Model Mondays: Colonial Viper

For today's Model Mondays, we're going to step back to the 1970's, an era of bad hair and campy sci-fi TV shows, and even some campy sci-fi with actors who had bad hair.  In this case, I am talking about one show that combined both of these qualities: Battlestar Galactica.

I won't go into the whole story of the show--suffice it to say that it was a great idea with (for the most part) decent special effects and a good story, but it got tripped up somewhere in the first season and, well, didn't really go anywhere.  But it left us with some EXCELLENT new sci-fi ships to drool over.  (Battlestar Galactica would be remade in 2003 for the Sci-Fi Channel, and if you haven't watched it, please do so--it is quite possibly one of the best shows ever made. Period.)

So today we will look at my build of the Colonial Viper, which was the fighter craft used by the Colonial fleet throughout the show.  Here's what it looked like on TV:

And here is my version:

The main color for the craft, a light gray, was painted on using an airbrush.  Everything else was done by hand, to include the orange striping.  I used about an entire roll of scotch tape marking the stripes off.  But, I think the outcome was worth it.

I tried a couple of new techniques with this model.  The panel lines were drawn in with a pencil--after putting the paint onto the model they were very difficult to see, so I went over them several times with a drafting pencil.  Also, since the Viper was designed to fly both in space and in atmospheric conditions, I dirtied up the panel edges and the engine sections to show exhaust/oil/fuel stains over the skin of the craft.  This was accomplished mostly with black chalk--I would rub my finger on the chalk, and then smear it down the side of the model in the direction the air would flow if it was in flight.  I also gave the engine parts in the rear of the craft a pretty heavy black wash (a "wash" is accomplished by running thinned-down paint over a model's surface, so it gets into the cracks and crevices and brings out detail--it is also a good technique for simulating stains).  For a little added realism (on a craft that doesn't exist in the real world--I know), I used a hobby knife and sandpaper to chip the paint around the panel lines where the pilot or crew might have to remove the panels to repair the systems underneath.

The model is about 12-14 inches long, from the nose to the tail.  It is in 1/32 scale.

Comments are always welcome--enjoy the pictures!

TGIF, people!

Bye Bye Borders

So, due to financial mishaps and pressures that go back years, Borders bookstore is closing.  We are very upset about this.  We know that we're a million years behind the times, and when it comes to books we stubbornly drag our feet and insist on ordering the old fashioned way - you know, by going to a store, perusing the aisles, picking up books, turning them over in our hands, reading the inside flaps, sipping our coffee, etc.  And yes, we know we're old fashioned and that times are changing and anyone in America with even the teensiest bit of forethought could see this coming down 5th Avenue.

But it's still sad.

Online bookstores are fine, but they lack the exploration factor.  Several of the books in our library were found while we were looking around for other books.  Web pages can recommend books, and often they nail it, but it's just not the same.

We are literally being forced into the 21st century.  At this rate, we're going to have to find the kindle, then find the charger, then track down the appropriate passwords....then read a book that involves clicking instead of flipping.  O. M. G.

Eye Candy

I don't know if anyone else could use a little pick-me-up today, but I sure could.  It's a CLASSIC Monday.  If, based on the title, you were expecting some bikini-clad beauties or pool boys lounging around, I hate to disappoint.  Instead, here are some plant pics from Hawaii.  They're like eye candy to me.  Enjoy!

Our Father Abraham

Lately I've been going through Genesis one chapter at a time.  I'm only up to Chapter 12.  In just twelve chapters, the earth (and heavens and everything) has been created.  Then destroyed.  Then re-populated by Noah's sons.  At the end of Chapter 11, the reader is briefly introduced to Abraham (then known as Abram) and his little family.

I'm no Biblical scholar, but Abraham is a big huge deal.  He's the father of both Judaism and Christianity.  There was something about him that caused God to talk to him and deal with him on a personal level.  The first thing said directly about Abraham in Chapter 12 is by God himself:  "Leave your country, your people and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you."  Then God proceeds to say a blessing over him, promising to make him into a great nation, to use him to bless countless people over all the earth.

