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realworkingsailor

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About realworkingsailor

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  1. Comparatively speaking, a container is fairly light. The heaviest containers are generally stowed low down, in the hold, rather than in the deck stacks. If the bridge was that vulnerable to collapse from a hit from a heavyweight container, I’d be more concerned every time a semi-truck jack-knifed (which happens waaayyy more frequently than a ship strike). Andy
  2. It’s slightly more than just the angle of elevation that classifies whether a piece is a gun/howitzer/mortar. It also has to do with the trajectory of the shell, and the ratio of propellant to shell weight. To lob a mortar shell into a high looping trajectory takes far less propellant proportionally to the weight of shell than an anti-aircraft gun, even though both are designed to fire at high angles of elevation. However, you could technically turn an anti-aircraft gun into a mortar by reducing the amount of propellant from the cartridge. Jumping to WW2 British artillery practice, the QF 25 pounder field artillery, as well as the BL 4.5” and BL 5.5” medium artillery were considered to be gun-howitzers. Because their shells were loaded separately from their propellant charge, the charge weight could be altered on the spot, by the gun crews, as required. With this flexibility of trajectory, the pieces could be fired at low or medium angles. Both field and medium crews were trained in indirect fire as well as anti-tank shooting (the latter being done over open sights, direct fire, flat trajectory), although they seldom practiced the latter in actual combat. Andy
  3. A better, long term and cost effective solution that could be applied to any potentially vulnerable bridge, no matter how old, is to put stone fill around the base of the piers abutting the channel. This would deflect any ship that strayed too close, regardless of size. The warning signs were there when the Sunshine Skyway collapsed in 1980 due to a ship strike. This is the LaViolette bridge across the St Lawrence river at Trois Rivières, about halfway between Montreal and Quebec City: You can see the stone armouring around the main piers. Andy
  4. Yeah, when it comes to electronics, once you release the magic smoke, it’s all over…. They usually only have one good puff in them…. Andy
  5. But for you, obviously, it “snot” a problem! 😁 Looks great! The fairing on the underside was to help with spin recovery. Andy
  6. Have you considered, perhaps, a model smoke generator? https://www.walthers.com/smoke-generator-chimney-ready-for-model-buildings-667-117e This one from Seuthe has been around a while on the market and is relatively inexpensive. With one or two hidden in the base of your diorama, at strategic locations, you could add some ambient smoke when you want to. Andy
  7. This painting is by Adam Willaerts dating from 1607: Almost front and centre is a small schooner with what could be considered a proto-Bermuda rig. Note that these are not lateen sails (lack of a vertical mast). Andy
  8. Always the fun of dealing with Eduard PE. From my personal experience it has been more like assemble some plastic and PE components, look ahead six or seven steps in the Airfix instructions, study the Eduard instructions, wrack your brain trying to figure out how the next PE piece is supposed to be added/folded/bent, then turn the Eduard instructions over and realize that a different PE piece can only be applied two steps earlier in the Airfix instructions… try to add missed second PE piece without destroying anything done previously, then, after making a complete hash of it, go back to puzzling over the first PE piece….🙄 Andy
  9. I think it was the early to mid 00’s when Noch brought its static grass and electric applicator to the North American model train market. The model scenery “industry” had come a long way from the days of dyed sawdust! Andy
  10. If you haven’t seen it, this might interest you: Andy
  11. I’ve been basing my scenery on a few photos from a museum pdf file I found online. One colour photo in particular: According to the label on the package, the 4mm grass I used is supposed to be roughly 8” at 1/87th scale, so probably a little over 6”-ish for 1/72nd. Not much different in height from the grass these guys are lounging in. Admittedly, the grass in the photo is much more beat up than mine! Andy
  12. Ed has some very interesting videos, his channel is well worth checking out. If you like the technical aspect, Greg’s Planes and Automobiles really dives into the nitty gritty of airplane performance, by the numbers (If you haven’t seen it already). He’s even done a recent set on human factors, why some WW2 planes are better than others from another perspective outside of performance. Andy
  13. And like any typical public works type job, a suitable number of “supervisors” observing (there’s at least three standing behind the Bedford…..) 😜 Andy
  14. Ed Nash did a great video on piston engined fighters. More than anything (agree with him or not), there’s a lot of caution needed when looking at an airplane’s alleged top speed: Andy
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