Pilot's Log

A very long time ago, I received a bunch of built-up 1/72 airplane models--including FIVE F4U Corsairs.  (One Airfix, two Heller [now SMER] and two old-production Revell, to be specific.)  They were all in bad shape and poorly built to begin with, so I stripped the paint off, carefully disassembled them and started looking for alternative parts.

My search is a little more serious now.

If High Planes did a detailling set for F4U-1(A), F4U-1D, F4U-1C and/or FG-1D, I'd be all over them.  As it is, I may just get some F4U-5N sets from them, "impossible variant" be darned.

FP

A research thread that started with a fellow on Facebook posting the pictures of an old Doyusha car model he'd just bought last week has led me in a bunch of directions that appealed to my weirdness.

One such place was the particulars of my sister's first car, a Datsun 1200 (a.k.a. Nissan Sunny).  At the time it was built it was the cheapest new car available in the States...and I sort of wonder what manufacturer and model has that title now.

After that, it led me to the story of Isuzu cars in America--which ended (among other places) with the Impulse and the Geo Storm.  For years I saw Storms parked in the backs of people's yards and was weirdly attracted.  Now I know why--they're four-fifths of the way to being LOTUSES.  I wonder now how much work it would entail to fit a Storm with the same kind of Lotus suspension that was optional on Impulses--and what modern Lotus powerplant would work in the engine bay.

As I climb the first hill along my regular hike, both sides of the path are dominated by a plant with glossy, three-lobed leaves. They're so exuberant and cheerful, I'm tempted to caress them, even rub my face in their bright greenery. But I refrain, because they are poison oak. One touch would cause my skin to break out in an inflamed rash that would last for days. I encourage you, too, to forgo contact with any influence in your own sphere that is metaphorically equivalent to the alluring leaves of the poison oak.

I am now in possession of a gift card for my favorite hobby store.  But I'm in perhaps the roughest stages of rumination as to whether I should buy something off the shelves now or wait for a bargain to come along.  It is wonderful and horrible all at once.

Continuing to imagineer the Gundam RedLegger, and threw myself a hurdle I didn't need.  A couple years ago, B-Club had a series of resin Gundam bust kits (as linked in a previous post) and I was particularly interested in the one for the GP04 Gerbera.  While Gundam fans know that the GP04 eventually became the Gerbera Tetra in 0083, the bust design appears to have a lot more in common with the Alex Gundam of 0080--with some improvements that aren't seen in other Gundam family designs.  So it lent itself very well to my project--if I could get one and if it was hardware compatible with the pieces I already had or could get.

And I can't find one for sale...on any side of the Rim.

My alternatives in the same product line include the Prototype Zeta #1 and the GP00 Blossom, but I'm not as excited about either.  The Blossom isn't much different from the Zephranthes/Stamen family which followed it, and the Prototype Zeta just looks too strange and implausible.

My more practical side is trying to tell me to just build what I already have.  It may come to that.

FP

http://k-hobby.com/shop/item/1144-%E3%83%97%E3%83%AD%E3%83%88%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A4%E3%83%97z%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0%E3%80%80%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%83%A2%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB/

http://k-hobby.com/shop/item/1144-rx-78-%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0-gp-04%E3%80%80%E3%83%90%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%83%A2%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB/

http://k-hobby.com/shop/item/c-o-v-e-r-kit-7%E3%80%801144-hguc-%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0gp-01-fb%E7%94%A8-%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A3%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%82%AD%E3%83%83%E3%83%88/

B-Club garage kits are vanishing from the market, as the division of Bandai stopped putting out new products two years ago and shops are selling off their remaining stock.  It's becoming a chase for me...even though I expect I can't afford to get the ones I want that are still available.

I won a $50 gift card for Amazon.com in a sweepstakes over the weekend, and I'm looking forward to spending it.

Because of the event, I decided to look at a bunch of quasi-gift cards I received from car dealerships for GoShoppingMall.com and selectyourgifts.com (which are one and the same company!) that I've had for years.  They're still "good" because I hadn't "spent" them.

The business model of American Sales Industries is kind of hard to grasp.  You can't exactly buy direct from them like a normal retailer...you have to have been issued a prize card, usually from a car dealership sales event or some other such promotion.  The dollar amount shown on the card doesn't mean an actual cash value: it's quasi-credit for inflated prices on the catalog of items, whose actual retail value matches the "shipping and handling" fees, which the consumer has to pay out of pocket (the prize amount then only sets a limit on what you can buy, but doesn't go towards buying anything!).  So to actually get "$500" of use out of a prize card, you'd have to spend probably $50 to $100 of real money yourself.

So what's in the catalog?  Basically the same kind of stuff you find in the tourist-trap stores like Golden Eagle and Lily's...but not as many of them.  Steak knives.  Travel mugs.  Little tool sets you can keep in your car.  Chintzy jewelery and cheap watches. Tote bags and gunny sacks.  Obsolete electronics and software.

In theory, my "$1550" in collected quasi-credit would get me 38 of their RC model cars.  But I'd have to spend about $645 in real money for the shipping and handling.  That's why I haven't used the cards yet.

A couple weeks ago, on my way to the scale model club meeting in Knoxville, I stopped at a BP station for a fill-up and noticed that there was a crew at work painting the pump barriers and the streetlight posts.  They were cutting down the plastic temporary signs these places always have ("Play The Lottery Here" or "Special On Pepsi") and throwing them in the dumpster in the back corner of the property.

I'd seriously thought to go retrieve the signage, as the plastic material is good for scratchbuilding scale models.  But I had a meeting to go to, and the night was cold, and even on my way back to the house I mulled it over more and came to the same conclusions.  It would probably be easier for me just to look up a signmaker and either ask for surplus pieces or buy the raw material through that channel.

I went past the place today.  It's no longer a BP.  I couldn't take their plastic then; now they can't take MY plastic.

Plastic isn't the future anymore.  It's the now.

FP