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GazzaS

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    Share how COVID-19 Quarantine has affected you.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Just watching the news...  I watch various sources and other news programs from other nations.  Europe seems to be reeling as infections spread and they talk about further lockdowns.  Pretty depressing.

     

    Over 1 million documented deaths in 36 million documented cases.  That works out as 2.78 percent of the infected cases.   If you believe what many write over at farcebook, the true percentage is less than 1/2 of a percent.  As for me...  I don't believe the small numbers given by nations like China.  Totalitarian regimes tend to downplay the effects of disasters upon their nations.

     

    Now...  I've seen plenty of shit on farcebook.  Ppl claiming that most of the deaths attributed to Covid are actually from other causes.  It's all 'fake news'.  etc. etc.  Everyone has an opinion, often based on their special interest.

     

    Because I'm in sluggish morning mode, I decided to do a little math with free online calculators. 
    The current world population is 7540000000....  That's 7 and 1/2 billion for those who find themselves swimming in a sea of zeroes.  Anyway...  2.78 percent of 7.5 billion is almost 21 million people.  That's still less than half of what the Spanish flu killed.  Maybe we shouldn't be concerned...  it's only half!

     

    Business is obviously an even bigger casualty.  Now watching a program on the end of the 747 jumbo jet.  The program mentions that they don't expect large scale air travel to resume for another four or five years.

     

    Personally...  I fear the day it knocks on my door.  My wife, daughter, and granddaughter are all people I consider sickly and not physically strong.  That's not to say that this fat, middle-aged man won't be taken down by it, too.  I do have a congenital heart condition, though it seems to reach full ferocity when my family gets into the 70's...  those of us who carry the trait, anyway.

     

    So...I'm not keen to roll the dice.  I'm notoriously unlucky when it comes to boardgames where results are dice driven.

     

    I notice some people are worried about the erosion of their civil rights...  or personal rights.  What to say to these people?  I was watching some program where the spread of the Black Death was traceable in the local records of some English villages.  The rate of spread was the same rate as walking distance from village to village.  If you open the gates, the virus will get in and people will die. 

     

    I guess to some, it doesn't matter until it's someone close.

     

    The thread title is 'how has Covid affected you'.  For once in my life, my shitty job is a lifesaver.  So, I'm not affected financially.  But Covid does prey upon my mind.  I just hope it never preys upon my family.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 4

    Dragon Pz IIIM Neo Kursk

    in LSM 1/35 and Larger Work In Progress

    Posted

    20 hours ago, DocRob said:

    Looking good Gaz. I like the metal skirts a lot, easy said, I haven't done any. All my skirted subjects are safe and sound in my stash, including a Jagdpanzer IV with mesh skirts. I would have considered soldering, but that leaves the problem of slightly misaligned joins.

    Cheers Rob

    Thanks Rob!  I'm not really keen on soldering, though I have the gear to do it.  I did do the masts of a 1/350 scale warship with it...  but I had to file away a lot of excess solder.  I'm going to try to anneal the skirts to soften them up.  I don't know if my little hand held propane torch can get them hot enough, though.  Ideally, Schurzen on a kit would be held in place by photo-etch frames.  I just haven;t been brave enough to seek that route, yet.

     

    20 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

    Very neat Gaz, IMHO Dragon PZ  III & IV are very good.....

    Thanks Phil.  Except for the orange box kits which I think are reboxings from somebody else, I haven;t met a Dragon kit yet that wasn't superb.  Wish they'd crank out more large scale aircraft.

    • Like 6

    Dragon Pz IIIM Neo Kursk

    in LSM 1/35 and Larger Work In Progress

    Posted

    My second Dragon kit was their excellent Pz IV H Mid August 1943 production. When I got to applying the schürzen, things were a bit snug and stressed some of the CA joints into popping. I'm sure it was all operator error, but today I decided to ensure the same thing didn't happen again. I made sure everything lined up comfortably while the glue was still soft. The schürzen aren't glued in place. I'm not sure if I'll use the metal plates, or if I'll cut plastic versions.

    The tools are already cut and cleaned. But with all of the extra steel around I decided to add them after painting.

     

    120532412_1021824351617639_5774333056621

    120838842_1021824508284290_8127385065619

     

     

    • Like 7
    • Haha 1

    HpH P-63C build #3

    in LSM 1/35 and Larger Work In Progress

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, JohnB said:

    Thanks Gaz. That's right but now I intend to stay with the '63 until it's finished. Done with a lot of the high cuss factor stuff except for mating the wings to the fuselage. THAT has a pretty high cuss factor. I don't know why HpH didn't do a better job of engineering this kit as it would be a lot more enjoyable if some of the worst offenders had been paid better attention. Maybe they just wanted to irritate us! :D

    It is a shame they did such a bad job.  I know that it must have cost them sales.  Cuz I really like the P-63, but ain;t gonna buy one of theirs.

    • Like 2

    Tamiya P-51D, easy bake & shake.

    in LSM 1/35 and Larger Work In Progress

    Posted

    19 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

    Oh,I forgot, every single seam line shrank back. There is a line running from the radiator inlet all the way to the tail. Every time I pick it up, it gets worse. I am giving up Mr Surfacer 500 forever. 

    I have changed my building habit for aircraft.  All of the big seams I do with CA now.  I believe that 're-occurring' seams are caused by the some-time long term instability of solvent and plastic.

    I've given up on sprue goo too.  I did one model and filled panel lines with it.  Once dried, I sanded it smooth.  A few weeks later I applied primer and was shocked to see that where each narrow panel line had formerly been, there was now a 2-4 mm wide shallow ditch with very smooth contours. 

     

    Mr. Surfacer is a pain, too.  Sometimes takes three or more applications due to shrinkage.  CA is now my go-to filler.

     

    Good luck!

     

    Gaz

    • Like 2

    Diabolical Dornier ... a 1/48 Odyssey

    in Non LSM 'WIP

    Posted

    I got this one last Christmas:

    iu2JyF.jpg

     

    The earliest night fighter variant of the Dornier Do 17.  Kauz I.  I don't think there was much different from the bomber version other than black paint and a fuel cell added to the forward bomb bay.

     

    8B7XIf.jpg

     

    The cockpit is pretty simple, and with a lack of knowledge of what the type really looked like inside, I was left to my own devices.  After all of the hours I spent detailing the inside of my Do 217 nightfighter, only to have everything disappear, I've decided that investing too much time in 1/48 pits is pointless.

     

    The radio sets aren't very well depicted.

    NFzI3I.jpg

     

    The seat belts are just .5mm strips of Tamiya tape with faux buckels painted on.  Sorry for the blur.     ....oh, by the way, DocRob....  thanks for showing the Voyager cutting templates.  They arrived just in time today to help me cut the seat belt strips.

     

    Why Diabolical, you say?  I'll tell ya....

    SHri7r.jpg

    I was warned about ICM's older moldings.  I didn't know this classified as older, but you can see here that I've used chunks of the spare fuel cell to try to get a better join between fuselage and wings.  It's gonna be one of those deals where I glue one spot...  let it dry, then glue another spot, and so on until the wing is securely dogged down.  Then, it'll be filler and fun.

     

    THk1z4.jpg

    This is the state of her now.  I've added white card stiffeners to make the fuselage seams stronger.  Hopefully the CA will trickle all in there and provide a seam I can't pop.

     

    This will be my first all black aircraft since I was a teen and ruined a Monogram 1/48 scale P-61.  I hope to do better, this time.

     

    Thanks for looking!  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

     

    Gaz

    • Like 7
    • Thanks 1
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