There was something about this guy.  He did just what he was told; he got up, took some of his peeps, and left.  In those times, that was no small thing.  In a collective society like that, one's identity, security, comfort, and future is all wrapped up in the community.  The community values harmony and strives to maintain it, thereby helping all the individual members.  To just leave that kind of setup, without knowing where you're going, is a real sign of faith.  That would be like God saying to someone today, "Leave your job, leave your home, leave your family and your savings account, your whole American dream and go to the land I will show you."

Throughout Abraham's journey, he stops at various places, the Lord appears to him and makes more promises, and he builds alters in praise of the Lord.  This seems to be a tight relationship they've got going.  Then he finds himself in the midst of a bad famine, and decides to go to Egypt to find food.  Before entering Egypt, this great man of God turns to his wife and says, in a nutshell, "They're going to see how beautiful you are, and if they find out you're my wife, they'll kill me but they'll let you live.  So just tell them you're my sister."

Say what??

It doesn't record her response.

Was she scared?  Was she like, "Um, aren't we doing all this because of God??  Do you realize you're basically throwing me under the bus here?"

We don't know.  But we do know she lied, and got Pharaoh's attention in a serious way, in a rated NC-17 kind of way, and he rewarded Abraham for her.  He gave him all kinds of things and made him a wealthy man.  Then all hell broke loose, everyone got sick, Pharaoh found out the truth and yelled at Abraham and kicked him and his peeps out of the country.

Now, we know how the story goes.  Abraham goes on to become the father of our faith.  He grows so close to God that by the end, he's willing to sacrifice anything for Him.  But in this chapter we see a man who loves God enough to become a vagrant in a wide, scary world, but freaks out over a new situation and loses his faith in a moment.  Surely in his heart of hearts he knew that a God who made all those lofty promises to him isn't going to let him get canned in Egypt.  Where did his faith go?

Although I don't agree with what he did I'm so glad this was included in the book.  I do this all the time.  Where does my faith go?  Why can it be so strong in the midst of overwhelming events, but so tiny when faced with a new situation?  I believe accounts like this, more than many other things in the Bible, illustrate God's great patience.  He's in it for the long-haul, and as Timothy Keller says, God has the worst spouse in the history of the world (me, us).  But he won't give up.  By the time he's finished, maybe I'll be a woman of great faith, too.

TGIF, people!

Does my hare look ok?

It's not ours, but it really is a rabbit.  Oh, I love it!

I Heart My Dentist's Office

I've been going to the same dentist for going on six years.  Let's just say that with my dental issues, I play a significant part in keeping them up and running.  There's no shortage of business here.  Over the years, I've enjoyed chit chatting with their receptionist.  She's incredibly friendly and always makes you feel like you've been buds for life.  Or maybe it's my VIP status - maybe they'll name the building after me.

I was in there earlier this week and was chatting it up with her.  We were talking about summer vacations and she asked if I'd been anywhere interesting, so I told her about the Hawaii trip.  Then I told her it was for our anniversary - which prompted the whole, "how many years" question.  When I said 10, her eyebrows shot up and she goes, "Whoa!  Are you serious?  I thought you just got out of college!"

God bless my dentist's office.  The whole staff.

Model Mondays

So this is the start of a little project on the blog that I'm going to call "Model Mondays".  I have been a model builder off and on for most of my life.  Nothing fancy, mostly just plain old off-the-shelf plastic model kits.  When I was a kid, I was interested mostly in military aircraft, and I did a few WWII ships as well.  Didn't do much model building in college, for obvious reasons, and I only got back into it within the last few years.  My modeling interests are now mostly science fiction.

My goal here is to share my work with you, our dear readers, and I'm hoping that it will motivate me to get more of my kits finished.

With that in mind, here is the first subject for "Model Mondays":  the Leman Russ tank from the Warhammer 40,000 table-top miniature wargame.  The Leman Russ is the main battle tank for the Imperial Guard.

