Pellsons Perceivings

[Pellson]

Beautiful job on that A-Model Firebar!

Thanks. It's, like all other A-model kits I've encountered, a proper dog of a kit to deal with, but actually, once you've filed off all flash and puttied all irregularities, the resulting model can be quite ok.

It might have been a mojo mistake to take it out, though, as I feel it's diverting me from the Lansen. The Firebar is a spectacular, almost unreal design, and I'd much like to get it completed. But then again, that goes for many models on the Shelf of Doom^TM

[PR19_Kit]

The Firebar is a spectacular, almost unreal design, and I'd much like to get it completed.

Yakovlev certainly took things to the extreme with that design, but the kits make good source material for other extreme Whiffs. We're always looking for 'hypersonic looking' engines and radomes etc. 

[Charlie_c67]

Bit like Lavochkin as well!

[Pellson]

Joined my daughters in watching the film "Lee", about war correspondent Lee Miller. A very well made film indeed, but God knows it didn't quite lift my mood to any particular heights.

But the day before this was the happier. A day off together with the nicest girl I've ever met (and who, which probably is one of the greater mysteries in history, still is hanging out with me, some 24 years later), a trip to the archipelago cottage in rather nice weather together with the wife and lunch at a favourite place. Not bad for an ordinary Friday.

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My head doesn't seem to cope too well with the aftermath of the radiation treatment. It's slightly sore, and even the slightest try to concentrate on something serious immediately results in a most annoying exhaustion.
But it's not unexpected, unfortunately, and it's just a matter of coping. It'll improve with time. And in the meantime, it looks as if the tumours are getting a beating, and that sort of makes it worthwhile.

This popped up in my SocMed feed recently. While being a rather doubtful AI generated pic, it still is a bit interesting as it actually shows, in its own, imperfect way, a quite possible alternative reality timeline.

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As some of you might be aware, the Phantom was one of the main alternatives when the decision was made to go ahead with final development of the SAAB 37 Viggen (the third finalist being the Buccaneer, btw), and while this creation is wrong in so many ways (full afterburner inside a partially closed HAS, no visible strap-downs, technicians hovering in front of a fighter on full bore, two roundels at each side of the fuselage and std SEA camouflage, just to mention the most obvious, it still is a RSwAF Phantom, and as such, a definite could-have-been. And that is food for thought, regardless of quality. One day, maybe..

Well. Tomorrow's a new day, and hopefully, there'll be a bit more energy available to me then. And on top of that, it'll be weekend! 

[PR19_Kit]

With SAAB built engines perhaps?

[scooter]

With SAAB built engines perhaps?

Volvo Aero

[Old Wombat]

It may be a.i. crap, but it is very good inspiration fodder! 


I have a couple of 1/72 Phantoms floating about the Wombat Stash™ & some leftover Swedish decals for a Draken that I Sovietised some time ago. Hmmm!?     

[NARSES2]

Does look rather odd with the double roundels, but as said "makes good inspiration fodder" 

[Pellson]

Experiencing somewhat faltering mojo on my Swedish subjects, I just decided to change lanes and try something else for a bit. Enter the four Soviet interceptors that's been sitting all but ready to paint on the Shelf of Doom^TM for a bit, and hey presto - they've all gotten their first layer of PVO grey, however in some cases (mainly the Yak-28) after having sorted the final antennae and probes.

And it feels good. For some reason, the shape seems to change a tad once you get colour on the plastic, and maybe is that in particular valid for the big Yak and the Su-15TM, with their somewhat extravagant radomes in a different hue.

Well. We'll se what the mojo says tomorrow when the Russians have dried. Another go on the Lansen, or more communists?

[Rick Lowe]

The medical issues are going well, and so is the mojo/building, AND! a day away with your Favourite Person on Planet Earth - many a Win! right there.   
Great to hear. 

[Pellson]

Today, while dry to the touch, the Soviet bunch is still reeking of solvent. A bit annoying, mainly as the stench is rather brutal, and brings the thought to industrial death à la Bhopal (only us old gits remember that) but also because I neither dare to sand some minor inaccuracies nor even less to add that second necessary layer for paint coverage, as I strongly suspect the current layer just hasn't hardened enough. So I'll have to look at other projects today.

But before leaving the Soviet subject to one side entirely, I need to make a reflection. That Su-9 Fishpot - the design is quite amazing, when you look at it. It's huge! In particular, the sheer thickness of that perfectly cylindrical fuselage is mindblowing! It's like someone took the main chimney off a factory, laid it out on the ground and just added wings, fins and a pilot on top. Smallish wings too.
And given that it's designed towards a rather similar task as the Lightning or the Draken, the sheer size is also impressive. Not much of resource management there..

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Of course, mine is somewhat upgraded. This is the Whatif modellers, after all, and while the Fishpots performance was quite ok indeed, the original armament was severely lacking in most aspects. Hence, I've added not only some modernised electronics such as the odd antenna and the ECM pod from a Fitter under the fin, but this one also has the IRST of the MiG-23 under the nose, and I am looking at hanging Anab missiles under the outer wings, to make it useable at least into the early 1980's.
A final, minor change is the offset pitot boom on the nose. In reality the Fishpots never got that, but the Fitters did, as the pilots complained that the centrally placed boom obstructed view at landing. And it's an easy thing to remedy, so when upgrading other things, I feel rather certain this too would have been fixed.

Well, more on that once I get around to write a backstory. 

[zenrat]

Big girl.  She looks good.   

[Rheged]

Today, while dry to the touch, the Soviet bunch is still reeking of solvent. A bit annoying, mainly as the stench is rather brutal, and brings the thought to industrial death à la Bhopal (only us old gits remember that) but also because I neither dare to sand some minor inaccuracies nor even less to add that second necessary layer for paint coverage, as I strongly suspect the current layer just hasn't harden

I was about to say:- come on, Bhopal's not that   long ago.  Then I looked it up and realised it happened nearly 42 years ago.   

 Why is it that  the same paint takes a couple of days to harden off on one model and weeks  on another.??  and why are some paints more noxious than others?

[scooter]

I was about to say:- come on, Bhopal's not that   long ago.  Then I looked it up and realised it happened nearly 42 years ago.   

No one will ever not tell me the 80s were only 20 years ago.

[Rick Lowe]

I was about to say:- come on, Bhopal's not that   long ago.  Then I looked it up and realised it happened nearly 42 years ago. 

No one will ever not tell me the 80s were only 20 years ago.

That's ok - some time soon, "The 20's" will mean the 2020s... and most of us will be likely still around then... *sigh*