Gents,

Here's another desktop background for stickman!

JRT,

Still no wheels. I'm looking at some of 'J's curtain rings. I wonder if two will be missed? You can bet they will be...

All

The discussion of what construction materials to use on the Fokker is facinating. JR2 I know and perhaps Dux as well have had experience with modeling. I never really got into modeling stuff and have no background to draw from so it is interesting to see how you chaps approach construction issues. I cant wait to see pics of that bird upon completion.

Dux, you may have mentioned it before but where do you live relative to these pics? If this is what you see each day from a window or porch I must say you have a bit of heaven there. Such a peaceful land. Here in Maryland we have very similar farm country but it is further west from where we live. We though, are fortunate to live on the Magothy River which for boatnicks like us is a treasure as well.

Folks,

Dux:

Derbyshire seems to have more than 3 pleasant days during the year after all. Truly you live in a garden spot, much like the rural western areas of our own state. That is an area I love and have tramped about many times over the years. I prefer it even to our beautiful beaches. Many is the time we pitched a tent and with small shovel in hand squatted behind a suitable bush and...er... communed with nature.

I'd take a chance on nicking one of those rings if I were you. Tie the curtain back up with an old shoe lace or a handy bit of string. I'd bet you can live another week or two at least before Lady "J" notices what you've done and terminates you current reincarnation. Take a chance pal. Who knows you might come back as Brittany Spear's new boy friend...

SNAFU:
It has been kind of you not to mention that our Panthers were defeated by the Sea-hawks last week. I will not be going to the Super Bowl to watch the game in person. Actually if the Panthers had won I would not be going either....

I have a long history of building scale models. When I was eight years of age I received a huge multi-model kit for Christmas. My first encounter with polystyrene glue and Monogram kits was a delight. That first kit was a perfect way to start. There was a P51-D, a MiG 17, a FW-190, and a Panther jet all in one huge kit. I was hooked.

Since then I have built planes, rockets, cars and ships. Some from kits, some from scratch. I graduated from plastic kits to balsa flying models and from there to small rubber band flying models to large scale R/C models. It was all great fun but I have not built anything since our son left home.

I am really enjoying albeit vicariously Dux building his Fokker. We should have pictures any day now.... right Dux?

No one can tell you better than Dux SNAFU but as I understand it he lives in Combs in the Peak district of lovely Derbyshire. Here is a website that may be of help until Dux can elaborate further.

http://www.buxtononline.net/Buxton-Onlin...98/outdoor2.htm

SNAFU,

This view and some of the earlier ones are just a few minutes walk away from our house. While I consider my self fortunate to be spending my retirement years in this area, I envy you living by a river.

Living somewhere near to or by the sea would be O.K. with me. The coastal area of west Anglesea has always been very attractive to me.

JRT,

I will just have to photograph the Fokker without tyres! Pictures should be up in a day or two...

All,

Dux, what a great place to retire! Your comments concerning living near a river made me think of the eastern shore of Maryland which is between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. There, we have farm land right to the waters edge on rivers including the Chester and Choptank. Lovely country that provides the best of both the worlds we've been talking about with lovely farms, fields running right along the rivers. The only problem there is that the runoff from chemicals and even manure on the farms is causing health issues for the Bay's inhabitants.

We SNAFU's may just retire to that area some day though for us that time is a long way off.

JR2, I knew you had spend a lot of time modeling planes and other stuff. I'm surpised given your substancial creative and artist's mind that you do not continue to build models and such. You mentioned rockets. I did do some rocketeering in younger days. I loved to build the multiple staged rockets and launch them toward the heavens. I felt there was a little Goddard in me somewhere. The only modeling I do these days is to repair broken parts of the girls doll houses and furnishings. But that's ok. It makes them happy and that in turn makes me happy.

Folks,

Looks like we all live in lovely, somewhat rural places. I am within easy walking distance of the Tar River. The river got its name from the tar and pitch rendered for naval stores by our early settlers. The river was the major method of transporting these goods. So much was the demand for pine tree products that the long leaf pine forest were cut down and that tree was almost made extinct. It only exists now in a few areas like the Sandhills (Pinehurst famous for golfing is in that area).

I have been down with a nasty intestinal virus these past few days. Finally no fever and I am feeling slightly better today but not yet up to par.

Medical advice is to drink plenty of fluids and stay in bed. It can't be done fellows. I can get the fluids down OK but no way I could stay in bed. In spite of not following the advice I've gotten quite a bit of healthful exercise running from sick bed to bathroom once or twice an hour.

My first rocket was probably an empty hair spray can, bottom carefully removed with a can opener, with an M-80 in it. The can was half submerged in a coffee can of water. You could get an apogee well above the tree tops. I'm lucky to be alive.

Then I sent off for a kit from Wisconsin and built a solid fuel rocket that was mainly just a stiff fiberboard tube closed by a plug of clay at both ends. It was filled with fast burning fuse material and a small hole was drilled in the bottom plug for a nozzle to allow the gasses to escape. There was a chamber at the top for a parachute. Matchheads eventually set off by the main charge gasses were used in a clever way to pop out the nosecone and deploy the chute. Rather crude but exciting in the late fifties.

Next I built many of the Estes kits when they came on the market in the sixties. We had a lot of fun with those especially the multi-stage models and the RockCam that took pictures. Loads of fun that carried well into adulthood and was passed along to our son.

Dux:
We look forward to those wheeless pix.

Gents,

I often recall an abortive mod to a Keil Kraft Mig 15 which I built eons ago. It was intended to be powered by a Jetex propellant but instead I lined the inner fuselage with thoroughly inadequate cigarette packet silver foil and installed a cheapo firework rocket (less stick) somewhere at centre fuselage.

I lit the touch paper and depatched the model with all due haste at the first sign of ignition.
The Mig, tail heavy, zoomed for the heavens and at the top of the climb flames burst through the fuselage and the heavily doped airframe descended wraithed in sheets of fire with the still attached rocket blasting away in all directions. It reached the ground in many fiery pieces and a few seconds later there was a bloody great explosion that dispersed anything that was left - including green, yellow and red coloured balls.

What a complete balls-up. It had not occured to me that the rocket would explode when almost exhausted.

JRT,

Home made rockets? It's a wonder you didn't immolate yourself!!

All,

Old Dux, what a splendid description of your expiremental Mig's first and I take it, last flight. I could picture the scene keenly.

JR2, M80's huh!

I never used them for much else but blowing the crap out of peoples mailboxes in the dead of night. Not very responsible or neighborly but bored kids are not very bright sometimes.

Gentlemen,

Here's a poser for you. I am open to any suggestions.

Intent on frightening myself to death I have attempted to load SILENT HILL 4 by Konami.
The CD will not autorun and the drive icon will not show drive contents. It churns away for a few seconds then the green light goes out and that is it!
The disc is O.K. because it will autoload on a different PC, and any other disc I have tried on mine will also run so the drive must be alright. So why won't it load??? Is this particular game searching for something which is not on my hard drive?

This is a fairly new game release and my system is XP.

I hope JRT is feeling a bit better and that bug is in full retreat.

All,

Dux, Silent Hill 4

Are you using a CD ROM drive or a DVD drive? I had this problem with an Activision game disk. The disk was a CD ROM and would not work in my DVD drive although all CD ROM's should work with the DVD drive. Activision later admitted the problem but of course never did anything about it.

Just a thought mate!