The Merits of American Style (1/72 Arma Hobby P-51B Mustang)

[Procopius]

5 hours ago, Johnson said:

Why does everyone have daughters? I have 2. Is it something to do with inhaling too much plastic cement?

I have two boys, which brings me to today.

 

After a long day including two hours of interviews with four different people for a job I'm fairly sure I don't want (and the weird thing about getting older: I had more experience working in social media than the first three interviewers combined), the boys' sitter departed as usual at 3 PM sharp, leaving me with them until 6, when Mrs P got back from her staff meeting. Thursdays are the longest day of the week, as the boys tend to get into punch-ups (which can only go one way, since Grant is small and soft, and Winston is not only bigger and stronger, but so wiry that it hurts to hug him) and I'm exhausted from work and having to make dinner and put them to bed without Mrs P to run interference.

 

Fortunately, today I was prepared.

 

Shortly before the boys got home, a package from Amazon arrived. It had the big Osprey book on the P-51B for me, and two 1/35 Tamiya M41 Walker Bulldogs, a kit I adjudged to be enough like a model to make the boys feel like they were grown-up, easy enough to build to not induce tears, and cheap enough to buy two without excessive financial discomfort.

 

The boys reacted quite well to the news. 

 

PXL_20220407_200209227 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220407_200305775 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

These photos actually don't capture the whole story, because Winston was for a time running around the living room shouting excitedly, and Grant had clenched his entire body in excitement so hard that he was vibrating like a shop compressor.

 

Naturally we had to build them.

 

PXL_20220407_203909925 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220407_201255553 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220407_201632340 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220407_211408669 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220407_212343311 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I nearly lost them while doing the roadwheels, but the alluringly-martial turrets sucked them back in, and getting to see dad heat up a screwdriver on the stovetop to melt the tracks together brought them to a fever pitch of excitement, with Winston running to the other end of the house "in case it explodes", then sprinting back, presumably to watch as I was blown to flinders. 

 

I was not, but we encountered a setback, as it turned out the the track tension was enough to rip the drive sprocket mounting points out of the hull. Winston's tank has to cure overnight, but Grant's, with some perseverance, was persuaded to accept the tracks.

 

The boys immediately set to the hard work of playing with their newly-built models, but Grant, who is four, went the extra mile, and after learning how decals worked, slipped off to the bathroom, got himself a cup of water, and proceeded to apply the transfers to the kit. He then learned what generations of modellers before him have learned, in the same hard school: Tamiya decals suck. 

 

PXL_20220407_233138405 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

All of this took about three hours from start to finish, and then it was time to pick up the pizza, get home, meet mom coming back from work, eat dinner, and be carted off to bed. Grant put his tank next to his bed.

 

PXL_20220407_234210209 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I had better get a really nice nursing home when I'm old.

 

[Brian]

Aren’t children precious?  I still have a 1/144 Starfighter painted in purple and pink by my daughter, which she then rejected because it didn’t look like my models.  I was also told that “When you get old, I’m going to make you live in a cardboard box.”  The same daughter is now in her third tri-mester, with a girl.  I have a feeling of foreboding about what awaits me when my daughter and her daughter collectively decide that dad/grandpa needs some guidance.

[Mr T]

Nice to see you back Edward and back on the path of righteousness in your model building, looking forward to see how this turns out. 

Re children, we made a conscious decision to stop at two and were fortunate (?) to have one of each. Joe my son was, and still is, a bit of fussy eater. Ellie was less so, but as an adult has some form IBS and is lactose intolerant. This is only a problem when she comes to see us, but is tough on her. 

We decided on names before they were born. Joseph George after Mrs T dad and my my grandad. Eleanor Louise after no one on particular, we just liked the names and I liked the thought of a daughter who was named after one of most ruthless and strong medieval queen's. Ellie has some of these traits, which helps her as a  teacher of small children. 

As mine are now grown up with their own careers and lives, it seems amazing that we got this far largely intact. Hang in there, school helps to tire them out. 

