it.  Pictures?  I've seen a lot from everyone else, but I think I took maybe five of my own.

I managed to spend a few hours with my brother and sister-in-law on Friday night and Sunday morning.  I also managed to meet with a couple of my old IPMS/Flight 19 friends for lunch on Thursday before everything got rolling for the reunion.  Again, far too little time was available.  Even if we had a week-long event, I don’t think there would have been enough time.

If I got to see you, or if I finally got to meet you, I cherish the time we had together, however long or short that time might have been.  If I missed you, I’m sorry.  If I saw you but seemed dazed, confused, and distracted, well, that goes with the “running the event” territory and again, I apologize…

A palpable buzz has developed, and I hope it continues—a lot of us reconnected with old friends, and want to continue to get together on a regular basis.  I know I have some ideas on getting together with a few of you before the end of the year.

Time will tell.
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One of my classmates who reads this blog on occasion walked up to me at the reunion.  She said, “You barely spoke four words to me in the four years we were in school together.  How did you get to be such a storyteller?  And where did you get your style?”

There are several components to the answer to the first question.  The first is maturity.  I was the “painfully shy” kid in school, and frankly, I didn’t talk a lot to many of my classmates.  I had to do a lot of “growing up”.  Once I started to break out of my shell, though, I became a little more talkative.  As I said during my Welcome address at the reunion, I was given three minutes.  40 years ago, three minutes for me was an eternity.  These days, I can barely get warmed up in three minutes.

My other answer to the question is experience.  How can you tell stories if you haven’t experienced the event, or at least know someone who experienced an event?  Most of my stories are based on me—things I’ve done, people I know, places I’ve been.

As for a style, I have no particular style.  I always liked the way Justin Wilson (the chef, not the racer) always wanted to “tol’ y’all a story”.  But really, I just start typing, and edit as necessary.  You should see some of my first drafts—they’re all over the road.  And because the reunion has been somewhat special to me, I have tended to veer into the “writing for me” territory, i.e., it gets rather personal.  That means I have to re-edit, and that usually means I lose a large swath of my story. 

The size of my usual blog entries varies.  A lot depends on the subject of the post, and how long it has been since the previous post.  Sometimes I have a lot to say, sometimes it is just to say “Hi!” and let you know I’m still (as the song goes) Alive and Well and Living In…

As I type this, I am on page 3 of a 1,575 word essay.  At one point, it was closer to 5 pages/2,000 words, but as I said, I had to cut out a lot of the "too personal" items.  Most of my blog posts run around 1,500 words.  In that space, I hope I can adequately tell the story I want to tell.  Sometimes I succeed, other times, not so much.

Now, when I get a nice juicy research, history, or scale modeling piece under way, that can easily run 3,000 words or more.  In those cases, the extra text is required to cover the topic. 

Why not give it a whirl?  Everyone has stories they should tell.  Open your word processing program and start to type.  You may need to edit from time to time, but eventually you’ll get the hang of it.

Let me know how you fare.  And if you really like it, share it…

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That’s all I have for this installment.  Maybe I’ll tell a few more reunion stories next time.  Hopefully, I’ll have an update on the F-16’s—I finally ordered the paint and supplies I needed on Thursday.  Or, maybe I’ll tell you another Hangar Story.  To paraphrase Mr. Gump, “You never know what you’re going to get”.

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

Reunion Ramblings, Part One

Hello, all!

To quote the late, great Cajun chef, safety engineer, philosopher, and raconteur Justin Wilson, “How y’all are?  I’m so glad for you to see me some more, I ga-ron-tee!”

I've told you several times about my upcoming high school class reunion.  Well, it happened this past weekend.  I have so many stories, so many memories…

One development that came about a month or so before the event was that Lisa, our lovely and talented chairperson, elevated me to co-chair.  So I have that going for me.  Which is nice…

I suppose I’ll cover things in several separate posts.  I’ve started to write a post several times.  However, each time, it started to enter into “writing for me” territory and began to verge on some stuff I wasn't comfortable sharing publicly.  Oh, I’ll probably share them with the individuals involved, but I’ll only share them publicly if they tell me it is okay to do so.  Otherwise, it stays between us as a special memory.  Fair enough?

I have to say this up front—South Carolina, you should be embarrassed by the absolutely horrible condition of I-95.  If I had to get a urinalysis after the drive down or the drive back, I’m sure there would have been blood in my urine due to the pounding my kidneys took.  Traffic was backed up on my way down around Walterboro—they were patching, yet again, the cracked and broken concrete.  Oh, and it is 20 years beyond the point where it needed to be widened to three lanes each way…just sayin'.

I won’t even touch on how bad I-26 is between I-95 and where I live.  It is under construction, sure, but what they’re doing now will be obsolete by the time it is finished.

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The trip was a double dose of “You can’t go home again.”

I stopped in Daytona Beach for the night last Wednesday—I’ve taken to splitting my trips to South Florida this way, since it breaks up the trip and allows me some time to look around at my “other home town”.  I was last there in 2015 on my way to a trade meeting.  And it was quite different from the previous visit in 2008.  As Florida goes, things don’t stand still for too long before they erect scaffolding, roll bulldozers, and plow whatever it is under—only for a new something to spring up in its place…

My landmarks are gone.  The Barnes and Noble book store across from the Speedway is gone.  We used to park behind it when we would go to see the Rolex 24 every year.  Replacing it is a sort of shopping village anchored by a Bass Pro Shops.  Across from Turn 4 used to stand a Holiday Inn (later rebranded as a Ramada) with a neat little restaurant, Dr. BJ’s (later a Pizzeria Uno).  I told you about some of this a long time ago.  Well, those are also long gone, replaced by a group of eateries that includes a Bahama Breeze, an IHOP, and a Cheddar’s.  Even the Olive Garden next to the Hampton Inn is gone, replaced by a Houligan’s—I knew about this one, since it was under construction in 2015.  The old Casa Gallardo/Rio Bravo Cantina has been replaced by an Outback Steakhouse.  At least the Hampton—built in the early-mid 1990’s—remained much the same as it was every other time I stayed there…

I stopped by the Embry-Riddle campus.  As I drove around looking for a Visitor parking spot, I got so turned around that I got lost.  Three times.  I used to call this campus home, but only three structures—the pool, the racquetball court, and one of the original dorms—are the last structures I recognize.  Everything else is long gone, replaced by new structures…

I finally found a visitor’s spot, went inside the new Student Union (which is a phenomenal structure, but lacks the charm of the old John Paul Riddle University Center, the UC), and obtained a visitor pass.  I was headed to the Alumni Engagement Office.  It is across Clyde Morris Boulevard, next to the ROTC center.  This is another new area of the campus for me, but after a short search, I found the office.  I got a chance to chat with some of the folks there, but was reminded that most of the others were in Oshkosh for the EAA Fly-In.  Oh, well, I did what I wanted to do…

A short drive around the immediate area made me glad I didn’t live there these days.  It seems Florida is home of the 10-minute traffic light cycle.  I spent a lot of time sitting at red lights…

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Did I mention that Florida is now Wawa territory?  I didn’t stop in at the Daytona location, but I did stop at one of the Jacksonville and the Ft. Pierce locations.  I’ll have to compare them to the QuickTrip stores that are popping up around here…

Oh, yeah--Daytona Beach also has a Buc-ee's.  When I drove by, I figured you needed a full tank of gas to drive around in circles until a fuel pump became available.  Interesting concept, and once the new is worn off it ought to be fun to visit.  (For my SC peeps, there's also one on I-95 up towards Florence...)

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I exchanged text messages with Lisa, who lives nearby, once I left campus.  She had to rent a van to haul a lot of the decorations.  She asked for a cargo van, but got a 16-foot box truck.  I asked if she needed help loading, but she said her husband was almost done and that she would see me the next day in Ft. Lauderdale.  Free to roam, I did a quick trip down to the beach—it is every bit a concrete canyon that Miami is.  Hungry, I was trying to decide whether a visit to The Oyster Pub or Ocean Deck was in order, but after the day’s drive I settled on another Florida favorite, Pollo Tropical.  Chicken and black beans and rice are a nice recharge, especially when the chicken is *that* good.

