Burn Down Their Hanging Trees (1/72 Airfix Lancaster B.III)

[perdu]

John FYI the later iteration of PPP comes in a thinner metal tube with a longer thin nozzle.

 

It still however dries in the tube if you dont take the moisten-after-use route  before you put the cap back on.

 

Wet the putty inside its screw cap before you screw it down,  mine stays far more useable if I remember to do that.

 

(Any convenient source of moisture works by the way, even if it's distasteful a drop of spit works well enough.)

[AdrianMF]

I keep mine in a ziplock bag with a wet ball of cotton wool (I think it’s still wet...)

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Putty Animal]

Keep at it!  I'm really am sorry to hear of your troubles, but I'm glad that you are able to put the time in despite the difficulties and continue working on your masterpiece.  I know it will be well worth all the effort you put in.

I'm talking about Winston by the way.  The Lancaster is quite nice too!

[Procopius]

@(ex)Sgtrafman is a hero and a gentleman. The nacelle ends arrived expeditiously (indeed, faster than anything ever has from Hannants, and them I pay for the privilege), and tonight everyone but me went to bed early (way early, I have to go and find some dinner for myself in a bit), and so I've affixed them. Thanks, Iain, you magnificent so-and-so!

 

 

I've also started work on the top turret (including snipping off the gun barrels and drilling out the holes for the metal .303 barrels, which I must reiterate are streets ahead of the kit ones:

 

 

 

 

 

Closed up the rear turret:

 

 

And added the outboard engine fronts:

 

 

Other than that, not much, but there's really not much left to do externally at this point before paint goes on. We leave for Michigan and vacation on Saturday, so this probably won't be done until late next month, unfortunately. Winston is still not expelled from school, though he's also attending on reduced hours, which is costing us a small fortune in babysitting, something the owners of the school, who inherited money, don't seem to really comprehend. Well at least school's (finally) out for summer on Friday; last year teaching in summer session was optional, but of course then nobody did it (because they pay you next to nothing for it, and because it takes a month of everyone's time) and so the school made it mandatory this year, bringing us that much closer to Red Revolution. Mrs P has mainly reacted by waging a genocidal war on the fridge's population of Coronas, and by going to bed by 8.

 

I've been too busy at work to really notice anything, we keep adding more to do and I worry there's a bit of Icarus to it all, plus we've currently been working on a scheme with a major US magazine that in terms of what it will do seems far too close to the underwear gnomes for my liking. But what do I know? Anyway, when they start firing people for failure, the social media manager is (hopefully) not high on the list of expendables. Only now I'm to get a subordinate, I'm told, so I intend to get someone inexperienced and teach them nothing. 

[(ex)Sgtrafman]

Morning Edward

 

Glad to be of service mate - my Lanc is still approximately 90% complete and waiting to be finished,

I don't get much modelling time and what I have has been wasted on my Hurricane, I really need to win the lottery or maybe rob a bank to enable me to give up work and devote my time to ME! (and my family too I suppose - sigh).

Enjoy your vacation buddy and we all look forward to seeing the Lanc finished when you get back.

 

Cheers

 

Iain

[CedB]

Nice work PC  

6 hours ago, Procopius said:

Only now I'm to get a subordinate, I'm told, so I intend to get someone inexperienced and teach them nothing. 

Ah, the conundrum of management eh? Tricky.

You could treat them as a competitor who's only after your job.

You could get someone biddable and have them do most of your work and then take the credit with your bosses.

OR you could find someone compatible with your attitudes and morals and help them progress to your role while you prepare for your expected rise up the ladder.

 

I've been lucky to have several bosses in my life who've helped me in my career, and life actually, and I have fond memories of them, and their guidance.

Tricky.

 

One of my favourite sayings:

"You can't do too much for a good boss and you can never do enough for a bad one" 

I would try to choose someone compatible and complementary and give them an environment in which they can do their best. 1+1=3 as the old adage goes  

 

Have a good holiday and recharge your batteries!

[SafetyDad]

Your concerns with Winston and your thoughtful efforts to address the vagaries and stresses of our modern world strike a chord with me too. I would add my voice to those posters above offering support and solidarity with you in your tussles with family issues; one of my daughters seems to often interpret well-motivated parental intervention and support as a declaration of conflict. It's tough.

 

Hopefully your holiday will allow you and Mrs PC (and the boys of course) to approach life (and the Lancaster!) refreshed and re-invigorated.

 

I intend to be at Telford this year; I'll stand you the 3rd drink!

 

SD

[Brandy]

I'm with Ced on this one. Get help, not hindrance, and you have one more on your side. Plus you can claim you're doing your bit to ensure the future of your position (as a manager) and the company's well being. 

 

Just booked my flights for Telford, see you there!

