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Brockholes is a new kind of nature reserve, an unreserved reserve owned and managed by The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside.
There's lots to see and do at Brockholes, you can hunt out our floating Visitor Village with a restaurant, shops and Welcome Centre or explore our family-friendly hides, walking trails and play area.
At Brockholes you can explore our beautiful reserve, see the wildlife that call it ‘home’ or hunt out our Visitor Village with restaurant and shops, all of which float (yes really!) on one of our lakes.
Our floating Visitor Village features a gift shop and a restaurant providing stunning views across the lake. You can also discover our interactive Welcome Centre and learn all about the wildlife that you could see on-site. Be sure to call in to pick up a welcome leaflet that will help you plan your day. You can view the reserve map in our Welcome Leaflet here to help you plan your first visit.
2013/14 Opening Times:
4th November 2013 to 31 March 2014 10am-4pm
1st April 2014 to 31st October 2014 10am-5pm
Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day only
Car Park Charges
We don't charge for entry and any profits made here go back into looking after the reserve. So every time you pay for parking, treat yourself in the shop or enjoy some lunch, you are helping look after the reserve and the wildlife that visits us!
Sorry no dogs allowed!
There is a good reason! Dogs can disturb wildlife, especially nesting birds. If your dog was to get too close to a nesting bird it would cause the mother to leave the nest. So to avoid any accidents we ask that you don’t bring your dog. (Assistance dogs are welcome.)
Explore the reserve
Brockholes is one of the best sites in the UK for many species of bird and has one of the largest strips of ancient woodland in the county. You can take a stroll by the River Ribble, explore our woods or enjoy the lakes on site, which have all been specially designed to attract all kinds of wildlife for you to see!
Walks around Brockholes
What can I see at Brockholes?
Read about the happy habitats we've been working hard to create at Brockholes.
Watch out!
The Visitor Village floats on water and there are lots of areas of open water on the reserve. Take care in these areas and keep an eye on any children with you. The following activities are not allowed on the reserve:
Barbecues and fires
Fishing
Swimming
Please do not feed the birds
Big gulls know it’s much easier to find food when we leave it lying around rather than finding their own lunch. Here at Brockholes we have lots of species breeding with us, little ringed and ringed plover, lapwing, oystercatcher and redshank. Unfortunately the big gulls will eat the chicks of these special birds so if we feed the gulls and encourage them to stay there is a big chance that they will eat our important chicks, so please do not feed the birds and take your leftover picnic away with you.
www.brockholes.org/our-journey
The Lancashire Wildlife Trust has been working on developing Brockholes for nearly 20 years, here is an overview of our journey.
1992 Lancashire Wildlife Trust first contests the quarrying of Brockholes.
27 November 2006 The Lancashire Wildlife Trust has four weeks to raise £50,000 to buy the Brockholes site, near Preston, and protect it from development. Brockholes sits next to J31 of the M6 and is the size of 120 football pitches.
15 January 2007 The Lancashire Wildlife Trust makes the biggest land purchase in its history - thanks to donations from Wildlife Trust members, and an investment of £800,000 from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) under the Newlands scheme. The project to buy and develop Brockholes is also supported by The Tubney Charitable Trust.
3 May 2007 Ian Selby is appointed as Brockholes project manager. Ian has 20 years' experience of managing the North West's canal network for British Waterways, followed by environmental regeneration work. Sophie Leadsom, Brockholes' new reserve manager, has worked in conservation for 14 years.
July 2007 The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced the launch of a new open competition to design new visitor facilities.
5 October 2007 The Lancashire Wildlife Trust announced the shortlist for the new multi-million pound visitor centre. 61 architects from all over Europe submitted designs. The five were Adam Khan Architects, Arca, Architecture 2B, AY Architects, McDowell + Benedetti.
25 February 2008 The Lancashire Wildlife Trust (LWT) and partners announce the winner of its competition to design a visitor facility. Adam Khan Architects was selected for its inspirational design concept: "A Floating World". Designed as a cluster of buildings constructed largely of wood and other sustainable materials, it resembles an ancient marshland village.
April 2008 The Lancashire Wildlife Trust announced the completion of its first phase of preparatory work, including the restoration of the wetlands, creation of ponds, seeding of meadows, planting new hedgerows and trees, making access paths and building proper bird watching hides.
March 2009 The Lancashire Wildlife Trust secured £8million of funding from the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA). The investment was made under ‘Newlands’, a NWDA and Forestry Commission programme that is regenerating brownfield land across the Northwest into economically viable community woodland.
Summer 2009 Volunteers gave us 134 hours of their time to help propagate our own reed seedlings on-site. We ended up with 20,000 new redd seedlings ready to plant out around our new visitor centre, creating two hecatres of brand new reedbed.
August 2009 The Lancashire Wildlife Trust were granted detailed planning permission for the site.
December 2009 Contractors first day of work as they begin to construct the iconic floating visitors centre. Press conference being held with a ‘cutting of the first sod’
November 2010 A herd of longhorn cattle move into Brockholes to graze the reserve.
December 2010 BBC Countryfile fronted by Julia Bradbury visit Brockholes to film a feature that airs in January 2011.
March 2011 Brockholes makes history as the Visitor Village is floated for the first time.
Easter Sunday 2011 Brockholes opens its doors to the public for the first time!
www.brockholes.org/happy-habitats-brockholes
Happy habitats at Brockholes
The Lancashire Wildlife Trust are using their expertise to create habitats that will encourage lots of different species to visit the site, read more about the work we are doing on the reserve...
Number 1 Pit
Uniform and steep, the edges around the original gravel pit used to look very different. The island looked different too – an egg-shaped piece of land sticking out of the water by three metres. These land profiles weren’t great for the bird species and aquatic invertebrates we wanted to attract. So, with bulldozer and digger we pushed earth into the lake to create shallow, underwater ledges and peninsulas where birds can roost and feed, safe from predators. Diving ducks, such as Great Crested Grebe, now hunt for fish in the deep water.
Nook Pool
The edge of this pool has been planted with reed to create places for small fish and aquatic invertebrates like dragonfly larvae to hide and grow, away from predator fish. The shelter provided by the vegetation provides an ideal hunting ground for lots of species of dragonfly including the impressive Brown Hawker and Emperor Dragonfly.
Meadow Lake
This shallow lake is great for bird watching: when the water level is down, wading birds feed on small invertebrates in the exposed mud. This lake has some of the richest water plant life in and around it, including White Water Lily and Cuckooflower. The reed fringes are becoming well established and hold some of the largest populations of birds on site. The islands provide safe roosting and breeding areas, we keep the vegetation short so the birds can watch out for predators.
Boilton Marsh
This area is part of our newly created wet grassland habitat. We remodelled 17,000 cubic metres of quarry spoil to create 10 hectares of wet grassland with nearly 2km of channels and five pools. This is the ideal habitat for breeding wading birds such as Lapwing, Redshank and Snipe. We now graze traditional breeds of cattle and sheep that thrive on the coarse grasses and rushes and provide the low grassland sward that encourages wading birds to nest.
The channels and pools are kept topped up by using a high-level reservoir, filled from Number One Pit by way of a solar pump.
Woodland
Brockholes is fringed by the ancient woodland of Boilton, Red Scar and Tunbrook Woods. Woodland has grown here for thousands of years and developed a very rich variety of wildlife. Looking after our trees and paths will help the woodland to thrive and enable you to see the wildlife safely.
Reedbeds
Reedbeds are home to Sedge Warblers, Reed Warblers, Reed Buntings and Water Rail. We protect the new reed from grazing birds like Coot, Mute Swan and Canada Goose, by erecting chicken wire fences and baling string barriers. It will take several years before our lak fringes start to look like reedbeds. You might notice that the Visitor Village has been nestled in reedbed. This helps it to blend into the reserve and allows you to hear the song and chatter of the birds that nest there.
www.brockholes.org/brockholes-partners-and-funders
Brockholes partners and funders
For the past ten years, The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside have been working to secure this site of national environmental importance, and restore habitats to their full potential.
The £8.6 million of regeneration funding was provided for the Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Reserve project has been granted under 'Newlands' - a £59 million, Northwest Regional Development Agency and Forestry Commission programme to transform brownfield land into durable community woodland, which act as catalysts for economic, social and environmental gain.
The Lancashire Environmental Fund awarded £446,000 for the development of the education facilities, hides and infrastructure on the site. Tubney Charitable Trust granted £350,000 for Biodiversity and Natural England DEFRA's Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund awarded circa. £300,000. The Environment Agency granted £50,000 for the continued development of Brockholes.
The support of these funders helped make Brockholes a reality, as did the amazing support from our public appeal, which raised an amazing £63,000 - the most successful public appeal the Lancashire Wildlife Trust has ever run!
Volunteering at Brockholes
Around 200 volunteers have now been recruited, inducted and trained to begin volunteering at Brockholes, so we offer an enormous thank you to all who are helping it make such a big impact on our visitors... Volunteers truly are the face of Brockholes.
There are currently some exciting opportunities to be had volunteering here at Brockholes. Please have a look below at roles (you can click on the titles to download a full role description) which might suit you and click here to register, mentioning Brockholes and the role on the form.
Seasonal Activities Volunteer
Our seasonal activities program is the ideal opportunity for young people aged 16-23 to get involved here at Brockholes.
Running throughout all school holiday periods, you are expected to volunteer for 7 hours per week (normally one full day).
The Seasonal Activities Volunteer role is ideal for friendly, outgoing people who want to utilise their creative skills and help visitors – in particular children – enjoy the reserve. You will work alongside other volunteers to plan and deliver a variety of activities including pond dipping, guided walks, bird watching. The role will also include assisting with larger events such as our Extreme Adventure Weekend and Craft Fayres. Support will be given to you by the Events & Communications Manager.
This placement is perfect for those undertaking various award schemes, such as the Duke of Edinburgh award, as over the course of the summer you have the opportunity to gain upto 50 volunteering hours.
For full details on the role and what it entails, click here.
Seasonal Retail & Visitor Services
Our seasonal activities program is the ideal opportunity for young people aged 16-23 to get involved here at Brockholes.
As a volunteer for Retail & Visitor Services you will provide a warm welcome for visitors, helping to ensure that their Brockholes experience is a positive one. You will help visitors by providing them with information about products on sale in our gift stores and help them plan their visit by telling them about the various events and activities we have on offer.
The role suits a friendly, outgoing person who has an interest in wildlife and conservation.
Running throughout the school holiday periods, you are expected to volunteer for 7 hours per week (normally one full day).
This placement is perfect for those undertaking various award schemes, such as the Duke of Edinburgh award, as over the course of the summer you have the opportunity to gain upto 50 volunteering hours.
Each volunteer will be required to undergo a minimum of 1 and a half days training before they start. If you’d like to find out more or ask questions about any of these roles do not hesitate to get in touch with Catherine Haddon, Volunteering Support Officer on 01772 324 129 or email volunteer@lancswt.org.uk
Awards
Brockholes has scooped many high profile awards since opening in April 2011:
2013 Lancashire Tourism Award for Best Conference/Meeting venue
VisitEngland's Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme (VAQAS) 'Excellent'
Green Tourism Gold Award
Customer at the Heart Award
Lancashire and Blackpool Tourism Awards 'Marketing Campaign of the Year'
National Wood Award
BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ for the interim design stage
Chartered Institute of Building Services – Building of the Year 2011
Civic Trust Award
Civic Trust Special Award for Sustainability
Highly Commended in portfolio of Newlands sites in Landscape Awards
CIWEM Living Wetlands award
Greenbuilds award
Green Apple Awards for the Visitor Centre
Sustainable Project of the year – 2012 Building Awards
RICS North West – Overall award
RICS North West – Tourism and Leisure
RICS NW – Design & Innovation
RIBA North West Building of the Year
RIBA North West Sustainability Award
RIBA Award for top 50 new buildings in the UK
Brockholes is an award winning-venue, which floats on one of our lakes - the only one of its kind in the UK.
Combine this unique design with access straight off the M6, a beautiful nature reserve, ample parking and on site catering, and you have found yourself the perfect venue for your next event. View our Conference Brochure here.
We think Brockholes is the natural place to do business, our dedicated centre can cater for 50 to 130 delegates.
We have a choice of two conference rooms and a reception/break-out area.
www.brockholes.org/conference-packages
At Brockholes we want you to be in control of your event as much as possible. This is why we have created these basic packages, enabling you to tweak each element to build an individual event.
Alternatively, we can cater to your specific requests if you require half day, early morning or evening hire.
Here is an overview of our conference packages, please contact us for a quote.
Our Conference brochure can be viewed in digi-book format here.
Day Delegate Package
Private room hire from 9am - 5pm
Tea and coffee served on arrival with bacon rolls
Mineral water for each guest
Tea and coffee served mid-morning
Buffet lunch served with tea, coffee and fresh fruit platter
Tea, coffee and biscuits served mid-afternoon
Use of a flip chart, screen and projector
Recycled pen and notepad for each delegate
Dedicated co-ordinator to assist you throughout the planning to delivery of your meeting
24 Hour Delegate Package
All of the above plus;
Three course dinner
Full breakfast
Accommodation in a standard bedroom at our recommended accommodation supplier
Accommodation
Preferential rates are available on request from a local hotel when booking through the Brockholes Sales Team.
We can tailor our packages to suit your needs. Make the UK's first floating venue your next choice
Please contact us for more information or to arrange a meeting or showround with our Conference Sales Co-ordinator
Call us on 01772 872005 or enter your details below and we will contact you to discuss your requirements.
www.brockholes.org/sponsorship-opportunities
Sponsorship Opportunities
Brockholes is an award winning nature reserve owned and manages by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, which was opened in 2011. The 250 acre reserve is already attracting record numbers of breeding birds and around 170,000 visitors each year. Brockholes runs a wide range of events throughout the year and has a particularly strong offer for families. Events include wild families, school holiday clubs, school and community group visits, self led trails and larger festivals during the summer holidays.
The key marketing campaigns run targeting families include Christmas, Summer and Easter. Each campaign targets a series of family focused publications across the North West, with a monthly average reach online of over 40,000 people through the website and social media. Advertising and direct marketing campaigns have an average reach of 70% of the total North West population.
Sponsorship and Partnership Opportunities
Summer at Brockholes sees a host of family events each year, from school holiday clubs to open air theatre, guided walks to family fun. Over the Summer period, Brockholes expects to welcome over 60,000 visitors. The marketing campaign is multi channel and will reach a wide audience of families across the North West. Brockholes has also been featured in the National Press for some of the unique events run. We have some new opportunities for sponsorship and partnership, which will allow your business to raise brand awareness and fulfill part of your Corporate Social Responsibility by supporting Brockholes and The Lancashire Wildlife Trust.
Summer at Brockholes Headline Sponsorship £4500
Expose your brand to thousands of families across the North West.
- Logo on all Summer promotional material
- Inclusion in all four of the Summer e-news and Lancashire Wildlife Trust e-news
- Sponsor Feature on Brockholes.org
- On site promotion
- Promotion through social media channels
- Inclusion in all PR activity
- Temporary use of Brockholes logo on promotional material directly related to the partnership
Wild Families Sponsorship £4000 per year
Our Wild Families events are always fully booked. With themes ranging from scarecrow hunts to nature detectives, each event provides quality family time for family members of all ages. Events are run throughout school holidays.
