A slightly outdated picture, but not too old. I would also like to mention that I have changed my icon image for the final time as I have finally found an image I like (just in case the constant changing was annoying anyone).

I was tagged by Babs. Thanks Babs! I have only tagged a few people, but please consider yourself tagged.

1) How are you?

I am feeling a tad anxious and excited as I am leaving for the UK on Saturday. I am also interested to see how I will cope being in public so often considering I have become a bit of a hermit crab this past year.

2) What is the meaning behind your Flickr name?

Well, it is my name. So I guess the meaning behind my Flickr name is the same as the meaning behind my name. My sister had a crush on Dean Cain.

3) Sexuality?

Not that it is anyones business, or will be of any use to anyone, I am about a 5 on the Kinsey Scale.

4) Decorating?

I love the dark browns, yellows, and oranges of the 1970's. I also love amber glass windows. Unfortunately I do not have a home of my own, and my partner despises 70's and 80's decor. I will never be one of those people who re-decorates their home every season to match the latest style.

5) Did doll collecting influence your life in any way?

Are you kidding. Show me one collector of anything who believes that their collecting has not had an influence on their life. If it were not for my collecting I would not have any friends; I would not have a loving, caring, and supportive partner; and I would not have the same appreciation for aesthetics, culture, and art. I also collect other items such as spoons, stamps, Lego, stuffed toys, and curios. Collecting is more than just the acquisition of objects, it is the acquisition of life's past and present.

6) What does your family think about you as a doll collector?

I am not sure they think anything of it apart from the fact that I overspend on my collection often neglecting many necessities.

7) What might be your biggest fear?

My biggest fear, apart from the suffering or loss of a person I love, is the loss of my teeth.

8) If you could meet anyone on earth, who would it be?

On earth, or in earth? Living, I would love to meet Boy George and/or the Dalai Lama.

9) Grab a book nearest to you, turn to page 23, read me line 17 (if it’s the start of a sentence, finish the sentence)

It is a picture.

10) What do you think about the most?

I like to imagine my life as a house husband.

11) What does your latest text message from someone else say?

No way. That is a serious invasion of privacy. My sexuality is one thing, private correspondence is another.

12) Do you sleep with or without clothes on?

Oh my, these impertinent questions are getting very tedious. I sleep with clothes thank you very much.

13) What is your strangest talent?

I have a talent for having an opinion on everything.

14) Girls.... (finish the sentence); Boys.... (finish the sentence)

Girls are rotten, made out of cotton; Boys are sexy, made out of Pepsi.

15) Ever had a poem or song written about you?

Oh my gosh yes, many times, quite a few have been cringe worthy.

16) When was the last time you played the air guitar?

Never.

17) Do you have any strange phobias?

I have Mycophobia. Mycophobia is a fear of mushrooms and other fungi. This has been an issue in my collecting as I often receive stuff that is mouldy and/or smells of must, sometimes even after being informed that the item is free of mould or musty smells. This often triggers an OCD like response where I must dispose of the object immediately and clean everything (especially my hands) multiple times.

18) Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?

Yes, as I child I placed a small piece of yellow foam up my nose which then had to be extracted with tweezers.

19) Backpacks or satchels?

I used to use satchels, and was well known at school for my Ben 10 satchel bag. But recently I purchased a backpack for my UK trip and found it to be so much more comfortable that I think I am now a backpack person.

My second thought for the Crazy Tuesday outdated theme.

Montgomery Place Orchards Farmstand

Shot on outdated film with my leaky old Olympus Pen-D.

Riding with equipment that was outdated about 20 years ago, gives you an incredible amount of stylepoints, but makes for an arduous descent. Maybe I'll buy one of those Silvretta bindings, just to make people think I've been doing all this for 50+ years... :D

www.derbrecher.com

www.facebook.com/BrecherVisualCommunication

Outdated map, museum has since expanded, some exhibits like Gizmo City saying coming fall 1995 is no longer around, the Blockbuster IMAX 3D Theatre would become AutoNation IMAX 3D Theatre in 2007.

Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

Minolta Vectis 100 BF

Outdated Truprint 200 APS film

outdated signboard on 36844

Though the A-4 Skyhawk was by no means outdated by 1962, the US Navy began work on a replacement with better range and heavier payload. The designs submitted would be necessarily heavier than the A-4, but this was not seen as much of a problem, nor was a lack of speed: the Navy was willing to trade subsonic performance for increased range and more bombs. Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) submitted a design based loosely on its successful F-8 Crusader fighter, which was enough to beat out three other designs, and it was ordered into production as the A-7A Corsair II, named for the successful Chance-Vought fighter of World War II.

Though the A-7 was based on the F-8, the two shared very little other than basic configuration: the A-7 was stubby and wide, and definitely subsonic as intended, though it initially used the same powerplant as the F-111 Aardvark. Turn performance was excellent, if acceleration was indifferent, but the centerpiece of the Corsair II was its integrated bomb delivery system. This included the APQ-116 radar, a heads-up display, traveling map display below the radarscope, and a digital computer. Ease of maintenance was also emphasized. With no problems encountered in flight testing, the A-7A entered fleet service in 1967.

It was immediately committed to fighting in Vietnam. Though A-7s would only see action in the tail end of Operation Rolling Thunder, they were to be used extensively in South Vietnam, due to their accuracy: A-7s were capable of putting ordnance within sixty feet of friendly troops, making it well-liked. The Navy liked the USAF's A-7D variant, and subsequently adopted it, with changes for naval operations, as the A-7E. This was to be the definitive model of the Corsair II, and surviving A-7As and A-7Bs were converted to E standard.

It was a mixed batch of A-7 models that finished the war in Vietnam: A-7Bs were mostly used in the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) Wild Weasel role, and increasingly Corsair IIs were armed with precision weapons such as the AGM-62 Walleye, which proved capable enough to destroy the infamous Thanh Hoa Bridge—albeit temporarily—in 1972. The workhorse A-7 also struck targets in the Hanoi area extensively, making it second only to the B-52 in amount of ordnance dropped on the North Vietnamese capital. Navy A-7s from USS Coral Sea participated in the last combat missions of the Vietnam War, the Mayaguez rescue mission in May 1975. 98 Navy A-7s were shot down during the conflict.

Following the end of the Vietnam War, the A-7 replaced the A-4 in Navy light attack squadrons, standardizing on the A-7E. Aside from minor upgrades, this would remain the type used by Navy units for the duration of the Corsair II’s career. A-7s would go on to participate in every military operation undertaken by the United States in the 1980s—attacks on Lebanon and the invasion of Grenada in 1983, operations against Libya in 1985, during the “Tanker War” in the Persian Gulf in 1987, and finally in the First Gulf War in 1991. In these operations, the A-7 was able to use its pinpoint bombing ability to good use; in Libya and the Persian Gulf, Corsair IIs attacked and sank numerous Libyan and Iranian patrol boats with unguided bombs. It also was the Navy’s Wild Weasel of choice during the 1980s, using the Vietnam-era Shrike before upgrading to the far superior HARM.

In Operation Desert Storm, two A-7 squadrons from John F. Kennedy were used both to attack fixed targets with “iron” bombs and Walleyes in “tank plinking”—knocking out Iraqi tanks with precision weapons. Despite there being less than 30 A-7s in theater, these aircraft were able supplements to the USAF’s A-10s and F-111s.

The First Gulf War was the A-7’s swan song. The last squadrons gave up their Corsair IIs for F/A-18 Hornets by May 1991, ending nearly thirty years of operations. Some ex-Navy A-7s were passed on to Greece, Portugal, and Thailand, and some still remain in service with Thailand and Greece. Of the 1569 A-7s built, about half were Navy types, and today 20 former US Navy A-7s are on display as gate guards and museum pieces.

156751 was originally built as an A-7C, the first batch of A-7Es that retained the older engine of the A-7B. About half of the 67 A-7Cs built were converted to two-seat TA-7C conversion trainers, including 156751. It served with several US Navy squadrons during its career, including VA-122 and VA-174, before finishing its career with VAQ-33 ("Firebirds"), an electronic aggressor unit assigned to NAS Key West, Florida. When VAQ-33 deactivated in the early 1990s, 156751 was retired as well, and was donated to the Russell Military Museum, albeit as a half-scrapped hulk.

Today, 156751 has seen much better days, barely recognizable as an A-7 at all--I initially believed this to be an A-7E, as I didn't really see the two-seat configuration. Faint hints of its last assignment still show: the faded legend of "VAQ-33" can be made out on what is left of the tail, and it still wears the faded remnants of the blue-gray camouflage scheme worn by Navy TA-7s.

Heavily outdated K200, which I shot last week and had souped in the oly place on earth left processing Kodachrome. I had to do a bit of Photoshop work on this to bring it out, Kodachrome is known for being a bitch to scan, but oddly enough when its heavily out of date like this was, it actually seems easier to get a decent base scan out of it. Levels: Black and White points and Brightness/Contrast and thats it. The emulsion still holds all of that information and color detail, its like dry wood; add water and the beauty rises to the surface after a dry-hibernation.

This was my first and last roll of K200, and Im sorry I didnt use it more for some of my long-term projects.

Seattle Space Center March 2010. Kodachrome 200

This was meant to take on the world this was, but sadly it didn’t get very far! The Rover 800 had so many possibilities, so many variants could have been derived from it, but unfortunately the management was once again very quick to nip this beautiful car in the bud, and the Rover 800 would join that long line of ‘what-could-have-been’ motors that seem to pave British motoring history.

The origin of the Rover 800 goes back to the late 1970’s, when nationalised British car manufacturer and all around general failure British Leyland was absolutely desperate to fix its seemingly endless list of problems. The company had now garnered a reputation for creating some of the worst, most outdated cars of all time, the likes of the Morris Marina, the Austin Allegro and the Triumph TR7 being derided in both critical and customer reviews. A mixture of strike action by uncontrollable Trade Unions led by the infamous Red Robbo had meant that cars were only put together for a few hours per day on a three day week. As such, reliability was atrocious on a biblical scale, be it mechanical, cosmetic or electrical.

As such, in 1979, British Leyland began talks with Japanese car manufacturer Honda to try and help improve the reliability of their machines. The pioneer of this brave new deal was the Triumph Acclaim of 1980, BL’s first reliable car and not a bad little runabout. Basically a rebadged Honda Ballade, the Acclaim wasn’t meant to set the world ablaze, but it certainly helped get the company back onto people’s driveways, selling reasonably well thanks to its reliable mechanics (even if rust was something of an issue). As such, BL decided that from now on it would give its fleet a complete overhaul, basing their new models on Japanese equivalents. From 1984, the Rover 200 arrived on the scene, again, a rebadged Honda Ballade, while the Maestro and the Montego ranges also took on several tips from their Japanese counterparts, though they were primarily based on British underpinnings.

The Rover 800 however spawned quite early on, in 1981 to be exact. Following the catastrophic failure of the Rover SD1 in the American market, which only sold 774 cars before Rover removed itself from the USA altogether, the company was desperate to get another foothold across the pond. As such, the new project, dubbed project XX, would be the icing on the cake in terms of British Leyland’s fleet overhaul, a smooth and sophisticated executive saloon to conquer the world. However, plans were pushed back after the launch of the Montego and the Maestro, and thus project XX wouldn’t see the light of day again until about 1984.

Still in production and suffering from being long-in-the-tooth, the Rover SD1 was now coming up on 10 years old, and though a sublime car in terms of style and performance, it was now struggling in sales. Rover really needed to replace this golden oldie, and thus project XX was back on. In the usual fashion, Honda was consulted, and it was decided that the car would be based on that company’s own executive saloon, the Honda Legend. Jointly developed at Rover’s Cowley plant and Honda’s Tochigi development centre, both cars shared the same core structure and floorplan, but they each had their own unique exterior bodywork and interior. Under the agreement, Honda would supply the V6 petrol engine, both automatic and manual transmissions and the chassis design, whilst BL would provide the 4-cylinder petrol engine and much of the electrical systems. The agreement also included that UK-market Honda Legends would be built at the Cowley Plant, and the presence of the Legend in the UK would be smaller than that of the Rover 800, with profits from the 800 shared between the two companies.

