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Art house Leidse Rijn Utrecht Netherlands - 2004-2010
Stanley Brouwn - artist - idea
Bertus Mulder - architect - realization
"Here's a sobering thought: what if, at this very moment, I am living
up to my full potential?"
- Jane Wagner
Last minute realization.. I have no photo of the day! Instead of pajamas I made EG put on her ball gown and pose in front of my new "backdrop" I bought at the fabric store -- it's really a $14 remnant of an expensive piece of upholstery fabric w/ flowers and butterflies.. It was half price! I bought quite a few pieces that I am looking forward to using.
Thank goodness she stopped being silly long enough for me to get a shot! She's saved me many times!! I love you Emma Grace!
PTM: Warm Sweetness and Heaven Shines Down actions
Towards the end of the Korean War, the USAF came to the realization that their transport fleet was becoming obsolete. The C-46 Commandos and C-47 Skytrains in service were no longer adequate, while the C-119 Flying Boxcar was having difficulties. In 1951, the USAF issued a requirement for a new tactical transport, an aircraft that would need to carry at least 72 passengers, be capable of dropping paratroopers, and have a ramp for loading vehicles directly into the cargo compartment. Moreover, it must be a “clean sheet” design, not a conversion from an existing airliner, and the USAF preferred it be a turboprop design. Five companies submitted designs, and six months later the USAF chose Lockheed’s L-402 design—over the misgivings of Lockheed’s chief designer, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, who warned that the L-402 would destroy the company. Little was Johnson to know that, fifty years later, the L-402—designated C-130 Hercules by the USAF—would still be in production, and one out of only five aircraft to have over 50 years of service with the original purchaser.
The C-130 was designed to give mostly unfettered access to a large cargo compartment—the ramp forms an integral part of the rear fuselage, the wing is mounted above the fuselage, and the landing gear is carried in sponsons attached to the fuselage itself, while the fuselage has a circular design to maximize loading potential. The high wing also gives the C-130 good lift, especially in “high and hot” situations. The Allison T56 turboprop was designed specifically for the Hercules, and has gone on to become one of the most successful turboprop designs in history.
After two YC-130 prototypes, the Hercules went into production as the C-130A in 1956, to be superseded by the improved C-130B in 1959. The latter became the baseline Hercules variant: C-130As had three-blade propellers and a rounded “Roman” nose, while the B introduced the more familiar, longer radar nose and four-blade propellers. (Virtually all A models were later retrofitted to the long nose, though they kept the three-blade propellers.) In the 50 years hence, the basic C-130 design has not changed much: the C-130E introduced underwing external fuel tanks, while the C-130H has a slightly different wing. Even the new C-130J variant only introduced new engines with more fuel efficient six-bladed propellers: the basic design remains the same. Lockheed also offers stretched versions of the Hercules, initially as a civilian-only option (the L-100-30); the British Royal Air Force bought this version as the C-130K and it was later adopted by other nations, including the United States.
The basic C-130 is strictly a transport aircraft, but the versatility of the aircraft has meant it has been modified into a dizzying number of variants. These include the AC-130 Spectre gunship, the HC-130 rescue aircraft and WC-130 weather reconnaissance version. Other versions include several dozen EC-130 electronic warfare/Elint variants, KC-130 tankers, and DC-130 drone aircraft controllers. The USAF, the US Navy, and the US Marine Corps are all C-130 operators as well. Besides the United States, there are 67 other operators of C-130s, making it one of the world’s most prolific aircraft, with its only rivals the Bell UH-1 Iroquois family and the Antonov An-2 Colt biplane transport. C-130s are also used extensively by civilian operators as well as the L-100 series.
The “Herky Bird,” as it is often nicknamed, has participated in every military campaign fought by the United States since 1960 in one variation or the other. During Vietnam, it was used in almost every role imaginable, from standard transport to emergency bomber: as the latter, it dropped M121 10,000 pound mass-focus bombs to clear jungle away for helicopter landing zones, and it was even attempted to use C-130s with these bombs against the infamous Thanh Hoa Bridge in North Vietnam. (Later this capability was added as standard to MC-130 Combat Talon special forces support aircraft; the MC-130 is the only aircraft cleared to carry the GBU-43 MOAB.) It was also instrumental in resupplying the Khe Sanh garrison during its three-month siege. Hercules crews paid the price as well: nearly 70 C-130s were lost during the Vietnam War. In foreign service, C-130s have also been used heavily, the most famous instance of which was likely the Israeli Entebbe Raid of 1976, one of the longest-ranged C-130 missions in history. C-130s are often in the forefront of humanitarian missions to trouble spots around the world, most recently in the 2011 Sendai earthquake disaster in Japan.
As of this writing, over 2300 C-130s have been built, and most are still in service. It remains the backbone of the USAF’s tactical transport service; attempts to replace it with the Advanced Tactical Transport Program (ATTP) in the 1980s and to supplement it with the C-27J Spartan in the 2000s both failed, as the USAF realized that the only real replacement for a C-130 is another C-130.
66-0212 has had quite the career. Built as a HC-130P Combat King rescue support aircraft, it was initially assigned to the 48th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron at Eglin AFB, Florida, in 1966. It wasn't there long before it was transferred to Vietnam, where it joined the 38th ARRS at Tan Son Nhut, coordinating rescues of downed airmen in Southeast Asia. 66-0212 was one of two aircraft selected in 1970 for a special mission, one that was kept highly guarded: Operation Kingpin. It wasn't until nearly the day of the operation that 66-0212's crew learned what the target of their mission was: the Son Tay prison camp, not far from Hanoi itself. Though Kingpin was almost perfectly executed, with 66-0212 one of the pathfinder aircraft for the USAF HH-53 Jolly Greens headed for Son Tay, it hit a dry hole: Son Tay's POWs had been moved to another camp due to flooding.
After the Son Tay raid, 66-0212 would remain in Vietnam a bit longer, before returning to the United States, for assignment at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico with the 1550th Air Training and Test Wing; it would be used to train other Combat King crews. The aircraft would remain at Kirtland for the rest of its active duty career, and was converted to a MC-130P Combat Talon in 1996, continuing to train special operations crews as part of the 58th Special Operations Wing. As newer MC-130s arrived, 66-0212 was transferred to the 129th Rescue Wing (California ANG) at Moffett Field until it was retired in 2018. Because of its status as a Son Tay raider, 66-0212 was donated to the Castle Air Museum.
I was a bit surprised to see a MC-130 on display, but Castle has done a nice job in maintaining this historic aircraft. It wears the current camouflage scheme for USAF special operations aircraft.
wearing:
#2Blueberry-Mykonos,Satin Robe,red rare. Sept.Arcade
#4Blueberry-Mykonos,Boot,Blk.rare,Sept.Arcade.
#13 Blueberry,Mykonos,panties red,common, Sept.Arcade.
#16Blueberry,mykonos,Armlorals,Sept.Arcade
#19Blueberry,Mykonos,Bra red.Sept,Arcade.
24Blueberry,Mykonos,Tiara,Gold.Sept.Arcade.
#9 Blueberry-Oakley,red wings. Main shop Gatcha.
"D!VA Hair "Hellen" Onyx -Oct.C88
I wanted to do an actual "Personal work" shot for once so I decided to work off an idea for a short film my friend and I had been planning. It hinges on that moment we encounter growing up in which we began to understand how mechanized our world really is, not in that it is a bad or good thing, but that it is mysterious to us when we are developing, that time in which we try to wrap our heads around such a vast and complex system is quite a pivotal moment that is often dismissed, despite the impact it has on our livelihood.
Strobist info,
430exii at 1/4th power with a 28" x 28" softbox to the right of camera facing the model
430exii at 1/8th power with a 28" x 28" softbox to the left of camera slightly over model
We stopped along the road to enjoy the scenery when I noticed a larger yellow bird off on a tree near us. It was a western tanager - a bird I had never seen before. What a great spot for bird watching. Wonderful drive and hike up Flagstaff Mountain to the west of Boulder, Colorado late on Saturday June 3rd, 2023. The outdoor spaces near Boulder are definitely worth the trip and live up to their billing. Visiting Rocky Mountain National Park and Boulder, Colorado with my son for a few days. What an amazing place. Pictures from June 3rd, 2023.
Pride and Prejudice: on Raphael Perez's Artwork
Raphael Perez, born in 1965, studied art at the College of Visual Arts in Beer Sheva, and from 1995 has been living and working in his studio in Tel Aviv. Today Perez plays an important role in actively promoting the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) art and culture in Tel Aviv, and the internet portal he set up helps artists from the community reach large audiences in Israel and abroad. Hundreds of his artworks are part of private collections in Israel and abroad, and his artworks were shown in several group exhibitions: in Tel Aviv Museum of Art, "Zman Le'Omanut" art gallery, Camera Obscura, The Open House in Jerusalem, Ophir Gallery, The Haifa Forum and other private businesses and galleries.
In 2003-4 his paintings and studio appeared in a full-length movie, three student films and two graduation films.
Raphael Perez is the first Israeli artist to express his lifestyle as a Gay. His life and the life of the LGBT community are connected and unfold over hundreds of artwork pieces. His art creation is rare and extraordinary by every Israeli and international artistic standard. His sources of inspiration are first and foremost life events intertwined in Jewish and Israeli locality as well as influences and quotes from art history (David Hockney, Matisse). This uniqueness has crossed international borders and has succeeded in moving the LGBT and art communities around the world.
This is the first time we meet an Israeli artist who expresses all of his emotions in a previously unknown strength. The subjects of the paintings are the everyday life of couples in everyday places and situations, along with the aspiration to a homosexual relationship and family, equality and public recognition. Perez's works bring forward to the cultural space and to the public discourse the truth about living as LGBT and about relationships, with all of their aspects – casual relationships and sex, the yearning for love, the everyday life and the mundane activities that exist in every romantic relationship – whether by describing two men in an intimate scene in the bathroom, the bedroom or the toilet, a male couple raising a baby or the homosexual version of the Garden of Eden, family dinners, relationship ups and downs, the complexity in sharing a life as well as mundane, everyday life competing with the aspiration to self realization – through Perez's life.
Perez's first artworks are personal diaries, which he creates at 14 years of age. He makes sure to hide these diaries, as in them he keeps a personal journal describing his life events in the most genuine way. In these journals he draws thousands of drawings and sketches, next to which he alternately writes and erases his so-called "problematic texts", texts describing his struggle with his sexual orientation. His diaries are filled with obsessive cataloging of details, daily actions, friends and work, as well as repeating themes, such as thoughts, exhibits he has seen, movies, television, books and review of his work.
When he is done writing, Perez draws on his diaries. Each layer is done from beginning to end all along the journal. In fact, the work on the diaries never ends.
This struggle never ends, and when the emotion is passed on to paper, and it ends its role and becomes meaningless in a way, the visual-graphic side becomes dominant, due to the need to hide the written text, according to Perez. In books and diaries this stands out even more – when he chooses to draw in a style influenced by children's drawings, the characters are cheerful, happy, naïve and do not portray any sexuality, and when he tries drawing as an adult the sketches became more depressed and somber. During these years Perez works with preschool children, teaching them drawing and movement games. Perez says that during this period he completely abandoned the search for a relationship, either with a woman or a man, and working with children has given him existential meaning. This creation continues over 10 years, and Perez creates about 60 books-personal journals in various sizes (notepads, old notebooks, atlases and even old art books).
In his early paintings (1998-1999) the transition from relationships with women to relationships with men can be seen, from restraint to emotional outburst in color, lines and composition. Some characters display strong emotional expression. The women are usually drawn in restraint and passiveness, while a happy and loving emotional outburst is expressed in the colors and style of the male paintings.
"I fantasized that in a relationship with a woman I could fly in the sky, love, fly. However, I felt I was hiding something; I was choked up, hidden behind a mask, as if there was an internal scream wanting to come out. I was frustrated, I felt threatened…"
His first romance with a man in 1999 has drawn out a series of naïve paintings dealing with love and the excitement of performing everyday actions together in the intimate domestic environment.
"The excitement from each everyday experience of doing things together and the togetherness was great, so I painted every possible thing I liked doing with him."
From the moment the self-oppression and repression stopped, Perez started the process of healing, which was expressed in a burst of artworks, enormous in their size, amount, content and vivid colors – red, pink and white.
In 2000 Perez starts painting the huge artworks describing the hangouts of the LGBT community (The Lake, The Pool) and the Tel Avivian balcony paintings describing the masculine world, which, according to him, becomes existent thanks to the painting. Perez has dedicated this year to many series of drawings and paintings of the experience of love, in which he describes his first love for his new partner, and during these months he paints from morning to night. These paintings are the fruit of a long dialogue with David Hockney, and the similarity can be seen both in subjects and in different gestures.
In 2001 Perez creates a series of artworks, "Portraits from The Community". Perez describes in large, photorealistic paintings over 20 portraits of active and well-known members of the LGBT community. The emphasis is on the achievements that reflect the community's strong standing in Tel Aviv.
As a Tel-Avivian painter, in the past two years Perez has been painting urban landscapes of central locations in his city. Perez wanders around the city and chooses familiar architectural and geographical landmarks, commerce and recreation, and historical sites, and paints them from a homosexual point of view, decorated with the rainbow flag, which provide a sense of belonging to the place. His artworks are characterized by a cheerful joie de vivre and colors, and they also describe encounters and meetings. The touristic nature of his paintings makes them a declaration of Tel Aviv's image as a place where cultural freedom prevails.
Perez's Tel Aviv is a city where young families and couples live and fill the streets, the parks, the beach, the houses and the balconies – all the city's spaces. The characters in his paintings are similar, which helps reinforcing the belonging to the LGBT community in Tel Aviv. The collective theme in Perez's artwork interacts with the work of the Israeli artist Yohanan Simon, who dealt with the social aspects of the Kibbutz. Simon, who lived and worked in a Kibbutz, expressed the human model of the Kibbutznik (member of a Kibbutz) and the uniqueness of the Kibbutz members as part of a group where all are equal. Simon's works, and now Perez's, have contributed to the Israeli society what is has been looking for endlessly, which is a sense of identity and belonging.
Perez maps his territory and marks his boundaries, and does not forget the historical sites. Unlike other Tel Avivian artists, Perez wishes to present the lives of the residents of the city and the great love in their hearts. By choosing the historical sites in Tel Aviv, he also pays tribute to the artist Nachum Gutman, who loved the city and lived in it his whole life. In his childhood Gutman experienced historical moments (lighting the first oil lamp, first concert, first pavement), and as an adult he recreated the uniqueness of those events while keeping the city's magic.
Like Gutman, Perez has also turned the city into an object of love, and it has started adorning itself in rich colors and supplying the energy of a city that wishes to be "the city that never sleeps", combining old and new. Perez meticulously describes the uniqueness and style of the Bauhaus houses and balconies along the modern glass and steel buildings, all from unusual angles in a rectangular format that wishes to imitate the panorama of a diverse city in its centennial celebrations.
Daniel Cahana-Levensohn, curator.
Interview with the painter Raphael Perez about his family artist book
An interview with the painter Raphael Perez about an artist's book he created about his family, the Peretz family from 6 Nissan St. Kiryat Yuval Jerusalem
Question: Raphael Perez, tell me about the family artist book you created
Answer: I created close to 40 artist books, notebooks, diaries, sketch books and huge books. I dedicated one of the books to my dear family, a book in which I took a childhood photograph of my family, my parents and brothers and sisters.. I pasted the photographs inside a book (the photograph is 10 percent of the total painting) and I drew with acrylic paints, markers and ink on the book and the photograph, so that the image of the photograph was an inspiration to me Build the story that includes page by page..
