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What's your latest acquisition Part VII ?


Duncan B

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I got the Tremulus Lune tremolo pedal working. It was over ten years ago that I started it,along with another that I built for a friend. I finished my friend's one but for some reason, mine found its way to the shelf of doom (yeah, I have two shelves of doom!) and languished there until yesterday. It's now up, running and zipped up in its enclosure. Although I believe that the origins of the Tremulus Lune were in the DIY community, it's one of the best tremolo pedals I've heard. With five control knobs, it's certainly versatile.

 

I wired up the Roger Mayer Spitfire fuzz tonight and that worked first time. I hadn't listened to any demos beforehand, but with a transistor buffer up front, an LM301AN op-amp, a pair of hard clipping diodes and just two controls, I had a rough idea of what to expect. Although called a fuzz, I was expecting more of a distortion (like with the Suzz pedal described above) and with the fuzz control half way up, it did sound more towards fuzz than distortion, with a slight splashiness in the treble frequencies, though nothing like as much as you'd get with a Fender Blender or Shin-Ei FY-2 Companion Fuzz. Turning the Fuzz control between minimum to around the 3 o'clock position yielded the expected differing amounts of distortion, with identical tonal characteristics. In the last quarter of the Fuzz control's travel things suddenly got thicker, fuzzier and more compressed, with bags of juicy sustain. I honestly wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did and was surprised at how much could be got from one control knob. I had been concerned that, being a total Spitfire nut, I'd be disappointed with its namesake. I can see me using this one a lot and I'll probably build one as a gift for my mate, as I don't think he has a fuzz. He did nick my Crowther Hotcake clone though!

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Someone on eBay was selling a bunch of Aeroclub white metal bits, so I relieved him of the Lightning undercarriage and nose cone/tailpipe sets. I have a couple of ancient Airfix Lightning F.1 kits in the stash and still intend to make them. It’s not like the Sword F.1/2 kits are readily available and when they do turn up, they ain’t cheap. 

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I got two more pedal circuits up and running today. First was a clone of the Death By Audio Interstellar Overdriver. Now, Death By Audio (DBA) are renowned for their *ahem* unusual way of doing things, favouring back-to-front transistors and weirdly wired potentiometers, amongst other things. The less kind in the pedal making community say that they don't really know what they're doing but to be fair, they have some unique takes, their pedals don't really sound like anything else and they have quite a following.

 

When I plugged the circuit into my test rig, it didn't work at all. A quick look revealed that I had forgotten to cut the necessary bits on the stripboard tracks. I've built hundreds of pedal circuits and never have I done anything this daft before! I cut the tracks, hooked it up again and it still didn't work. With the drive control on full I could get an overdriven signal, but it was incredibly gated (i.e.the sound cuts off abruptly when the input goes below a certain level, rather than sustaining), but backing off the drive, even by a touch, killed the output entirely.

 

I had read that circuits with reverse bias transistors can be incredibly fussy. Although I had built the circuit several years ago, I had done a bit of research and put in transistors with a current gain (hfe) of around 600, as this is what people were saying worked. Well. mine didn't. I removed the transistors and replaced them with sockets so I could easily play around with different transistors. I then tried some higher gain MPSA18 transistors, but these didn't pass any audio at all. I then went the other way and tried some 2N5088s with an hfe of around 350. The circuit sprang into life and sounded more or less like the demo video I had watched. Further experimentation revealed that an hfe of around 450 yielded the best results.

 

It's a thick, gooey overdrive with more than a hint of fuzz about it and I like it enough to put it in the "to be boxed" pile.

 

I also finished another circuit. This one was, I believe, a DIYer's take on the Electric Amp Innovations MV120 amplifier, but as an "amp in a box" type pedal. Rather that use JFETs instead of valves (or tubes if you live across the pond), this uses a dual op amp and both stages are cascaded and have clipping diodes. Now, the MV120 is kind of a modified Matamp style amp, but built in the US. It's favoured by the stoner/doom fraternity, and while I'm one of those sensitive indie kids, (albeit a 56 year old indie kid) I do have a penchant for downtuned, sludgy, doomy guitars.