-Logo on marketing materials for Wild Families
-Inclusion in PR for trail launch
-Inclusion in social media activity
-Inclusion in Brockholes e-news
Seasonal Trail Sponsorship £500 per trail
Each visitor to Brockholes can collect their free seasonal trail on arrival. The trail helps visitors to explore the reserve, learn more about what to see and how the reserve changes with the season and challenges them to spot things.
-Logo on sponsorship trail
-Inclusion in PR for trail launch
-Inclusion in social media activity around the trail
Half term at Brockholes £1500
-Logo on all marketing materials
-Inclusion in launch PR
-Social media promotion
Annual Headline Sponsorship £10,000
- Logo inclusion on all Promotional Material
- Dedicated web page on Brockholes.org
- On site promotion
- Dedicated stand area on key event days
- Promotion through Brockholes and LWT e-news, member magazine
- Promotion through social media channels
- Inclusion in all PR activity
-Discounted delegate rate on our conference facilities
Children's Corner £500
Would you like to help brighten up the children's corner in our restuarant for our younger visitors?
-Inclusion in PR activity
-Recognition in the children's area
-Inclusion in activity to our database promoting the new area
To talk to us more about sponsorship opportunities, contact Ruth Gaskell rgaskell@lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129.
www.brockholes.org/commercial-opportunities
Commercial Opportunities
Make Brockholes your business
Businesses are being offered an opportunity to become partners in a North West tourism and wildlife success story.
Brockholes nature reserve is entering the second phase of development which will provide commercial opportunities for other businesses and boost local employment.
The Lancashire Wildlife Trust attraction attracted 185,000 people to its nature reserve and the first ever floating visitor village in the UK, last year. It is looking to top that visitor figure this year.
Just off the M6 at Preston and easily accessible from anywhere in the UK, Brockholes has received more than 30 regional and national awards despite only opening in 2011. Visitors continue to pour in despite the reserve being surrounded by the attractions of Manchester, Blackpool and Liverpool.
The business has shown year-on-year growth and, as a result, is seeking commercial partners for the next phase of development.
Anne Selby, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust said “Brockholes has performed incredibly well despite being launched in a recession. We have steered the business through the stormy weather and achieved fantastic results.
“We are now looking to move into the next phase of development. As a conservation charity, we want to ensure our focus remains on the nature conservation of the reserve, whilst ensuring the commercial income supports this work. We are looking for expressions of interest at this stage and asking businesses to be creative with their proposals.”
The Visitor Village has a restaurant, shops, conference centre, welcome centre and education centre. Major companies have made use of the conference centre including RBS and Aldi. The surrounding nature reserve is continuing to grow, with an increasing population of resident creatures and rare visitors like red kite, bittern and otter.
Anne continued: “Brockholes received funding for the initial start up and development phases but it was always designed to be a self-sustaining model. By making the most of the commercial opportunities and keeping these balanced carefully with the needs of nature, we believe we can continue to success of Brockholes into the future and achieve even more fantastic results for wildlife, our wide range of visitors and the tourism economy”.
Opportunities include retail, water sports (non-motorised), indoor play provision, events partners and mobile food concessions. However, the Trust is open to hear if any investors would wish to develop sympathetic commercial facilities on the site.
An opportunity information pack is available by request from:
Karen Williams Karen.Williams@brockholes.org
Expressions of interest should initially be made to
Lindsey Poole, Commercial Development Manager lpoole@lancswt.org.uk
Group Visits
Whether it’s a full day out or just a quick stop off on the way to your destination, Brockholes is the ideal place for groups to visit.
There's so much for all ages to see and learn about at Brockholes. Everyone from toddlers to seniors will find something to fascinate them, whether through our exciting range of organised events, or by just wandering around the site.
We are passionately committed to lifelong learning for all – our belief is that everyone should leave knowing something they didn't when they arrived! The Lancashire Wildlife Trust has over a decade of experience in delivering environmental education, so you can relax, enjoy the surroundings and be sure to come away both enchanted and enlightened...
We have several options for various groups, each with a variety of benefits. For more information click on the relevant link below…
Coach Groups
School Groups
Community Groups
To enquire about group visits please call 01772 872000 or email info@brockholes.org. Or leave your details on the form below and a member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible.
Coach Groups
Situated next to Junction 31 on the M6, we are the ideal stop for coach trips, whether it is for a short stop, as a green motorway services, or as part of a full day visit.
Free entry for coaches and convenient coach drop-off point
We have a variety of walking trails for your group to explore, ranging from half an hour to 2 hours in length.
We have our floating visitor village that features a stunning waterside restaurant, 2 unique gift shops and a welcome centre with exhibits, which are ideal should your guests decide for something less active (or if the weather lets you down)!
All our buildings are fully accessible, while the vast majority of our paths are well surfaced, level and suitable for wheelchairs.
We now have a more convenient drop-off point exclusively for coaches and in addition have a number of benefits for coach groups:
• Free entry to the reserve and visitor centre
• Free coach parking
• Refreshment voucher for the coach driver
• Free familiarisation visit for group organisers
• Free meet and greet at the coach (on request)
• Free Brockholes welcome leaflet and trail guide
• Free events and activities throughout the year (visit our events calendar for details)
• Free play area
• Pre-booked guided tours (available at an extra charge)
• Adapted toilets available at the visitor centre
Please note that there is a 4 metre high bridge on the entrance to Brockholes. We also advise all coaches to let us know of their visit in advance by calling us on 01772 872000.
For any further information please just call 01772 872000, email info@brockholes.org
School Groups
Our 250 acre nature reserve and Visitor Village is a great place for school groups to visit. Children can learn about the geological history and how the quarrying has shaped the land today. And because we are a new nature reserve, you can watch it grow! It is also home to the UK's first floating Visitor Village.
Most importantly of all, the children will be able to see that Brockholes is home to a host of wildlife, with many different species of bird popping by throughout the year, along with brown hare, dragonfly and deer to name a few!
Facilities
Your school will have use of the education centre on our floating visitor village and you will have at least one Education Officer dedicated to your group throughout the day.
Plus... NEW FOR 2014!
Next year your school will be able to get even closer to nature at Brockholes by booking an education session in our new purpose-built bird hide classroom, right on the edge of the lake!
The hide will overlook No 1 Pit Lake which is home to many different species of birds and you'll also be able to look across to the new sand martin wall, which will provide valuable breeding habitat when they arrive in spring.
Why not your details below if you'd like us to keep to informed of these exciting new developments!
Programmes
We offer a wide range of programmes including:
Big Adventure in a Miniature World
Life Cycles
Migration and Hibernation
Environmental Art
Geography and Geology
Forest School
You can read more about the education programmes available at Brockholes here.
Education Team
Our Education Team are based at Brockholes and have a huge amount of experience in inspiring young people about the natural world. They are a lively bunch and pride themselves on creating an exciting and memorable experience for your school. You can read about how great our team is here: Meet the Education Team.
Outreach
Can't get to us? Then we can come to you! Our outreach education programme is very popular and offers a wide range of programmes for those who are unable to reach Brockholes.You can view our Outreach Programmes here.
For any information just call us on 01772 872000 for more information, email eduadmin@lancswt.org.uk
Community Groups
Brockholes is a great place to bring your community group, whether it's the Scouts, Guides, Cubs, Brownies or Beavers or a rambling or photography group, there is something for everyone!
As well as exploring our stunning nature reserve you can enjoy an activity such as a guided walk, a mini-beast hunt or an environmental art session.
You can visit Brockholes during the day or we have special community group evenings when the reserve is open beyond our usual opening hours. Group activities usually take place between 5.30pm and 7.30pm.
Forest Schools
Forest Schools is a unique outdoor learning experience that improves children's self-esteem, confidence and abilities.
Brockholes provides an inspirational setting for Forest Schools sessions and training, and is conveniently located just off junction 31 of the M6 at Preston.
Our Forest School sessions are designed and delivered by our experienced and fully qualified Education Team including our Level 3 Trained Forest Schools Practioner.
Our next Forest Schools adult training session will be running in October. To find out more about Forest School sessions at Brockholes please call 01772 872017 or email kphillips@lancswt.org.uk
Shop til you flock
Why not drop into our two on-site shops, The Nest and Village Store, which are packed with all sorts of goodies. We've a variety of products from local beverages and food, to cards and books and crafts and jewellery. They are the perfect place to pick up a unique gift... and there's plenty of treats for the little ones too!
The Nest
The Nest is home to an inspiring collection of gifts, jewellery, books, toys, arts & crafts. Discover what's inside The Nest here.
The Village Store
The Village Store stocks a wide range of products, from locally sourced food and drink treats to bird food, garden accessories and wildlife books. Come and look inside here.
Membership of the Wildlife Trust
Brockholes is a Lancashire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve. You can become a member today or talk to our friendly staff members and volunteers on your next visit to Brockholes. Gift membership is available in The Nest or you can buy it online here.
Our restaurant is the perfect place to stop and watch the world go by with panoramic views of our lake. Scrumptious homemade dishes and a taste bud tingling selection of Lancashire's finest local produce are all here to tempt you, along with fair trade tea and coffee.
Our restaurant is open from 10am to 5pm.
www.brockholes.org/very-special-occasions
Brockholes is a fantastic place for your very special occasions.
Our floating venue is one of the newest and most unique in Lancashire and promises you and your guests an unforgetable event whatever the occasion.
We have a dedicated function centre that can accomodate weddings, christenings and all sort of functions.
The clean, contemporary finish of our venue means that you have the perfect opportunity to put your own stamp on your event, with a flexible range of catering available from our on-site restaurant.
We have a dedicated Conference and Events Co-ordinator that will be available to help you plan your special occasion.
Very Special Weddings
We had our first wedding celebration September 2011 and since then it's been all go with Wedding Fayres and lots more bookings for this year and next. Find out more about weddings at Brockholes here.
Very Special Christenings
Brockholes is a real family friendly venue for a Christening celebration that you will remember for years to come. Find out more here.
For general enquiries about holding a function at Brockholes please call 01772 872005 or email philip.dunn@brockholes.org.
This image was captured with a Nikon D-70S camera with a 70-200mm VR lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar Flash media. All file was post processed using NIKON capture. Black and White conversion don in Phoroshop using the Versace Multi-channel mixer conversion technique and SilverEfex Pro software
© Vincent Versace 2008
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
A sorcerer Mickey Mouse (from Fantasia) Topiary at the Disney Hollywood Studios.
The idea for Fantasia arose in 1937 while Disney planned to revive the declining popularity of Mickey Mouse with The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a more elaborate edition of the Silly Symphonies series. As production costs grew, Disney reconsidered Leopold Stokowsk's suggestion to expand the concept and produce a feature-length film with a variety of illustrations set to musical pieces. The soundtrack was recorded using a multi-channel sound process called Fantasound, making Fantasia the first commercial film released in stereo.
Fantasia debuted on November 13, 1940 to mixed critical reaction and failed to initially generate a large commercial audience. It has been re-released multiple times with amounts of its original footage and audio being deleted or restored. The film has made a profit since 1969 is the 21st highest-grossing film of all-time when adjusted for inflation. (source: wiki)
1974
A legendary 4 channel (quadraphonic) receiver built by Pioneer. Two top models were available, the QX-949 and this QX-747. The performance is quite strong with 4x35 watts. Multi-channel decoder for all methods, such as CD-4, SQ and matrix are on board.
The receiver reaches a width of 55cm a good format on the furniture. The weight with almost 20kg already required at the time a trained back. Three pairs of speakers can be used. That should be enough for each vintage friend.
A beautiful machine – or?
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Ein legendärer 4 Kanal (Quadrophonie) Receiver gebaut von Pioneer.
Zwei Top Modelle standen zur Verfügung, der QX-949 sowie dieser QX-747. Die Leistung ist recht kräftig mit 4x35 Watt. Decoder für alle Mehrkanal Verfahren, wie CD-4, SQ und Matrix sind an Bord.
Der Receiver erreicht bei einer Breite von 55cm ein stattliches Format auf dem Möbel. Das Gewicht mit nahezu 20kg erforderte bereits seinerzeit einen trainierten Rücken. Drei Lautsprecherpaare sind anwählbar. Das freut gerade in diesen Zeiten den anspruchsvollen Vintage HiFi Gourmet.
Ein schickes Teil oder?
1972
High-end quadraphonic amplifier from early seventies.
An impressive piece of HiFi development by JVC in the field of multi-channel technology. The performance 4x25 watts or 2x40 watts stereo was the time correspondingly excellent.
All 4 channels are individually controllable and can be made visible via four VU meters. Low cut and high cut filters are on board. Particularly helpful is the 3-step selectable impedance for the phono input. 4 separate power amplifiers can be connected.
Zaver Pearl Continental Hotel Gwadar, a Five Star Hotel situated on a cliff (Koh-e-Batil), overlooking the port, city and surrounded by azure Arabian waters. The hotel is equipped with all those features which are mark of the Hashoo Group. Brief summary of those features are as under:
Guest Rooms Facilities:
120 air conditioned guest rooms including suites, with balconies, located on four floors.
Provided with most modern facilities, including multi channel TV, fridge, safe and 24 hours room service.
Hi-TecH communication system including high speed internet connectivity.
Features:
24 hours coffee shop with seating capacity for 160 guests.
Specialty restaurant with seating capacity for 95 guests and 3 private dining rooms each accommodating 10 guests.
500 seats capacity Banquet Hall (can be sub-divided into two) with pre function space for 250 guests, availability of audio visual and provision of separate entrance.
Open air Bar-B-Q court
Business center with three secretarial offices and two meeting rooms, fully equipped with modern communication and audio visual equipments, dinning room / bar facility for 55 guests.
Male and female swimming pools with fully equipped health club.
Shopping arcade.
Meditation court.
Two high speed scenic elevators.
Spacious main lobby and ground floor.
Full laundry and dry cleaning services.
International standard fire safety and emergency systems.
Adequate car parking.
Beautifully landscaped surroundings with water bodies.
