From Failure to Failure

[CedB]

Good work Jon

Nice to see the Airfix bits standing up to the AM - that'll save us all a lot of money and grief!

[Procopius]

Well, today was one of those days at work, a day where I (for once successfully) argued that perhaps, no matter how angry we were that people on Twitter were making fun of our (not very good) ad campaigns, it wouldn't be wise for one of the larger voluntary membership associations in the world to wade joyously into the fray. The relative enjoyment of human versus pig wrestlers was discussed. The fact that I was paid (embarrassingly little, really) to tell them true things about stuff I know about, even true things they did not like very much, was lightly touched upon. As a result, I rapidly ingested a scotch of truly substantial proportions. I rarely, if ever, get truly drunk; the last vestiges of my metabolism process alcohol with ruthless efficiency, so that I journey directly to tipsiness and thence to grim sobriety in about 30-45 minutes. This was enough time, however, for me to start off on a high note by telling Mrs P how much I loved and cherished her, and how I appreciated how hard she worked, our beautiful children, her general excellence as a cook, and then, getting a little overconfident, perhaps, some highly complimentary but possibly overly explicit commentary on her many physical charms. Hand motions may have been involved.

 

To make a long story short, I then deemed it politic to beat a hasty retreat to the grotto, where, slightly wobbly, I realized that Jonners was pulling ahead, which didn't seem right to me. So I reached for the craft knives, and after some groping, found the real one, and got to work. 

 

The kit collector rings have two air intakes that are Bolingbroke-specific, and since I have a spare set of collector rings in case I bungle badly, I figured, why not risk it? My actual thought process may not have been quite so crystal clear to me at the time.

 

2018-01-10_11-05-19 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

We'll see if this actually works.

 

I also airbrushed the green over the canopy framing on the Blenheim...

 

20180110_224200 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

...And on the Bisley, to look for gaps. And brother, did I find 'em:

 

20180110_224132 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Christ almighty.

 

20180110_225302 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Seatbelts are on, too. The PE in the Bisley is surprisingly nice, some of the nicest I've worked with.

 

As a side note, it may amuse you to know I've mainly used Humbrol tube glue on these two so far, because I'm nuts.

 

20180110_225448 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stew Dapple]

If I could I would have 'liked' that post at least five times

 

Nice work both of you chaps

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Graeme H]

Good grief those gaps on the Bisley would allow Winston to crawl through in 1:1

[06/24]

Can a knowledgable soul please point out the erroneous Bolingbroke bits for me please? If I am to have a similar whisky fuelled burst of bravery I’ll need to know what to point the double vision blades at...

[Courageous]

Mr P. If I was 'five parts to the wind' as you're describing, no way would I make for the grotto with sharp pointy things and delicate plastic....stupid brave man.

And yes, that cockpit looks a bit draughty.

[CedB]

PC

Not about the gaps (nasty) obviously, but about the 'your my best mate you are' alcohol episode. I have no idea what hand gestures might have been involved (actually, I may have) but I hope they had the desired result(s).

[Procopius]

3 minutes ago, CedB said:

PC

Not about the gaps (nasty) obviously, but about the 'your my best mate you are' alcohol episode. I have no idea what hand gestures might have been involved (actually, I may have) but I hope they had the desired result(s).

While those tactics were not perhaps crowned with success, a more subtle approach of complimenting her all week (and doing the #$^#ing dishes every night) paid off in a big way recently. Alarmingly, she appears to have become more attractive as she ages*, while I've only gotten worse, and we appear to be hurtling in opposite directions on that front at a high rate of knots. Someday she may realize this.

 

8 hours ago, 06/24 said:

Can a knowledgable soul please point out the erroneous Bolingbroke bits for me please? If I am to have a similar whisky fuelled burst of bravery I’ll need to know what to point the double vision blades at...

I sure can! So these are actual Blenheim cowls on display:

 

 

 

As you can see, they're smooth and lack the intake piping seen here, on a Bolingbroke:

 

 

Now, what I did was nip the tubes off and then used a metal file (you may recall I was slightly the better for drink) to abrade the bumps at the base of the pipes down, but a little Mr Surfacer and a gentle sand would probably have answered two or three times as well. 

 

If you're lazy (like me), SBS sells resin cowls with corrected fronts.

 

 

 

 

 

* I realize this sounds like uxorious hyperbole, but wow. 

[06/24]

So basically, Mrs PC is a fox, and I need to nip the two nubs off the bottom and make good. 

[Stew Dapple]

1 minute ago, 06/24 said:

So basically, Mrs PC is a fox, and I need to nip the two nubs off the bottom and make good. 

I hope those are two separate statements Jon

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[06/24]

Don't much fancy being the erk adjusting the engine in that first photo, with the blades whirling past me right ear...

[06/24]

PPS don't worry PC, you'll leapfrog my build again. I am currently abed trying desperately to convince myself that I have a mild dose of man flu and not the onset of the full bore Aussie variety which is currently decimating our office...

[Procopius]

7 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

So basically, Mrs PC is a fox, and I need to nip the two nubs off the bottom and make good. 

There's nothing wrong with her b--errrr, oh, yes...quite!

 

 

[JosephLalor]

On 1/8/2018 at 9:46 PM, Whofan said:

While visiting my wife's parents, my daughter, at the tender age of four, once woke up shortly after being taken to bed, and we think went into the bathroom to see who was around.

 

No-one, (obviously, we were all downstairs) so she decided to follow her father's example and have a shave. With my gillette bladed razor. (type long forgotten in the mists of time).