Question: Tell me when you were born, where, and a little about your family
Answer: I was born on March 4, 1965 in the Kiryat Yuval neighborhood in Jerusalem
I have a twin brother named Miki Peretz and we are seven brothers and sisters, five boys and two girls
Question: Tell us a little about your parents
Answer: My parents were new immigrants from Morocco, both immigrated young.
My mother's name before the wedding was Alice - Aliza ben Yair and my father's name was Shimon Peretz,
My mother was born in the Atlas Mountains and was orphaned at a young age and was later adopted by my father's family at the age of 10, so that my mother and father spent childhood and adolescence together....
They had a beautiful and happy relationship but sometimes when they argued my mother would say "even when she was a child she was like that..." This means that their acquaintance and relationship dates back to childhood..
Question: What did your parents Shimon and Aliza Peretz work for?
Answer: My father, Shimon Perez, born in 1928 - worked in a building in his youth and then for thirty years worked as a receptionist at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem... My father's great love was actually art, he loved to draw as a hobby, write, read, solve crossword puzzles and research Regarding the issue of medicinal plants, as a breadwinner he could not fulfill his dream of becoming an artist, in order to support and feed seven children. But we are the next generation, his children are engaged in the world of creativity and education, a field in which both of my parents were engaged during their lives. My father died at the age of 69
My mother, Alice Aliza Perez, born in 1934, worked as an assistant to a kindergarten teacher, and later took care of a baby at home. She is a woman of wholehearted giving and caring for children and people, a warm, generous and humble woman.. and took care of us in our childhood for every emotional and physical deficiency.. My mother is right For the year 2023, the 89-year-old is partly happy and happy despite the difficulties of age.. May you have a long life..
My mother really loved gardening and nature and both of them together created a magnificent garden, my parents have a relatively large garden so they could grow many types of special and rare medicinal plants and my father even wrote a catalog (unpublished) of medicinal plants and we even had botany students come to us who were interested in the field... today they They also grow ornamental plants, and fruit trees...
Question: A book about the brothers and sisters
Answer: My elder brother David Perez repented in his mid-twenties.. He was a very sharp, opinionated, curious and very charismatic guy who brought many people back to repentance, and also helped people with problems through the yeshiva and the synagogue to return to the normal path of life, he died young at the age of 56
Hana Peretz: My lovely sister, raised eight children, worked in the field of education, a kindergarten teacher, and child care.
She has a very large extended family of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren...
My brother Avi (Abraham) Peretz studied in Israel at the University of Philosophy and Judaism, he married a wonderful woman named Mira Drumi, a nurse by profession, and together they had three wonderful children, when they moved to the United States in their mid-twenties, where my brother Avi Peretz completed his master's degree in education, worked in the field Education and for the last twenty years is A conservative rabbi
The fourth brother is Asher Peretz - a great man of the world, very fond of traveling and has been to magical places all over the world, engaged in the creation of jewelry with two children.
I am Rafi Peretz english raphael perez the fifth and after fifteen minutes my twin brother was born
My mother still gets confused and can't remember who was born first :-)
My twin brother Miki micky - Michael Peretz, a beloved brother (everyone is beloved), a talented industrial designer, he has three children, his wife Revital Peretz Ben, who is a well-known art curator, active and responsible for the art field in Tel Aviv, they are a dynamic and talented couple, full of talents and action
The lovely little sister Shlomit Peretz - has been involved in the Bezeq telephone company for almost three decades, and is there in management positions, raising her lovely and beloved child.
The art book I dedicated to my family is colorful, rich in details, shows a very intense childhood, happy, cheerful, colorful, ... We were taught to be diligent and to be happy in our part and to see the glass half full in life, to have emotional intelligence and to put the relationship and love at the center with self-fulfillment in work that will interest you us and you will give us satisfaction.
Each of us is different in our life decisions and my family is actually a mosaic of the State of Israel that includes both religious and secular people from the entire political spectrum who understand that the secret to unity is mutual respect for each other... when my mother these days is also the family glue in everyone's gatherings on Shabbat and holidays..
The personification of the flower couple paintings by the Israeli painter Raphael Perez
Raphael Perez, also known as Rafi Peretz, is an Israeli painter who
explores his personal and sexual identity through his flower paintings. He created a series of flower paintings from 1995 to 1998, when he was in his early thirties and still in relationships with women, despite feeling gay. His flower paintings reflect his emotional turmoil and his struggle with his sexual orientation. He painted two flowers, one blooming and one wilting, to represent the contrast and conflict between his heterosexual relationships and his true self. He also painted single flowers or two flowers in their prime, to express his longing for a harmonious relationship that matches his nature. He chose sunflowers, white lilies, and red lilies as symbols of expression, purity, and joy, respectively. He painted from real flowers, using different styles and light to create drama and mood. Perez’s paintings of the flower couples are minimalist and focused on the theme of the complex relationship. He omitted any background or context, leaving only the canvas and the drawing of the flower couples. In some of the paintings, he added a very airy abstract surface with thin oil paints that give an atmosphere of watercolors. He also made drawings of flowers in ink, markers and gouache on paper. Later on, he created large acrylic paintings of flowers and still life. Perez’s flower paintings are not mere illustrations or decorations. They are autobiographical and psychological expressions of his inner state and his struggle with his sexuality. He wanted to reveal his loneliness, distress and concealment through these paintings, and to connect with people who are in a similar situation. He deliberately chose only two flowers and no more to intensify the engagement in the charged and complex relationship. Perez also painted and drew couples of men and women with charged psychological states, as well as states of desire for connection and realization of a heterosexual relationship that did not succeed. He used hyperrealism and expressive styles to convey his frozen and calculated state, as well as his mental stress. He used harsh lighting to create contrast and drama, with one side very bright and the other side darker. Perez was influenced by some of the famous artists who painted flowers, such as Van Gogh, who also used sunflowers as a symbol of expression. He also used white lilies and red lilies to convey freshness, cleanliness, purity, color, joy, movement, eruption, and splendor. Perez also painted some single flowers or two flowers in their prime, to show his aspiration for a future where he will have a harmonious relationship. Today, he is 58 years old and in a happy relationship for 10 years with his partner Assaf Henigsberg. He is surrounded by female friends and soulmates and not conflicted with heterosexual relationships as he used to be. He occasionally paints flowers in pots to symbolize home, stability, and peace. Sometimes I paint flowers in pots, which represent home, stability, and solid ground for me. I don’t paint just a couple of flowers, but pots full of flowers that overflow with life. This means that we also have a supportive network of family, friends, and peers around us. We live in a rich, supportive, and protective world. These paintings are a personification of my psychological state, when I had no words to express my feelings to myself. The painting began In 35 years of my creation (starting in 1998), you can read more about how my art and style evolved over time. Perez’s flower paintings are a unique and extraordinary artistic creation that reveals his personal journey and his sexual identity. His work is honest, expressive, and emotional, as well as beautiful and vibrant.
The characteristics of the naive painting of the painter Raphael Perez
A full interview with the Israeli painter Raphael Perez (Hebrew name: Rafi Peretz) about the ideas behind the naive painting, resume, personal biography and curriculum vitae Question: Raphael Perez Tell us about your work process as a naive painter? Answer: I choose the most iconic and famous buildings in every city and town that are architecturally interesting and have a special shape and place the iconic buildings on boulevards full of trees, bushes, vegetation, flowers. Question: How do you give depth in your naive paintings? Answer: To give depth to the painting, I build the painting with layers of vegetation, after those low famous buildings, followed by a tall avenue of trees, and behind them towers and skyscrapers, in the sky I sometimes put innocent signs of balloons, kites. A recurring motif in some of my paintings is the figure of the painter who is in the center of the boulevard and paints the entire scene unfolding in front of him, also there are two kindergarten teachers who are walking with the kindergarten children with the state flags that I paint, and loving couples hugging and kissing and family paintings of mother, father and child walking in harmony on the boulevard. Question: Raphael Perez, what characterizes your naive painting? Answer: Most naive paintings have the same characteristics (Definition as it appears in Wikipedia) • Tells a simple story to absorb from everyday life, usually with humans. • The representation of the painter's idealization to reality - the mapping of reality. • Failure to maintain perspective - especially details even in distant details. • Extensive use of repeating patterns - many details. • Warm and bright colors. • Sometimes the emphasis is on outlines. • Most of the characters are flat, lack volume • No interest in texture, expression, correct proportions • No interest in anatomy. • There is not much use of light and shade, the colors create a three-dimensional effect. I find these definitions to be valid for all my naive paintings Question: Raphael Perez, why do you choose the city of Tel Aviv? Answer: I was born in Jerusalem, the capital city which I love very much and also paint, I love the special Bauhaus buildings in Tel Aviv, the ornamental buildings that were built a century ago in the 1920s and 1930s, the beautiful boulevards, towers and modern skyscrapers give you the feeling of the hustle and bustle of a large metropolis and there are quite a few low and tall buildings that are architecturally fascinating in their form the special one Also, the move to Tel Aviv, which is the capital of culture, freedom, and secularism, allowed me to live my life as I chose, to live in a relationship with a man, Jerusalem, which is a traditional city, it is more complicated to live a homosexual life, also, the art world takes place mainly in the city of Tel Aviv, and it is possible that from a professional point of view, this allows I can support myself better in Tel Aviv than in any other city in Israel. Question: Raphael Perez, are the paintings of the city of Tel Aviv different from the paintings of the city of Jerusalem? Answer: Most of the paintings of Jerusalem have an emphasis on the color yellow, gold, the color of the old city walls, the subjects I painted in Jerusalem are mainly a type of idealization of a peaceful life between Jews and Arabs and paintings that deal with the Jewish religious world, a number of paintings depict all shades of the currents of Judaism today In contrast, the Tel Aviv paintings are more colorful, with skyscrapers, the sea, balloons and more secular motifs Question: Raphael Perez, tell me about which buildings and their architects you usually choose in your drawings of cities Answer: My favorite buildings are those that have a special shape that anyone can recognize and are the symbols of the city and you will give several examples: In the city of Tel Aviv, my favorite buildings are: the opera building with its unusual geometric shape, the Yisrotel tower with its special head, the Hail Bo Shalom tower that for years was the symbol of the tallest building in Tel Aviv, the Levin house that looks like a Japanese pagoda, the burgundy-colored Nordeau hotel with the special dome at the end of the building, A pair of Alon towers with the special structure of the sea, Bauhaus buildings typical of Tel Aviv with the special balconies and the special staircase, the Yaakov Agam fountain in Dizengoff square appears in a large part of the paintings, many towers that are in the stock exchange complex, the Aviv towers and other tall buildings on Ayalon, in some of the paintings I took plans An outline of future buildings that need to be built in the city and I drew them even before they were built in reality, In the paintings of Jerusalem, I mainly chose the area of the Old City and East Jerusalem, a painting of the walls of the Old City, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the El Akchea Mosque, the Tower of David, most of the famous churches in the city, the right hand of Moses, in most of the paintings the Jew is wearing a blue shirt with a red male cord I was in the youth movement and the Arab with a galabia, and in the paintings of the religious public then, Jews with black suits and white shirts, tallitas, kippahs, special hats, synagogues and more I also created three paintings of the city of Haifa and one painting of Safed In the Haifa paintings I drew the university, the Technion, the famous Egged Tower, the Sail Tower, well-known hotels, of course the Baha'i Gardens and the Baha'i Temple, Haifa Port and the boats and other famous buildings in the city Question: Raphael Perez, have you created series of other cities from around the world? Answer: I created series of New York City with all the iconic and famous buildings such as: the Guggenheim Museum, the famous skyscrapers - the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Lincoln Center, the famous synagogue in the city, the Statue of Liberty, the flags of the United States and other famous buildings Two paintings of London and all its famous sites, Big Ben, famous monuments, the Ferris wheel, Queen Elizabeth and her family, the double bus, the famous public telephone, palaces, famous churches, well-known monuments I created 4 naive paintings of cities in China, a painting of Shanghai, two paintings of the city of Suzhou and a painting of the World Park in the city of Beijing... I chose the famous skyline of Shanghai with all the famous towers, the famous promenade, temples and old buildings, two Paintings of the city of Suzhou with the famous canals, bridges, special gardens, towers and skyscrapers of the city Question: Raphael Perez What is the general idea that accompanies your paintings Answer: To create a good, beautiful, naive, innocent world in which we will see the innovation of the modern city through the skyscrapers in front of small and low buildings that bring the history and past of each country, all with an abundance of vegetation, boulevards, trees Resume, biography, CV of the painter Rafi Peretz and his family Question: When was Raphael Perez born in hebrew his name rafi peretz? Answer: Raphael Perez in Hebrew his name Rafi Peretz was born on March 4, 1965 Question: Where was Raphael Perez born? Answer: Raphael Perez was born in Jerusalem, Israel Question: What is the full name of Raphael Perez? Answer: His full name is Raphael Perez Question: Which art institution did Raphael Perez graduate from? Answer: Raphael Perez graduated from the Visual Arts Center in Be'er Sheva Question: When did Raphael Perez start painting? Answer: Raphael Perez started painting in 1989 Question: When did you start making a living selling art? Answer: Raphael Perez started making a living selling art in 1999 Question: Where does Raphael Perez live and work? Answer: Since 1995, Raphael Perez has been living and working from his studio in Tel Aviv Question: In which military framework did Raphael Perez serve in the IDF? Answer: Raphael Perez served in the artillery corps Question: Raphael Perez, what jobs did he work after his military service? Answer: Raphael Perez worked for 15 years in education in therapeutic settings for children and taught arts and movement Question: How many brothers and sisters does Raphael Perez, the Israeli painter, have? Answer: There are seven children in total, with the painter 5 sons and two daughters, that means the painter Raphael Perez has 4 more brothers and two sisters Question: What do the brothers and sisters of the painter Raphael Perez do? Answer: The elder brother David Peretz Perez was involved in the field of religious studies, the sister Hana Peretz Perez is involved in the field of education, a kindergarten teacher and child care, the brother Avi Peretz Perez who is in the United States today is a conservative rabbi but in the past was involved in education and therapy, the brother Asher Peretz Perez is involved in the fields of creativity and jewelry The twin brother Mickey Peretz Perez is a well-known industrial designer and seller. The younger sister Shlomit Peretz Perez works in a managerial position at Bezeq. Question: Tell me about the parents of the painter Raphael PerezAnswer: The painter Raphael Perez's parents are Shimon Perez Peretz and Eliza Alice Ben Yair, they were married in 1950 in Jerusalem, both were born in Morocco and immigrated to Israel in 1949, Shimon Peretz worked in a building in his youth and later as a receptionist at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, Eliza Alice Peretz dealt in child care Kindergarten, working in kindergartens and of course taking care of and raising her seven children
On the crest of Mt. Washington, five miles from downtown Los Angeles, Paramahansa Yogananda established the Self-Realization Fellowship headquarters and meditation grounds in 1925. (Photo from 2013)
For Jung, self-realization meant the integration of the shadow. It is the growing ability to allow the dark side of our personality to enter into our awareness and thus prevent a one-sided life in which only that which is presentable to the outside world is considered as a real part of ourselves.
