Zenrat's Flying Circus

[zenrat]

Examination of the Two Pack clear revealed that it hadn't hardened completely but had a slightly rubber like consistency.  Either I got my proportions wrong (unlikely, I used measuring cups saved from cough medicine bottles) or one of the components has gone off.

I dropped all the components into my stripping tank and by thisarvo the brake fluid within was well on its way to removing all the paint.
I then dug out another kit and started preparing  the body & tub of that for paint (while the paint is stripping off quickly i find the brake fluid tends to loosen the glue so i'll have to reassemble all these parts - it was also slightly short shot and that filler will need redoing).
It's a shame to have to do this as the green and yellow turned out well.

Progress on the Mercedes W150 shown here with Scale Reference Riot cop.
Mercedes W150 WIP 17-05-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[ChernayaAkula]

<...>I am aware of the hazard. <...>
Zero paints (who sell it for model use) plaster it with warning labels.
Main protection is only ever using the stuff once in a blue moon.
<...>

Good. 
What surprised me was filtering face masks not deemed sufficient.  But the bit about using it once in a blue moon might be onto something. The health advice for bodyshop work I linked to is referring to the problem on a - quite literally! - different scale.  I suppose there's a tiny difference between a working on a 1/1 car daily and painting 1/25 cars once in a blue moon.
Stilll... can't be too careful. I always cringe when people say they're now going for acrylics because "SWMBO doesn't like the smell of enamels/lacquers" or they " can't stand respirators".  Yikes!

[zenrat]

Today was one of those days where while I seemed to have less time than usual (due to lying in bed half the morning reading Mushi's book and then having a very leisurely lunch) I got lots done.
I finally (it's only taken 5 years or so) got the carbies off of my Triumph so I can strip them to ascertain which seals and gaskets I f**ked by putting E10 petrol in it.
I set up Dadswell Bridge and photographed the I-15 and C-119.
I hung the Boxcar up in storage next to the Privateer.
Shed Dresser 23-05-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
I hung the anchors on the Sea Witch.
Sea Witch WIP 23-05-2020 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
And, after tidying the remaining bits of the Polikarpov into parts boxes I pondered the three Me 109s in my stash and which one could best be painted orange and have fish hung from its wings.  The AZ is out, being a Gustav but either the Hasegawa or Tamiya Emil will do the job.  Tamiya is in the lead due to having a tropical filter and well, because its a Tamiya.

[zenrat]

Winter has definitely arrived.  I've had to fire up my food dehydrator to get enamel paint to dry properly.  A coat of flat white on a Seafire and Ford Engine Blue on, ummm a Ford engine are refusing to dry completely remaining slightly tacky.
Low temperatures and high humidity in my shed are to blame.

Having finished the AAV build i'm toying with starting another 1/35 kit.  I keep getting them out of the stash, looking at them, leaving them next to the bench and then putting them away again unstarted a couple of days later, having changed my mind.  There is currently a Tamiya Bren Gun Carrier sitting there with a resin trek set.

[NARSES2]

  There is currently a Tamiya Bren Gun Carrier sitting there

I built that many a year ago as a companion for the 1/76 Airfix kit.

I really liked the old Airfix kit and Chris Ellis (?) in the Airfix Mag ran a series of conversions to the basic kit which must have run for 6 issues at least and I think I built the lot. My first experience with using plastic card for body work and rolled up, glue soaked tissue paper for the tarp rolls.

[zenrat]

A segment of a stand up comedian act keeps going through my mind every time I venture outside lately, it was a while ago so I don't remember who it was or exactly how it goes but it was something like: "weather reporter's have been really annoying me lately with the 'feel's like' temperature, " 16 degrees today with a feel's like temperature of 11", to me if it feel's like 11, it's f***ing 11!! 

Not much done today.  I usually get an hour in at the bench before I start work at midday but today we had the SEC working on the powerlines in the street so there was no electricity from 0800 am.  This makes my shed a black hole.
Also made the house cold as the heating requires electricity to blow the hot air around.  So I went to work early to get warm.

