First to Fight (2x1/72 Arma Hobby Fokker E.V)

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

13 minutes ago, Rob G said:

 

Should we give PC his thread back now? 

Yes we've tread all over PC’s thread too much. 😉

[Stew Dapple]

6 hours ago, Procopius said:

Surprisingly easy. The decals are Cartograph, I believe, but whoever made them did an excellent job. Properly sized, very cooperative with both warm and room-temperature water...

 

Thank you mate, that's reassuring  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

On 6/21/2018 at 2:37 AM, Rob G said:

 

It's great. Minimum of clothing, no heating bills, beach visits all year around and COLD BEER. Who'd want to live in a miserable cold place?

Perhaps it's a side effect of living in the USA my whole life, but I firmly believe people should be covered up. If we were generally meant to be naked as a species, so many of us would not have been made so repulsive.

 

On 6/21/2018 at 12:44 PM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I have a medical condition known as “Cholinergic Urticaria”.

Oof, Dennis, hope last week wasn't too awful for you. Now that we've switched to cold, torrential rain, I imagine life is a little less fraught.

 

On 6/21/2018 at 3:04 AM, CedB said:

The great guy (John Darvall) who does the morning 'phone in on BBC Radio Bristol doesn't respond to people whose tags aren't their real name - he says that, if you don't want me to know who you are, I don't want to hear your views. Might be a good new rule to apply?

In general, we (and by we I mean I, since I control our major social channels, reaching something like 200,000 people between FB, LinkedIn, and Twitter, though between you and me there's likely some cross-channel duplication and the actual figure could be as low as 100,000 real humans) don't respond to anyone from our Olympian remoteness unless they want us to punish their political enemies (we explain we can't do that) or have questions on a few other general topics.  But one sees a lot. Perhaps you've read about the people Facebook employs (for scandalously low wages) to moderate content on their site? Many have to quit and suffer from PTSD from the constant, endless barrage of child pornography, explicit acts of violence, and general inhumanity they see on a daily basis. My job is way easier. But in times of national crisis, like during school shootings or this week's brouhaha, one can see a lot of ugliness bubble forth from people. As a general rule, no matter what their political or moral beliefs, virtually every American labors under the delusion that one solid punch can solve anything and everything. This faith in violence is buried deep within almost all of us, and while it has its moments -- Americans have never lost a total war -- it also has its limitations (we're not great at winning limited ones). Specifically I'm awfully tired of the great impulse that transcends party or class, to suggest that, maybe, just maybe, our political opponents should be killed. I mean...not really. That would be horrible! We're nonviolent ourselves, but you know, here's their home address and where their kids go to school, and que sera, sera. One can only try and expound on the lead up to the Spanish Civil War so many times.

 

On 6/21/2018 at 7:08 AM, HAMP man said:

If this is anything to do with 'degrees of separation' then I am standing and whoohooing anyone who had anything to do in changing attitudes.

Yeah. We're not RAICES (unfortunate acronym that), who got like a bajillion dollars via Facebook fundraising, but one of the many tentacles of my employer is a pro bono project run jointly with a state bar association and another professional association that helps provide legal counsel to unaccompanied minors* at the border. It didn't receive a bajillion dollars, in part because PR and fundraising for it was at a low priority, but even then by word of mouth they raised an impressive sum in the middle five figures, and other people in the association, people whose departments have travel budgets, are so excited at the prospect of further donations that they want to fly me into and out of our Washington DC office on Thursday to record a Facebook Live Q&A session for them since out of 900 staff, I'm apparently one of like five people who knows how and has done it before. We'll see if that actually happens.

 

* As our system of justice is adversarial, this theoretically ensures that the American people get the best justice possible in each instance, since both the state and the defense attorney will have to work harder to prove their case, and by extension use their best arguments. In practice, until this week, every group which did this work was hideously underfunded and understaffed, because a lawyer in the USA likely leaves law school with more than $100,000 in student loan debt, the program that forgives student debt for public service is in perennial danger of being eliminated, and these orgs can't pay much.