Launched on July 10th, 1986, the Rover 800 was welcomed with warm reviews regarding its style, its performance and its reliability. Though driving performance was pretty much the same as the Honda Legend, what put the Rover above its Japanese counterpart was its sheer internal elegance and beauty, combined with a differing external design that borrowed cues from the outgoing SD1. The 800 also provided the company with some much-needed optimism, especially following the gradual breakup of British Leyland by the Thatcher Government between 1980 and 1986.

Following her election in 1979, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took a no nonsense attitude to the striking unions, and the best form of defence was attack. To shave millions from the deficit, she reduced government spending on nationalised companies such as British Airways, British Coal Board, British Steel and British Leyland by selling them to private ownership. For British Leyland, the slow breakup of the company started with the sale of Leyland Trucks and Buses to DAF of Holland and Volvo, respectively. 1984 saw Jaguar made independent and later bought by Ford, but when rumours circulated that the remains of British Leyland would be sold to foreign ownership, share prices crashed, and the company was privatised and put into the hands of British Aerospace on the strict understanding that the company could not be sold again for four years. With this move, British Leyland was renamed Rover Group, the Austin badge being dropped, and the only remaining brands left being the eponymous Rover and sporty MG.

In the light of this tumultuous period, many of Rover and MG’s projects had to be scrapped in light of turbulent share prices and income, these projects including the Austin AR16 family car range (based largely off the Rover 800) and the MG EX-E supercar. The Rover 800 however was the first model to be released by the company following privatisation, and doing well initially in terms of sales, hopes were high that the Rover 800 would herald the end of the company’s troubled spell under British Leyland. The Rover 800 was planned to spearhead multiple Rover ventures, including a return to the US-market in the form of the Sterling, and a coupe concept to beat the world, the sublime Rover CCV.

However, British Leyland may have been gone, but their management and its incompetence remained. Rather than taking the formation of Rover Group as a golden opportunity to clean up the company’s act, to the management it was business as usual, and the Rover 800 began to suffer as a consequence. A lack of proper quality control and a cost-cutting attitude meant that despite all the Japanese reliability that had been layered on these machines in the design stage, the cars were still highly unreliable when they left the factory.

Perhaps the biggest sentiment to the 800’s failure was the Sterling in America. The Sterling had been named as such due to Rover’s reputation being tarnished by the failure of the unreliable SD1. Initial sales were very promising with the Sterling, a simple design with oodles of luxury that was price competitive with family sedan’s such as the Ford LTD and the Chevy Caprice. However, once the problems with reliability and quality began to rear their heads, sales plummeted and the Sterling very quickly fell short of its sales quota, only selling 14,000 of the forecast 30,000 cars per annum. Sales dropped year by year until eventually the Sterling brand was axed in 1991.

With the death of the Sterling came the death of the CCV, a luxury motor that had already won over investors in both Europe and the USA. The fantastic design that had wooed the American market and was ready to go on sale across the States was axed unceremoniously in 1987, and with it any attempt to try and capture the American market ever again.

In 1991, Rover Group, seeing their sales were still tumbling, and with unreliable callbacks to British Leyland like the Maestro and Montego still on sale, the company decided to have yet another shakeup to try and refresh its image. The project, dubbed R17, went back to the company’s roots of grand old England, and the Rover 800 was the first to feel its touch. The R17 facelift saw the 800’s angular lines smoothed with revised light-clusters, a low-smooth body, and the addition of a grille, attempting to harp back to the likes of the luxurious Rover P5 of the 1960’s. Engines were also updated, with the previous M16 Honda engine being replaced by a crisp 2.0L T16, which gave the car some good performance. The car was also made available in a set of additional ranges, including a coupe and the sport Vitesse, complete with a higher performance engine.

Early reviews of the R17 800 were favourable, many critics lauding its design changes and luxurious interior, especially given its price competitiveness against comparable machines such as the Vauxhall Omega and the Ford Mondeo. Even Jeremy Clarkson, a man who fervently hated Rover and everything it stood for, couldn’t help but give it a good review on Top Gear. However, motoring critics were quick to point out the fact that by this time Honda was really starting to sell heavily in the UK and Europe, and people now asked themselves why they’d want to buy the Rover 800, a near carbon-copy of the Honda Legend, for twice the price but equal performance. Wood and leather furnishings are very nice, but not all motorists are interested in that, some are just interested in a reliable and practical machine to run around in.

As such, the Rover 800’s sales domestically were very good, it becoming the best-selling car in the UK for 1992, but in Europe not so much. Though Rover 800’s did make it across the Channel, the BMW 5-Series and other contemporary European models had the market sown up clean, and the Rover 800 never truly made an impact internationally. On average, the car sold well in the early 1990’s, but as time went on the car’s place in the market fell to just over 10,000 per year by 1995. Rover needed another shake-up, and the Rover 75 did just that.

In 1994, Rover Group was sold to BMW, and their brave new star to get the company back in the good books of the motoring public was the Rover 75, an executive saloon to beat the world. With this new face in the company’s showrooms, the Rover 800 and its 10 year old design was put out to grass following its launch in 1998. Selling only around 6,500 cars in its final full year of production, the Rover 800 finished sales in 1999 and disappeared, the last relic of the British Leyland/Honda tie up from the 1980’s.

Today the Rover 800 finds itself under a mixed reception. While some argue that it was the last true Rover before the BMW buyout, others will fervently deride it as a Honda with a Rover badge, a humiliation of a Rover, and truly the point where the company lost its identity. I personally believe it to be a magnificent car, a car with purpose, a car with promise, but none of those promises fulfilled. It could have truly been the face of a new Rover in the late 1980’s, and could have returned the company to the front line of the motoring world, at least in Britain. But sadly, management incompetence won again for the British motor industry, and the Rover 800 ended its days a lukewarm reminder that we really didn’t know a good thing until it was gone.

An old vintage Ford car outside of the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry Arizona

Outdated photo of a few of my many projects, in one place.

In the slightly outdated livery, but I’m not complaining, I love it…

1 of 6 remaining E400MMC’s at Southend, and 1 of the 4 which will remain. 6502 + 6504 (back out on the road since being VOR from 4th Nov - 4th Feb) will I’m sure, soon head for Maidstone, unless 1 of them goes to join the lonely 6508 at Ware.

The Nomadic was built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast (yard number 422). She was launched on 25 April 1911 and delivered to the White Star Line on 27 May. She is 233.6 ft long – 37.3 ft wide with a speed of 12 knots. Her gross tonnage is 1273. Nomadic attended the departure of the Olympic for Liverpool on 31 May 1911, the same day as Titanic was launched.

The Nomadic and her little sister, the Traffic, were built to ferry passengers and freight to and from the White Star Liners calling at Cherbourg. The Traffic ferried the "not so famous" third class passengers, baggage and freight while Nomadic with, its plush interior, was given the job of bringing the rich and famous to Titanic and Olympic's gangway doors.

By 10 April 1912, the two tenders had met and served Olympic on each of her twelve subsequent Cherbourg visits. Now they were to serve another liner on the first day, and at the first stop, of her own maiden trip: RMS Titanic.

After the tragic accident which befell Titanic, Nomadic continued to service Olympic and other White Star liners calling at Cherbourg. But these were troublesome times.

WWI stopped the transatlantic traffic. The Nomadic left Cherbourg in 1917 and sailed to Brest from where she was used to ferry American soldiers around the coast of France.

In 1927 White Star Line sold the ship to the Compagnie Cherbourgeoise de Transborde-ment (CCT). The CCT sold her to the Société Cherbourgeoise de Remorquage et de Sauvetage in 1934. The Nomadic, by now called Ingenieur Minard, sailed under the French flag. In 1939 WWII broke out. Once again, the ship was used as a troopship and participated in the evacuation of British soldiers from Le Havre and from Brest. When Germany occupied France, Nomadic was returned to England where she served as a coastal patrol vessel and minelayer until returning to Cherbourg in 1945.

The ship continued to service luxury cruise liners until November 1968. She served the Queen Elizabeth, Cunard Line, for the last time in 1968 before being sent to the scrap yard.

A Mr. Spinnewyn saved the Nomadic from the scrap yard and it reverted to its original name. Mr. Spinnewyn wanted to convert it to a floating restaurant. Unfortunately the plan didn’t take off and the ship lay idle for five years. Mr. Yvon Vincent bought Nomadic off Mr. Spinnewyn and successfully turned it into a floating restaurant on the river Sienne, near the Eifel Tower, Paris, France.

A campaign was launched by enthusiasts from Belfast to bring Nomadic back to Belfast where she belongs. Thankfully, that campaign was successful and the Department for Social Development purchased the Nomadic for Euro 250,001 at auction in Paris on 26th January 2006. Built by the same men who built the Titanic, and after a round trip of 95 years, Nomadic came home to Belfast, amid much publicity, in July of that year.

The Department for Social Development set up the Nomadic Charitable Trust, representing all shades of public opinion, in October 2006, with the aim of raising funding to restore the ship and to develop the ship as a highly prized tourist and cultural attraction.

As the last floating link to the White Star Line, she is also the last accessible maritime link to Titanic. The Trust intend to restore her to her former glory and develop her as a static floating visitor attraction in the heart of Belfast docks, to ensure that the public and overseas visitors can learn more about the ship and about the maritime and industrial heritage of one of the great industrial cities of the 19th and 20th Century – Belfast.

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,514 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. One of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built between 1909–11 by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She carried 2,224 people.

Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in North America. The ship was designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. She also had a powerful wireless telegraph provided for the convenience of passengers as well as for operational use. Though she had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, she lacked enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people – a third of her total passenger and crew capacity.

After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading westwards towards New York. On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm (ship's time; UTC-3). The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly filled. A disproportionate number of men – over 90% of those in Second Class – were left aboard due to a "women and children first" protocol followed by the officers loading the lifeboats. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean. The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by the RMS Carpathia a few hours later.

The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today. Many of the survivors lost all of their money and possessions and were left destitute; many families, particularly those of crew members from Southampton, lost their primary bread-winners. They were helped by an outpouring of public sympathy and charitable donations. Some of the male survivors, notably the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, were accused of cowardice for leaving the ship while people were still on board, and they faced social ostracism.

The wreck of the Titanic remains on the seabed, gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, films, exhibits and memorials.

Belfast has opened the Iconic Titanic Signature Building which will house Titanic Belfast ® it is iconic in design and houses a world class visitor attraction. It is located at Titanic Quarter (East Belfast). The exhibition is based on the theme of the Titanic and the wider subject of Belfast’s shipbuilding and maritime heritage. Of such scale, the building is likely to become Northern Ireland’s largest and most successful built attraction.

Outdated legal lettering on ADL Enviro300 27808 stored at Wick depot on 26/7/2025.

Taken with My Ciro Flex Model E using outdated Ilford XP2 Super 400 ASA film. Liner departing Reserved Channel, Old Boston Army Base South Boston, Mass.

• Camera: Nikon FM

• Film: Fuji Superia 200 (outdated)

• Blog | Tumblr

Taken for the Dyxum Film Challenge (One third keepers) 2019.

Outdated Ilford XP2 rated at ISO 200, Minolta 9000AF, and Minolta AF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom.

I think it may be fair to say that the C3 is a somewhat controversial camera. Everybody will acknowledge that it had an impressive production run - but most will deride it as being "clumsy" and outdated even in its own time. On the other hand there are those who swear it has an excellent lens and is a great camera.