 

She must have just nicked herslf and the sudden slight pain caused her to stop shaving, and she went back to bed.

 

A little while later I went to the bathroom, and found on the bedroom wall opposite the bathroom door a trail of bloody handprints leading to her bedroom door.

 

Have you ever seen those crime films where someone finds a trail of bloody handprints? I can assure you, the sense of panic the actors act is nothing like the sense of panic I felt. Especially when I went into daughter's be and found her asleep, with pyjama top, pillow, hands and lower face covered (so it seemed) in blood. Shouting for my wife while trying to wake a 4 year old child isn't a god thing, as child cries on rude awakening and is not happy.

 

Fortunately, no worse damage than a slightly nicked lip, which of course bleeds quite a lot. We never did quite get to the bottom of why she wanted to have a shave, other than that charming urge children have to imitate their parents. I think we both lost several years off our life span when we both saw the blood!

 

Definitely not the kind of excitement you want of an evening, or any time even.  Oddly enough I read this while a Nightingales tune called Blood for Dirt was playing.

[Whofan]

2 hours ago, JosephLalor said:

Definitely not the kind of excitement you want of an evening, or any time even.  Oddly enough I read this while a Nightingales tune called Blood for Dirt was playing.

You're quite right!

[AdrianMF]

8 hours ago, Procopius said:

she appears to have become more attractive as she ages

Probably not something you want to say out loud...

[Procopius]

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

Probably not something you want to say out loud...

I've told Mrs P she only grows more beautiful with the years, which I think is true, and she seems to like; I've known her since I was thirteen, and I thought she was so cute that I dared not speak to her. She has aged very well, however, and is definitely prettier at thirty-four than she was at twenty-eight, when we married.

 

 

Well I think she's cute.

 

 

[Troy Smith]

nice selection of birds you have there Edward.... 

 

Sorry,  couldn't resist that one....  Does Mrs P know she's probably on the  way to becoming an unofficial BM pin up?

 

Perhaps  you could curry favor by making a suitable image her into a decal and using to grace nose of  some build?  A method  of flattery combined with a modelling project?

 

 

her ladyship was mildly amused when I pointed out an A-20 called "Queen Julia"

 

I  even have  the decals.... 

 

[Procopius]

41 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

nice selection of birds you have there Edward.... 

 

Sorry,  couldn't resist that one....  Does Mrs P know she's probably on the  way to becoming an unofficial BM pin up?

 

Perhaps  you could curry favor by making a suitable image her into a decal and using to grace nose of  some build?  A method  of flattery combined with a modelling project?

Well, I told her the nose art on this Liberator reminded me of her, and I built it a while back:

 

 

She had the sort of fixed, pained smile on her face that one has when their boss is telling a long and not terribly clever joke.

[Rob G]

If you do a Mrs P pinup, make sure that it's on something lean and lithe, like a Mustang or a Spitfire, not a great lumbering fatty-bum like a B-17.

 

Sometimes unspoken messages sound the loudest.

[06/24]

1 hour ago, Rob G said:

If you do a Mrs P pinup, make sure that it's on something lean and lithe, like a Mustang or a Spitfire, not a great lumbering fatty-bum like a B-17.

 

Sometimes unspoken messages sound the loudest.

So what you're saying is a Liberator (double tapped with the ugly stick) was not a great choice, but had he done a Spitfire (this is PC after all, he don't do Mustangs, does he?), Mrs PC would have found it more to her taste.

 

Its a theory, although I don't know how Mrs 06/24 would react - I did once model her in 1/87 scale and she was mildly amused for about 2 minutes. I suspect a pin-up would just bring on the "frown of disapproval"... I suspect most married contributors, of either gender, will be familiar with that one

[CedB]

Get well soon Jon ('poor little bunny' required from the Mrs?)

 

PC I have no idea how / what you say to women to make them happy; it's a mystery to many

[Rob G]

11 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

So what you're saying is a Liberator (double tapped with the ugly stick) was not a great choice, but had he done a Spitfire (this is PC after all, he don't do Mustangs, does he?), Mrs PC would have found it more to her taste.

 

Its a theory, although I don't know how Mrs 06/24 would react - I did once model her in 1/87 scale and she was mildly amused for about 2 minutes. I suspect a pin-up would just bring on the "frown of disapproval"... I suspect most married contributors, of either gender, will be familiar with that one

 

I quite like Liberators, at least I much prefer them over B-17s. But yes, the Lib may not have been the most bestest choice. And of course, I'd forgotten that Mr PC don't do no steekin' Mustangs - Spitfires it must be then! (And to maybe make a real statement, one done in at least 48th scale to show off the artwork.)

 

Being no longer married (and not likely to ever re-achieve that Nirvana) I feel quite free to dispense relationship advice to one and all, called for or not. My largesse knows no bounds! Of course, I don't have to deal with that frown, so feel free to ignore anything I may say!

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

14 hours ago, 06/24 said:

Don't much fancy being the erk adjusting the engine in that first photo, with the blades whirling past me right ear...

Bet he had excellent bright red sand-blasted knees, too.  

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

14 hours ago, 06/24 said:

Don't much fancy being the erk adjusting the engine in that first photo, with the blades whirling past me right ear...

 

I've done carburettor balancing, leak checks on freshly interfered with engines, listening to knackered bearings with a long screwdriver etc on aeroplanes before. You become *extremely* aware of where all your limbs are pretty much immediately if you want to keep them.