Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Mig 37-E Ferret
F-19 A Specter
Monday, July 7, 2014
U.S.S. Defiant NCC-1764
One of the main issues when building a kit like this is the lack of paint that is required. Because it is a glow in the dark kit one must be careful with seam lines and to avoid any blemishes upon its construction. One doesn't have the luxury of hiding sins with a paint covering.
From Wikipedia"
"The Tholian Web" was a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.
It is episode #64, production #64, first broadcast on November 15,
1968 and repeated August 19, 1969. It was written by Judy Burns and
Chet Richards and directed by Herb Wallerstein.
Overview: Captain Kirk is caught between dimensions while the crew of the Enterprise works to retrieve him. All the while, the Tholians demand that the Enterprise leave their space.
On stardate 5693.2, the starship USS Enterprise enters an uncharted region of space to search for her sister ship, the USS Defiant, which disappeared three weeks previously. The Enterprise's warp engines begin to slowly lose power for no apparent cause, yet sensors detect nearby dimensional fractures in space.
They visually find the Defiant,
adrift and glowing eerily, despite sensors reporting the vessel is not
really there. Captain Kirk assembles a boarding party consisting of
himself, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Spock and Mr. Chekov
in environmental suits, as the conditions of the Defiant are unknown.
They discover the entire crew dead, having apparently killed each
other. What's worse, the ship appears to be dissolving as McCoy is able
to put his hand through a corpse and a table.
The
dematerialising of the Defiant is causing the Enterprise's transporter
frequencies to be blocked; only three are working and even these are
dubious. Kirk orders the landing party back whilst he remains. But
before Kirk himself can be beamed off, the Defiant disappears
altogether, taking the Captain with it.
Spock
determines that due to the Enterprise's transporter lock, Kirk has
been left in the interdimensional rift when the Defiant phased out, and
they can recover him again during the next period of spatial
interphase. Spock notes that the Captain has just over three hours of
oxygen left in his environmental suit.
Meanwhile,
Chekov suddenly goes berserk and attacks the bridge personnel. McCoy
surmises that the spatial interphase causes psychotic effects in the
human brain, and the same murderous hostilities that affected the Defiant's crew will eventually overcome the Enterprise. McCoy strongly suggests that they put some distance between themselves and the Defiant
but Spock refuses, believing any movement from their position could
disrupt the delicate fabric of space in their region and jeopardize
their chances of finding the Captain.
A small vessel of unknown configuration approaches the Enterprise.
A crystalline being initiates contact and identifies itself as
Commander Loskene of the Tholian Assembly, and demands that the Enterprise
leave their territory immediately. Spock apologizes for their
intrusion and explains their situation to Loskene, asking they be given
time to retrieve the Captain. Loskene agrees to give the Enterprise precisely 1 hour and 53 minutes until the next spatial interphase period.
The moment comes when the Defiant
should phase in again, and Spock attempts to lock onto the Captain;
however the ship is not where she is supposed to be. Spock believes the
arrival of the Tholian vessel has somehow disturbed the Defiant's
position and they have lost Captain Kirk for good. Before any other
action can be taken, the Tholians open fire on the Enterprise and
refuse any attempts at communication. Spock returns fire and disables
the Tholian vessel. Scotty reports that the Enterprise's damage
coupled with the lack of power means he cannot hold the Enterprise
purely stationary and she might even drift through the rift herself.
Meanwhile, another Tholian vessel arrives and begins to form a filament
structure between itself and the other ship. This filament thread is
spun by either ship around the Enterprise in a web-like pattern. Spock
explains that it is an energy field that, if activated before the
Enterprise is repaired, means they "will not see home again."
McCoy
and Spock conduct a makeshift funeral in the Captain's quarters where
McCoy plays a recording Kirk made for them just in case he was ever
killed on a mission. The somber recording gives the officers their
final orders and some words of advice for their future missions without
him; especially when he exhorts them to use their constant arguments
and different points of view to support and help each other.
