Ricks' Ramblings

[Rick Lowe]

Yeah, maybe they could have used them to carry Tallboys or Grand Slams to Japan...

They did carry them, but not to Japan.


And I think I've seen a pic somewhere of a B-29 carrying TWO Grand Slams, one under each wing root.  Quite how long it took to take-off wasn't revealed.........

How long?........measured in miles, or possibly hours......

Like the tale I've heard about the B-52, perhaps the curvature of the Earth helped and they simply flew on a tangent to that... 

Thanks, folks.

[frank2056]

That B-29 is awesome!

[Rick Lowe]

Cheers, Frank.

[Wardukw]

Oh now that is good 👍 👌 😄
It's a Boeing Washington Mk 20 😆
As Chris said...that just looks right ..extremely right ✅️

[Rick Lowe]

Thanks, Phill

[Rick Lowe]

An addendum to the details about the Ro'em SPG on page 19:

In doing more researching, it now appears there were two versions of casemate produced:
The earlier, short one as per my model; and a later one without the rear 'shelf' and with the rear of the box lengthened to provide more room for the crew.

I haven't found other mentions of this; though it seems plausible from an ergonomics/crew space point of view, rather than someone 'retconning' their bad plans or inaccurate model.

Not that I'm about to revamp my model, or do another one...

[Rick Lowe]

One year whilst looking for Christmas Presents, I found a series of wind-up toy 'Despicable Me' Minions in various costumes.
I wasn't much interested in the Marvel ones, but there were some Star Wars characters.

I grabbed a few and gave them to various folk, but sadly couldn't find any more – I guess they were the end-of-line items when I came across them.
However, I did manage to modify the Clone Trooper to have a DM-type Nuke, and the recipient was pleased, which was the desired result. *

I wasn't sure what to do with the Darth Maul one, so he was put aside.

Fast Forward a few years, and I found there were a couple more available as 3D printables.
These were duly printed and I proceeded to think of what to do with them all.

With Maul I decided to modify his Zombie-type reaching arms, to instead be wielding light sabres.
But as he is a Minion, they would now have to become Light Bananas!

I cut off the hands and moulded new ones and the "sabres" from paper clay around sprue runner for strength, finishing with artists' acrylic paints; the red for the sabres is a wash, as I wanted to get the effect of a coloured beam. I think it works.

Vader and the 'Classic' Trooper were also modified; Vader had Mauls' hands on kit runner arms, covered with more paper clay, as the originals were way too puny.

The trooper had scratchbuilt arms, because I wanted him to be wielding a Fart Gun.
This was also scratchbuilt using Plastic card, tube and a couple of HO rail wheels, plus some UV resin and I used the modified hands from a spare Clone Trooper and attached the grips to them, so that they looked like they were actually holding the weapon.
Then I used my three hands to hold everything in place while the shoulder mount glue set.

Both figures were then painted and once based, the body of the gun was glued in place.

Paints were a real mix; spray bomb black and white to prime, then model and artists' acrylic paints in various colours.
(Maul I decided not to bother painting, as he looked ok.)

Again, the recipient was well-pleased, so that was well worth the doing.

*Sorry; no shots of this one, as he's gone AWOL for the moment.

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[zenrat]

  

[Old Wombat]

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I refuse to say what I saw in Minion Maul's hands in the first instants of seeing this image, I shall leave you all to work it out for yourselves.

[NARSES2]

I think you need to book your mind in for a deep clean   

[Old Wombat]

I blame my job ... You have NO idea of some of the things that people have in their homes (not always in bedrooms, either, I might add) until you walk through them checking their suitability for home detention electronic monitoring.    

[Rick Lowe]

I think I'd rather not know - or entertain any speculation, either.
(pokes fingers in ears, closes eyes and goes) "Lalalalalala, Happy Place Happy Place."

[kerick]

I had to survey an apartment once that was being converted to a condo. The occupant was seriously into witchcraft. Pentagrams, brooms, books of spells and a goat skull in the basement storage room. We finished that one in record time.

[NARSES2]

I blame my job ... You have NO idea of some of the things that people have in their homes (not always in bedrooms, either, I might add) until you walk through them checking their suitability for home detention electronic monitoring.    

I had a mate who was a fireman before he retired, and some of the tales he told 

[Rick Lowe]

1/35 Shorland Armoured Car *real world*

A conversion on a Land Rover chassis; mainly used by the British Army in Northern Ireland, though there were a few Overseas operators.

Back in the mists of history, there were a couple of articles in Military Modelling UK on combining and converting the then new Tamiya Series IIa Land Rovers (Ambulance and Pink Panther); one into a standard version in either LWB or SWB versions, and the remnants were used for a Shorland.

These were my very first forays into 1/35 and both were put aside incomplete for years, after various things stalled both projects.

I picked up the SWB conversion after a long while, and then while fettling with it, realized the less-than-acceptable job I'd done on the Shorland could be addressed; I could avoid failing to scratch an acceptable Series III front end myself by the use of an Italeri model, along with a new body and the Ferret turret that a friend had given me.

The SWB is still in progress, but the Shorland got done.

Basically, a card box body with details from various grades of rod and strip.
The front grille is microstrip.
I was never a great fan of how the kit provided the mesh screens for the lights; a clear part you had to carefully paint was always going to be problematic for me.
So, I used brass rod for the frames and net curtain stiffened with paint for the mesh.
(White glue would likely have done the stiffening job equally as well.)
Turret is mostly as it came, with the addition of a GPMG from the spares box and a wire cutter from Evergreen T-section.
Humbrol 30 brush painted with other colours as needed and a black wash.

The Commander is cobbled together from bits, to go with the standing Para figure that had been on the go for as long as the original Shorland conversion, but which got stalled by the idea of painting the DPM uniform and scratchbuilding an SLR.

I got a flak jacket sorted from card with tissue cover, used an Italeri SLR and got out the NZ Army DPM trousers I had acquired in the interim.
A good look at these sorted out the colours, ratios and patterns; and the first attempt at it looked pretty good to me so, encouraged, I did the commander as well.
I also converted an Italeri British Desert Tank Crew figure to a WRAC; it had shorts so that was a good starting point for a skirt and then I shaved the socks off to give bare legs and 'sensible shoes'.
The flak jacket was sculpted from green stuff and a Tamiya Officer's cap was used.
Tamiya folded arms, lengthened a bit at the shoulders.
I did sculpt an 'MP' arm band, but the thought of hand painting the lettering made me shave it off again, and she became a WRAC.

Mainly Humbrol paints for all figures, though Vallejo Flesh colours were also used.

I'm still working on getting the base done, after which the Shorland and figures will go into a diorama with the Fox A/C I got printed.

References were the Military Modelling articles, and one on the Shorland in Classic Military Vehicles magazine, plus the photos I'd taken at the Budge Collection.

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