Having been fiddling around with this late model (1959) Argus C3, it's been on my mind that maybe it's time to really look at the camera and reassess its standing in photographic history.

I have no nostalgia for the thing. It was out of production for well over a decade before I was born. I've had five of them, and gave most away to friends. I don't buy that the lens is that great, the Cintar was of variable quality but even the "good" ones are only OK at best. The bad ones are well, bad. They all suffer from some degree of coma and chromatic aberration. They will give good results on B&W, assuming you don't make huge prints (which it was never intended for anyway) but it has difficulty in my opinion when it comes to rendering color. Noticeable CA, odd color rendition, soft contrast.

The shutter is a Rube Goldberg-esque affair that wasn't accurate even when new (although if you take the time to properly adjust it it can be fairly accurate ) - and the 1/300 top speed was more or less a marketing hoax. In tests the 1/300 setting produced an actual performance of 1/150 (according to Consumer Reports, if my memory serves me correctly) - other sources apparently managed to get 1/200 out of it. Strangely Argus never did the honourable thing and relabel the dial to be more accurate.

Then the various other foibles of the design such as the tiny viewfinder, the afterthought rangefinder coupling, the under-engineered film transport - etc.

Do these things make the camera bad though? No not really. Indeed when it was introduced in 1939 it was on the cutting edge. Having rangefinder coupled focusing was a big deal back then - and having flash synchronization was still a novelty! Heck Leica didn't offer flash synchronization until after WWII. Not to mention that at that time things like knob winds and separate RF windows were the order of the day.

What made me reconsider the C3 in terms of its "outdatedness" was I happened across a 1959 issue of Camera 35. In it they have a list of most of the 35mm cameras available in the U.S. at the time.

Two things struck me. First was the number of behind the lens leaf shutter rangefinders that were available. So far as I know, the Argus C of 1938 was the first of this breed of camera - a fact that seems to be never mentioned. I may be wrong on this point but I would be happy to be corrected if that is the case. The C3 may have been the progenitor of such great cameras as the Aires V, Olympus Ace, and Regula IIIc.

Another point that struck me was that the Leica IIIg was on the list. You hear so often that the C3 was so outdated by the 1960s. Ususally when I think of it - I tend to compare the C3 in my mind to the cutting edge, things like the Pentax Spotmatic and Topcon Super D were available at the same time as the C3! It's almost mind boggling to think the world had moved on to SLRs with TTL metering, yet photoshops could still have brand spanking new C3s on the shelves alongside them!

Thinking along that line - it's easy to dismiss the C3 as a silly camera way beyond its prime with little merit. But when I saw the Leica IIIg on the list, I began to see the whole thing from a different point of view. The Leica III series was introduced in 1933. The IIIg was the last III and it was discontinued in 1960. That's a production run of 27 years.

The Argus C3 was introduced in 1939 and discontinued in 1966. That too is a production run of 27 years.

The IIIg and the C3 both still had knob winds and separate viewfinders in 1960. Leica was good enough to give the IIIg a larger viewfinder though, but that aside both the Argus and Leica were "outdated" in a few of the same ways.

And when I studied the other makes and models on the list I began to see the C3 was not so trivial as it is often portrayed to be in retrospect. Long in tooth yes, but outdated, no. Plus unlike the Leica IIIg, the Argus had the excuse of price for it's old fashioned features. Costing a mere $39 it was one of the cheapest 35mm cameras you could get in the U.S. from any country. If you were willing to spend just $10 more though you opened the door to a world of Japanese made cameras with lever wind and faster lenses. But you couldn't get another interchangeable lens camera for under $79. Both the Exa and Olympus Ace being the next cheapest options for lens interchangeability.

And besides, if knob wind and a separate viewfinder were acceptable on a $200 camera, they probably didn't seem too bad on a $39 one. I think the C3 was not quite as trivial towards the end of its run as it is often made out to be. It's quite obvious that it still filled its niche near the bottom of the price ladder as a useable 35mm camera.

It's true that some very advanced cameras were available, and more just around the corner in 1959 - but looking at the wider picture of all that was available, the C3 comes out looking a lot less grizzled than we sometimes like to imagine it.

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,514 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. One of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built between 1909–11 by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She carried 2,224 people.

Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in North America. The ship was designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. She also had a powerful wireless telegraph provided for the convenience of passengers as well as for operational use. Though she had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, she lacked enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people – a third of her total passenger and crew capacity.

After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading westwards towards New York. On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm (ship's time; UTC-3). The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly filled. A disproportionate number of men – over 90% of those in Second Class – were left aboard due to a "women and children first" protocol followed by the officers loading the lifeboats. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean. The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by the RMS Carpathia a few hours later.

The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today. Many of the survivors lost all of their money and possessions and were left destitute; many families, particularly those of crew members from Southampton, lost their primary bread-winners. They were helped by an outpouring of public sympathy and charitable donations. Some of the male survivors, notably the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, were accused of cowardice for leaving the ship while people were still on board, and they faced social ostracism.

The wreck of the Titanic remains on the seabed, gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, films, exhibits and memorials.

Belfast has opened the Iconic Titanic Signature Building which will house Titanic Belfast ® it is iconic in design and houses a world class visitor attraction. It is located at Titanic Quarter (East Belfast). The exhibition is based on the theme of the Titanic and the wider subject of Belfast’s shipbuilding and maritime heritage. Of such scale, the building is likely to become Northern Ireland’s largest and most successful built attraction.

Meanwhile Victoria Square are marking the Anniversary with an uplifting sculpture.

Over 14,000 balloons were used to create the sculpture

A new 45-ft balloon sculpture celebrating the Titanic is being unveiled at Victoria Square in Belfast.

The sculpture will be covered in more than 14,000 balloons and is 1/22 scale model of the Titanic itself.

It was crafted by Portadown-based sculptor Fiona Fisher and her team.

The sculpture was commissioned by Victoria Square in conjunction with the Titanic Foundation.The floating artwork will act as a centre-piece for a month-long series of events for the Titanic's 100th anniversary.

As part of the commemorations, a Titanic-themed art exhibition will feature alongside a 3D representation of the ship's famous staircase.

It is hoped the model will qualify as the world's biggest balloon exhibition of the Titanic.

What began as a hobby for Ms Fisher soon turned into a full-time job that has taken her around the world over the last 13 years.

"Luckily I've been to Dallas, Las Vegas, Buenos Aires, Trinidad, Japan, Lebanon, Taiwan, Russia, and pretty much all over Europe," she said.

"I've made lots of sculptures. A replica of a Ferrari, a giant Guinness pint and lots of different things."

It is not the first time Victoria Square has attempted to attract customers using art work.

Last April, an 18-tonne sand sculpture of the Giant's Causeway was commissioned by the centre in conjunction with the National Trust.

Ultimately that ended in disappointment as vandals destroyed the attraction after just two weeks.

When asked if she was worried someone might destroy the sculpture, Ms Fisher warned it might not be a good idea.

"If somebody tried to jump on top of ours I think they'd be in for a shock. They'd fall 20-ft or more so I don't think that'd be a good idea."

“

I've made lots of sculptures. A replica of a Ferrari, a giant Guinness pint and lots of different things

Fiona Fisher, Balloon sculptor

The concept came about almost by accident as Ms Fisher was putting up elaborate balloon decorations in the shopping complex as part of last years' Halloween celebrations.

"Last October, we were putting up decorations for the centre and the manager suggested doing something for the Titanic anniversary. We suggested doing something in balloons and that's where it all started from."

Although the ambitious structure is not the world's largest balloon model, it is in the process of being verified by Guinness World Records as the biggest balloon model of the Titanic.

Victoria Square Centre manager Hugh Black said the display was "fabulous".

"The Titanic theme is great for Belfast. The whole Titanic experience is great for the Northern Ireland tourism industry and we want to be a part of it. I think it will bring a lot of people," he said.

The temporary sculpture will remain in place for about two to three weeks at which point air will begin to seep from the balloons.

The Lewis and Clark Class came to the scene in 2006, replacing the outdated auxiliary vessels of the Cold War. The 14 L&C ships were designed to maximize the space of a larger ship (as compared to their predecessors) to perform replenishment and refueling more quickly, being able to transport 1,388,000 cubic feet of cargo (food stores, spare parts, munitions, etc.) and 23,450 barrels of fuel cargo (aviation fuel and fuel for warships). The ships are powered diesel generators and propelled by a single screw and a bow thruster. They are crewed by 11 naval personnel and 124 civilians. For defense, they have mounting points for .50 cals and the reserve power to operate CIWS if installed. They have a flight deck and hangar space for two helicopters.

Just like the USAF has the Military Airlift Command, the USN has the Military Sealift Command which has jurisdiction of the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force which the L&Cs are apart of. They transit the ocean with the strike fleets for when they are needed. It is unlikely they would run out of dry cargo at sea during a normal deployment. However, they do run out of fuel cargo and when they do, they break off from the fleet and rendezvous with a Henry Kaiser Class Oiler to top off and then return to the fleet. They also perform roles such as offshore replacement stations for landed marine forces during amphibious operations.

This model turned out larger than I expected, but the proportions are still mostly accurate.

Eos 500n with Pentacon 29mm Outdated film Konica Centuria 200 + Home processed C41 + conversion on Perfect B&W

note: photo contains outdated watermark

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The history of the Swiss Air Force began in 1914 with the establishment of an ad hoc force consisting of a handful of men in outdated and largely civilian aircraft. It was only in the 1930s the military and civilian leadership decided to establish an effective air force. On 13 December 1929, in what was in retrospect referred to as the "bill to create an air force", the Federal Council asked the Swiss Federal Assembly to approve the spending of 20 million francs for the purchase of 65 French Dewoitine D.27 fighters and the manufacture of 40 Dutch (Fokker C.V-E) reconnaissance planes under license.

Although the opposition Social Democratic Party collected 42,000 signatures in a petition opposing the bill, Parliament passed it handily and declined to allow a referendum on the issue, optional at that time for spending bills. This was the start of a massive armament program that would consume more than a billion francs over the next ten years, but after Hitler's rise to power in Germany, the Social Democrats added their support to the efforts.

When enough monoplane fighters had widely become available for the Swiss Air Force in 1943, the C-3400/-3401 biplanes were quickly removed from front-line service. They served on in second-line surveillance and aerial patrol units, or they were transferred to training units, where most of the type (a total of 119 were built) survived the hostilities. The last C-3400/-3401 was finally withdrawn from service in 1954, and only a single specimen survived in the collection of the Aviation Museum (Flieger Flab Museum) in Dübendorf, Switzerland.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in)

Wingspan: 10.02 m (32 ft 10 in)

Height: 3 m (9 ft 10 in)

Wing area: 23 m2 (250 sq ft)

Airfoil: NACA M-12

Empty weight: 1,360 kg (2,998 lb)

Gross weight: 1,740 kg (3,836 lb)

Powerplant:

1× BMW VI 7.3 V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine, 634 kW (850 hp),

driving a three-bladed variable pitch metal propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 400 km/h (250 mph, 220 kn) at 3,000 m (9,843 ft)

Service ceiling: 11,500 m (37,700 ft)

Rate of climb: 16.67 m/s (3,281 ft/min)

Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5 minutes 30 seconds

Wing loading: 75.7 kg/m2 (15.5 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.36 kW/kg (0.22 hp/lb)

Armament:

2× fixed, forward-firing 7.5 mm (.295 in) MAC 1934 machine guns with 600 RPG

4× underwing hardpoints for 20 lb (9.1 kg) bombs (rarely used)

The kit and its assembly:

This whiffy biplane was/is just a kit travesty – the fictional EKW C-34 is a Kawasaki Ki-10 (the ICM kit) with mild mods and Swiss pre-WWII markings. I had an eye on the quite elegant Japanese fighter for a while, and due to its engine with German roots (its Kawasaki Ha9-IIa was a license-built water-cooled BMW VI V12 engine) I thought about a European operator – and eventually I decided to make it a Swiss aircraft.