[NARSES2]

  So I went to work early to get warm.

That sounds like a quote you'd read in a Victorian or Edwardian novel

[zenrat]

  So I went to work early to get warm.

That sounds like a quote you'd read in a Victorian or Edwardian novel

...but we'd already burnt through this month's coke allowance and the postmaster refused us an advance giving us a flogging with a sodden mail bag instead, telling us "this'll warm both of us, me with the flogging and you presumptuous whelps as the flogees".
And so we spent the afternoon hours, between customers, huddled around a brazier emitting the guttering fitful light and pestilent stench of burning junk mail.  All the while trying to pull tighter the rags of our uniforms that the antarctic gale blowing up mainstream from The Bay might not sink it's teeth to our bones...

[NARSES2]

 

When I was a nipper, probably 7 or 8, we were staying with family up north and my Granddad asked me if I'd like to go to work with him while he did his night shift at the shipyard. Always up for an adventure I said yes and had ideas of all sorts of adventures to be had whilst being up all night. However by then Granddad's job was a nightwatchman and we spent all night huddled around a brazier outside his little "sentry box thingy" shivering in the cold.

I'd wondered why my dad had giggled when I'd said yes.  Mind you I did get my first ever taste of rum from Granddad's hip flask 

[PR19_Kit]

Coooer, I did the same, sort of, with my Grandad. He was a commissioning engineer for power stations and took me with him, in his Morris 12, to a station in North London somewhere. I've no idea where it was but it took us about an hour to get there from Wembley in 1954 or so.

We didn't need any braziers, the heat coming off the turbine casings was UNBELIEVABLE!  I was amazed that anyone could actually work in such temperatures, but there were loads off blokes adjusting bits and pieces just as if it was normal.

[zenrat]

A segment of a stand up comedian act keeps going through my mind every time I venture outside lately, it was a while ago so I don't remember who it was or exactly how it goes but it was something like: "weather reporter's have been really annoying me lately with the 'feel's like' temperature, " 16 degrees today with a feel's like temperature of 11", to me if it feel's like 11, it's f***ing 11!! 

5:30 am and it's currently -0.7 here with a "feels like" temp of -5.5, so it's f***ing -5.5! Brrr 

Yikes!

[NARSES2]

We didn't need any braziers, the heat coming off the turbine casings was UNBELIEVABLE!  I was amazed that anyone could actually work in such temperatures, but there were loads off blokes adjusting bits and pieces just as if it was normal.

Ever get to walk by an open hearth furnace as they were raking the crap off Kit ? That was hot 

[PR19_Kit]

We didn't need any braziers, the heat coming off the turbine casings was UNBELIEVABLE!  I was amazed that anyone could actually work in such temperatures, but there were loads off blokes adjusting bits and pieces just as if it was normal.

Ever get to walk by an open hearth furnace as they were raking the crap off Kit ? That was hot 

No, but I've seen pics of guys doing it. MUCH rather them than me!

[NARSES2]

We didn't need any braziers, the heat coming off the turbine casings was UNBELIEVABLE!  I was amazed that anyone could actually work in such temperatures, but there were loads off blokes adjusting bits and pieces just as if it was normal.

Ever get to walk by an open hearth furnace as they were raking the crap off Kit ? That was hot 

No, but I've seen pics of guys doing it. MUCH rather them than me!

Yup, that and the soaking pits (where they kept the ingots warm) were probably the hottest working area's. I walked past both a few times and can confirm it was a tad warm. The lads who worked there used to get an allowance of 4 to 6 pints of beer a day. Obviously pre politically correct days. Last open hearths in the UK closed in 1980 when Shotton lost it's steel-making facilities.

[Rheged]

I went on an A level geography excursion to Ravenscraig works, Motherwell in January 1968 (just after hurricane force winds had inconvenienced to west coast of Scotland).  The coach from Carlisle had no heating, so we were rather glad to be taken to see the steel strip rolling process.  We warmed up remarkably quickly!!