This image was captured with a Nikon D-3x camera with a 24-70 Nanocoated lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS4 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
© Vincent Versace 2010
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
flickr.com/groups/633424@N23/
1. The Weather Above The Clouds (Explore), 2. Marilyn Mosaic (Explore), 3. The Doctor / JointWatchR (Explore), 4. Penélope (Explore), 5. Captain Jack Sparrow (Explore), 6. Marilyn Monroe #7985 (Explore), 7. Rails @ Night (fake tilt-shift), 8. St. Bartholomew #0086 (Explore),
9. Saletbach (Explore), 10. Salzburg: View Over The Old Town (Explore), 11. Königssee Schifffahrt/Bring Your Babel Fish (Explore), 12. The Platform (Explore), 13. A Sunny Day in The Alps (Explore), 14. Riquewihr / Street Cafe, 15. WYYC 2014 - Tomoyuki Kaneko #4721 (Explore), 16. Schrainbachwasserfall (Explore),
17. The Wendelstein Rack Railway (Explore), 18. Seagull No. 2 (Explore), 19. Wendelsteinbahn inside 6414 (Explore), 20. A Million Pearls (Explore), 21. Norma Jeane Digi-Key (Explore), 22. Greetings From Salzburg, 23. Scorpaena scrofa (Explore), 24. Morning Dew II (Explore),
25. Macroglossum stellatarum (Hummingbird Hawk-moth) and Lavender (Explore), 26. WYYC 2014 - Naoto Okada (Explore), 27. Does anybody know the red spot? (Explore), 28. The Attic #9709 (Explore), 29. M1916, 30. Restless (Explore & Frontpage), 31. High Voltage! (Explore), 32. Wilparting in the mist II (Explore),
33. The Milkyway And One of The Perseids, 34. Bülk Sunset, 35. Light Bulb (cross-eye 3D), 36. Rails / Fake Tilt-Shift, 37. Solar Thermal Energy, 38. The Flogger, 39. Telling a Secret (Explore), 40. Prague - Old Town City Hall (Explore),
41. For those, who really want to know the time.... (Explore), 42. Æbleskiver (Explore), 43. Riquewihr / Doors And Windows #1, 44. Buddhism, 45. A Ladybug Conference (Explore), 46. WYYC 2014 - Exhausted (Explore), 47. Bovine Nose-Picking, 48. Boathouse @ Obersee (Explore),
49. Olympiapark After Sunset, 50. The Platform II, 51. BMW Headquarters, 52. The Spirit of Ecstasy & Me, 53. Tarte Flambée #5, 54. Wilparting in the mist, 55. Phacelia tanacetifolia #9226, 56. Fuchsia #1,
57. My father took this picture..., 58. Sunset Over Olympiapark, 59. Hofbräuhaus Munich #9384 (Explore), 60. WYYC 2014 - Off String Yo-Yo (Explore), 61. ICE - Intercity Express, 62. The Bagpipe - Multi-channel Micrphone Technique, 63. Weimar - Windischenstraße, 64. Sturmgeschütz 40 (Ausführung G) - Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster,
65. Freiburg Minster, 66. The Weather Was Good, Time For Garden Cheese (Explore), 67. Hohenwerfen Castle, 68. Travegon 1:3.5/35mm, 69. Obersee, 70. The Legendary Raspberry Pi & RaspiCam, 71. Prague - The Snake Dancer (Explore), 72. Nearly (Explore)
Created with fd's Flickr Toys
This image was captured with a Nikon D-1X camera with a 70-210mm D-series lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar Flash media. All file was post processed using NIKON capture.
Black and White conversion done using the Versace Multi-channel mixer technique.
© Vincent Versace 2008
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
The Large Beguinage is one of the world's best remaining examples of its architectural type. It was recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1998.
El Gran Beaterio es uno de los mejores ejemplos de este tipo arquitectónico que quedan en el mundo. Fue reconocido por la UNESCO como Patrimonio de la Humanidad en 1998.
Lovaina (Leuven, Louvain, Löwen) es una ciudad de Bélgica, ubicada en la confluencia de los ríos Dijle y Voer. Y capital de la provincia de Brabante Flamenco, en la región de Flandes.
El principal recurso económico de la villa es la universidad, lo que hace que se le conozca desde el barroco como «ciudad de estudiantes y monjas». Y durante el año académico la mayoría de los habitantes del centro son estudiantes.
La Universidad Católica de Lovaina (KU Leuven), fundada en 1425, es una de las más antiguas del mundo, es la más grande de Bélgica y está entre las mejores del mundo. Según el ranking de Reuters, la KU Leuven es la segunda universidad más innovadora de Europa, solo superada por el Imperial College de Londres.
Lovaina es el lugar de nacimiento de varias cervezas como Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus y Keizersberg. Y tiene varios bares que se enorgullecen de ofrecer una amplia variedad de cervezas locales e internacionales (uno de ellos presume de ofrecer más de 3.000 cervezas diferentes.
Entre sus monumentos cabe destacar la biblioteca de la universidad, incendiada durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y reconstruida con aportaciones de las universidades estadounidenses. La plaza Mayor o «Grote Markt», con un espléndido Ayuntamiento típico de la arquitectura flamenca. La «Oude Markt», o plaza vieja, centro de la noche universitaria.
Especial atención merece el beaterio o begijnhof o Beguinaje, que la Unesco declaró patrimonio de la humanidad y que es en realidad un viejo monasterio habilitado como colegio mayor de estudiantes.
La iglesia de San Pedro (1425-1500) fue acabada por Jan Keldermans y Matheus de Layens. y hay varias pinturas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, pero la más famosa es la gótica Última cena de Dirk Bouts. Aquí se encuentra la tumba del duque Enrique I de Brabante. Su torre, de 50 metros de altura, estaba pensada para alcanzar los 169 metros, pero nunca se completó, alberga un carillón. Y fue incluida en la lista de la Unesco de «Campanarios de Bélgica y Francia» en 1999.
Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants.
Leuven has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. KU Leuven, the largest Dutch-speaking university in the world and the largest university in the Low Countries (and thus also Belgium's largest university), has its flagship campus in Leuven.
Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.
Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus and Keizersberg. It has several bars priding themselves in offering a wide variety of local and international beers, including a bar that claims to offer more than 3000 different beers.
Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
One of Belgium's conservatories is based in Leuven: the Lemmens Institute, which is described as "Faculty of Music, Performing Arts and Education". It is known for its music therapy education and its wordart-drama education. Kunstencentrum STUK is a cultural centre and venue in the city center for music, theatre, sound art, and dance. Leuven holds a summer rock festival, Marktrock. Leuven has some university orchestras, such as the University Symphony Orchestra (USO), the University Symphonic Band (UHO). and the Arenberg Orchestra.
This HDR image was captured during my Palm Beach Photographic Workshops Burma workshop. with a Nikon D200 camera modified for infrared. Enhanced color conversion done by LifePixel with a 28-300 mm VR II I lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using lightroom 3.0 and Nik HDRpro software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS5 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
© Vincent Versace 2010
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
www.flickr.com/groups/633424@N23/
I lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. Multiple files was post processed in Lightroom 3 using NikSoftware's HDRpro software.
Early Soo/CP run-through trains from Toronto to Bensenville used Soo Line SD40-2s to lead (I don't think the CP locos had proper window glazing or multi-channel radios at this point) CP locos. In the early days it was all SD40-2s, but big MLWs were used in later times. In this view from June of 1986 he's about to cross the Santa Fe diamonds as a northbound IHB transfer rolls the opposite way with cool Union Pacific boxcars.
Dolly Parts, dressing room, backstage
Photo by Scott Fredette
CINCINNATI, OH—REBEL REVEL came to the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the atrium of the Aronoff Center for the Arts on Saturday, June 8th, to celebrate the closing of Oh! You Pretty Things—a nearly twenty year survey exhibition of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work of Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. Oh! You Pretty Things was a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel videos from her extensive creative catalogue, along with brand new works from the Life is Drag series out of New York City.
Oh! You Pretty Things opened at the Weston Art Gallery April 19 and continued through June 16 throughout both levels of the Weston—creating an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
REBEL REVEL was a one-night-only festival celebrating those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression by combining drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. Inspired by Rampleman’s vivid video explorations of identity and set amongst a dazzlingly tall Mylar curtain backdrop, suspended disco ball, and accent stage lighting, the performing artists and models activated the Weston’s voluminous street-level space with their visually stunning creativity, featuring:
• A drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms;
• Draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron;
• Burlesque by Ginger LeSnapps, head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; plus Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a queer coed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality;
• Runway shows with gender-bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated;
• The premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed’s Wearable Wonders.
El Ayuntamiento, construido entre 1439 y 1463 por Sulpitius van Vorst [nl], Jan II Keldermans, y tras su muerte, Matheus de Layens, en estilo gótico tardío brabantense. En el siglo XIX, se agregaron 236 estatuas al exterior, cada una de las cuales representaba a un destacado erudito, artista o noble local de la historia de la ciudad. La sala de recepción data de 1750.
The Town Hall, built between 1439 and 1463 by Sulpitius van Vorst [nl], Jan II Keldermans, and following their death, Matheus de Layens, in a Brabantian late-Gothic style. In the 19th century, 236 statues were added to the exterior, each representing a prominent local scholar, artist or noble from the city's history. The reception hall dates from 1750.
Lovaina (Leuven, Louvain, Löwen) es una ciudad de Bélgica, ubicada en la confluencia de los ríos Dijle y Voer. Y capital de la provincia de Brabante Flamenco, en la región de Flandes.
El principal recurso económico de la villa es la universidad, lo que hace que se le conozca desde el barroco como «ciudad de estudiantes y monjas». Y durante el año académico la mayoría de los habitantes del centro son estudiantes.
La Universidad Católica de Lovaina (KU Leuven), fundada en 1425, es una de las más antiguas del mundo, es la más grande de Bélgica y está entre las mejores del mundo. Según el ranking de Reuters, la KU Leuven es la segunda universidad más innovadora de Europa, solo superada por el Imperial College de Londres.
Lovaina es el lugar de nacimiento de varias cervezas como Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus y Keizersberg. Y tiene varios bares que se enorgullecen de ofrecer una amplia variedad de cervezas locales e internacionales (uno de ellos presume de ofrecer más de 3.000 cervezas diferentes.
Entre sus monumentos cabe destacar la biblioteca de la universidad, incendiada durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y reconstruida con aportaciones de las universidades estadounidenses. La plaza Mayor o «Grote Markt», con un espléndido Ayuntamiento típico de la arquitectura flamenca. La «Oude Markt», o plaza vieja, centro de la noche universitaria.
Especial atención merece el beaterio o begijnhof o Beguinaje, que la Unesco declaró patrimonio de la humanidad y que es en realidad un viejo monasterio habilitado como colegio mayor de estudiantes.
La iglesia de San Pedro (1425-1500) fue acabada por Jan Keldermans y Matheus de Layens. y hay varias pinturas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, pero la más famosa es la gótica Última cena de Dirk Bouts. Aquí se encuentra la tumba del duque Enrique I de Brabante. Su torre, de 50 metros de altura, estaba pensada para alcanzar los 169 metros, pero nunca se completó, alberga un carillón. Y fue incluida en la lista de la Unesco de «Campanarios de Bélgica y Francia» en 1999.
Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants.
Leuven has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. KU Leuven, the largest Dutch-speaking university in the world and the largest university in the Low Countries (and thus also Belgium's largest university), has its flagship campus in Leuven.
Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.
Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus and Keizersberg. It has several bars priding themselves in offering a wide variety of local and international beers, including a bar that claims to offer more than 3000 different beers.
Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
One of Belgium's conservatories is based in Leuven: the Lemmens Institute, which is described as "Faculty of Music, Performing Arts and Education". It is known for its music therapy education and its wordart-drama education. Kunstencentrum STUK is a cultural centre and venue in the city center for music, theatre, sound art, and dance. Leuven holds a summer rock festival, Marktrock. Leuven has some university orchestras, such as the University Symphony Orchestra (USO), the University Symphonic Band (UHO). and the Arenberg Orchestra.
This image was captured during my Palm Beach Photographic Workshops India workshop. with a Nikon D-200 camera modified for infrared. Enhanced color conversion done by LifePixel with a 28-300 mm VR II I lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS5 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
© Vincent Versace 2010
The camera conversion was done by lifepixel. Enhanced Color Filter Their URL is www.lifepixel.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=158
#Nikon Ambassador #Westcott #D200 #lexar #kelbyone #photography #lifepixel #tumbhi .com #tumbhi #onOne@NikonUSA#NikonNoFilter#niksoftware #nikonUSA #Epson #wacom #xrite #onone #India #vincentversace #india #fineartphotography
Radio-Controlled Boat
A radio-controlled boat is a boat controlled remotely with radio control equipment.
Type
Fun sport
Electric sport boats are the most common type of boat amongst casual hobbyists. Hobby-quality boat speed generally start at around 20 mph and go up from there, and can be just as fast or faster than their internal-combustion counterparts, with the latest in lithium polymer and brushless motor technology. Ready-to-run speedboats from AquaCraft, ProBoat and OffshoreElectrics can reach speeds over 40 mph out of the box and with modifications can reach well into the 50-60 mph range. These types of boats are referred to as "hobby grade" and can be found only at hobby shops and retailers. "Toy grade" boats which are obtained through mass consumer retailers, are generally much slower and their maximum speeds are usually less than 15 mph.
Scale
Large scale model warships in San Diego
Scale boats are replicas of full-size boats. They are to scale of the full sized ones. They can be small enough to fit into your hand, or large, trailer-transported models weighing hundreds of pounds. More often than not they are a miniaturized version of a prototype, built using plans and/or photos, although there are variants that utilize freelance designs. An offshoot of this style of marine RC's is radio-controlled submarines.
Sailboats
Sailboats use the power of the wind acting on sails to propel the boat. Model sailboats are typically controlled via a multi-channel radio transmitter in the hands of the operator with a corresponding receiver in the boat. By changing the position of the two joysticks on the transmitter signals are sent over two separate channels on a single radio frequency (assigned to the individual boat/operator). On the boat, the radio receiver is connected to two battery-powered electric motors or servos. Signals from the radio transmitter are interpreted by the radio receiver and translated into instructions to change the position of the servos. One servo controls the position of both main and jib sails together (allowing the sails to be trimmed), the other the position of the rudder (allowing the boat to be steered).
Racing sailboats
The racing of radio-controlled yacht racing is governed by the same International Sailing Federation - Racing Rules of Sailing that are used for full-sized crewed sailing boats (with the inclusion of Appendix E, that introduces special rules to govern the radio-controlled sport). Vane controlled boats sail under their own rules.
There are four international classes of radio sailing boats recognized by the International Radio Sailing Association (IRSA) who are recoignised by the International Sailing Federation are:
(from smallest to largest).
International One Metre (IOM)
The IOM class rules specify a monohull of maximum length 1000 mm, with maximum draught 420 mm. There is a minimum weight of 4000 g, which makes homebuilding of competitive boats possible. The IOM has three one-design rigs. To keep costs down, hull materials are restricted to either wood or glassfiber, while masts and booms are restricted to either aluminium or wood. (International One Metre Class Association)
International Marblehead
A Marblehead has a maximum length of 1290 mm and a maximum draught of ca 700 mm, but no minimum displacement. Up to six rigs are allowed, the tallest being about 2200 mm.
International Ten Rater
International A Class (A), the largest of the international radio sailing classes.
Other classes of international significance include the CR-914 the RC Laser, the Micro Magic, and the RG-65.[citation needed] The Bottle Boat is a low-cost alternative to these classes. Largely constructed from waste items (bin bags for sails and soft drink bottles for the body), it represents an environmentally friendly entry to the sport.
Racing power boats
There are dozens of types and classes of race boats. They are mainly organised by engine type and hull type.
Race: Circuit and Straight line is established at National and International levels
Engine: Electric, Glow Plug, Flash Steam and Gas (petrol)
Hull: Mono, Hydro, Cat, Outrigger and Eco (self righting jelly mold shape)
Classes are further divided by battery type and count, Engine CC, Deep V Mono, Stepped Mono, sub surface and surface piercing prop's etc.