The next morning, I had breakfast at the hotel—and I don’t recall Hampton Inn ever doing breakfast like this in the past.  It was good--if they had those killer cinnamon rolls, I would have mistaken it for a Holiday Inn Express.  Eggs, sausage, potatoes, juice, waffles, and danishes were on the menu.  Not too bad.  Some eggs and sausage were enough to hold me until lunch.  After touching base with Lisa, I got back on I-95 South…

I had not been south of Daytona Beach since 2013.  I already knew what I would see—more construction and houses butting right up to the Interstate.  These stretches of road used to be wide open, nothing to see but the occasional group of cattle grazing.  Now?  All along the highway was nothing but one housing development after another, more examples of the zero lot line neighborhoods that seem to be pervasive throughout Florida.  As I got further south, I realized that my landmarks down there were gone, too…

I had a lunch date with some friends.  We chose a South Florida standard—Lester’s Diner by the airport in Ft. Lauderdale.  That place is a bit of a time capsule.  The food is still very good, and it wouldn’t be the only time this visit where Lester’s would provide the sustenance…

As I passed by on the way to Lester's, I noticed that the old Runway 84 had been gutted.  Supposedly, they're updating it and it will re-open.  They had great food back in the day.  Along those same lines, the Pier 66 hotel was likewise an empty shell.  I'm told they hope to reopen in the next year or so.  That's a common theme, too--the hotel where the reunion was centered, the B Ocean Resort, used to be the Yankee Clipper.  Built in 1956, the ownership changes hands--in the 1990's, it was a Sheraton property.  I only experienced the ballroom, but it appears that a good deal of renovation and modernization has taken place.  My friends who stayed there can add their experiences it they wish...

I had hoped to be able to stop by the airport to see some old friends, but the reunion duties called…

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I may pick the story up here the next time we meet.  For you tl;dr folks out there, it goes like this:  When you are on an event committee, two things to remember—don’t expect much spare/"me" time, and everything you have planned and scheduled takes at least half again (if not twice) as long as you planned.  But a key point to remember is that you need to organize a great bunch of volunteers to spread the work out among many hands.  All of you who volunteered, I cannot thank you enough.  I know, I know, I thanked you profusely during the reunion, but you earned my undying affection.  You guys and gals rock!

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Speaking of thanks--I have to once again thank Lisa for planning a surprise for me on Friday evening.  The parties involved know who they are, and they all know how appreciative I am—even though it was a mean, dirty trick.  You almost (almost!) made me cry. 

To be sure, I did my fair share of laughing and crying over the space of the two days we were all together.  And I'd do it all over again tomorrow.  And the day after that, and the day after that.  I love all you guys, whether I got to spend 10 minutes or 10 seconds with you.  And I missed everyone who, for whatever reason, was not in attendance.   

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I think I’ve said this before, but for 99% of the people I saw last weekend, it was the first time I saw them in person in at least 40 years.  That’s far too long.  While we can’t have a blowout like we did last week all the time, we can get together individually or in smaller groups.  I know some plans for some gatherings are already afoot, and I hope they pan out.  And in case anyone asks, I am more than happy to lend any assistance I can. 

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For my usual readers, I don’t have much to report.  The reunion planning and the regular job took up most of my time since I last made a report from the bench/studio (or whatever else you want to call the place where I hack plastic).

The VTANG F-16’s are still underway.  The two 1/48^th scale models are ready for the paint shop—more on that later.  I still need to buy some 5/16” acrylic rod for the one being displayed in flight, and I still need to start working on a base.  This one will call for something more substantial than the EPS foam and basswood sheeting that I’ve been fond of for the last year or so.  I’m thinking plywood, at the very least, with an appropriate veneered edge.  It should be an interesting project-within-a-project. 

The 1/32^nd scale kit has had the panel lines re-scribed on the fuselage and vertical tail.  The wings and horizontals are next on the hit parade, and that shouldn’t take long.  I am debating whether or not I should drop the flaperons and bump the leading edge flaps to the +2° position, the standard configuration for an F-16 on the ground.  Knowing me, I’ll do it, because, well, why not? 

The rest of the 1/32^nd scale kit parts are in various stages of prep/cleaning, and will be installed in short order.  I imagine it won’t be too much longer before it is also ready for finish.

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As far as the paint hunt goes, the last time we talked about it I was pretty much settled on Tamiya—and will probably still go that way.  But I love the convenience of grabbing a “ready-mix” color off the shelf.  The answer to my particular need, again, is the Mr. Hobby (formerly GSI/Creos, formerly Gunze Sangyo) Aqueous line.  But my attempts to get the H-3XX line in the States has come up empty, and I really don’t feel like paying the freight to get some from overseas.  The current U.S. importer is the former Bluefin Distributors (now Bandai Namco), and it doesn’t appear that they particularly care about the paint end of things.  Unless one of the other distributors (Mega Hobby, Andy’s Hobby HQ, Free Time Hobbies, Douglas Models/Sprue Brothers, the new Squadron, Spraygunner, etc.) decides to step up, it seems we’re stuck.  So, I guess I’ll dash off an order for a few dozen pots of Tamiya acrylics in the next day or so.

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That’s all I have for now.  Thanks for reading, everyone. 

If you’re new to the blog, browse around.  As I said a year ago, the original intent was to have a place for all sorts of topics, but I am an airplane and scale model guy.  It’s what I do, it’s what I’ve done since I was a kid.  “Write about what you know”, you are constantly told.  So, it should come as no shock that my little corner of the interwebs is largely skewed towards those topics.  I’m doing better at opening up and writing about other things, so stick around.

Be good to one another.  As always, I bid you Peace.

“I’ll take ‘Potpourri’ for One-Thousand, Alex…”

Howdy, all…

Summer has once again reached the Greater Upper Midlands Co-Prosperity Sphere—days are topping out near 100° Fahrenheit, with humidity levels to match.  And it’s been buggy—more so than usual.  Every week, I have to clean out the screen in the primary water filter stage, and every week I come back inside with at least a dozen bites.  Oh, well, it comes with the territory...

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My 40^th High School Class reunion is coming up in a few weeks.  Somehow, I found myself on the committee, and have been volunteered to organize the volunteers.  How that happened, I have no clue—I volunteered my services to be a Facebook moderator, but here I am.  I’m not complaining, mind you.  Planning for this is much like the planning I have done for any number of scale model shows, so I’m walking familiar ground.

I’m also curious to just how much Ft. Lauderdale has changed since I was last there in 2013.  Nothing is allowed to stand still around there, I know…

Speaking of change, the reunion will give me a change to stop by the Embry-Riddle campus for a little while.  I’ll be interested to see how much it has changed since 2015, the last time I had time to look around.  I think there are now only three structures on campus that were there when I initially moved into what was known then as Dorm 2 (later named McKay Hall, it was bulldozed in 2019) back in August of 1982.  Everything else exists only in photos and memories…

The adage “You can’t go home again” echoes in my head.  We’ll see just how true it is…

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My experiment with Mission Models Paint is over.

I will say this—I’m sure it is a great product.  However, I have done trial runs several times using their exact materials and procedures.  In each one, things looked good until I tried to apply a water-slide decal.  A few drops of water caused the paint to run, as if it were a watercolor.  I have followed their instructions to a “T”.  I use their primer, their reducer, their paint, their Poly Intermix, their clear coats.  I maintain the recommended pressures and distance from the surface.  I let things dry/cure per their instructions.  And I get the same result every time.  For me, this is too much fussing about. 

And yeah, I know guys who have tinkered with adding Future, etc., to the mix and have apparently achieved good results, but recent news out of Johnson and Johnson indicated that Future may not be around much longer.  I decided that I have to find a paint that gives near foolproof results without having to chant incantations over the mixing cup every time I use it.

If you recall, this search for new paint has been going on for a while now—since Testors discontinued Acryl.  I have tried several paints in the meantime, including Vallejo.  Now, once I cracked the code on airbrushing Vallejo, I rather liked it.  However, what I have found is that shelf life on bottles that have been partially used is not great—I can go back to a bottle I used tow projects ago, and it is now thick and stringy—and it is a 50/50 chance that some additional thinner can cure the issue.  Note that I *never* return thinned paint to the main container—I learned this in my Polly-S days.  No, if I have an excess of thinned paint, I save it in a separate bottle or jar. 

The other issue with Vallejo is color fidelity.  I’m not one of those who waves his Federal Standard fan deck at every paint and criticizes each for the perceived “inaccuracies” they exhibit, but I do want a bottle of paint that claims to match a particular standard to be at least *close* to that color.  Vallejo is very much hit and miss in that respect.  If I have to mix a paint, I’d like to have one that retains usability for a long time, yields a durable film, and intermiscible with other lines. 

I tried Lifecolor on the Fujimi Sea King.  I liked the way it behaved so much that I bought the colors I will need on my early Air Superiority Blue-painted F-15A.  And it is still in the running for a #2 or #3 tier paint for me.  But availability can be spotty, and it has been known to be temperamental.