-The Spiritual Life: Eight Essential Titles by Henri Nouwen
Trapped on either side of a door marked: DNA.... Beau and Keeks are reluctantly forced to confront and deal with the full and profound realization of being defined by their genetics. Keeks, no matter how much she might long for it, will never be able be to bark, piss on a hydrant or play with Dusty the donkey. Beau, realizes he can only snore, not purr; cannot jump four feet straight up to land on a kitchen cabinet to eat the butter; that his feces will forever sit out there for all to see (unless cleaned up by me...and he's okay with that). Ranting and railing at these realities do no good. Yes, Freedom is the recognition of necessity.....we must forge on with what we are given as best we can.....
But consciousness and full acceptance of facts like this often lead to confusion, sadness, ultimately to despair and alcoholism (as they have with me)....this image captures that moment where their world tips into that realization........
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The TIE/LN starfighter, or TIE/line starfighter, simply known as the TIE Fighter or T/F, was the standard Imperial starfighter seen in massive numbers throughout most of the Galactic Civil War and onward.
The TIE Fighter was manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems and led to several upgraded TIE models such as TIE/sa bomber, TIE/IN interceptor, TIE/D Defender, TIE/D automated starfighter, and many more.
The original TIEs were designed to attack in large numbers, overwhelming the enemy craft. The Imperials used so many that they came to be considered symbols of the Empire and its might. They were also very cheap to produce, reflecting the Imperial philosophy of quantity over quality.
However, a disadvantage of the fighter was its lack of deflector shields. In combat, pilots had to rely on the TIE/LN's maneuverability to avoid damage. The cockpit did incorporate crash webbing, a repulsorlift antigravity field, and a high-g shock seat to help protect the pilot, however these did next to nothing to help protect against enemy blaster fire.
Due to the lack of life-support systems, each TIE pilot had a fully sealed flight suit superior to their Rebel counterparts. The absence of a hyperdrive also rendered the light fighter totally dependent on carrier ships when deployed in enemy systems. TIE/LNs also lacked landing gear, another mass-reducing measure. While the ships were structurally capable of "sitting" on their wings, they were not designed to land or disembark their pilots without special support. On Imperial ships, TIEs were launched from racks in the hangar bays.
The high success rate of more advanced Rebel starfighters against standard Imperial TIE Fighters resulted in a mounting cost of replacing destroyed fighters and their pilots. That, combined with the realization that the inclusion of a hyperdrive would allow the fleet to be more flexible, caused the Imperial Navy to rethink its doctrine of using swarms of cheap craft instead of fewer high-quality ones, leading to the introduction of the TIE Advanced x1 and its successor, the TIE Avenger. The following TIE/D Defender as well as the heavy TIE Escort Fighter (or TIE/E) were touted as the next "logical advance" of the TIE Series—representing a shift in starfighter design from previous, expendable TIE models towards fast, well armed and protected designs, capable of hyperspace travel and long-term crew teams which gained experience and capabilities over time.
The TIE/E Escort, was a high-performance TIE Series starfighter developed for the Imperial Navy by Sienar Fleet Systems and it was introduced into service shortly before the Battle of Endor. It was a much heavier counterpart to the agile and TIE/D fighter, and more of an attack ship or even a light bomber than a true dogfighter. Its role were independent long range operations, and in order to reduce the work load and boost morale a crew of two was introduced (a pilot and a dedicated weapon systems officer/WSO). The primary duty profile included attack and escort task, but also reconnoiter missions. The TIE/E shared the general layout with the contemporary TIE/D fighter, but the cockpit section as well as the central power unit were much bigger, and the ship was considerably heavier.
The crew enjoyed – compared with previous TIE fighter designs – a spacious and now fully pressurized cockpit, so that no pressurized suits had to be worn anymore. The crew members sat in tandem under a large, clear canopy. The pilot in front had a very good field of view, while the WSO sat behind him, in a higher, staggered position with only a limited field of view. Both work stations had separate entries, though, and places could not be switched in flight: the pilot mounted the cockpit through a hatch on port side, while the WSO entered the rear compartment through a roof hatch.
In a departure from the design of previous TIE models, instead of two parallel wings to either side of the pilot module, the TIE Escort had three quadanium steel solar array wings mounted symmetrically around an aft section, which contained an I-s4d solar ionization reactor to store and convert solar energy collected from the wing panels. The inclusion of a third wing provided additional solar power to increase the ship's range and the ship's energy management system was designed to allow weapons and shields to be charged with minimum loss of power to the propulsion system.
Although it was based on the standard twin ion engine design, the TIE/E’s propulsion system was upgraded to the entirely new, powerful P-sz9.8 triple ion engine. This allowed the TIE/E a maximum acceleration of 4,220 G or 21 MGLT/s and a top speed of 144 MGLT, or 1,680 km/h in an atmosphere — almost 40 percent faster than a former standard TIE Fighter. With tractor beam recharge power (see below) redirected to the engines, the top speed could be increased to 180 MGLT in a dash.
In addition to the main thrusters located in the aft section, the TIE Escort's triple wing design allowed for three arrays of maneuvering jets and it featured an advanced F-s5x flight avionics system to process the pilot's instructions. Production models received a class 2, ND9 hyperdrive motivator, modified from the version developed for the TIE Avenger. The TIE/E also carried a Sienar N-s6 Navcon navigation computer with a ten-jump memory.
Special equipment included a small tractor beam projector, originally developed for the TIE Avenger, which could be easily fitted to the voluminous TIE Escort. Models produced by Ysanne Isard's production facility regularly carried such tractor beams and the technology found other uses, such as towing other damaged starfighters until they could achieve the required velocity to enter hyperspace. The tractor beam had limited range and could only be used for a short time before stopping to recharge, but it added new tactics, too. For instance, the beam allowed the TIE/E crews to temporarily inhibit the mobility of enemy fighters, making it easier to target them with the ship's other weapon systems, or prevent enemies from clear shots.
The TIE Escort’s weapons systems were primarily designed to engage bigger ships and armored or shielded targets, like armed freighters frequently used by the Alliance. Thanks to its complex weapon and sensor suite, it could also engage multiple enemy fighters at once. The sensors also allowed an effective attack of ground targets, so that atmospheric bombing was a potential mission for the TIE/E, too.
.
The TIE Escort Fighter carried a formidable array of weaponry in two modular weapon bays that were mounted alongside the lower cabin. In standard configuration, the TIE/E had two L-s9.3 laser cannons and two NK-3 ion cannons. The laser and ion cannons could be set to fire separately or, if concentrated power was required, to fire-linked in either pairs or as a quartet.
The ship also featured two M-g-2 general-purpose warhead launchers, each of which could be equipped with a standard load of three proton torpedoes or four concussion missiles. Depending on the mission profile, the ship could be fitted with alternative warheads such as proton rockets, proton bombs, or magnetic pulse warheads.
Additionally, external stores could be carried under the fuselage, which included a conformal sensor pallet for reconnaissance missions or a cargo bay with a capacity for 500 kg (1.100 lb).
The ship's defenses were provided by a pair of forward and rear projecting Novaldex deflector shield generators—another advantage over former standard TIE models. The shields were designed to recharge more rapidly than in previous Imperial fighters and were nearly as powerful as those found on capital ships, so that the TIE/E could engage other ships head-on with a very high survivability. The fighters were not equipped with particle shields, though, relying on the reinforced titanium hull to absorb impacts from matter. Its hull and wings were among the strongest of any TIE series Starfighter yet.
The advanced starfighter attracted the attention of several other factions, and the Empire struggled to prevent the spread of the technology. The ship's high cost, together with political factors, kept it from achieving widespread use in the Empire, though, and units were assigned only to the most elite crews.
The TIE/E played a central role in the Empire's campaign against rogue Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin, and mixed Defender and Escort units participated in several other battles, including the Battle of Endor. The TIE Escort continued to see limited use by the Imperial Remnant up to at least 44 ABY, and was involved in numerous conflicts, including the Yuuzhan Vong War..
The kit and its assembly:
Another group build contribution, this time to the Science Fiction GB at whatifmodelers.com during summer 2017. Originally, this one started as an attempt to build a vintage MPC TIE Interceptor kit which I had bought and half-heartedly started to build probably 20 years ago. But I did not have the right mojo (probably, The Force was not strong enough…?), so the kit ended up in a dark corner and some parts were donated to other projects.
The sun collectors were still intact, though, and in the meantime I had the idea of reviving the kit’s remains, and convert it into (what I thought was) a fictional TIE Fighter variant with three solar panels. For this plan I got myself another TIE Interceptor kit, and stashed it away, too. Mojo was still missing, though.
Well, then came the SF GB and I took it as an occasion to finally tackle the build. But when I prepared for the build I found out that my intended design (over the years) more or less actually existed in the Star Wars universe: the TIE/D Defender! I could have built it with the parts and hand and some improvisation, but the design similarity bugged me. Well, instead of a poor copy of something that was more or less clearly defined, I rather decided to create something more individual, yet plausible, from the parts at hand.
The model was to stay a TIE design, though, in order to use as much donor material from the MPC kits as possible. Doing some legwork, I settled for a heavy fighter – bigger than the TIE Interceptor and the TIE/D fighter, a two-seater.
Working out the basic concept and layout took some time and evolved gradually. The creative spark for the TIE/E eventually came through a Revell “Obi Wan’s Jedi Starfighter” snap fit kit in my pile – actually a prize from a former GB participation at phoxim.de (Thanks a lot, Wolfgang!), and rather a toy than a true model kit.
The Jedi Fighter was in so far handy as it carries some TIE Fighter design traits, like the pilot capsule and the characteristic spider web windscreen. Anyway, it’s 1:32, much bigger than the TIE Interceptor’s roundabout 1:50 scale – but knowing that I’d never build the Jedi Starfighter OOB I used it as a donor bank, and from this starting point things started to evolve gradually.
Work started with the cockpit section, taken from the Jedi Starfighter kit. The two TIE Interceptor cockpit tubs were then mounted inside, staggered, and the gaps to the walls filled with putty. A pretty messy task, and once the shapes had been carved out some triangular tiles were added to the surfaces – a detail I found depicted in SW screenshots and some TIE Fighter models.
Another issue became the crew – even though I had two MPC TIE Interceptors and, theorectically, two pilot figures, only one of them could be found and the second crewman had to be improvised. I normally do not build 1:48 scale things, but I was lucky (and happy) to find an SF driver figure, left over from a small Dougram hoovercraft kit (from Takara, as a Revell “Robotech” reboxing). This driver is a tad bigger than the 1:50 TIE pilot, but I went with it because I did not want to invest money and time in alternatives. In order to justify the size difference I decided to paint the Dougram driver as a Chiss, based on the expanded SW universe (with blue skin and hair, and glowing red eyes). Not certain if this makes sense during the Battle of Endor timeframe, but it adds some color to the project – and the cockpit would not be visible in much detail since it would be finished fully closed.
Reason behind the closed canopy is basically the poor fit of the clear part. OOB, this is intended as an action toy – but also the canopy’s considerable size in 1:50 would prevent its original opening mechanism.
Additional braces on the rel. large window panels were created with self-adhesive tape and later painted over.
The rear fuselage section and the solar panel pylons were scratched. The reactor behind the cockpit section is actually a plastic adapter for water hoses, found in a local DIY market. It was slightly modified, attached to the cockpit “egg” and both parts blended with putty. The tail opening was closed with a hatch from the OOB TIE Interceptor – an incidental but perfect match in size and style.
The three pylons are also lucky finds: actually, these are SF wargaming/tabletop props and would normally be low walls or barriers, made from resin. For my build, they were more or less halved and trimmed. Tilted by 90°, they are attached to the hull with iron wire stabilizers, and later blended to the hull with putty, too.
Once the cockpit was done, things moved more swiftly. The surface of the hull was decorated with many small bits and pieces, including thin styrene sheet and profiles, steel and iron wire in various strengths, and there are even 1:72 tank tracks hidden somewhere, as well as protective caps from syringes (main guns and under the rear fuselage). It’s amazing how much stuff you can add to such a model – but IMHO it’s vital in order to create some structure and to emulate the (early) Star Wars look.
Painting and markings:
The less spectacular part of the project, even though still a lot of work because of the sheer size of the model’s surface. Since the whole thing is fictional, I tried to stay true to the Imperial designs from Episode IV-VI and gave the TIE/E a simple, all-light grey livery. All basic painting was done with rattle cans.
Work started with a basic coat of grey primer. On top of that, an initial coat of RAL 7036 Platingrau was added, esp. to the lower surfaces and recesses, for a rough shading effect. Then, the actual overall tone, RAL 7047, called “Telegrau 4”, one of Deutsche Telekom’s corporate tones, was added - mostly sprayed from abone and the sides onto the model. Fuselage and panels were painted separately, overall assembly was one of the final steps.
The solar panels were to stand out from the grey rest of the model, and I painted them with Revell Acrylic “Iron Metallic” (91) first, and later applied a rather rich wash with black ink , making sure the color settled well into the many small cells. The effect is pretty good, and the contrast was slightly enhanced through a dry-brushing treatment.
Only a few legible stencils were added all around the hull (most from the scrap box or from mecha sheets), the Galactic Empire Seal were inkjet-printed at home, as well as some tactical markings on the flanks, puzzled together from single digits in "Aurebash", one of the Imperial SW languages/fonts.
For some variety and color highlights, dozens of small, round and colorful markings were die-punched from silver, yellow, orange, red and blue decal sheet and were placed all over the hull - together with the large panels they blur into the the overall appearance, though. The hatches received thin red linings, also made from generic decals strips.
The cockpit interior was a bit challenging, though. Good TIE Fighter cockpit interior pictures are hard to find, but they suggest a dark grey tone. More confusingly, the MPC instructions call for a “Dark Green” cockpit? Well, I did not like the all-grey option, since the spaceship is already monochrome grey on the outside.
As a compromise I eventually used Tamiya XF-65 "Field Grey". The interior recieved a black ink in and dry-brushing treatment, and some instruments ansd screens were created with black decal material and glossy black paint; some neon paint was used for sci-fi-esque conmtraol lamps everywhere - I did not pay too much intention on the interior, since the cockpit would stay closed, and the thick clear material blurs everything inside.
Following this rationale, the crew was also painted in arather minimal fashion - both wear a dark grey uniform, only the Chiss pilot stands aout with his light blue skin and the flourescent red eyes.
After an overall black ink wash the model received a dry brusing treatment with FS 36492 and FS 36495, for a weathered and battle-worn look. After all, the "Vehement" would not survive the Ballte of Endor, but who knows what became of TIE/E "801"'s mixed crew...?
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, and some final cosmetic corrections made.
The display is a DIY creation, too, made from a 6x6" piece of wood, it's edges covered with edgebonder, a steel wire as holder, and finally the display was paited with semi-matt black acrylic paint from the rattle can.
A complex build, and the TIE/E more or less evolved along the way, with only the overall layout in mind. Work took a month, but I think it was worth the effort. This fantasy creation looks pretty plausible and blends well into the vast canonical TIE Fighter family - and I am happy that I finally could finish this mummy project, including the surplus Jedi Starfighter kit which now also find a very good use!
An epic one, and far outside my standard comfort zone. But a wothwhile build!
Name: Kraanspoor
City: Amsterdam
Architect(s): OTH (Ontwerpgroep Trude Hooykaas bv)
realization: 2007
Kraanspoor (translated as craneway) is a light-weight transparent office building of three floors built on top of a concrete craneway on the grounds of the former NDSM (Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij) shipyard, a relic of Amsterdam’s shipping industry. This industrial monument, built in 1952, has a length of 270 meters, a height of 13,5 meters and a width of 8,7 meters. A street length and width. The new construction on top is the same 270 meters long, with a width of 13,8 meters, accentuates the length of Kraanspoor and the phenomenal expansive view of the river IJ. Fully respecting its foundation, the building is lifted by slender steel columns 3 meters above the crane way, appearing to float above the impressive concrete colossus.
