mtaylor

That is one impressive build just from the few pics. I can see where the burn out would come from, James. I believe you probably had to turn those out in almost a production line to meet deadlines.

Wow... impressive work.

Yep... we drifted off to food. I think it's in our DNA... Had some off the wall foods in 'Nam doing MedCaps... muc nam, lots of rice and some other vegges but not sure what they were, and I think at on village we had dog. Not sure as they wouldn't tell us and as honored guests we weren't supposed to ask. On the Malaysian trip... cuttlefish, octopus, and eel. All those again from the villages on the coast (we did "good will" trips). Inland, I never asked just like in "Nam. Just bowed, thanked them and smiled while eating it. Once we left the village (both places), washed it down with beer.

Keep doing what you're doing, Lou. Looking great and if details get lost, you (and us) will still know they are there. I can't see squat in my -53 cockpit or in the cargo area but I did the best I could. Oy.... the helmets. I always hoped for a bit "color" but they wouldn't let us paint anything on them. And the sunglass part was dark. I usually just had the clear as I was watching the ground. With the sunscreen part down, if took a step back from the gun and turned, I'd trip over something as it was too dark to see. We gunners also (for awhile) had "bullet bouncers" which was a hard steel/fiberglass" laminate breast plate and back plate. At some point, they told us gunners to feel free to wear our flak vests (like the infantry had). A lot lighter and you could actually bend over easier and a lot cooler temp wise than the bouncers.

Yes, the bugs would be better than any of us. I guess I just panicked a bit as I'd hate to see the great work you're doing get eaten.

As I recall, there's battleships and cruisers t;hat fire BB guns.... against each other... to the death (or sinking if you prefer). Then they wade out, recover the ship, patch the holes and do it again.

I don't think so. I've been here since I think around the first year and learn something new everyday.

Is the Gray Water for cleaning or is it the dump tank from the urinals and sinks? I'm curious as the definition may have changed to the toilet/sink water draining.

Do you remove the butter somehow? I'd hate to hear that it went ransid and drew bugs to it.

jmegnin, If after you quote, go to the editing area at the bottom of the page. Then scroll down in that window and you type your response so it appears as one post and not two.

Nah... I've heard that if he falls asleep he snores.

Looking great, Craig. I've got a question... is the turret all black or is the lighting?

Great news, OC. I'm pulling up a chair also.

Lou, we'll be there as you travel that road. And indeed having companions in a journey is a blessing. I've heard of such things. One of my uncles in WWII at one point were eating just about anything they could find including horse, mule, and assorted small critters. Well.. it has been a trip. I'm leaving one of my favorites. I may have posted the same music somewhere else, but this one, when I saw the movie, hit me hard..... Peace to all. See you in the build logs. I'm taking a few days to clean up the workshop, do some shopping and then figure out where I was on it.

I am indebted to you for this. Thanks for sending it and being patient. For some reason it had to sit in closet and wait. It wasn't about the model or the finish, but the journey. At first, I didn't want to go there but as started the build, the journey was good mostly even though there were some emotional rough spots. I realized the meaning and truth of the old Dylan song "My Backdoor" and the chorus: "I was so much older than, I'm younger then that now.". A healing has occurred I think. I talked it over this past Saturday with my shrink (we're now friends and every Saturday afternoon we meet at a pub), it's I buy a round and he buys around and we just talk or listen to the music. He thinks it was good. So we both thank you. And I thank for the forum and followers for putting up with my rambling.

That works. They'll leave them alone.

Ah... the catch is the in real life, gunports seldom are equidistant from each other. You can move them a bit or put them where the plans say they go. I'll be running into that on my Belle Poule build probably sooner than later. The plans show ports with a bulkhead right in the middle of them. On the other hand, with the spacing of the deadeyes in the channels, it's a necessary evil so firing a cannon doesn't kill the rigging. Your ports look great from here and I'd say all the fussing and frustration is worth it.

It's great to see you back, Jan. The model is beautiful. As for being gone for a period of time... it's not a problem as life gets in the way of model building.

I too like your collection and the display of each. To answer Bob a bit.... he's right. Any kind of ship model or related are allowed... we have everything from scratch wood/metal/plastic to just about every kit in our logs section. As an aside, we also have an area for "non-ship models" in the shore leave area. Judging purely on raw numbers of members here at MSW along with various forums in Russian, France, Germany, etc. I'd say that model builders are a pretty good sized group. As for places like China, Asia, and others places, the hobby seems pretty robust overall. I should note that we have builders from all over the world here at MSW.

Thanks guys. This was a relatively easy model compared to what you are building. And I think, it was good for my mental state. Oh... I did leave the rear ramp cover raised even though the ramp is up also. That's the way I remember them.....

Ah.. I was on it way back then also (around '75 or so) which is why I decided to build her. They had everyone convinced it was the frigate. I didn't find out that it wasn't until I started building the AL kit. I very quickly started modifying her to be the 1854 version. May not be a frigate but she's still a beautiful ship.

Beautiful Alan. I'd say add the rigging and/or weather it if that's what you want to do.

And...... she's done and on the shelf. Pics below. My only comment is that there really should be a better way to glass than thick plastic. <sigh> And one last tale from Vietnam. We had made a delivery of assorted goods (c-rats, ammo) to platoon in the field. On the way back to base, we're lumbering along at about 500 feet and maybe 100 knots speed. Kind of relaxing. The left door gunner, who was the 1st mech for chopper (I was at the right) suddenly yells.. "taking fire request permission to returnn....". That's all he got out when the pilot broke in with "Hell yes." and started banking to the left to help the gunner out. As we started the bank and he started working the .50, I moved over to his side and started reading a second box of ammo. I looked out and he's shooting at a water buffalo that surrounded by 6 guys in black PJ's shooting at us. He nailed 4 right off the bat, we're loosing altitude (intentionally) when the water buffalo explodes. I looked at him, he at me, and we both just went "Wow". While this was going on, Huey Cobra showed up just after the explosion and he dropped down low and slow and then reported back that there's 6 bodies and one crater. Hey... we felt good. Better them than us. We landed, checked the plane and wandered off. The next morning, I bumped into the Colonel (our pilot) and he told me to go look at the side of the chopper. On the 1st mechs side, under the window where the gun was, there was painted a "kill" like the WWII fighters.... but this was a water buffalo with an "X" through it. Loved it and wish I knew were my albums were as I know I had a picture of it. So much for wandering down memory lane for now. It's been both fun and hard, but worth the trip to me. I'm now going to go focus on the Bellle Poule. And thanks to everyone who put up me remembering like some old guy... wait... I am an old guy.

When I was able to go to airshows back east the A-10's and F-15's were the crowd pleasers. At the one's we had up until about 5 or 6 years ago here in the valley, it was WWI and WWII aircraft that got the attention.