The British Phantoms reacquainted me with the GSI/Creos Aqueous line.  I had used this in the past, and for whatever reason my results were only satisfactory, nothing exemplary about them.  Well, I guess 25 years removed, I’ve allowed some things to seep into my head, and found them to be easy to use this time around.  I’d love to adopt them as my #1.  However, their U.S. importer is BlueFin.  Most every reseller of these paints has the colors from H-1 to H-94 or H-96.  So what’s the hang-up?  The modern colors (modern RAL, BS, and FS colors) are in the H-300 and H-400 range.  It seems that BlueFin either cannot or will not import them.  Indeed, the only US-based online retailer who even shows the 300 and 400 ranges is Scalehobbyist, and they show them as “Coming Soon”.  They’ve shown them as “Coming Soon” for some time now.  HobbyLink Japan doesn’t show them. Some of the UK-based shops list them, but again show them as “out of stock”.  I contacted GSI/Creos, and they say they still make the colors in question, but don’t even list them on their website…

I looked at the AK Interactive 3^rd Gen acrylics and Real Color paint, and may well use some of them.  But I’m also looking for something that I might be able to procure locally if I run out—you know, common colors like black, white, red, yellow, etc.  We have one shop close that carries some of the 3^rd Gen line in the gaming colors.  I am not aware of anyone local who carries Real Colors.  So…

I’ve finally come back around to Tamiya Acrylics.  With the demise of Testors, they seem the likely line to assume the crown.  Most hobby shops stock them.  They have a wide range of colors.  They can be mixed with Tamiya’s new Lacquer Paints, Real Color paints, GSI Aqueous Hobby Colors, and GSI’s Mr. Color line.  They can be thinned with water, isopropyl alcohol, or lacquer thinner.  These features are what make them the choice of a great many modelers around the world.

The one drawback?   Lack of “spec” colors.  Even more so than any other line, Tamiya does not offer pre-mixed colors that match any of the standards.  But a friend of mine brought up something interesting: Like artists’ colors, Tamiya offers a range of colors that seem to be almost purposefully designed for mixing.  Tamiya themselves offer mixing ratios in their kit instructions.  And really, mixing colors is not alchemy; it is actually rather easy to do. 

There are several Tamiya mixing charts online.  One of the issues with this is that there are literally a dozen different places to find mixes, and many of them don’t agree with each other.  Now, that’s fine.  Different people have different opinions on the “proper” shade of any given color.  But wouldn’t it be nice if all these recipes could be found in one place?

Some friends and I are going to try to do just that.  Stay tuned.

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The latest iteration of the South Carolina Scale Model Mega Show was held on 18 June.  It went well, by most accounts, and the committee will be meeting soon to make some decisions on the next edition.  Again, stay tuned.

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One of the Mega Show’s special awards was “Old School”.  The eligibility rules were basically this—use any kit you wish, but any added details had to be made from scratch using raw materials (Evergreen styrene sheet and rod, wire, foil, etc.)—no pre-made detail sets could be used.

At about the same time we announced our award, one of the Hyperscale forums started an Old School Group Build (OSGB).  The moderator on that forum spelled out a bunch of rules—the kit had to be of a certain vintage, the paints used must have been available “back in the day”, hairy stick application was preferred (as opposed to airbrush), etc.  Now, the participants agreed to these rules, and that’s fine.  They can call it “Fred” if they want to—they laid out the rules and agreed to hold to them

However, I think there is a bit of confusion between “Old School” and “Nostalgia”.  In my mind, the Hyperscale group is hosting a Nostalgia build—each participant builds the same kits as they did back in the day, using the same methods and products.    

To me, though, “Old School” modeling is a frame of mind that transcends manufacturers, eras, and products.  What we call “old school" today was called “scratchbuilding” back then, and it was the only way to get added details before the advent of photoetched metal, cast metal, cast resin and prefabricated details like wired distributors.

For instance, I offer up my 1/35^th scale AFV Club Wiesel 1/TOW.  I used Evergreen sheet and wire to cobble up an interior.  That’s “old school”.  There are—or were—resin interiors made for the kit, using them would take the “old school” aspect away from the project. 

I sponsored the Old School award.  I wanted to inspire this generation of modelers to realize that not everything needs to be pre-packaged in order to add it to their models.  I hope the idea stuck with the folks who participated…

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That’s all I have for this installment.  As always, be good to one another.  Thanks for reading, and I bid you Peace.

Dispelling the Myths of Scale Modeling--My Take

Howdy, all…

After I’m through working for the day, I have found myself watching some of the online scale model channels on YouTube.  This is a bonus benefit of finally having high-speed fiber optic internet service—that’s right, no more HughesNet dish in the front yard! 

Some are better than others—the channels that bring good model building content (educational content as opposed to ASMR artistry) are the ones I enjoy the most.  However, I see some of the channels still repeat a lot of those modeling myths and misconceptions that have been part of the hobby for many years.  In an effort to dispel some of them, allow me to take a few moments and comment.

Myth #1:  You need great artistic talent to build models.

If this were the case, I’d never get anything completed.  All you really need is time and repetition. 

What is talent, anyway?  Merriam and Webster define it as “a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude”, insinuating that it must be innate, part of a being’s personality.  I understand that different people excel in different things, but to ascribe it completely to luck of the draw in the genetic lottery doesn’t sit well with me.

I think of it in the same vein as TV artist Bob Ross thought of it: “Talent is a pursued interest.”  You are interested in something, and as you pursue that interest your skills and knowledge increase with time.

In the Spring 1982 “Test” issue of FineScale Modeler, ship modeler Les Wilkins outlined a few concepts he used to use to produce great models.  They were:

• Start simple
• Work methodically
• Standardize techniques
• Display effectively

Notice that Les never said that you must be artistically inclined or a master craftsman in order to build models.  Shep Paine, Bob Steinbrunn, Paul Budzik, and many other long-time modelers will tell you—time and practice is all you need.

Myth #2:  In order to produce quality models, you need a workshop full of fancy machinery and precision tools.

For most of my modeling career, I have used nothing more than a #1 handle with a #11 blade, a razor saw, a set of drills and a pin vise, some tweezers, sanding sticks and files, a handful of paint brushes, and  an airbrush.  Oh, I own a motor tool (a Foredom flexible shaft model), but rarely use it. 

This is not to say that those who do possess these tools don’t get great results from them, it just stands that they are not a requirement to building a quality model.  Simple hand tools will get you to the same destination, it just might take longer.

As for the need for expensive “specialized” tools, Master leather carver Jim Linnell said this:  “How much you spend on the tool in your hand doesn’t affect the work you do as much as the amount of experience the hand has using that tool.”

The next few myths have been floating around for decades, yet they still get trotted out as fact.

Myth #3: All acrylic model paints are water-based.
Myth #3a:  All acrylic paints are non-toxic.

There have been volumes written about paint chemistry.  The tl;dr version is this:  There are water-borne acrylics, acrylic enamels, and acrylic lacquers.  Some are soluble in water, alcohol, and lacquer thinner, others are not.  The best bet:  Use the thinner suggested by the paint manufacturer.

I still find it curious that a modeler would spend a lot of money on kits, aftermarket parts, specialized paint, and decals only to then play Home Chemist with the paint thinners.

As for the toxicity of paint, all paints, when sprayed, produce droplets.  Paints contain resins, hardeners, and plasticizers that are designed to create a durable coating.  When those materials enter your lungs, it is no different than when they coat a surface and cure.  Protect your lungs with a respirator (NOT a simple dust mask!) with organic vapor filters and use an exhaust fan, regardless of what you’re spraying.

Myth #4:  Alpha Cyanoacrylate Adhesives (aka CA, ACC, or superglue) give off toxic fumes (cyanide gas) as it cures.

Nope.

If it did, we would all be dead.  Cyanide is not a cumulative poison like arsenic—exposure to cyanide creates an immediate (and usually lethal) reaction from the human body.

While it is not toxic, it can be an irritant.  Work in a well-ventilated space, and use a respirator if the fumes bother you. 

Myth #5:  Resin dust is carcinogenic.

Sanding and grinding cured resin creates a fine dust.  However, studies have shown that polyurethane or epoxy resin dust does not necessarily possess any inherent carcinogenic properties.  In some studies, it is classified as a “nuisance irritant”. 

However, think about this—if you inhale the dust, and it gets deep into your lungs, what problems can it cause?  It is an irritant, yes, and there really haven’t been studies to see what the effect of breathing these dusts has caused over time.  So whether or not it is carcinogenic is still open to debate, but as with the acrylic paint situation, it is best to protect yourself—in this case, with a properly fitted N95 or KN95 dust mask.

Myth #6:  You need to smear putty over every seam and gap. 

Nope.  You certainly can do that, but you would be wasting time and money.