[amblypygid]

29 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Perhaps you've read about the people Facebook employs (for scandalously low wages) to moderate content on their site? Many have to quit and suffer from PTSD from the constant, endless barrage of child pornography, explicit acts of violence, and general inhumanity they see on a daily basis.

 

I had not, that's interesting to know (and now that you point it out, seems to be something that would have been obvious had I only thought about it at some point). Glad to know that you don't have quite such a tough time of it.

 

31 minutes ago, Procopius said:

they want to fly me into and out of our Washington DC office on Thursday to record a Facebook Live Q&A session for them

Way to go, PC! I trust you'll include a few Soviet era slogans?

[Procopius]

Also! Actual modelling!

 

As I went to do the second E.V, I thought to myself, "you know, getting the cutout in the bottom would be so much easier if I had a hole punch..."

 

20180623_002919 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

"...oh yeah. I do!"

 

Second fuselage sans empennage is decalled.

 

20180623_004410 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

8 minutes ago, amblypygid said:

 

I had not, that's interesting to know (and now that you point it out, seems to be something that would have been obvious had I only thought about it at some point).

The grauniad had an article about it a ways back: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/may/25/facebook-moderator-underpaid-overburdened-extreme-content

 

8 minutes ago, amblypygid said:

Way to go, PC! I trust you'll include a few Soviet era slogans?

Normally I would, but I'm trying to get promoted (I need more money, having two children is like setting stacks of dollar bills on fire), and given the current political climate in the country, some wingnut would see it as proof of a communist conspiracy

 

So mostly I'll try and be there as long as possible on Thursday, so I can see the Spitfire at the NASM and shoot the stupid video, maybe meet a local Britmodeller for lunch, and see a friend who lives in Maryland. Likely only one or two of these will be possible.

 

 

 

[CedB]

A very articulate and well reasoned post PC, as usual.

 

I often find myself agreeing with Gandhi's perhaps apocryphal answer to the question "What do you think of Western civilisation?" - Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.

That said I wonder if, perhaps hope that, the 'real world' is full of 'people like us' and that the media are just reporting all this bad, nasty stuff because some editor thinks 'it sells'. 

 

I've mentioned before that we seem to be moving ever closer to Huxley's 'Brave New World'. As 'the Controller' explains at the end of the book, "The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age... Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery."

 

As far as the US justice system is concerned my only experience is via one of my guilty pleasures, 'Law and Order'. For me it has several positive attributes:

• the plot lines are (re)explained at regular intervals so I can give my brain a rest
• the dialog is politically correct and correctly feminist with plenty of eye candy strong women in the cast
• at least one channel is showing one of the twenty series and, by the time one of the 456 episodes repeats, I've forgotten what happened.

That said, it's always frustrating to see the lawyers 'doing deals' out of court to make the trial shorter or to guarantee their success of prosecution and keep up their scores high in the public record. 

 

I guess, like most 'important social issues' nowadays, the most important thing is to be 'liked'.  

 

Chest suitably cleared, back to modelling! Great work on the lozenges!  

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

10 hours ago, Procopius said:

Oof, Dennis, hope last week wasn't too awful for you. Now that we've switched to cold, torrential rain, I imagine life is a little less fraught.

Thanks PC ...Ive learned how to survive ... I tend to hibernate inside in the A/C when it gets that hot. Its great right now i have the windows open and can actually be a semi normal human. 

[Gene K]

On 6/23/2018 at 1:09 AM, CedB said:

I often find myself agreeing with Gandhi's perhaps apocryphal answer to the question "

 

Well, the thread was great until the abrupt turn some posts ago.

 

Gene K

[Procopius]

1 hour ago, Gene K said:

 

Well, the thread was great until the abrupt turn some posts ago.

 

Gene K

Sorry Gene. I try to only disappoint myself (well, I don't start out that way, but that's usually how it goes) in my WIP threads, rather than anyone else.

[CedB]

20 hours ago, Gene K said:

Well, the thread was great until the abrupt turn some posts ago.

