Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved

I’m not really that big on New Years resolutions as resolving can and should happen any time it is necessary…but anyway…

…work less, play more…

DSCF6544…turn the ‘desert’ into green…

Raurimu renovations 008

…actually finish a modelling project…

…just once…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

Although I must admit to feeling rather delicate in the mornings as I adjust to my first significant break from work in almost three years but the world’s probably not quite ready for those pics yet…

I took these at the 2011 Scale Model Expo in Wellington…the size of the placard with each model will give you some idea of the scale and the delicate work that has gone into these creations…

Scale Model Expo 2009 051

Scale Model Expo 2009 026

Scale Model Expo 2009 027

Special Photo Challenge: Inspiration

“What inspires you to blog? We blog because there are people, places, things, and ideas that we care about so much we can’t help but tell the world about them. We want to know what inspires you. For this special mid-week photo challenge, we want to see portraits of you doing something that inspires you to blog.”

Not all things that inspire my blogging are things that I do and of those are, not all of them are things that need a photo of me doing them to illustrate them…so these are the things that inspire…

Five Question Friday! 9/28/12

OK, here we go for 5QF this week – have just arrived in Brussels after 36 hours on the go via Changi and Heathrow – couldn’t check in for a couple of hours so put our feet up at Blues Corner bar and acclimatised with three or four Leffe Blonds…don’t have access to my image library while on the road so probably no pics this week unless I see something relevant from my window as I type…

1. Do you prefer to drive to your vacation spot or fly?

If it’s in New Zealand, and in the North Island, then almost certainly drive – we are heading way up into Northland for Christmas and driving up in Lil Red and I am so much looking forward to it. A holiday in the South Island, we would probaly fly down and get a hire car from the APOD…anything overseas would be fly in-country and then see what we see vis-a-vis further mobility…

2. If you could live any where in the world, where would you go and why?

Well, having been all around the world a few rtime, I am actually pretty happy just where we are – if I had the money we’d dam up the valley a tad so that we could have a bit of a lake front but that’s about the only thing we miss where we are up on the Mountain i.e. the lack of significant swimmable/boatable water…

3. Should grown women wear leggings?

Well, from a purely superficial male perspective, only if they’ve got the legs for them; if not, we ll, somethings just don’t go together, y’know…

4. If you could change your name to any other name, would you? And what would it be?

Dunno, Luke Skywalker is already taken and nothing else really appeals – guess I’m happy enough as is…

5. What magazines to you have subscriptions to?

Right now I am subscribing to the Fighter Aircraft series because I liked the little 1/72 scale Spitfire than came with Issue 1 last year; I am getting a bit cool on it now because they seem to be sliding towards more and more 1/100 models which don’t go with my collection and which I think are a lazy way of cost-cutting, and b. because the companies quality assurance is the worst and many of the models are damaged within their protective packaging i.e. they were already damaged when they were put in the packaging…am just getting over it as we live too far from town to easily take back damaged items.

I am hoping for official approval to get a two year subscription to the new Airfix magazine, Airfix Modelworld as I really enjoy its articles, the articles are across the spectrum of modelling, it is a worthy successor to the old Airfix Magazine, and it comes with a free model…

Five Question Friday!! 8/17/12

It’s that time of week again – another five from Mama M

What’s the one thing you buy every time you walk into the store?

Three things:

Milk…hard to cook or bake without it and tea and coffee sans milk ain’t worth getting out of bed for – if we end up with a surplus, it can always go in the freezer for revitalising later for baking.

Dog roll…the walking carpets get fed Purina but get bored with the constant dry food and like to have something juicy/tasty to go with; whatever dog roll is on special is what gets grabbed but often they luxuriate in left-overs instead… breakfasts this morning was two cups of Purina each with a couple of big globs of mixed apple crumble, last night’s curry and rice, and porridge and yoghurt from our breakfast this morning…

Butter and marg…as for milk, butter is a bit of a must for a lot of baking plus toast/bread without some sort of spread is dry and yukky…

If you had a day all to yourself how would you spend it?