I see this often—rather than sanding the seams when the glue dries, I see folks immediately reach for the tube of putty.  What I do is sand first—get everything dressed and level.  Then, if you see gaps and steps, take some time to figure out what to fill them with.  In some cases, a few more minutes with sandpaper will take care of things.  In other cases, a small chip of Evergreen strip will fill the gap with little work. 

When I need filler “putty”, my tools of choice are epoxy putty (Apoxie Clay or Apoxie Sculpt), Evergreen styrene, Vallejo plastic putty, or CA (aka superglue).  I don’t use any other fillers—I have a half-used tube of the old (original formula) Squadron White Putty on the workbench that I haven’t checked on—it is probably as hard as stone by now.  My tube of Perfect Plastic Putty is likewise starting to solidify.

Oh, and I’d use a dust mask if you sand these fillers dry, too. 

Myth #7:  You need to use a primer under all acrylic paint.

For years, I would paint on to the bare plastic with all types of acrylics and never had an issue.  I never had paint peel, lift, or misbehave.  I would do a good job of cleaning the surface before I painted—a good wipe with Isopropyl Alcohol is all it takes.

These days, I prime more as part of the entire finishing process and use it as much to add depth and tone the finish as I do to unify the surface.

Use of a primer is optional.  One thing that is not optional is having a clean surface.  Before you apply any paint, you need to make sure the surface is clean and free from oils and other contaminants that can affect paint adhesion.  As I said, wipe the model down with alcohol right before you paint, and all should be good.

Myth #8: Future floor finish is garbage and shouldn’t be used.

I hear this a lot, yet over the years many modelers have used this product with no problems.  I have used it for years with only one disappointment that I can ascribe more to the decals than the Future.  However, this argument appears to be moot, since it appears that SC Johnson might be discontinuing the product.

Myth #9:  You don’t need a clear gloss under decals.

Now, there is actually some truth to this. 

All decals really need is a smooth surface, and most of the modern paints—even those labeled “Matte” or “Flat”—do a great job of laying down a smooth finish.  Apply the decals with a good solvent/setting agent, and they should lie down and look like they were painted on.

Back in the day, though, flat paints yielded a very rough surface, even to the naked eye.  So, you needed to take one of the following routes to a smooth surface:  use gloss paint, which back in the day was rather thick or took forever to fully cure; polish the surface; or apply a coat of a clear gloss (it was reasoned that a coat of clear gloss was better than multiple coats of glossy paint). The clear gloss was the option many modelers took, and still take, to get decals to behave.

These days, one of the best arguments out there for using clear gloss over the paint concerns the finish enhancement techniques (“weathering”) modelers use.  What happens when you apply decals to a painted finish, and then use an oil wash over it?  I’ll tell you what happens—the oil wash will stain the paint slightly, but the paint under the decal film is protected, and therefore won’t “take” the wash, and stands out like the proverbial sore thumb.  By protecting the entire surface with the clear gloss, you ensure the wash is absorbed (or repelled) from the paint surface equally.

If you want to forego the clear coat, then do your enhancements (“weathering”) before you apply the decals, and once the decals have dried overnight, go back and apply the same techniques to the decals and you’ll be set.

Myth #10:  Contest judges are (your complaint here).

I find it interesting how many times a contest judge is slammed for some reason or other, especially by people who never bother to help judge a contest.

When you go to a contest, why not step up and volunteer to judge?  You might find that you’ll learn a thing or two, and possibly might get more enjoyment out of the show!

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As last year seemed to be The Year of the Phantom, this year is shaping up to be The Year of the Viper…

It started when I pulled the two 1/72^nd scale Hasegawa F-16’s out of the rescue pile.  There are the last two of the kits my friend Rick gave me in 2006 that had been started that were still complete and could be completed.  They’re nothing fancy—the same Hasegawa F-16’s we’ve all known and loved since the mid-1980’s.  I scrounged some decals from the decal stash to build the F-16A as a Block 10 jet from the South Carolina Air National Guard, and the F-16C was built to depict a jet that was based at Shaw AFB and deployed for Operation Desert Storm.

I also tried a new paint.  When Testors began to drop colors from the Acryl range, I started using Vallejo.  Now, Vallejo is good paint, both for airbrush and hairy stick, but I have found that the shelf life isn’t all it is cracked up to be.  And even though I’m no color purist, I’d at least like to start with a color that’s in the ballpark—on some of my last projects with Vallejo, I found I had to do more color tinkering than I am used to just to get the color close to the standard.  I’ll still keep some colors around for the brush work, but decided to search for a new paint line to match the camouflage colors.

I’ll probably tell the story another time, but I tired the soup-to-nuts Mission Models paint line—primer, color, and clears.  I have mixed feelings, but before I make a final decision I need to try it a few more times to make sure it was actually the product and not my technique.  As the TV shows used to say, “Stay Tuned for More”…

The next batch of F-16’s are all F-16C’s—two in 1/48^th scale (using the sublime Tamiya kit, of course!) and one 1/32^nd scale kit from Hasegawa’s veteran release.  Two of the three are for a friend (who also provided the 1/32^nd scale kit) who worked with the Vermont ANG.  His 1/48^th scale model will be shown just after takeoff with the gear in transit.  I have two thirds of the landing gear work complete, and it will be a cool display—if I don’t say so myself…

The other 1/48^th scale model will be added to my collection, also wearing VT ANG colors.  After the two smaller ones are done, I’ll finish the 1/32^nd scale kit in decals my friend provided to build “Lethal Lady” (a Block 25 F-16C).  The actual airframe had over 7,200 hours on the clock when it was retired as a gate guard at Burlington ANGB.  Plans are for the airplane to eventually be handed to the National Air and Space Museum.  Memorializing it in polystyrene is a fair tribute to the airplane, don't you think?

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That’s all I have for now.  As always, be good to one another.  I bid you Peace.

Another year in the books…

Howdy!

Is it really the end of January, 2022?  That went quick…

As I write this, I have supper cooking in the air fryer and the 60^th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona on the TV.  This year, 61 cars across five classes took the green flag—a massive field!  I was swapping Facebook messages with a few friends, and remembered that the last race we saw in person was in 2009.  While I miss the sounds and smells of “being there”, I find that I’m much more comfortable on my couch that I was sitting and freezing in the stands…

With the IMSA/ACO cooperation agreements in place, things are looking different—and will be next year as well.  I like the direction things are headed so far.  The race so far has been close, with a few unfortunate incidents that have taken some cars out of the race, but hey, that’s how it goes.  I just looked—it is right at the time where the sun has retreated to the west and there’s a neat purple-orange glow in the skies, the time when day turns to night.  As the darkness settles in and the blackness envelops the Speedway, all sorts of things could happen.  This is why I love sports car endurance racing.
  
On other fronts, the weather has been goofy here in the Greater Upper Midlands Co-Prosperity Sphere.  Two weeks ago, we were hit with an ice storm.  We only had about a tenth of an inch, but that tenth of an inch caused all sorts of issues.  We were without power for 17 hours that Sunday—I went to bed at 10, couldn’t sleep (it was cold, and I don’t do well all bundled up), and sometime around 11 heard the chain saws as the electric cooperative attended to the problem.  By 1:15 AM on Monday, we had power.  We were some of the lucky ones--some folks didn't get power back until late Monday.

Last weekend, we had snow, about 2 inches’ worth.  Fortunately, it was on a Saturday—as I’ve said before, 2 inches may as well be 20 feet in this neck of the woods.  This morning, we had heavy frost, but as I ventured out to buy groceries I noticed that several areas received a dusting of snow.  Yep.  January in South Carolina…

We’re six months away from my 40^th high school class reunion.  It has been so much fun catching up with people, and even more fun when we see they have bought a ticket to attend.  With that fun comes the sadness when we hear of yet another classmate who is no longer with us.  As I told our reunion chair, it is sad knowing they are gone, but sadder still when we realize many of them passed years ago, and we’re just now finding out.

And, of course, it is sad when a classmate tells us they won’t attend.  Some have valid reasons—a few have cited COVID-19, which I fully understand.  Some will be traveling, some can’t get away from work, and others have kids who are entering college, so they need to be around for that.  And, to be fair, there are some who can’t afford it—which I totally get, too.  Unfortunately, stuff costs what it costs—we’re not making a profit off this, and it is happening in South Florida, on the beach (literally), in July.

Some are still on the fence, so the committee has started to directly contact them to see what’s going on.  Hopefully, we can convince more than a few to come and join us.