The ICM kit was built almost OOB, the only changes I made were the spatted wheels (IIRC left over from an ICM Polikarpov I-15 biplane), which needed some tweaks on the OOB struts, and the different, closed canopy (from a Hobby Boss A6M Zero), because I wanted a relatively modern look, comparable with the contemporary Avia B-534 biplane. Mounting it was tricky, because of the “step” under the windscreen, so that I had to add a console under it, and some PSR was necessary to blend the canopy, which was cut into three parts for open display, into the rounded back of the Ki-10. A scratched antenna mast was added, too, to fill the respective opening in the rear part of the dorsal glazing. Thanks to the many braces of the A6M canopy, the implant looks quite organic.

The ICM Ki-10 went together quite well, it’s a rather simple kit with only a single sprue and few parts. The biggest challenge was the upper wing, though, which is only carried by the struts. The locator pins are only marginal, and finding a proper position took some time and superglue.

I furthermore modified the propeller with a long metal axis and a tube adapter inside if the fuselage, so that it could spin freely.

Painting and markings:

The reason why the Ki-10 became a Swiss aircraft was the paint scheme – a quite attractive tricolor splinter pattern (apparently inspired by the similar German camouflage in RLM 61,62 and 63?) was the Swiss Air Force’s standard at the breakout of WWII, and I adopted it for the C-3401, too.

The pattern is vaguely based on a real C-35 biplane (presented at the Dübendorf Aviation Museum), which I deem to look authentic, and I tried to emulate its colors as good as possible. I settled on Desert Yellow (Humbrol 94, the tone is officially called “Ochre” but appears to be quite yellowish), French Khaki Green (ModelMaster 2106) and Chestnut Brown (ModelMaster 2107, another French WWII aircraft tone), with light grey (Humbrol 64) undersides. Painting the splinter scheme with a brush on a biplane like this was tricky, though. The cockpit interior was painted with a grey-green tone similar to RLM 02 (Humbrol 45), the wing struts became black.

As usual, the model received a light black ink washing, plus some post-panel shading and dry-brushing to emphasize details and to weather it, but only lightly, because the aircraft would not have been involved in fights.

The roundels on the upper wings came from a generic TL-Modellbau national markings sheet, while the red bands for the national insignia under the lower wings and on the rudder were painted. The white cross on the fin comes from a Swiss BAe Hawk trainer (Italeri), while the slightly bigger white cross under the lower wings was scratched from white decal stripes. The tactical code comes from a Croatian MiG-21UM trainer (KP kit), the unit badge is fictional and came from a Spanish Heinkel He 70.

The model was sealed overall with matt acrylic varnish, and as a final step the rigging was applied, made from heated black sprue material, using the real Ki-10 as benchmark for the connections/positions.

A pretty result, and the simple travesty of the elegant Ki-10 into a late interwar biplane from Continental Europe works surprisingly well. The spats and the closed canopy might not have been necessary, but they modernize and change the aircraft, so that its use during WWII – even though not in any offensive role – becomes even more believable. The splinter scheme suits the aircraft well, too, even though its application was a bit tricky, as well as the Swiss roundels.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

With the end of the conflict in Africa in early 1974, the Portuguese Armed Forces went through a reorganization and shifted their focus back from counter-insurgency to honoring Portugal's commitments to NATO and preparing for a possible conflict in Europe against the Warsaw Pact. The Portuguese Air Force's F-86F Sabre and G.91 fighters were considered to be outdated in both the air defense and ground attack roles to face Soviet forces in the European operations theater. Furthermore, only a few Sabre fighters were actually in service due to problems with the engines and lack of spare parts.

The last Saab 35 in Swedish service was retired in 1999, the last Saab 35 Draken was withdrawn from military use in Austria in 2005 – 50 years after the type first flew. However, several aircraft still fly today in private operators’ service.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 15.35 m (50 ft 4 in)

Wingspan: 9.42 m (30 ft 11 in)

Height: 3.89 m (12 ft 9 in)

Wing area: 49.2 m2 (530 ft²)

Airfoil: 5%

Empty weight: 7,865 kg (17,339 lb)

Gross weight: 11,000 kg (24,251 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 11,914 kg (26,266 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Svenska Flygmotor RM6C (license-built Rolls Royce Avon with Swedish afterburner)

turbojet engine, 56.5 kN (12,700 lbf) thrust dry, 78.4 kN (17,600 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: 2,450 km/h (1,520 mph, 1,320 kn) at 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Maximum speed: Mach 2

Range: 1.120 km (605 nmi; 696 mi); clean, internal fuel only

Ferry range: 2,750 km (1,480 nmi; 1,710 mi) with four external 500 l drop tanks

Service ceiling: 20,000 m (66,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 199 m/s (39,200 ft/min)

Wing loading: 231.6 kg/m² (47.4 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.7

Takeoff roll: 800 m (2,625 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm AKAN M/55 ADEN cannon with 100 rounds per gun

4× hardpoints with a capacity of 2,900 kg (6,393 lb); typical interceptor ordnance:

2× 500 l ventral drop tanks and 2× AIM-9 Sidewinder under the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model came as a spontaneous idea when I browsed through the WWW for inspiration. I stumbled upon the history of the Portuguese Air Force and the fact that it did not operate any dedicated interceptor for 15 years – this task was taken over by the PAF’s A-7s(!) until the F-16 arrived in the Nineties This gap offered a lot of whiffing potential, and I had actually considered to build a whiffy FAP Mirage III for some time, since I knew that this was, together with the F-5, the favored type. However, there was also serious consideration of the Saab 35 as potential fighter alternative, too!

I found this idea so weird/exotic that I decided to build a Draken in FAP colors. The kit is the Hasegawa model, in a Revell re-boxing. I also considered the vintage Revell Saab 35 (a mold from 1957!), but after I saw the kit in a current re-boxing from Polish company Akkura, I took the chance of a reasonably priced Hasegawa kit instead. While the Akkura kit is crisply molded, it would take a lot of work to create a satisfactory “modern” Draken from it. I also had a Heller kit in store (my personal favorite), but I did not want to “sacrifice” it for this project.

The Hasegawa/Revell kit was basically built OOB. The kit is a simple, straightforward affair, with fine recessed engravings and good fit, but it’s IMHO far from extraordinary. It also has its flaws: the dashboard is totally blank, any instruments have to be created by yourself or taken from the decal sheet. There are ejection marks on the wheels and the landing gear covers, and the fit quality of some areas (e .g. the seam between the fuselage and the afterburner section) calls for PSR. The two-piece canopy is thin, very clear and fits well, the landing gear is sufficiently detailed – including the interior of the main landing gear wells.

For the FAP version I did not change much; I just replaced the seat (which OOB looks fine, I just wanted “something else”), added a radar warning antenna to the fin’s tip and chaff dispensers around the tail section, all carved from styrene profiles.

Unfortunately, the Revell re-boxing just comes with a pair of launch rails and underwing pylons, but no AA weapons at all. That’s acceptable for the anniversary machine that you can build from the kit, but leaves the other option, a grey, Swedish J35 H, without any ordnance.

The drop tanks on my build are OOB, together with their ventral hardpoints, and I added a pair of decent AIM-9J Sidewinders from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapon set for a suitable interceptor ordnance. The launch rails were recycled from the kit: they are actually missile rails with attachment points to mount them under the air intakes. The rails were separated and then attached to the OOB underwing pylons, this worked very well.

Painting and markings:

The livery was not an easy choice. Initially I favored a uniform pale grey livery with blue squadron markings, inspired by the late F-86s of FAP 51 squadron, but found this, despite being a plausible look for an interceptor, to look quite boring. For the same reason I rejected an Austria-style “Hill II” scheme or a light-grey USN-inspired “Compass Ghost” livery. The Hellenic “Ghost” wraparound scheme was another potential option, but I recently used something similar on another whif build (the Catalonian L-159 ALCA), and it would not have a typically Portuguese Cold War look.

Keeping in style with the FAP’s livery fashion during the Eighties, I rather settled upon a USAF SEA scheme, which was carried by many PAF aircraft during the Eighties, e .g. the A-7P, the G.91, and their replacement from 1993 onwards, the Alpha Jet. Instead of a wraparound version for ground attack aircraft, I rather gave the Draken light grey undersides.

The camouflage pattern itself was improvised, since I did not want to copy an existing delta wing aircraft (e.g. the USAF’s F-102 or F-106 SEA pattern, or the Belgian Mirage Vs). The basic colors are Humbrol 75 (Bronze Green; the authentic tone is FS 34079, but this lacks IMHO contrast to the lighter green), 117 (FS 34102) and 118 (FS 30219) from above, and Humbrol 28 (FS 36622) underneath.

A large ventral section was, typical for the J 35, left in bare metal, since leaking fuel and oil would frequently eat away any paint there. The section was painted with Steel Metallizer (ModelMaster) and later treated with Matt Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol).

Internal details like the cockpit and the landing gear were painted with the help of Swedish and Austrian Saab 35 reference pictures. The cockpit tub was painted in a dark, bluish green (Humbrol 76) with grey-green (Revell 67) side walls. A piece of paper tissue covers the cockpit’s back wall, since the kit leaves a visible and rather ugly seam there, which is only partly hidden behind the seat.

The landing gear and its respective wells were painted with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope), parts of the struts were painted in a bright turquoise (a mix of Humbrol 89 and 80; looks quite weird, but I like such details!). The front wheel received a dark green mudguard (Humbrol 30), the same color was also partially used on the extended emergency current generator. Missiles and launch rails were painted in gloss white (Humbrol 22).

As per usual, the model received a light black ink wash and some post-shading in order to emphasize the panels and dramatize the surface. Some extra weathering was done around the gun ports and the jet nozzle with graphite.

For markings I used the contemporary A-7Ps as benchmark: they were minimal, there were even no squadron markings or other decorations, and I think they even lacked roundels on their wings!

I gave the Draken slightly more markings: The small FAP roundels come from a PrintScale A/T-37 sheet, the fin flashes are from a TL Modellbai sheet and the tactical codes belong to a Japanese T-4 trainer. Most stencils were taken from the Revell OOB sheet, which also includes decals for the reddish sealer around the cockpit windows.

I didn’t want to leave the Draken without any squadron marking, though, so I gave it a blue band on top of the fin, as a reminiscence of the FAP 51 squadron’s markings, the former final F-86 operator which became 201 squadron in the early Eighties. These were simply done with layered white and blue decal stripes.

Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), except for the black radome, which received a sheen varnish coat.

A relatively simple whif project, since the model was mostly built OOB with just minor cosmetic changes. However, despite its exotic operator, the USAF South East Asia scheme suits the Draken well, the whole thing looks disturbingly convincing!?

It’s also a kind of tribute build for “Sport16ing”, apparently a great fan of my what-if builds who frequently re-posts pictures and background stories (with kind permission to do so!) at deviantart.com.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

With the end of the conflict in Africa in early 1974, the Portuguese Armed Forces went through a reorganization and shifted their focus back from counter-insurgency to honoring Portugal's commitments to NATO and preparing for a possible conflict in Europe against the Warsaw Pact. The Portuguese Air Force's F-86F Sabre and G.91 fighters were considered to be outdated in both the air defense and ground attack roles to face Soviet forces in the European operations theater. Furthermore, only a few Sabre fighters were actually in service due to problems with the engines and lack of spare parts.