I painted this vehicle completely by hand, before I had an airbrush.  This was the first model on which I attempted detail work, like scratched paint, mud/oil stains, etc.  For reference purposes, the length of tread at the bottom of the tank--the part actually in contact with the table--is about 4 inches, so it isn't a very big model.

I hope you enjoy the pics.  Comments are always welcome!

Movin' on up

This weekend we helped our peeps move into a brand new house.  And when I say helped, I mean that G schlepped furniture, unloaded it, helped move it around, etc. while I sat on their heavenly couch and caught up with A Peep.  I also crammed down fried chicken, baked beans and deviled eggs from their incredible lunch spread.  I do what I can, people.

We're happy for the peeps because their new house is about 500 times bigger and nicer than their old one, and it has plenty of space for their growing family.  And of course for us when we come to visit.  G was eyeing all the open space and making loaded comments about his remote controlled helicopter.  We're just sayin.

TGIF, people!

That's it. I'm outta here.

Random Recommendations

Here are some summer recommendations, in no particular order.  Five are from the missus and five are from the mister.  I'm sure it'll be practically impossible to figure out who's recommending what...

Faith

"...I don't think that miracles ever confound a realist.  Nor is it miracles that bring a realist to religion.  If he is an unbeliever, a true realist will always find the strength and ability not to believe in a miracle, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact, he will rather disbelieve his own senses than accept that fact.

Or he may concede the fact and explain it away as a natural phenomenon until then unknown.  In a realist, it is not miracles that generate faith, but faith that generates miracles.  Once a realist becomes a believer, however, his very realism will make him accept the existence of miracles.

The apostle Thomas said he would not believe until he saw, and when he saw, he said: "My Lord and my God!"  Was it a miracle that made him believe?  Most likely not.  He believed only because he wanted to believe, and possibly he already believed in the secret recesses of his being while he was saying, "Except that I shall see, I shall not believe."

(Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)

TGIF, people!

The Urge to Purge

Aren't we industrious on the blog this week?  And about such captivating topics as water heaters, basements, junk removal...If we're this interesting in the virtual world, just imagine how great we are in real life!  Like a barrel of monkeys, let me tell ya.  Organized, disciplined, no-nonsense monkeys.  Life is one big party in our house.

The forced purge of the basement, although I have complained about it and will continue to do so, has been a blessing.  As I mentioned, one of our OCD goals for the year was to clean it out anyway.  But I had wanted to bring up the topic of deeper purging with you peeps - the need to completely declutter things.  Ever since the beginning of 2011, we have addressed the decluttering on and off.  We'll go through a closet here, a cabinet there.  Now that we're a good six months into it, I have some observations to share:

• I want a simpler life, and I enjoy getting rid of stuff we haven't used, looked at, or thought about in years.  It may not be this way for everyone, but for me there is something cathartic about sorting through things and letting them go.  I have no need to fill the empty space.  I have no desire to replace what is gone, because I don't miss it.  It's almost as if I'm making space for something more important, metaphysically speaking.  The level of...compulsion...I feel about getting rid of the unnecessary is almost like a conviction.  Which makes me wonder...

• For those of you still reading after that first bullet point, I've also discovered that there's a particular method of sifting through things that works for us.  We go through things multiple times.  I highly recommend this for those of you looking to downsize, give to the needy, or who move often.  We'll go through our closets and get rid of clothes we haven't worn in a year or more.  This will generate a bag or two for goodwill.  About 2 months later, we'll repeat the process.  Oddly enough, we still produce 2-3 bags!  And we're not shopaholics - we're not going crazy replacing our clothes or anything.  We've used this process for the library & the kitchen, and in the future (before January, people!) we'll use it in the laundry room, the garage and - LORD help me - the rest of the basement.

• We're not hoarders or anything.  I think what's happened to us is a result of moving around and accumulating stuff during the first few years of our marriage, then settling down into one place and letting it all spread out, then get pushed into corners, and eventually covered up by other stuff since there's no pressing reason to sort through it all. You're not going to flip on the TV and see a documentary about us.  Well, if you do, I can guarantee it won't be about our possessions. 

