lmagna

In addition to total loss of hearing in my right ear, I have damaged hearing in my left or good ear as well. The loss is mostly at the high end but I have no idea if it is from turbines, gunfire, other loud noises throughout my life, or all of the above. I do know it is getting slowly worse. It is getting to the point that my wife yells at me ALL the time.............................. Well I suppose that may not have anything to do with hearing. I also agree with Edward, not being able to hear people with squeaky voices has to be a plus!

I don't know if it is "Modelers vision" or just not blind enough when I see my work in the pictures. The pictures of many other people here whom I see as an inspiration don't look that bad, in fact they look perfect even in the closeup pictures! I will get this done and it will be presentable. But it is also clear that it will never be that caliber of work. That's OK I can live with it so long as I tried to do the best I can to emulate their quality and craftsmanship. Not all of us can be Rembrandt's!

I will definitely be getting something. The normal reading part of of my bifocals is something like 1.25 if I remember correctly So I would think I would need something a little stronger than that. I need to look into some kind of direct lighting system as well as I think my dining room lighting is more for ambiance at a meal than precision model painting! It can be bright enough if I turn the dimmer all the way up but it is all angles and shadows and has a strong yellow cast from all of the candle style lights. It is a 16 or 18 candle and crystal chandelier. I have seen that picture of you and your bride before Craig and I still think you married up, WAY up. It is also strange that it seems like so many of us here have hearing loss problems. Sorry to learn about your loss Javlin and OC. I have lost 100% of my hearing in my right ear. It is great for when my wife snores sometimes but a pain in the butt almost all other times.

1.75 and 2.5 would be about the same as some mildly strong reading glasses. I think the focal distance would be about the same as well.

I got to ride in a M-60 once. It was fun in a way but pretty much all I remember was how high off of the road you were when riding in the turret and how stinky they were with the diesel fumes.

Well I qualify on at least one account! What magnification levels are you using for the lenses? Do you already wear glasses, and if so, do you wear them at the same time? Your description of your kids reaction made me think that what I should do is get a endoscope like the type that plugs into your smart phone or tablet and use that set up like 3D goggles!

I am stunned, amazed, astounded at how this build is turning out. And to be honest a little jealous as well. I knew that any build you did would turn out fantastic but this one is going to be hard for you to surpass. There are a number of things that have come to light for me in looking in on this build that were not obvious in the Monogram kit. A more detailed view of the interior of the aircraft early on in the build. Just how large the cockpit and how high the canopy is in relation to the needs of the pilot. Most aircraft have just enough headroom above the pilot's head to clear his helmet so he will not bump it accidentally. All the canopy space behind the pilot that seems totally dedicated to radio or some other gear not for a crewman. I have always considered learning about the details of an aircraft, (Or any model for that matter) as being one of the main advantages of building the model in the first place and this build has provided in spades.

In the past I have tried the cheap versions, (Plastic lenses) of those Ken and was not all that happy with them. The more powerful lenses seemed to have a very narrow and close focal length. It seemed that I was having to work about six inches from my face and the depth of field was almost completely gone. I will possibly have to give the more expensive version a try. What would be nice would be to find an affordable pair of those binocular glasses like some surgeons and dentists use. they look like they could be the perfect answer. You really haven't missed all that much Sam. Mostly I have been spinning around, doing and redoing the same thing over and over, trying to learn a bunch of stuff that is either new to me or an attempt at rejuvenating 20 year or older skills long unused and possibly out of date for today's models. But my hopes for this model are high and hopefully it will evolve into something worth sharing at some point. You want to see some REALLY fantastic stuff, look into the builds by Yves, CDW, RGL, Robert O,(Fright) and Seamorebutts. Now there are builds worth closely following, they have some astounding skills. But thanks for your interest in my humble efforts as well.

Thanks John Methinks thou needs new glasses though. What I see only looks OK to me. Now that I have the pictures that I can blow up it looks a little less than OK in fact. I really find that even the stuff I used to do with ease is a struggle now. I think I need some kind of light and magnification system that I don't have right now. luckily what you are seeing so far will mostly be buried within the fuselage when I get to that point.