On the plastic front, I had cleaned out the “Back Burner” projects except one—a Reheat 120mm figure of Neil Armstrong on the moon.  In the meantime, I have brought the aforementioned 1/72^nd scale A-7 and F-16’s out for completion.  Being 1/72^nd scale kits, I can get them finished in short order if I want to.  And I do want to…

As they sit now, the A-7 has had paint applied, and will get a clear coat in a day or so.  This kit was curious—the wings had been assembled, complete with the pylons, and at one time were attached to the fuselage.  I guess when Rick needed to move, he carefully broke the wings back off so the kit would fit in the box.  Also in the box were a bunch of Mk 82 Snakeyes, a few Shrikes, a couple of TER’s (the center wing pylons had already been fitted with MER’s), and a bunch of Sidewinders.  He had also thrown the elements for a VA-147 A-7A in the box, and a initially considered using them.  On close inspection, I was not sure they would work, so I went looking for different options.  My wife handed me a Hannants’ Xtradecal sheet with an A-7B from VA-155 that she had in her decal cabinet, so that’s where I’m headed.  I had an old Microscale sheet with a similar option, as well as another with a VA-215 “Barn Owls” scheme, but again I had doubts as to whether they would work or fall apart.  I took the safe route…

The two F-16’s were more or less still in kit form.  Rick had painted the cockpits and started to add a photoetch set to the C model. I decided to remove the PE parts and close the canopies on both—honestly, in 1/72^nd scale, you can’t see much anyway and to me the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.  At this moment, the fuselages are assembled and waiting to have the seams dressed. 

The bigger challenge was to figure out what direction Rick was headed with them.  There were no decals or notes, so I wasn’t sure.  I dredged through the decal stash and found some options.  For the F-16A, I settled on a Block 10 aircraft in South Carolina Air National Guard colors.  That led to a decision—the kit is a Block 15 with the enlarged horizontal stabs.  I could cut them down and re-contour them, but in the end I think I’ll avail myself of a set of Quickboost items instead.

Originally, I wanted to do the F-16C as the Aviano jet with the commemorative USAF 50^th Anniversary scheme, and intended to do just that.  However, a little voice in the back of my noggin kept saying “Block number!  Check the Block number, dummy!”  And, sure enough, the Aviano jet was a Block 40 (GE power, etc.), something the Hasegawa kit can’t do.  So, I went back through the decals and found decals for a Shaw AFB-based Block 25 jet attached to the 363^rd TFW.  The decals are from the “not quite crap, but certainly not gems!” period for Microscale, which means I may try to find an alternate—but I figure I’ll make the pair a South Carolina themed mini-collection.

Last time, I told you how I all but emptied the Back Burner cabinet.  Here’s some eye candy for you…

The Aeroclub 1/48th scale Gloster Gamecock.  This was before I added the serials using decals--at this point, all the color you see on the model is paint.  It is built as a machine from the RAF's No. 43 Squadron circa 1926.
Hasegawa's 1/72nd scale F-4N kit with Microscale decals to depict "Old Nick 200" from VF-111 circa 1974.

Another Hasegawa Phantom in 1/72nd scale, this time an F-4B dressed up as the CVW-15 CAG jet from VF-51, the airplane known as the Supersonic Can Opener

This is one of the busts that DML included in their 1/48th scale airplane kits--this is Ernst Udet.

Another 43 Squadron airplane--this is is Fujimi's 1/72nd scale Phantom FG.1.

AFV Club's 1/35th scale Wiesel 1 with TOW missile was built as a group build--the base was provided with the instructions to build a model and landscape the base.

This is a completed Bluejacket Shipcrafters 1/192nd scale kit of the USS Monitor.


Here is another project long in hibernation:  Reheat Model's 120mm U-2/SR-71/Shuttle pilot figure.

Authentic Airliners' 1/144th scale Convair 440 and Vintage Flyer decals were used to build this model on N4826C in her Delta Air Lines delivery colors.  An earlier post I wrote in 2011 has photos of her in 1990...

That's all I have for now.  Thanks for reading.  Be good to one other, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

 

More Hangar Talk, and the so-called "Shelf of Doom"

Howdy, again!

The leaves on the dogwoods are turning, the mornings have become cool and crisp, and that tells me that the seasons are again changing.  I love this time of year.  It was especially nice when I worked in the hangar, as it meant that the sweltering furnace days of summer were once again departing for a while…

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About 15 years ago (and it seems like yesterday!), the shop I was working for gained a new technician.  The boss called us all into the office to let us know what was going on.  See, the new technician was a woman.  He wanted to remind us to be on our best behavior.  As the line from the commercial goes, he wanted “no fussin’, no cussin’, and no backtalkin’”...

When she started, I asked her about her experience.  And boy, did she have a lot of aviation experience—I think she held most every certificate that was available.  She held an A&P IA, DME, pilot commercial multi-engine, both land and seaplane, sailplanes, you name it.  She owned her own shop for a while, too.  She was also very cool—she fully realized she was a lady in a man’s world, but that didn’t faze her.  She was put on one of the install teams initially, working on Cessna Citations back in the day when we were retrofitting them to comply with the Reduced Vertical Separations Minimums (RVSM) requirements.  The mods were simple, really—we replaced the air data computers, re-certified the pitot-static systems, and did flight tests after the fact.  Like me when I started at this shop, she had a lot of rust to knock off, but once she did, she was working at the same pace as the rest of us.

All the while, we were careful to mind our p’s and q’s.  We tempered our language—we kept a pretty “clean” shop as it was, but every now and then someone would utter an expletive.  We also tried to mind our manners—no rude noises, etc.  So far, things were going well.

About three or four months into her stint with us, we brought a Citation in for more than just the RVSM mods—we were also going to update the ancient radios with new Garmin units, which meant a lot more work.  Unlike most shops in the region, we removed the old wiring that wasn’t going to be retained (usually, that meant the output wiring to the navigation indicators and the autopilot), and that meant some tedious picking and choosing, looking at wire numbers that were less than 1/16” tall on small gauge (22 American Wire Gauge—AWG), so it takes some time.  At first, you feel as if you are walking in mud, but once you get the hang of it, it moves quicker.

There are pitfalls.  One of the other technicians dared to remove all the bundle ties on a bundle, and then started tugging wires out of it.  That creates some chaos—like putting the toothpaste back in the tube, it sometimes becomes difficult.  Sure, all the wires came out of that bundle, but the bundle was tied on a harness board, so all the wires weren’t necessarily the same length.  He got the bundle re-tied, but in the process, the bundle was shortened.  He did his best to re-connect it to the bulkhead feed-through connector. 

Our new girl started to do the next phase of the work.  She asked us to come and help her find landmarks, and as we were standing there looking at the feed through panel, she noticed the re-tied bundle.  Now, she was all of five-feet nothing, and very quiet and polite.  Until now.  She looked at the bundle (which was tight as a banjo string), looked at each of us in turn, then pointed at it and exclaimed “What in the fuck do you call this?!?”

After that, the gloves were off.  We found out her father was a Marine, and that she could cuss better than all the rest of us combined.  We all got along famously after that.

She became the shop crew chief in 2004, and briefly managed the shop.  I loved working with her, because she worked as hard as we did.  If we were working overtime, she’d be there with us (unlike the manager she replaced, a guy who had no clue what avionics were let alone how they worked).  More times than not, when we were required to work weekends, she would make breakfast for the crew.  When I say she would make breakfast, I mean exactly that—she would cook breakfast in her own kitchen and bring it to us.  No sack of Egg McMuffins or Bojangle’s biscuits would do, not from her…and she would go far over and above.  For four technicians, she’d have pancakes, waffles, fruit, toast, omelets, grits, and some form of juice.  Like my mother, she would make five times as much as she actually needed.

I think the push from upper management created too much stress (I found this to be true when I managed the same shop after she left), so she resigned when the FAA offered her a Safety Inspector position.  She’s been working for the FAA since 2006.

Speaking of ladies in the hangar and rude noises, I’m reminded of a more recent story, which I may tell you at some point…
 

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The new job is going swimmingly.  Of course, it has created a need—I need a new computer.  And there is nothing I hate more than buying a new computer.  Why?  Because I know the machine I buy that is state-of-the-art today will be obsolescent in a month…

Like buying a new car, you go into the deal knowing that the model you pay out big bucks for today will not be worth a tenth of that in a week.  Oh, well, it is a necessity, and I think I have found a decent machine that will do what I need.  Of course, I also need to get a couple of large displays to make my life easier, too, and I think I found a pair that fit the bill. 