After the message is heard, Spock orders the Enterprise to leave the area. However, in the midst of her private memorial for Kirk in her quarters, Lt. Uhura
notices a ghostly image of the Captain, still in his space suit, and
floating inside the ship, beckoning for help. Spock thinks Uhura is
seeing things and suggests she report to Dr. McCoy, but then Scotty
reports catching a glimpse of Kirk in engineering and confirms that
Uhura isn't hallucinating.
Spock
rushes to locate the Captain, but Kirk phases out again before he can
get a lock. If indeed the Captain is still alive, his pressure suit's
life support would be dangerously low and his time is running out.
More
reports of Kirk's "ghost" come in from around the ship and Spock tries
to lock a tractor beam on him when he appears again. In the meantime,
Doctor McCoy has discovered an antidote for the phasing effect by using
a diluted form of the Klingon nerve agent, Theragen.
As the Tholian web is nearing completion, Kirk's image is spotted once more and Spock locks onto him with the tractor beam.
Just
before the Tholians were able to complete the web, Spock takes a
gamble and activates the ship's engines. The Enterprise briefly drops
into the rift, and is hurled 2.72 parsecs away, enabling it to escape
the Tholian web. At this time, it was possible to retrieve Captain Kirk
from the rift, barely in time, for his oxygen supply was exhausted.
Kirk
makes a full recovery and is keen on learning what happened aboard his
ship while he was "away". He was surprised to learn McCoy and Spock
worked well together, and a little disappointed when McCoy claims they
didn't have time to open their Captain's "last orders" and his words of
wisdom had gone unheard.
USS Independence LCS-2
Here are some more images of Dragon/Bronco Models 1/350 scale U.S.S. Independence LCS-2.
My main complaint about this model is that they failed to emulate the panel work that one sees all over the real ship and I wasn't able to find a satisfactory way of recreating that. Oh well.
From Wikipedia"
USS Independence (LCS-2) is the lead ship for the Independence class of littoral combat ships. She will be the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the concept of independence. The design was produced by the General Dynamics consortium for the Navy's LCS program, and competes with the Lockheed Martin-designed Freedom class.
Independence
is intended as a small assault transport that can take on various
capabilities with the installation of mission modules. The ship is a trimaran design that can make more than 40 knots (74 km/h; 46 mph), and was delivered to the Navy at the end of 2009.
The design for Independence (LCS 2) is based on a high-speed trimaran (Benchijigua Express) hull built by Austal
(Henderson, Australia). The 418-foot (127-meter) surface combatant
design requires a crew of 40 sailors. Although the trimaran hull
increases the total surface area, it is still able to reach sustainable
speeds of about 50 knots (60 mph; 90 km/h) with a range of 10,000
nautical miles (19,000 km).
With
11,000 cubic meters of payload volume, it was designed with enough
payload and volume to carry out one mission with a separate mission
module in reserve, allowing the ship to do multiple missions without
having to be refitted. The flight deck, 1,030 m2 (11,100 sq ft), can support the operation of two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, multiple UAVs, or one CH-53 Sea Stallion-class helicopter. The trimaran hull will allow flight operations up to sea state 5.
The
Independence carries a default armament for self-defense, and command
and control. However unlike traditional fighting ships with fixed
armament such as guns and missiles, tailored mission modules can be
configured for one mission package at a time. Modules may consist of
manned aircraft, unmanned vehicles, off-board sensors, or
mission-manning detachments.
The
interior volume and payload is greater than some destroyers and is
sufficient to serve as a high-speed transport and maneuver platform.
The mission bay is 15,200 square feet (1,410 m2), and takes up most of the deck below the hangar and flight deck.
In addition to cargo or container-sized mission modules, the bay can carry four lanes of multiple Strykers, armored Humvees, and their associated troops. An elevator allows air transport of packages the size of a 20-foot-long (6.1 m) shipping container that can be moved into the mission bay while at sea. A side access ramp allows for vehicle roll-on/roll-off loading to a dock and allows the ship to transport the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle.
The
habitability area is located under the bridge where bunks for ships
personnel are situated. The helm is controlled by joysticks instead of
traditional steering wheels.