This is sooooo not us:

In light of the many times that I've had to move around and urgently sort through things while pulling my hair out and whining incessantly, this current experience is downright enjoyable.

Yumminess

In order to get my mind off of our basement issues, and all the work that is lurking for us down there, I will focus on food.  It occurs to me that I promised a food post from our recent vacation and never delivered.  Since I am a woman of my word, here we go.

Obviously, the pineapple is amazing.  It's a bit like that shrimp scene from Forest Gump.  There's pineapple wine; pineapple jelly; pineapple ice cream; pineapple salsa; pineapple frothy drinks; pineapple lotion, body wash, perfume, shirts, quilts, home decor...you get the idea.  But on a less cynical note, the first time I ate fresh pineapple there (and other tropical fruits as well), it was like I had never really tasted them before.  It was like all the other fruit I had previously eaten was only a stale imitation of the real thing.

If you're the kind of person who can dig some fried rice and beer for breakfast, then this next food is for you!  It's called Spam Musubi (moo-soo-bee) and it is fabulous, my friends.  Spam is Hawaii's culinary treasure so it's in everything, but I discovered this specific treat years ago.  It's rice, japanese spices, fried spam (an egg is optional), wrapped in seaweed.  Y-E-S.  When we decided to go back to Hawaii for a vacation, G mentioned the shark cage, but the first thing I thought of was the delectable Spam Musubi.

Back to fruit for a sec:  One of G's faves is the coconut pancake.  Complete with fresh shaved coconut on top and fresh coconut syrup on the side.  If you're a sweets person (or if you're like my BFJ and you deny being a sweets person but in reality you're a sweets fanatic) then this is the breakfast of champions for you.  Personally, I can't take it.  Visions of the Korean dental staff crawling around in my mouth for hours on end - they deter me.

If you've known us for more than, say, 3 minutes, then you know that Sonic holds a special place in our hearts.  Well, there are no Sonics in Hawaii, but there is Jamba Juice, which is a close second!  Please note that by the time I thought to take this picture, my cup was empty.  

Another beverage of choice is guava juice.  The fresh stuff is the best, but I'll throw down one of these any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  One of my Hawaiian students once tried to convince me that Hawaiian punch was only avaiable in Hawaii.  We got into like an hour-long discussion about how, actually, I grew up on the mainland where Hawaiian punch was readily-available.  I never convinced him.  But this yumminess actually isn't available here.  I pine for it.



Another coconut flavored treat is called Haupia (HO-pee-yuh).  It's like thick coconut custard that they use as pie filling.  All I'm sayin' is O-M-G it is tasty.  This is a quick pic of a chocolate haupia pie before we devoured it like locusts.

There's a place on the North Shore called Kua'Aina burgers that makes tasty burgers as big as your face.  I never slowed down long enough to take a picture; this is the only remnant I have.



One thing I don't have a pic of is Kona coffee.  People.  You have not tasted coffee until you've tasted it there.  Buying kona stuff here is just not the same.  However, I do have a pic of kalua coffee ice cream tastiness.  It didn't last long, let me tell you.

Other Hawaiian treats that I love but are not pictured here are:

• Seared ahi.  Yes, yes and yes.
• Macadamia nuts, or mac nuts as we affectionately refer to them.  Their flavors are also reminiscent of Bubba Gump's shrimp scene.  If you can think of a flavor, they've got it.  Our favorites are the dark chocolate covered ones, the cinnamon covered ones, and the Maui onion and garlic ones.
• Fresh mahi mahi.
• Did I mention kona coffee?  And fresh guava juice?
• Papayas and lime are to die for.
• Shave ice and more shave ice.  Chased down with shave ice.
• Kalua pig.  I could eat it for every meal and die a happy woman.

Put these on your To Eat list for the next time you're in da islands.  You can thank me later.  :)