 

I was intrigued, what with the circuit topology, as to how it would sound. I have built a number of JFET amp in a box pedals, including my own take on old Matamp and Orange amps, but never tried an op amp based one. It's pretty darned accurate, truth be told. Compared to the demo video I watched, it nailed it. Enough that I'm probably going to abandon my own JFET based MV120 project, which is much more complicated and expensive to make. It really does get that loose, fuzzy, vintage stack feel and it has bags of low end. It's a one trick pony, but then you wouldn't buy an MV120 for Fender style clean tones! Doom for days. I must try it with my SG copy.

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On 6/27/2022 at 9:01 PM, lasermonkey said:

Although I believe that the origins of the Tremulus Lune were in the DIY community, it's one of the best tremolo pedals I've heard.

Well, great - now I have to have one. Dammit 😀.

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A trip to Halifax netted a Mikro Mir preorder of the DH Swallow. A bit pricey for a small kit, but at least there are cockpit masks and I got a discount. A check against the plans in 'British Experimental Jet Aircraft' by Barrie Hygate show a pretty good match to the kit parts. Surface detail looks OK and I didn't have any flash on the my copy. It depicts TG283 or 306, rather than VW120 with the lowered canopy and extended nose. Pleased with it. 

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I've been hunting for a Revell Razor Crest for a while... Every time I checked with Hannants, they were out of stock (Revell seem to be getting quite bad at shipping to the UK these days for some reason.....) However, I managed to pick one up in the most unlikely of places a couple of days ago (28/06/2022)😁.

 

Currently on holiday in Dorset, and popped over to The Tank Museum at Bovington. After spending a few hours wandering round looking at a few target things (usually prefer winged flying objects😋) , popped into the museum shop to have a look around. Not expecting to find anything that flies, to my surprise there were a few Razor Crests on the shelf!!!! One of them very quickly left with me:like:

Edited by treker_ed
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excited by the possibility of actually being able to build something soon, I got carried away whilst perusing the big H's website the other night, and today a boxful of goodies arrived:

 

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You don't have to be genius to spot that fairly soon I'll be building a Hurricane, do you?  The Ta152 parts will be used in the Hobby2000 build, but that might not be for a while yet, and the Luftwaffe decals will come in very handy, as I have kits of all the included types waiting in my stash.  The G14 cockpit (which looks very nice, by the way) will go in my Academy kit.  Hopefully I'll be able to get building soon and have some pictures of things getting moving again.  I still have my Stuka and Bf110 in their part-built state, so I'll most likely get on with them first.  Here's hoping...

 

Oh, and @lasermonkey, both those pedals sound amazing - have you put the Interstellar before the MV120 clone?

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Hasegawa RAAF f-111 decals, popped up on eBay, not cheap as from a Croatian seller and in USD which the pound isn’t great against at the moment but as I’ve got a kit to one day convert and god knows when I’ll get another chance at the decals might as well take it

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In terms of full kits, I had a bit of spare cash at the end of the month so was looking around for the now-rare Airfix 1/48 Sea Vixen. Didn't have any luck so ended up going for the Tamiya 1/48 Swordfish, which was also on my list. Next evening I'm browsing and I get an ad for Hattons' big sale. I browse out of curiosity and there it was, still sealed, Airfix 1/48 Sea Vixen for £45.

 

For parts and extras, would be a set of dry transfers for my 1/48 TSR-2, been a bit of a pain, will never buy CMK upgrades once this is done. 

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I’m stuck in hospital at the moment (3 weeks down and hopefully only 2-3 weeks to go) and I’ve been browsing EBay and making odd and varied purchases:

 

Since being admitted:


Warbirds Junkers D.1 vacform (ex Rareplane)

 

Joystick Rumpler C.1 vacform

 

Eastern Express Sikorsky S.XVI

 

2x FROG Wallace (I have a few of these now, but they are a good basis for converting to Wallace and DH-9A, as well as modifying to more accurately represent the aeroplanes that flew over Mt Everest)

 

Valom Boeing XF8B-1

 

Tamiya Douglas F4D-1 Skyray

 

KP Sopwith Swallow (lowball bid, won unexpectedly! Now I’m thinking about a possible conversion to a Dove, as seen at Shuttleworth)

 

and

 