I would really like to have a decent crack at the challenge of a Blitzbau …I have been following most of them this time around and it looks like a lot of fun…just need to have a day to dedicate to one during the blitz season…

theconfidencestoat’s Matchbox 1/72 Hawker Hunter T7 56 Sqn RAF Coltishall 1964

Are you a speed limit driver? If not, over or under?

We have a 10kmh ‘tolerance’ here but I rarely go over that unless it’s a brief spurt when passing…far easier and cheaper these days to just add in some extra time if I really need to be somewhere on time…the twins on the other hand, are speed maniacs – can’t think where they get this from…?

What’s your favorite dessert to make, homemade or from a mix??

That’s an easy one…our self-saucing butterscotch pudding…it’s yummmmeeeee!! Oh, did you think I was going to share the special recipe…? Nope not even a pic less lest some culinary schemer deduce the secret ingredients…

Would you rather have a spider or a mouse scurry across your face (no copping out and saying “neither!!”)?

Probably a mouse as they tend to be in transit and are less likely to take up residence or want to contest ownership…not actually that fussed as spiders here (apart from whitetails) are not really much to worry about and, now that we slashed back all the scrub from around the house and installed the ring of death of bait stations, we don’t have much of a rodent problem…when we first moved here, the rats used to queue up on the deck by the front door to hoover down any leftovers the dogs might have left…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

Unfocussed is the theme for this week’s WordPress photo challenge – I looked through the photo archives and found a whole lot of 70s and 80s party photos that were all crystal-clear while my memories of many of them are somewhat unfocussed but I don’t quite think that’s what Sara had in mind when she thought this one up.  Like many of us, I guess, I tend to ditch any photos that aren’t up to speed and modern cameras make it all so easy so actually finding an out of focus photo was a bit of a challenge (which would be why it’s the weekly ‘challenge’, huh?) – if only the theme had been under- or over-exposed…stacks of material to work with there!!

Anyways, I finally found this…it’s the Esci 1/48 F-16A that I built in my brief redalliance with modelling after starting my first job and having considerably more disposable cash that I was used to – at the time I was pulling the massive amount of $67 in the hand each week so was able to splash out…this redalliance only lasted a few months, maybe until I packed up to move to Invercargill but there is proof (albeit somewhat blurred) that I did once actually finish a model build!!

I don’t think I have any photos of all the models that I built at school although occassionally I recognise a part from way back then when it surfaces in my spares box – yes, I have started modelling again but my completion rate is still no better but I’m working on it…I log my builds now over at the Unofficial Airfix Modellers Forum if anyone’s interested…still very slow and certainly not methodical but since shedding the other job that I have been covering all year I hope really hoping to have some decent spare time to devote to playing catch up…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Distorted

This week’s challenge is ‘distorted’ – I’ve never really been into taking photographs of images distorted by the lens or some other direct medium so I struggled to find an approach to this theme. Then I remembered the online discussion at the Unofficial Airfix Modellers’ Forum in the lead up to the Classic Box Art display for ScaleModelWorld at Telford last year – all the build discussions are here for those who might be interested – on the difficulties being experience (and overcome) converying a 2D image into a 3D representation of that image without wildly distorting the theme and flavour of the original art work. So this won’t be for everyone’s taste’s but it’s something that rocks my boat so I’ve included rather more images than I would normally for the Weekly Challenge. Each set comprise the 3D interpretation with an image of the orginal artwork.

My favourite at Telford – yes, I was lucky enough to be in the UK over the Telford weekend and go to spend a whole day there so all the images of the displays are mine taken on the day – was JRatz’s version of the Matchbox M16 half-track – a personal favourite since I was about 10 – which offered a mjor challenge in capturing the essence of speed and urgency in the original…I think this is pretty damn good…

The trick, of course, would be to be able to photograph each display from the same perspective as the original image but the layout of the display and the sheer size of the crowd at Telford made this impossible. I think that the plan for this year’s Classic British Kit (CBK) display at ScaleModelWord in Telford is for a Part Deux of this theme as many have been inspired from he seeing how well the first attempts at this idea have turned out. Certainly, I am somewhat inspired to have a crack although it is a long way from here to Telford with what might be delicate cargo…thought this is what I might recreate:

Three or four Airfix Bloodhounds and a base board and away we go...

