The Rocketeer Fixation

I've been unable to break free of the suck.

Weeks now.

I keep telling myself it has to end soon.

An interesting article on the poor taking over an abandoned  

 40 story apartment building construction fail in Venezuela.

They have built their own community, complete with shops, services and

small apartments amid the rubble of incomplete construction.

Some walking up 20 floors to their makeshift apartments.

The world William Gibson told us was coming

My first thought while reading was that we are now

living in William Gibson's brain.

This is world he warned us was coming.
Gibson has a new fiction book out in May-The Peripheral--
 I have The Peripheral pre-ordered and am desperately looking forward
to reading it.
It is the first book in a long long time i have been anxious to get.

My current aircraft project:

1:72 Airfix Grumman j2f-6 float plane.

A very diesel punk, bi-wing design--first produced in 1936 as

a naval/coast guard, search and rescue--cargo--exploration aircraft. 

One of it's most interesting features is a

two level cockpit with a passenger compartment

in the lower hull.

The Grumman j2f-6 was in use up until the early 1950's.

It was a strong, versatile, useful, peaceful aircraft. 

This model in 1:72 scale makes up into a very small model

which i am planning on displaying on a runway base of metal plating.

I am currently in the process of painting the model in the pre-war flat-white, color scheme

as displayed by the photo above.

The Rocketeer is my all time favorite Movie.

This is the film i would take to a desert island.

The Rocketeer has everything i require to fulfill the bizarre visual life in my head.

Nazi's--airships, retro-nouveau styling displayed

in/on everything from the architecture to guns to clothes to cars to aircraft to 

last but not least the sign painting.

In the depths of final stages of rebuilding my nerd cave

I ordered an original  Rocketeer  poster from the graphic novels,

as shown below to hang on the wall.

There just are not enough idiots, such as myself,

to make the Rocketeer film a recognized classic.

Maybe it is better that way.

"The Empires of the future,

are the Empires of the mind."

Winston Churchill

1/72 Handley Page 0/400

Weekus Horriblous

To invent a new phrase in Latin.

I am absolutely resolved that the human insanity of the past two

weeks, i have been experiencing,

 is the direct result of the alignment of

 planets during April.

I can only hope that there will be an improvement

in my interaction with the world as

time passes, the planets rotate out of this alignment

and as a result, humans settle the fuck down.

Work has been true madness during this recent astrological abnormality,
Producing minute by minute leaps from one insane demand to another.

Commuting has been a daily rerun of Mad Max.

The totality of result has left me feeling like a animal caught

in society's madness headlights.

Just in case there is a continued human strangeness response next week,

I took a couple of days off next as back-up.

 In case the world decides to rotate on

under the insanity protocols.

I am not immune to the recent planetary insanity.

I have been mentally back and forth, forth and back, as to my next 

aircraft modeling project for display in the nerd cave.

I have several kits in stock--but i could just not get inspired.

Inspiration arrived in the form of ordering the WW1, English,1:72 Handley Page 0/400 bomber, and a World War One, 1/72 British flying corps figure set to enhance it.

This kit makes into a very large model even in 1:72 scale as evidenced above
compared to a single seat 1:72 scale WW1 fighter.

The HP 0/400 was one of the largest aircraft produced in World War One.

The name, Handley Page, in fact became the standard term, post World War One,

for any super large aircraft. 

At the end of the war, some of the surviving 0/400 air frames

were transformed into primitive airliners.

Super large aircraft did not reappear as a viable design concept again

until mid World War Two.

In constructing this model a process i will have to learn is how 

to create the guide wiring technology that was used during this time frame
 that supports the bi-level wings.
This is a necessity and quite the complication.

I am planning on using guitar string and super glue.

I should receive this kit Tuesday and it is the perfect project 
to initiate on my upcoming time off.
I'll post photo's of the process and the model under construction. 