Flyhawk Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless. Flyhawk make ships and I think this is their first 1/72 aeroplane kit. I’ve only looked at the kit briefly (my daughter brought it in and took it home again) but it looks AMAZING! Sharply moulded, comprehensively detailed and all the flaps even have their full complement of holes sharply moulded (I didn’t count them)

 

…so when I get home I will have some building to do!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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I have the day off today, so went to a hobby shop I'd heard of - Hiawatha Hobbies in Pewaukee - to see if they were worth the drive for me. Although much larger, it reminded me of the much-missed Maintrack Models in Hastings. Floor to ceiling stock, and a fair proportion of plastic model kits, paints, glues, etc. I will be going back, and it's lovely to have a proper model shop within driving distance.

 

Of course, I couldn't leave empty-handed, so arrived home with a number of Tamiya paints and varnishes and an Eduard Weekend Edition Spitfire F Mk. IX.

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4 hours ago, John Laidlaw said:

I have the day off today, so went to a hobby shop I'd heard of - Hiawatha Hobbies in Pewaukee - to see if they were worth the drive for me. Although much larger, it reminded me of the much-missed Maintrack Models in Hastings. Floor to ceiling stock, and a fair proportion of plastic model kits, paints, glues, etc. I will be going back, and it's lovely to have a proper model shop within driving distance.

 

Of course, I couldn't leave empty-handed, so arrived home with a number of Tamiya paints and varnishes and an Eduard Weekend Edition Spitfire F Mk. IX.

Looks like I’ll need to make a pilgrimage next chance I get. 

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11 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

I’m stuck in hospital at the moment (3 weeks down and hopefully only 2-3 weeks to go) and I’ve been browsing EBay and making odd and varied purchases:

 

Since being admitted:


Warbirds Junkers D.1 vacform (ex Rareplane)

 

Joystick Rumpler C.1 vacform

 

Eastern Express Sikorsky S.XVI

 

2x FROG Wallace (I have a few of these now, but they are a good basis for converting to Wallace and DH-9, as well as modifying to more accurately represent the aeroplanes that flew over Mt Everest)

 

Valom Boeing XF8B-1....

 

Always going for the mainstream, 'shake and bake' stuff, eh Adrian?  😄

 

Wishing you a speedy recovery.👍

 

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Some new release publications this week and hopefully a couple more to follow next

 

From Amazon

Flashpoints , by Michael Napier , published June 2022 by Osprey , at two-thirds RRP for a 368 page well illustrated hardback looking at the influence of airpower in various Cold War-era conflicts

 

Aero Research

Latest PDF download release Worldwide Military Part 10 to add to the collection.

 

From Editions Heimdal

L’Armée de l’Air en Indochine (The French Air Force In Indochina) 1945-1956 , by Alain Crosnier , pre-order published June 2022 by Editions Heimdal ,  254 page hardback combining a two-part paperback series arranged by role and then by unit, French language throughout but lavishly illustrated.

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Inspired by Jonners’ recent Tempest in RFI, I’ve ordered some Tempest V overtrees from Eduard with the intention of converting it to a Tempest VI using the wing inserts from an old MDC Tempest II conversion.

 

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Grey is primer from Halfords, ordered some via an eBay seller for what should have been a red flag too good to be true price on the 24th, tacking still says the courier is waiting for it so think it unlikely to arrive now so took matters into my own hands. 

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Two new arrivals of the Papaya and British Racing Green(ish) variety.

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The McLaren is Daniel Ricciardo’s Monza winner and the Aston Martin is from Sebastian Vettel’s P2 in Baku.

 

Sean

 

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I'd been after this one for a while now, but couldn't find one for a decent price anywhere.  Used examples were going for about thirty-five pounds and new ones were near forty.  Sod that for a bunch of bananas; some eBay brinkmanship finally netted me this beauty at £21.

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I *almost* pulled the trigger on a Special Hobby Bugatti 100 which was on eBay for a reasonable price, but it was from Model Hobbies who were active for a few days and then “went on holiday” again. I wonder if I dodged a bullet there?

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Escort to Berlin: The 4th Fighter Group in World War II, Fry & Bethell, from Thriftbooks in Seattle. A really tidy copy at a decent price, looks very interesting at first glance.

Steve.

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