Weekly Photo Challenge: Textured

This could just as easily be a good entry for a ‘shiny’ challenge as one for ‘texture’…it is the prototype Fisher P-75 fighter in the R&D Hall at the National Museum of the USAF near Dayton, Ohio…I’d seen many pictures of aircraft in natural metal finish before but this was the first time I was ever up close and personal with one…”Oooo…shiiiiny” was my first response…”Man, that’s big!” was the second: because the hall is so packed it was difficult to get decent shots of some of the larger aircraft simply because there wasn’t enough room to back away…Hence I shot this one into the light and was surprised when it came out so well…

My next take on ‘texture’ is this afterburner can from the B-1B ‘Bone’  (B-One – get it??) in the modern hall at the Museum…this is where they dump hundreds of litres of raw fuel in order to get more thrust from the engines – and so the crew can see the needle on the fuel gauge move – downward!

And finally…

One iteration of the Interceptor from Mad Max at the recent Scale Model Expo in Wellington…it is relatively simple to get smooth shiny unblemished surfaces on models, it is somewhat more difficult to give an impression of dirt, grime and roughness…I thought this builder pulled it off rather well…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Entrance

The entrance to the Lodge when we arrived in 2004...

...and as it is now, looking back the other way...

Yes, sports fans, it’s another WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge post…all that maintains my presence in the blogosphere recently…I’m enjoying my first real weekend off since February and so, apart from checking for booking requests for the Chalet, have been staying offline and recharging batteries… This is the busy period for ASIC and so much of my time is spent hammering the keyboard managing our part of the programme and also drafting various products…maybe too much of this work has got me in a mindset of thinking I need blog posts to be more like articles so I might look at going back to more but smaller items just to keep up the steady patter of ambient noise… Please don’t forget though that it is the bi-ennial Scale Model Expo in Lower Hutt, Wellington this weekend, where this will be on display (with Hawkeye UAV sponsoring a prize as well)… …from the 2009 Expo…

By land...

...by air...

...and by land again (couldn't find any good shots of ships from 2009 ( they were there just my dodgy photos)...

Better start building then, I guess….

Scale Models Wellington IPMS is pleased to be able to invite the modeling public to participate in the 2011 Scale Models Expo Model.

The event is to be held in the centre of Lower Hutt (approx 15minutes drive north of Wellington, New Zealand) in the Horticultural Hall adjoining the Town Hall in the civic centre. The expo will also feature a separate competition for the IPMS Nationals which will gather some of the countries top modelers as they battle it out for top honours.

In addition to the competitions we have lined up some interesting displays and a full complement of trade stands from the regions leading retailers and manufacturers.

Entries must be delivered and registered between 9am – 11am Saturday 20 August in the foyer of the Lower Hutt Horticultural Hall. Please remember to bring your completed entry form to speed up registration. Spare forms will be available on the day. Late entries will be at the sole discretion of the Contest Chairman.

There is no entry fee for models and modelers may enter as many eligible models as they wish.

Previous place getting models in the Wellington Scale Models Expo (ie 1st, 2nd or 3rd) are not eligible to re-enter the Scale Models Expo competition but may enter the IPMS Nationals if eligible. Similarly previous place getters in an IPMS Nationals (ie 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Gold, Silver or Bronze) are not eligible to re-enter the Nationals but may enter the Scale models Expo if eligible.

Entries may be comprised of any generally accepted modeling material (ie plastic, resins, wood, metal). All models must have been built and painted by the entrant.

Final class and category placement of models is at the discretion of the Contest Chairman.