 

Ian

[Procopius]

On 6/23/2019 at 3:40 AM, CedB said:

Nice work PC  

Ah, the conundrum of management eh? Tricky.

You could treat them as a competitor who's only after your job.

You could get someone biddable and have them do most of your work and then take the credit with your bosses.

OR you could find someone compatible with your attitudes and morals and help them progress to your role while you prepare for your expected rise up the ladder.

 

I've been lucky to have several bosses in my life who've helped me in my career, and life actually, and I have fond memories of them, and their guidance.

Tricky.

 

One of my favourite sayings:

"You can't do too much for a good boss and you can never do enough for a bad one" 

I would try to choose someone compatible and complementary and give them an environment in which they can do their best. 1+1=3 as the old adage goes  

 

Have a good holiday and recharge your batteries!

Ah, Buffers, you're too wise for your own good.

 

What I really did, even though it somewhat spoils the joke (I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY ETC) is tell my boss that I preferred people with non-traditional paths to social media, and that I felt that it was unnecessary to require a college degree; I obviously have a college degree, and I pay $300 a month for that singular privilege, but I don't think you need to go to college to have good judgement (and in fact, all the worst decisions I've ever seen were made by college students), and really, the one key skill in this job is that you need to have good judgement. Spelling and grammar are important too, but you can teach those, or scream at them until they get a stutter offline but beautiful typing online. My own path to this career was that I walked into my old boss's office after my predecessor quit and told her I wanted to do it, and to her (dis?)credit, she gave it to me after a trial period. I've had a lot of second and third chances to reshape my life after failure and disaster, so I'd like to be able to give someone else one. 

 

Also, they better laugh at my jokes, or what is power even good for?

On 6/23/2019 at 10:00 AM, SafetyDad said:

I intend to be at Telford this year; I'll stand you the 3rd drink!

I'm told around #5, I start to have the first glimmerings of a personality.

 

On 6/23/2019 at 10:31 AM, limeypilot said:

Just booked my flights for Telford, see you there!

 

Huzzah!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 minute ago, Procopius said:

but you can teach those, or scream at them until they get a stutter offline

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 I can see that happening in some jobs ! 

[perdu]

Yeah me too, I am glad I never had to manage someone else's career

 

I have been expected to guide and mentor new patrols oft-times though and got pleasure from watching them become 'not-Bill' clones

 

I taught them my attitudes and left them to get on with it and even now many years later I see how well a couple of them have done, with a warm happy glow inside

 

The best ones don't need much mentoring and can 'get it' very quickly

 

Have a great holiday, I hope the snow has gone

 

We do not want you shovelling show on summer vacation when mentally you have the W bomb to cope with, you know we care about him too

 

 

 

 

[opus999]

Just getting back to this after a while away....

 

First, great progress! It's fun to watch how this is coming together and i'm also very interested in the new-tool Airfix as my experience with Lancasters has been my Dad's Revell that he built circa 1970!

 

Second, I hope all goes well for Win. My oldest had challenges as well (not the same, but equally concerning). He's in High School now and generally has learned to overcome many issues with work from us and some dedicated school staff. Alas, there is the occasional problem, but anymore he's more teenager-y than anything. So, I guess I am just trying to say that things looked a bit bleak for me once and it turned out OK, so I expect it would be the same for you!

 

Third, I have no useful observations or advice regarding management as I've only managed projects, not people.  Although, there was some people managing in project management. I don't do that stuff anymore. All I can say is hang in there -- you seem to have a good resource here at the forum with plenty of advice...

 

Cheers!

[Procopius]

Hullo from Northern Michigan, chaps!

 

I am 1.5 rum-and-cokes (Pusser's Rum, natch) in, and am seized by what Blur might call a sense of enormous well-bein', and while I'm obviously not modelling (being 360 miles north of my grotto), I thought I should fill you in on what's going on with Win.

 

We had a meeting with the school, where they told us that:

 

• They loved our sweet sweet boy, BUT
• He would have two weeks at the start of next year to show he could behave, and if he couldn't, curtains, BUT
• If he couldn't behave, they would pay for him to go to any other private school of our choice in the area, aside from the super expensive one, AND
• He could come back whenever he was ready.

Gentle reader, those last two courtesies have never been extended to anyone else ever in the history of the school, which leads me to suspect that they think they screwed up (because nobody proposes a deal that they think is bad for them, at least outside of marriage), OR Mrs P, who has an amazing gift with little children, is too valuable to lose, OR both. So it seems that no matter what, poor Winnie will have a school to go to next year for free. He has a little girlfriend named Rachel who he plays with, and we're trying to get him into her school (and get him betrothed to Rachel, whose parents are loaded), so he has a friend. 

 

Winston, bless him, has no idea any of this is happening; today he built "shooters" on a lego truck, and eventually graduated to a lego police car sporting a ballistic missile, which is probably the future of American policing anyway.

