The Kit-Basher's Guide To The Galaxy

[Keith_W]

Totally off topic now! But since we are off topic, here is a 1980's joke: What do you get if you cross Lee Iacocca with a vampire? AUTOEXEC.BAT

[hornet]

I started out on the apple2+ in the early 80's. Also used machines called Microbee's that loaded program's via a standard audio cassette tape. These had an amazing 16 kb of memory. I cut my teeth on BASIC and well remember playing with config and batch files Mark. Never used 8" disks but still have some 51/2 " lying around somewhere. I think the old Apple II is now a collectors item. We dumped many, many of them back in the late '80s. I well remember my first HD. It was 20 mg and at the time was very, very cool!

Edited March 8, 2015 by hornet

[qwerty2008]

since were on the topic of old computers I will bring up my first computer, it was a Monorail which at the time (2000'ish) was a pretty cool computer flat screen and towerless, it even had a CD drive. as far as system it ran off of Windows Millennium Edition, it had a 1 gig hard drive and 16 meg of RAM.

 

 

 

 

 

Lextin.

Edited March 9, 2015 by qwerty2008

[GLakie]

I'm 66. Do I need say more?

I remember that in order to play certain games, you had to tweak your autoexec.bat and config.sys files, and manually load the drivers for the mouse and video card in DOS.

How many of you have not the slightest idea what I'm talking about?    

Definitely not me!!      I'm about as computer illiterate as they come.

[grsjax]

My first computer was a TRS-80 with 4Kb of memory and a cassette drive for exteral storage.  Graduated to an IBM with a 10Mb harddrive.  We called it our super computer.

[CaptainSteve]

Err guys, before this gets too much further out of hand, may I remind people that the point of Kit-Bashers is for ship-modelling ideas ...

Please, there are forums for discussing our old computers ... and desks.

 

And, Keith, there's definitely one for old jokes with punch-lines that make ya groan ... I know, coz I contribute to it a lot !!

 

Totally off topic now! But since we are off topic, here is a 1980's joke: What do you get if you cross Lee Iacocca with a vampire? AUTOEXEC.BAT

(Gotta admit, I hadn't heard that one before)

[NenadM]

Cor! Haven't seen a floppy dirk since yonks back! I bet there's no-one here who can remember the 8-inch floppies, when they really were floppy!

I remember ... start working wirh PC even 286xt/at time

 

 

Ups, I quoted before seen upper post ... sorry

Edited March 8, 2015 by Nenad

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

This is not off topic......just remembering when life was simpler and we had no NRG to help one another. The good old days?.....I don't think so.

[Philg88]

Vegetable netting

 

The stuff used to wrap garlic in supermarkets is a stretchy plastic net with 3mm hexagonal holes. Useful for hammock crane netting on period ships or can be painted black and glued to acetate sheet to form window panes. Cheaper than buying tulle as long as you like the taste of garlic (or are paranoid about vampires).

 

 

[Philg88]

Ball bearings for cannon balls

 

I know this isn't a new idea so forgive me if you've seen it before. Steel (important!) ball bearings react with citric acid to produce a beautiful black matt finish. The beauty of this is that ball bearings are available in every size imaginable so scale wise there are no issues. 24 hour immersion in a concentrated solution of citric acid (available in powder form online for around £5 per kilo) produces the desired effect. So, for a tenner I got a thousand 1.5 mm cannon balls with enough citric acid left over to make lemonade until doomsday ...

 

(Untreated ball bearings on the left of the pic - sorry about the focus)

 

 

 

[hornet]

Hi Phil. Great idea - citric acid!! Lemons contain citric acid. Have you tried blackening the ball bearings with this or is the concentration not enough for the job?

[Philg88]

I haven't tried lemons, although you are quite correct that they contain citric acid. I suspect that lemon juice might work, it would just take longer. Then again, the concentration may not be up to triggering  the necessary chemical reaction.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[Canute]

maybe try heating the juice up to enhance the reaction? Might want to do it in a double boiler setup to control the speed of heating, since you are first just heating up water.

Application of heat usually speeds up reactions like these. You're just cooking the steel shot in lemon juice

[Thanasis]

              CLEATS

 

Retrieved from my posts in Msw1…

Just photos …

Thanks

 

 

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

I get many great ideas from the jewelery dept at Hobby Lobby,  and other craft stores.

[NenadM]

I get many great ideas from the jewelery dept at Hobby Lobby, and other craft stores.

Share it !!!!

 

Right now !!!

 

[mattsayers148]

I found when scratch building, purchasing extra wood can get spendy. On eBay there are many types, qualities and quantities of veneer that can be purchased for a very reasonable price. I bought around 200 sq ft of veneer in this photo for only $20.