The challenge of the design for OTH was to utilize the maximum allowable load of the existing craneway. The concrete craneway functions as a foundation, and carries the maximum possible weight of a three storey building, with an asymmetrical overhang on the water-side; this is due to the heavier load barring function for the former revolving cranes that cantilevered to this side. The light-weight building of steel construction made the light-weight floors necessary. By using a hollow Infra+ floor system, the piping and wiring are tucked away in the floor allowing for a maximum clear height.
The glass building is clear and simple in plan. The newly built construction is characterized by its transparent double-skin climate façade of glass: the outer layer of moveable motor-driven glass louvers appear as lace-work around the building, the inner façade is of hinged timber windows with a full height from office floor to ceiling. This climate façade allows natural ventilation of the offices and acts as a buffer against heat in the summer and cold in the winter. The concrete Infra+ underfloor of only 70mm allows for concrete core activity. The water from the IJ river is pumped up and used for heating as well as cooling via a water pump.
The pre-existing facilities have been utilised in the building’s new function. The former four old stairwells still remain as entrance to the building and are foreseen with panorama lifts and new stairs. The two gangways/catwalks alongside the concrete craneway function as fire-escape routes. In the heart of the original concrete structure, underneath the new structure, is extensive archive/storage space.
"A seamless combination of old and new – industrial heritage and modern architecture in which the waterways are restored and the slipway determines the orientation. The entire place with its shipping industrial past has an intense energy. The object is to intertwine the old with the new, to preserve history, and not loose this energy.
The wharf is dead? – Long live the wharf."
text: www.archdaily.com
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The TIE/LN starfighter, or TIE/line starfighter, simply known as the TIE Fighter or T/F, was the standard Imperial starfighter seen in massive numbers throughout most of the Galactic Civil War and onward.
The TIE Fighter was manufactured by Sienar Fleet Systems and led to several upgraded TIE models such as TIE/sa bomber, TIE/IN interceptor, TIE/D Defender, TIE/D automated starfighter, and many more.
The original TIEs were designed to attack in large numbers, overwhelming the enemy craft. The Imperials used so many that they came to be considered symbols of the Empire and its might. They were also very cheap to produce, reflecting the Imperial philosophy of quantity over quality.
However, a disadvantage of the fighter was its lack of deflector shields. In combat, pilots had to rely on the TIE/LN's maneuverability to avoid damage. The cockpit did incorporate crash webbing, a repulsorlift antigravity field, and a high-g shock seat to help protect the pilot, however these did next to nothing to help protect against enemy blaster fire.
Due to the lack of life-support systems, each TIE pilot had a fully sealed flight suit superior to their Rebel counterparts. The absence of a hyperdrive also rendered the light fighter totally dependent on carrier ships when deployed in enemy systems. TIE/LNs also lacked landing gear, another mass-reducing measure. While the ships were structurally capable of "sitting" on their wings, they were not designed to land or disembark their pilots without special support. On Imperial ships, TIEs were launched from racks in the hangar bays.
The high success rate of more advanced Rebel starfighters against standard Imperial TIE Fighters resulted in a mounting cost of replacing destroyed fighters and their pilots. That, combined with the realization that the inclusion of a hyperdrive would allow the fleet to be more flexible, caused the Imperial Navy to rethink its doctrine of using swarms of cheap craft instead of fewer high-quality ones, leading to the introduction of the TIE Advanced x1 and its successor, the TIE Avenger. The following TIE/D Defender as well as the heavy TIE Escort Fighter (or TIE/E) were touted as the next "logical advance" of the TIE Series—representing a shift in starfighter design from previous, expendable TIE models towards fast, well armed and protected designs, capable of hyperspace travel and long-term crew teams which gained experience and capabilities over time.
The TIE/E Escort, was a high-performance TIE Series starfighter developed for the Imperial Navy by Sienar Fleet Systems and it was introduced into service shortly before the Battle of Endor. It was a much heavier counterpart to the agile and TIE/D fighter, and more of an attack ship or even a light bomber than a true dogfighter. Its role were independent long range operations, and in order to reduce the work load and boost morale a crew of two was introduced (a pilot and a dedicated weapon systems officer/WSO). The primary duty profile included attack and escort task, but also reconnoiter missions. The TIE/E shared the general layout with the contemporary TIE/D fighter, but the cockpit section as well as the central power unit were much bigger, and the ship was considerably heavier.
The crew enjoyed – compared with previous TIE fighter designs – a spacious and now fully pressurized cockpit, so that no pressurized suits had to be worn anymore. The crew members sat in tandem under a large, clear canopy. The pilot in front had a very good field of view, while the WSO sat behind him, in a higher, staggered position with only a limited field of view. Both work stations had separate entries, though, and places could not be switched in flight: the pilot mounted the cockpit through a hatch on port side, while the WSO entered the rear compartment through a roof hatch.
In a departure from the design of previous TIE models, instead of two parallel wings to either side of the pilot module, the TIE Escort had three quadanium steel solar array wings mounted symmetrically around an aft section, which contained an I-s4d solar ionization reactor to store and convert solar energy collected from the wing panels. The inclusion of a third wing provided additional solar power to increase the ship's range and the ship's energy management system was designed to allow weapons and shields to be charged with minimum loss of power to the propulsion system.
Although it was based on the standard twin ion engine design, the TIE/E’s propulsion system was upgraded to the entirely new, powerful P-sz9.8 triple ion engine. This allowed the TIE/E a maximum acceleration of 4,220 G or 21 MGLT/s and a top speed of 144 MGLT, or 1,680 km/h in an atmosphere — almost 40 percent faster than a former standard TIE Fighter. With tractor beam recharge power (see below) redirected to the engines, the top speed could be increased to 180 MGLT in a dash.
In addition to the main thrusters located in the aft section, the TIE Escort's triple wing design allowed for three arrays of maneuvering jets and it featured an advanced F-s5x flight avionics system to process the pilot's instructions. Production models received a class 2, ND9 hyperdrive motivator, modified from the version developed for the TIE Avenger. The TIE/E also carried a Sienar N-s6 Navcon navigation computer with a ten-jump memory.
Special equipment included a small tractor beam projector, originally developed for the TIE Avenger, which could be easily fitted to the voluminous TIE Escort. Models produced by Ysanne Isard's production facility regularly carried such tractor beams and the technology found other uses, such as towing other damaged starfighters until they could achieve the required velocity to enter hyperspace. The tractor beam had limited range and could only be used for a short time before stopping to recharge, but it added new tactics, too. For instance, the beam allowed the TIE/E crews to temporarily inhibit the mobility of enemy fighters, making it easier to target them with the ship's other weapon systems, or prevent enemies from clear shots.
The TIE Escort’s weapons systems were primarily designed to engage bigger ships and armored or shielded targets, like armed freighters frequently used by the Alliance. Thanks to its complex weapon and sensor suite, it could also engage multiple enemy fighters at once. The sensors also allowed an effective attack of ground targets, so that atmospheric bombing was a potential mission for the TIE/E, too.
.
The TIE Escort Fighter carried a formidable array of weaponry in two modular weapon bays that were mounted alongside the lower cabin. In standard configuration, the TIE/E had two L-s9.3 laser cannons and two NK-3 ion cannons. The laser and ion cannons could be set to fire separately or, if concentrated power was required, to fire-linked in either pairs or as a quartet.
The ship also featured two M-g-2 general-purpose warhead launchers, each of which could be equipped with a standard load of three proton torpedoes or four concussion missiles. Depending on the mission profile, the ship could be fitted with alternative warheads such as proton rockets, proton bombs, or magnetic pulse warheads.
Additionally, external stores could be carried under the fuselage, which included a conformal sensor pallet for reconnaissance missions or a cargo bay with a capacity for 500 kg (1.100 lb).
The ship's defenses were provided by a pair of forward and rear projecting Novaldex deflector shield generators—another advantage over former standard TIE models. The shields were designed to recharge more rapidly than in previous Imperial fighters and were nearly as powerful as those found on capital ships, so that the TIE/E could engage other ships head-on with a very high survivability. The fighters were not equipped with particle shields, though, relying on the reinforced titanium hull to absorb impacts from matter. Its hull and wings were among the strongest of any TIE series Starfighter yet.
The advanced starfighter attracted the attention of several other factions, and the Empire struggled to prevent the spread of the technology. The ship's high cost, together with political factors, kept it from achieving widespread use in the Empire, though, and units were assigned only to the most elite crews.
The TIE/E played a central role in the Empire's campaign against rogue Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin, and mixed Defender and Escort units participated in several other battles, including the Battle of Endor. The TIE Escort continued to see limited use by the Imperial Remnant up to at least 44 ABY, and was involved in numerous conflicts, including the Yuuzhan Vong War..
The kit and its assembly:
Another group build contribution, this time to the Science Fiction GB at whatifmodelers.com during summer 2017. Originally, this one started as an attempt to build a vintage MPC TIE Interceptor kit which I had bought and half-heartedly started to build probably 20 years ago. But I did not have the right mojo (probably, The Force was not strong enough…?), so the kit ended up in a dark corner and some parts were donated to other projects.
The sun collectors were still intact, though, and in the meantime I had the idea of reviving the kit’s remains, and convert it into (what I thought was) a fictional TIE Fighter variant with three solar panels. For this plan I got myself another TIE Interceptor kit, and stashed it away, too. Mojo was still missing, though.
Well, then came the SF GB and I took it as an occasion to finally tackle the build. But when I prepared for the build I found out that my intended design (over the years) more or less actually existed in the Star Wars universe: the TIE/D Defender! I could have built it with the parts and hand and some improvisation, but the design similarity bugged me. Well, instead of a poor copy of something that was more or less clearly defined, I rather decided to create something more individual, yet plausible, from the parts at hand.
The model was to stay a TIE design, though, in order to use as much donor material from the MPC kits as possible. Doing some legwork, I settled for a heavy fighter – bigger than the TIE Interceptor and the TIE/D fighter, a two-seater.
Working out the basic concept and layout took some time and evolved gradually. The creative spark for the TIE/E eventually came through a Revell “Obi Wan’s Jedi Starfighter” snap fit kit in my pile – actually a prize from a former GB participation at phoxim.de (Thanks a lot, Wolfgang!), and rather a toy than a true model kit.
The Jedi Fighter was in so far handy as it carries some TIE Fighter design traits, like the pilot capsule and the characteristic spider web windscreen. Anyway, it’s 1:32, much bigger than the TIE Interceptor’s roundabout 1:50 scale – but knowing that I’d never build the Jedi Starfighter OOB I used it as a donor bank, and from this starting point things started to evolve gradually.
Work started with the cockpit section, taken from the Jedi Starfighter kit. The two TIE Interceptor cockpit tubs were then mounted inside, staggered, and the gaps to the walls filled with putty. A pretty messy task, and once the shapes had been carved out some triangular tiles were added to the surfaces – a detail I found depicted in SW screenshots and some TIE Fighter models.
Another issue became the crew – even though I had two MPC TIE Interceptors and, theorectically, two pilot figures, only one of them could be found and the second crewman had to be improvised. I normally do not build 1:48 scale things, but I was lucky (and happy) to find an SF driver figure, left over from a small Dougram hoovercraft kit (from Takara, as a Revell “Robotech” reboxing). This driver is a tad bigger than the 1:50 TIE pilot, but I went with it because I did not want to invest money and time in alternatives. In order to justify the size difference I decided to paint the Dougram driver as a Chiss, based on the expanded SW universe (with blue skin and hair, and glowing red eyes). Not certain if this makes sense during the Battle of Endor timeframe, but it adds some color to the project – and the cockpit would not be visible in much detail since it would be finished fully closed.
Reason behind the closed canopy is basically the poor fit of the clear part. OOB, this is intended as an action toy – but also the canopy’s considerable size in 1:50 would prevent its original opening mechanism.
Additional braces on the rel. large window panels were created with self-adhesive tape and later painted over.
The rear fuselage section and the solar panel pylons were scratched. The reactor behind the cockpit section is actually a plastic adapter for water hoses, found in a local DIY market. It was slightly modified, attached to the cockpit “egg” and both parts blended with putty. The tail opening was closed with a hatch from the OOB TIE Interceptor – an incidental but perfect match in size and style.
The three pylons are also lucky finds: actually, these are SF wargaming/tabletop props and would normally be low walls or barriers, made from resin. For my build, they were more or less halved and trimmed. Tilted by 90°, they are attached to the hull with iron wire stabilizers, and later blended to the hull with putty, too.
Once the cockpit was done, things moved more swiftly. The surface of the hull was decorated with many small bits and pieces, including thin styrene sheet and profiles, steel and iron wire in various strengths, and there are even 1:72 tank tracks hidden somewhere, as well as protective caps from syringes (main guns and under the rear fuselage). It’s amazing how much stuff you can add to such a model – but IMHO it’s vital in order to create some structure and to emulate the (early) Star Wars look.
Painting and markings:
The less spectacular part of the project, even though still a lot of work because of the sheer size of the model’s surface. Since the whole thing is fictional, I tried to stay true to the Imperial designs from Episode IV-VI and gave the TIE/E a simple, all-light grey livery. All basic painting was done with rattle cans.
Work started with a basic coat of grey primer. On top of that, an initial coat of RAL 7036 Platingrau was added, esp. to the lower surfaces and recesses, for a rough shading effect. Then, the actual overall tone, RAL 7047, called “Telegrau 4”, one of Deutsche Telekom’s corporate tones, was added - mostly sprayed from abone and the sides onto the model. Fuselage and panels were painted separately, overall assembly was one of the final steps.
The solar panels were to stand out from the grey rest of the model, and I painted them with Revell Acrylic “Iron Metallic” (91) first, and later applied a rather rich wash with black ink , making sure the color settled well into the many small cells. The effect is pretty good, and the contrast was slightly enhanced through a dry-brushing treatment.
Only a few legible stencils were added all around the hull (most from the scrap box or from mecha sheets), the Galactic Empire Seal were inkjet-printed at home, as well as some tactical markings on the flanks, puzzled together from single digits in "Aurebash", one of the Imperial SW languages/fonts.
For some variety and color highlights, dozens of small, round and colorful markings were die-punched from silver, yellow, orange, red and blue decal sheet and were placed all over the hull - together with the large panels they blur into the the overall appearance, though. The hatches received thin red linings, also made from generic decals strips.
The cockpit interior was a bit challenging, though. Good TIE Fighter cockpit interior pictures are hard to find, but they suggest a dark grey tone. More confusingly, the MPC instructions call for a “Dark Green” cockpit? Well, I did not like the all-grey option, since the spaceship is already monochrome grey on the outside.
As a compromise I eventually used Tamiya XF-65 "Field Grey". The interior recieved a black ink in and dry-brushing treatment, and some instruments ansd screens were created with black decal material and glossy black paint; some neon paint was used for sci-fi-esque conmtraol lamps everywhere - I did not pay too much intention on the interior, since the cockpit would stay closed, and the thick clear material blurs everything inside.
Following this rationale, the crew was also painted in arather minimal fashion - both wear a dark grey uniform, only the Chiss pilot stands aout with his light blue skin and the flourescent red eyes.
After an overall black ink wash the model received a dry brusing treatment with FS 36492 and FS 36495, for a weathered and battle-worn look. After all, the "Vehement" would not survive the Ballte of Endor, but who knows what became of TIE/E "801"'s mixed crew...?