[Johnson]

Well that certainly went better than my first kit when I was about the same age as Grant. It may have been an Airfix 1/76 Tiger, or possibly a Panther (it was a while ago). I remember a terribly sticky mess of wheels all stuck together with the gooey poly cement that came in tubes and went everywhere. Your boys have obviously got better skills. 

 

6 hours ago, Procopius said:

I had better get a really nice nursing home when I'm old.

 

My younger daughter always says she'll find me a good nursing home. Usually after we've just 'lent' her some more money.

[Terry1954]

Edward, so good to hear from you again!

 

I spotted this thread this morning and became engrossed in your back story, as is always the case. Those Arm Hobby P-51's look superb, as indeed I have realised do all Arma Hobby kits. I'm working on my third P-51 currently, an H by RS, should get to an RFI pretty soon. I do love a Mustang.

 

Great to see that Winston and Grant are embracing the hobby, and an M-41 each no less. A wise choice I would say. Their build rate is awesome! You can tell them this one, an Accurate Armor Resin conversion for a Danish M41DK using the Skybow kit, took the best part of 18 months to build........

 

 

And these two are currently WIELP (works in extremely long progress)! The left hand one is the AFV club kit, and the right hand the good old Tamiya. Paint is due soon............

 

 

And when it comes to choosing names for children, all I will say is having only three to select, you have had it easy ............. 🤣

 

Looking forward to following this build as ever.

 

Take care.

 

Terry

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Crisp late to the party yet again, but it has done my heart much good to see the return of PC.  I too dislike my middle name - Paul - for no good reason; indeed I was given it in honour of my Mum’s cousin, who had been a POW on the Burma Railway, survived and was an exceedingly good man… but I still hate it.  “Go figure”, as I believe you American types have it.

 

Anyone named after Noor Inayat Khan, however, must be righteous; she was a truly extraordinary woman in all the best senses of that word. [If you have not yet read Sarah Helm’s “A Life in Secrets”, I commend it to the House].

 

And speaking of extraordinary people, I had read of Major Howard before, but not known that he was an ex-Naval aviator.  [Minus marks for leaving, but I guess he made up for it].  Characteristically Procopian back story, and what looks a superb kit (as a 1/48 man, thus far I have managed to resist Arma, but I gather that’s going to get harder soon…).

 

I am only lurking among you aviator types at present; you will find me playing with Dutch resin frigate things in the sailing area.

 

Welcome back, my friend; we have missed you.  If you can just locate Ced’s mojo somewhere, we’ll really have the full band back together…

 

 

 

[Procopius]

2 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Welcome back, my friend; we have missed you.  If you can just locate Ced’s mojo somewhere, we’ll really have the full band back together…

 

Fun fact: my father-in-law was a stagehand his entire working life, and was part of the crew for this movie when they filmed on location in Chicago. 

 

2 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

 

 

Great to see that Winston and Grant are embracing the hobby, and an M-41 each no less. A wise choice I would say. Their build rate is awesome! You can tell them this one, an Accurate Armor Resin conversion for a Danish M41DK using the Skybow kit, took the best part of 18 months to build........

 

I'm not showing them that, they'll want one. Winston has already asked for a "carrier ship" (LCT) for his tank. I think not. I'll probably get them the Tamiya Panther next (if these aren't destroyed before next week), as it's $18 per box and thus not a punishing expense. 

 

Speaking of, Win is home sick today, and when I went up to check on him, he'd built the figures from his kit (and Grant's, without asking) all by himself, following the instructions. 

[HAMP man]

Lovely update, obviously the spark provided by from the fathers fire striker is taking hold. Reading destructions? good start. Spat me tea out when you described Grant's clenching, took me back 55 years!

 

Box On

 

Strickers

[perdu]

That the he-devil built figures using the destructions all unhindered by parental advice, absolutely the best thing I have heard/read.