Power boats are typically Fast electric or internal combustion, (ignition engine or glow plug R/C engine based) and some are steam powered (conventional type, and also flash steam). (At one time some boats used engines working on the compression ignition principle. These were not diesels in the true sense of the word but the modelling fraternity frequently referred to them as such. A few enthusiasts still operate such engines.) The power is commonly used to rotate a submerged propeller, aircraft propeller or jet which in turn provide the thrust to move the craft. Typically power boats have two controls, rudder, outboard motor or stern drive and throttle control. Powered scale boats will often have additional remote-controlled functions to improve realism, e.g. sounding fog horns, rotating radar antennae etc. Some of the more sophisticated powered racing boats may also have additional remote-controlled functions.
These may include remote mixture control allowing the driver to optimise the fuel/air mixture during a race. Another function occasionally implemented for racing boats using a surface piercing propeller is remote control of depth or angle of thrust. There are three main types of power boat. RTR(ready-to-run), ARTR(almost-ready-to-run), and kit versions are available. All thoroughbred racing boats are made from kits and the builders add their own gear and radio.
Radio-controlled racing boats are designed for maximum speed and maneuverability. Various styles of racing include circuits of different shapes laid out on the water with buoys. The most common courses are the 1/6-mile oval that consists of 330-foot straight sections followed by 70-foot-diameter turns. The International Model Power Boat Association (IMPBA), North American Model Boat Association (NAMBA) and Offshore Model Racing Association (OMRA) have specific rules and regulations to address the course, race rules, and formats.
In addition to oval racing there are straightaway (SAW) racing. This is a contest to see how fast you can make the boat go in a straight line. Timed events are held where the boats need to go through a starting light and an ending light. The speed is calculated by the timed difference from start to stop vs the length between the lights. Again IMPBA and NAMBA rules apply.
Some enthusiasts race in the sea, controlling their craft from a pursuing boat known as a "chase boat". These courses will usually be a few miles long and the competition is judged against the clock to find the fastest in class. Within the various styles of racing there will be a number of classes depending upon engine size and type. Ocean and river going boats tend to be powered by internal combustion engines. Sprint Type races and electric races are usually held on calmer lake waters.
Electric boats for racing are capable of reaching speeds of more than 50 mph and run times of around 10 minutes. Electric boats also hold the 100-yard sprint record against rival internal combustion powerplants since 2000.
Tethered racing and free-running craft were popular prior to the advent of cheap radio control. The speeds of tethered racing vehicles are higher than 160 mph for boats and 230 mph for cars, but these craft bear little resemblance to real-world vehicles, and could not obtain anywhere near those speeds if converted to radio control.
Combat
IJN Kagero stern damage
A competitive offshoot of the radio control model warships hobby that involves the firing of projectiles, usually propelled by gas, at opposing ships to sink or damage them. Models are usually simplified to facilitate repair. Ships are fitted with bilge pumps; bb, 3/16", 7/32" or 1/4" weapons that fire ball bearings. The ship's hull plating is balsa to keep the force required to penetrate down to safe levels, by Rules, they are designed to be sinkable and in fact they do on a regular basis.
Tugboats
2005 Bellevue,WA Regatta, Gary King's Tiger Sun in the starting dock.
Scale model tug boats are often built to include scale drive systems. They use standard propellers and rudder(s), Becker rudders, Kort nozzles, steerable kort nozzles, Z-drives or Voith-Schneider cycloidial drives. Clubs will often host maneuvering competitions where participants are tasked to run their boats in the most realistic manner possible. This can be judged with or without a "tow" or barge attached.
Model Tug boats were often used for filming on three shows. TUGS, Thomas & Friends and Theodore Tugboat in which they had moving eyes and as for TUGS moving heads.
[Credit: en.wikipedia.org/]
This image was captured during my Palm Beach Photographic Workshops India workshop. with a Nikon D-200 camera modified for infrared. Enhanced color conversion done by LifePixel with a 24-120 mm VR II I lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CC using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
he camera conversion was done by lifepixel. Enhanced Color Filter Their URL is www.lifepixel.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=158
© Vincent Versace 2013
#Nikon Ambassador #Westcott #D4 #lexar #kelbyone #photography #onOne@NikonUSA#NikonNoFilter#niksoftware#nikonUSA#Epson
#wacom #xrite
Lovaina (Leuven, Louvain, Löwen) es una ciudad de Bélgica, ubicada en la confluencia de los ríos Dijle y Voer. Y capital de la provincia de Brabante Flamenco, en la región de Flandes.
El principal recurso económico de la villa es la universidad, lo que hace que se le conozca desde el barroco como «ciudad de estudiantes y monjas». Y durante el año académico la mayoría de los habitantes del centro son estudiantes.
La Universidad Católica de Lovaina (KU Leuven), fundada en 1425, es una de las más antiguas del mundo, es la más grande de Bélgica y está entre las mejores del mundo. Según el ranking de Reuters, la KU Leuven es la segunda universidad más innovadora de Europa, solo superada por el Imperial College de Londres.
Lovaina es el lugar de nacimiento de varias cervezas como Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus y Keizersberg. Y tiene varios bares que se enorgullecen de ofrecer una amplia variedad de cervezas locales e internacionales (uno de ellos presume de ofrecer más de 3.000 cervezas diferentes.
Entre sus monumentos cabe destacar la biblioteca de la universidad, incendiada durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y reconstruida con aportaciones de las universidades estadounidenses. La plaza Mayor o «Grote Markt», con un espléndido Ayuntamiento típico de la arquitectura flamenca. La «Oude Markt», o plaza vieja, centro de la noche universitaria.
Especial atención merece el beaterio o begijnhof o Beguinaje, que la Unesco declaró patrimonio de la humanidad y que es en realidad un viejo monasterio habilitado como colegio mayor de estudiantes.
La iglesia de San Pedro (1425-1500) fue acabada por Jan Keldermans y Matheus de Layens. y hay varias pinturas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, pero la más famosa es la gótica Última cena de Dirk Bouts. Aquí se encuentra la tumba del duque Enrique I de Brabante. Su torre, de 50 metros de altura, estaba pensada para alcanzar los 169 metros, pero nunca se completó, alberga un carillón. Y fue incluida en la lista de la Unesco de «Campanarios de Bélgica y Francia» en 1999.
Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants.
Leuven has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. KU Leuven, the largest Dutch-speaking university in the world and the largest university in the Low Countries (and thus also Belgium's largest university), has its flagship campus in Leuven.
Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.
Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus and Keizersberg. It has several bars priding themselves in offering a wide variety of local and international beers, including a bar that claims to offer more than 3000 different beers.
Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
One of Belgium's conservatories is based in Leuven: the Lemmens Institute, which is described as "Faculty of Music, Performing Arts and Education". It is known for its music therapy education and its wordart-drama education. Kunstencentrum STUK is a cultural centre and venue in the city center for music, theatre, sound art, and dance. Leuven holds a summer rock festival, Marktrock. Leuven has some university orchestras, such as the University Symphony Orchestra (USO), the University Symphonic Band (UHO). and the Arenberg Orchestra.
Vessel KOMMANDOR (IMO: 8517205, MMSI: 244750534) is an offshore support vessel built in 1986 and currently sailing under the flag of Netherlands. KOMMANDOR has 69m length overall and beam of 12m. Her gross tonnage is 1573 tons.
TYPEDP2 Multi-role vessel
LOA69m
BEAM12m
ENGINETwin engine, twin propellers
THRUSTERSBow/stern thrusters
ACCOMMODATION44 berths
MOON POOL4 x 4 covered Mool pool
A - FRAMESRear A-Frame and retractable door side A-Frames
ROVMoonpool deployed Work class ROV
CAPABILITYIntegrated geophysical, geotechincal and environmental surveys. Multi-channel seismic.
CPTA Frame Deployed CP
Vessel SEA CAB (IMO: N/A, MMSI: 235097113) is a port tender and currently sailing under the flag of United Kingdom. SEA CAB has 8m length overall and beam of 6m.
Zaver Pearl Continental Hotel Gwadar, a Five Star Hotel situated on a cliff (Koh-e-Batil), overlooking the port, city and surrounded by azure Arabian waters. The hotel is equipped with all those features which are mark of the Hashoo Group. Brief summary of those features are as under:
Guest Rooms Facilities:
120 air conditioned guest rooms including suites, with balconies, located on four floors.
Provided with most modern facilities, including multi channel TV, fridge, safe and 24 hours room service.
Hi-TecH communication system including high speed internet connectivity.
Features:
24 hours coffee shop with seating capacity for 160 guests.
Specialty restaurant with seating capacity for 95 guests and 3 private dining rooms each accommodating 10 guests.
500 seats capacity Banquet Hall (can be sub-divided into two) with pre function space for 250 guests, availability of audio visual and provision of separate entrance.
Open air Bar-B-Q court
Business center with three secretarial offices and two meeting rooms, fully equipped with modern communication and audio visual equipments, dinning room / bar facility for 55 guests.
Male and female swimming pools with fully equipped health club.
Shopping arcade.
Meditation court.
Two high speed scenic elevators.
Spacious main lobby and ground floor.
Full laundry and dry cleaning services.
International standard fire safety and emergency systems.
Adequate car parking.
Beautifully landscaped surroundings with water bodies.
Sint Jan de Doperkerk
Iglesia de San Juan Bautista
St. John the Baptist Church
The Large Beguinage is one of the world's best remaining examples of its architectural type. It was recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1998.
El Gran Beaterio es uno de los mejores ejemplos de este tipo arquitectónico que quedan en el mundo. Fue reconocido por la UNESCO como Patrimonio de la Humanidad en 1998.
Lovaina (Leuven, Louvain, Löwen) es una ciudad de Bélgica, ubicada en la confluencia de los ríos Dijle y Voer. Y capital de la provincia de Brabante Flamenco, en la región de Flandes.
El principal recurso económico de la villa es la universidad, lo que hace que se le conozca desde el barroco como «ciudad de estudiantes y monjas». Y durante el año académico la mayoría de los habitantes del centro son estudiantes.
La Universidad Católica de Lovaina (KU Leuven), fundada en 1425, es una de las más antiguas del mundo, es la más grande de Bélgica y está entre las mejores del mundo. Según el ranking de Reuters, la KU Leuven es la segunda universidad más innovadora de Europa, solo superada por el Imperial College de Londres.
Lovaina es el lugar de nacimiento de varias cervezas como Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus y Keizersberg. Y tiene varios bares que se enorgullecen de ofrecer una amplia variedad de cervezas locales e internacionales (uno de ellos presume de ofrecer más de 3.000 cervezas diferentes.
Entre sus monumentos cabe destacar la biblioteca de la universidad, incendiada durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y reconstruida con aportaciones de las universidades estadounidenses. La plaza Mayor o «Grote Markt», con un espléndido Ayuntamiento típico de la arquitectura flamenca. La «Oude Markt», o plaza vieja, centro de la noche universitaria.
Especial atención merece el beaterio o begijnhof o Beguinaje, que la Unesco declaró patrimonio de la humanidad y que es en realidad un viejo monasterio habilitado como colegio mayor de estudiantes.
La iglesia de San Pedro (1425-1500) fue acabada por Jan Keldermans y Matheus de Layens. y hay varias pinturas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, pero la más famosa es la gótica Última cena de Dirk Bouts. Aquí se encuentra la tumba del duque Enrique I de Brabante. Su torre, de 50 metros de altura, estaba pensada para alcanzar los 169 metros, pero nunca se completó, alberga un carillón. Y fue incluida en la lista de la Unesco de «Campanarios de Bélgica y Francia» en 1999.
Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants.
Leuven has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. KU Leuven, the largest Dutch-speaking university in the world and the largest university in the Low Countries (and thus also Belgium's largest university), has its flagship campus in Leuven.
Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.
Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus and Keizersberg. It has several bars priding themselves in offering a wide variety of local and international beers, including a bar that claims to offer more than 3000 different beers.
Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
One of Belgium's conservatories is based in Leuven: the Lemmens Institute, which is described as "Faculty of Music, Performing Arts and Education". It is known for its music therapy education and its wordart-drama education. Kunstencentrum STUK is a cultural centre and venue in the city center for music, theatre, sound art, and dance. Leuven holds a summer rock festival, Marktrock. Leuven has some university orchestras, such as the University Symphony Orchestra (USO), the University Symphonic Band (UHO). and the Arenberg Orchestra.
This image was captured with a Nikon D-3 camera with a 70-300mm VR lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS4 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
© Vincent Versace 2010
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Top of Nigretta Falls.The Nigretta Falls are waterfalls located in the Southern Grampians Shire, 16 km west of Hamilton, Victoria, Australia. The Falls are fed by the Wannon River that has its head waters in the Grampians mountains. The Falls tumble over many rocky outcrops creating several streams of falling water and then drop into a large pool at the base before continuing its journey to the Wannon Falls some 10 km downstream. In contrast to the single plunge of the Wannon Falls, Nigretta is a more interesting, multi-channel segmented cascade of smaller drops and bounces guided by patterns of joints in a much older (Devonian) rhyolitic volcanic rock.As with the Wannon Falls, the amount of water varies with the time of year . This is early summer.
Radio-Controlled Boat
A radio-controlled boat is a boat controlled remotely with radio control equipment.
Type
Fun sport
Electric sport boats are the most common type of boat amongst casual hobbyists. Hobby-quality boat speed generally start at around 20 mph and go up from there, and can be just as fast or faster than their internal-combustion counterparts, with the latest in lithium polymer and brushless motor technology. Ready-to-run speedboats from AquaCraft, ProBoat and OffshoreElectrics can reach speeds over 40 mph out of the box and with modifications can reach well into the 50-60 mph range. These types of boats are referred to as "hobby grade" and can be found only at hobby shops and retailers. "Toy grade" boats which are obtained through mass consumer retailers, are generally much slower and their maximum speeds are usually less than 15 mph.
Scale
Large scale model warships in San Diego
Scale boats are replicas of full-size boats. They are to scale of the full sized ones. They can be small enough to fit into your hand, or large, trailer-transported models weighing hundreds of pounds. More often than not they are a miniaturized version of a prototype, built using plans and/or photos, although there are variants that utilize freelance designs. An offshoot of this style of marine RC's is radio-controlled submarines.
Sailboats
Sailboats use the power of the wind acting on sails to propel the boat. Model sailboats are typically controlled via a multi-channel radio transmitter in the hands of the operator with a corresponding receiver in the boat. By changing the position of the two joysticks on the transmitter signals are sent over two separate channels on a single radio frequency (assigned to the individual boat/operator). On the boat, the radio receiver is connected to two battery-powered electric motors or servos. Signals from the radio transmitter are interpreted by the radio receiver and translated into instructions to change the position of the servos. One servo controls the position of both main and jib sails together (allowing the sails to be trimmed), the other the position of the rudder (allowing the boat to be steered).
Racing sailboats
The racing of radio-controlled yacht racing is governed by the same International Sailing Federation - Racing Rules of Sailing that are used for full-sized crewed sailing boats (with the inclusion of Appendix E, that introduces special rules to govern the radio-controlled sport). Vane controlled boats sail under their own rules.
There are four international classes of radio sailing boats recognized by the International Radio Sailing Association (IRSA) who are recoignised by the International Sailing Federation are:
(from smallest to largest).
