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Instead of working on the important stuff in life, I of course chose something else to do ;). After having a quick look through the Bricklink Designer Program palette for Series 7, I quickly got inspired to build something for it, and now that submissions have closed I'm happy to say that this little steam tram will be a part of the Public Vote starting February 10th!
For now, I'll stick to these teasers, but expect more details and pictures soon!
trying some macro...
old beroflex AF 35-70mm lens from an old minolta dynax 3ix cam. as i don't have any adapter on my e-mount, i used some piece of toilette paper roll :).
proceed in darktable
Camera: 24Squared
Lens: 0.10mm Laser-Drilled Pinhole
Film: Ultrafine Extreme 100
Developer: Xtol
Scanner: Epson V600
Photoshop: Curves, Healing Brush (spotting)
Cropping: None
This is a massive development in Saanich, which is home to the Home Depot. This is the old Thrifty Food liqueur store that's been torn down now.
I've been searching the last two years a way to turn digital raw into pastel like Fujifilm 400H Pro colors.
I've failed a million times and thought that it's impossible since film reacts to light differently each time vs. digital sensor.
I've come close, but the results vary between lighting situations from bad to excellent. But now I've really cracked something cool.
This particular preset + method editing 8bit jpg (now raw) has been revolutionary discovery. I've gotten excellent results every time and the pictures are always blooming with bright pastel like colors.
I'm about to write this to my blog and release this updated 400H preset in the next few days.
All of the images are "tracings" and hail from various sources. The entry covers at least two or three days from last week and more or less reads from top to bottom.
this land used to be an informal settlement now reclaimed by the national government for development
see the whole thing here. it cuts off at the super dramatic part, haha. I promise it gets better, and there's only like 30 seconds more. go watch it!
I really don't blame you if this doesn't make sense to you. It was for school. But here it is anyway.
For my school project, I had to make an exhibit to go with a portfolio of writing. Instead of doing some sort of statue-creation-type thing like most kids, I decided to make a stop motion. It represents how I've 'come of age' as a reader, writer, and a person.
Model is Annie.
A view of the large Exeter GWR Depot development site from St Davids station at dusk on Bank Holiday Monday 26th August 2019.
ok maybe not.
But it does keep occurring to me.
The end of Arachtober happens to coincide with Webnesday, Something good about that - what year will that next happen?
Big Developments:
Whilst we have been away from the spotlight for a while many new developments have taken place behind the scenes.
1. National Park park and rides:
For some time now we have been working with the national parks authority on trying to reduce emissions from road transport in the national park areas. Together we have found that the best solution is to create a series of park and rides outside National parks on their approaches, with attractive luxury vehicles and pricing to tempt more passengers. Over the past year existing park and ride sites have been extended and new ones created in strategic towns and cities near national parks. The first of these to be completed is the two for the Lake district National Park.
Two new park and ride sites have been created at Lancaster and Carlisle near to the motorway to tempt more travellers. There will be three services running through the park, each requiring 7 vehicles to keep up a 20 minute frequency. We have ordered Plaxton elite interdecks for these services as they provide wheelchair access with the luxury of a coach, however these are to the new shorter 13.8m length as on stagecoach’s X7 route in Scotland.
A new brand, called National Park Connect, has been created for what will eventually be a network of services that cover most national parks within the country, with the intention of linking these in time with Crosslinks services to the park and ride sites. One of the Elites is below.
Many thanks to Chris H for the net.
Cleaner Emissions for TFL
As part of TFL’s mission to reduce bus emissions by using new exhaust technology to clean up older vehicles, Sullivan’s are the next fleet to be retrofitted with the SCRT system for reducing particulates under the TFL programme. This will affect all vehicles built in 2001 to 2004, a significant proportion of the fleet. We have been assure that it will cost nothing to us and mean that the emissions of these vehicles are close to Euro 6 levels, however with other technologies we have been using (such as the GKN flyweel system) we believe emission may be well under that target one all modifications are completed.