 

That this nice little lad just got on with it, amazing.

 

[Navy Bird]

49 minutes ago, Procopius said:

... following the instructions. 

 

Dear lord, what have you been teaching these boys?   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Procopius]

24 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

 

Dear lord, what have you been teaching these boys?   

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

Grant steadfastly ignored them while putting his infantrymen together. When one fell apart after being glued, he dropped a big, big "F" (which comes from riding in the car with his mother, though I take the blame for his yelling of "JESUS CHRIST WINSTON!" a week or two ago), then said "I want to stick my head under a pillow and scream." I told him that happened to everyone who built a model sooner or later, so it was good to get it out of the way right off the bat.

[AdrianMF]

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

I'll probably get them the Tamiya Panther next

Just as a side note, $18 per week on kits per child over 50 weeks a year over 15 years comes out to around $13,500, or five percent of the quoted cost of raising each one.

 

That probably explains why parents are so fond of Lego, a multiple-use plastic product. Statistics are wonderful, aren’t they?

 

[AdrianMF]

8 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Accurate Armor Resin conversion for a Danish M41DK using the Skybow kit, took the best part of 18 months to build........

Built so slowly it started growing moss, like a sloth!

 

Very accurate-looking moss, mind you.

 

I will now refrain from further forum activity until I learn to play nice…

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Procopius]

33 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

Just as a side note, $18 per week on kits per child over 50 weeks a year over 15 years comes out to around $13,500, or five percent of the quoted cost of raising each one.

 

That probably explains why parents are so fond of Lego, a multiple-use plastic product. Statistics are wonderful, aren’t they?

 

 

Oh no, not per week, god no! Per month, maybe.

[Procopius]

No progress tonight, as I played my first game of Warhammer 40,000 in quite literally twenty years. 

 

PXL_20220409_015732413 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220409_025429967 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I got clobbered, of course! 

 

Still, I had fun, and the guy I played with lives like two miles away and wasn't a weird creep, so I expect I'll play (and lose) again. 

 

[Seahawk]

A bit late to the party but welcome back, Procopius!  I was concerned you might be one of those comets who flash across the Britmodeller sky and then suddenly disappear without trace for no obvious reason.  And, given the last couple of years, I was nervous about possible causes.

 

Glad the famous Procopius fluency has not left you.  Nice to have a bit of class about the place.

 

There is an alternative solution to the wheel well painting problem: if anyone starts sticking their nose into the wheel bays of your model, lamp 'em.

[Procopius]

2 hours ago, Seahawk said:

 

 

There is an alternative solution to the wheel well painting problem: if anyone starts sticking their nose into the wheel bays of your model, lamp 'em.

A man after my own heart.

[Procopius]

It's been a busy weekend. Yesterday Mrs P had parent-teacher conferences all day, so I took the kids to swimming (which they hate, and which they told me, repeatedly, glad it only costs north of $300 for each of them to go), then grocery shopping. I normally do all the grocery shopping, because Mrs P dislikes doing it, whereas I find it very life-affirming, remembering as I do the days when I couldn't afford to more or less buy any food I wanted. With my children, possibly the ultimate expression of raw life, taken well beyond its logical extreme, it feels somewhat more like how Actaeon checked out. Thanks to some assiduous couponing, I actually came out ahead, except that my diet was ruined for the day and possibly longer because when stressed I tend to overeat, and I left that grocery store with a cookie cake and a hunger that could never be sated. 

 

PXL_20220409_152658342 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Of course, when Mrs P did come home, she was too exhausted from working to do anything but rest, whereas I'd had a refreshing afternoon unclogging the toilet and trying to keep my children from beating each other to death with a pair of walking sticks my mother in law saw fit to give them, presumably as part of some global population control initiative that I'm not yet aware of. So I got the boys into bed, then walked over and picked up dinner (tamales, probably because Grant had me read him a book called Too Many Tamales, which is an impossibility) and then passed out in the guest bedroom, because Grant was in my bed and sleeping diagonally across my spot. 