I’ll probably pull the trigger later this week.  Then comes the joy of configuring it and getting it to gee and haw with the remote desktop

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On the model front, the majority of the backlog cabinet is done.  Some call this the "Shelf of Doom" for some odd reason--I simply look at it as a collection of models that needed some time to percolate while I solved problems.  In other cases, they were long-term projects from the start--vac-form kits, especially, tend to need more thought and engineering than a standard injection-molded plastic or cast resin kit.  Rather than push the issue, I merely put them aside to give me time to hash out the details.

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The Aeroclub 1/48^th scale Gloster Gamecock is in need of serial numbers, a final clear coat, and some small details.  It was a fun project—my first vac-form kit since 2001, my first rigged airplane since 2000, and my first biplane model since 1995.  Frankly, I wasn’t real happy with it before I rigged it and started adding all the little bits and bobs to add detail.  I’m actually now quite pleased with the result.  Is it accurate?  I don’t know, maybe 97%.  Is it to scale?  Hell, no, but that’s always the way—we make certain trade-offs in order to make a model look right in the end analysis.

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Also complete is a Reheat Models 120mm SR-71/U-2 pilot, a figure that was sitting in the display case three-quarters of the way done, has been finished.  Honestly, all I needed to do was add the completed air conditioner pack, some hoses and small details (photoetched bits, some fine wire, and paint), and do some minor touch-ups.  I don’t recall what the hold-up was—perhaps the flag?  That was perhaps the easiest part—I used a decal from an old Liveries Unlimited sheet…

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I also dusted off a Bluejacket Shipcrafters’ 1/192^nd scale USS Monitor.  I shelved it a few years ago when the turret did not come out the way I had hoped.  I tried to salvage it, but in the end, I decided to scratchbuild one.  I also used .020” styrene sheet, suitably scribed, to replicate the deck, and will use varying thicknesses of primer to do the same for the hull plates.  I also have some good photos of the actual turret under restoration, so I want to add some of the more prominent details there.

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The 1/12^th scale Ernst Udet bust I started as a face painting demonstration is also finished.  Again, a few hours with some paint, and it was done.  It had been sitting on the bench for several years, and I would pick at it every now and then.  Funny how that works. 

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The last one in the queue is a Reheat 120mm figure of Neil Armstrong on the moon.  I had assembled it when I lived in Florida, and it had been sitting ever since.  In the interceding time, I learned of some discrepancies on the figure, especially some of the details of the A7-L suit Neil wore.  The more I looked, the more I found.  Fortunately, they were all fixable

The legs are particularly bad-Reheat modeled four cargo pockets on the suit.  Rather large cargo pockets.  On the Apollo 11 A7-L suits, the shins had no pockets, only reinforcement panels.  The right thigh had a flap that covered the Urine Collection Device and medical ports.  And the left thigh had a flat pouch for checklists.  The fix?  Sand and cut away all the fictitious things and replace them.  In this case, all but the left thigh pockets were sanded flush—I tried to retain as much of the fold/crease detail as I could.  The left thigh pocket was sanded down, but not totally away.  Then, I broke out the Apoxie Scuplt epoxy putty. 

The putty was mixed and rolled thin between sheets of wax paper.  The sheet of epoxy putty was then cut into shapes and placed onto the figure.  Some pressure from my fingers pushed the putty into shape, then a toothpick and a scribe were used to work the various shapes onto the figure and to continue the fold/crease detailing.  Water was used to keep the putty pliable and to prevent it from sticking to the tools.  Once everything was as I liked it, I used a brush and some Aves Safety Solvent to smooth everything out.  After curing overnight, the figure was buffed with a Scotchbrite pad and primed. 

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That leaves only one model in work, and it will remain is stasis for the time being.  It is a 1999-issue of the Minicraft Models 1/144^th scale C-32 (Boeing 757-200) that I initially began as part of a decal review.  The more I looked, and the more the airliner modeling community examined the kit, massive issues came to light.  The trailing edges were too thick, the vertical tail was too short, and the wings were misaligned—one sat higher than the other by a not inconsiderable margin.  I had started to thin the trailing edges and figure out a solution to the misalignment when I lost interest in the project.  However, in recent months Zvesda from Ukraine has produced a gorgeous new kit of the airplane, and rather than practice bleed using the Minicraft kit, I will build the Zvesda example.  Whether I use the decals I was initially reviewing is still up in the air, but at this point the Minicraft kit will become a paint mule…

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Of course, I still have my buddy Rick’s SIDNA kits (a Fujimi A-7B and a pair of Hasegawa F-16's in 1/72nd scale) that are in various stages of construction, and I have pondered dragging them out after these few remaining kits are checked off the list.  But the fact that my personal backlog is empty (or nearly so) is a big deal—at one point, I counted a dozen projects in work, and this was over and above the projects for the RIPCORD diorama…

That’s all I have for now.  Thanks for reading.  Be good to one another, look after one another, and, as always, I bid you Peace.

Adventure in Moving

Howdy, all!

You may recognize the header—it was a long-time marketing slogan for the U-Haul truck rental company.  I’ve used them four times, and each one certainly was an adventure.  The most memorable event came 20 years ago…

We had moved that January, and used a small U-Haul.  Given that I’m a bit of a pack-rat, and given that working at a hobby shop for credit has pluses and minuses, it took several trips in that little truck to move things from one end of the county to the other (plus a load in my pick-up truck, and another in my then-girlfriend’s car).  This one was more a pain in the ass than it was an adventure—I had a lot of stuff, and was moving from a small first-floor apartment to a third floor apartment (with no elevator), so the adventure was more on me than on U-Haul.

When I had to move again eight months later, I was better prepared for what I would need.  I had pared down a lot of the stuff that I had taking up space, and had given one of the couches away to a neighbor, but I still hedged my bets with a larger truck.  I’d rather have a little unused space than have to decide what to take and what to toss in the dumpster.

Oh, did I tell you this was happening two weeks after the September 11^th attacks?  Yeah, I guess I needed to add that excitement to the trip as well…

I reserved the truck with a pick-up of Monday, 24 September in the afternoon.  A friend dropped me off.  I went in, and they couldn’t find the reservation until one of the managers, who was covered in grease and soot, came in and told the kid behind the counter where it was.  As I walked out to the truck, the guy covered in dirt told me it had “a little crack in the exhaust manifold”.  Great.  I reminded him that I was travelling nearly 700 miles in this thing, but was assured it was quite sound and could make the trip easily.  Okay, sure, I guess.  My friend left, and told me he would be back the next morning to help me load up.

I got the truck to the apartment complex, and had to let the resident idiot know that I needed to park by the stairwell, and he that could park his Ford F-whatever, soot spewing, Deep-Stroke-diesel engined, jacked-up-suspension-and-knobby-tired penis substitution somewhere else for one night.

I spent the rest of the day finishing up with the packing.  Fortunately, we had already figured out that we would be moving in a few months when we moved in, so we left a lot of things in boxes.  The big things that needed to be packed were the kitchen and bedroom.  My girlfriend had already moved her stuff a few months earlier, which also made things a little easier.

Tuesday was loading day, and getting all that stuff down three flights of stairs was not going to be fun.  Fortunately, my friend helped me get the big stuff downstairs and into the truck without a lot of drama—gravity working for us was a great help, as opposed to when we lugged it all upstairs in February. 

The rest of the stuff was easy, and I was about home free when I, while carrying a stack of boxes, missed the last step on the last set of stairs and went tumbling to the ground.  I tried to get up, but my right ankle wasn’t having any of that.  My buddy got an ice pack, and after a few minutes I could at least stand and hobble.  We had two loads of stuff left, and we managed to get it all in the truck. 

I would be staying at my parents’ condo overnight—so I locked the truck, locked the apartment, and drove over to see the folks.  My father, after seeing me hobble about and hearing the story of how I hurt my ankle, rolled his eyes and said “Well, I guess I’ll be driving a truck tomorrow!”  Mom and I knew the act was for show—he would have loved driving that truck, and secretly hoped that I wasn’t able to do so in the morning so that he could.

I assured him that I would be perfectly able to make the trip—with the ice pack, the ankle felt fine, and there was only a little swelling.  Mom made supper, we sat up and talked about the move, and eventually we retired for the evening.

As I figured, a night of rest helped my ankle—no swelling, and it felt a little tender but I had no trouble walking on it.  I left an overnight bag at the condo.  I would be leaving my truck at the condo, so Dad drove me to the apartment to pick up the U-Haul.  It was right where I left it, and I did a quick walk around to make sure nobody had done anything stupid.  All was well, so I went back up to the apartment, had one last look around, and left the rental office a note telling them that the lady across the hall would take the couch I left in the living room.  I went to the office and dropped the keys and my final check in the mail slot.  A few minutes later, I was on the road.