I did complete the XB-35 project this weekend by
detailing the tarmac base & constructing and painting
1/72 scale support figures and vehicles for display.

I have done zero reading these past couple of weeks.
The mood for it, just hasn't been correct.
Films at the moment also appear to be a dead zone.
Nothing of interest on the movie horizon.
This may be actually a good thing allowing for the completion of
other projects--as compared to passively viewing and reading.

" I like long walks, especially when they are taken by

people who annoy me."

Fred Allen

1:72 XB-35 finished

I hereby  declare my 1:72 XB-35 model completed...

I kept the aircraft a flat gray, rather than an aluminum color--

I wanted it more stealth like--more dieselpunk,

 it was, after-all, the father of today's B-2 bomber.

I also refrained from adding gun turrets.

It is after all my artistic interpretation of the XB-35 and 

not intended as a direct historic comparison.

I may add 1:72 ground crew and assorted support machinery

to the hardstand display with the XB-35. It is not a 

necessity, more of an experiment with building and painting the miniature 

1:72 equipment and figures.

I may also detail the hardstand. 

The aircraft itself however is now done.

It was a somewhat difficult kit to build..perhaps due to it's age,

and do the the actual physical structure of the aircraft.

The next 1:72 aircraft kit i am working on in my dieselpunk aircraft ,

nerd cave decorating project

is the Junkers F.13 I will be constructing this model in the floatplane version.

I have described my model aircraft selection 

as a drive to represent dieselpunk design.

I thought it might be appropriate to provide a definition.

define dieselpunk

Dieselpunk is not simply a made-up mental art form.

Dieselpunk can be found surrounding us

in everyday life as evidenced by the below 

photograph from a Russian beach.

Dieselpunk to me, 

depicts the world as it might have been....

design wise. 

"Good design doesn't date."

Harry Seidler

B-36 & XB-35

For all intents the B-36 project is finished.

There is still some detail work i could do..but at this point

I am going to leave it and move on until i become inspired

to super detail it.

I had originally wished to decal it as an in-service aircraft.

One that actually existed but decals--what a worthless endeavor.

Even the expensive aftermarket set i purchased refused to work

possibly because of the metallic paint?

I wound up using whatever decals survived and would stick...

So historic accuracy went out the window.

It is huge, even in 1:72 scale and luckily with the nerd cave

rebuild I have an upper shelf that actually can physically

handle displaying it.

This was an over 20 year old kit which is no longer available for sale

i purchased it from a private seller off of Amazon

all the parts were there, and only one prop blade was broken

and easily fixed...amazing results when you think of it.

I then moved right into constructing the XB-35.

Another antique kit over 20 years old.

The XB-35 was the original flying wing--and a competitor in development

against the B-36.

Ten were built, and it had great promise but was done in

by defense department politics, but it was the grandfather 

of the current B-2 Stealth Bomber. 

Defense Department film footage of the XB-35 is used in the original

War of the Worlds film from the 1950's to drop a nuclear 

weapon on the invading Martians. 

This model is also a large one,even in 1:72 scale, and once again i am lucky to have

the perfect display location for it when completed on a specific shelf in the rebuilt nerd cave...

I am considering leaving it in the flat primer gray color,

rather than painting it aluminum in color per the real ones.

There is something about the flat color that make this

model appear even more stealth-like and I am building these aircraft for

art and display, not for historical accuracy.

I'll just have to go with how i feel as i work on it.

I view the construction of these aircraft models as art.

My own form of art but none the less art to display

in the nerd cave.

I have several aircraft models in stock to construct towards this goal.

Aircraft of the 20's 30's and 40's that are in and of themselves Art Deco

in their design--diesel punk art works displaying what their inventors/designers

felt the future would hold.

The first commerical airliner ever manufactured

the 1919 Junkers F.13

The Heinkel 70-G-1

an airmail plane of the 1930's

The Short Sunderland flying boat.

I am planning on building and displaying all of these.

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination."

Henry David Thoreau