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, and some final cosmetic corrections made.
The display is a DIY creation, too, made from a 6x6" piece of wood, it's edges covered with edgebonder, a steel wire as holder, and finally the display was paited with semi-matt black acrylic paint from the rattle can.
A complex build, and the TIE/E more or less evolved along the way, with only the overall layout in mind. Work took a month, but I think it was worth the effort. This fantasy creation looks pretty plausible and blends well into the vast canonical TIE Fighter family - and I am happy that I finally could finish this mummy project, including the surplus Jedi Starfighter kit which now also find a very good use!
An epic one, and far outside my standard comfort zone. But a wothwhile build!
Hey, Little One...I can't lie. I'm terrified to be your mom. There is so much I need to learn about raising you from within my womb until you are an adult. But I'm willing to try and I'm ready to meet you.
4-26-10 photo of the day on www.photovotr.com/
Possibly the closest I have ever come to acheiving what I saw in my mind when I started manipulating in photoshop!
3 manipulation steps only.....
cropped
1 filter - faded 9%
reduce highlight levels by -4
Yesterday I had a healing session over the phone with a woman who'd been highly recommended to me by a mutual friend. It was the first time we'd talked. I liked her and we were very tuned in to each other. She told me she works with the Ascended Masters and named Jesus Christ and Yogananda. After the session I walked into my office. The sun was shining through the window, a single light beam specifically illuminating a picture of Jesus Christ that was sitting on my laptop. At that moment I remembered that I bought it at Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship retreat and ashram in Encinitas, California when I lived in Encinitas in the 1970s. A nice little bit of synchronicity! :-)
When I was growing up (and this isn't going to be an overly nostalgic story. True story, but not overly nostalgic,) we would drive up to downtown Titusville and run our errands. Sometimes if we went into old downtown, we would pass the Pritchard House by. I must say that I have been captivated by it since childhood and had been curious about it from the start.
At about 12 or 14, I had a copy of "Florida's Historic Architecture" given to me and I started looking around for information about the Pritchard House and found out the general statistics: the house being built in 1891; the family still owning the house to this day, etcetera.
Whether the house was occupied to this day was unknown to me growing up, but with its peeling pain and sagging shutters who would know?
It all changed in 2004, when I met Mrs. Schuster right after hurricane Jeanne blew through the area. I wanted to see if the house had been damaged, so, reluctantly, I was driven up to Titusville and I found an upper floor window broken. A glazier's truck sat on the curb. The glazier's ladder was leaning up against the side of the house. I became very self-conscious carrying the camera with me, and I wasn't quite sure whether I would be run off by this glazier working as I shot the house (because when you stand in front of the house, that's just what you do by nature. Stand in front of it yourself, with a camera in hand, and you'll know what I mean!)
So, cautiously, I walked over to the glazier and asked him if he knew if the owners of the house would mind if I went around photographed the house from the sidewalk. He didn't seem to care, and heck, I could hardly hear a word he was saying over the screeching traffic of US1 whizzing northbound behind me.
I heard a female voice and turn in its direction of origin. There was an elderly lady in sunglasses standing on the porch.
Well, what was I to know? I didn't think there was anyone living in the house. I didn't know what to think. Would I be run off of the sidewalk by an irate elderly woman?
The lady continued: "I'm the owner of this house."
"Oh," I said, and then introduced myself. I asked if I could enter the gate and talk with her on the porch steps and she said "Yes." So I walked up to the porch steps and we started to talk.
"Would you mind if I took some pictures of the house?" I asked.
She shrugged, with a c'est la vie smile on her face: "Everyone else does."
So the conversation went from there. She is an amazing lady and can tell you almost anything you want to know about the house. You would never guess her actual age - and you would be very, very surprised once you found out. I saw the Dining Room, Reception Hall (the family calls it the "Living Room") and the Parlor. It was simply an amazing experience.
It was almost by accident that the next year I would find out about the North Brevard Heritage Foundation and become involved with the restoration process of this house.
In a way, it has been a realization of a childhood dream. I don't think I would trade it for anything.
+++ 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:
Due to the restrictions of the Versailles treaties, the Reichswehr was already dealing with the increasing mobilization and motorization of the army after the end of the First World War. The realization that the speed of the troop units required appropriate equipment was available early on. However, the Reichswehr suffered from financial constraints and during the Weimar Republic the industry only had limited capacity for series production of larger, armored vehicles.
Nevertheless, at that time the Sd.Kfz. 3 (unarmored half-track transport vehicle/1927), the ARW (eight-wheel car/1928) and the ZRW (ten-wheel car/1928) provided fundamental experience. The findings of these tests and the troop testing with the Sd.Kfz. 3 enabled a more precise specification of the new vehicles to be developed. The "heavy" armored cars were primarily intended for the reconnaissance units of the new armored forces.
The incipient rearmament could only start with a "cheap" solution, though. A three-part armored structure for the chassis of commercially available off-road trucks was developed by the Army Weapons Office, Dept. WaTest 6, in cooperation with the company Deutsche Eisenwerke AG. The typical truck chassis featured front-wheel steering and a driven bogie at the rear (4x6 layout). In June 1929, the companies Magirus, Daimler-Benz and Büssing-NAG were commissioned to develop the desired armored car from it. If you consider that this truck class was developed for a payload of 1.5t, you can already conclude from this that the vehicles, which are now equipped with a significantly heavy armored structure, had little off-road mobility. Even if the appearance of the vehicles supplied by the different manufacturers was similar, there were external distinguishing features by which the manufacturer could be identified. The vehicles were tested in the Reichswehr from 1932 and introduced later.
One of the four crew members (driver, commander, gunner, radio-operator) was used as a reverse driver: with the narrow streets of the time and a turning circle of between 13 and 16m, this function was essential for a truck-sized heavy reconnaissance vehicle. The chassis had the excellent ladder-type configuration, able to withstand the stress of rough rides at high speed. The scout car was 5570 mm long, 1820 mm wide, 2250 mm high and weighed 5.35, 5.7 or 6 tons, depending on the manufacturer. The hull was made of welded steel armor, 5 to 14.5 mm (0.2-0.57 in) thick depending on the angle (bottom to front) with well-sloped plates. The armament consisted of a 2 cm KwK 30 with 200 rounds and a MG 13 with 1300 rounds in a manually operated turret. The fuel supply was 90, 105 or 110 liters, but with a consumption of about 35 or 40 liters per 100 km, this resulted in a completely inadequate range for a scout car.
Having no true alternatives at hand, the armored 4x6 car was accepted and became known as the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-wheel), and it was subsequently developed into two more vehicles. Up until 1937, 123 vehicles were built as Sd.Kfz. 231 reconnaissance cars and Sd.Kfz. 232 radio trucks. A further 28 were manufactured as Sd.Kfz. 263 (Panzerfunkwagen) command vehicles.
As early as 1932, after testing the pilot series, it was clear that the interim solution of "cheap" 6-wheel vehicles would not meet the future requirements of the armored divisions now planned. It was planned that from 1935/36 at least 18 vehicles of a new type that would meet the requirements for off-road mobility and high road speeds should be produced annually. Büssing-NAG had obviously made a good impression with the ARW and was now commissioned to make the revised vehicle ready for series production, which would become the SdKfz. 231 (8-Rad). The overall concept was completed between 1934 and 1935 and already showed all the features of the future type: all 8 wheels driven and steered, the same speed forwards and backwards, ability to change direction in less than 10 seconds, and a turning circle of "only" 10.5m. The vehicle layout was changed, too: the engine bay was relocated to the rear, the crew compartment was placed at the front end. This improved weight distribution, handling, and the field of view for the main forward driver.
The purpose of the new vehicles was identical to that of the earlier heavy 6-wheel vehicles, they were used on the same sites and so the same ordnance inventory designation was adopted, despite the vehicle’s many modifications. The so-called Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) was armed, corresponding to its 6-Rad counterpart, with a 2cm KwK 30 and the MG 13 (later MG 34) in a rotating turret. Likewise, the Sd.Kfz. 232 (8-Rad) carried a large, curved bow antenna, and there was a Sd.Kfz. 263 (8-Rad) command vehicle, too.
Nevertheless, the Army Weapons Office demanded a short-term solution for a vehicle based on the 4x6 chassis that offered better off-road performance and armament, namely a 37 mm anti-tank gun, with at least comparable range and armor protection. This interim vehicle was supposed to be ready for service in early 1934. Magirus accepted the challenge and proposed the Sd.Kfz. 241, a 4x8 vehicle. It retained the old overall 6-Rad layout with the front engine under a long bonnet, but it had a fourth steered axle added to lower ground pressure and improve the vehicle’s trench bridging capabilities. The powered two rear axles retained the 6-Rad’s twin wheels, so that the vehicle stood on a total of twelve tires with a relatively large footprint. The armored hull was very similar to the Sd.Kfz. 231 6-Rad, but carried a new, bigger turret with a 3.7 cm KwK 30 L/45 gun and an axis-parallel 7.92 mm MG 34 light machine gun.
The box-shaped turret exploited the hull’s width to the maximum and had a maximum armor of 15 mm, no base and the seat of the commander was attached to the tower wall. The commander sat elevated under a raised cupola in the rear section of the turret, just behind the main gun. He had five viewing slits protected by glass blocks and steel slides for all-round visibility. The gunner/loader, standing to the left of the main gun, had to constantly follow the movement of the turret, which was done by hand. In order to support the gunner when slewing the turret, the commander had an additional handle on the right side. The two crew members also had a turret position indicator.
The cannon was fired electrically via a trigger, the machine gun was operated mechanically with a pedal. To aim and view the outside, the gunner had a gun sight to the left of the gun with an opening in the gun mantlet. Standard access to the vehicle was through low double-doors in the vehicle’ flank, but side exit openings in the turret with two flaps each were also frequently used to board it. Another entry was through the commander cupola’s lid.
With all this extra hardware, the Sd.Kfz. 241’s overall weight rose considerably from the late Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) nearly 6 tons to 7.5 tons. As a consequence, the chassis had to be reinforced and a more powerful engine was used, a 6-cylinder Maybach HL 42 TRKM w carburetor gasoline engine with 4170 cc capacity and 100 hp (74 kW) output at 3000 rpm.
As expected, the Sd.Kfz. 241 was not a success. Even though the first vehicles were delivered in time in mid-1934, its operational value was rather limited. Off-road capability was, due to the extra weight, the raised center of gravity and the lack of all-wheel drive, just as bad as the 6-Rad vehicles, and the more powerful engine’s higher fuel consumption allowed neither higher range, despite bigger fuel tanks, nor a better street performance. The only real progress was the new 3.7 cm KwK 30’s firepower, which was appreciated by the crews, even though the weapon was only effective against armored targets at close range. At 100 m, 64 mm of vertical armor could be penetrated, but at 500 m this already dropped to 31 mm, any angle in the armor weakened its hitting power even further. The weapon’s maximum range was 5.000m, though, and with HE rounds the Sd.Kfz. 241 could provide indirect fire support. Another factor that limited the vehicle’s effectiveness was that the gun had to be operated by a single crew member who had to load and aim at the same time – there was simply not enough space for a separate loader who would also have increased the gun’s rate of fire from six to maybe twelve rounds per minute. The vehicle’s armor was also inadequate and only gave protection against light firearms, but not against machine guns or heavier weapons. On the other side, the cupola on top of the turret offered the commander in his elevated position a very good all-round field of view, even when under full protection – but this progressive detail was not adopted for the following armored reconnaissance vehicles and remained exclusive to German battle tanks.
Only a total of fifty-five Sd.Kfz. 241s were completed by Magirus in Cologne until 1936, when production of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) vehicle family started and soon replaced the Sd.Kfz. 241, which was primarily operated at the Eastern Front in Poland and Czechoslovakia. By 1940, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left in any frontline army unit, but a few survivors were grouped together and handed over to police units. Their main gun was either completely deleted or sometimes replaced with a second machine gun, and they were used for urban patrols and riot control duties. However, by 1942, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left over.
Specifications:
Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio operator/rear driver)
Weight: 7.5 tons (11.450 lb)
Length: 5,85 metres (19 ft 2 in)
Width: 2,20 metres (7 ft 2 ½ in)
Height: 2,78 metres (9 ft 1 in)
Ground clearance: 28.5 cm (10 in)
Suspension: Torsion bar and leaf springs
Fuel capacity: 150 litres (33 imp gal; 40 US gal)
Armor:
8–15 mm (0.31 – 0.6 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 70 km/h (43.5 mph)
52 km/h (32.3 mph) backwards
Operational range: 250 km (155 miles)
Power/weight: 13 PS/ton
Engine:
Maybach HL42 TRKM water-cooled straight 6-cylinder petrol engine with 100 hp (74 kW),
driving the rear pair of axles
Transmission:
Maybach gearbox with 5-speed forward and 4-speed reverse
Armament:
1× 37 mm KwK 30 L/45 cannon with 70 rounds
1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun mounted co-axially with 1.300 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional armored car was inspired by a leftover rear axles from an Italeri Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) model that I converted into a fictional half-track variant some time ago. I wondered if the set could be transplanted under an 8-Rad chassis, to create a kind of missing link to the 8x8 successors of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) with a total of twelve tires on four axles.
The basis became a First to Fight 1:72 Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) kit – a rather simple and robust affair, apparently primarily intended for tabletop purposes. But the overall impression is good, and it would be modified, anyway, even though the plastic turned out to be rather soft/waxy and the parts’ sprue attachment points a bit wacky.
The hull was “turned around” to drive backwards, so that its rear engine ended up in the front. I eventually only used the rear twin wheels from the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad), but not its single axles and laminated springs. Instead, I first cut the OOB mudguards in two halves, removed their side skirts and glued them onto the lower hull in reversed order, so that the exhausts and their muffler boxes would end up at the rear of the front fenders. With these in place I checked the axles’ position from the OOB ladder chassis, which is a single, integral part, and found that the rear axles’ position had to be moved by 2mm backwards. Cutting the original piece and re-arranging it was easier to scratch a new rear suspension, and the rocker bars had to be shortened to accept the wider twin wheels.
The original small turret with the 20 mm autocannon was deleted and replaced with core elements from a Panzer III turret, left over from previous conversion projects. Wider than any original turret of the Sd.Kfz. 231/232 family, it had to be narrowed by roughly 5mm – I had to cut a respective plug from the turret’s and the mantlet’s middle section, the deformed hatch was covered under a Panzer III commander cupola. To mate the re-arranged turret with the OOB adapter plate to mount it onto the hull, and to add overall stability to the construction, I filled the interior with 2C putty.
The typical storage bin at the turret’s rear was omitted, though, it would have made it too large for the compact truck chassis. The shape was a perfect stylistic match, even though, with the longer gun barrel, the vehicle reminds a lot of the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car?
Most small details like the bumpers and the headlights were taken OOB, I added a whip antenna base at the rear and mounted two spare wheels at the back, one of them covered with a tarpaulin (made from paper tissue drenched with white glue, this was also used to create the gun mantlet seals).
Painting and markings:
Typical for German vehicles from the early WWII stages the Sd.Kfz. 241 was painted Panzergrau (RAL 7021; I used Humbrol 67, which is authentic, but mixed it with some 125 to create a slightly lighter shade of grey) overall - quite dull, but realistic. To make the vehicle look more interesting, though, I added authentic contemporary camouflage in the form of low-contrast blotches with RAL 8017, a very dark reddish brown, mixed from Humbrol 160 and some 98. Better, but IMHO still not enough.
