Clunkmeister

So a bit of build time has been found these last couple days. The fuselage is together and the hatches are closed. There are very few gaps although around the tail fin fillet, I need to do a bit of work yet, but that’s on me, not the kit.

You know, there's one thing we always seem to miss when we build a pre war airplane. that thing is apparent on the P.11a. Without fail, the very first thing every last pilot in the entire world who flown either an open cockpit or moveable canopy aircraft learns is to toss his shouklder straps outside before he gets in and sits down. If for no other reason than that it's so much easier to pull them in and over your shoulders from the outside than iot is to fight to untangle them from the whatever the buckles end up hooking on. No matter how hard you try, the metal ends always snag something, a flap lever, seat frame, trim wheel, or whatever. Or worse, having to squirm around trying to pull them out from under your fat arse. I gotta remember to do that each and every time I build something with an open cockpit, or with an open canopy.

I'm curious to see the numbers as well. the massive spike in the USA was due to the sudden availability of large scale testing and of course it confirmed what we all feared. This is going to be a big one no doubt, and none of us are immune. It certainly gives a person a sense of their own mortality, doesn't it? Even those 12 cases in Slovakia, confirmed by Ukrainian ex-nuclear power engineer gives me so much confidence in the legitimacy of the numbers.. But good news. We have stash and time. But bad news: low on levelling thinner. The world cannot function without the levelling thinner...

Tim, 10 million people here on unemployment in the last two weeks alone. I'm keeping my men employed as best I can, but I have no earthly idea how I can keep it up. The PPP assistance for small business the gov is touting now has been approved for almost a week, and the forms have been ready for three days, but we're all in limbo because our banks won't accept applications yet. THEY'RE not ready. And, if it has see any kind of relief, and by then, it's all over but the crying. I'll lay all my guys off and hope they come back. :-/ It looks mighty bleak out there these days. All they had to do was agree to cover the business insurance waivers on pandemic coverage. we all carry loss of cash flow coverage, but it doesn't cover pandemics. Nobody's does. It would have been SO much easier....

So, is that the Stay Puft marshmallow man, the Michelin man, or the Pillsbury Doughboy? Or maybe my ex wife?

The other thing I need to do is to get to Bratislava and find out if all the people there are as crazy as the one I know from there.

hahaha. yes, I know, Rob. I'm just not an "open hatches" sort of builder. I like my models closed up and ready for flight. Everytime I see a model with all inspection panels open, cowls off, flaps fully deployed, and everything else hanging off, I think it should be up on stands, getting the gear swung, and being signed off for a major inspection, not sitting there on a ramp, fully armed and bombed up.... just a personal thing for me, although I appreciate the artistry and extra work involved in opening a model up. I know when I was flying for a living, if I had walked out of the hut and seen my airplane sitting there with all the panels open, I'd have asked "how many days will it be down for this time."

hubert, I intend on doing a couple things on the Continent in the next couple years or so, one is to get to Moson, and the other is to get to Krakow. We need to get together when that happens.

Rob, you're quite knowlegeable in these things, so I'll ask you. Does the spike in infections simply correlate to the availability of testing, or is it an actual spike due to spread? Here in the United States, once testing became widespread, the number of cases spiked. So I feel we can safely assume there are many millions of people walking around as carriers, but are non symptomatic..

Smitty, that sounds like an awesome idea. If others are onboard, I'd be right there. Hubert could then give us some live views of the waterfront. And the rest of us could do virtual tours of our benches. I think language wouldn't be an issue. Call me crass, but I think everyone here speaks English at least a bit? Except Australians. Whatever that is they mutter there isn't any form of Engrish I've ever heard.

Let’s look at the tail feathers. There is some truly exquisite molding work here. Previous to this, I have only seen this level of detail on a resin model. Truly by far, the absolute best I’ve ever seen.