Introduction of Eminox technology
Since last year we have been trialing the eminox fuel additive in the Crossways fleet. It saves around 1% of fuel used by a normal bus over the year. Although this may not sound like much, it is still on average a £500 per bus per year saving on fuel costs even when factoring in the cost of buying the additive.
Since trials have been successful, all fleets within the Crossways Group will now start to use the technology, potentially saving us £50,000 per year and further reducing our emissions. Crossways has already been using the technology (including the events fleet), however fleets affected by this will be the Cross Bristol, Sullivan Buses, Crosslinks, Rail Replacement and National Park Fleets.
The development where I live and also my church lost a great man this past Saturday. He was having a great time with friends at Dollywood, and when back to his hotel and passed away soon after his return. I will miss my fellow Astronomer enthusiast, and brother in Christ. Godspeed, Bill.
Theme: Guitar Tuesday
Year Sixteen Of My 365 Project
Working the Jasper housing development here in Prescott Valley along the Iron King Trail. PV is growing by leaps and bounds.
Prescott Valley, Arizona
January 3, 2018
The North Carolina Arboretum (434 acres) is an arboretum and botanical garden located within the Bent Creek Experimental Forest of the Pisgah National Forest at 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, southwest of Asheville, North Carolina near the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is open daily except for Christmas Day. There is no admission charge, but some parking fees do apply.
Although the idea for the arboretum stretches back to landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1898, who wished to create an arboretum at the nearby Biltmore Estate, today's arboretum was established by the General Assembly relatively recently, in 1986, as a facility of the University of North Carolina. In 1989 the site was officially designated the North Carolina Arboretum.
The arboretum is still under active development. It includes many hiking and bicycling trails, a bonsai collection, a holly garden, a stream garden, etc., as described below. Its tree collection includes a fine set of Metasequoias planted in 1950, and now said to be the tallest in the south (over 100 feet (30 m) in height).
Some background:
After the space-worthy conversion of the CVS-101 Prometheus and the SLV-111 Daedalus carriers, these ships were docked with the SDF-1 Macross and it became clear that this new gigantic vessel required a specialized unit with a heavy armament for medium range defense.
The resulting Space Defense Robot (SDR) Phalanx was tailored to this task. Development of the Phalanx began in a hurry, during the already ongoing Space War I in July 2009. Its systems and structural elements were, to save time and minimize development risks, taken over from a pre-war Destroid standard mass production model. The "Type 04" biped chassis from 2001 was common to several Destroid types, including the Tomahawk medium battle robot and the Defender anti-aircraft robot. The main frame from the waist down included a common module which consolidated the thermonuclear reactor and ambulatory OverTechnology system, and for the Phalanx it was combined with a new, jettisonable torso that was suited to space operations and could also act as a rescue capsule with modest independent propulsion. Thanks to this dedicated mission profile, the Phalanx was the best adapted Destroid to space operations, with the best zero-G maneuverability of any Destroid type during Space War I.
With this proven basis, the Phalanx quickly reached rollout in December of that year. Armed with dozens of missiles in two large launcher pods, the Phalanx made an excellent semi-mobile missile-based battery. On board of spaceships, the Phalanx also performed as a substitution deployment for the much more complex ADR-04-Mk X Destroid Defender, and it complemented this type with its longer-range guided missile weaponry. Minor Phalanx variants featured additional light close-range armament, such as a head-mounted gatling gun that replaced the original search light array, or more sophisticated sensor arrays. The latter led to the dedicated Mk. XIII version for space operations.
During the final battle of Space War I against the Zentraedi Bodol Zer Main Fleet, the Phalanx units, originally delivered in a sand-colored livery, were repainted in dark blue and refitted to fire long-range reaction warheads for use against space warships. The Phalanx’ on board of SDF-1 had their finest hour when the SDF-1 Macross broke through the Zentraedi fleet defenses and entered the interior of the massive Fulbtzs Berrentzs command vessel: all the Phalanx units unleashed their missiles and aided in the swift destruction of the enemy flagship.