International One Metre (IOM)
The IOM class rules specify a monohull of maximum length 1000 mm, with maximum draught 420 mm. There is a minimum weight of 4000 g, which makes homebuilding of competitive boats possible. The IOM has three one-design rigs. To keep costs down, hull materials are restricted to either wood or glassfiber, while masts and booms are restricted to either aluminium or wood. (International One Metre Class Association)
International Marblehead
A Marblehead has a maximum length of 1290 mm and a maximum draught of ca 700 mm, but no minimum displacement. Up to six rigs are allowed, the tallest being about 2200 mm.
International Ten Rater
International A Class (A), the largest of the international radio sailing classes.
Other classes of international significance include the CR-914 the RC Laser, the Micro Magic, and the RG-65.[citation needed] The Bottle Boat is a low-cost alternative to these classes. Largely constructed from waste items (bin bags for sails and soft drink bottles for the body), it represents an environmentally friendly entry to the sport.
Racing power boats
There are dozens of types and classes of race boats. They are mainly organised by engine type and hull type.
Race: Circuit and Straight line is established at National and International levels
Engine: Electric, Glow Plug, Flash Steam and Gas (petrol)
Hull: Mono, Hydro, Cat, Outrigger and Eco (self righting jelly mold shape)
Classes are further divided by battery type and count, Engine CC, Deep V Mono, Stepped Mono, sub surface and surface piercing prop's etc.
Power boats are typically Fast electric or internal combustion, (ignition engine or glow plug R/C engine based) and some are steam powered (conventional type, and also flash steam). (At one time some boats used engines working on the compression ignition principle. These were not diesels in the true sense of the word but the modelling fraternity frequently referred to them as such. A few enthusiasts still operate such engines.) The power is commonly used to rotate a submerged propeller, aircraft propeller or jet which in turn provide the thrust to move the craft. Typically power boats have two controls, rudder, outboard motor or stern drive and throttle control. Powered scale boats will often have additional remote-controlled functions to improve realism, e.g. sounding fog horns, rotating radar antennae etc. Some of the more sophisticated powered racing boats may also have additional remote-controlled functions.
These may include remote mixture control allowing the driver to optimise the fuel/air mixture during a race. Another function occasionally implemented for racing boats using a surface piercing propeller is remote control of depth or angle of thrust. There are three main types of power boat. RTR(ready-to-run), ARTR(almost-ready-to-run), and kit versions are available. All thoroughbred racing boats are made from kits and the builders add their own gear and radio.
Radio-controlled racing boats are designed for maximum speed and maneuverability. Various styles of racing include circuits of different shapes laid out on the water with buoys. The most common courses are the 1/6-mile oval that consists of 330-foot straight sections followed by 70-foot-diameter turns. The International Model Power Boat Association (IMPBA), North American Model Boat Association (NAMBA) and Offshore Model Racing Association (OMRA) have specific rules and regulations to address the course, race rules, and formats.
In addition to oval racing there are straightaway (SAW) racing. This is a contest to see how fast you can make the boat go in a straight line. Timed events are held where the boats need to go through a starting light and an ending light. The speed is calculated by the timed difference from start to stop vs the length between the lights. Again IMPBA and NAMBA rules apply.
Some enthusiasts race in the sea, controlling their craft from a pursuing boat known as a "chase boat". These courses will usually be a few miles long and the competition is judged against the clock to find the fastest in class. Within the various styles of racing there will be a number of classes depending upon engine size and type. Ocean and river going boats tend to be powered by internal combustion engines. Sprint Type races and electric races are usually held on calmer lake waters.
Electric boats for racing are capable of reaching speeds of more than 50 mph and run times of around 10 minutes. Electric boats also hold the 100-yard sprint record against rival internal combustion powerplants since 2000.
Tethered racing and free-running craft were popular prior to the advent of cheap radio control. The speeds of tethered racing vehicles are higher than 160 mph for boats and 230 mph for cars, but these craft bear little resemblance to real-world vehicles, and could not obtain anywhere near those speeds if converted to radio control.
Combat
IJN Kagero stern damage
A competitive offshoot of the radio control model warships hobby that involves the firing of projectiles, usually propelled by gas, at opposing ships to sink or damage them. Models are usually simplified to facilitate repair. Ships are fitted with bilge pumps; bb, 3/16", 7/32" or 1/4" weapons that fire ball bearings. The ship's hull plating is balsa to keep the force required to penetrate down to safe levels, by Rules, they are designed to be sinkable and in fact they do on a regular basis.
Tugboats
2005 Bellevue,WA Regatta, Gary King's Tiger Sun in the starting dock.
Scale model tug boats are often built to include scale drive systems. They use standard propellers and rudder(s), Becker rudders, Kort nozzles, steerable kort nozzles, Z-drives or Voith-Schneider cycloidial drives. Clubs will often host maneuvering competitions where participants are tasked to run their boats in the most realistic manner possible. This can be judged with or without a "tow" or barge attached.
Model Tug boats were often used for filming on three shows. TUGS, Thomas & Friends and Theodore Tugboat in which they had moving eyes and as for TUGS moving heads.
[Credit: en.wikipedia.org/]
This image was captured during my Palm Beach Photographic Workshops India workshop. with a Nikon D-200 camera modified for infrared. Enhanced color conversion done by LifePixel with a 28-300 mm VR II I lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS5 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique.
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
© Vincent Versace 2010
The camera conversion was done by lifepixel. Enhanced Color Filter Their URL is www.lifepixel.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=158
#Nikon Ambassador #Westcott #D200 #lexar #kelbyone #photography #lifepixel #tumbhi .com #tumbhi #onOne@NikonUSA#NikonNoFilter #niksoftware #nikonUSA #Epson #wacom #xrite #onone #India #vincentversace #india #fineartphotography
Lovaina (Leuven, Louvain, Löwen) es una ciudad de Bélgica, ubicada en la confluencia de los ríos Dijle y Voer. Y capital de la provincia de Brabante Flamenco, en la región de Flandes.
El principal recurso económico de la villa es la universidad, lo que hace que se le conozca desde el barroco como «ciudad de estudiantes y monjas». Y durante el año académico la mayoría de los habitantes del centro son estudiantes.
La Universidad Católica de Lovaina (KU Leuven), fundada en 1425, es una de las más antiguas del mundo, es la más grande de Bélgica y está entre las mejores del mundo. Según el ranking de Reuters, la KU Leuven es la segunda universidad más innovadora de Europa, solo superada por el Imperial College de Londres.
Lovaina es el lugar de nacimiento de varias cervezas como Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus y Keizersberg. Y tiene varios bares que se enorgullecen de ofrecer una amplia variedad de cervezas locales e internacionales (uno de ellos presume de ofrecer más de 3.000 cervezas diferentes.
Entre sus monumentos cabe destacar la biblioteca de la universidad, incendiada durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y reconstruida con aportaciones de las universidades estadounidenses. La plaza Mayor o «Grote Markt», con un espléndido Ayuntamiento típico de la arquitectura flamenca. La «Oude Markt», o plaza vieja, centro de la noche universitaria.
Especial atención merece el beaterio o begijnhof o Beguinaje, que la Unesco declaró patrimonio de la humanidad y que es en realidad un viejo monasterio habilitado como colegio mayor de estudiantes.
La iglesia de San Pedro (1425-1500) fue acabada por Jan Keldermans y Matheus de Layens. y hay varias pinturas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, pero la más famosa es la gótica Última cena de Dirk Bouts. Aquí se encuentra la tumba del duque Enrique I de Brabante. Su torre, de 50 metros de altura, estaba pensada para alcanzar los 169 metros, pero nunca se completó, alberga un carillón. Y fue incluida en la lista de la Unesco de «Campanarios de Bélgica y Francia» en 1999.
Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants.
Leuven has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. KU Leuven, the largest Dutch-speaking university in the world and the largest university in the Low Countries (and thus also Belgium's largest university), has its flagship campus in Leuven.
Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.
Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus and Keizersberg. It has several bars priding themselves in offering a wide variety of local and international beers, including a bar that claims to offer more than 3000 different beers.
Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
One of Belgium's conservatories is based in Leuven: the Lemmens Institute, which is described as "Faculty of Music, Performing Arts and Education". It is known for its music therapy education and its wordart-drama education. Kunstencentrum STUK is a cultural centre and venue in the city center for music, theatre, sound art, and dance. Leuven holds a summer rock festival, Marktrock. Leuven has some university orchestras, such as the University Symphony Orchestra (USO), the University Symphonic Band (UHO). and the Arenberg Orchestra.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
+++ 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:
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Britain identified a threat posed by the jet-powered strategic bomber and atomic weaponry and thus placed a great emphasis on developing aerial supremacy through continuing to advance its fighter technology, even following the end of conflict. Blackburn Aircraft responded to a 1947 Air Ministry requirement for a high-performance night fighter under Air Ministry specification F.44/46. The specification called for a two-seat night fighter that would intercept enemy aircraft at heights of up to at least 40,000 feet. It would also have to reach a maximum speed of no less than 525 kn at this height, be able to perform rapid ascents and attain an altitude of 45,000 feet within ten minutes of engine ignition.
Additional criteria given in the requirement included a minimum flight endurance of two hours, a takeoff distance of 1,500 yards, structural strength to support up to 4g manoeuvers at high speed and for the aircraft to incorporate airborne interception radar, multi-channel VHF radio and various navigational aids. The aircraft would also be required to be economical to produce, at a rate of ten per month for an estimated total of 150 aircraft.
Blackburn produced several design proposals in the hope of satisfying the requirement. B.47, drawn up in 1946, was essentially a two-seat Meteor with slightly swept wings. A similar design was also offered to the Royal Navy as the B.49. The later-issued B.76 and B.77 of early 1947 had adopted many of the features that would be distinctive of the later Barghest, including the large, swept wings and the engine nacelles moved to the wing roots, integrated into the fuselage. The two projects differed primarily in role: P.76 was a single-seat day fighter with a V-tail, while P.77 was a two-seat night fighter with a radar and a mid-mounted tail plane.
The RAF requirements were subject to some changes, mainly in regards to radar equipment and armaments. Blackburn also initiated some changes, as further research was conducted into the aerodynamic properties of the new swept wings and tail surfaces. For propulsion, the new Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet engine was chosen and the airframe adapted accordingly.
On 13 April 1949 the Ministry of Supply issued instructions to three aircraft manufacturers, Blackburn, Gloster and de Havilland, to each construct four airworthy prototypes of their competing designs to meet the requirement, as well as one airframe each for structural testing. These prototype aircraft were the Gloster GA.5, designed by Richard Walker, the de Havilland DH.110, which held the advantage of also being under consideration for the Royal Navy (and became the Sea Vixen), and the Blackburn B.87, which was a refined B.77 with a slimmed-down fuselage and a swept T-tail.
The development of all of these designs was considerably delayed through political cost-cutting measures, the number of prototypes being trimmed down to an unworkable level of two each before the decision was entirely reversed! The B.87 was soon christened Barghest and first prototype was structurally completed in 1951. Following a month of ground testing the first prototype conducted its first flight on 26 November 1951 and the second prototype followed in February 1952 (and was in 1953 used for aerodynamic tests that led to the improved Mk. 3, see below). The third prototype, and the first to be fitted with operational equipment including radar and weapons, first flew on 7 March 1953. The fourth airframe was passed to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) in August 1953 for trials.
The original Barghest all-weather fighter was equipped with a British AI.17 radar and powered by two Sapphire Sa.5 engines without afterburner, delivering 6,500 lbf (28.91 kN) thrust each. The aircraft did not have built-in weapons, but could carry various weapon packages in a spacious, ventral weapon bay. Options included a tray with four 30 mm ADEN cannon, three retractable pods with a total of 70 unguided Microcell 2 in (51mm) missiles, or a recoilless 4.5 in gun with 7 rounds in a drum magazine, even though this huge weapon, intended against incoming bomber formations at high altitude, never made it beyond the prototype stage and ground tests. Furthermore, four underwing hardpoints could carry drop tanks (on the inner pair of pylons only), bombs or unguided SNEB rocket pods for a total load of 4.000 lb (1.814 kg).
The official production order for the Barghest was issued in mid-1953, together with the Gloster GA.5, which became the Javelin – an unusual decision, but the need for an operational all-weather fighter was so dire that two types were procured at the same time in order to fill the defense gaps as quickly as possible and to have a fall back option at hand immediately. While some delays were incurred, the Barghest's status as a "super priority" for production helped to minimize the time involved in producing each aircraft. Production was assisted by a large order placed by the United States Air Force, purchasing aircraft for the RAF as part of the Mutual Defense Aid Program.
On 22 July 1954 the first production aircraft took flight at Leeds, and the Barghest F(AW).1 entered service with the RAF in 1956 with 46 Squadron based at RAF Odiham, England. The Barghests were immediately put to use in an intensive flying program, to rapidly familiarize crews with the type. In order to assist conversion training, twelve machines from the initial production batch were converted into dual control trainers. They lacked the radar equipment and were designated T.2.
The introduction of the Barghest allowed the RAF to expand its night-fighter activity considerably. During RAF trials, the type proved readily capable of intercepting jet bombers such as the English Electric Canberra and modern jet fighters, over a hundred miles out to sea, and the Barghest turned out to be quite an agile aircraft with good flying characteristics, despite its size. By the end of July 1959, all remaining Meteor squadrons had been converted to the Barghest and the Javelin.
After an initial production batch of 48 F(AW).1 fighters and a dozen T.2 trainers, the upgraded F(AW).3 was introduced in October 1956, which featured several changes and improvements. The biggest external change was the introduction of a modified wing with a dog tooth (tested on the 2nd prototype from 1953 onwards), which enhanced airflow and handling at high speed. Furthermore, the tailplane was modified so that either the rudders could be operated at slow speed or, alternatively, the whole stabilizer at high speed. A bulbous aerodynamic fairing on the fin’s top held the more complicated mechanism.
The Barghest F(AW).3 was furthermore equipped with a more capable AI.22 radar (actually a U.S.-made Westinghouse AN/APQ-43 radar) and it was able to carry up to four IR-guided Firestreak AAMs on pylons under the wings, what significantly improved the aircraft's interceptor capabilities. The aircraft now featured a total of six hardpoints, even though the new, outermost pylons could only carry a single Firestreak missile each. The ventral weapon bay was retained, but, typically, only the pack of four Aden cannon was carried.
In order to cope with a higher all-up weight and improve overall performance, the F(AW).3 was powered by Sapphire Sa.6 engines, which delivered 23% more thrust and were recognizable by enlarged air intakes of oval shape instead of the original, circular orifices. Stronger engines with afterburners could not be mounted, though – their addition would have required a severe structural change to the aircraft’s rear fuselage, and this lack of development potential eventually favored the Barghest’s rival, the Gloster Javelin.
Beyond newly produced F(AW).3 airframes, most F(AW).1s were eventually upgraded to this standard, and a further twelve F(AW).1s were modified into trainers. All T.2 aircraft received the wing and tail upgrade, but retained the weaker Sapphire Sa.5s, and their designation was eventually changed into T.4.