[NenadM]

NEEDLES/PINS AND PROTECTIVE NET FOR KITCHEN PIPE

 

Under fore deck on Cutty Sark there is almost hidden pigpen.

 

 

In scale cca 1:100, pigpen is only about 9-10mm high.

 

Two points were significant for me - bars on cage, and a net on door.

 

Bars ... after some experiments with rope (too hairy) and holly telephony and other thinner wires (too soft) solution was in needles/pins

 

 

Ok, this was seen already in variations

 

But ... net ...

 

Great provocation, and a challenge to me from Mark Taylor

 

Whole day I was banging my head where I had seen such a fragile net with so small fields ...

 

A ha - wrong bought protective attachment to kitchen pipe, hanging on wall in workshop direct in front my eyes

 

 

After carefull canibalizing of this, I have got two thinny nets

 

 

 

Frame is made from telephony wire

 

 

 

Fixed with CA, cutted excess of net and fitted with Dremell thing

 

 

Mounted and painted (yes, there is little piggy inside, my first carving attempt)

 

Edited April 14, 2015 by Nenad

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

Great idea.....love your pig!

Greg

[Modeler12]

Computers: Ha

I was totally impressed with the Friden and Marchant mechanical 'calculators' while in college where I used my good old slide-rule daily. Later I learned about the TI series of 'calculators' and I still use the model 30XA for my daily dose of hands-on arithmetic.

Charts usually leave me cold, so do the proportional dividers, but the 30XA is always at my side.

Age 78.

 

Then again, I was really interested in the modern navigation tools used on small and large vessels. It was on a small vessel in Hawaii where we spent last week cruising the islands and I got to know the captain on a very personal basis. He and five other crew members are on their 10 day crossing back to Seattle with reported 25 foot waves most of the way. I tried to sign up, but was rejected with a smile.

Because of this web site and building a model sailing ship, I actually knew more about the olden days of sailing than my good friend the captain.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Modeler12

[Philg88]

Flickering LED Tea Lights

These are ideal for simulating candle/lamp light in period ship builds.  They are cheap (I picked up this box of 12 for £2.99 on Amazon) and have the advantage that you get the flicker effect from the LED itself rather than via a complex and expensive external circuit. Once taken to pieces, which is trivial, the yellow LED can be desoldered or snipped out and used like any other 2.2V/15 Ma LED in a lighting circuit. As a bonus you get a miniature switch and three AG13 1.5v batteries with each light.

 

[NenadM]

STIKER WHEEL FROM A LIGHTER

 

Working on my Cutty Sark, I reached to windlass, and faced with couple of problems

 

first - complex structure, only 2,8 cm long

​second - I deadly want to show teeth on spockets

third - my skills are limited to make teeth by my own

fourth - material I have, or, do not have, and impatience to order something from internet and to wait

 

So, what to do ?

 

Here is goal

 

 

You can see there 3 surfaces with teeth, and 4 surfaces which are smoth

 

Campbell`s plans are accurate, and here is how it is shown on plans

 

 

Watching around me, considering I am insane smoker, and that there is always a couple of lighters around me, I noticed that stiker wheel of lighter has almost same structure as central piece of windlass

 

So, let`s try

 

First, canibalize lighter ( phrase stollen from M.Taylor)

 

 

Drilling hole for future axle, parts get apart, and after that it is easy to move forward with tearing off teeth from wider parts, and thinning them to scale

 

On axle, cemented with CA. Axle is made of famous, almighty BBQ toothpicks

 

 

Next "layer" made of wood, with little circle trench arround for teeth

 

 

Attempt to make teeths with dots of glue ( have to be corrected this days, I was so inpatient to finish ) at the same way I made little rivets on CS

 

 

Checking scale

 

 

Next soft layer of wood, and preparing for second stage

 

 

 

After coloring with black acrylic

 

 

 

I think it will work well, considering how little this is, and also windlass is a half-hidden under fore deck and a bit covered visually by entrance to tween deck

 

After little triming

 

Edited April 21, 2015 by Nenad

[GLakie]

Awesome job Nenad! 

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

Great idea

[hornet]

Speaking of windlasses, I found a black Lego cog which I was able to cut in half to make excellent gears for the scratch built windlass on my HM Supply

 

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Steve

Great job and great idea. My admiral love your HMS Supply!

Cheers

Greg

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Steve

Great job and great idea. My admiral love your HMS Supply!

Cheers

Greg

[Thanasis]

Gears from cable ties. Any diameter-width-color...

Thx

Edited April 25, 2015 by Thanasis

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

Another great idea. What's the scale used?

Greg

[NenadM]

Thanasis, just genious !!!!