Junior class entrants must be under the age of 17 (ie not reached their 17th birthday) at the time of the competition

Any entries that are considered offensive to generally held standards of taste and acceptability may be excluded at the discretion of the Contest Chairman.

Entries may not be removed from the tables until 4pm Sunday at the earliest unless prior consent is given by the Contest Chairman.

All entrants in the competition shall receive a free pass to the venue for the duration of the event.

Prize giving for the competition will be 4pm Sunday. Competitors must be present to accept any awards or prizes. Awards will be made for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Highly Commended ( as applicable) in each of the categories along with overall best in Class.

To be eligible for “Best NZ Subject” the model must be entered in the appropriate NZ section. The only exceptions to this will be NZ subjects in Diorama, Ships Sci Fi/Miscellaneous and Junior classes.

Models will be judged by Scale Models Wellington IPMS appointed judges. Entries shall be judged according to Scale Models Wellington IPMS judging criteria. All judges decisions are final. No correspondence will be entered into.

Scale Models Expo/ IPMS Nationals Classes 2011 Unless stated all categories refer to all scales.

Class A: Aircraft
A1 NZ Aircraft
A2 Aircraft smaller than 1/48 – prop
A3 Aircraft smaller than 1/48 – Jet
A4 Aircraft 1/48 – prop, single engine
A5 Aircraft 1/48 – prop, multi engine
A6 Aircraft 1/48 – jet
A7 Aircraft larger than 1/48 – prop
A8 Aircraft larger than 1/48 – jet
A9 Helicopters
A10 Box Stock

Class B: Military Vehicles
B1 NZ military vehicles
B2 Smaller than 1/48 – military vehicles and equipment
B3 1/48 – military vehicles and equipment
B4 1/35 and larger armoured vehicles – WW2 and earlier
B5 1/35 and larger armoured vehicles – Post WW2
B6 1/35 and larger softskin vehicles
B7 Towed artillery and misc military equipment
B8 Box Stock

Class C: Civilian Vehicles
C1 NZ vehicles
C2 Vehicles – Open wheel competition
C3 Vehicles – factory stock
C4 Vehicles – modified (custom/hotrod/tuner)
C5 Vehicles – closed wheel competition
C6 Motorcycles
C7 Box Stock
C8 Trucks/Commercials

Class D:Dioramas
D1 Diorama – All types

Class E: Ships
E1 1/500 and smaller
E2 Larger than 1/500
E3 Submarines

Class F: Figures
F1 NZ Figures
F2 Under 120mm (1/16)
F3 120mm (1/16) and larger
F4 Busts

Class G: Science, Sci Fi and Misc
G1 Fictional craft, real spacecraft, missiles and vehicles
G2 Any subject not covered elsewhere
G3 Collections

Class J: Junior
J1 Aircraft
J2 Military
J3 Civilian vehicles
J4 Figures
J5 Ships
J6 Sci Fi & Misc
J7 Diorama

Collections will consist of 5 or more closely related items (eg five different WW2 fighters would not be a collection but five Spitfires would). Past place getters may be entered as part of a collection but must not constitute more than 40% of the group. The collection must be the sole work of the entrant.

Bases are allowed in all categories. They will not be considered in the judging except in the diorama classes or where 2 models are tied for a placing. Any models entered on bases must be securely fixed to the base.

A diorama shall generally be vehicles or figures on a single scenic base depicting a scene. Note a single figure, vehicle or aircraft displayed on a base with ground cover will not usually constitute a diorama.

Box stock classes are intended to recognize excellent models produced from the materials provided in the box from the manufacturer. For those entering Box Stock please note the following:
– Original instructions must be supplied with your entry.
– Alternative decals may be used.
– No aftermarket or scratch built detailing allowed.
– The modeler may fill gaps and seams, sand off rivets, drill out gun ports, exhausts pipes or other appropriate openings; thin to scale such parts as trailing edges, flaps and doors; and add rigging and antennas
– Panel lines may be repaired if damaged during construction. Extensive rescribing of panel lines is not permitted.