 

Gene K

Apologies from me too Gene, didn't mean to spoil the fun  

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Apologies @Gene K ... If my post was the left turn you mentioned. It wasnt my intention to disrupt. 

 

Dennis

[Procopius]

Oh, no worries fellas, I'm pretty sure the blame is all mine, as impresario of what passes for this little circus.

 

In any case, the fuselages are now all decalled and clearcoated, and drying in a sophisticated cradle of my own devising (patent pending):

 

20180625_221650 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Work has also begun on painting the fuselage of the third kit, but I may have been over enthusiastic on the filler, and it may need some more sanding to blend it in yet.

 

This doesn't show it well, but the engines are all painted and assembled and also clearcoated (because I only have enamel washes and they were painted with lacquers, I need the acrylic clear coat).

 

20180625_221705 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Additionally, one rudder is masked and painted:

 

20180625_221713 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

And the wings are  partiallydecalled:

 

20180625_221734 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

So, funny story about those underside decals. You know the red paint from the superlatively masked paint job I did on the rudder? I trust it's fresh in your memory. I managed to spill it while pouring the leftovers out of the colour cup of the airbrush and back into the Tamiya jar...and where did I spill it? Of course on the decal sheet. Always put 'em away, kids. So after a small amount of well-ordered panicking, I decided to hell with it and put them on the lower wings. The kit instructions suggest the 1918-style Balkankreuzes should be faded and largely overpainted, but obviously that didn't quite happen here...not sure if I'll do it for the other wing or the uppersurfaces of that wing. We'll see how I feel. 

 

Wow, got a lot done!

 

Here's Grant passed out in a swing; it was his first time in one, and it was a little too close to naptime.

 

20180623_111851 by Edward IX, on Flickr

[CedB]

Nice work PC, all those bits look really smart, especially the lozenges  

[Whofan]

On 6/17/2018 at 5:16 AM, Procopius said:

Time to open a 1980s-style private detective agency! I hope you have a helicopter, superintelligent car, or Cybill Shepherd.

You mentioned  Cybill Shepherd. 

 

Bless you, you've made an old man happy.

[corsaircorp]

4 hours ago, Whofan said:

You mentioned  Cybill Shepherd. 

 

Bless you, you've made an old man happy.

two ! Hum Cybill Shepherd ...

CC

[Procopius]

Back from Michigan as of Sunday. We overstayed our welcome by about three days (Mrs P explained to me, very earnestly, that she preferred to stay too long when visiting her parents, so she didn't feel sad when she left, which is, to put it kindly, B A N A N A S), so my in-laws were getting a little snappish with me (which is fine, I'll outlive them), and Winston (which isn't fine, but at least he'll outlive them), but I had a nice time otherwise, mostly spent reading (a Norman Franks book about the RAF offensive into France in 1941, three very stupid science-fiction novels), walking (three miles a day while listening to the audiobook of The Guns of August, a perennial favourite), running (five times at three miles each), napping (extremely pleasant), or going on various mini-adventures with my children, who otherwise spent their time naked out doors, out of my sight, and out of mind.

 

In any case, Winston and I got to bond a lot, and I feel we're slightly closer as a result. On one of our little trips, I was getting him some cherry lemonade (Michigan is the second biggest producer of cherries in the USA, itself the second most important producer of cherries among the nations of the world), and a little girl, probably no more than two years old (Winnie is two years, eight months, and the difference is orders of magnitude) ran up to him and hugged him, wholly unprompted. 

 

"You'll like that when you're older," her grandmother chortled at him.

 

"I like it now," he replied, enthusiastically. Later on we ran into the little girl again, and he backed up slowly towards her, an anticipatory grin on his face, and he duly received another hug. I mentally began rehearsing The Talk. ("Son, the human body is a disgusting heap of flesh and organs, piled rudely over rickety bones, barely constraining vile fluids, waiting to erupt...")