The last Saab 35 in Swedish service was retired in 1999, the last Saab 35 Draken was withdrawn from military use in Austria in 2005 – 50 years after the type first flew. However, several aircraft still fly today in private operators’ service.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 15.35 m (50 ft 4 in)

Wingspan: 9.42 m (30 ft 11 in)

Height: 3.89 m (12 ft 9 in)

Wing area: 49.2 m2 (530 ft²)

Airfoil: 5%

Empty weight: 7,865 kg (17,339 lb)

Gross weight: 11,000 kg (24,251 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 11,914 kg (26,266 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Svenska Flygmotor RM6C (license-built Rolls Royce Avon with Swedish afterburner)

turbojet engine, 56.5 kN (12,700 lbf) thrust dry, 78.4 kN (17,600 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: 2,450 km/h (1,520 mph, 1,320 kn) at 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Maximum speed: Mach 2

Range: 1.120 km (605 nmi; 696 mi); clean, internal fuel only

Ferry range: 2,750 km (1,480 nmi; 1,710 mi) with four external 500 l drop tanks

Service ceiling: 20,000 m (66,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 199 m/s (39,200 ft/min)

Wing loading: 231.6 kg/m² (47.4 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.7

Takeoff roll: 800 m (2,625 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm AKAN M/55 ADEN cannon with 100 rounds per gun

4× hardpoints with a capacity of 2,900 kg (6,393 lb); typical interceptor ordnance:

2× 500 l ventral drop tanks and 2× AIM-9 Sidewinder under the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model came as a spontaneous idea when I browsed through the WWW for inspiration. I stumbled upon the history of the Portuguese Air Force and the fact that it did not operate any dedicated interceptor for 15 years – this task was taken over by the PAF’s A-7s(!) until the F-16 arrived in the Nineties This gap offered a lot of whiffing potential, and I had actually considered to build a whiffy FAP Mirage III for some time, since I knew that this was, together with the F-5, the favored type. However, there was also serious consideration of the Saab 35 as potential fighter alternative, too!

I found this idea so weird/exotic that I decided to build a Draken in FAP colors. The kit is the Hasegawa model, in a Revell re-boxing. I also considered the vintage Revell Saab 35 (a mold from 1957!), but after I saw the kit in a current re-boxing from Polish company Akkura, I took the chance of a reasonably priced Hasegawa kit instead. While the Akkura kit is crisply molded, it would take a lot of work to create a satisfactory “modern” Draken from it. I also had a Heller kit in store (my personal favorite), but I did not want to “sacrifice” it for this project.

The Hasegawa/Revell kit was basically built OOB. The kit is a simple, straightforward affair, with fine recessed engravings and good fit, but it’s IMHO far from extraordinary. It also has its flaws: the dashboard is totally blank, any instruments have to be created by yourself or taken from the decal sheet. There are ejection marks on the wheels and the landing gear covers, and the fit quality of some areas (e .g. the seam between the fuselage and the afterburner section) calls for PSR. The two-piece canopy is thin, very clear and fits well, the landing gear is sufficiently detailed – including the interior of the main landing gear wells.

For the FAP version I did not change much; I just replaced the seat (which OOB looks fine, I just wanted “something else”), added a radar warning antenna to the fin’s tip and chaff dispensers around the tail section, all carved from styrene profiles.

Unfortunately, the Revell re-boxing just comes with a pair of launch rails and underwing pylons, but no AA weapons at all. That’s acceptable for the anniversary machine that you can build from the kit, but leaves the other option, a grey, Swedish J35 H, without any ordnance.

The drop tanks on my build are OOB, together with their ventral hardpoints, and I added a pair of decent AIM-9J Sidewinders from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapon set for a suitable interceptor ordnance. The launch rails were recycled from the kit: they are actually missile rails with attachment points to mount them under the air intakes. The rails were separated and then attached to the OOB underwing pylons, this worked very well.

Painting and markings:

The livery was not an easy choice. Initially I favored a uniform pale grey livery with blue squadron markings, inspired by the late F-86s of FAP 51 squadron, but found this, despite being a plausible look for an interceptor, to look quite boring. For the same reason I rejected an Austria-style “Hill II” scheme or a light-grey USN-inspired “Compass Ghost” livery. The Hellenic “Ghost” wraparound scheme was another potential option, but I recently used something similar on another whif build (the Catalonian L-159 ALCA), and it would not have a typically Portuguese Cold War look.

Keeping in style with the FAP’s livery fashion during the Eighties, I rather settled upon a USAF SEA scheme, which was carried by many PAF aircraft during the Eighties, e .g. the A-7P, the G.91, and their replacement from 1993 onwards, the Alpha Jet. Instead of a wraparound version for ground attack aircraft, I rather gave the Draken light grey undersides.

The camouflage pattern itself was improvised, since I did not want to copy an existing delta wing aircraft (e.g. the USAF’s F-102 or F-106 SEA pattern, or the Belgian Mirage Vs). The basic colors are Humbrol 75 (Bronze Green; the authentic tone is FS 34079, but this lacks IMHO contrast to the lighter green), 117 (FS 34102) and 118 (FS 30219) from above, and Humbrol 28 (FS 36622) underneath.

A large ventral section was, typical for the J 35, left in bare metal, since leaking fuel and oil would frequently eat away any paint there. The section was painted with Steel Metallizer (ModelMaster) and later treated with Matt Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol).

Internal details like the cockpit and the landing gear were painted with the help of Swedish and Austrian Saab 35 reference pictures. The cockpit tub was painted in a dark, bluish green (Humbrol 76) with grey-green (Revell 67) side walls. A piece of paper tissue covers the cockpit’s back wall, since the kit leaves a visible and rather ugly seam there, which is only partly hidden behind the seat.

The landing gear and its respective wells were painted with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope), parts of the struts were painted in a bright turquoise (a mix of Humbrol 89 and 80; looks quite weird, but I like such details!). The front wheel received a dark green mudguard (Humbrol 30), the same color was also partially used on the extended emergency current generator. Missiles and launch rails were painted in gloss white (Humbrol 22).

As per usual, the model received a light black ink wash and some post-shading in order to emphasize the panels and dramatize the surface. Some extra weathering was done around the gun ports and the jet nozzle with graphite.

For markings I used the contemporary A-7Ps as benchmark: they were minimal, there were even no squadron markings or other decorations, and I think they even lacked roundels on their wings!

I gave the Draken slightly more markings: The small FAP roundels come from a PrintScale A/T-37 sheet, the fin flashes are from a TL Modellbai sheet and the tactical codes belong to a Japanese T-4 trainer. Most stencils were taken from the Revell OOB sheet, which also includes decals for the reddish sealer around the cockpit windows.

I didn’t want to leave the Draken without any squadron marking, though, so I gave it a blue band on top of the fin, as a reminiscence of the FAP 51 squadron’s markings, the former final F-86 operator which became 201 squadron in the early Eighties. These were simply done with layered white and blue decal stripes.

Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), except for the black radome, which received a sheen varnish coat.

A relatively simple whif project, since the model was mostly built OOB with just minor cosmetic changes. However, despite its exotic operator, the USAF South East Asia scheme suits the Draken well, the whole thing looks disturbingly convincing!?

It’s also a kind of tribute build for “Sport16ing”, apparently a great fan of my what-if builds who frequently re-posts pictures and background stories (with kind permission to do so!) at deviantart.com.

This was a birthday gift for my husband to upgrade his outdated point and shoot camera. He claims he was happy with the crappy old one but I know I wasn't. Being that he has a good eye and was taking nicely composed and creative shots, it was frustrating for me to see the lack of quality otherwise on account of the camera. After first trial, a week on vacation, the new camera seemed to grow on him quite a bit, despite his complaints of it being too bulky to slip into his pocket like the old one. The photos coming from this camera are pretty great. So, it turns out, it was worth selling one of my lenses for ;)

Shown here in addition to the camera are:

Hoya Digital Filter Kit 52mm (UV© Multi-Coat, Circular PL, NDx8)

Panasonic - DMW-LA6 Conversion Lens Adapter

Optech Soft Pouch D-Mini (Digital D-Series) - sleek yet loose enough to get camera in and out with ease and will fit with adaptor attached.

Optech - The CAM STRAP™ - QD for use on the wrist (comfy and secure)

Bower 52mm snap on lens cap for protecting filter on adapter

Not shown but part of his kit:

Lowepro Edit 110 Camera bag - nicely holds everything in the kit plus room to add more

Lumix camera strap that came with camera - he prefers not to have camera around neck

Extra Panasonic DMW-BCJ13 Lithium-Ion Battery - necessary item, seems to drain fast

16GB Sandisk Ultra 15 mb/second SDHC memory card - taking movies will eat this up in a hurry

WARNING: Be careful if ordering anything from New World Video Direct online. I searched high and low for the Panasonic accessories for this camera but since it is such a popular camera and so new on the market, the brand name accessories for it were in very short supply. I couldn't find the filters anywhere and the only place I could find the adaptor and wide angle lens was at this place so I put an order in to them. Then I get a call from them about how there are better products for this camera than the Panasonic brand and that they knew first hand because the personnel all had the same camera. So after a short time of hard sale tactics, I was brainwashed (almost) into ordering what they wanted me to buy and not one thing of the 4 items that I'd originally ordered. I said that I wanted to think about it and to not go ahead with the order until I called them back. Then I get a call from another employee who is supposedly their expert on this camera and he told me that the ND8 filter is the same thing as the Circular Polarizer and that I didn't need both, also that the Panasonic adaptor was made of plastic and the generic brand was metal. The wide angle lens, they tried to convince me that the Crystal Optics version was better quality than the Panasonic. My thinking is this: They advertise the difficult to get and popular items at an attractive price to get people to order, then they try to get you to change your order to something comparable that they actually have in stock. I cancelled my order once I read what some customers had to say on this site: www.resellerratings.com/store/New_World_Video_Direct_NVW_...

Thankfully, they cancelled my order and it never went through on my credit card. I rethought my order and went to B&H (where I usually shop, plus Adorama) and ordered just the Panasonic adaptor (which really is metal), a set of Hoya Digital Filters, and a Bower lens cap to fit atop the filter. Holding off on the lens add ons until later.

