Pellsons Perceivings

[Old Wombat]

Soon be midwinter 

That's what it feels like here at the moment    

Except those few, short instances when the sun pokes out from behind the clouds & rain, then it's got a proper bite to it, as it should at this time of year.

[Pellson]

I'm firmly a summer person. Really. And things got worse overnight.

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Icing THAT cake by breaking the snowblower clearing the driveway today. Severely annoying. The part broken isn't very expensive, but I won't have it here until the winter is over, I would guess. 

Well - that debacle bought me time to paint the AMRAAM radomes. Always something. Oh - I also found some more Luftwaffe decals. Joy and delight!

[NARSES2]

I always like the LOOK of snow and like a lot of Brits from the southern half of our island quite enjoy the first day or two of any we get (we get it very rarely), but after that it just becomes a p.i.a. We are just not equipped for it.

I was 10/11 during the "White Winter" of 1963/64 and that was the perfect age to be, ever since then  

[PR19_Kit]

1963/64 was an AWFUL winter!

I'd only been working for 2 yrs then and my main mode of transport were my two bikes, one a 26" wheeled Viking Grand Tour and the other a 16" wheeled Moulton Safari. BOTH of them were impossible to ride in 2ft deep snow drifts, and on the Moulton the entire wheel was below the snow line!

[Pellson]

We had another six inches overnight, and yet as much during the day today.



Despite that, circumstances forced me to actually break out the tools and replace that alternator today, and a servo pipe in the vicinity while at it. And remarkably, once I'm at it, it is rather pleasing. Despite the weather. So now, both the Defenders are actually operational, even if the short one still need her winter tyres. But as she's running on terrain rubber, it still works, if with caution taken.

Also managed to fully arm the old German Phantom and at the same time got an idea for another old Italeri kit sitting on the renovation shelf. I just need to clear the desk..

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Photos are before and after repair. What the post picture doesn't show is the snowfall I had to endure during the procedure, just to be greeted with some temporary sunlight shining through just when having tidied up.

[PR19_Kit]

Sure you don't need a few more lights on the Defender? 

[scooter]

Sure you don't need a few more lights on the Defender? 

Needs some foglights on the grille as well.

As for "moar lites!" a first aid squad near the town I grew up needed generators on their ambulances for the amount of emergency lights on their units.  Among the Bergen County squads (and hospital based medics), they're know as the God Squad because on nights with low ceilings or fog, they look like "God himself coming down from on high."

[NARSES2]

1963/64 was an AWFUL winter!

Not if you were still at primary school 

[Rheged]

1963/64 was an AWFUL winter!

Not if you were still at primary school 

It was OK in the first year at secondary school too!     Carlisle Grammar School (founded by St Cuthbert in 685 AD) had a total amnesty on uniform wearing  and even EVCOURAGED pupils wearing walking books, cords and thick sweaters.

[PR19_Kit]

If it was bad in Oxford the 63-64 Winter in Carlisle must have been HORRENDOUS! 

[Rheged]

If it was bad in Oxford the 63-64 Winter in Carlisle must have been HORRENDOUS! 

It was certainly chillier than I preferred.

[Pellson]

In a never ending detail painting sequence. Annoyingly, once and again I find myself painting somewhat more than planned, adding to the repetitions. But it's still starting to look good now, and I'll probably take a few pics tomorrow.

Having gotten these almost ready models off the desk, it's time to restart the pair of Tornados. I have been a bit worried about some canopy fit issues, but having done some dry fitting, it seems to work out rather well. Accordingly, I'll be back to painting Norm 83 greens again, and there's another old childhood love being refurbished and repainted in that scheme as well. The postwar Luftwaffe lends itself to quite a lot of interesting whiffing, and you don't even have to stretch things that far at all to add quite a lot of new types to the crossed inventory.

[NARSES2]

But it's still starting to look good now, and I'll probably take a few pics tomorrow.

Always a nice feeling 

[Pellson]

Soon December, but now most of the snow has melted away, so more or less back to normal. The Defenders continue to annoy with minor niggles, so that's as is well back to normal.

