pastafarian
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Posts posted by pastafarian
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It might be just me, but it seems like I've been seeing a whole lot more re-pops by model companies since the economy crashed. Not so much on the armor and aircraft (since accuracy is more of an issue there), but I've seen a bunch more re-popped car models and revell aircraft.
ecto-1a just came back out, rommel's rod, a bunch of those tom daniel show rods, as well as a bunch of other re-issue looking car kits that I've seen at the LHS and Hobby Lobby.
Makes sense because they don't have to make molds for a new kit and several of these are being picked up by people that are nostalgic for sometime they built a long time ago, or missed out on these kits due to being an infant. LOL
John
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They have Harrison's K-Bar that he carried with him in the cockpit along with some of his other stuff. I'll take some pics and post them here when I visit.
A couple more very cheap, very good books:
West Dickens Avenue: A Marine at Khe Sanh Slightly more expensive at .63 haha
Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills ---about Carlos Hathcock. This one is also about a penny.
As an aside, can you fill me in on how "councils" work over there? It seems like they almost act like local governments, but with more responsibilities. I've heard of "council housing," which I'm guessing is akin to "housing projects" over here. Also, the council also seems to pay out "workman's comp" if someone is injured. -----granted, I'm getting my info from British tv (Doctor Who and Shameless mainly), so this may be completely off. haha
John
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Thanks Holmes.
Going to experiment with several ways to mimic bamboo (read about a fac that hid overnight in a stand of bamboo). The book on the fac was A Lonely Kind of War by Marshall Harrison. After reading it, I found out that the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech in the middle of Lubbock has a bunch of his stuff from the war. Might swing over there next week to check it out. :)
It was a pretty good book and I would recommend it. For the price, you might as well pick up a copy. I think this comes out to 2 cents. LOl
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1846040582/ref=dp_olp_used_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=used
John
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Made a bit of progress.
I used joint compound to smooth out the hospital walls and provide landscaping on top. Paint are tamiya acrylics with a blend of brown and a smidge of red in an attempt to get close to the red dirt of Vietnam.
--approximate positioning of LRRPs and helo pilot up top. I'm going to throw up a bunch of vegetation around the guys (it would be sort of stupid for my pilot to just sit out in the open like that haha).
--these two facing out are supposed to be keeping the trail covered. Carpet monster ate one guy's hat, so I've had to replace it and haven't painted it yet.
I kinda like having the hospital cavern run all the way through so that the viewer can spin the piece to see both ends of the room. I haven't decided yet, but I was thinking about placing a dim LED in the ceiling of the room, or maybe sticking it in a lantern. Without the flash of the camera, it is pretty dark in there. What do you folks think?
John
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Hey folks,
This diorama idea came from several books on the Vietnam War that I've read over the last year or so. Most of the books were from the American side of things with several going into the Bright Light missions of rescuing downed pilots. So, the ground level of the piece is going to depict several LRRP's picking up a downed helicopter pilot.
The underground aspect came from Dang Thuy Tram's diary Last Night I Dreamed of Peace. She was a doctor for the VC that was ultimately killed
and her diary recovered by a US soldier. From a historical viewpoint, the diary is pretty interesting. Tram wrote about her feelings on the war, relationships that she had, and some medical circumstances (brief descriptions of her facilities and a few mentions of treatments). From a narrative viewpoint: although she was 27, her diary was like something I would expect from a teenage girl. My gosh she droned on and on and on about some guy that she had a crush on. bahhhhhhhhhh. LOL
Anyway, here's where I am so far. The 4x4 section is from some leftover lumber that I had out in the shed. Thought it was appropriate given the Vietnamese reputation for savaging absolutely anything. :)
main hole is going to be the clinic and the smaller hole in the side is just a tunnel opening
doc and patient -I'll probably redo his hands or stick something in them. her arms are positioned to tie off his bandages.
the squatting guy is another soldier checking on his pal.
above ground:
Most likely I'm going to take away the machete and move his arm to help the pilot up out of the brush.
Open to input and suggestions. :)
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Hey folks,
I'm looking for a 1/32 pilot for a small diorama of a pilot being rescued on a Bright Light mission in Vietnam. I'd rather get a pilot from the Vietnam time period, but since I couldn't tell a modern flight suit from a 1960s version, I'll take what I can get. :P Also, sitting or standing doesn't matter. I haven't decided whether the pilot will be sitting in the bushes or hobbling along with a Seal (my pilot possibly broke a leg during ejection).