Arthur's Perfect Christmas had bad impact on bad recommendations like giving children under 3 years old a Mr. Potato Head and/or a Mrs. Potato Head instead of jumbo Crayola crayons and jumbo chalks, putting buttons on infant toys such as Kids II Discovery Pal rainbow caterpillar plush toys, having elementary schools and daycare centers have nasty dangerous dry erase boards, having schools have the most infamous PA system Bogen Multicom 2000 and media with characters expressing anger in a mean scary way like Frankie Foster, having ice cream trucks with the bad old outdated misleading red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO which is extremely inappropriate for ice cream trucks nowadays, and having people receive stuff they don't want instead of stuff they want as Christmas presents because in Arthur's Perfect Christmas a therapist from a school with a Bogen Multicom 2000 system and ice cream trucks with a bad old outdated misleading red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blade that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO recommended Santa to bring DW a wrong toy instead of Tina the Talking tabby like she wanted and she then through temper tantrums because of all of these bad recommendations and especially I work for Santa and in real life Santa will never ever accepts all of these bad recommendations so this is a reason why I wanted schools to be legally required to be set up like Middleborough, Hilltop School from Timothy Goes to School, and/or my DeVry building in North Brunswick, NJ with all schools legally requiring to have green chalkboards and electric mechanical wall bells and various colors for classroom walls instead of just white, wanted McDonald's restaurants to be legally required to be McEyebrows with the yellow and orange awnings and better and safe updated indoor PlayPlace with better and safe steps and slides, activity puzzles, interactive lights, and touch screen games, etc, and wanted ice cream trucks to be legally required to all have the current updated yellow trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word CHILDREN SLOW CROSSING and/or school bus stop signs which are octagon shaped and octagon is the only shape that forms a stop sign and the only shape that means stop. And another bad recommendation from Arthur's perfect Christmas was recommending Corduroy's button to be in a storm drain was why Betty Quan made an upsetting ending to the Corduroy (Nelvana TV series) episode Cute as a Button where Corduroy's button falls in a storm drain and forgot to show that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put it back on Corduroy the Bear's green Corduroy overalls and that Corduroy the Bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever but good thing I am reviving Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of an entirely new episode called Two Buttons again and Forever which is the sequel to Cute as a Button fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good by showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and Corduroy the Bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever. And schools with a Bogen Multicom 2000 even recommend the inappropriate phrases about body parts from American Dad and Family Guy and the goofs Mickey Mouse's iconic red short overalls with yellow buttons and no shoulder straps being low waisted and looking like a loincloth they used to make Before Blue's Clues was ever created they used to make minor goofs of Mickey Mouse's iconic red short overalls with yellow buttons and no shoulder straps occasionally being low waisted and looking like a loincloth and having the buttons marking the human penises referencing the inappropriate phrases about body parts from American Dad and Family Guy is extremely vulgar and reminds me of when Corduroy's button was in a storm drain at the end of Cute as a Button which made me extremely upset but good thing I am working for Nelvana reviving Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good by showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and Corduroy the Bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever. They MUST CENSOR the inappropriate phrases about body parts in ALL future American Dad and Family Guy broadcasts because the inappropriate phrases about body parts from American Dad and Family Guy are so gross and inappropriate and so annoying and cringy like Dee Dee's laugh from Dexter's Laboratory and the inappropriate phrases about body parts from Family Guy are making me worried for Corduroy's button and the author of the Corduroy (Nelvana TV series) episode Betty Quan was also watching Dexter's Laboratory and having on DeeDee laughing in the episode of Dexter's Laboratory she was watching while writing the Corduroy episode Cute as a Button is why the Corduroy episode Cute as a Button does have an upsetting ending where Corduroy's button fell in a storm drain across the street from Lisa and Corduroy's apartment Building and forgot to show that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and that Corduroy the Bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever and in that storm drain, right after when the button fell in DeeDee from Dexter's Laboratory made Mowgli from Disney's 1967 animated film The Jungle Book fall on Corduroy's button and lay his stomach on the bottom of the storm drain and Corduroy's button was going on the front of Mowgli's bright red cotton fabric loincloth shorts and DeeDee was laughing about it which made me super upset which caused me to have guilt of Corduroy the Bear on December 2009 and what made my guilt of Corduroy the Bear worse was that a student at my middle school Dean Rusk in Canton Georgia named Jessie Burris told me a mean lie that an alligator ate Corduroy's button, yelled out the inappropriate phrases about body parts from American Dad and Family Guy at me, and then she punched me in the shoulder, then she told me to move on from my golden nostalgic toddler stuff like riding on school buses and bring back the bad things from the early 90s such as pear-shaped wrecking balls and ice cream trucks with the bad old outdated red trapezoid children slow crossing warning blades that word IF-SAFE STOP THEN-GO (which are extremely confusing to people who are deaf, color blind, can't read, or don't speak English and we need to help out those people out too) and then she told me that she liked DeeDee's annoying idiotic laugh from Dexter's Laboratory and the inappropriate phrases about body parts from American Dad and Family Guy which made me even more upset and worried for Corduroy and his button causing me to have anxiety with my guilt of Corduroy the Bear and all of that I was overeating so much food on December 2009 by making my bowl of Fruity Pebbles super big, munching giant stacks of salt and Vinegar Pringles Potato ships, and having a lot of extra school lunches and I was eating all of these foods all at once nervously for Corduroy and his button and then on exams week on my 8th grade school year on December 2009, I was having a sick stomach with green spots from overeating and then I had to rush to the restroom at my middle school Dean Rusk in Canton, Georgia and I was puking in the restroom bin at my middle school Dean Rusk in Canton Georgia and they had to send me home and skip the exam eventhough I wanted to take the exam and succeed in school. But good thing I am fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake by reviving the Nelvana TV show Corduroy with the premiere of an entirely new episode titled Two Buttons again and Forever which is the sequel to Cute as a Button showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and that Corduroy the Bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever and that I am writing and producing a lot more entirely new Corduroy episodes with Corduroy the Bear having two buttons on his green corduroy overalls instead of one and I am re-editing all season 1 episodes with Corduroy the Bear having two buttons on his green corduroy overalls instead of one and re-editing Betty Quan's Cute as a Button with the beginning of Two Buttons again and Forever as the alternative ending. Good thing I have decided to give up Family Guy because the inappropriate phrases about body parts from American Dad and Family Guy are making me worried for Corduroy's button and the other reason why I have decided to give up Family Guy is because I will have kids of my own when I live in Toronto reviving Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good by showing that they did get Corduroy's button out of the storm drain and put Corduroy's button back on Corduroy the Bear's green corduroy overalls and Corduroy The Bear does have two buttons on his green corduroy overalls forever. And my own kids will be a son named Pinocchio William Joseph Rich and a daughter named Pollyanna Wendy Lisa Rich. Good thing Disney now always have the waist of Mickey Mouse's iconic red short overalls with yellow buttons and no shoulder straps have the waist going all the way up to the chest and no longer having minor goofs of the overalls being low waisted and looking like a loincloth and I know for a fact all pants with two buttons going horizontally up in the front are overalls no matter if they have shoulder straps or not because pants always have the waist going all the way up to the chest if they have two buttons going horizontally up in the front no matter if they have shoulder straps or not. As one of my collaborations when I revive Nelvana's version of Corduroy the Bear with the premiere of Two Buttons again and Forever Fixing Betty Quan's upsetting mistake for good I will censor these stupid minor goofs of Mickey Mouse's overalls.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

With the end of the conflict in Africa in early 1974, the Portuguese Armed Forces went through a reorganization and shifted their focus back from counter-insurgency to honoring Portugal's commitments to NATO and preparing for a possible conflict in Europe against the Warsaw Pact. The Portuguese Air Force's F-86F Sabre and G.91 fighters were considered to be outdated in both the air defense and ground attack roles to face Soviet forces in the European operations theater. Furthermore, only a few Sabre fighters were actually in service due to problems with the engines and lack of spare parts.

The last Saab 35 in Swedish service was retired in 1999, the last Saab 35 Draken was withdrawn from military use in Austria in 2005 – 50 years after the type first flew. However, several aircraft still fly today in private operators’ service.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 15.35 m (50 ft 4 in)

Wingspan: 9.42 m (30 ft 11 in)

Height: 3.89 m (12 ft 9 in)

Wing area: 49.2 m2 (530 ft²)

Airfoil: 5%

Empty weight: 7,865 kg (17,339 lb)

Gross weight: 11,000 kg (24,251 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 11,914 kg (26,266 lb)

Powerplant:

1× Svenska Flygmotor RM6C (license-built Rolls Royce Avon with Swedish afterburner)

turbojet engine, 56.5 kN (12,700 lbf) thrust dry, 78.4 kN (17,600 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: 2,450 km/h (1,520 mph, 1,320 kn) at 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Maximum speed: Mach 2

Range: 1.120 km (605 nmi; 696 mi); clean, internal fuel only

Ferry range: 2,750 km (1,480 nmi; 1,710 mi) with four external 500 l drop tanks

Service ceiling: 20,000 m (66,000 ft)

Rate of climb: 199 m/s (39,200 ft/min)

Wing loading: 231.6 kg/m² (47.4 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.7

Takeoff roll: 800 m (2,625 ft)

Armament:

2× 30 mm AKAN M/55 ADEN cannon with 100 rounds per gun

4× hardpoints with a capacity of 2,900 kg (6,393 lb); typical interceptor ordnance:

2× 500 l ventral drop tanks and 2× AIM-9 Sidewinder under the wings

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model came as a spontaneous idea when I browsed through the WWW for inspiration. I stumbled upon the history of the Portuguese Air Force and the fact that it did not operate any dedicated interceptor for 15 years – this task was taken over by the PAF’s A-7s(!) until the F-16 arrived in the Nineties This gap offered a lot of whiffing potential, and I had actually considered to build a whiffy FAP Mirage III for some time, since I knew that this was, together with the F-5, the favored type. However, there was also serious consideration of the Saab 35 as potential fighter alternative, too!

I found this idea so weird/exotic that I decided to build a Draken in FAP colors. The kit is the Hasegawa model, in a Revell re-boxing. I also considered the vintage Revell Saab 35 (a mold from 1957!), but after I saw the kit in a current re-boxing from Polish company Akkura, I took the chance of a reasonably priced Hasegawa kit instead. While the Akkura kit is crisply molded, it would take a lot of work to create a satisfactory “modern” Draken from it. I also had a Heller kit in store (my personal favorite), but I did not want to “sacrifice” it for this project.

The Hasegawa/Revell kit was basically built OOB. The kit is a simple, straightforward affair, with fine recessed engravings and good fit, but it’s IMHO far from extraordinary. It also has its flaws: the dashboard is totally blank, any instruments have to be created by yourself or taken from the decal sheet. There are ejection marks on the wheels and the landing gear covers, and the fit quality of some areas (e .g. the seam between the fuselage and the afterburner section) calls for PSR. The two-piece canopy is thin, very clear and fits well, the landing gear is sufficiently detailed – including the interior of the main landing gear wells.

For the FAP version I did not change much; I just replaced the seat (which OOB looks fine, I just wanted “something else”), added a radar warning antenna to the fin’s tip and chaff dispensers around the tail section, all carved from styrene profiles.

Unfortunately, the Revell re-boxing just comes with a pair of launch rails and underwing pylons, but no AA weapons at all. That’s acceptable for the anniversary machine that you can build from the kit, but leaves the other option, a grey, Swedish J35 H, without any ordnance.

The drop tanks on my build are OOB, together with their ventral hardpoints, and I added a pair of decent AIM-9J Sidewinders from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapon set for a suitable interceptor ordnance. The launch rails were recycled from the kit: they are actually missile rails with attachment points to mount them under the air intakes. The rails were separated and then attached to the OOB underwing pylons, this worked very well.

Painting and markings:

The livery was not an easy choice. Initially I favored a uniform pale grey livery with blue squadron markings, inspired by the late F-86s of FAP 51 squadron, but found this, despite being a plausible look for an interceptor, to look quite boring. For the same reason I rejected an Austria-style “Hill II” scheme or a light-grey USN-inspired “Compass Ghost” livery. The Hellenic “Ghost” wraparound scheme was another potential option, but I recently used something similar on another whif build (the Catalonian L-159 ALCA), and it would not have a typically Portuguese Cold War look.

Keeping in style with the FAP’s livery fashion during the Eighties, I rather settled upon a USAF SEA scheme, which was carried by many PAF aircraft during the Eighties, e .g. the A-7P, the G.91, and their replacement from 1993 onwards, the Alpha Jet. Instead of a wraparound version for ground attack aircraft, I rather gave the Draken light grey undersides.

The camouflage pattern itself was improvised, since I did not want to copy an existing delta wing aircraft (e.g. the USAF’s F-102 or F-106 SEA pattern, or the Belgian Mirage Vs). The basic colors are Humbrol 75 (Bronze Green; the authentic tone is FS 34079, but this lacks IMHO contrast to the lighter green), 117 (FS 34102) and 118 (FS 30219) from above, and Humbrol 28 (FS 36622) underneath.

A large ventral section was, typical for the J 35, left in bare metal, since leaking fuel and oil would frequently eat away any paint there. The section was painted with Steel Metallizer (ModelMaster) and later treated with Matt Aluminum Metallizer (Humbrol).

Internal details like the cockpit and the landing gear were painted with the help of Swedish and Austrian Saab 35 reference pictures. The cockpit tub was painted in a dark, bluish green (Humbrol 76) with grey-green (Revell 67) side walls. A piece of paper tissue covers the cockpit’s back wall, since the kit leaves a visible and rather ugly seam there, which is only partly hidden behind the seat.