After the model received a washing with highly thinned red-brown acrylic artist paint I applied the few decals and gave the parts an overall dry-brushing treatment with grey and dark earth. Everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish. For even more “excitement”, I decided to add a coat of snow.
For the simulated “frosting” I used white tile grout – which has the benefits of being water-soluble, quite sturdy to touch and the material does not yellow over time like gypsum.
First, the wheels, the chassis and the inside of the wheel arches received a separate treatment with relatively dryly mixed tile grout, simulating snow and dirt clusters. Once thoroughly dried, the wheels were mounted. Then the model was sprayed with low surface tension water and loose tile grout was drizzled over hull and turret, creating a flaky coat of fake snow. Once dry again, everything received another coat of matt acrylic varnish to protect and fixate everything further.
A relatively quick build, done in a few days. The First to Fight kit is very simple and went together well, but I’d use something else the next time due to the odd material it was molded with. The outcome of an 4x8 scout car looks quite plausible, though, like the missing link between the Sd.Kfz. 231 and 232 – the unintended similarity with the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car was a bit surprising, though. And the snow on the model eventually makes it look a bit more interesting, the stunt was worth the effort.
The Universe ❤ ツ
You may be familiar with much of the information presented here, either intellectually or intuitively, or perhaps you may be aware of different pieces of the puzzle. In any case, you may also discover something new or gain valuable insights as your subconscious connects the dots. Once you begin to assimilate and apply this knowledge your life will never be the same again. You will begin to view, perceive and experience reality in an entirely new, very liberating way.
When you become aware of the true nature of reality, you will begin to understand who you truly are and how the universal laws affect your life and the world around you. With this realization comes a certain degree of responsibility as you will no longer be oblivious to the fact that you are in complete control of your life experience and what this truly means. This new understanding of Life, the Universe and the laws that govern it is the key to your true freedom. All of this wisdom already exists within you as innate knowledge encoded in your DNA. It contains all of the information related to who you truly are, your past lives, your galactic and spiritual heritage and all of the information relating to your individual evolution as a light being. Your understanding of the information presented here will vary depending on your level of activation or spiritual development. The further you progress on your quest, the greater the responsibility in terms of applying what you are learning to your life and the world around you.
The first thing you need to be aware of is your personal belief system. Your belief system has been shaped by the various thought forms and emotions you have experienced since early childhood right up to the present day. There are also thought forms from your earliest ancestors and your past lives encoded within your DNA (cellular memory) which also affect your belief system. Your belief system encompasses more than just religion or spiritual beliefs, it is your understanding of the world around you and how you experience or interpret your reality. Everyone is entitled to their belief system and the information presented here is open to your interpretation. If you do not agree with something or you feel it doesn't fit with your belief system simply discard it. All you need to do is approach the information with an open heart and an open mind.
The Energetic Universe ❤ ツ
Everything that we can see and all that we can't exists as a form of energy. The entire universe and all of creation is a manifestation of this energy. Even the dense human form is constructed from this universal energy, from the highly energetic particles we call atoms. Science has shown the structure of an atom to be mostly space with a few tiny particles thrown in, which are in turn made up of even smaller particles. All physical matter is well over 90% pure space. The rest is resonating Light patterned by consciousness. It is all Light.
Scientifically speaking, Einstein’s theory of relativity E=mc² demonstrates how energy and mass (matter) are equivalent and transmutable. As you approach the speed of light you are converted into pure energy. If we go beyond the physical universe, into the microscopic universe, past the cells that make up our bodies, past the molecules which make up our cells, into the atomic and subatomic realms, the lines of reality begin to blur. No longer are objects seemingly separate from ourselves, everything becomes a sea of atoms and sub atomic particles. An integrated ocean of pure energy. From this comes the understanding that we are all connected with everything. This is one of the fundamental concepts that need to be understood in order to disconnect yourself from the illusion of a reality of separation. We are all one.
The Multi-Dimensional Universe ❤ ツ
Our universe contains many different dimensions superimposed over one another. These dimensions are separated from each other along different octaves determined by the rate of vibration of light. It is similar in concept to the musical scale. As the strings generating music vibrate at different levels they produce different harmonics and sounds. The greater the vibration of light, the higher you move through the dimensional levels eventually returning to the source, or God.
As an analogy: picture an onion and all of its layers in your mind. The whole onion represents God, and its different layers represent the different dimensions that make up our universe. Each dimension or layer exists separately to the others yet all are still part of the whole. In reality all of the dimensions co-exist simultaneously over lapping each other however each level is clearly defined and only accessible via a certain light pattern or vibration.
Everything exists as a form of energy and has a vibration associated with it. Your physical body, which is really made of light, is vibrating at a specific frequency. The higher your vibration, the greater your expansion as you shed density towards becoming pure energy. As you lower your vibration you descend further into density. It is important for you to understand that different emotional states trigger vibrational changes within the human being. There are only two core emotions that we feel, these being the emotions of Love and Fear. Every other emotion we experience comes from these two basic emotions. Fear produces a lower frequency or vibration within you where as Love produces a higher frequency or rapid vibration. This is another key concept that needs to be understood in order for spiritual progression. It is very important to practice the art of unconditional love in your life, as this raises your frequency or vibration allowing you to access the higher dimensions, taking you closer to Spirit. All of our spiritual teachers and masters throughout history have urged us to love one another… Why ? Because the vibration of love is the core harmonic/pattern of our bodies. It turn us ON in regenerative ways, where as fear turns us OFF in degenerative ways.
There is only Love and Light, they are one and the same, they represent Spirit. Everything starts from Spirit as pure love and light. As you begin to lower your light vibration you begin to seemingly separate from this source, downward through the dimensions towards the other end of the scale, deeper into density (less light energy), darkness (less light) and fear (less love). You can never totally separate from the source as you are a fragment of Spirit.
Each of the dimensional levels in our universe have different universal laws affecting them. Trying to understand the higher dimensions is impossible from the context and perspective of our third dimensional existence in limited consciousness. During waking reality you exist on the third dimension. In actual fact you are a multi-dimensional being existing on a number of levels all at once, however you are only aware of this 3rd dimensional existence which constitutes the physical world around us. You are a transitional being living a human life on the planet Earth. When your physical body dies you don't actually go anywhere, however you do move into a higher dimension, in your Astral Body. You transition from the 3rd dimension into the 4th, which is where you will find the astral plane. Funnily enough, the 4th dimension is also where you go every single night when you go to sleep! This transition is not new to you, it is your true home.
Take a moment to process this information. This is how you can still see loved ones that have crossed over in your dreams. In reality they can visit you while you’re in the 3rd dimensional waking state at any time and they can see you but you can’t see them for they exist in a higher vibration in a higher dimension. It's simillar to the electro-magnetic spectrum where we can only see the frequencies of visible light, the rest (infra-red, microwave, ultra violet, X-rays, Gamma Rays, Cosmic Rays) are invisible to us. They permeate everything but we cannot see them. Remember that all the dimensions overlap. It is possible to access the higher dimensions through your consciousness, using natural psychic abilities, but your ability to interpret and manipulate the energy around you is limited by your belief system. You must believe in something before it can become a reality.
Now you can begin to understand some of the differences between the 3rd dimension and the 4th. When you are dreaming you are not bound by the same physical (universal) laws as you are here in this dimension. You are immortal, able to fly, teleport, walk through walls, change your physical appearance, look at an object from all sides at once, and experience the world in a totally different way, which is often why dreams often don't make sense when you wake up and put them back into a 3D box. When you are dreaming your subconscious mind is running the show, however it is possible for you to consciously experience the 4th dimension, through thought/astral projection, lucid dreaming, physical ascension or death.
You are in complete control of every aspect of your life experience here on Earth. Before you incarnate you predetermine several exit windows, or opportunities for you to potentially terminate your incarnation. During the course of your life certain events may happen where you are involved in an accident, or you become ill, when you have the opportunity to evaluate your progress on a higher level and make the choice to continue or leave. The third dimension or life is a great school where you have the ability to learn many valuable lessons and accelerate your progress very quickly, while in this state of amnesia. When you terminate your incarnation and decide to leave you re-enter Earth's incarnational cycle. When you are ready you will reincarnate back onto the Earth and continue your spiritual evolution. The Earth has shifted to a new energy and the time is approaching for the entire planet and her inhabitants to experience a new level of reality. We are heading towards the 5th dimension (physical/planetary ascension). We will not be skipping the 4th; we have already spent much time there in between incarnations, it is our true home.
Consciousness ❤ ツ
Everything is connected! There is only one Reality and one God, but there are many, many ways that the one Reality can be interpreted. In fact, the number of ways to interpret the Reality are just about infinite. There are certain realities that many people have agreed on, and these realities are called levels of consciousness. There are realities that extremely large numbers of beings are focusing on, which include the one you and I are experiencing right now. At one time we existed on Earth in a very high level of awareness that was far beyond anything we can even imagine now. We hardly have even the capability to imagine where we once were, because who we were then is so out of context with who we are now. Because of the events that happened between 16,000 and 13,000 years ago, humanity fell from that very high place through many dimensions and overtones, ever increasing in density, until we reached this particular place, which we call the third dimension on planet Earth, the modern world.
Our consciousness is not stored in the body or the brain. When you understanding that, you begin to realise that there is a common spiritual bond between all things in the universe, and that we are all part of the one divine intelligence. Your consciousness can be viewed as existing in two parts, as the individual and the group. You are most familiar with your individual consciousness in this reality of separation which creates the illusion that you are inside a body looking out into the world at everything around you that is separate from yourself. However, your consciousness is also connected to the group, or mass consciousness of every human on the planet (which is then connected to the mass consciousness of the Earth, which is connected to the solar system, connected to the central sun of the galaxy, all the way back to unity consciousness with Source or God). Consciousness is the force that connects the spiritual realms with the physical creation.
Consciousness is the seat of the soul, and the source of all creation. Consciousness is what moulds and creates our reality. Scientifically this is demonstrated in quantum physics. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that the mere act of looking at an object will change its state from what it originally was, not enabling us to see its original state. Another experiment that demonstrates how conscious throughts affect our reality was performed by Japanese researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto. He devised a technique to photograph water crystals and essentially capture the state of the water which had been affected by conscious thoughts, feelings and emotions. He separated the water into bottles, and on each bottle was taped a message, such as “I love you”, “I hate you”, and “You make me sick, I will kill you”. After a period of time the water was frozen then examined. The resultant formation of the water crystals matched the energetic structure of the messages. The messages of love created elaborate crystals with beautiful symmetry, while the messages of hate generated crystals of no form, dysfunction, and distress. This is more tangible proof that thoughts and feelings affect physical reality/matter. What is interesting to note here is that the human body is over 70% water. If thoughts and feelings could affect water like that, imagine what our thoughts and feelings are doing to us. Consciousness is what binds our universe together and it is what creates our reality.
“The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order” Stephen W. Hawking. This unified field of consciousness and energy is our concept of Spirit. The conscious living universe exists on an unimaginable scale. In this reality of separation most of us are preoccupied with daily life, and the "external" world we see with our eyes. It’s not often we raise our thoughts above this to the higher consciousness which makes up our universe, and the realization that we are all from the same source and that we are all connected.
How Big is God? ❤ ツ
I want you to imagine the Atlantic Ocean. It's huge! Yet this ocean has a oneness about it. This entire ocean is pulled as one object by the moon. Seemingly as one entity, it bulges gently and causes tides and waters to be pushed and pulled on beaches thousands of miles apart. If you study the tides and the currents, you might wonder how there could be a system where the ocean seems to respond as though it were one consciousness. It seems to coordinate itself in many ways, yet it's made of trillions of parts called water molecules.
Now here's the metaphor: The ocean is made of water, which is the water molecule you know as H2O. So I want you to visualize in your mind how many molecules there are in the ocean! I'll give you a moment to count them.
You can't do it, can you? It's an unbelievably large number, understandable only by math. It's too big to imagine, so notations in mathematics would be given that only the mathematicians can truly grasp. It would be a number that would be so large that it would be out of your view as a Human.
Now, imagine (in this metaphor) that each one of those molecules is an angel. In addition (just to make this more complex), somehow these trillions and trillions of molecules know one another! They all know each other at a quantum level... it's a system where what happens to one of them happens to them all - at the same time. Somehow they're all connected. One knows the other no matter how many thousands of miles apart they are within the ocean. Can you imagine such a connection?
Consider the ocean in this metaphor for a moment, to be what you think of as God. God is not one thing, but a combination of trillions of parts of angelic consciousness (the ocean). Contemplate just how big this would be to a molecule! Now take a small glass of water, fill it almost to the top with a little of this enormous ocean, then let it bob around in a gentle way on the ocean's surface. For this metaphor, the glass of water is planet Earth.
Now I want you to notice something: The glass is filled with water from the ocean. Are you starting to understand? Whatever the ocean means to you, it's also in the glass. In fact, if you were in the glass, and you were a molecule of H2O, you wouldn't be able to see through the glass clearly. In fact, you wouldn't even know that the ocean existed. Yet you'd be pushed and pulled and bobbed around just as though you were part of the ocean.
Without the knowledge of this vast ocean, you wouldn't truly know who you were. You wouldn't even know you were an H2O molecule. When you looked around spiritually, you might say, "Well, it looks like the wall of our water glass is the limit. We're contained by the glass and we can't see anything beyond it. We can't see outside! In addition, there's no evidence that there's anyone beyond the glass. So we'll turn inward and examine only ourselves." This is the earth.
But if the glass contains ocean water, this means that the glass actually contains angels [according to the metaphor]! But in this case, they're angels that don't seem to know that they're angels. There seems to be total isolation, and disconnected from everything except what's going on in the glass of water. The water in the glass can't even see how big the ocean is... if they even believe there is one. Oh, they can look at the stars and appreciate the Universe, but they can't see through the glass to really see how big God is.
Yet there's something interesting going on here. There's a mass intuition. At the centre of every molecule, somehow they know that there's something bigger than themselves. It's intuitive, and all throughout the glass it's felt. Here is a fact of your humanness: Eighty-five percent of humanity believes in the afterlife. Hundreds of religions, developed independently at many times and places in history, all have something in common: They believe that when you leave Earth, you go somewhere else!
Now, 85 percent would be an amazing number if you were doing a political poll! It's more than a majority - it's a mandate of consciousness. And so at the cellular level, the Human Being knows that there's something beyond the glass. Even though there's no entity that can prove it, the belief continues through the ages and into the future, and men and women continue to die in battle defending their belief that beyond the glass is their own God.
Eighty-five percent of the people on the earth can't all have the same thought and have it be a coincidence, or just wishful thinking. At some level, you not only know about the ocean on the other side of the glass, but you also know about the family who's there... trillions and trillions of them. If you could only know more! That's the spiritual quest that often drives Human cultures and even wars, where one side believes that their God is better than the other. Therefore, they kill each other to rid the planet of "wrong thinking." Odd, isn't it, how the unseen actually postures governments, shapes countries, and creates wars? That's a lot of effort and energy spent on "wishful thinking."
We stop and apologize for having to use metaphors so often, but we must give you this information in this fashion to even get to the next step of the teaching. And so I'm going to stop for a moment and ask you this question: Do you see how amazing this system is?
How big is God? ❤ ツ
Big enough to have created multiple Universes - trillions and trillions of angelic entities, stretching farther than you can imagine - levels of dimensionality that you cannot conceive of. Bigger than big!
Yet small enough to love you and live in your heart.
