gregg136

"I looked at this guy and I thought 'he's going to take a while', so I dashed in front of him in my car to get into the parking space. Well, the door opened on the lorry and this huge man got out - you could eat your dinner off his hands - and he started walking towards the car. And I thought, 'Bloody hell, I'm going to get thumped'. "Well, he stuffed this huge paw through the window and said, 'You're the man who launched Beagle-2, aren't you? I want to shake your hand, mate'. And that to me says everything. The definition of a "man in a shed". RIP.

I couldn't decide which one to get and google just brought me pictured of the big 1:96 version. Ended up with the Airfix one and it's pretty impressive. Painting it is a **** though. Although you can chuck the Command module part away. While it was nice of Airfix to include the proper Launch Escape covers rather than just the main part glued onto the top (even revell did that with the big one and it ruined the look) you end up with a tiny capsule that's horribly out of proportion.

I'm going to need a lot of space somewhere. Fantastic, just fantastic.

I can't believe I've missed this until now. I was thinking of getting it next payday How did the Gemini go? I bet the Saturn V is impressive, I've got one just assembled on the desk now and at 1:144 it's still an impressive size (Although I also had the 1:96 one)

Oh, wow. I need this!

Sure I read somewhere they wouldn't have, I mean the number of launches for EOR alone would have put the programme back, and cost a few Billion more.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/04/20/nasa-moon-landing-engineer-john-c-houbolt-dies-at-5/ RIP Voice in the wilderness.

£18.99 for the tiles. I would like one that isn't just black and grey underneath. But may hold off until I build Shuttle kit #4 Now if they were in 1:72 that'd have helped.

Dragon Launch scrubbed due to a Helium leak in the first stage. I remember watching I think it was the first all up flight, the clock got to about T-half a second and after all the delays I was ready to have kittens, only for it to go into shut down.

And then one day later this: On the night of April 13, 1970, 5 NASA employees set up a telescope on the roof of a building next to mission control and rigged up a camera so they could see Apollo 13, however by dumb luck they were looking at it as the O2 tank ruptured on the CM.

Yes, but that doesn't sound NASA-y enough. "Just use the ingress outgress separator" "Ey?" "The Door"

Did you ever see the Lunar mosaic of the southern Hemisphere from the LRO? they released it about a month or so ago. I'd avoid downloading it, it DOES contain 800 billion pixels

It helped that LBJ took over after the Assassination, there's a reason NASA is down in Houston. As for Nixon, He played politics with NASA in general, to abandon the Apollo programme and most of NASA's other proposals for Skylab (which was a rip roaring success) and the Shuttle (lots of jobs and votes gained in California thanks to that). Although Congress at the time should shoulder the blame for tightening the budget. I do like the Apollo applications stuff though, 200 day landings on the Moon, Venus flyby's and a landing on Mars by the 1980's. What did we get in return? A shuttle that did the work most conventional rockets could do with less effort (and loss of life) and the ISS, which although it's pretty to look at, most of the science could be done just as easily on Earth.

It's looking less and less likely this was a rock from outer space. Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) has an article up today where people have been in touch, looking at the footage, the wide angle lense and a bit of simple maths, it looks like it's simply a small stone that got caught up in the parachute when it was being packed.

All you need to finish it is a little scale model of Carl Sagan

It's a sad fact that because of the system in the US, long term space programmes don't last. Bush's plan to go to the Moon and beyond was dropped by Obama who altered it to an asteroid mission (or as I call it the mission to nowhere.) Strangely though the plan calls for it by 2020 IIRC. But had the people behind this had any sense they would have kept the spacecraft development going and we'd be on an asteroid by around 2016-2017. I expect that whoever is in charge after 2016 will also change it. I want to go to the moon, it makes sense and in terms of exploration the Apollo missions were the equivalent of finding a new island, putting your toe on the sand and leaving. Mucking around in Lunar orbit with captured asteroids just, doesn't do it.

A part of me hopes this debacle results in politicians taking NASA funding seriously for a change.

Dayum, that's a lovely looking plane, and the weathering is stunning.

That looks brilliant, The Silver and Chrome really look the part. People in 1935 must have thought it was something out of a science fiction book.

Looking good, I like how you've done the yellow first and then masked it, I'll have to remember that. Don't think it'll work so well with Day-glo orange.

Oh no! They got Ginger!

Although the LRO today released a 600 BILLION pixel image of the Moons northern hemisphere. Well worth checking out.

Blimey, that thing looks real. Love the wear and tear on it. Tempted to get one.

So after a break of a few months I decided to break the funk and complete something out of the extensive stash I have going. So here's the (at the time I started) new Airfix 1:72 Lancaster 'Operation Chastise' I know I've made a few schoolboy errors on it (the walkway transfers being the wrong way around) and the rather sub standard finish on it. Few thoughts on the Kit, compared to the old Lanc (which is also on the bench) it's a complete breath of fresh air and it's nice to have some detail on the kit other than the bog standard seat on a block of plastic and the windows on the side to be actual windows and not just marked out. The interior is up there with the Revell 1:72 bombers in terms of what you put in (their Halifax is also on the bench) and the fit is perfect bar a slight gap in the nose. Sorry about the poor lighting, that's what happens when you finish it at 10pm. I'll post some better ones up tomorrow. cheers

My favourite plane, in my favourite guise. Brilliant job love the weathering.