[Stew Dapple]

Wow, nice deal the school came up with, hopefully the last two points won't be required anyway, but what a lovely safety-belt to have in reserve  

 

Wishing a great holiday to you and the family  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Learstang]

On ‎23‎/‎06‎/‎2019 at 00:42, (ex)Sgtrafman said:

. . . my Lanc is still approximately 90% complete and waiting to be finished,

I believe that also refers to all my Lancs, or at least it seems so! PC, excellent work as always. Perhaps perusing photographs of your model as it moves from chrysalis stage to butterfly stage will entice me to start working on mine again. Perhaps.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[CedB]

Good news PC, always good to have options!  

Have a good (rest of the) vacation.

[SafetyDad]

Nice to have you back on the thread, and even better to hear that your news is so encouraging.

 

Enjoy your holiday! :)

 

SD

[perdu]

Well-wishers far away seems to be helping Edmondo

Hope all goes well for the lad

 

And his dad who might need to lay offa the Pusser's a tad

 

😆

 

Have a good time PC, see you soon

[AdrianMF]

That is a good way to start your summer! Hope things work out well with Young Winston.

 

And when you get back to the grotto some more in progress shots would be appreciated.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Great news about young Winston.  Every so often, just when you think that the entire world is now populated by total nut-job a-holes, something like this happens and you realise there are still decent people around.  But God do you have to dig, sometimes!

[Kitsticker]

 

 

Hi PC, Mrs PC et al,

 

(Bet she doosn't* read it anyway)

 

'the entire world is now populated by total nut-job a-holes'

 

There, that's said it, but, yes, here and there are the gemstones that are the decent types, (largely on BM perhaps?)

 

Good news for 'Young Winston', and all the best with the well-off GF, (or you might win the lottery, or whatever,)....but he will triumph on his own merits, to be sure. Both his parents are high achievers (oh yes you are PC)  

 

And I think you are too hard on yourself and your self perceived shortcomings - over the years you have shown perseverance in the face of adversity (many, many times (Round the Horn anyone?)) and an amazing ability to overcome all sorts of challenges, time after time. Learn new techniques, acquire new skills (and tools - don't we all?) and have the grace to share, and ultimately deliver a splendid model as the result.

 

Should we have a vote on the 'best', folks?

 

You couldn't call it, could you

 

So, carry on as you are, you seem to be doing more than OK and that ain't a bad achievement Mister!

 

All the very, very best Sir

 

Geoff

 

*West country. Where I ain't from but it sounds good

[Procopius]

On 7/4/2019 at 6:05 PM, Kitsticker said:

(Bet she doosn't* read it anyway)

Safe bet. 

 

In any case, summer vacation was a total disaster. Grant barfed two hours before we were supposed to leave, delaying us for a day at home, which was awkward, as in a flurry of zeal we'd gotten rid of almost all of the food in the house. Winston then threw up the day after we arrived, and a day after that, by which point it was July 4, I was afflicted with a high fever and intense gastrointestinal distress, which left me rather delirious and caused Mrs P to suggest that my body was rejecting the very idea of American independence (it does). Then a wretched carry ferry ride across Lake Michigan during which Mrs P retired to the stateroom for the bulk of it and napped while I attempted to keep my two idiot children, who delight in vanishing to opposite ends of my peripheral vision, from flinging themselves bodily over the sides of the ship (and the SS Badger truly is a ship, at 6,000 tons displacement and 410 feet in length, the last coal-powered steamship on the Great Lakes), including a genuine moment of stark terror where Winston climbed almost over the railing to peer down over the side of the ship, causing me to bellow full-bore obscenities at him while simultaneously attempting to capture a rapidly escaping Grant as he scudded along the deck. Yes. I'm that parent on the ferry. Sorry. When we got home, there was a pointless fight over my losing one of Grant's crocs, then a further fight because I didn't seem to care (I didn't), and then a final fight when the croc was discovered, mainly, I gathered, because it hadn't really been lost and she'd had to get mad at me for nothing. 

 

Not a relaxing vacation, would not recommend. Telford will be better, or it will kill me, and I'll at least get to die in the country I always wanted to die in anyway.

 

Anyway, tonight I crept down into the grotto. masked and sprayed the rear turret:

 

 

I should be getting more done, but I'm just exhausted these days. 

 

 

 

[Stew Dapple]

Small steps are still progress  

 

Glad you had an... interesting holiday. At least it should make it easier going back to work  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[stevehnz]

There were times when ours were young that I cheerfully pushed off to work worth a song in my heart & a spring in my step. I used to tell my colleagues I'd come back for a break. Hang in there Edward, it does get better.

Steve.

[CedB]

Seconded.

And then they're gone and you wonder where the time went…

 

Nice turret