As I drove down the on-ramp on to the Florida Turnpike, I heard a rather loud “thump” as if I had run over something.  I looked in the mirrors and saw nothing, and the truck was running fine.  I thought nothing of it until I turned the AC on and it was blowing warm—it was blowing cold when I picked the truck up on Monday.  Oh, well, I figured that the proverbial 2-55 air conditioning would work…

I had to stop by the avionics shop to get my tools—I left them there, since it made no sense to haul them down to the apartment only to drive right by the shop the following morning.  I grabbed the tools, loaded them into the U-Haul, and bade my colleagues farewell. 

I stopped in at the 7-11 I had visited every morning since 1995, got my Diet Coke Super Big Gulp and a few packages of nuts, and bid the guy behind the counter my goodbye.  His nametag said Fred, but I doubt that was his actual name, but he was always very nice to everyone who came into the store.  He was a showman, too.  “Step up and be the best!  A deal is a deal!”—if I heard those words once, I heard them a thousand times.  I often wonder what happened to old Fred…

I started up and navigated to the Turnpike again and set a course north.  Everything was going well (except it was a bit warm).  At Fort Pierce, I stopped in at Mickey D’s for a “real” breakfast.  I had avoided fast food for a few years, and this was the first fast food I had since I started watching what I ate.  After the breakfast burritos, I remembered why I was glad I quit eating fast food…but it was food.

At Fort Pierce, I fueled the truck and then made the switch to that great North-South artery known as I-95.  All was well until I was approaching Exit 73, the Melbourne exit.  All of a sudden, a loud “bang!” and a godawful noise started coming from under the hood.  The truck was running a little rough, and there was no smoke or other indications of a catastrophic failure, but it needed to be looked at.

These were the days before smart phones, so I found a gas station and grabbed the Yellow Pages from the phone booth (remember those?).  Whew—there was a U-Haul facility a mile away.  The truck made one hell of a noise, but I got to the facility and explained my problem.  I was told that they could look at the truck, but if it was unable to travel, I would have to unload it and load my stuff into another truck.  By myself.  Marvelous…

Fortunately, the problem was a spark plug that blew out of its bore.  Further investigation showed that the AC belt was gone (which explained the noise as I was starting the trip that morning!) and the mechanic had a hunch that the belt slapped the spark plug and damaged it.  I had my doubts about that—I think Joe Greasy Rag who rented me the truck didn’t finish something he was doing.  A new belt, a new set of plugs, and a new set of plug wires, and the U-Haul guys took it around the block.  I signed some papers and I was ready to once again hit the road.  It only delayed the trip by an hour and a half…    

“Hey, you know there’s an exhaust leak, right?”  It wouldn’t be the last time I heard someone say those words…

I passed my normal landmarks—Melbourne, Rockledge, Cocoa, Titusville, New Smyrna Beach, and Daytona Beach.  I had driven that stretch of I-95 more times than I could remember between Ft. Lauderdale and Daytona Beach while going to college and later, visiting.  After a fuel stop in Ormond Beach, I took a look around.  This was the last familiar place I would see until I came back for a visit.  As I passed Ormond Beach, I was now driving through places I had last seen in 1982, when we took a vacation trip to New Jersey.  The exits slid by--Flagler Beach, St. Augustine…and then came Jacksonville…

I had planned to pass through Jacksonville around mid-afternoon, but the delay meant I hit it at the beginning of rush hour.  I did take I-295 to skirt downtown (the western route—the eastern loop was under some construction), but that wasn’t a whole lot faster.  It took about 30 minutes to navigate around the city, and the next thing you know, I’m about to enter Georgia.  But wait—there is an Agricultural Inspection Station.  I stop.

“What’s in the truck?” 

“Oh, pretty much everything I own.” 

“Any produce?” 

“No.” 

“Okay, you can go.  By the way, do you know that truck has an exhaust leak?”

Georgia was uneventful until Savannah, but even that wasn’t as bad as Jacksonville had been.  As I crossed into South Carolina, it was past supper time.  I grabbed Mickey D’s again—it was cheap and fast.  I figured it hadn’t killed me that morning, so I could probably handle it again… 

A stop for gas—“Hey, buddy, that truck has an exhaust leak!”—and I started up again.  Now, the roads in Florida and Georgia were good.  But South Carolina?  Yeah, there was something Third World about them—rough pavement, bad patch jobs, potholes—and U-Haul trucks don’t have the softest ride to being with.  The stretch right before Walterboro was perhaps the worst—it had patches on top of the patches that only partly filled the potholes and cracked out concrete sections…

I found I-26, and made the final push through Orangeburg, Columbia, and the short ride to my destination.  On the way, I noticed road construction was going on—crews were installing cable barriers.  Cable barriers?  Yes, cable barriers.  I later found out why, but for now, I pushed on.

Of course, by the time I made it to “my” exit, it was nearing 1AM on Thursday…

I stopped at the top of the exit ramp and turned the dome light on to check my directions.  As I looked up, I noticed a SC Highway Patrol cruiser sitting in the abandoned parking lot of a former gas station across the road.  Thinking nothing of it, I turned and headed to the house—it was only a mile or so down the road off a side street. 

As I put the directional on to make my final turn, the trooper lights up the bubble gun machine.  I pulled off the road.  Mr. Trooper approached the driver’s side and his partner went around to look in the passenger window.

“Where are you headed?”

“To a house about 500 yards away.”

“We’ve been told to check out all U-Haul trucks with Arizona plates.”

“I thought they all had Arizona plates?”

“What’s in the truck?”

“Pretty much everything I own.”

“Moving?  It’s kinda late.”

“Well, the truck does say ‘Moving Adventures’”, and I described my journey.

“Oh, where are you moving from?”

“South Florida.”

“You should have left earlier!”

“I left at 7AM.  I expected to be here no later than 9PM, but stuff happens…”

I was aware that I was parked in the side yard of a house, and that the lights inside had come on.  After a few minutes of looking over my license and the rental contract, Super Trooper decides I’m not a terrorist and that he has to look elsewhere for his major felony arrest.

“Okay, I guess you’re clear to go.”

“Thank you, sir!  Have a good evening, and be safe!”

“Oh, by the way—this truck has a cracked exhaust manifold…”

“Yes, sir, I picked it up from U-Haul that way…”

I made it to the house, parked the truck, greeted my girlfriend, and went to bed.  I was tired.  And I would be unloading the truck more or less by myself in the morning, since she had to work in the morning, so it would be a busy day…

The next day, the unloading went faster and better than I thought it would.  The big items got unloaded last—we had to lug the couch in through the front door, which was an adventure, but it all got done with no real drama. 

I enjoyed the day—slightly overcast, high around 70 degrees—a far sight from the 90+ it was in Ft. Lauderdale that day.  “I could get used to this quickly”, I thought.  Another time, I may tell the story of the following January, when it snowed and I quickly realized that in South Carolina, 2 inches of snow may as well be two feet…

I washed up, then called U-Haul to get the address of the location to turn the truck in.  It was a short drive away.  I drove up, got out, and went inside. 

“I’m here to turn in a truck.”

“What truck?”

“The U-Haul I just spoke to you folks on the phone about less than five minutes ago.”

Apparently, not passing on phone messages or checking the computer was an issue with U-Haul locations.

Finally, a guy wearing greasy coveralls comes in and says, “Is that the big truck we was ‘spectin’?”

I completed the paperwork as he drove the truck around back.  As I was leaving, he came back inside.

“Hey, you know, this truck has an exhaust leak…”

The next day, we drove to Atlanta and flew to Ft. Lauderdale.  Try flying on a one-way ticket with no luggage two weeks after airliners were used to attack the country—it raised a few eyebrows, that’s for sure!

My brother picked us up and took us to my parents’.  We spent the night, and the next morning got in my little truck to repeat my Wednesday journey.  We overnighted in Ormond Beach, and then drove to Atlanta to pick up her car. 

Can I say that I-75 between I-10 and Atlanta is the most boring stretch of road I have driven in my life?  It may be better these days, but that was a long ride?  Valdosta…then forever to Tifton…and another eternity to Macon…

The route did take us past Hahira, though—we wondered if Coy and Bubba had settled their differences from the shenanigans at the Shrine Convention. 

We made Atlanta without incident and stopped at the parking lot so she could retrieve her car.  I followed her, and we drove I-20 to I-26, and headed to the house.  We had thought of stopping for supper, but we pressed on—we were both tired by this point and only wanted to get to the house.  By the time we got home, I was toast…

So that’s how I spent the week of 24-30 September 2001. 

Twenty years have passed.  I still get the same questions:

Do I regret the decision to move?

Do I miss South Florida?

The answer to both questions is a resounding “No”. 