We had a bit of fun tonight, finalizing the fuselage interior. As I don’t do ‘open’, I’m closing the multitude of very nicely done service hatches. The empty space between the cockpit and engine is where the jettisonable fuel tank is located

Thanks Richard. I think I have the color pretty darn close. I’m going to use it, but will modulate it somewhat on the model. But I’m grabbing some Hataka paint as well. That airplane is a true National Treasure! The only one left anywhere in the world. I will get to Kraków to see it in person one of these years. I’m surprised they even run the engine and taxi it around the field. I hope they shut down air traffic for miles when they do. I’d hate to see it get T-Boned by Mom and Pop in their Cessna Out Dvorak a joyride on some Sunday afternoon. I can understand the Polish not wanting to fly it.....

I had to do something I never thought I’d do in this Country, and that’s issue Travel Papers to my employees. No joke. It floored me. If some local cop gets hung ho and decides to pull over my absolutely essential guys who I see as family, they had better be able to show they need to be out. They’re all Hispanic, ad in Mexican and Guatemalan, so they are targets for local yokels. The good news is that I’m brushing up on my Spanish, as we basically sit around and talk all day long. I absolutely refuse to lay off my men. They have families that need them, and as soon as we can get away with it, we’ll rotate them staying home with family. We’re considered an essential business, so we need to keep our doors open. They can’t stop us from getting out in the country, as long as it’s private land. That’s a good thing here.

Yep!

Brad, there’s a lot of misinformation going on here as well. Some clown circulated that the entire Nation will be quarantined for 30 days with the threat of arrest if you leave your home. That stuff here isn’t helpful. Can you go camping for a month?

I’ve been watching those developments with interest and I like what I see. Many States are now trying it experimentally, with NY leading the way. But others got all political and banned it completely because our Pres touted it. Good Lord, politics need to be put away and we need to save our Nation and all our friends around the World. France found this because the’re not afraid to think out of the box. It would have been months here before some Docs figured it out and a drug company wanted to reengineer it to get a new patent on an old drug. Gotta be careful or Ill need to moderate myself, but I’m so bleedin’ sick of political crap these days. We ALL need to work together. France, Britain, Aus/NZ, Canada, All of Europe, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, anyone with a developed health system because we sure can’t believe what comes out of China these days. Lives depend on this. If Russia finds the cure, let’s all celebrate it as much as if France or New Zealand does.

I love Tamiya's A6M series. The -2 is the nicest of the pair I think, but there's nothing wrong at all with the Mustang, either. The F-15 is a fun kit, BUT it needs some AM, so knowing you're at least as anal as I am, it's out, so if you want a blowtorch, F-16 all the way. Every single solitary person who's built one loved it. Every Last One. Needs a resin seat, and it's your choice on the wheels.

And to stay off soft fallow fields. and oooover we gooooo. yippeeee BANG! That trick is usually tough on the fin.

Agreed. Some of the Romanian machines have a bit of "pop" to them, but to me, the beauty of the design is, well, the beauty of the design. Look how Polish engineers, in the early to mid 30s, tried every trick they knew to reduce drag. I dare say a variable pitch 3 blade propeller, a couple hundred extra horses under the bonnet, leaving the cockpit hood in place, and folding legs would have helped it considerably. But as it is, it was the most advanced fighter aircraft in the worls in 1935 when it was introduced. The Brits were flying Furys for goodness sake.

Brad, I like to find the humor in things. For example, if I was Pratt and Whitney, I'd be sorely upset the Hobbyboos installed their competitor's engines in an aircraft that used their product. (They look awefully like Wright R2600s to me) We generally allow threads to run here, as long as they don't devolve to personal attacks and incessant repaeat of the same three facts for 27 pages. And if it went 27 pages, that's obviously MY fault. but in all seriousness, if you want to see a REALLY NICE kit, check out my in progress OOB build review of the IBG P.11c. that kit is easily the nicest I've built in years. A pure pleasure.

GORGEOUS! may I post this on our faceBook page?

keep the pics nice and all's good. In the meantime.... For your viewing pleasure

OK Rog, I laughed rather forcefully there.

I have one and it looks superb, very Wingnut like on the sprues. Supposedly, fit is great. Maybe a teeny bit more flash on the parts than Wingnut, and the instructions are very Wingnut-ish, but without the period photos.