 

Of course, now that we're home, we have to parent our children entirely on our own, without my mother in law barging in on Teaching Moments and wielding her half-remembered experiences of parenting like a hair-triggered blunderbuss (and if you're not picking up on the subtext here, let me make it text: she's a belligerent idiot), which is a struggle, but we're adapting.

 

We sailed part of the way home on a large coal-powered car ferry (the last in the USA, operating under a special Environmental Protection Agency waiver, presumably much like the one ultimately given to the Ghostbusters), and I discovered I have a pathological fear of my children falling into the water and drowning, so mostly stayed belowdecks in our stateroom while Mrs P played dice with their lives on the upper decks, at least until Winston found there was a TV showing cartoons on board.

 

Anyway, back to the models. I began applying the fuselage markings, but you know me, I always stuff something up, and managed to obliterate the serials for one of the Expert kits, which are of course quite prominent. Idiot. No fault of the decals -- I just placed them wrong, or it looked wrong to my eye, and I kept scooting them, and scooting them, and...well. Whoops. 

 

Subsequent to taking the below photo, I finished spraying the basic kit, then decided the rear upper decking needed more sanding, so did that will spray over my handiwork in the fullness of time. 

 

 

2018-07-11_10-58-14 by Edward IX, on Flickr

[Stew Dapple]

Mate, that post deserved half a dozen different likes

 

Good to have you back.

 

What serial was it that you destroyed? I might have it spare in my set...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

5 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

What serial was it that you destroyed? I might have it spare in my set...

Both of the Polish aircraft use the same serial, alas, or I'd have a spare myself. I think it's decal #1 on the sheet?

[Stew Dapple]

Excellent, I was planning on building the German aircraft with the fancy black-and-white tail, so it is a spare serial - I will have it in the airmail before close of play on Saturday.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

5 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Excellent, I was planning on building the German aircraft with the fancy black-and-white tail, so it is a spare serial - I will have it in the airmail before close of play on Saturday.

[amblypygid]

Great to hear that you had a good time, PC. I'm strangely curious as to what terrible sci-fi you were reading? The little Fokkers look right snazzy with Polish markings on. Having just substantially expanded my stash, I'm manfully trying to resist the temptation of Arma's P.11c, and you're not helping.

[CedB]

Great post PC and welcome back  

Nice work on the transfers and, with Stew to the rescue, looking pretty smart.

[Procopius]

13 minutes ago, amblypygid said:

I'm strangely curious as to what terrible sci-fi you were reading? 

Oh, three of the early Battletech novels, tie-ins to a board game/PC game/card game/miniatures game thingy. They are neither good fiction, as they often tell rather than show, have stilted dialogue, and poorly-realized characters, and they're not even good game tie-in fiction, because it's painfully clear the author (who was heavily involved in the creation of the Traveller role-playing game) had not played Battletech much (I used to be an unpaid and much abused demo guy for the game, so I have a lot of familiarity with it). Here's a photo from a demo game I ran ten years ago, not long before I stopped doing it to concentrate my fiscal resources and creative energies upon the nubile future Mrs P:

 

September 20th CBT Game 066 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

The books were mostly interesting as historical curiosities, and it was interesting to see how much they aped contemporary men's adventure novels but on a more PG-13 level. 

 

 

[amblypygid]

That's one heck of a B'tech game! Must take ages to get through a turn with that many on the board...

The novels are a dim memory. Pretty sure I never read them, but my mate did. On a recent visit to my mother's house, I rediscovered some World of Darkness fiction; dear me.

[stevehnz]

4 hours ago, Procopius said:

("Son, the human body is a disgusting heap of flesh and organs, piled rudely over rickety bones, barely constraining vile fluids, waiting to erupt...")

Thanks Edward, you just tapped into 45 years of suppressed guilt.  Thank goodness I'm resilient.   

3 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Excellent, I was planning on building the German aircraft with the fancy black-and-white tail, so it is a spare serial - I will have it in the airmail before close of play on Saturday.

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

Well done Stew, thank goodness I got some reactions back, how could have I read this thread without reacting.

Steve.