The Independence
also has an integrated LOS Mast, Sea Giraffe 3D Radar and SeaStar
Safire FLIR. Side and forward surfaces are angled for reduced radar
profile. In addition, H-60
series helicopters provide airlift, rescue, anti-submarine, radar
picket and anti-ship capabilities with torpedoes and missiles.
The
Raytheon Evolved SeaRAM missile defense system is installed on the
hangar roof. The SeaRAM combines the sensors of the Phalanx 1B close-in
weapon system with an 11-missile launcher for the Rolling Airframe
Missile (RAM), creating an autonomous system.
Northrop
Grumman has demonstrated sensor fusion of on and off-board systems in
the Integrated Combat Management System (ICMS) used on Independence.
Independence has an Interior Communications Center that can be curtained off from the rest of bridge instead of the heavily protected Combat Information Center found on Navy warships.
Austal claims that the Independence will use a third less fuel than Freedom, but the Congressional Budget Office found that fuel would account for 18 percent or less of the total lifetime cost of Freedom. While it was unable to judge the fuel usage of Independence, the higher purchase price of Independence would dominate its lifetime costs.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
USS Fort Worth LCS-3
From Wikipedia"
USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) is a Freedom class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy. She is the first ship to be named after Fort Worth, Texas, the 16th-largest city in the United States.
Her name was announced 6 March 2009. This was after a long public relations campaign by United States Representative Kay Granger, former Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England, and others. The ship was built by Lockheed-Martin. Her keel was laid on 11 July 2009 during a ceremony at Marinette Marine Shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin.
Fort Worth includes additional stability improvements to deal with issues found on USS Freedom (LCS-1).
The 80% completed ship was launched by its contractor on 4 December 2010. The vessel underwent sea trials in Lake Michigan during late 2011, with the completion of these trials announced on 24 October 2011. The ship successfully completed its acceptance trials, which also took place on Lake Michigan, on 4 May 2012. The inspectors only found ten severe deficiencies during the trials, an "exponential" improvement over Freedom.
The improvements to the ship include a lengthened hull, which makes her faster than Freedom and ten percent more fuel efficient. Fort Worth was commissioned in Galveston, Texas 22 September 2012.[16] She will set sail on a 16 month deployment in the late fall of 2014.
The Fort Worth will rely on automated sensors to perform "conditions-based maintenance" and hopefully avoid the greatly overworked crew problems that Freedom had on her first deployment.
In November 2013, the Fort Worth conducted live-fire tests of its 57 mm and 30 mm canons against small boat targets conducting swarm attacks. The Fort Worth was moving fast through the water and assisted by an MH-60R helicopter. The ship's fire control system locked on to and fired on the small maneuvering boats in day and night situations with optical sights. The helicopter provided radar targeting which was passed on to the ship's fire control system. Test firing were successful, with additional evaluations of the complete surface warfare module scheduled for early 2014.
In November 2013, Fort Worth became the first LCS to test operations with the Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout a critical capacity for the LCS program.
Monday, June 30, 2014
George Adamski's Flying Saucer
And now Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time to break out the tinfoil hats.
From Wikipedia"
George Adamski (April 17, 1891 – April 23, 1965) was a Polish-born American citizen who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he claimed to have photographed ships from other planets, met with friendly Nordic alien Space Brothers, and to have taken flights with them. The first of the so-called contactees of the 1950s, he was called a "philosopher, teacher, student and saucer researcher," though his claims were met with skepticism.
On October 9, 1946, during a meteor shower, Adamski and some friends claimed that while they were at the Palomar Gardens campground, they witnessed a large cigar-shaped "mother ship." In 1947, Adamski took a photograph of what he claimed was the 1946 cigar-shaped "mother ship" crossing in front of the moon over Palomar Gardens.
On May 29, 1950, Adamski took a photograph of what he alleged to be six unidentified objects in the sky, which appeared to be flying in formation. Adamski's May 29, 1950, UFO photograph was depicted in an August 1978 commemorative stamp issued by the island nation of Grenada in order to mark the "Year of UFOs."