 

So today I had high hopes for, since Mrs P was home and I had only one errand for myself: I had to go pick up a screw extractor from the hardware store to back out a trigger guard screw on my 1923 BSA  No1 MkIII* SMLE that had sheared off not long ago. What actually happened is that Winston woke me up by screaming loudly somewhere in the house, then walked calmly into the guest bedroom. 

 

"Hi Dad," he said, nonchalantly. "I guess you're wondering what all the noise was. Mom was very rude to me and told me to get out of her room. So I remembered the Golden Rule: treat others how you want to be treated. So I decided since she hurt me, I should hurt her, too."

 

I told him an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind*, which was a mistake, as we then took a detour in the Code of Hammurabi, what "an eye for an eye" meant, and then how the offending sensory organ was extracted, which he was a little too curious about for my tastes. Finally, with a desperate burst of strength, I hauled the conversation back on track, and explained that the golden rule meant to treat people how you WANTED them to treat you, not how they had treated you.

 

Winston was displeased by this, and he got even madder when he slowly began to parse the sentence in his counterargument and realized I was right; it was amazing, cognizance spread across his face like the ripples from a stone flung into a lake. This did not, in fact, make him any happier, and he stormed off. 

 

Anyway, thus awakened, I emerged and thought I might sneak in a few moments of work on the Mustang. There's some teeny-tiny gear bay detail ,so I opted to use my #000 Windsor & Newton sable brush, purchased on the assumption that merely owning the tool confers the skill required to wield it at a high level.

 

PXL_20220410_141259248 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I mean, just look at it.

 

Ahhh, well...anyway, a wash will probably do a lot of heavy lifting here.

 

PXL_20220410_143653822 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220410_143638636 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

 

As I painted, I became conscious of the rhythmic thumping and intermittent screaming that meant that my children had realized they were unsupervised in any meaningful way, and headed back upstairs to discover Mrs P had moved from bed to the sofa and showed little signs of moving again at any time in the near-to-intermediate future, so I got dressed and took the children to the park.

 

There we spent a miserable hour while another set of parents' bestial children screamed piercing shrieks down the enclosed slide and provoked the normally passive Grant into charging them windmilling his arms and shouting "I HATE YOU." When I yelled at him, he stopped trying to hit, and just angrily spat "I love you" at them. I am in no position to judge other parents; my own children are poorly-behaved and probably fairly spoiled to boot. I'm doing my best with a job I never wanted and which I am not paid for. But at the same time, those kids should have been killed. Just straight-up drowned. Even Winston, who loves everyone and greets literally every kid he meets within six years of his age on either side with "wanna be friends?"**, when told to say goodbye to his friends, flatly responded "they're not my friends." If Pol Pot was willing to run around a bit, Win would probably like him, so it's impossible to damn them further. After that we went to the hardware store and got my screw extractors, then Winston punched me in the testicles in the parking lot because I didn't buy him a treat and nearly became the first man on the moon to get there without the aid of a rocket, then we went to Wendy's to get lunch for the boys, then drove back the way we came to get a Subway Tuna Fish sandwich*** for Mrs P, per her request. A massive group of reservists in the newer multicam uniforms were there getting food, and Winston was starstruck. As Win gazed at him adoringly, the one ahead of us in line loudly requested a "▮▮▮▮ton of tomatos" on his sandwich, which (a) kids are present, and (b ) those tomatoes are terrible. The mere scum of the earth, gentlemen. 

 

Finally, we got home, and I crept downstairs and extracted the screw, then replaced it. Success! 

 

PXL_20220410_185211209 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

Time passed. Mrs P eventually decided she should shower at get dressed around 2, which meant at 3 we were finally ready to go to a different park for an hour, then we returned home so I could make dinner: kielbasa, saurkraut, and mashed potatoes for us, macaroni and cheese for the boys, which Grant refused to eat. Then I took the boys upstairs and bathed them, then went down and folded the laundry and washed up from dinner.