However, Phalanx production only reached limited numbers, due to the type’s high grade of specialization and its inherent vulnerability in close combat - the Phalanx’ combat operation capability decreases substantially once the missile ordnance had been exhausted. Beyond the initial production on Earth, roughly 20 more Phalanx Destroids were also built aboard the SDF-1 Macross shipboard factories, and many of these were later updated from the Mk. XII to the Mk. XIII standard. Post-Space War I, Phalanx Destroids were deployed as part of defense forces on various military bases and used in the ground attack role as long-range infantry support artillery units, fighting from the second line of battle. Nevertheless, the Phalanx remained a stopgap solution and was quickly followed by the more versatile Destroid "Nimrod" SDR-04-Mk. XIV.
Technical Data:
Equipment Type: Space Defense Robot/heavy artillery
Accommodation: One pilot
Government: U.N. Spacy
Manufacturer: Macross Onboard Factories
Introduction: December 2009
Dimensions:
Height 12.05 meters overall (11.27 m w/o searchlight array)
Length 5.1 meters
Width 10.8 meters.
Mass: 47.2 metric tons
Powerplant:
1x Kranss-Maffai MT828 thermonuclear reactor, developing 2800 shp;
Auxillary Shinnakasu Industry CT 03 miniature thermonuclear generator, output rated at 970 kW.
Propulsion:
Biped, with limited zero-G maneuverability through many low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hooks/handles all over the hull.
Armament:
2x Howard SHIN-SHM-10 Derringer short-range high-maneuverability self-guided missile pods, one per arm, with 22 missiles each (missiles stored in two rows behind each other).
Production Notes:
The rather obscure Destroid Phalanx made its media debut in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Episode 27, and it's actually the only occasion where it appears. Original mecha designer is/was Miyatake Kazutaka.
The kit and its assembly:
I have been pushing this build away from the workbench for a long time. I was – after building two conversions - missing a canonical Destroid Phalanx in my Macross mecha collection, and since I had one stashed away (you never know…) I tackled this project now. The kit is Bandai’s re-issue of Imai’s 1982 1:100 kit, a vintage “Matryoshka” construction (= build one element from two halves, place it between two more halves, etc.) which does not make the assembly process easy.
The kit was basically built OOB, but “under the hood” it received some mechanical mods and improvements. These primarily include scratched joints for the arms/launcher pods and the hip. The pods remained detachable through an internal styrene tube construction. An important improvement for the “04 chassis” is a completely now hip joint arrangement because the Phalanx’ OOB posture is pretty stiff, with the legs and feet facing straight forward. The mecha model is just supposed to just stand upright and with the model’s OOB joint options it is really hard to create a vivid poise at all, so that a 3rd dimension improves the posing options a lot. Furthermore, the bolts that hold the legs are prone to break off, even more so because the kit is from the 1st generation of mecha kits without vinyl caps and just a very tight joint fit to hold the appendages in place. My solution was the implantation of a new hip “bone”, made from plastic-coated steel wire, which is stiff in itself but can be bent in two dimensions. The thighs had to be modified accordingly, since the wire is much thinner than the original bolts, and it needs a rigid attachment point. Resulting gaps around the hip joints were filled with bits of paper tissue drenched in white glue.
Other visual improvements include launch tubes inside of the missile pods. These were made from thin plastic drinking straw material, they fill the (rather ugly and well-visible) blank space between the warheads. Additionally, the hollow “heels” were filled on their insides with putty.
While the kit itself is a pretty simple affair, fit is mediocre, and you have to expect PSR almost everywhere. A direly weak spot area is the shank’s rear: there’s a recession with a seam running right through, and there are side walls missing in the section, too. I tried to mend this through putty and decals.