The landing gear and its respective wells were painted with Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope), parts of the struts were painted in a bright turquoise (a mix of Humbrol 89 and 80; looks quite weird, but I like such details!). The front wheel received a dark green mudguard (Humbrol 30), the same color was also partially used on the extended emergency current generator. Missiles and launch rails were painted in gloss white (Humbrol 22).

As per usual, the model received a light black ink wash and some post-shading in order to emphasize the panels and dramatize the surface. Some extra weathering was done around the gun ports and the jet nozzle with graphite.

For markings I used the contemporary A-7Ps as benchmark: they were minimal, there were even no squadron markings or other decorations, and I think they even lacked roundels on their wings!

I gave the Draken slightly more markings: The small FAP roundels come from a PrintScale A/T-37 sheet, the fin flashes are from a TL Modellbai sheet and the tactical codes belong to a Japanese T-4 trainer. Most stencils were taken from the Revell OOB sheet, which also includes decals for the reddish sealer around the cockpit windows.

I didn’t want to leave the Draken without any squadron marking, though, so I gave it a blue band on top of the fin, as a reminiscence of the FAP 51 squadron’s markings, the former final F-86 operator which became 201 squadron in the early Eighties. These were simply done with layered white and blue decal stripes.

Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri), except for the black radome, which received a sheen varnish coat.

A relatively simple whif project, since the model was mostly built OOB with just minor cosmetic changes. However, despite its exotic operator, the USAF South East Asia scheme suits the Draken well, the whole thing looks disturbingly convincing!?

It’s also a kind of tribute build for “Sport16ing”, apparently a great fan of my what-if builds who frequently re-posts pictures and background stories (with kind permission to do so!) at deviantart.com.

"ARNOLD! YA HOME! I JUST WANNA PAY OFF THE HELMET NOW AND GET IT OUTTA THE WAY, YA KNOW?!"

Yeah, I just walked in his mansion. Doors were unlocked. No smart for an rich weapon's designer. I was yelling like a drunken idiot through his big-ass mansion. Let's see here, gaudy painting, gunracks, 3-4 TVs per room. This is definably a rich dick's home. After about 2 minutes of screaming, I decided Arnold wasn't home. But then I heard voices. And light coming from a doorway. I run up to it and....it's just the fucking TV they forgot to turn off. Talking about the weather that made me have to dig out my old Jacket. I decided to sit down on the couch for a bit. Leaving the bag next to couch, I just take a breather. I looked around the room I was in. Let's see, a toybox, a trophy, a gun on a wall, and.....the fuck? Is that a video cassette? I haven't seen one of those in like, centuries. Why would Arnold have one? I pick it up and take a look. There's no sticker were the video's title would be, but poorly written in red was "job done'. This is fucked up. It stinks of suspicion. I gotta see what this is. I walked up to the big screen TV and looked for the VCR. There it is...on the floor. Time to see just what the hell Arnold's been up to.

Outdated Fuji Astia RAP100F; 50mm Hasselblad 500EL/M. Scan from color transparency.

2017 04 A03

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,514 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. One of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built between 1909–11 by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She carried 2,224 people.

Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in North America. The ship was designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. She also had a powerful wireless telegraph provided for the convenience of passengers as well as for operational use. Though she had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, she lacked enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people – a third of her total passenger and crew capacity.

After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading westwards towards New York. On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm (ship's time; UTC-3). The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly filled. A disproportionate number of men – over 90% of those in Second Class – were left aboard due to a "women and children first" protocol followed by the officers loading the lifeboats. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean. The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by the RMS Carpathia a few hours later.

The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today. Many of the survivors lost all of their money and possessions and were left destitute; many families, particularly those of crew members from Southampton, lost their primary bread-winners. They were helped by an outpouring of public sympathy and charitable donations. Some of the male survivors, notably the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, were accused of cowardice for leaving the ship while people were still on board, and they faced social ostracism.

The wreck of the Titanic remains on the seabed, gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, films, exhibits and memorials.

Belfast has opened the Iconic Titanic Signature Building which will house Titanic Belfast ® it is iconic in design and houses a world class visitor attraction. It is located at Titanic Quarter (East Belfast). The exhibition is based on the theme of the Titanic and the wider subject of Belfast’s shipbuilding and maritime heritage. Of such scale, the building is likely to become Northern Ireland’s largest and most successful built attraction.

A symbolic statue made by world-renowned Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie has been unveiled at Titanic Belfast.

‘Titanica’, a female figure designed to represent hope and positivity.

Gillespie has had work commissioned across the world, from Moscow to LA, but Titanica is his first work in Northern Ireland.

Titanica has been placed on the plaza in front of the iconic Titanic Belfast building, the world’s largest Titanic visitor attraction which will formally open on Saturday.

The bronze sculpture with a high-bolted brass base is a life-size female figure, similar to female figureheads which historically rested on the bows of ships as a symbol of good fortune.

Gillespie said: “I visited Titanic Quarter early last year and was so inspired by the stunning architecture and the energy of the development and the construction working there that I was moved to make something special for the area.

“I spent the next 12 months working on the sculpture and it is a real honour to have my work displayed in front of Titanic Belfast, one of the most impressive architectural designs in Europe. I hope Titanica provides as much joy for those who see her as I had in making her.”

As a true apple nerd I wanted to create a tribute to Steve, one of my heroes for such a long time. Was sad to see him go, as a fellow 'fruit' human I felt connected! Very proud to say my first pc was a iMac, and never changed ;-) This is a first Ipod.

Available on spoonflower

www.spoonflower.com/fabric/488273

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,514 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. One of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built between 1909–11 by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She carried 2,224 people.

Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in North America. The ship was designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. She also had a powerful wireless telegraph provided for the convenience of passengers as well as for operational use. Though she had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, she lacked enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people – a third of her total passenger and crew capacity.

After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading westwards towards New York. On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm (ship's time; UTC-3). The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly filled. A disproportionate number of men – over 90% of those in Second Class – were left aboard due to a "women and children first" protocol followed by the officers loading the lifeboats. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean. The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by the RMS Carpathia a few hours later.

The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today. Many of the survivors lost all of their money and possessions and were left destitute; many families, particularly those of crew members from Southampton, lost their primary bread-winners. They were helped by an outpouring of public sympathy and charitable donations. Some of the male survivors, notably the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, were accused of cowardice for leaving the ship while people were still on board, and they faced social ostracism.

The wreck of the Titanic remains on the seabed, gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, films, exhibits and memorials.

Belfast has opened the Iconic Titanic Signature Building which will house Titanic Belfast ® it is iconic in design and houses a world class visitor attraction. It is located at Titanic Quarter (East Belfast). The exhibition is based on the theme of the Titanic and the wider subject of Belfast’s shipbuilding and maritime heritage. Of such scale, the building is likely to become Northern Ireland’s largest and most successful built attraction.

The Lewis and Clark Class came to the scene in 2006, replacing the outdated auxiliary vessels of the Cold War. The 14 L&C ships were designed to maximize the space of a larger ship (as compared to their predecessors) to perform replenishment and refueling more quickly, being able to transport 1,388,000 cubic feet of cargo (food stores, spare parts, munitions, etc.) and 23,450 barrels of fuel cargo (aviation fuel and fuel for warships). The ships are powered diesel generators and propelled by a single screw and a bow thruster. They are crewed by 11 naval personnel and 124 civilians. For defense, they have mounting points for .50 cals and the reserve power to operate CIWS if installed. They have a flight deck and hangar space for two helicopters.

Just like the USAF has the Military Airlift Command, the USN has the Military Sealift Command which has jurisdiction of the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force which the L&Cs are apart of. They transit the ocean with the strike fleets for when they are needed. It is unlikely they would run out of dry cargo at sea during a normal deployment. However, they do run out of fuel cargo and when they do, they break off from the fleet and rendezvous with a Henry Kaiser Class Oiler to top off and then return to the fleet. They also perform roles such as offshore replacement stations for landed marine forces during amphibious operations.

This model turned out larger than I expected, but the proportions are still mostly accurate.

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Myanmar, previously known as Burma, what a surprisingly amazing place. We booked this holiday to get out of our comfort zone of easy beach holidays in the Maldives. There were several times when we wondered why we did it, travel in Myanmar consists mainly of long, sometimes tedious journeys on outdated transport systems. But now, in hindsight, we realise that this was the only way to truly get a feel of how the country and people are living day to day. And by far, more so than any other holiday we have had, the people are the most memorable thing we brought back with us. They are totally charming, polite, honest, resilient, hard working and most of all truly happy people. Their sincerely happy smiles, some of which we thankfully managed to capture in our photo's, are what we mostly remember and will stay with us forever.

We all know, or think we know, about the bad old days of the Burmese regime, so we obviously had a few reservations about what we were letting ourselves in for, but as it turned out, Myanmar must be the safest place we have ever been to. There is zero crime here, 85% of the country are buddhists and all the people seem to be true to Buddha's teachings of compassion, honesty, right mindedness, right living and non-harming to any living thing. Admittedly, although the country is now a democracy, the military still retains a certain amount of power, so I guess there is still an undercurrent going on albeit out of sight of the regular tourist. However, all the people we spoke to are so much happier now, they are more or less free to speak openly, without fear of reprisals and they all feel positive about the path the country is on now.

As for the landscape, what can I say, there is nowhere like it on earth! Outside the cities the whole country seems to be in some sort of 200 year old time warp. The people are mostly farmers on small plots of land using ox carts to plough the fields and living in houses made of bamboo, wood and matting. The wierdest thing is most of them have solar power, mainly for a bit of light and to charge their mobile phones! Everyone is on their phone here.....just like the rest of the world I guess. Also, there are temples, pagodas and stupas everywhere you look, especially in Bagan, which is like the Mecca of Myanmar. We were there for the Full Moon Festival where thousands of Burmese monks and Myanmar people gather from all over the country to celebrate for three days at the Ananda Pagoda in Bagan. After possibly days travelling they stay awake for most of the three days and nights watching entertainment which includes dance, theatre, chants, recitations and singing as well as stand up comedy. Amazing belief.

A word about One Stop Travel & Tours the Myanmar company we booked with. We found them via recommendations on Tripadvisor and so glad we used them. They never asked for a deposit, they booked all our hotels, train & boat journeys, balloon ride and one internal flight all on an email handshake! We just paid them in US Dollars on arrival, saving us thousands on UK travel brochure rates, and they never let us down once. The guides were all good guys and always there to greet us at the various destinations on our tour/trek, sometimes waiting hours when the transport was late. A special thanks to Leo our Yangon guide and Eaint at the One Stop office. After leaving our Nikon Coolpix A camera charger at home we trawled the shops of Yangon eventually finding a replacement.......only to leave it plugged in the wall at our next hotel in Mandalay! We were now a ten hour boat journey away in Bagan, but a call to Eaint at the One Stop office and they got it to us two days later just before we moved on! A huge thank you to all at One Stop as this holiday produced without doubt our most amazing photographs ever!

Myanmar has been open to mainstream tourism for five years now, a lot of the people speak English now so it is relatively easy to holiday there. We are so glad we went there before it really changes, there is still a huge amount of charm and old worldliness about the place that you will not find in any other country. If you are prepared to switch off from the 21st century and just accept it for what it is you will be richly rewarded with amazing memories of a landscape like no other and a fascinating people who are genuinely happy to see you.

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To view the rest of my Photography Collection click on Link below:

www.flickr.com/photos/nevillewootton/albums

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Photography & Equipment sponsored by my web business:

www.inlinefilters.co.uk

We are UK's leading Filter Specialists, selling online to the Plant, Agricultural, Commercial Vehicle and Marine Industries.

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PLEASE NOTE: I take Photographs purely as a hobby these days so am happy to share them with anyone who enjoys them or has a use for them. If you do use them an accreditation would be nice and if you benefit from them financially a donation to www.sightsavers.org would be really nice.