 

What a great weekend. I hope I die in my sleep soon.

 

 

 

*Not true, if your timing is very good. 

 

** Neither of us are extroverts, so we assume he got it from my mother, who once got into a long conversation with her waiter and urged him to marry his girlfriend rather than disrespect her by living in sin with him, and felt no shame, while my sister and I silently willed our atoms to fly apart at the speed of light.

 

*** Of all the things to probably get food poisoning from, I can think of few less edible. Possibly a human hand, but at least then you have some certitude that it's actual human you're eating.

[Stew Dapple]

Well, despite everything else... the detail painting is very nice. Very nice indeed. The purchase of that brush has been justified in the eyes of the world  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Terry1954]

Sounds like a fun weekend 🤔.......... mine included a visit to the Yeovil model show yesterday, but I'm sure you would not have liked it Edward.... 😁

 

That wheel well detail is amazing. I can see why Arma Hobby have such a reputation. Really must get one of these at some point.

 

Terry

[PattheCat]

If it can somewhat comfort you, think that at least they don't scratch and bite when you try to get them off your bed or sofa ...... everyone should have cats before children, if only to put the word education into perspective.

 

A perfect detail paintig job.

Thanks for keeping us entertained 😉

 

BTW my daughter is moving out to her apartment today .... well OK she's 26 but I'm still wanting to 😢

[HAMP man]

8 hours ago, Procopius said:

purchased on the assumption that merely owning the tool confers the skill required to wield it at a high level.

It is with regret that I have realised that within these words my current self assessment of my modelling skill resides.

I remember, (just) when my first-born was very young, the feeling that I was close to the event horizon, and the consternation of realising that bits of me and my life were visible from angles that should have been physically impossible. The laughter started when I saw that it was happening to everyone else  you know the sort, the wild eyed high pitched type.

 

Exquisite use of small amounts of pigment old chap, PB required to match this.

 

Box on

 

Strickers

Edited April 11, 2022 by HAMP man
?

[Procopius]

3 hours ago, PattheCat said:

 

BTW my daughter is moving out to her apartment today .... well OK she's 26 but I'm still wanting to 😢

I will cry too, if Winston or Grant are still in my home when they're in their middle twenties. My youngest sister and my baby brother are both in their early thirties and live with my mom and dad, which is roughly what Hell must look like. 

 

6 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

That wheel well detail is amazing. I can see why Arma Hobby have such a reputation. Really must get one of these at some point.

 

It's entirely deserved. Their kits always feel like they were designed by someone who builds them. I know that at least one of Airfix's design guys is a very talented modeller himself, far better than me, but they make some strange design choices that aren't very conducive to actually building and painting the model without breaking something. Arma, for me at least, has never felt that way. 

 

3 hours ago, HAMP man said:

It is with regret that I have realised that within these words my current self assessment of my modelling skill resides.

 

My skill level as well. But consider this: every time we buy something unnecessary, the pleasure centers in our brains flare like dying stars. So we have that going for us.

[PattheCat]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

I will cry too, if Winston or Grant are still in my home when they're in their middle twenties. My youngest sister and my baby brother are both in their early thirties and live with my mom and dad, which is roughly what Hell must look like. 

 

She was staying in a student's bedsit in her early twenties and was back just waiting to find a job paid enough to live alone in decent conditions. So we never were worried we'd have to plead before a judge to obtain an eviction notice.

BTW there are two French movies you're parents could watch, "Tanguy" and "Tanguy is back" .... some tips there but but as they'll see, there is no guarantee of success.

[HAMP man]

2 hours ago, Procopius said:

the pleasure centers in our brains flare like dying stars. Sooing for us.

That reminds me of the quote from blade runner, which I can't remember now, (Swiss chesse brain added to the effects of Omicron). 🤧😷

Could this internal solar flaring qualify me for induction into the Procopicorps?

 

Box on

 

Strickers