On November 20, 1952, Adamski and several friends were in the Colorado Desert near the town of Desert Center, California, when they purportedly saw a large submarine-shaped object hovering in the sky. Believing that the ship was looking for him, Adamski is said to have left his friends and to have headed away from the main road. Shortly afterwards, according to Adamski's accounts, a scout ship made of a type of translucent metal landed close to him, and its pilot, a Venusian called Orthon, disembarked and sought him out.
Adamski's photograph, which is said to be of an UFO,
taken on December 13, 1952. However, German scientist Walther Johannes
Riedel said this photo was a fake, and that the landing struts were
light bulbsOrthon is said to have returned the plate to Adamski on December 13, 1952, at which point it was found to contain new strange symbols. It was during this meeting that Adamski is said to have taken a now famous UFO photograph using his 6-inch (150 mm) telescope.
In 1954, Desmond Leslie is said to have witnessed several UFOs with Adamski while visiting him in California. He described one of them in a letter he sent to his wife while he was in San Diego:
... a beautiful golden ship in the sunset, but brighter than the sunset ... It slowly faded out, the way they do.In 1957 Adamski received a letter signed "R.E. Straith," alleged representative of the "Cultural Exchange Committee" of the U.S. State Department. The letter said the U.S. Government knew that Adamski had spoken to extraterrestrials in a California desert in 1952, and that a group of highly placed government officials planned on public corroboration of Adamski's story. Adamski was proud of this endorsement and exhibited it to support his claims. However, in 2002 ufologist James W. Moseley revealed that the letter was a hoax. Moseley said he and his friend Gray Barker had obtained some official State Department letterheads, created the R.E. Straith persona, and then written the letter to Adamski as a prank. According to Moseley, the FBI investigated the case and discovered that the letter was a hoax, but charges were not filed against Moseley or Barker. Moseley also wrote that the FBI informed Adamski that the Straith letter was a hoax and asked him to stop using it as evidence in support of his claims, but that Adamski refused and continued to display the letter in his lectures and talks.
In May 1959, Adamski received a letter from the head of the Dutch Unidentified Flying Objects Society informing him that she had been contacted by officials at the palace of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and "that the Queen would like to receive you." Adamski informed a London newspaper about the invitation, which prompted the court and cabinet to request that the queen cancel her private audience with Adamski, but the queen went ahead with the audience, saying, "A hostess cannot slam the door in the face of her guests." After the audience, Dutch Aeronautical Association president Cornelis Kolff said, "The Queen showed an extraordinary interest in the whole subject." Wire services such as United Press International and Reuters sent the story out, and newspapers around the world ran it. On May 19, 1959, The Straits Times ran the story. The Sydney Morning Herald ran it on May 20, 1959, along with an image titled "The 'Moon Man.'" On May 21, 1959, the Rockford Register-Republic ran the article, and the Los Angeles Times ran it on May 27, 1959.[
Adamski believed that the photographs of the far side of the Moon that were taken by the Soviet lunar probe Luna 3 in 1959 were altered to depict a barren, lifeless surface when in fact there were cities, trees, and snow-capped mountains there instead.
Da Vinci Flying Machine
A very simple model but fun. The wings flap when you wind it up.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Da Vinci Clock
So far as I can tell this so far is the best of the Academy Leonardo Da Vinci kits, and it work to.
You can get up to 1 hour out of it before rewinding.
From Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions"
To put away any initial confusion – Leonardo da Vinci did not invent the clock. What he did was design a more accurate clock.
While clocks that showed hours and minutes had become increasingly accurate in da Vinci’s time (the 15th century), they didn’t really make a big leap forward until the incorporation of the pendulum about 200 years later. But, da Vinci actually designed a more accurate clock in his lifetime.
Leonardo’s clock had two separate mechanisms: one for minutes and one for hours. Each was made up of elaborately connected weights, gears and harnesses. The clock also has a dial for keeping track of moon phases.
Da Vinci’s major innovation was to have springs, rather than weights operate his clock. He also included the detail of some materials that would be used to make the clock – including diamonds and rocks.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Pfalz D III
From Wikipedia"
The Pfalz D.III was a fighter aircraft used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during the First World War. The D.III was the first major original design from Pfalz Flugzeugwerke. Though generally considered inferior to contemporary Albatros and Fokker fighters, the D.III was widely used by the Jagdstaffeln from the fall of 1917 through the summer of 1918. It continued to serve as a training aircraft until the end of the war.