Due to its higher development potential, the Gloster Javelin overshadowed the Barghest during its relatively short career. The last Barghest fighter was already withdrawn from service in 1966, with a total of 125 airframes having been produced, while the Javelin, produced in more than 420 units, kept on serving until 1968. Both types were replaced by the Mach 2-capable BAC Lightning interceptor.
However, the experience gathered from the Barghest's early development was successfully used by Blackburn during the Buccaneer development process for the Royal Navy in the mid-Fifties.
General characteristics:
Crew: two
Length: 54 ft in (16,49 m)
Wingspan: 40 ft 7 in (12.38 m)
Wing area: 514.7 ft² (47.82 m²)
Height: 14 ft 9 in (4,50 m)
Empty weight: 19,295 lb (8,760 kg)
Gross weight: 29,017 lb (13,174 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 34,257 lb (15,553 kg)
Powerplant:
2× Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire Sa.6 engines with 8,000 lbf (35.6 kN) thrust each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 606 kn (697 mph; 1,122 km/h) at sea level
Range: 954 mi (1,530 km)
Service ceiling: 52,800 ft (15,865 m)
Rate of climb: 7,000 ft/min (35.6 m/s)
Wing loading: 66 lb/ft² (325 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.56
Armament:
Ventral weapon bay, typically carrying 4× 30 mm (0.79 in) ADEN revolver cannon with 180 RPG;
alternatively, three retractable packs with a total of 70 unguided Microcell 2 in (51mm) missiles
could be carried;
Six underwing hardpoints (The outer pair of pylons could only carry Firestreak AAMs) for a total
ordnance of 4.000 lb (1.814 kg), including up to 4× Firestreak IR-guided AAMs, drop tanks on the
inner pair of pylons, or unguided bombs and SNEB missile pods.
The kit and its assembly:
This kitbash model originally started as an early Fifties all-weather fighter for the Royal Navy, and the idea was a Gloster Meteor night fighter fuselage mated with the engines and swept wings from a Blackburn Buccaneer. However, things change and evolve as ideas turn into hardware (for another submission to the 2018 “RAF Centenary” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com), and so this project gradually transformed into an all-weather fighter for the Royal Air Force, as a rival to the Gloster Javelin, and some other fundamental changes to the original plan as things evolved on the work bench.
Work started with a Matchbox Gloster Meteor, from which the fuselage (incl. the NF.14 cockpit with its bubble canopy) and tail cone (w/o fin, though) were taken OOB. Then a Matchbox Buccaneer donated its nose cone and the engine pods, together with the inner wing sections. An initial attempt to use the Buccaneer’s fin and stabilizer was made, but it did not work at all (looked horrible and totally unbalanced!). Instead, I used a leftover fin from a Revell 1:200 Concorde because of its retro shape and depth, and waited for the stabilizers until the wings were mounted, so that size, position and proportions would become clearer.
The nose cone had to be squashed, because its OOB oval diameter would not go onto the circular Meteor front end without problems and major PSR. With some force from a vice and internal stabilization through 2C putty the shape could be successfully modified, though, and blended into the fuselage contours. Looks pretty good and fast!
Once the engine nacelles were in place, I initially tried the Buccaneer’s OOB outer wings, but I was not really happy with the look. Their shape did not look “right”, they were a bit too large and just very Buccaneer-esque. After a donor bank safari I found a leftover sprue with wings and stabilizers from a Matchbox Hawker Hunter, and after some measurements and trials I found that they could be quite easily adapted to the Buccaneer’s inner wing stubs, even though this called for more serious surgery and PSR work. The latter was also necessary in order to blend the engine nacelles into the slender Meteor fuselage – messy, but feasible.
Alas, one challenge leads to the next one: Once in place, the massive engines created a ventral gap, due to the Meteor’s slender tail section. This was eventually filled with the Matchbox Buccaneer’s extra fuel bomb bay door, simply cut away from the kit, trimmed down and transplanted between the engine nacelles. As a side benefit, its bulged shape would now simulate a fairing for a ventral gun pack, somewhat similar to the CF-100’s arrangement. More PSR ensued, though, and between and around the jet exhausts the fuselage had to be fully re-sculpted.
The stabilizers also caused some headaches. With the new Hunter swept wings tips, I also needed new, matching stabilizers. I eventually used the Hunter stabilizers from the surplus Matchbox kit sprue. At first I tried to mate them with a shortened central fairing from the Buccaneer, but this did work even less than the whole Bucc tail, and so I scratched a more slender central fairing for the T-tail on top of the Concorde fin from a piece of sprue. Even though the Hunter stabilizers turned out to look a bit diminutive, I stuck with them since they complement the wing shape so well.
The benefit of the Buccaneer engine nacelles is that they come with proper landing gear wells, so that only the landing gear had to be improvises and adapted to the new aircraft and its proportions. I wanted to use the Meteor landing gear, but this turned out to be much too short! So I replaced the front wheel with a respective part from a Matchbox Buccaneer. The main wheels from the Meteor kit were retained, but they had to be extended - with a 5mm styrene tube “plug”, which is, thankfully, well hidden behind the covers.
Others small changes/additions are ejection seats in the cockpit instead of the Meteor bucket seats, the jet exhausts were drilled open and an interior was added, and some antennae were placed on the aircraft’s hull.
The ordnance was to reflect a typical late Fifties RAF fighter, and so the Barghest received a pair of drop tanks (from a Heller SEPECAT Jaguar, with simplified fins) and a pair of Firestreak AAMs (from a Matchbox BAC Lightning) on a pair of launch rails from an Academy MiG-23.
Colors and markings:
As per usual, I rather keep complicated whiffs visually simple, so I used the standard RAF scheme of Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey/Light Aircraft Grey on the Barghest, with the Buccaneer’s typical pattern as benchmark. Humbrol enamels (163, 164 and 166) were used for basic painting.
The cockpit interior became Tar Black (Revell 06), while the landing gear and its respective wells were painted in Aluminum (Humbrol 56). The kit received a light black ink washing and mild post-shading – more for a dramatic than a weathering effect, since RAF machines in the Fifties looked very tidy and clean.
The drop tanks received camouflage and the Firestreaks became white, while their clear seeker cones were painted with a mix of silver and translucent blue. The IR sensors were created with thin decal stripes.
The decals come primarily from an Xtradecal BAC Lightning sheet (roundels and 19 Sq. markings – the squadron badges are unfortunately quite large, since they belong to a NMF aircraft), most stencils and the tactical code come from an Airfix Venom trainer and an Italeri Tornado.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a matt acrylic varnish, a mix of matt and little semi-gloss Italeri varnish, for a sheen finish.
A true kitbashing, made from many well-known RAF ingredients and a disturbing look between odd and familiar! A Buccaneer? No, it’s too scrawny. A Javelin? No, it does not have delta wings, and it’s got a tail sting. A de-navalized Sea Vixen? Well, no twin tail, and anything else does not match either... Despite the puzzling details (or because of them?), the Barghest looks disturbingly British and Fifties, as if it had been created from a profound RAF DNA pool – and it actually is! And with lots of putty. ;-)
This image was taken during my Palm Beach Photographic Centre's India workshop and was captured with a Nikon D-3 with a 70-210 DSERIES Lens at 200iso using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 8 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. This file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software. Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS4 using a combination of SilverEfexPro and the Versace multi-channel mixer technique.
© Vincent Versace 2009
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Lovaina (Leuven, Louvain, Löwen) es una ciudad de Bélgica, ubicada en la confluencia de los ríos Dijle y Voer. Y capital de la provincia de Brabante Flamenco, en la región de Flandes.
El principal recurso económico de la villa es la universidad, lo que hace que se le conozca desde el barroco como «ciudad de estudiantes y monjas». Y durante el año académico la mayoría de los habitantes del centro son estudiantes.
La Universidad Católica de Lovaina (KU Leuven), fundada en 1425, es una de las más antiguas del mundo, es la más grande de Bélgica y está entre las mejores del mundo. Según el ranking de Reuters, la KU Leuven es la segunda universidad más innovadora de Europa, solo superada por el Imperial College de Londres.
Lovaina es el lugar de nacimiento de varias cervezas como Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus y Keizersberg. Y tiene varios bares que se enorgullecen de ofrecer una amplia variedad de cervezas locales e internacionales (uno de ellos presume de ofrecer más de 3.000 cervezas diferentes.
Entre sus monumentos cabe destacar la biblioteca de la universidad, incendiada durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y reconstruida con aportaciones de las universidades estadounidenses. La plaza Mayor o «Grote Markt», con un espléndido Ayuntamiento típico de la arquitectura flamenca. La «Oude Markt», o plaza vieja, centro de la noche universitaria.
Especial atención merece el beaterio o begijnhof o Beguinaje, que la Unesco declaró patrimonio de la humanidad y que es en realidad un viejo monasterio habilitado como colegio mayor de estudiantes.
La iglesia de San Pedro (1425-1500) fue acabada por Jan Keldermans y Matheus de Layens. y hay varias pinturas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, pero la más famosa es la gótica Última cena de Dirk Bouts. Aquí se encuentra la tumba del duque Enrique I de Brabante. Su torre, de 50 metros de altura, estaba pensada para alcanzar los 169 metros, pero nunca se completó, alberga un carillón. Y fue incluida en la lista de la Unesco de «Campanarios de Bélgica y Francia» en 1999.
Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants.
Leuven has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. KU Leuven, the largest Dutch-speaking university in the world and the largest university in the Low Countries (and thus also Belgium's largest university), has its flagship campus in Leuven.
Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.
Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus and Keizersberg. It has several bars priding themselves in offering a wide variety of local and international beers, including a bar that claims to offer more than 3000 different beers.
Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
One of Belgium's conservatories is based in Leuven: the Lemmens Institute, which is described as "Faculty of Music, Performing Arts and Education". It is known for its music therapy education and its wordart-drama education. Kunstencentrum STUK is a cultural centre and venue in the city center for music, theatre, sound art, and dance. Leuven holds a summer rock festival, Marktrock. Leuven has some university orchestras, such as the University Symphony Orchestra (USO), the University Symphonic Band (UHO). and the Arenberg Orchestra.
The camera you have is the best camera in the world.
I captured this image with a Coolpix 5000 set to Jpeg fine in February of 2002. I was teaching a class in flower photography. All of the students had complained that they could not get the results I was getting because all they had were point and shoot cameras. So I took my point and shoot and shot this image. This is a single capture. The image was first processed in Nikon capture then saved as a tiff then further worked on in Photohop. The Black and white conversion was first done with my multi-channel mixer approach. I revisited this image and did a combination of my multi-channel approach and Niksoftware's Silver Efex Pro. This is the image you are seeing now.
The point I would like to make is it is the photographer not the camera that makes the image shine. Technique exists so that you do not have to shout to have your artistic voice be heard. Perfect technique without a solid voice is an exercise in creating forgettable photographs. Emotionally rich and technically imperfect will always trump technically perfect and emotionally vacant. Does the best camera in the world with the best glass help, it does. But can you achieve the best results of having your voice be heard with any camera? Yes. Pay more attention to what you wan to say, focus on that. Learn technique not as the end all be all but rather as the means to be better heard.
Canera Specs:
Effective pixels
5.0 million (total pixels: 5.24 million)
Image size
[2560] (2,560 x 1,920 pixels), [1600] (1,600 x 1,200 pixels), [1280] (1,280 x 960 pixels), [1024] (1,024 x 768 pixels), [640] (640 x 480 pixels), [3:2] (2,560 x 1,704 pixels) selectable
Lens / Digital zoom
3x Zoom-Nikkor; 7.1-21.4mm (35mm [135] format equivalent to 28-85mm); f/2.8-4.8; 9 elements in 7 groups; 4x digital zoom
Focus range
50cm (19.7 in.) to infinity (∞), 2cm (0.8 in.) to infinity (∞) in Macro mode.
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
© Vincent Versace 2012
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Lovaina (Leuven, Louvain, Löwen) es una ciudad de Bélgica, ubicada en la confluencia de los ríos Dijle y Voer. Y capital de la provincia de Brabante Flamenco, en la región de Flandes.
El principal recurso económico de la villa es la universidad, lo que hace que se le conozca desde el barroco como «ciudad de estudiantes y monjas». Y durante el año académico la mayoría de los habitantes del centro son estudiantes.
La Universidad Católica de Lovaina (KU Leuven), fundada en 1425, es una de las más antiguas del mundo, es la más grande de Bélgica y está entre las mejores del mundo. Según el ranking de Reuters, la KU Leuven es la segunda universidad más innovadora de Europa, solo superada por el Imperial College de Londres.
Lovaina es el lugar de nacimiento de varias cervezas como Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus y Keizersberg. Y tiene varios bares que se enorgullecen de ofrecer una amplia variedad de cervezas locales e internacionales (uno de ellos presume de ofrecer más de 3.000 cervezas diferentes.
Entre sus monumentos cabe destacar la biblioteca de la universidad, incendiada durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y reconstruida con aportaciones de las universidades estadounidenses. La plaza Mayor o «Grote Markt», con un espléndido Ayuntamiento típico de la arquitectura flamenca. La «Oude Markt», o plaza vieja, centro de la noche universitaria.
Especial atención merece el beaterio o begijnhof o Beguinaje, que la Unesco declaró patrimonio de la humanidad y que es en realidad un viejo monasterio habilitado como colegio mayor de estudiantes.
La iglesia de San Pedro (1425-1500) fue acabada por Jan Keldermans y Matheus de Layens. y hay varias pinturas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, pero la más famosa es la gótica Última cena de Dirk Bouts. Aquí se encuentra la tumba del duque Enrique I de Brabante. Su torre, de 50 metros de altura, estaba pensada para alcanzar los 169 metros, pero nunca se completó, alberga un carillón. Y fue incluida en la lista de la Unesco de «Campanarios de Bélgica y Francia» en 1999.
Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants.
Leuven has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. KU Leuven, the largest Dutch-speaking university in the world and the largest university in the Low Countries (and thus also Belgium's largest university), has its flagship campus in Leuven.
Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.
Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus and Keizersberg. It has several bars priding themselves in offering a wide variety of local and international beers, including a bar that claims to offer more than 3000 different beers.
Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
One of Belgium's conservatories is based in Leuven: the Lemmens Institute, which is described as "Faculty of Music, Performing Arts and Education". It is known for its music therapy education and its wordart-drama education. Kunstencentrum STUK is a cultural centre and venue in the city center for music, theatre, sound art, and dance. Leuven holds a summer rock festival, Marktrock. Leuven has some university orchestras, such as the University Symphony Orchestra (USO), the University Symphonic Band (UHO). and the Arenberg Orchestra.
U.S. Army Spc. Julian Ditona, right, a multi-channel transmission systems operator assigned to the 98th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, keeps an eye out for simulated enemy activity during an urban operations scenario event at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, March 29, 2017. Ditona and seven other Soldiers competed in the command’s 2017 Best Warrior Competition, in hopes of representing their unit at the U.S. Army Reserve Command’s 2017 Best Warrior Competition later this year. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Brent C. Powell) www.dvidshub.net
.
This image was captured with a Nikon D-3 camera, 1000iso with a 70-210Dseries lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. All file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Image was lit by sunlight reflecting off concrete sidewalk in Washington Square Park. No reflector, defuser or Photoshop lighting effects.