What is the perception, therefore, of God? Looking at it from the outside of the glass, it's actually quite amusing for us [Kryon]. Let me tell you what happens: The molecules in the glass [Human-angels] start to look around and wonder about everything. As discussed, they believe in the afterlife. Therefore, they feel there must be a God somewhere. Then they decide from the depths of their wisdom that God must be a giant molecule! Why? Because it's the only thing they can see. They have only one model - themselves. Then they say that there's proof of this, since scripture says so. In just one example, there's Holy Scripture that says that you're "made in the image of God." Now, if you're a molecule, God must therefore be a giant molecule, too, since, if you believe scripture, you look just like God.
How can I tell you this, dear one? This is the premise we've taught from the beginning that's so difficult for you to grasp. You have it reversed! Your logic is reversed. You don't understand this because you can't broach the glass. "Made in His image" means that every single molecule in the glass is part of the ocean! You have it backwards, you see. God's "image" is the mastery of the Universe. It's the divinity of the angelic realm, and it is indeed your image. The "image" is inside you.
It's interesting that Humans can only imagine the highest thing in their own reality. And so those in the glass, for thousands of years, have decided that God is a molecule. Pictures of God are Human-like, and all the angels are, too. Every time an angel appears on Earth, those who create the history of the event have to put skin and wings on them, pretend they're of singular nature, and give them one name. This is very funny! For angels are interdimensional, without wings or Human form, and they always have a "group" attribute. That's because they represent the consciousness of the whole ocean. But in order for Humans to grasp their visit, they're brought to the Human form and level.
You see how limited that is? Think of it... if that glass contained only anteaters, they would have chosen to say that God must be a large anteater! Then they'd go on to say, "When I get to heaven, there will be lots of ants!" Amusing, isn't it? But that's not very different from what most Humans do. You've been told that when you go to heaven, there will be streets of gold - mansions for each one of you. Some cultures believe that you'll be met by 72 virgins [just the men qualify for this, of course]. Do you see what I'm saying? You can only go to the limit of the wall of the glass based on your spiritual thinking and your own reality. Your idea of what God must be and what heaven must be is contained in, and limited to, your own Human experience.
The truth? There are no streets or mansions (or Human virgins) when you get to the other side of the glass. What there is, is a splendorous reality that you instantly remember. There is expansion, and you become the part of God that you always were, and all is known. You go home! In this metaphor, the wall of the glass is the veil. You can't see through it, and you never actually see the ocean [God]. So everything you conceive of isn't much bigger than the glass, and that's what you decide to worship. You worship what you can't see, thinking that whatever that force is on the other side of the glass, it has to be wiser and bigger than you. What you don't understand is the actual test you're in that creates this.
Can angels, sequestered in the glass, eventually discover the truth about who they are? Will they ever acknowledge that they're part of the ocean? Or will they eventually kill each other trying to reach the streets of gold or the 72 virgins? This is what the Kryon work is about. We're here because there's an awakening... a great shift... and humanity is beginning to see through the glass. Let me make a statement. There's nothing to worship; there's everything to discover. It's time you thought interdimensionally.
But let's stop for a moment. Look at the system and all that it represents. God is huge - immense. The ocean stretches for trillions of light years, through quantum Universes and multiverses, yet the angels all know each other. How can this be? It's the staple of an interdimensional existence... that everything is connected, yet seemingly separate and removed by distance. Spread through the Universe is a hugeness you cannot imagine, but since the angels are all connected in real time, every single one of them knows your name! You see?
How big is God? ❤ ツ
Big enough to have created the Universe... yet small enough to know your name - small enough to be here today - small enough to be next to you as you read these words.
Spinchat Healing - the Gifted Revolution
www.spinchat.com/group/Healing_-_Meditation_-_Karma_-_Spi...
Some great quotes from a Contact in Canberra.. Pure...
"Shoot any scene at the time of realization of the highest emotional stress coupled with sense of pictorial form - is a decisive moment". Henri Cartier-Bresson
“I hope that my work will encourage self expression in others and stimulate the search for beauty and creative excitement in the great world around us.”-Ansel Adams
“True education is concerned not only with practical goals but also with values.”- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
“Buildings should keep you dry and feed the soul.” - Zaha Hadid .
"As swift as the wind, quiet as a forest, furious as fire, immovable as a mountain." - Takeda family
"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are. I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not."- Kurt Cobain
"A friend is nothing but a known enemy."- Kurt Cobain
"The duty of youth is to challenge corruption."- Kurt Cobain
"There's nothing better than having a baby. Holding my baby is the best drug in the world." - Kurt Cobain
"We're so trendy we can't even escape ourselves."- Kurt Cobain
"Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't."- Alexander Lee McQueen
"You can only go forward by making mistakes." - Alexander Lee McQueen
"Music assists him in the use of harmonic and mathematical proportion."- Vitruvius
"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." - Pablo Picasso
"I am still learning." - Michelangelo
"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings." - Salvador Dali
For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. Vincent Van Gogh
If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van Gogh
I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed. Vincent Van Gogh
Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. Vincent Van Gogh
I dream of painting and then I paint my dream. Vincent Van Gogh
When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - Religion. Then I go out and paint the stars. Vincent Van Gogh
Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model. Vincent Van Gogh
Do something worth remembering. Elvis Presley
Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over. Elvis Presley
I'am not the King. Jesus Christ is the King. I'am just entertainer. Elvis Presley
A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage. It's my favorite part of the business, live concerts. Elvis Presley
People think you're crazy if you talk about things they don't understand. Elvis Presley
You only pass through this life once. You don't come back for an encore. Elvis Presley
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine. Elvis Presley
I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to. Elvis Presley
I believe the key to happiness is : someone to love , something to do , and something to look forward to. Elvis Presley
When things go wrong don't go with them. Elvis Presley
"Be as you wish to seem." Socrates
"Wisdom begins in wonder. " Socrates
"Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live." Socrates
"A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true." Socrates
"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant." Socrates
"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing." Socrates
"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior." Socrates
"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us." Socrates
"I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. " Socrates
"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates
"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for. " Socrates
"He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy." Socrates
"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher." Socrates
"I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. " Socrates
"From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate." Socrates
"Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us." Socrates
"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature." Socrates
"I was angry and frustrated until I started my own family and my first child was born. Until then I didn't really appreciate life the way I should have, but fortunately I woke up." Johnny Depp
"The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants." Johnny Depp
"When kids hit one year old, it's like hanging out with a miniature drunk. You have to hold onto them. They bump into things. They laugh and cry. They urinate. They vomit."
Johnny Depp
"If there's any message to my work, it is ultimately that it's OK to be different, that it's good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different color. " Johnny Depp
"Trips to the dentist - I like to postpone that kind of thing."Johnny Depp
"I'm not sure I'm adult yet." Johnny Depp
"There's a drive in me that won't allow me to do certain things that are easy. " Johnny Depp
"The term 'serious actor' is kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? Like 'airplane food.' " Johnny Depp
"As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too." Johnny Depp
"I'm an old-fashioned guy... I want to be an old man with a beer belly sitting on a porch, looking at a lake or something."Johnny Depp
"People say I make strange choices, but they're not strange for me. My sickness is that I'm fascinated by human behavior, by what's underneath the surface, by the worlds inside people." Johnny Depp
"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." Francis of Assisi
"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love." Francis of Assisi
"For it is in giving that we receive." Francis of Assisi
"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. " Steve Jobs
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." Steve Jobs
" That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." Steve Jobs
"Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn. " Steve Jobs
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works. " Steve Jobs
"I believe life is an intelligent thing: that things aren't random. " Steve Jobs
"Things don't have to change the world to be important." Steve Jobs
"Stay hungry, stay foolish." Steve Jobs
"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it." Steve Jobs
"I think money is a wonderful thing because it enables you to do things. It enables you to invest in ideas that don't have a short-term payback. " Steve Jobs
" Throughout my years in business, I discovered something. I would always ask why you do things. The answers that I would invariably get are: 'Oh, that's just the way things are done around here.' Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business. " Steve Jobs
"Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them. " Steve Jobs
"You have to be very focused and work very hard, but it is not about working hard without knowing what your aim is! You really have to have a goal." Zaha Hadid
"I have always appreciate those who dare to experiment with materials and proportions." Zaha Hadid
"I don't think that Architecture is only about shelter...it's should be able to excite you , to calm you, to make you think." Zaha Hadid
“Be - don't try to become” . Osho
“Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That's its balance.” Osho
“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." and so in you the child your mother lives on and through your family continues to live... so at this time look after yourself and your family as you would your mother for through you all she will truly never die.” Osho
“Truth is not to be found outside. No teacher, no scripture can give it to you. It is inside you and if you wish to attain it, seek your own company. Be with yourself. ” Osho
“If you love a flower, don’t pick it up.
Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love.
So if you love a flower, let it be.
Love is not about possession.
Love is about appreciation.” Osho
“Experience life in all possible ways --
good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light,
summer-winter. Experience all the dualities.
Don't be afraid of experience, because
the more experience you have, the more
mature you become.” Osho
“Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.” Osho
“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” Osho
“Friendship is the purest love. It is the highest form of Love where nothing is asked for, no condition, where one simply enjoys giving.” Osho
“Be realistic: Plan for a miracle”. Osho
“Listen to your being. It is continuously giving you hints; it is a still, small voice. It does not shout at you, that is true. And if you are a little silent you will start feeling your way. Be the person you are. Never try to be another, and you will become mature. Maturity is accepting the responsibility of being oneself, whatsoever the cost. Risking all to be oneself, that's what maturity is all about.” Osho
“Life begins where fear ends.” Osho
"I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.
It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.
It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.
And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.
That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.” Osho
“You feel good, you feel bad, and these feelings are bubbling from your own unconsciousness, from your own past. Nobody is responsible except you. Nobody can make you angry, and nobody can make you happy.” Osho
“Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something inside to be realized.” Osho
“Intelligence is dangerous. Intelligence means you will start thinking on your own; you will start looking around on your own. You will not believe in the scriptures; you will believe only in your own experience.” Osho
“Courage Is a love affair with the unknown”. Osho
“If you are a parent, open doors to unknown directions to the child so he can explore. Don't make him afraid of the unknown, give him support. ” Osho
“The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death.” Osho
“Whatever you feel, you become. It is your responsibility.” Osho
“You exist in time, but you belong to eternity. You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time. You are
deathless, living in a body of death. Your consciousness knows no death, no birth. It is only your body that is born and dies. But you are not aware of your consciousness. You are not conscious of your consciousness. And that is the whole art of meditation. Becoming conscious of consciousness itself.” Osho
“Be less of a judge and you will be surprised that when you become a witness and you don't judge yourself, you stop judging others too. And that makes you more human, more compassionate, more understanding.” Osho
“A little foolishness, enough 2 enjoy life, & a little wisdom to avoid the errors, that will do”. Osho
“You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So he must be the creator because people who have been creative have been closest to him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it – whatever it is”. Osho
Definition of meditative - (adjective) -
of, involving, or absorbed in meditation or considered thought.
“In love the other is important; in lust you are important” . Osho
“It's not a question of learning much. On the contrary. It's a question of unlearning much.“ Osho
“All that is great cannot be possessed - and that is one of the most foolish things man goes on doing. We want to possess.” Osho
“The moment you become miserly you are closed to the basic phenomenon of life: expansion, sharing. The moment you start clinging to things, you have missed the target - you have missed. Because things are not the target, you, your innermost being, is the target - not a beautiful house, but a beautiful you, not much money, but a rich you, not many things, but an open being, available to millions of things.” Osho
“If you want to learn anything, learn trust - nothing else it needed. If you are miserable, nothing else will help - learn trust. If you don't feel any meaning in life and you feel meaningless, nothing will help - learn trust. Trust gives meaning because trust makes you capable of allowing the whole descend upon you.” Osho
“I love, because my love is not dependent on the object of love. My love is dependent on my state of being. So whether the other person changes, becomes different, friend turns into a foe, does not matter, because my love was never dependent on the other person. My love is my state of being. I simply love.” Osho
First visit 9 july 2009
Photos taken and published with permission of the Self-Realization Fellowship, www.yogananda-srf.org
215 West K Street
Encinitas, CA 92024
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Maison Guiette, Populierenlaan 32, Antwerp – architect Le Corbusier – 1926
House Guiette is, together with a house in Weissenhof in Stuttgart, the only realization of the "Maison Citrohan", one of the early theoretical house designs by Le Corbusier, also the only surviving work of Le Corbusier in Belgium. In designing the house Guiette Le Corbusier showed the possibilities of the Citrohan type by adaptation to the available budget, the wishes of the client and the building regulations of the city. Designed in 1926 as a home-studio for painter Rene Guiette, built in 1926-27 under the supervision of P. Smekens and restored after years of vacancy to a design by G. Baines in 1987. Unfortunately the interior of the house cannot be visited.
The original painting of the interior was completely restored in the restoration. Indeed for Le Corbusier colour is an important element that emphasizes the spatial properties of the architecture. Le Corbusier came in May 1927 at the spot to determine the colors. He wanted to enlighten and open the spaces to give the walls in each room a different color. Basically in the whole house the parallel walls were painted in the same color. The separation wall and connecting parts in the living room, staircase, master bedroom and roof are white, the wall surfaces of front and rear and parallel thereto walls ultramarine green, the outer wall of the living and the curved wall of the stairwell on the top floor were painted pink, the walls of the cloakroom and the overflow in burnt sienna, a red tint, for the sake of harmony with open doors, the dividing wall between kitchen and living on both sides of burnt umber. The bedrooms and the roof were treated as separate entities. In the master bedroom were ultramarine (facade and parallel separation wall with bathroom), burnt umber (side wall) and light (ceiling) is used. The children's bedroom is to the privacy and intimacy of the room to emphasize, fully painted in ocher. On the roof terrace with white wall of separation is the opposite side wall and the other English green walls pink. T complete the color palette three shades of gray and white were used. White was-except in the bedrooms-used in every room (including ceilings) and predominates in studio and service spaces such as kitchen, toilet, bathroom, storage rooms and stairwell. During the restoration, the original flooring of black or off-white tiles was preserved and restored, where it could not be done it was replaced by parquet flooring. Furthermore, continued to maintain the original austere lighting.
I get lost in the crashing and beating of the waves.
I cry at how the tide never stops kissing the shore, no matter how many times it's sent away.
The wind steals my thoughts and she sends them out to sea.
I scream to get them back, but she's just protecting me.
Banished forever now into the depths of the ocean.
Swallowed by the whale of good emotion.
I will lift my head high and make my footprints in the sand.
With rising tides and realizations.
I now stand on solid foundations.
No longer will I be defeated.
+++ 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:
Due to the restrictions of the Versailles treaties, the Reichswehr was already dealing with the increasing mobilization and motorization of the army after the end of the First World War. The realization that the speed of the troop units required appropriate equipment was available early on. However, the Reichswehr suffered from financial constraints and during the Weimar Republic the industry only had limited capacity for series production of larger, armored vehicles.
Nevertheless, at that time the Sd.Kfz. 3 (unarmored half-track transport vehicle/1927), the ARW (eight-wheel car/1928) and the ZRW (ten-wheel car/1928) provided fundamental experience. The findings of these tests and the troop testing with the Sd.Kfz. 3 enabled a more precise specification of the new vehicles to be developed. The "heavy" armored cars were primarily intended for the reconnaissance units of the new armored forces.
