What does your day look like?

Given it is sand I expected a lot of sticks and stakes moving up. BIL just replaced the tyres on the 4670 (?) Ouch.

I have had my baby tractor and a couple of the bigger ones sideways but at such low speeds it wasn't a concern though. Drove up a gully once while helping to bin out and the gully got deeper and deeper and not flat. That wasn't fun.
 
Long story if anyone is interested... The father of a close mate flew aircraft in the war to end all wars part two. Fairly obscure and not a common two seat fighter/dive bomber. Due to various family machinations the only thing he has from this time is his father's flight log books. Anyway mate had been looking to build a model for years and because of the obscurity of the aircraft not a great selection available. In fact for a long time there was just one shitty Frog brand model. I know it is shitty because I bought one to build - not worth the trouble of cutting the parts from the sprue. A few years ago another model came out and while it was fairly decent had a number of problems and in small scale (1/72) was pretty bland. I bought one and with some aftermarket bits and some scratch built stuff started the build but there were major panel fit issues and gaps and I put it on the back burner. More recently a new kit has been released and it is quite lovely. Most of the extra good bits like brass machine guns for the wings and gunner will be able to be used along with resin detailed parts and metal undercarriage. My plan is to make it with engine cowlings open, wings open with flaps down, air brakes deployed etc undergoing maintenance. Bombs on a trolley too. All this is fine except there are no decals for the father's squadron for any aircraft he flew. And mate has a glossy black and white photo of his father doing the flying thing. So I bought water slide laser decal paper to make my own. Dr Decal and Mr Hyde if anyone else is looking for such a product. Pretty simple there is enough data on the web to work out sizing and scale that to suit. Except what font? I enlisted the help of a well respected printer and tractor man to try and find out what the font was only to come up short, close but not the same. As I said time passed and now some more research reveals that the font was not a big deal at the time and the drawings made up for the letters and numbers didn't specify any particular font though no doubt the design was based on something. A bit more digging suggested that the quality of paint and application was very random at the squadron bases in New Guinea and the guys did the best they could to comply with the 'rules'. Paint that was used was whatever anyone could get their hands on, some UK, some US, some local, some whatever. Condensed Aerial (irony) will be close enough, especially scaled down. Printed some test pieces on plain paper to get the sizing. Now the tricky bit. The photo looks like the letters and serials are white. Printing white on a home laser printer isn't a thing... Bit more looking and lo the squadron id and serials were either sky blue or medium sea grey at that time. Bit more digging and again some further info. In the pacific the paint faded badly (US or UK spec) and quite quickly the paint looked ratty and faded and the old black and white photo was more likely to show the id as white instead of the some shade of grey. Success! More test prints and now for a test of the decal. The decal paper did not want to run through my printer but after some lying to the printer about what it was I got it done. The blue looks a bit anaemic but the grey will work. Another couple of 'we will do what we can' things at the remote bases: The aircraft id are meant to be read the same on both sides of the fuselage, you know AB * C but on this aircraft the serials on the starboard side are C * AB. So that is what I will model. And while the colour scheme for single engined fighters/bombers was a earth brown/foliage green camo with sky undersides this aircraft is painted all one colour - foliage green. Bit more investigation and again due to the quantity of available paint a number of aircraft ended up just repainted in one colour due to supply issues. Sold. Now to do the tricky bit and build the bastard and do a decent job of it.
 
Dales Cannon said:
...... Fairly obscure and not a common two seat fighter/dive bomber. .....
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What plane? Can't think of the one that you're describing that had both UK and US spec (my first thought was the Beaufighter until the US bit, although it was neither obscure nor uncommon). Was he RAF or RAAF? P-38?
 
mtb1611 said:
What plane? Can't think of the one that you're describing that had both UK and US spec (my first thought was the Beaufighter until the US bit, although it was neither obscure nor uncommon). Was he RAF or RAAF? P-38?
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Vultee Vengeance.

Here be the test. Bare grey plastic not painted final green or clear coated and weathered. This was the model airframe with issues. Lots of filler and still more to fix the moulding issues and my favourite, rescribing. Might still finish it off as a crash test dummy. The Sea Fury is not a small aircraft... that model isn't quite finished but I think I will leave it factory fresh and weather a 1/48 scale with folded wings etc.



Happy with the decals though.
 
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Couple of hours of frisbee with woofy, makes a dog walk more exciting. Ride later.

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I had the day off and developed some plans. But when I got up at 7am I discovered that there was going to be buses instead of trains at some point of the day and fuck me I have had enough of that shit lately. Plans went to trash so I followed my usual shot weather routine...mope about the house, drink coffee, eat lunch, all mundane shit. Then the bike shop rang to tell me they had finally got the bushings into my shock. Fuck me was it 2 weeks or 3? It's rained the whole time anyway. Following @mattsage advice to lube up the cane creek is back on the scout and it wasnt raining, so i went for a ride off road. Not much of a ride mind you! The local site is an absolute sludge pit (which I expected) but (also as I expected) the dirt lumps were in a rideable condition. Fuck I am rusty!!! Whips just weren't whipping right. Tay-bows were going over. X-ups were more of a weird y. The rest wasn't really flowing either and I dare not push a 1 hander while so rusty. Anyhow the sun started to go down so I came home but the little dirt burst was so good.

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What is this wizardry??? I have a day off and it hasn't rained for the last week??? Madness! Why I think I will go for a ride.
 
Yeah the wind here is cutting hard. I am expecting the trees and gullies of my local are protected enough.
 
Well I did indeed get out for a ride. Most of the local trails are still filthy with clay and mud, but the dirt lumps were running pretty sweet. I'd post a photo, but it isn't very different to the one a few post back. I did get to roll a few dry trail features which was nice (dropped a rock, dropped a log, railed some berms, popped some jumps, no lines taken...). But mostly too wet to enjoy. Hopefully this dry spell continues!
 
pink poodle said:
Well I did indeed get out for a ride. Most of the local trails are still filthy with clay and mud, but the dirt lumps were running pretty sweet. I'd post a photo, but it isn't very different to the one a few post back. I did get to roll a few dry trail features which was nice (dropped a rock, dropped a log, railed some berms, popped some jumps, no lines taken...). But mostly too wet to enjoy. Hopefully this dry spell continues!
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There is nothing to be ashamed of posting similar photos all of the time allegedly.
I, for one, want to see Poods doing the similiar thing on different days,
 
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