Painting and markings:
Since I wanted to stick to the authentic OOB livery, I gave the model an overall basic color, a greenish-grey, dull beige (RAL 1019) from the rattle can. The canonical Phalanx also features some dark contrast highlights all over the hull, and these were created with RAL 7013 (Revell 46), an olive drab tone that looks, in contrast to the light beige, almost like a dull brown on the model. The box art suggests a very dark grey, but I found that this would not work too well with the overall light beige tone.
Strangely, the characteristic white trim on the lower legs that many Destroids carry was in this boxing provided with the decal sheet – other Destroid kits require them to be painted manually!
Otherwise there's hardly any other color on the Phalanx’ hull. The missile pod exhausts as well as the launcher interior were painted with steel metallizer (Humbrol 27003) and treated with graphite for a shiny finish, the inside of the launcher covers and the missile tips became bright red (Revell 332). The bellows in the knees became anthracite (Revell 06), later dry-brushed with a reddish brown.
Quite a challenge were the three search lights in the “head unit”, because they consist of massive molded opaque styrene. I simulated glass and depth through a bright silver base, with vertical stripes in thinned white and medium grey and a coat with white translucent paint on top of that. Finally, extra artificial light reflexes were added with opaque white paint and, finally, everything was sealed with glossy varnish, which also adds some visual depth.
The model was thoroughly weathered with a black-and-brown watercolor washing and a generous dry-brushing treatment with Hemp 168 (RAF Hemp). The decals came next, taken from the OOB sheet, the Bugs Bunny artwork on the lower right leg is a typical individual detail of many Destroids, taken from a WWII USAAF P-47D.
After some additional weathering with watercolors and some graphite rubbing around the many edges for a worn and beaten look, the model received an overall coat with acrylic matt varnish. After final assembly of the model’s elements, soot stains were added around the missile launchers’ openings as well as to the small thrusters, again with grinded graphite, and some mineral pigments were dusted onto the model with a soft, big brush, esp. around the lower areas.
A build that took some time because of the mediocre fit of the kit and the mechanical mods it IMHO requires. But I am quite happy with the outcome, “just a Destroid” in its gritty heavy ordnance look, and the dull beige suits the Phalanx well.
In 1991 Erich Bitter was negociating a 51% share participation with the Japanese company FEDCO. This company had interests in Formula One racing and in the British motor racing engineering company Spice Engineering.
MGA Developments from Coventry, who carried out work for Spice Engineering before, were asked to build a prototype for a 2-seater supercar similar to the Jaguar XJR.
In the same year already Erich Bitter presented the Bitter TASCO on the Frakfurt Auto Show together with the facelifted Bitter Type3. The car on the show was a rolling chassis only with a greenish glass fibre body but without running gear or interior.
The idea was to provide the TASCO with a luxury interior like the CD and SC as it was not only meant to be a racing car but also a daily driver. The motorisation would be the 8-litre V10 engine from the Dodge Viper.
In 1992 the financial situation of FEDCO was unstable and the plans for cooperation were canceled. This was also the end for the Bitter TASCO.
The Bitter TASCO prototype can still be seen in the Coventry Transport Museum. The car is repainted in a blueish color and has some other cosmetic chnages. A second unfinished body and chassis was bought by a private person who wanted to transform it into a running car. It has changed owner at least once and it is uncertain what the current status of that project is.
Coventry Transport Museum
Millennium Place
Hales Street
Coventry
England - United kingdom
November 2018
Lo que posiblemente sea un tanque está justo delante del cielo. - What is possibly a water tank is right in front of the sky.
(spy)camera > Porst KX50 (Yashica Atoron rebranded) (*)
film > Minox Minocolor400 (@200iso)
development > Tetenal Colortec C41, 38 °C, homemade in tank AP Compact, attached on an old film 120 already developed.
scanned > Epson V600
negli ultimi frame, la pellicola è uscita dalla spirale e ha restituito questi colori strani... ;/)