The incipient rearmament could only start with a "cheap" solution, though. A three-part armored structure for the chassis of commercially available off-road trucks was developed by the Army Weapons Office, Dept. WaTest 6, in cooperation with the company Deutsche Eisenwerke AG. The typical truck chassis featured front-wheel steering and a driven bogie at the rear (4x6 layout). In June 1929, the companies Magirus, Daimler-Benz and Büssing-NAG were commissioned to develop the desired armored car from it. If you consider that this truck class was developed for a payload of 1.5t, you can already conclude from this that the vehicles, which are now equipped with a significantly heavy armored structure, had little off-road mobility. Even if the appearance of the vehicles supplied by the different manufacturers was similar, there were external distinguishing features by which the manufacturer could be identified. The vehicles were tested in the Reichswehr from 1932 and introduced later.
One of the four crew members (driver, commander, gunner, radio-operator) was used as a reverse driver: with the narrow streets of the time and a turning circle of between 13 and 16m, this function was essential for a truck-sized heavy reconnaissance vehicle. The chassis had the excellent ladder-type configuration, able to withstand the stress of rough rides at high speed. The scout car was 5570 mm long, 1820 mm wide, 2250 mm high and weighed 5.35, 5.7 or 6 tons, depending on the manufacturer. The hull was made of welded steel armor, 5 to 14.5 mm (0.2-0.57 in) thick depending on the angle (bottom to front) with well-sloped plates. The armament consisted of a 2 cm KwK 30 with 200 rounds and a MG 13 with 1300 rounds in a manually operated turret. The fuel supply was 90, 105 or 110 liters, but with a consumption of about 35 or 40 liters per 100 km, this resulted in a completely inadequate range for a scout car.
Having no true alternatives at hand, the armored 4x6 car was accepted and became known as the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-wheel), and it was subsequently developed into two more vehicles. Up until 1937, 123 vehicles were built as Sd.Kfz. 231 reconnaissance cars and Sd.Kfz. 232 radio trucks. A further 28 were manufactured as Sd.Kfz. 263 (Panzerfunkwagen) command vehicles.
As early as 1932, after testing the pilot series, it was clear that the interim solution of "cheap" 6-wheel vehicles would not meet the future requirements of the armored divisions now planned. It was planned that from 1935/36 at least 18 vehicles of a new type that would meet the requirements for off-road mobility and high road speeds should be produced annually. Büssing-NAG had obviously made a good impression with the ARW and was now commissioned to make the revised vehicle ready for series production, which would become the SdKfz. 231 (8-Rad). The overall concept was completed between 1934 and 1935 and already showed all the features of the future type: all 8 wheels driven and steered, the same speed forwards and backwards, ability to change direction in less than 10 seconds, and a turning circle of "only" 10.5m. The vehicle layout was changed, too: the engine bay was relocated to the rear, the crew compartment was placed at the front end. This improved weight distribution, handling, and the field of view for the main forward driver.
The purpose of the new vehicles was identical to that of the earlier heavy 6-wheel vehicles, they were used on the same sites and so the same ordnance inventory designation was adopted, despite the vehicle’s many modifications. The so-called Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) was armed, corresponding to its 6-Rad counterpart, with a 2cm KwK 30 and the MG 13 (later MG 34) in a rotating turret. Likewise, the Sd.Kfz. 232 (8-Rad) carried a large, curved bow antenna, and there was a Sd.Kfz. 263 (8-Rad) command vehicle, too.
Nevertheless, the Army Weapons Office demanded a short-term solution for a vehicle based on the 4x6 chassis that offered better off-road performance and armament, namely a 37 mm anti-tank gun, with at least comparable range and armor protection. This interim vehicle was supposed to be ready for service in early 1934. Magirus accepted the challenge and proposed the Sd.Kfz. 241, a 4x8 vehicle. It retained the old overall 6-Rad layout with the front engine under a long bonnet, but it had a fourth steered axle added to lower ground pressure and improve the vehicle’s trench bridging capabilities. The powered two rear axles retained the 6-Rad’s twin wheels, so that the vehicle stood on a total of twelve tires with a relatively large footprint. The armored hull was very similar to the Sd.Kfz. 231 6-Rad, but carried a new, bigger turret with a 3.7 cm KwK 30 L/45 gun and an axis-parallel 7.92 mm MG 34 light machine gun.
The box-shaped turret exploited the hull’s width to the maximum and had a maximum armor of 15 mm, no base and the seat of the commander was attached to the tower wall. The commander sat elevated under a raised cupola in the rear section of the turret, just behind the main gun. He had five viewing slits protected by glass blocks and steel slides for all-round visibility. The gunner/loader, standing to the left of the main gun, had to constantly follow the movement of the turret, which was done by hand. In order to support the gunner when slewing the turret, the commander had an additional handle on the right side. The two crew members also had a turret position indicator.
The cannon was fired electrically via a trigger, the machine gun was operated mechanically with a pedal. To aim and view the outside, the gunner had a gun sight to the left of the gun with an opening in the gun mantlet. Standard access to the vehicle was through low double-doors in the vehicle’ flank, but side exit openings in the turret with two flaps each were also frequently used to board it. Another entry was through the commander cupola’s lid.
With all this extra hardware, the Sd.Kfz. 241’s overall weight rose considerably from the late Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) nearly 6 tons to 7.5 tons. As a consequence, the chassis had to be reinforced and a more powerful engine was used, a 6-cylinder Maybach HL 42 TRKM w carburetor gasoline engine with 4170 cc capacity and 100 hp (74 kW) output at 3000 rpm.
As expected, the Sd.Kfz. 241 was not a success. Even though the first vehicles were delivered in time in mid-1934, its operational value was rather limited. Off-road capability was, due to the extra weight, the raised center of gravity and the lack of all-wheel drive, just as bad as the 6-Rad vehicles, and the more powerful engine’s higher fuel consumption allowed neither higher range, despite bigger fuel tanks, nor a better street performance. The only real progress was the new 3.7 cm KwK 30’s firepower, which was appreciated by the crews, even though the weapon was only effective against armored targets at close range. At 100 m, 64 mm of vertical armor could be penetrated, but at 500 m this already dropped to 31 mm, any angle in the armor weakened its hitting power even further. The weapon’s maximum range was 5.000m, though, and with HE rounds the Sd.Kfz. 241 could provide indirect fire support. Another factor that limited the vehicle’s effectiveness was that the gun had to be operated by a single crew member who had to load and aim at the same time – there was simply not enough space for a separate loader who would also have increased the gun’s rate of fire from six to maybe twelve rounds per minute. The vehicle’s armor was also inadequate and only gave protection against light firearms, but not against machine guns or heavier weapons. On the other side, the cupola on top of the turret offered the commander in his elevated position a very good all-round field of view, even when under full protection – but this progressive detail was not adopted for the following armored reconnaissance vehicles and remained exclusive to German battle tanks.
Only a total of fifty-five Sd.Kfz. 241s were completed by Magirus in Cologne until 1936, when production of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) vehicle family started and soon replaced the Sd.Kfz. 241, which was primarily operated at the Eastern Front in Poland and Czechoslovakia. By 1940, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left in any frontline army unit, but a few survivors were grouped together and handed over to police units. Their main gun was either completely deleted or sometimes replaced with a second machine gun, and they were used for urban patrols and riot control duties. However, by 1942, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left over.
Specifications:
Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio operator/rear driver)
Weight: 7.5 tons (11.450 lb)
Length: 5,85 metres (19 ft 2 in)
Width: 2,20 metres (7 ft 2 ½ in)
Height: 2,78 metres (9 ft 1 in)
Ground clearance: 28.5 cm (10 in)
Suspension: Torsion bar and leaf springs
Fuel capacity: 150 litres (33 imp gal; 40 US gal)
Armor:
8–15 mm (0.31 – 0.6 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 70 km/h (43.5 mph)
52 km/h (32.3 mph) backwards
Operational range: 250 km (155 miles)
Power/weight: 13 PS/ton
Engine:
Maybach HL42 TRKM water-cooled straight 6-cylinder petrol engine with 100 hp (74 kW),
driving the rear pair of axles
Transmission:
Maybach gearbox with 5-speed forward and 4-speed reverse
Armament:
1× 37 mm KwK 30 L/45 cannon with 70 rounds
1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun mounted co-axially with 1.300 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional armored car was inspired by a leftover rear axles from an Italeri Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) model that I converted into a fictional half-track variant some time ago. I wondered if the set could be transplanted under an 8-Rad chassis, to create a kind of missing link to the 8x8 successors of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) with a total of twelve tires on four axles.
The basis became a First to Fight 1:72 Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) kit – a rather simple and robust affair, apparently primarily intended for tabletop purposes. But the overall impression is good, and it would be modified, anyway, even though the plastic turned out to be rather soft/waxy and the parts’ sprue attachment points a bit wacky.
The hull was “turned around” to drive backwards, so that its rear engine ended up in the front. I eventually only used the rear twin wheels from the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad), but not its single axles and laminated springs. Instead, I first cut the OOB mudguards in two halves, removed their side skirts and glued them onto the lower hull in reversed order, so that the exhausts and their muffler boxes would end up at the rear of the front fenders. With these in place I checked the axles’ position from the OOB ladder chassis, which is a single, integral part, and found that the rear axles’ position had to be moved by 2mm backwards. Cutting the original piece and re-arranging it was easier to scratch a new rear suspension, and the rocker bars had to be shortened to accept the wider twin wheels.
The original small turret with the 20 mm autocannon was deleted and replaced with core elements from a Panzer III turret, left over from previous conversion projects. Wider than any original turret of the Sd.Kfz. 231/232 family, it had to be narrowed by roughly 5mm – I had to cut a respective plug from the turret’s and the mantlet’s middle section, the deformed hatch was covered under a Panzer III commander cupola. To mate the re-arranged turret with the OOB adapter plate to mount it onto the hull, and to add overall stability to the construction, I filled the interior with 2C putty.
The typical storage bin at the turret’s rear was omitted, though, it would have made it too large for the compact truck chassis. The shape was a perfect stylistic match, even though, with the longer gun barrel, the vehicle reminds a lot of the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car?
Most small details like the bumpers and the headlights were taken OOB, I added a whip antenna base at the rear and mounted two spare wheels at the back, one of them covered with a tarpaulin (made from paper tissue drenched with white glue, this was also used to create the gun mantlet seals).
Painting and markings:
Typical for German vehicles from the early WWII stages the Sd.Kfz. 241 was painted Panzergrau (RAL 7021; I used Humbrol 67, which is authentic, but mixed it with some 125 to create a slightly lighter shade of grey) overall - quite dull, but realistic. To make the vehicle look more interesting, though, I added authentic contemporary camouflage in the form of low-contrast blotches with RAL 8017, a very dark reddish brown, mixed from Humbrol 160 and some 98. Better, but IMHO still not enough.
After the model received a washing with highly thinned red-brown acrylic artist paint I applied the few decals and gave the parts an overall dry-brushing treatment with grey and dark earth. Everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish. For even more “excitement”, I decided to add a coat of snow.
For the simulated “frosting” I used white tile grout – which has the benefits of being water-soluble, quite sturdy to touch and the material does not yellow over time like gypsum.
First, the wheels, the chassis and the inside of the wheel arches received a separate treatment with relatively dryly mixed tile grout, simulating snow and dirt clusters. Once thoroughly dried, the wheels were mounted. Then the model was sprayed with low surface tension water and loose tile grout was drizzled over hull and turret, creating a flaky coat of fake snow. Once dry again, everything received another coat of matt acrylic varnish to protect and fixate everything further.
A relatively quick build, done in a few days. The First to Fight kit is very simple and went together well, but I’d use something else the next time due to the odd material it was molded with. The outcome of an 4x8 scout car looks quite plausible, though, like the missing link between the Sd.Kfz. 231 and 232 – the unintended similarity with the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car was a bit surprising, though. And the snow on the model eventually makes it look a bit more interesting, the stunt was worth the effort.
“In self-realization our experience of ourselves is a pure act of consciousness. We know ourselves by directly being ourselves. All self-images have been rendered transparent and we no longer identify with any construct in the mind. There is no reactivity to past, present or future. There is no effort to be ourselves. There is no interference with our experience, no manipulation, no activity – inner or outer – involved with maintaining our identity. We simply are. We are able to respond, feel, think, act – but from a purely spontaneous and authentic Presence. We are not defensive, not judging ourselves, not trying to live up to any standard. We may also be silent, empty or spacious. We do not have to do anything to be ourselves. We are whole, one, undivided. It is not the wholeness of the harmony of parts, but the wholeness of singlehood. We are one. We are ourselves. We are being. We simply are.” - A. Hameed Ali
Name: Kraanspoor
City: Amsterdam
Architect(s): OTH (Ontwerpgroep Trude Hooykaas bv)
realization: 2007
Kraanspoor (translated as craneway) is a light-weight transparent office building of three floors built on top of a concrete craneway on the grounds of the former NDSM (Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij) shipyard, a relic of Amsterdam’s shipping industry. This industrial monument, built in 1952, has a length of 270 meters, a height of 13,5 meters and a width of 8,7 meters. A street length and width. The new construction on top is the same 270 meters long, with a width of 13,8 meters, accentuates the length of Kraanspoor and the phenomenal expansive view of the river IJ. Fully respecting its foundation, the building is lifted by slender steel columns 3 meters above the crane way, appearing to float above the impressive concrete colossus.
The challenge of the design for OTH was to utilize the maximum allowable load of the existing craneway. The concrete craneway functions as a foundation, and carries the maximum possible weight of a three storey building, with an asymmetrical overhang on the water-side; this is due to the heavier load barring function for the former revolving cranes that cantilevered to this side. The light-weight building of steel construction made the light-weight floors necessary. By using a hollow Infra+ floor system, the piping and wiring are tucked away in the floor allowing for a maximum clear height.
The glass building is clear and simple in plan. The newly built construction is characterized by its transparent double-skin climate façade of glass: the outer layer of moveable motor-driven glass louvers appear as lace-work around the building, the inner façade is of hinged timber windows with a full height from office floor to ceiling. This climate façade allows natural ventilation of the offices and acts as a buffer against heat in the summer and cold in the winter. The concrete Infra+ underfloor of only 70mm allows for concrete core activity. The water from the IJ river is pumped up and used for heating as well as cooling via a water pump.
The pre-existing facilities have been utilised in the building’s new function. The former four old stairwells still remain as entrance to the building and are foreseen with panorama lifts and new stairs. The two gangways/catwalks alongside the concrete craneway function as fire-escape routes. In the heart of the original concrete structure, underneath the new structure, is extensive archive/storage space.
"A seamless combination of old and new – industrial heritage and modern architecture in which the waterways are restored and the slipway determines the orientation. The entire place with its shipping industrial past has an intense energy. The object is to intertwine the old with the new, to preserve history, and not loose this energy.
The wharf is dead? – Long live the wharf."
text: www.archdaily.com
This is the realization of the pattern I created for a hungarian bride using hungarian embroidery elements. The henna is Tunisian style where like in Yemen gall ink is used to high light the henna.
Khidab is a Gall ink which is employed in Yemen mainly in the mountainous regions around the capital Sanaa instead of henna. For an account how it is made you can download an article:
Yemeni Women’s Body Painting with Black Gall Ink Khidab, Production Methods,
from my colleage Dr. Hanne Schönig at www.henna-und-mehr.de/pdf/Khidabartikel_eu.pdf; (Englisch)
or www.henna-und-mehr.de/pdf/schoenig_deutsch.pdf (German)
If you like to see original Yeminite bodypaintings with this ink visit: www.henna-und-mehr.de/de/khidabslide.html (German) or