Black and White conversion was Done in Photoshop CS4 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique.
© Vincent Versace 2009
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+++ 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:
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Britain identified a threat posed by the jet-powered strategic bomber and atomic weaponry and thus placed a great emphasis on developing aerial supremacy through continuing to advance its fighter technology, even following the end of conflict. Blackburn Aircraft responded to a 1947 Air Ministry requirement for a high-performance night fighter under Air Ministry specification F.44/46. The specification called for a two-seat night fighter that would intercept enemy aircraft at heights of up to at least 40,000 feet. It would also have to reach a maximum speed of no less than 525 kn at this height, be able to perform rapid ascents and attain an altitude of 45,000 feet within ten minutes of engine ignition.
Additional criteria given in the requirement included a minimum flight endurance of two hours, a takeoff distance of 1,500 yards, structural strength to support up to 4g manoeuvers at high speed and for the aircraft to incorporate airborne interception radar, multi-channel VHF radio and various navigational aids. The aircraft would also be required to be economical to produce, at a rate of ten per month for an estimated total of 150 aircraft.
Blackburn produced several design proposals in the hope of satisfying the requirement. B.47, drawn up in 1946, was essentially a two-seat Meteor with slightly swept wings. A similar design was also offered to the Royal Navy as the B.49. The later-issued B.76 and B.77 of early 1947 had adopted many of the features that would be distinctive of the later Barghest, including the large, swept wings and the engine nacelles moved to the wing roots, integrated into the fuselage. The two projects differed primarily in role: P.76 was a single-seat day fighter with a V-tail, while P.77 was a two-seat night fighter with a radar and a mid-mounted tail plane.
The RAF requirements were subject to some changes, mainly in regards to radar equipment and armaments. Blackburn also initiated some changes, as further research was conducted into the aerodynamic properties of the new swept wings and tail surfaces. For propulsion, the new Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet engine was chosen and the airframe adapted accordingly.
On 13 April 1949 the Ministry of Supply issued instructions to three aircraft manufacturers, Blackburn, Gloster and de Havilland, to each construct four airworthy prototypes of their competing designs to meet the requirement, as well as one airframe each for structural testing. These prototype aircraft were the Gloster GA.5, designed by Richard Walker, the de Havilland DH.110, which held the advantage of also being under consideration for the Royal Navy (and became the Sea Vixen), and the Blackburn B.87, which was a refined B.77 with a slimmed-down fuselage and a swept T-tail.
The development of all of these designs was considerably delayed through political cost-cutting measures, the number of prototypes being trimmed down to an unworkable level of two each before the decision was entirely reversed! The B.87 was soon christened Barghest and first prototype was structurally completed in 1951. Following a month of ground testing the first prototype conducted its first flight on 26 November 1951 and the second prototype followed in February 1952 (and was in 1953 used for aerodynamic tests that led to the improved Mk. 3, see below). The third prototype, and the first to be fitted with operational equipment including radar and weapons, first flew on 7 March 1953. The fourth airframe was passed to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) in August 1953 for trials.
The original Barghest all-weather fighter was equipped with a British AI.17 radar and powered by two Sapphire Sa.5 engines without afterburner, delivering 6,500 lbf (28.91 kN) thrust each. The aircraft did not have built-in weapons, but could carry various weapon packages in a spacious, ventral weapon bay. Options included a tray with four 30 mm ADEN cannon, three retractable pods with a total of 70 unguided Microcell 2 in (51mm) missiles, or a recoilless 4.5 in gun with 7 rounds in a drum magazine, even though this huge weapon, intended against incoming bomber formations at high altitude, never made it beyond the prototype stage and ground tests. Furthermore, four underwing hardpoints could carry drop tanks (on the inner pair of pylons only), bombs or unguided SNEB rocket pods for a total load of 4.000 lb (1.814 kg).
The official production order for the Barghest was issued in mid-1953, together with the Gloster GA.5, which became the Javelin – an unusual decision, but the need for an operational all-weather fighter was so dire that two types were procured at the same time in order to fill the defense gaps as quickly as possible and to have a fall back option at hand immediately. While some delays were incurred, the Barghest's status as a "super priority" for production helped to minimize the time involved in producing each aircraft. Production was assisted by a large order placed by the United States Air Force, purchasing aircraft for the RAF as part of the Mutual Defense Aid Program.
On 22 July 1954 the first production aircraft took flight at Leeds, and the Barghest F(AW).1 entered service with the RAF in 1956 with 46 Squadron based at RAF Odiham, England. The Barghests were immediately put to use in an intensive flying program, to rapidly familiarize crews with the type. In order to assist conversion training, twelve machines from the initial production batch were converted into dual control trainers. They lacked the radar equipment and were designated T.2.
The introduction of the Barghest allowed the RAF to expand its night-fighter activity considerably. During RAF trials, the type proved readily capable of intercepting jet bombers such as the English Electric Canberra and modern jet fighters, over a hundred miles out to sea, and the Barghest turned out to be quite an agile aircraft with good flying characteristics, despite its size. By the end of July 1959, all remaining Meteor squadrons had been converted to the Barghest and the Javelin.
After an initial production batch of 48 F(AW).1 fighters and a dozen T.2 trainers, the upgraded F(AW).3 was introduced in October 1956, which featured several changes and improvements. The biggest external change was the introduction of a modified wing with a dog tooth (tested on the 2nd prototype from 1953 onwards), which enhanced airflow and handling at high speed. Furthermore, the tailplane was modified so that either the rudders could be operated at slow speed or, alternatively, the whole stabilizer at high speed. A bulbous aerodynamic fairing on the fin’s top held the more complicated mechanism.
The Barghest F(AW).3 was furthermore equipped with a more capable AI.22 radar (actually a U.S.-made Westinghouse AN/APQ-43 radar) and it was able to carry up to four IR-guided Firestreak AAMs on pylons under the wings, what significantly improved the aircraft's interceptor capabilities. The aircraft now featured a total of six hardpoints, even though the new, outermost pylons could only carry a single Firestreak missile each. The ventral weapon bay was retained, but, typically, only the pack of four Aden cannon was carried.
In order to cope with a higher all-up weight and improve overall performance, the F(AW).3 was powered by Sapphire Sa.6 engines, which delivered 23% more thrust and were recognizable by enlarged air intakes of oval shape instead of the original, circular orifices. Stronger engines with afterburners could not be mounted, though – their addition would have required a severe structural change to the aircraft’s rear fuselage, and this lack of development potential eventually favored the Barghest’s rival, the Gloster Javelin.
Beyond newly produced F(AW).3 airframes, most F(AW).1s were eventually upgraded to this standard, and a further twelve F(AW).1s were modified into trainers. All T.2 aircraft received the wing and tail upgrade, but retained the weaker Sapphire Sa.5s, and their designation was eventually changed into T.4.
Due to its higher development potential, the Gloster Javelin overshadowed the Barghest during its relatively short career. The last Barghest fighter was already withdrawn from service in 1966, with a total of 125 airframes having been produced, while the Javelin, produced in more than 420 units, kept on serving until 1968. Both types were replaced by the Mach 2-capable BAC Lightning interceptor.
However, the experience gathered from the Barghest's early development was successfully used by Blackburn during the Buccaneer development process for the Royal Navy in the mid-Fifties.
General characteristics:
Crew: two
Length: 54 ft in (16,49 m)
Wingspan: 40 ft 7 in (12.38 m)
Wing area: 514.7 ft² (47.82 m²)
Height: 14 ft 9 in (4,50 m)
Empty weight: 19,295 lb (8,760 kg)
Gross weight: 29,017 lb (13,174 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 34,257 lb (15,553 kg)
Powerplant:
2× Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire Sa.6 engines with 8,000 lbf (35.6 kN) thrust each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 606 kn (697 mph; 1,122 km/h) at sea level
Range: 954 mi (1,530 km)
Service ceiling: 52,800 ft (15,865 m)
Rate of climb: 7,000 ft/min (35.6 m/s)
Wing loading: 66 lb/ft² (325 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.56
Armament:
Ventral weapon bay, typically carrying 4× 30 mm (0.79 in) ADEN revolver cannon with 180 RPG;
alternatively, three retractable packs with a total of 70 unguided Microcell 2 in (51mm) missiles
could be carried;
Six underwing hardpoints (The outer pair of pylons could only carry Firestreak AAMs) for a total
ordnance of 4.000 lb (1.814 kg), including up to 4× Firestreak IR-guided AAMs, drop tanks on the
inner pair of pylons, or unguided bombs and SNEB missile pods.
The kit and its assembly:
This kitbash model originally started as an early Fifties all-weather fighter for the Royal Navy, and the idea was a Gloster Meteor night fighter fuselage mated with the engines and swept wings from a Blackburn Buccaneer. However, things change and evolve as ideas turn into hardware (for another submission to the 2018 “RAF Centenary” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com), and so this project gradually transformed into an all-weather fighter for the Royal Air Force, as a rival to the Gloster Javelin, and some other fundamental changes to the original plan as things evolved on the work bench.
Work started with a Matchbox Gloster Meteor, from which the fuselage (incl. the NF.14 cockpit with its bubble canopy) and tail cone (w/o fin, though) were taken OOB. Then a Matchbox Buccaneer donated its nose cone and the engine pods, together with the inner wing sections. An initial attempt to use the Buccaneer’s fin and stabilizer was made, but it did not work at all (looked horrible and totally unbalanced!). Instead, I used a leftover fin from a Revell 1:200 Concorde because of its retro shape and depth, and waited for the stabilizers until the wings were mounted, so that size, position and proportions would become clearer.
The nose cone had to be squashed, because its OOB oval diameter would not go onto the circular Meteor front end without problems and major PSR. With some force from a vice and internal stabilization through 2C putty the shape could be successfully modified, though, and blended into the fuselage contours. Looks pretty good and fast!
Once the engine nacelles were in place, I initially tried the Buccaneer’s OOB outer wings, but I was not really happy with the look. Their shape did not look “right”, they were a bit too large and just very Buccaneer-esque. After a donor bank safari I found a leftover sprue with wings and stabilizers from a Matchbox Hawker Hunter, and after some measurements and trials I found that they could be quite easily adapted to the Buccaneer’s inner wing stubs, even though this called for more serious surgery and PSR work. The latter was also necessary in order to blend the engine nacelles into the slender Meteor fuselage – messy, but feasible.
Alas, one challenge leads to the next one: Once in place, the massive engines created a ventral gap, due to the Meteor’s slender tail section. This was eventually filled with the Matchbox Buccaneer’s extra fuel bomb bay door, simply cut away from the kit, trimmed down and transplanted between the engine nacelles. As a side benefit, its bulged shape would now simulate a fairing for a ventral gun pack, somewhat similar to the CF-100’s arrangement. More PSR ensued, though, and between and around the jet exhausts the fuselage had to be fully re-sculpted.
The stabilizers also caused some headaches. With the new Hunter swept wings tips, I also needed new, matching stabilizers. I eventually used the Hunter stabilizers from the surplus Matchbox kit sprue. At first I tried to mate them with a shortened central fairing from the Buccaneer, but this did work even less than the whole Bucc tail, and so I scratched a more slender central fairing for the T-tail on top of the Concorde fin from a piece of sprue. Even though the Hunter stabilizers turned out to look a bit diminutive, I stuck with them since they complement the wing shape so well.
The benefit of the Buccaneer engine nacelles is that they come with proper landing gear wells, so that only the landing gear had to be improvises and adapted to the new aircraft and its proportions. I wanted to use the Meteor landing gear, but this turned out to be much too short! So I replaced the front wheel with a respective part from a Matchbox Buccaneer. The main wheels from the Meteor kit were retained, but they had to be extended - with a 5mm styrene tube “plug”, which is, thankfully, well hidden behind the covers.
Others small changes/additions are ejection seats in the cockpit instead of the Meteor bucket seats, the jet exhausts were drilled open and an interior was added, and some antennae were placed on the aircraft’s hull.
The ordnance was to reflect a typical late Fifties RAF fighter, and so the Barghest received a pair of drop tanks (from a Heller SEPECAT Jaguar, with simplified fins) and a pair of Firestreak AAMs (from a Matchbox BAC Lightning) on a pair of launch rails from an Academy MiG-23.
Colors and markings:
As per usual, I rather keep complicated whiffs visually simple, so I used the standard RAF scheme of Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey/Light Aircraft Grey on the Barghest, with the Buccaneer’s typical pattern as benchmark. Humbrol enamels (163, 164 and 166) were used for basic painting.
The cockpit interior became Tar Black (Revell 06), while the landing gear and its respective wells were painted in Aluminum (Humbrol 56). The kit received a light black ink washing and mild post-shading – more for a dramatic than a weathering effect, since RAF machines in the Fifties looked very tidy and clean.
The drop tanks received camouflage and the Firestreaks became white, while their clear seeker cones were painted with a mix of silver and translucent blue. The IR sensors were created with thin decal stripes.
The decals come primarily from an Xtradecal BAC Lightning sheet (roundels and 19 Sq. markings – the squadron badges are unfortunately quite large, since they belong to a NMF aircraft), most stencils and the tactical code come from an Airfix Venom trainer and an Italeri Tornado.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a matt acrylic varnish, a mix of matt and little semi-gloss Italeri varnish, for a sheen finish.
A true kitbashing, made from many well-known RAF ingredients and a disturbing look between odd and familiar! A Buccaneer? No, it’s too scrawny. A Javelin? No, it does not have delta wings, and it’s got a tail sting. A de-navalized Sea Vixen? Well, no twin tail, and anything else does not match either... Despite the puzzling details (or because of them?), the Barghest looks disturbingly British and Fifties, as if it had been created from a profound RAF DNA pool – and it actually is! And with lots of putty. ;-)
Of course, Reed and Malloy patrolled the mean streets in "a black and white patrol car that had an overhead valve V8 engine that develops 325 horsepower, 4800 RPM, accelerates from 0 - 60 in 7 seconds, has a top speed of 120 MPH, equipped with a multi-channel DFE radio and an electronic siren capable of emitting three variables..." well, you know the rest.
1:62 Racing Champions:
1968 Plymouth Road Runner Los Angeles Police Department
Vehicle #81798
1998 Police USA Series
Issue # 3
Atlantic Walk
2022 Law Enforcement Vehicle Show
Veterans Beach
City of Mystic Beach
Baynard County, Florida, USA
#CallingAllCopCars22
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro
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A DIY Open Baffle multi-channel DSP loudspeaker, the OB1. This speaker uses a 12" woofer 4" midrange and 1" Aluminum dome tweeter.
Image: "Bodybuilder Portrait (Tazzie Colomb)" video still
2-channel video installation on 24" HD monitors (color, sound)
2011
Link to videos:
www.rachelrampleman.com/artwork-/bodybuilders/bodybuilder...