On the modelling table, there's been a congestion of Cerberus 2 ECM pods. Realising I was four units short, and that most of the ones I had was the slimmer and much less competent Cerberus 1 (as supplied in the Italeri Tornado kits), I elected to just fabricate a few extra. Said and done, and they turned out good enough, and one of them is already installed under a F-100S (separate F-100 thread will follow) while the rest are in their sortiment drawer, awaiting carrier. 
That F-100 is turning out really well, by the way, and there's just a little fixing left before declaring her done.

Also done are the refurbished F-4F, a fighter Starfighter, two MiG-21's and a MiG-23, all in the lovely Norm 81 design. (There are another two or three threads in the backlog, btw  ).
Being quite happy with those, I think I might try for a German MiG-25 as well. Being in the refurbishment mode, I have found an old build, now about 40 years old, and I'd really like to restore her. I have many fond memories with that kit. I found it in my fathers stash in early 1982, just before my 12th birthday. Dad, being an officer in the Naval Reserve (RSwN), had not only introduced me to plastic models some five years previously, but also held a strong semiprofessional interest in the military technical developments across our pond, i.e in the Soviet union, and I think he was quite chuffed when being able to lay his hands on a model of the then still quite new Foxbat. Talking to him about the kit I had found, he took it out and we had a thorough look-tough together during which he told me what he knew about the aircraft, and also what he had heard from some RSwAF fighter pilots he knew from the nearby Air Force Base, having met the Foxbat over the Baltic.

It was a Haynes issue of the Hasegawa kit, depicting the jet in which Viktor Belenko defected to Japan, and when it a few weeks later turned up on my 12th birthday, wrapped in dads usual grey wrapping, I was more than delighted. I built it OOB, painted it in overall silver and was rather happy with it for many years. In the early nineties, however, when photos of the more modern MiG-31 in overall grey appeared, I repainted it in light aircraft grey to get a more modern appeal, and since then it has followed me through my different house-moves and relations, and in the process lost a bit here and there. It's still a very impressive aircraft, however, looking as fast as it is with its very long and pointy nose and huge afterburner cans in the rear.

During the years since then, I have built many another kit, and dad was always interested in what I built and why, and together we really enjoyed not only our own builds but others as well. Many years ago, when I first came across our own Mr Spackmans signatory Gloster PR.19 build on the internet, i showed it to him and we had a good laugh about it, but also sharing ideas and thoughts on other possible whatifs. Now he's gone since a few years, but every now and then, when I come across a kit or build that carries special memories of him, I pause for a bit, just enjoying the good memories. Obviously, there's a slight sadness in not having him here any more, but mostly it's a comforting and happy feeling. I was blessed with a kind, fun and encouraging dad. Not everyone can say that.

Pretty recently, I bought another Haynes/Hasegawa MiG-25, and having that as a backup for a Russian Foxbat, I might redo this old darling into something that would trigger my dads lovely sense of humour and imagination as well as mine. And making it Luftwaffe, dressing it up with an appropriate backstory, could be a good way to enjoy myself while indulging in fond dad-memories as well. That backstory will have to be something special, though, as the interceptor Foxbat really was a bird with many, many flaws, and why would a western air force pick that up? We shall see..

In other news, one of the Tornados, an ECR, as well as that other old refurbishment project has gotten some paint on. Still a lot to do, but it looks good so far, so the feeling is good. The other Tornado, being a Marineflieger bird, will have to wait until I'm done with the Norm 83 colours. One thing at a time..

But now, packing for a day at the yearly wind energy fair. Not ideal for my energy levels given my condition, but due to the pandemic, it's been a few years since participated, and it really is the place to be for networking. While suspecting I'll be more dead than alive in two days from now, I will most likely have a good time catching up with people tomorrow.

[NARSES2]

Now he's gone since a few years, but every now and then, when I come across a kit or build that carries special memories of him, I pause for a bit, just enjoying the good memories. Obviously, there's a slight sadness in not having him here any more, but mostly it's a comforting and happy feeling. I was blessed with a kind, fun and encouraging dad. Not everyone can say that.

There are certain things that will crop up at various times and I'll have very similar thoughts about my long departed Dad. We were more like friends than father and son and I do miss him.