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DaveO

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DaveO last won the day on November 21 2013

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About DaveO

  • Birthday 14/12/1961

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Mapplewell, South Yorkshire
  • Interests
    Cold war jets, experimental/research aircraft, a few WWII, occasional sci-fi & realspace. Old fashioned scratchbuilder in most scales with excursions in to photo etch.

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  1. Good point, looking for somewhere to display it I almost decided to build larger (yet) loudspeakers.
  2. Thanks for all your comments, just to update things, to make space for newer projects this winter I put the GR3 on eBay and it sold to a very nice chap who had a glass case made (!) and presented it to his brother an ex RAF Harrier GR3 Weapons Technician. I'm thinking about using the same techniques on a couple of 1/48 GR3's I have in the stash...
  3. Hi, celticwardog is spot on about Prometheus, you have to concentrate on the whole film to 'get' the prologue! As 2010 goes I enjoy it too, it was brave to even attempt it as it would be compared to 2001, probably unfairly. Kubrick looked at making 2001 as an exercise in technical perfection, all the shots of 'Discovery' were shot using shift lenses to ensure the model was in focus front to back. A tiny aperture meant that each frame was exposed for minutes at a time, frame by frame for thousands of shots to make a single 30 second pass; moving the camera past a stationary model and shifting focus every time. It was shot on (I think) 70mm film stock. When I studied Professional Photography in the early 90's, tutors still held up that technique as a perfect methodical approach - no different in any way to shooting Architecture on 5x4 technical cameras. Digital is SO EASY!
  4. Hi, just discovered this post. I've been commissioned to build a complete 1/48 Jubilee year team. Do you have a decal set left? Kind regards, Dave Oates
  5. Hi all, I've been commissioned to build a 1977 Jubilee year red arrows line up using the new 1/48 Airfix Folland Gnat tooling - all 10 aircraft. The new kit does include the correct scheme for one aircraft. Does anyone know of a decal set available with suitable code numbers of the remainders? Any info would be very much appreciated! Regards, DaveO
  6. Very nice job, far better than anything I did at that age!!!, if it was acrylic spray varnish, household ammonia and a cotton buds will clear the canopy very well & then finish it off with a thin coat of gloss and it will look great.
  7. DaveO