Anyway, any help would be appreciated. I can pay you or I have some different figures that we can swap.
Thanks,
John
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Threw on a base coat just to see how things would look. I'll get the engine exhaust and the glass installed in a bit. There is a ton of framing on the front, so I'm working on masking it. Other than that and a few more paint spots to hit, I just need to close up the end of the wings.
I replaced the front gear so that I could do a cat shot if needed (along with a tail hook on the back).
John
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Alright, since you folks won't help out by raising the ceiling height of all of the carrier hangers, the engineers at Pasta Aero Industries have opted to place a rotation joint in the wing so that they will lay back like an E-2C. Gah, you folks are difficult. LOL
I was thinking of going ahead and attaching the wing drop tanks with the wings folded back, but I think that having them hanging like that will be problematic. soooo, would it be ok to leave on the pylons? Or would these get jarred around too much?
John
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Cool deal. I'll run a pipe out of there.
did a test fitting on the wings yesterday. I'm going to place some bracing inside, but I think they look good so far.
I tried the winds laying back like an e-2c, but didn't really like it.
As always, comments, criticism, even "that looks like crap!" hahaha are welcome. :P
John
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Shortened up the engines quite a bit. I removed the kit nacelles all the way back to the wings and cut about a half inch off of the grey engine cone. I attempted to place the prop blades onto the engine cones themselves, but I couldn't get them to line up right so I filled the holes and went back to the b-17 props.
How far back should I put the exhaust pipe? I was thinking either near the very back of the white pipe fitting or just aft of the silver cowling. Thoughts?
John
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very interesting idea!!
if you want my opinion, I would cut off the kit nacelles, add the B-17 cowl right to the wing edge, and cut the gray cones and the PVC shorter. The entire engine arrangement should be(again just my opinion) about 1/2 the length it is now. Turbines need to be farther forward as they are light than Piston engines, but not that far( I think the props should be right around the forward edge of the PVC as it sits now). The other thing I would do is add the exhaust pipe on the outboard side of the nacelle...similar to how they are on the Turbo Commander:
Sean
Thanks. I was thinking that the engines looked pretty strange, that's why I was going to shorten them. But I like your suggestions better. I'm gonna run with that. Also, I think I'm going to cut off the prop blades and afix them to the actual cones. Looks weird with them sticking out like that.
groovy, off for more surgery! LOL
John
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Thanks guys. I made a smidge more progress on it today. I wanted to build contra rotating turbo props so that I could get the most loiter time possible on the patrol area.
The nacelles are pvc pipe fittings that I got from Lowes and the silver cowlings are from a parted out B-17 (the p-61 cowlings wouldn't accept the pipe fittings).
I was going to use the extra props that come with the B-29 kit, but they would have cut into the nose of the aircraft. :P
So, I went with some b-17 props:
I think I'm going to cut another half inch or an inch off the grey cones. they look too long at the moment.
John
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Thanks guys. The wings are going to just fold over the top. I did consider folding them back, but that would hide the radome a bit. I was thinking that I might have to put the radome on the top because of ground clearance, then I would have folded them back.
I was thinking about tacking on some wing tanks to extend the range on it. For a super long loiter time I wanted to use something bigger than the kit drop tanks. I have some 1/35 wing tanks from a blackhawk helicopter that I was thinking of shortening and using. They'd have to attach to the folded part of the wings. Would there be a problem with this?
John
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Ok, here's what we have so far. :P
I was pretty surprised that the radome fit underneath with some clearance left. There is nearly a quarter of an inch gap on each side of the radome that I'll need to fill. The wing cuts were actually pretty easy since there was a panel line that went straight from front to back just outside of the engine nacelles.
John
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Hey folks,
I have it in my head to build a P-61 that has been converted to an AEW bird. I'm guessing the designation would be something like EP-61H? sound about right?
Anyway, removing all the guns, placing a copilot's position behind the pilot, the AEW radome is from one of the skyraider AEW birds from the parts bin, wingfolds since she was originally a US Navy prototype, and I'm replacing the engines with scratch built turbo props. I think I'm going to put her in Mexican AF markings.