Dust off Hueys were a whole other matter. They were set up to carry wounded and you could stack them in like cordwood. They were usually set up with a bunk bed style of jump seat at the rear bulkhead. More importantly, they carried a medic instead of gunners. THOSE GUYS worked for their money! I was never on board when a pilot refused to go into a hot LZ but I have heard that some did, at least until the gunships straightened out Charlie and got him more interested in than shooting. I have NEVER heard of a Dust Off refusing to land and pick up! We were not set up as a medical evac chopper. Normally we had seats but we could fold them up if needed like you. When we were doing extractions, there were times that we had to get out of the chopper and help someone in by pulling, or pushing, and even occasionally lifting and just tossing them in. but if someone was badly hurt, they would normally head for, or be carried to the Dust Off chopper with the big red and white targets on them. All the troops knew that those choppers would get them to the docs faster and that they were better equipped to deal with injuries on the way. Never got to carry booze for recreational use on board. We did try and keep a case of C-rats secured under a seat and of course we had canteens strategically stashed were they could be useful. We did occasionally make supply, or as we called them, "Store"runs, to the larger bases where they had a better selection of hard liquor to bring back for the others who didn't have their own personal helicopter. You have to remember that the "U" in UH-1 stands for "Utility"! You know, like the family pickup?

Story of ALL my builds!

Welcome back Yves Looking forward to following your progress again.

Don't you hate it when you get something all done and then set it in place and can't stand it?😝

You made quick work of the planking Denis. Looks pretty good from here.

I am not even going to pretend to be any kind of expert, but to me your camo job looks pretty good in the pictures. What I think I would do would be to mask off the Camo portion and re-shoot the black. Another thing I have found in doing my Huey, or should I say redoing, is that Windex, (Window cleaner with ammonia) and a stiff paintbrush or even toothbrush are your friend. I have stripped paint that I have not been happy with so many times now that I have lost count, in order to try and get it right without covering the detail with paint that is too thick. Just a couple of days ago I stripped the entire cabin interior back to almost bare plastic and applied a new coat of gray and that paint had been on for weeks. As long as you are working with Acrylics you should be able to do this. No fun but it has saved the Huey from the scrap heap a few times now.

Sorry to say it Dave but those guys that were too bad off to get on by themselves most often got thrown onto the deck. It was too hard to get them to the seats in most cases and no time to check if everyone was strapped in, (Not that there were seat belts on the deck anyway). Believe it or not, when we knew we were going to carry a large number of troops with equipment like LURPs, we didn't even have seats except for the pilots and gunners! You could say that sometimes our safety standards were lacking by airline measures. No doors, no belts, no seats, no service! Flying in a Huey could sometimes be a true barnstorming event even for those experienced in it. Thanks Egilman and Moab

I don't know how clone like he will be. I suspect that even with my poor painting skills he will be an improvement on the original.

Of course! He will be the guy in the right door with his boot planted in some Grunt's butt getting him off the chopper as we are late to chow!😈 (Which actually we almost always were)

Nothing like being a proud daddy. Is the gavel and robe indicative of her major? Or is she just keeping you in line?

Looking very good Ekis One down and ??? to go!

Thanks Ken They are still going to need a lot of work but so far so good. In fact they are almost the only thing that has gone more or less according to plan. I think it will be the people who will make or break this model.

Well Just because Mark is such a wizz getting his helicopter done, as usual I have not been so prodigious in my progress. Even though there has been a considerable amount of work since I last updated my log it is not all that visible. With only a couple of things left to go I finished the pilot chairs, determined their proper location and glued them into position. I will add the shoulder harnesses after the pilots are fully painted, and add the collective and cyclic controls at the very last so that they won't be broken. I have been spending most of my time on the jump seats. Getting them assembled in a way that they could be strong enough not to fall apart later. The rear bench and gunners seats were especially problematical and I eventually had to come up with my own way to make them fit and, (Hopefully) look right. I am not a 100% happy with it but I can only alter them so many times and still have them work at all. So at this point it is mostly getting the seat belts installed, making a few more repairs to the deck, and a lot of painting. Mostly on the pilots who have to be in position before installing the overhead, but the over all interior also needs a lot of paint and will be easier to do it now rather than wait until later. So here are the pictures. They don't really show the back and forth and constant redoes but you just need to be aware what you are looking at is just the latest rendition and far from finished. Thanks for looking in

Probably looking for someone else to do his camo paint job. You were a little rough!

Had to think about that one before it came to me. Your memory is kicking right in there!

Me Too!