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Mount Place, Jericho

For dyxum.com film challenge (one-third keepers) #2

Tamron AF 28-300 zoom

Minolta Dynax 7

Outdated (June 2008) Jessops Diamond 2 Everyday 500 (Made in USA)

Outdated machines can be just as fascinating for young kids with interest for science. From a museum in Bonn, Germany

The BAE Systems Rapier Surface-to-Air Missile System was developed for the British Army to replace their outdated Towed Bofors 40/L70 Anti-Aircraft Guns. The system is unusual as it uses a 'Manual Optical Guidance System' sending Guidance Commands to the Missile in flight over a Radio Link, this results in a high level of accuracy, therefore a large Warhead is not required.

Entering service in 1971, it eventually replaced all other Anti-Aircraft Weapons in service with the British Army, both the Bofors Guns used against Low-Altitude Targets and the Thunderbird Missile used against Longer-Range and Higher-Altitude Targets. As the expected Air Threat moved from Medium-Altitude Strategic Missions to Low-Altitude Strikes, the fast reaction time and high maneuverability of the Rapier made it more effective than either of these Weapons, replacing most of them by 1977. Rapier was later selected by the RAF Regiment to replace their Bofors Guns and Tigercat Missiles. It also saw international sales, as of 2021, it was in the process of being replaced as one of the United Kingdom's Primary Air-Defence Weapons by Sky Sabre.

The first Rapier Units were delivered to the British Army in and the RAF Regiment 1971, in 1981 a new Rapier, FSB1 entered service. It had improved electronics and sensors, in 1990 FSB1 (M) was introduced with improvements to the Optical Tracker, Fire Unit and Radar Tracker. Rapier was at first a daylight fair weather Air Defence System, with the addition of the ''Blindfire'' Radar Tracker, Rapier became an all-weather night and day System.

Each Fire System can cover over 38.6 square miles of sky up to a height of 9,843ft, each Missile travels at over twice the speed of sound, and has a High-Explosive Warhead. During the Falklands War of 1982, Rapier Units were deployed to cover the beachhead at San Carlos, also used in the Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq War of 2003.

Specifications:-

▪︎Type: Surface-to-Air Missile

▪︎Place of Origin: United Kingdom

▪︎Service History: In Service 1971 to present

▪︎Used By: British Army / RAF Regiment (and many more)

▪︎Wars: Falklands War / Iran–Iraq War / Gulf War

▪︎Designer: British Aircraft Corporation

▪︎Designed: 1963

▪︎Manufacturer British Aircraft Corporation 1963 to 1977 / BAe Dynamics 1977 to 1999 / MBDA UK since 1999

▪︎Produced: 1969 to the 1990's

▪︎Number Built: 25,000 Missiles / 600 Launchers / 350 Radar Units

▪︎Variants: Mk.II "Hittile" / MK.IIB Missile

▪︎Mass: 99lb

▪︎Length: 88in

▪︎Diameter: 5.2in

▪︎Warhead: Blast Fragmentation Explosive Close Proximity Warhead

▪︎Detonation Mechanism: Proximity Triggered Chemical Fuze

▪︎Power Plant: Solid-Fuel Rocket

▪︎Wing Span: 5.4in

▪︎Operational Range: 1,300 to 26,900 ft

▪︎Flight Ceiling: 9,800ft Mk.I Missile / 16,000ft Mk.II Missile

▪︎Maximum Speed: Mach 2.5 / 1,900mph

▪︎Guidance System: Semi-Automatic Command to Line of Sight

▪︎Steering System: Flight Control Surface

▪︎Launch Platform: Vehicle / Towed Trailer.

Sourced from Wikipedia en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapier_(missile) and the City of Norwich Aviation Museum.

agfa 160 - mamiya C330f - long long time ago outdated film

The Lewis and Clark Class came to the scene in 2006, replacing the outdated auxiliary vessels of the Cold War. The 14 L&C ships were designed to maximize the space of a larger ship (as compared to their predecessors) to perform replenishment and refueling more quickly, being able to transport 1,388,000 cubic feet of cargo (food stores, spare parts, munitions, etc.) and 23,450 barrels of fuel cargo (aviation fuel and fuel for warships). The ships are powered diesel generators and propelled by a single screw and a bow thruster. They are crewed by 11 naval personnel and 124 civilians. For defense, they have mounting points for .50 cals and the reserve power to operate CIWS if installed. They have a flight deck and hangar space for two helicopters.

Just like the USAF has the Military Airlift Command, the USN has the Military Sealift Command which has jurisdiction of the Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force which the L&Cs are apart of. They transit the ocean with the strike fleets for when they are needed. It is unlikely they would run out of dry cargo at sea during a normal deployment. However, they do run out of fuel cargo and when they do, they break off from the fleet and rendezvous with a Henry Kaiser Class Oiler to top off and then return to the fleet. They also perform roles such as offshore replacement stations for landed marine forces during amphibious operations.

This model turned out larger than I expected, but the proportions are still mostly accurate.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The history of the Swiss Air Force began in 1914 with the establishment of an ad hoc force consisting of a handful of men in outdated and largely civilian aircraft. It was only in the 1930s the military and civilian leadership decided to establish an effective air force. On 13 December 1929, in what was in retrospect referred to as the "bill to create an air force", the Federal Council asked the Swiss Federal Assembly to approve the spending of 20 million francs for the purchase of 65 French Dewoitine D.27 fighters and the manufacture of 40 Dutch (Fokker C.V-E) reconnaissance planes under license.

Although the opposition Social Democratic Party collected 42,000 signatures in a petition opposing the bill, Parliament passed it handily and declined to allow a referendum on the issue, optional at that time for spending bills. This was the start of a massive armament program that would consume more than a billion francs over the next ten years, but after Hitler's rise to power in Germany, the Social Democrats added their support to the efforts.

When enough monoplane fighters had widely become available for the Swiss Air Force in 1943, the C-3400/-3401 biplanes were quickly removed from front-line service. They served on in second-line surveillance and aerial patrol units, or they were transferred to training units, where most of the type (a total of 119 were built) survived the hostilities. The last C-3400/-3401 was finally withdrawn from service in 1954, and only a single specimen survived in the collection of the Aviation Museum (Flieger Flab Museum) in Dübendorf, Switzerland.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in)

Wingspan: 10.02 m (32 ft 10 in)

Height: 3 m (9 ft 10 in)

Wing area: 23 m2 (250 sq ft)

Airfoil: NACA M-12

Empty weight: 1,360 kg (2,998 lb)

Gross weight: 1,740 kg (3,836 lb)

Powerplant:

1× BMW VI 7.3 V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine, 634 kW (850 hp),

driving a three-bladed variable pitch metal propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 400 km/h (250 mph, 220 kn) at 3,000 m (9,843 ft)

Service ceiling: 11,500 m (37,700 ft)

Rate of climb: 16.67 m/s (3,281 ft/min)

Time to altitude: 5,000 m (16,404 ft) in 5 minutes 30 seconds

Wing loading: 75.7 kg/m2 (15.5 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass: 0.36 kW/kg (0.22 hp/lb)

Armament:

2× fixed, forward-firing 7.5 mm (.295 in) MAC 1934 machine guns with 600 RPG

4× underwing hardpoints for 20 lb (9.1 kg) bombs (rarely used)

The kit and its assembly:

This whiffy biplane was/is just a kit travesty – the fictional EKW C-34 is a Kawasaki Ki-10 (the ICM kit) with mild mods and Swiss pre-WWII markings. I had an eye on the quite elegant Japanese fighter for a while, and due to its engine with German roots (its Kawasaki Ha9-IIa was a license-built water-cooled BMW VI V12 engine) I thought about a European operator – and eventually I decided to make it a Swiss aircraft.

The ICM kit was built almost OOB, the only changes I made were the spatted wheels (IIRC left over from an ICM Polikarpov I-15 biplane), which needed some tweaks on the OOB struts, and the different, closed canopy (from a Hobby Boss A6M Zero), because I wanted a relatively modern look, comparable with the contemporary Avia B-534 biplane. Mounting it was tricky, because of the “step” under the windscreen, so that I had to add a console under it, and some PSR was necessary to blend the canopy, which was cut into three parts for open display, into the rounded back of the Ki-10. A scratched antenna mast was added, too, to fill the respective opening in the rear part of the dorsal glazing. Thanks to the many braces of the A6M canopy, the implant looks quite organic.

The ICM Ki-10 went together quite well, it’s a rather simple kit with only a single sprue and few parts. The biggest challenge was the upper wing, though, which is only carried by the struts. The locator pins are only marginal, and finding a proper position took some time and superglue.

I furthermore modified the propeller with a long metal axis and a tube adapter inside if the fuselage, so that it could spin freely.

Painting and markings:

The reason why the Ki-10 became a Swiss aircraft was the paint scheme – a quite attractive tricolor splinter pattern (apparently inspired by the similar German camouflage in RLM 61,62 and 63?) was the Swiss Air Force’s standard at the breakout of WWII, and I adopted it for the C-3401, too.

The pattern is vaguely based on a real C-35 biplane (presented at the Dübendorf Aviation Museum), which I deem to look authentic, and I tried to emulate its colors as good as possible. I settled on Desert Yellow (Humbrol 94, the tone is officially called “Ochre” but appears to be quite yellowish), French Khaki Green (ModelMaster 2106) and Chestnut Brown (ModelMaster 2107, another French WWII aircraft tone), with light grey (Humbrol 64) undersides. Painting the splinter scheme with a brush on a biplane like this was tricky, though. The cockpit interior was painted with a grey-green tone similar to RLM 02 (Humbrol 45), the wing struts became black.

As usual, the model received a light black ink washing, plus some post-panel shading and dry-brushing to emphasize details and to weather it, but only lightly, because the aircraft would not have been involved in fights.

The roundels on the upper wings came from a generic TL-Modellbau national markings sheet, while the red bands for the national insignia under the lower wings and on the rudder were painted. The white cross on the fin comes from a Swiss BAe Hawk trainer (Italeri), while the slightly bigger white cross under the lower wings was scratched from white decal stripes. The tactical code comes from a Croatian MiG-21UM trainer (KP kit), the unit badge is fictional and came from a Spanish Heinkel He 70.

The model was sealed overall with matt acrylic varnish, and as a final step the rigging was applied, made from heated black sprue material, using the real Ki-10 as benchmark for the connections/positions.

A pretty result, and the simple travesty of the elegant Ki-10 into a late interwar biplane from Continental Europe works surprisingly well. The spats and the closed canopy might not have been necessary, but they modernize and change the aircraft, so that its use during WWII – even though not in any offensive role – becomes even more believable. The splinter scheme suits the aircraft well, too, even though its application was a bit tricky, as well as the Swiss roundels.

Web--> Kowska Portofolio

Blog -> Kowska.blogspot.com

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Camara: Yashica Mat

Objetivo: Yashinon 80mm f/3.5

Film: Ilford FP4 125 @ 100 asa (outdated 2009)

Develop / Revelado: Agfa Rodinal 1+50, 18 min, 18º, 2 min presoak

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Gracias por las visitas, comentarios y favoritos. Si pones un Award deja un comentario tambien. No uses esta fotografia en websites, blogs u otros medios sin mi permiso explicito.

© Todos los derechos reservados

Sector 17, Chandigarh

Tests with my 'gift' AF NIKKOR 70-210mm f4-5.6 zoom on different NIKON bodies for close-up and distant shots . Very poor outdated FUJI SUPERIA 200 rated 100 ASA so colours not all 'Good'

Trying my BELLINI E6 kit with 'Home-Made 1st Developer' and greatly extended Colour Developer guessed at 7.5 Mins ! Just about 'got away with it' but D Max LOW and film grain high . DUMPED that kit now! G-Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f1.4 @ f2