Couple of questions. :P
1. the rear section of the monogram kit has what looks like a radar operator equipment. If I'm replacing the smaller kit radar with that big radome, would the equipment look the same? I'm thinking about just putting a larger shroud (the cone that covers the radar screen) as a means of suggesting that the radar kit had a larger display. sound ok?
2. I'm guessing that I wouldn't use the "radar" nose for the p-61 since I have the large radome underneath. Should I use the other nose in the kit?
3. Not sure if this is an issue or not yet, but the radome may obstruct the nose hatch for the crew. If that's the case, can the crew in the front exit the aircraft through the rear door, or is there no passageway to the rear?
Thanks,
John
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Doesn't he work those crazy hours at the Volkswagon plant? He hasn't been on ARC in a while, maybe that's what's got him held up.
John
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Not even any lookers. And all those great buys out there. Frustrating. I had a guy low-ball me last Summer. Now I'm wishing I had taken him up on it.
We had a few lookers last week. Lowered the price a smidge in hopes of getting a bite. On the other side, we found the house that we want to buy. Now just to get this one moving.
John
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Stick a Meteor Productions brand on it somewhere and you'll get 4 or 5 times the asking price too. LOL
John
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Three years? wow. I'd either have a mysterious fire (just joking), rent it out, or just sit on it.
It's only been on the market for a week so far and I'm starting to get a little tired of the "staging" deal. We moved a bunch of stuff into storage so I have one kit and a few figures in the house to work on. haha ---storage building is just down the road, but it was always kinda nice to just grab another kit and go to work. :P
One good thing about being out here in Lubbock, the next town is around 30 or so minutes away. So there isn't much at all in the way of suburbs like you folks have. If you don't actually live in Lubbock, you're out in the desert and no one wants to live out there.
John
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I'm right there with you Shawn. We're showing our house now and picking out the next one. If we get an offer and are scheduled to close right when I'm supposed to get the box, I'll yell.
John
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Maritime salvage law honestly makes little sense to me. Spain recently sued and WON a case to recover gold coins from a treasure ship lost in 1804. "yeah, we knew they were there. We were just waiting to pick them up." LOL
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/01/world/europe/spain-u-s--treasure-dispute/index.html
This sort of thing unfortunately does a disservice to the historical community. Say I go out and find 500 million dollars worth of gold coins off the coast of Florida tomorrow. I'm saying nothing to no one, and I'm sadly going to MELT THEM DOWN and say I dug the hunks of gold out of the ground. Sorry, I'm not loosing out on that much money (and I'm an actual historian).
England has a pretty cool deal on stuff like this. If someone finds some old roman coins, the government claims them, BUT they pay fair market value for them. I think they even let the finder keep a few of the coins.
John
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Hey folks,
We're getting ready to buy a different house and I'm thinking that the hvac unit on the one that we're looking at is too small. I'm in West Texas, so the summers can get brutal.
The house is around 2300 square feet, but we're in West Texas so the summers can get pretty brutal.
The outside unit is a Lennox HS29-036-1p serial # 5801J-24048.
From what I can tell this is a 3 ton unit, which would be pretty undersized for the house. Am I right in thinking that, or does the unit inside the house come into play (I thought that was only the blower and heater though).
John
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Also there is the whole pop vs. soda vs. coke thing.
http://www.grandtfamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/pop_soda_coke.gif
While most Americans seem to regard themselves as Americans first, Texans seem to be a different sort of animal. I think part of it is marketing to a degree though. There is a Texas edition Chevy truck, King Ranch has their label also slapped on a truck. Part of it also comes from Texas being an independent country for about 10 years, which alot of the folks around here are proud of. They don't seem to remember that right after Texas broke away from Mexico in 1836 they started petitioning the US for annexation almost immediately. :P
Americans as a whole tend to offer gentle chiding of those from other regions. A friend of mine is from Maine, and when I talk to him I have to make fun of him for being a Yankee at least several times during the conversation. Since I'm originally from the South, he calls me a hillbilly. :)
John
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it depends on what carrier and what plan he has. Most likely though, he has enough minutes that he doesn't have to worry about using all of them. I think I have around 600 minutes a month on my plan and have never gone over (I don't even have a land line anymore).
When my friends do something like that I make fun of them and they shut up. LOL
John
the 'Merican travelling goodies box
in General Discussion
Posted
Any auto and armor stuff you folks have would be great. I seem to be moving in that direction lately. :P
John