CINCINNATI, OH—from Friday, April 19 until Sunday, June 16, the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts premiered "Oh! You Pretty Things", celebrating almost twenty years of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work by Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. "Oh! You Pretty Things" featured a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel video installations from her extensive creative catalogue along with brand new works from the "Life is Drag" series out of New York City in an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
Best known for bodies of work exploring subjects such as gender, artifice, and spectacle, Rampleman showcases exuberantly bold and irrepressible personalities who revel in challenging common clichés associated with masculinity and femininity. The exhibition stretched across both levels of the Weston starting with the creation of a high concept but low budget/DIY-inspired performance space installation in the atrium gallery including spectacular Mylar curtains to set the mood for the aestheticized performances of identity portrayed in her video sculptures and displays screened across multiple electronic platforms including CRT monitors, tablets, and flat screen TVs seen in the lower-level.
A sampling of subjects, muses, and collaborators represented in the survey included Girls Girls Girls (the world's first and only all-female Mötley Crüe tribute band), Tazzie Colomb (the world's longest competing female bodybuilder/powerlifter), and LACTIC Incorporated (an avant-garde clothing brand that takes the detritus of corporate life and reinterprets it into one-of-a-kind structural garments that challenge the polarization of gender and critique existing power structures). In addition, Rampleman premiered a new series of work, "Life is Drag", in which she documented her collaborations with the most singular and innovative emerging artists of the flourishing Brooklyn alt-drag scene.
The Weston’s street-level exhibition space featured a dazzling Mylar curtain backdrop and suspended disco ball and accent stage lighting that also served as the site for "Rebel Revel", an alt-drag-queer-burlesque-pop-punk-fashion-performance-gothic-cabaret-metal-disco-festival on Saturday, June 8. This one-night-only festival celebrated those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression combines drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. It featured a drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms; draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron; burlesque by Ginger Lesnapps—head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and winner of RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; and also more burlesque by Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a co-ed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality; a runway show with gender bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated; and the premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer/former vaudeville and burlesque performer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed.
In conjunction with "Oh! You Pretty Things", Rampleman presented a video program she curated in 2013 at The Mini Microcinema on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. entitled “Hyper-muscularity & Femininity on Film: A Screening of Media Portrayals of Women Bodybuilders from the 1980s and the 1990s aka ‘The Most Awesome Female Muscle Celebration in the World.’” This program took the latter part of its title from an event by the same name held in New York City in 1995 which showcased top-name women bodybuilders of that time displaying their physiques by doing different individually choreographed performances (as warriors, queens, pop stars) as opposed to the normal mandated posing routines they performed for professional competitions. The Mini Microcinema is located at 1329 Main Street, downtown, Cincinnati. www.mini-cinema.org.
PRESS
Art Papers:
www.artpapers.org/rachel-rampleman-oh-you-pretty-things/
AEQAI:
El Ayuntamiento, construido entre 1439 y 1463 por Sulpitius van Vorst [nl], Jan II Keldermans, y tras su muerte, Matheus de Layens, en estilo gótico tardío brabantense. En el siglo XIX, se agregaron 236 estatuas al exterior, cada una de las cuales representaba a un destacado erudito, artista o noble local de la historia de la ciudad. La sala de recepción data de 1750.
The Town Hall, built between 1439 and 1463 by Sulpitius van Vorst [nl], Jan II Keldermans, and following their death, Matheus de Layens, in a Brabantian late-Gothic style. In the 19th century, 236 statues were added to the exterior, each representing a prominent local scholar, artist or noble from the city's history. The reception hall dates from 1750.
Lovaina (Leuven, Louvain, Löwen) es una ciudad de Bélgica, ubicada en la confluencia de los ríos Dijle y Voer. Y capital de la provincia de Brabante Flamenco, en la región de Flandes.
El principal recurso económico de la villa es la universidad, lo que hace que se le conozca desde el barroco como «ciudad de estudiantes y monjas». Y durante el año académico la mayoría de los habitantes del centro son estudiantes.
La Universidad Católica de Lovaina (KU Leuven), fundada en 1425, es una de las más antiguas del mundo, es la más grande de Bélgica y está entre las mejores del mundo. Según el ranking de Reuters, la KU Leuven es la segunda universidad más innovadora de Europa, solo superada por el Imperial College de Londres.
Lovaina es el lugar de nacimiento de varias cervezas como Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus y Keizersberg. Y tiene varios bares que se enorgullecen de ofrecer una amplia variedad de cervezas locales e internacionales (uno de ellos presume de ofrecer más de 3.000 cervezas diferentes.
Entre sus monumentos cabe destacar la biblioteca de la universidad, incendiada durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y reconstruida con aportaciones de las universidades estadounidenses. La plaza Mayor o «Grote Markt», con un espléndido Ayuntamiento típico de la arquitectura flamenca. La «Oude Markt», o plaza vieja, centro de la noche universitaria.
Especial atención merece el beaterio o begijnhof o Beguinaje, que la Unesco declaró patrimonio de la humanidad y que es en realidad un viejo monasterio habilitado como colegio mayor de estudiantes.
La iglesia de San Pedro (1425-1500) fue acabada por Jan Keldermans y Matheus de Layens. y hay varias pinturas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, pero la más famosa es la gótica Última cena de Dirk Bouts. Aquí se encuentra la tumba del duque Enrique I de Brabante. Su torre, de 50 metros de altura, estaba pensada para alcanzar los 169 metros, pero nunca se completó, alberga un carillón. Y fue incluida en la lista de la Unesco de «Campanarios de Bélgica y Francia» en 1999.
Leuven or Louvain is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of Brussels. It is the eighth largest city in Belgium, with more than 100,244 inhabitants.
Leuven has been a university city since 1425. This makes it the oldest university city in the Low Countries. KU Leuven, the largest Dutch-speaking university in the world and the largest university in the Low Countries (and thus also Belgium's largest university), has its flagship campus in Leuven.
Leuven is the worldwide headquarters of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest beer company in the world and is considered one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in the world. InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire north-eastern part of the town, between the railway station and the canal to Mechelen. Finally, Leuven is the ancestral home of the KBC Group. KBC is one of the leading financial groups in Europe. It is a multi-channel bank-insurance group, with a geographic focus on Belgium and Central Europe, catering mainly to retail clients, SMEs and local midcaps. As one of the largest companies in Belgium and it has its insurance and auto lease HQ in Leuven.
Leuven has a rich beer culture, being the birthplace of several beers such as Stella Artois, Leuvense Tripel, Domus and Keizersberg. It has several bars priding themselves in offering a wide variety of local and international beers, including a bar that claims to offer more than 3000 different beers.
Leuven has a large international student population, mainly concentrated around the city centre. The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven; University of Leuven) has two campuses in the city, with a total of more than 45,000 students as of January 2020. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence in the world, and the largest university in Belgium. There are also a number of hogescholen (universities of applied sciences), such as the UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL).
One of Belgium's conservatories is based in Leuven: the Lemmens Institute, which is described as "Faculty of Music, Performing Arts and Education". It is known for its music therapy education and its wordart-drama education. Kunstencentrum STUK is a cultural centre and venue in the city center for music, theatre, sound art, and dance. Leuven holds a summer rock festival, Marktrock. Leuven has some university orchestras, such as the University Symphony Orchestra (USO), the University Symphonic Band (UHO). and the Arenberg Orchestra.
Radio-Controlled Boat
A radio-controlled boat is a boat controlled remotely with radio control equipment.
Type
Fun sport
Electric sport boats are the most common type of boat amongst casual hobbyists. Hobby-quality boat speed generally start at around 20 mph and go up from there, and can be just as fast or faster than their internal-combustion counterparts, with the latest in lithium polymer and brushless motor technology. Ready-to-run speedboats from AquaCraft, ProBoat and OffshoreElectrics can reach speeds over 40 mph out of the box and with modifications can reach well into the 50-60 mph range. These types of boats are referred to as "hobby grade" and can be found only at hobby shops and retailers. "Toy grade" boats which are obtained through mass consumer retailers, are generally much slower and their maximum speeds are usually less than 15 mph.
Scale
Large scale model warships in San Diego
Scale boats are replicas of full-size boats. They are to scale of the full sized ones. They can be small enough to fit into your hand, or large, trailer-transported models weighing hundreds of pounds. More often than not they are a miniaturized version of a prototype, built using plans and/or photos, although there are variants that utilize freelance designs. An offshoot of this style of marine RC's is radio-controlled submarines.
Sailboats
Sailboats use the power of the wind acting on sails to propel the boat. Model sailboats are typically controlled via a multi-channel radio transmitter in the hands of the operator with a corresponding receiver in the boat. By changing the position of the two joysticks on the transmitter signals are sent over two separate channels on a single radio frequency (assigned to the individual boat/operator). On the boat, the radio receiver is connected to two battery-powered electric motors or servos. Signals from the radio transmitter are interpreted by the radio receiver and translated into instructions to change the position of the servos. One servo controls the position of both main and jib sails together (allowing the sails to be trimmed), the other the position of the rudder (allowing the boat to be steered).
Racing sailboats
The racing of radio-controlled yacht racing is governed by the same International Sailing Federation - Racing Rules of Sailing that are used for full-sized crewed sailing boats (with the inclusion of Appendix E, that introduces special rules to govern the radio-controlled sport). Vane controlled boats sail under their own rules.
There are four international classes of radio sailing boats recognized by the International Radio Sailing Association (IRSA) who are recoignised by the International Sailing Federation are:
(from smallest to largest).
International One Metre (IOM)
The IOM class rules specify a monohull of maximum length 1000 mm, with maximum draught 420 mm. There is a minimum weight of 4000 g, which makes homebuilding of competitive boats possible. The IOM has three one-design rigs. To keep costs down, hull materials are restricted to either wood or glassfiber, while masts and booms are restricted to either aluminium or wood. (International One Metre Class Association)
International Marblehead
A Marblehead has a maximum length of 1290 mm and a maximum draught of ca 700 mm, but no minimum displacement. Up to six rigs are allowed, the tallest being about 2200 mm.
International Ten Rater
International A Class (A), the largest of the international radio sailing classes.
Other classes of international significance include the CR-914 the RC Laser, the Micro Magic, and the RG-65.[citation needed] The Bottle Boat is a low-cost alternative to these classes. Largely constructed from waste items (bin bags for sails and soft drink bottles for the body), it represents an environmentally friendly entry to the sport.
Racing power boats
There are dozens of types and classes of race boats. They are mainly organised by engine type and hull type.
Race: Circuit and Straight line is established at National and International levels
Engine: Electric, Glow Plug, Flash Steam and Gas (petrol)
Hull: Mono, Hydro, Cat, Outrigger and Eco (self righting jelly mold shape)
Classes are further divided by battery type and count, Engine CC, Deep V Mono, Stepped Mono, sub surface and surface piercing prop's etc.
Power boats are typically Fast electric or internal combustion, (ignition engine or glow plug R/C engine based) and some are steam powered (conventional type, and also flash steam). (At one time some boats used engines working on the compression ignition principle. These were not diesels in the true sense of the word but the modelling fraternity frequently referred to them as such. A few enthusiasts still operate such engines.) The power is commonly used to rotate a submerged propeller, aircraft propeller or jet which in turn provide the thrust to move the craft. Typically power boats have two controls, rudder, outboard motor or stern drive and throttle control. Powered scale boats will often have additional remote-controlled functions to improve realism, e.g. sounding fog horns, rotating radar antennae etc. Some of the more sophisticated powered racing boats may also have additional remote-controlled functions.
These may include remote mixture control allowing the driver to optimise the fuel/air mixture during a race. Another function occasionally implemented for racing boats using a surface piercing propeller is remote control of depth or angle of thrust. There are three main types of power boat. RTR(ready-to-run), ARTR(almost-ready-to-run), and kit versions are available. All thoroughbred racing boats are made from kits and the builders add their own gear and radio.
Radio-controlled racing boats are designed for maximum speed and maneuverability. Various styles of racing include circuits of different shapes laid out on the water with buoys. The most common courses are the 1/6-mile oval that consists of 330-foot straight sections followed by 70-foot-diameter turns. The International Model Power Boat Association (IMPBA), North American Model Boat Association (NAMBA) and Offshore Model Racing Association (OMRA) have specific rules and regulations to address the course, race rules, and formats.
In addition to oval racing there are straightaway (SAW) racing. This is a contest to see how fast you can make the boat go in a straight line. Timed events are held where the boats need to go through a starting light and an ending light. The speed is calculated by the timed difference from start to stop vs the length between the lights. Again IMPBA and NAMBA rules apply.
Some enthusiasts race in the sea, controlling their craft from a pursuing boat known as a "chase boat". These courses will usually be a few miles long and the competition is judged against the clock to find the fastest in class. Within the various styles of racing there will be a number of classes depending upon engine size and type. Ocean and river going boats tend to be powered by internal combustion engines. Sprint Type races and electric races are usually held on calmer lake waters.
Electric boats for racing are capable of reaching speeds of more than 50 mph and run times of around 10 minutes. Electric boats also hold the 100-yard sprint record against rival internal combustion powerplants since 2000.
Tethered racing and free-running craft were popular prior to the advent of cheap radio control. The speeds of tethered racing vehicles are higher than 160 mph for boats and 230 mph for cars, but these craft bear little resemblance to real-world vehicles, and could not obtain anywhere near those speeds if converted to radio control.
Combat
IJN Kagero stern damage
A competitive offshoot of the radio control model warships hobby that involves the firing of projectiles, usually propelled by gas, at opposing ships to sink or damage them. Models are usually simplified to facilitate repair. Ships are fitted with bilge pumps; bb, 3/16", 7/32" or 1/4" weapons that fire ball bearings. The ship's hull plating is balsa to keep the force required to penetrate down to safe levels, by Rules, they are designed to be sinkable and in fact they do on a regular basis.
Tugboats
2005 Bellevue,WA Regatta, Gary King's Tiger Sun in the starting dock.
Scale model tug boats are often built to include scale drive systems. They use standard propellers and rudder(s), Becker rudders, Kort nozzles, steerable kort nozzles, Z-drives or Voith-Schneider cycloidial drives. Clubs will often host maneuvering competitions where participants are tasked to run their boats in the most realistic manner possible. This can be judged with or without a "tow" or barge attached.
Model Tug boats were often used for filming on three shows. TUGS, Thomas & Friends and Theodore Tugboat in which they had moving eyes and as for TUGS moving heads.
[Credit: en.wikipedia.org/]
A DIY Open Baffle multi-channel DSP loudspeaker, the OB1. This speaker uses a 12" woofer 4" midrange and 1" Aluminum dome tweeter.
A DIY Open Baffle multi-channel DSP loudspeaker, the OB1. This speaker uses a 12" woofer 4" midrange and 1" Aluminum dome tweeter.
Just found out today that this is a part of of artist Zak Rutledge's Work "Dream Lab. Arbitrary Transmissions. Jan 26 2012.
Art installation displayed in the window of The Agency Gallery and Performance Space in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A DIY Open Baffle multi-channel DSP loudspeaker, the OB1. This speaker uses a 12" woofer 4" midrange and 1" Aluminum dome tweeter.
This image was captured during my Palm Beach Photographic Workshops Burma workshop. with a Nikon D-200 camera modified for infrared. Enhanced color conversion done by LifePixel with a 24-120 mm VR II Nanocoated lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS5 using a combination of NiK Silverefex 2.0 and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
he camera conversion was done by lifepixel. Enhanced Color Filter Their URL is www.lifepixel.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=158
© Vincent Versace 2011
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?