You had more patience than me! Had to get the model started and it only delayed the second trip. That first Exacto was pure heaven, especially when I found out that they made more than just the No. 11 blade.
Rick Scarred fingered MFE
Heh...I found my first X-Acto laying in the street on the way to grade school one day...#11 blade and all. I put it in my coat pocket on the way home...as I walked, it contunually stabbed me in the stomach through my coat with each step I took. After a few blocks I figured out what that "stabbing" pain was (and what I had done...) - I was bleeding and mad enough to make me throw it BACK into the street.
Don't think I touched another X-Acto until I got to high school...
Yeah - I recall building an Fw 190 that way, I think...
I am spoiled, haven't really sliced a finget in years. The workbench is semi-organized. Haven't tried for a "flyer" in years. Much more "self critical", too much info available sometimes. Have to argue myself out of too much detail and not finishing as much, productivity has dropped, maybe the enjoyment. Can't turn out a stick and tissue Spitfire in a week, cool paintscheme and it would glide "forever" Anymore it takes me a week to hunt up references, another week to wait on delivery if it is not an internet source, months to build it "just right", then paint it the exact FS numbers with the "proper markings" I remember the first erection and maintenance manual that my dad showed me in the squadron manual files and thought "Oh Wow!". Then Mike Dario said "Kid, this is an airbrush." or "Kid, this is my home brewed filler." Crap, my production speed was cut 95%. The kid down the street has access to stuff that it took me 40 years to learn.
Rick
Going to build that Canberra, #662 just like the first day I got a ride in it. Wait! How do I replicate the odor of sweat, oil, fuel, vomit, fear and flatulence that I remember. Hell. might as go for operating landing gear and ...no, I am just going to build that sucker...no, wait the kit hasn't been released in
1/48th yet and there is no PE or decals in the aftermarket.. Patience Grasshopper :-)
Today you would be expelled for a deadly weapon in your possession and sent to counseling for self mutilation attempts.
Rick
Rufus replied:
Wait one minute! If you are going play "Walking down memory lane" you have to follow the rules. No "I think" allowed, you have to state positively.."Yeah...." If you are wrong someone will tell you :-)
Rick IIRC
Hm- did talk about razors and ambroid a little bit..
Didn't want to set the way back machine that far.
when I was a kid, got tired of hearing 'When I was a kid, all we had for cement was old Film negatives dissovled in Banana Oil' every time I wanted a new tube of Ambroid.
Last time I smelled that stink of near pure Amyl Acetate was in that Tri-Flow Oil that had teflon in it,was first introduced. oh about 15 years ago. Or 20? Hmm. Time does march on. Though the real stink was with that spray thinner that Pactra came out with for thier Formula U paint. That was bad stuff. Bad odor, and then the paint didn't do a good finish. Back again to AeroGloss.
That was good stink. Any fans of the Testors dope out there, over the Pactra?
was a little nicer than the stuff Berkeley put out.
Anyone want to see old school balsa models, look at
Make you really appreciate the new laser cut kits over the old die-crunched or printwood kits of yesterday.
** mike **** mike
**in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m19.aol.com, OXMORON1 at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 12/24/03 9:46 PM:
What my mom really hated was finding a big spot of glue with her iron! It made smoke and a smell and I got another lecture. My room had cross ventilation (no air conditioning!) so the smell of dope didn't permeate the whole house. Still it was enough to get one of those "you aren't painting over the carpet again, are you?" questions.
I mowed lawns, waxed cars, and did just about any neighborhood job that would pay me a few coins so I could but models or supplies. I would work half a day on a big lawn for $2.00 but most of the time I got 75 cents. Now they guys (not kids) want $25 and up to cut my grass. I never saw that much money in a whole summer!
MB
Ah, the banana oil thread was a couple of months ago. Using saran wrap rather than waxed paper does occasionally require the DE razor, since the saran does stick a bit more than waxed paper, especially when using white glue. So I always keep a supply of DE blades. My fingers have developed an immunity to cuts- I have them all the time when working on a model project, balsa or otherwise.
