speedgraflex wrote: ↑Mon Dec 15, 2025 9:41 pmI'm afraid I agree with you completely, Stuart. Sacrificing imagination as well as experiential learning is a destructive path for humanity itself and that is what's been combined with the "Get Rich Quick/Superstardom" of social media to complete a deadly, distressing trifecta.
Wait. Am I supposed to be building an aircraft model?
Amen on that!!!
And yes, you are. And I love watching you doing it. What a joy of a thread this already is!
speedgraflex wrote: ↑Mon Dec 15, 2025 9:41 pmI'm afraid I agree with you completely, Stuart. Sacrificing imagination as well as experiential learning is a destructive path for humanity itself and that is what's been combined with the "Get Rich Quick/Superstardom" of social media to complete a deadly, distressing trifecta.
Wait. Am I supposed to be building an aircraft model?
Amen on that!!!
And yes, you are. And I love watching you doing it. What a joy of a thread this already is!
You’re most kind, Mighty T! Sincerely. I try not to watch too much YouTube, but I did watch an episode of a British show where a mini celebrity, James May, builds a full size Airfix Spitfire as a stunt. There’s no small amount of hubris involved here as he has a life size version of himself rather than the kit version used as a pilot, but what I was hoping Mr. May would really be able to answer is why for a certain generation of children model building was a major part of childhood and how over the decades this impetus has shifted away to other pursuits. What was it really that softened the hold that model building once held on young minds? I can remember getting my first plastic kit from the Science Center after a trip to the Planetarium. That model was my first and that moment was my cornerstone. Everything after stemmed from that first exposure to model kit making. However what was important was the subject being sold by the gift shop was a dinosaur. And obviously if you want to study a dinosaur, building a model would be a way to do it. Additionally I bought a “Build Your Own Radio” kit at the same time, which kicked off a lifelong interest in taking apart as well as tinkering with electronics. That one trip was the key to two life long interests. What Mr. May’s Toy Series tries to do is create the spark for a new generation of builders and makers of things. He wasn’t able to really answer the question why. The closest that answer came was when his father was interviewed and spoke of taking young James to the local shop and buying Airfix kits for him. His story made me think that this was a cheap way to entertain a child at the time and nowadays a “screen” would be the answer. Again, am I building a model or not? Thanks, T.
Next using dental scrapers to shape the "leather" form—I've glued in the piece with PVA white glue which I've let set overnight. What' useful about using good old Elmer's is that it sets well if given the opportunity, but will still release its bond with warm water. This allows me to really work on the new part I've made. I really put this to the test with a Trimaster kit where I white glued white metal landing gear and the bonds held in place once the glue set. The issue there was building a jig to hold the legs while the glue set since it takes a long time.
Thank you, Stuart! Sincerely! Thanks for following and sharing your encouragement! My next step will be a tightly controlled light sanding to reduce the thickness of the edges.
That’s looks real good so far Bruce! What particular edges are you going to thin down?
"Surely I have made my meaning plain? I intend to avenge myself upon you, Admiral. I have deprived your ship of power, and when I swing 'round, I intend to deprive you of your life."
Thanks so much for being here, Carlos! I’m truly grateful. In this photo you can see better the stations left from carving the seat down; no matter the amount of repetitions the dental tools only go so far to smooth the surface before these start to polish the materials and in some cases will cause some finer edges to flake apart. This is why I’ll use small sanding strips made by Mr Hobby and sand down those ridges. I only have 800 and 1000 grits left but those should work in such a small area.
In the case of the elongated piece of aluminum attached to the throttle and the stirrup post, these are repairs first. I glued these parts in place then started asking questions about how the cockpit really should look; pulling parts out weakened them so replacements were made. In A: throttle and assembly were made by cutting out the plastic part and replacing it with bent brass rod, adding filler with CA; the stirrups are brass rod and thin strips of plastic card; the control stick is still in progress—I’d like to add a grip to it if possible. B is the reference image.
"Surely I have made my meaning plain? I intend to avenge myself upon you, Admiral. I have deprived your ship of power, and when I swing 'round, I intend to deprive you of your life."