Sure, I miss friends, but many have moved away themselves.  I miss going to my old haunts, but most of them no longer exist. 

As the saying goes, “You can never go home again.”  Amen.

Oh, and the girlfriend?  We’re still together, even though we have made four moves together.  We were married in 2009--we had been together nearly 10 years by that point. 

The next time we move, we plan on taking a page out of NASA’s book—grab the important stuff, stencil ABANDON IN PLACE on the house, and just drive away…

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

Tales from the Hangar, Part 2

Howdy!

 

Being located in Ft. Lauderdale, our customer base was quite varied and eclectic.  One of the more colorful characters we knew was a charter boat captain for hire who owned a Cessna 177 Cardinal.  The Cardinal was a sleek version of the venerable 172 Skyhawk—the windscreen was laid back and the design placed the pilot forward of the wing’s leading edge, the wing featured a laminar-flow airfoil, and it lacked the lift struts that were featured on the 172.  Intended to replace the Skyhawk, the Cardinal was only in production for 10 years.  Cardinal Owners are a proud bunch—they are quite loyal to the “swoopy 172”…

Our customer would come to us once every two years for the biennial transponder, altimeter, and pitot-static system certification.  If he brought it to us outside that, it had to be fairly serious, bordering on catastrophic. 

 

He was an Australian, and there were only three of us in the shop who could decipher his thick Aussie accent into American.  He called one day, and left a message.  By the time the boss heard it, the guy had called back several more times, in a bit of a panic.  It turned out that he had a power feed for some sort of portable device, the exact nature of which I cannot recall, that wasn't providing power to the device in question.  It was in the early days of GPS, but it may have been a hand-held COM radio.  Anyway, whatever it was wasn’t getting power.

The boss went across the ramp to investigate.  Sure enough, there was no voltage at the end of the cable.  He came back to the shop to get some tools—that usually meant he dragged me across the ramp with my tools, since he didn’t have his tool bag in the shop most of the time.  We grabbed a few bicycles and pedaled across the ramp.  The boss opened the baggage compartment door—a square opening with rounded corners that measured about 24” square—pulled the interior panel, and gained access to the battery to check things out.

The customer, who always referred to himself as “a poor boat captain”, wanted to help.  I guess he figured the bill wouldn’t be so bad if he pitched in.  As the boss wigged his way into the baggage compartment to look things over, our poor boat captain was in his hip pocket.  We had to remind him that there wasn’t really enough room for one, let alone two, in that compartment.  We finally got him to hang back as we went to work.

The boss’s hand poked out of the door, grasping a fuse.  I checked it with a meter, and it was good.  I handed the fuse back.  Next, I saw a short tail of a wire in his hand with a hand-written tape flag on it.  Before I could get close enough to see, our poor boat captain stuck his head inside.  I heard a muffled question, and the boat captain moved closer and asked to repeat the question.

“What does that say?” came the question.

“Wot?” asked the customer.

 

“What does that tape flag say?”

“Wot’s a tape flag, mate?” 

“The tape, it has something written on it!  What does it say?”  The boss was getting hot—literally.  It was late July in South Florida, so the temperatures were in the high 90’s outside.  Inside that battery compartment was probably closer to 105 degrees.

“It says ‘tab’”, our captain says.

I looked at the scene with a puzzled look on my face.  “Tab”?  What the hell is “tab”?

I heard the boss call for me.  I asked the boat captain to move aside.  The boss said, “Look at that tape flag and tell me what it says…”

“BAT”, I said.  “I guess it is supposed to the battery.”

It was connected to ground, as was the other conductor of the pair of wires. 

Apparently, our poor boat captain decided to install this by himself to save about $40 in labor.  He never connected the positive wire to the voltage source—in this case, the positive terminal of the battery.  Both wires were tucked under the battery's ground terminal...

From that day on, whenever he would call, the whole shop would put on our best “Crocodile Dundee” accents:  “We got one from the poor boat cap’n, mates!  Fosters all around!  Shrimp on the barbie later…”

“It says ‘tab’!” became an inside joke.  He was a good sport about it.  He would come by and be what we called a "hangar bum" every so often, even after the company started to send the piston maintenance work away so they could concentrate on Learjets.

Unfortunately, the airplane was destroyed one night when somebody broke into the maintenance hangar and set fire to it, using the Cessna as the closest source of an accelerant—the arsonist opened the wing fuel cocks and threw a match.  The airplane was disassembled for an annual inspection, and the only parts that survived were the wing tips and the cowling.  The rest was a pile of ash with a well-done engine block sitting on top.

As any true Cessna Cardinal fan would do, he bought another with the insurance money.  But he forgot to do one important thing—get a pre-purchase survey.  Had he done so, we would have told him to pass or renegotiate—it had a dated stack of Narco radios in it, and those radios took a fair amount of upkeep…

But that's another story for another time.

 

*****     *****     *****     *****     *****

As I type this, I am back among the ranks of the gainfully employed.  I am working remotely for a company that writes supplemental maintenance documents for a major airframe manufacturer.  So far, it has been a lot to absorb...

 

I’ve been introduced to the modern method of aviation technical writing, using tools like Adobe FrameMaker and XML.  As I told my trainer, the content isn’t the problem—I have used similar manuals for many years.  Figuring out how FrameMaker works and where to get the basic data I need to write from are the challenges.  But I’m doing well and actually having fun—I had been told FrameMaker is a bit of a nightmare, but once you understand how it is structured (and that it is structured, unlike the way most of us use MS Word), it works quite well and is easy to use.  Now, we have the frames templates (I believe in some conventions it is called "schema") already established, so I can’t say what it is like establishing the frames themselves, so…

My writing has come a long way since I first used WordStar, EasyWriter, WordPerfect, and AppleWorks back in the day.

 

*****     *****     *****     *****     *****
With the Phantom Menace behind me—the 1/72^nd scale 43 Squadron Phantom FG.1 got finished a few weeks ago--I’ve moved on to other projects.  The primary effort was intended to be the Aeroclub 1/48^th scale Gloster Gamecock Mk.I, I’ve had in progress since around 2016, but I also wanted a quickie. 

 

As I looked at the stacks, I remembered that I bought the Authentic Airliners 1/144^th scale Convair 440 kit a few years ago (I also bought their CV-580—I will probably have to draw the artwork myself for the livery I want to place upon it).  I also acquired the Vintage Flyer decal sheet that featured the Delta Air Lines airplanes, so I got started.

 

These kits are very nice, indeed.  Actual construction only took a few evenings—the joy of well-done resin kits is their easy and quick assembly.  Before I knew it, I had it in primer (Badger’s white Stynylrez—I have mixed opinions).  A few more short paint sessions, and it is now sitting in its drawer, waiting for decals.

 

The base is interesting—I’m using a genuine Delta Air Lines cutting board that I picked up at one of their surplus sales during the annual Airliner Collectibles Shows held at the museum.  I used my normal method of painting a section of mat board to resemble the terminal ramp—in this case, the ramp around the old Hartsfield jet terminal where the Renaissance Atlanta Airport now stands.

 

The Gamecock was ready for paint—at least, as ready for paint as it was going to be—so I primed it in preparation for final colors, too.  I decided that it would be marked as a 43 Squadron airplane, too (they named themselves “The Fighting Cocks” when they equipped with the type) so I laid out and cut the checkerboard markings with tape.  The airplane is now painted and clear coated, but is it nowhere near being finished.  I still have to make the wing struts, exhaust, cabane struts, and a bunch of other parts.  But it is one step closer to being completed, so that makes me happy…

I will probably try to paint all but the serials on this one.  I still need to dig up the closest paint matches for RAF roundel red and roundel blue, circa 1927, but the rest should be easy.  The serials are a unique type face, so I’ll probably have to draw them in Inkscape and print them onto decal film.

*****     *****     *****     *****

Reunion planning is progressing nicely. 

 

I've been asked why this one seems to be more important to me than the previous reunions.  I missed the previous events due to various instances of "life getting in the way".  This one, our 40th, may well be the last one many of my classmates will make.  Our class motto was "The Chosen Few".  Well, the laws of nature dictate that we will become fewer in the years to come.  We lost one classmate less than two weeks ago to complications of diabetes and COVID-19, and another is fighting Stage 4 colorectal cancer and the prognosis isn't good.  One of our reunion chairs has early-onset Parkinson's, and only through DBS surgery has she been able to continue a semblance of a normal life.

 

So, I'm planning to go this year.  In my advanced sentimentalism, I've realized that you don't go to see.  You go to be seen.  You go to reconnect with friends, and to (belatedly) make new ones.

That’s all I have for this installment.  Thanks for reading!  Be good to one another, and as always, I bid you Peace.