D>
I know what you mean - I used to crank them out 2-4 per month as a kid, now I'm lucky to get one a year done. I don't know when I went off the deep end into research and such...it's subtle sort of madness...it comes on slow and unnoticed.
And I've developed a sudden urge to scratch build all-metal models of my Harleys in something like 1/6 scale as of last week...
Oh yeah...like the couselling wouldn't STILL be a good idea...;)
Mine usually complained about overspray on the hardwood floor in my room...never did get it that I wasn't about to let the newsprint get that nasty ink all over my paint jobs.
I made my model money much the same way and in the same quantities - till I got to high school and started making jewelry; which I only did because of making models. Found out I could make a fair amount of money making jewelry and continued doing it - thus my kit buying/building frenzy was kept self supported and fully funded for four years. I also painted the eves of a house one summer and made $100 - now that WAS all the money in the world...that went to my foray into R/C.
Do it! Go for it man, it is a freaking hobby and that might be the mother of models.. if you can get around to finishing it.
Rick
Not to mention that it would give me excuses to buy all sorts of new and cool tools I've been wanting but haven't bought yet - Sherline lathe and mill, for starters...
My girlfriend's not helping either - she gave me the Franklin Mint model of the Captain America chopper from Easy Rider for Christmas.
I don't know what they're charging around here but I'm the unusual one on this block as I mow my own. I see these guys coming with pickups and trailers, driving off the ramps on their gang mowers and driving around the neighbours' yards like madmen. I guess they're working under contract and it's only necessary to show up and mow to get paid. Neatness doesn't count anymore. I got paid by the hour and still had to do everything with TLC and it had to be neat. I usually used the owner's mower and handtools. I started to slow down when I hit puberty because the hay fever hit bigtime. I always had to carry several large handkerchiefs just to get through a lawn. I quit when it got to the point of incapacitation just passing a freshly-mowed lawn. One of the few perks about passing 50 seems to be the loss of the allergy.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
Speak for yourself! I didn't know what an allergy was until I passed
50!Bill Shuey :-{
Only one person in my 'hood does that...loud as all hell,they start early and wake up anyone who isn't an early riser(pity the night shift people)...run all over the street,and suddenly turn into the invisible man when a cop drives past(probably afraid they might sick imigration on them...don't worry about your jobs going overseas,they'll ship the workers in to replace you!) My family would never pay anyone for that kind of "service"
in article snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net, Bill Banaszak at snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net wrote on 12/25/03 7:29 PM:
Times do change. We have a couple of those yards on my street. Most of us here are retirees and two of the widows have their yards done by "outsiders." I know some of these guys charge $50 and up but they have two or three guys at a time cutting, trimming, and blowing leaves and grass. I don't believe any of them speak English...they don't seem to understand it! (Damn, how I hate leaf blowers!)
When I was a kid and my dad finally got a power mower I thought that was the height of yard keeping luxury. When I was cutting grass for pay, it was with a push mower, a weed cutter, and a yard rake to clean up with. At least I was in better shape then. With a power mower in hand, my dad decided it was too valuable for me to use to cut other people's grass and that was an end to my first professional endeavor. The loss went practically unnoticed at the hobby shop.
MB
Don,
While I never really got into building "stick n tissue" model airplanes, my older brother (just turned 68 this past Sunday) sure did, and he used a technique that our mother showed him, when he was preserving dried leaves for a biology project.
The technique goes like this: Lay the wood model airplane plans down flat, on an ironing board (OK, so no ironing board? No problem, just lay them on a piece of cloth, like an old bedsheet, on the kitchen counter!), place a sheet of waxed paper on top of them, then open up a grocery bag (good old heavy kraft paper), and lay that on top. Take the family steam iron (or any iron such as one might use for ironing a shirt!), and when hot, press out (iron) the craft paper. The resulting heat will drive the wax from the waxed paper into both the kraft paper (the grocery bag paper) and the model plans. When done, this makes a set of model airplane plans that one can pin and glue on, but nothing, not even CA glue will stick to, and one doesn't have to contend with that pesky saran wrap either!
Art Anderson
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