The Rat's Nest

[Captain Canada]

Lucky bugger. Have a great time guys and I hope it works this time. I'm sure it will !

[The Rat]

Just testing...

[kerick]

Careful, if you do that too much it will stay that way!!

[The Rat]

I know that some people work hard and long to hone their craft. Musicians work their fingers to the bone, painters study and experiment until they get it right, photographers will freeze for hours to get just the right shot.

And some people just have a natural talent. They can pick up an instrument and play it by ear, make a few simple brush strokes and create something beautiful, or see the photo through the lens before they even click the shutter.

And some of us ain't got NUTHIN"!

I've been trying to make some dive flaps for a dive-bomber version of the Harvard. I'm using the old Airfix one, and figured I would use the old Airfix Dauntless flaps as a template. The Dauntless flaps are slightly wider in chord and span, but I figured to just use most of one row and then move down for the other two.

Didn't work too well. Drilled out the sunken holes in the Dauntless flaps, taped my cut-off Harvard flaps onto them, and went to work. Did the first row, then just eyeballed the other two. BLECH! Even with a proper template like that it didn't look good, holes were all over the place. Oh, one row was fine, but the two others were horrid. Okay, try again. Nope. Alright, use the Dauntless flaps as a template for all three lines. Still came out higgledy-piggledy.

$%&*#!!!

Let's have another go, shall we? Use thinner sheet plastic, easier to work with, and start lining up and taping in place. Do the first line, remove the plastic, and use a ruler to draw two more lines, parallel to the first, and vertical lines to create a cross-hatch, and use that as a reference. Use a pin to create a guide hole at each +, that should work.

Better, but it still looks like the proverbial dog's breakfast.

So far I've blamed the tools, the kits, the cat (Well, she is evil), the neighbour's front lawn, two random cars driving by, a tailor in Andorra, various house plants, the bat boy for the Detroit Tigers, and my boss (He's worse than the cat).

Is it me? 

[The Wooksta!]

Yes.

[The Rat]

Yes.

Oh well, that's knackered it. 

[The Wooksta!]

Come on!  You can't set something like that up and not expect someone to bite?

[The Rat]

Oh it's me alright. My artistic talents are on a par with a drunken wombat.

[NARSES2]

I know what you mean and sympathise Ratty. Sometimes no matter how much care you take it will just not work out. Add that awful serendipity to my complete lack of natural talent and I don't know why I bother at times ? Theory is fine....practice ? 

[The Rat]

Another project on the go is a US Navy B-25 Mitchell COD, which will be a taildragger. Grabbed the old (ancient?) Airfix box out of the stash, and almost start weeping whenever I do something with it. Looks like the molds should have been retired decades ago, maybe a year after being issued. I get the impression that it was a dog of a kit when the molds where shiny and new, and time has not taken pity on them. Gaps have to be seen to be believed, imagine a squirrel copulating with an elephant and you might have some idea. Truly horrific. 

[The Rat]

I might be back. At least, I'm getting the urge. Lotsa crap going down the past few months, including putting almost everything into storage to get some major renovations done on the house. I made sure that my hobby room was strictly off limits, so some stuff was stashed in there. Okay, a lot of stuff. But I'm getting the itch again, and pretty soon the bench will be feeling my elbows again.

Picked up a couple of Heller pressings, the Saab Lansen and Canadair CL-215. Not sure what to do with either, but tinkering with the idea of an RCAF SAR for the 215.

[The Rat]

Dropped in to a hobby shop in Lindsay, Ontario, last weekend, found a stash that someone was selling. Picked up the Matchbox Hunter for $10, now, what to do with it? Well, the decals are for the Blue Diamonds, so maybe they will go on something else for an alternative 92 Squadron aircraft.

Swift?

Lightning?

Javelin?

Buccaneer?

Gnat?

Hmmm... Maybe I should post this as a poll. Most votes decides.

[The Rat]

It works! A little extension that allows you to get around photobucket's recent hostage taking.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-embed-fix/naolkcpnnlofnnghnmfegnfnflicjjgj


To celebrate I'm posting some toad porn.

[kitnut617]

All I see Dave is the PB ransom

[The Rat]

Yeah, looks like they've found out. The image was showing when I first posted.