Prior to World War I, Pfalz Flugzeugwerke produced Morane-Saulnier monoplane designs under license. These aircraft entered military service as the Pfalz A- and E-series. In September 1916, Pfalz began producing the first of 20 Roland D.I and 200 Roland D.II fighters under license.
In November 1916, Pfalz hired Rudolph Gehringer from Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen GmbH. As Pfalz’s new chief engineer, Gehringer immediately commenced work on an original fighter design. The resulting D.III emerged in April 1917. Like the Rolands, the D.III used a plywood monocoque fuselage. Two layers of thin plywood strips were placed over a mold to form one half of a fuselage shell. The fuselage halves were then glued together, covered with a layer of fabric, and doped. This Wickelrumpf method gave the fuselage great strength, light weight, and smooth contours compared to conventional construction techniques. However, it also proved to be more labor intensive and expensive. Furthermore, the D.III fuselage was prone to twisting or warping from side to side as it aged, a defect variously attributed to the use of insufficiently seasoned wood or to moisture absorption in damp conditions.
The wings were of conventional construction, with a flush Teves und Braun radiator offset to the right side of the upper wing. The ailerons were of wooden construction, rather than the more conventional steel tube construction. The horizontal stabilizer had an inverted airfoil section, which facilitated dive recovery and permitted the use of an unbalanced elevator.
The Idflieg found the prototype promising. It directed Pfalz to halt production of the Roland D.III and to complete the balance of the contract, 70 aircraft, to the new design. After a Typenprüfung (type test) at Adlershof in May, the Idflieg ordered various modifications, including an enlarged rudder and horn-balanced ailerons. In June 1917, Pfalz received a second order for 300 aircraft.
Deliveries to operational units began in August 1917. Jasta 10 was the first recipient of the new aircraft, followed by Jasta 4. While markedly better than the earlier Roland designs, the D.III was generally considered inferior to the Albatros D.III and D.V. German pilots variously criticized the Pfalz’s heavy controls, low speed, lack of power, or low rate of climb compared to the Albatros. The D.III slipped in turns, leading to crashes when unwary pilots turned at very low altitudes. Moreover, the Pfalz stalled sharply and spun readily. Recovery from the resulting flat spin was difficult, though some pilots took advantage of this trait to descend quickly or evade enemy aircraft.
The Pfalz’s primary advantage was its strength and sturdiness. The Albatros scouts were plagued by failure of their single-spar lower wings. The Pfalz, however, could safely dive at high speeds due to its twin-spar lower wing. For this reason, the Pfalz was well-suited to diving attacks on observation balloons, which were usually heavily defended by anti-aircraft guns trained to the balloon's altitude.
The most pressing complaint about the new Pfalz was that the guns were buried in the fuselage, preventing pilots from clearing gun jams in flight. This feature had been carried over from the earlier Roland designs. In November 1917, Pfalz responded by producing the slightly modified D.IIIa, which relocated the guns to the upper fuselage decking. The D.IIIa was distinguishable by its enlarged semicircular horizontal stabilizer and cropped lower wingtips. It also featured a more powerful version of the Mercedes D.III engine.
Pfalz built approximately 260 D.III and 750 D.IIIa aircraft. Most were delivered to Bavarian Jastas. Once Pfalz completed the final batch in May 1918, production shifted to the D.IIIa's successor, the D.XII. Some aircraft from the final D.IIIa batch were delivered to Turkey.
As of 30 April 1918, 433 D.IIIa scouts were still in frontline use. By 31 August, that number had declined to 166. Many serviceable aircraft were sent to advanced training schools, but approximately 100 aircraft remained in frontline use at the time of the Armistice.
Today, there are no known surviving D.III airframes. However, two flying replicas were built for the 1966 film The Blue Max. One replica was built from scratch, while a second was converted from a de Havilland Tiger Moth airframe. Both replicas are currently based in New Zealand.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5.A.
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