    Airbrush Primer

    That's an interesting recipe! Some washing up liquids have nice for hands oils added though, cheap stuff doesn't. All in all I can't believe every model paint company has it's own pigment grinding division. Most will buy pigments in set pantone colours and mix them according to reference charts. It's one of the anti-profiteering reasons why I like to experiment and mix my own paints, try different non modelling products etc. Modelling suppliers make huge profits from things like liquid cements etc. that are basically MEK plastic solvent (about £7.00 a litre). My local pound shop had 20ml bottles of Cyano, thin or Gel for, you've guessed it £1.00 a bottle. For airbrush acrylic cleaning I make Ammonia flush, 500ml of household ammonia mixed into a half gallon bottle of winter windscreen wash is a perfect cleaner between colours that costs me around £2.50 every other year. One of my favourites is the bag full of chrome plated brass tube salvaged from broken radio aerials or my extremely hi tech pound shop battery fan converted to a paint stirrer... I could go on.
  8. Hi all, the 2001 story and the film have long been important to me. I hope this ramble helps make sense of it a little! The monolith featured in Clarkes books and the 'Making of 2001' is one of millions of 'teaching tools' sent out through the universe to trigger the evolution of intelligence. It is then relocated and hidden, only to be rediscovered when the species has evolved to a stage where they can understand clues to it's location and have technology enough to uncover it (in our case on the moon). The signal released when the buried device is exposed to sunlight leads representatives to a 'portal' where they are transported and then (seemingly) studied in an environment designed to be comfortable before being altered in a final evolutionary stage (the Starchild). This final step is to become an ethereal space-born species. The 'hotel' room is really no different to us making an environment we think would be suitable for say, confining a Tiger, but distinctly different to the wilds it was born in. The dialogue throughout hints at mankind becoming 'incurious', banal and emotionless. This is partly emphasised by the computer, HAL, designed with enough intelligence to run the mission alone then commanded to keep it's true nature secret from the crew. HAL, proud of a flawless record, is conflicted by being ordered to care for the 'unnecessary' crew, who then criticize his performance and threaten to turn him off. HAL reacts by removing the threat. The computer is more human in it's reactions than the emotionless astronauts. There are hints symbolic and scientific about change, the broken glass as a symbol of coming change is from Jewish tradition (Kubrik) and archaeological theories that intelligent creatures able to catch and eat meat are more able to thrive in any location & season and that hunting promotes a rise of technology. The film is structured like a fly on the wall documentary (we always seem to be an observer) and demands more of the viewer than fantasy fiction like Star Trek etc. (there's no 'Science Officer' who pops up to explain what's going in the plot). That's possibly one of the films flaws, but Kubrik and Clarke intentionally avoid trying to explain technologies beyond our understanding - think about Dave Bowman dithering in shock, unable to move at the end of his journey through the 'Stargate'; he is truly terrified. Advanced technologies appearing to be magic by those witnessing them is a recurrent Clarke theme. Yes it is a film of two parts, one, the evolution of humans into something dull & disinterested in 'wonder' at the same time creating artificial intelligence with more passion and commitment than us and secondly our involvement in an experiment more ancient and technologically advanced than we can imagine. Kubrik's choice for the score underlines the two sides of the story. Humans are accompanied by grand romantic melodies & whoever created the monoliths by the unearthly beauty of Ligeti's choral pieces. For me 2001 is a thing of shear beauty & one that will never really be surpassed, probably because film companies wouldn't have the nerve to allow something potentially uncommercial to be made!
  9. DaveO

    Airbrush Primer

    I love Vallejo paints but didn't like the primer after giving it a fair go, I ended up having to clean the airbrush far too often. One of these posts also reminded me about the difficulty getting a fine feather when sanding. I'd forgotten that, I think it may be the polyurethane component that creates that effect. I do like a primer to set hard and be very thin.
  10. For me, one of interesting aspects of 2001 is that the humans exhibit less emotion than HAL. All the human dialogue is dull and empty (remember how disinterested Poole is with his parents Birthday message?) It seems that our species is ready for the next experimental evolutionary step that Bowman unwittingly becomes part of. Editing 2001 seem sacrilege, Kubrick himself edited it very carefully down from the original preview length. I'm a great 'fan' of the film and personally don't think a moment is wasted. Maybe Soderburg should read Clarke and Kubrick's 'The making of 2001'.
  11. Wow! (Sorry can't think of anything more intelligent to say...)
  12. Looks great! I think the Tigger Moth is one of the prettiest aeroplanes ever designed and looks all the better in that finish. I have one in my stash but need stronger reading glasses before starting...
  13. DaveO

    Airbrush Primer

    Yes, I can't break the Klear habit. The craft paint is probably made by one company - it appears in identical bottles and colours under lots of brand names. It's all good stuff to have in stock. Straight from the bottle it's really good for painting cockpit details.
  14. DaveO

    Airbrush Primer

    Hi, yes the craft shop acrylic is quite thick. I've used Vallejo primer in the past but found my .2mm airbrush didn't like it much. I prime at low pressure and proceed slowly instead of trying to cover large areas in one go as if it were a rattle can. The Klear (Pledge), I can't get out of the habit, makes for a very hard surface. It can be handled as soon as it's dry and is rock hard 24hrs later. I use this method as a cheap(ish) way of having various colour primers to hand. I've had problems spraying the little Humbrol pots in starter kits they seem to clog the tip very quickly. Pledge (Klear), got it that time, used as a thinner with a little flow enhancer makes this paint work well. I always airbrush with very thin paint and build layers up rather than going for thick coverage, I feel a bit more in control. Just finishing a 1/48 Hobby Boss Me262B-1a with all paints thinned in this way.
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