Andy's Modelmaking Misadventures

[Punkawallah]

I am slowly working on a novel; a detective story set on Ascension, during 1937. It's entirely a vanity project to keep me occupied when I'm bored at work, but I'll probably put it online in instalments if I ever get it finished. I'll let you know if this happens.

With Chapter- end Cliff Hangers, I trust?

 

[Conrad_K]

Apparently he ran it to his mother shouting "the Germans are coming ! The Germans are coming", as even as a boy he was aware of the increasing tensions in the build up to war.

The Germans used dirigibles as bombers during WWI, and hit most major British cities at least once with them. That was less than 20 years before the Hindenburg; recent enough to be part of the popular memory, even if your Dad hadn't personally seen it.

Despite incinidiary bullets, shells, and rockets, the airships were pretty hard to shoot down, despite being lifted by hydrogen. The Royal Flying Corps and the British Army had to work very hard for every kill. Which is one reason I've never believed the "a spark did it" theory about the Hindenburg fire.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Regarding the Hindenburg, my father actually saw it flying over west Wales. He'd heard this lorry which didn't seem to pass so went outside to look, the. saw the airship overhead complete with swastikas on the tail fins. Apparently he ran it to his mother shouting "the Germans are coming ! The Germans are coming", as even as a boy he was aware of the increasing tensions in the build up to war. I think it only went to New York twice, before it was lost in the accident

The Germans used dirigibles as bombers during WWI, and hit most major British cities at least once with them. That was less than 20 years before the Hindenburg; recent enough to be part of the popular memory, even if your Dad hadn't personally seen it.

Despite incinidiary bullets, shells, and rockets, the airships were pretty hard to shoot down, despite being lifted by hydrogen. The Royal Flying Corps and the British Army had to work very hard for every kill. Which is one reason I've never believed the "a spark did it" theory about the Hindenburg fire.

My Nan told the story of seeing a Zeppelin over Walsall when she was very small. Allegedly she ran inside shouting that there was a "flying pig". I don't know how accurate this was, as the only raids over the midlands that I know of were on the 31st of January 1916, and they were in darkness. It may be that she saw a British airship and over the intervening years (she lived to 103) memories and family stories may have become intertwined.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Readers of an earlier post will remember that the first of “the races” on Ascension were won by the “Ascension Revolutionary Socialist Party” in their van/propaganda vehicle/meeting room, while broadcasting about the inevitable collapse of Capitalism through their loudspeakers.

This time, the Powers That Be had prepared. As Stringer McFrase reports in the “Independent Racing Magazine”:

The Communists were most dismayed to see a new rival at the starting line in the form of the “Syndicate”, driving in a converted, and one has to say, heavily armed van. It was clear to all that this would be an eventful race”.

Will "The Syndicate" be able to hamper the Socialists' attempts to use The Races as a tool for propaganda?

As before, all the twists and turns...

​

The thrills and spills, up to the nail-biting finish, can be found behind this elegant and finely crafted link.

​

 

[Profpointy]

It may have been posted already but you have a rival

https://www.theguardian.com/artandd...frank-kunert-lifestyle?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

[Andy in Germany]

What with a new job and coming down with possibly the worst timed case of flu ever, I've been getting behind. However...

The next job on the current project was a base for the model to go on. This should be simple enough; a square of laminated card, paint, cover, add a bit of detail; job’s a good ‘un.

Now, I know that card likes to warp, so before doing anything else I added a couple of coats of shellac, aka French polish, which on other card models made them much more stable. However, it probably didn’t help that I used watered down glue for the first layer of ground cover. Or that I then messed this up and had to repeat it. By the time I’d finished, the result looked like a damp towel.

But was it bad enough that I needed to repeat the model? I wrestled with my inner perfectionist. My inner perfectionist won.

I built the second base more slowly, pressing each stage for 24 hours when it had dried. I used neat glue for the ground cover, and then flattened it again. After a week of this, and painting the base, I added grass… and it warped again. Just a bit, but enough that there’s a crack under the kerbstones.

I reckon I can fix this, though; I’ve got a plan…

 

[dicko]

This said it was for a ten year old+ but boy did I have a job with this little bu##*r.

 

[Andy in Germany]

This said it was for a ten year old+ but boy did I have a job with this little bu##*r.

View attachment 753549

Not looking so bad either.

boy did I have a job with this little bu##*r.

Practice makes perfect, as I keep telling myself in the face of the evidence...

 

[Andy in Germany]

After our brief sporting interlude, the Ascension chronicles return to diplomacy and geopolitics. In the previous story, the Royal Navy Air Service Police had managed to contact and rescue the missing diplomat, but so far failed to get her on a plane off the island. Now they were attempting to take her to a different part of the airfield in the hope of evading the Auxiliary Police…

Unfortunately, this failed from the outset because the Auxiliaries were already watching the aerodrome, and were hot on their heels...

Will the Auxiliaries manage to capture the diplomat, or can the RNAS police get her onto the plane this time?

As usual, the answers to these questions, and the rest of the story, can be found under this elegant and highly crafted link...

 

[Punkawallah]

Not looking so bad either.



Practice makes perfect, as I keep telling myself in the face of the evidence...

‘Practice makes permanent’. It only makes ‘perfect’ if you practice doing it the right way ;-)

 

[Andy in Germany]

‘Practice makes permanent’. It only makes ‘perfect’ if you practice doing it the right way ;-)

Now I know where I've been going wrong...

 

[dicko]

Not looking so bad either.



Practice makes perfect, as I keep telling myself in the face of the evidence...

Getting there, rubbish stickers don’t you think?

 

[Andy in Germany]

Back to Ascension, and the Ambassador's misfortunes have got worse; she's been captured by the Auxiliary Police and taken to their rather dingy, low budget headquarters.

However, it turns out the rescue was not to be carried out by the RNAS Police…

Instead, the Ambassador’s home government had called in a few diplomatic favours, and engaged the elite Württembergische Düsenjäger.*

With air assistance to take the Ambassador to safety...

Will the Düsenjäger be able to get the diplomat on the plane? Will Col. Lawrence dare to step foot outside the headquarters? Find out by following this elegant and highly crafted link:

https://korschtal.wordpress.com/2024/11/23/diplomatic-rescue-4/

 

[Gwylan]

Back to Ascension, and the Ambassador's misfortunes have got worse; she's been captured by the Auxiliary Police and taken to their rather dingy, low budget headquarters.

View attachment 754141
However, it turns out the rescue was not to be carried out by the RNAS Police…

Instead, the Ambassador’s home government had called in a few diplomatic favours, and engaged the elite Württembergische Düsenjäger.*

View attachment 754142

With air assistance to take the Ambassador to safety...

View attachment 754143

Will the Düsenjäger be able to get the diplomat on the plane? Will Col. Lawrence dare to step foot outside the headquarters? Find out by following this elegant and highly crafted link:

https://korschtal.wordpress.com/2024/11/23/diplomatic-rescue-4/

All fine but the Ambassador has fallen for one of the guards.
She's also seeing that some of the rebels claims are correct.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Well, it turns out that making a model from lots of tiny pieces of card and then insisting on adding rivets to every possible join takes a bit of time. However, the base section of the Zeppelin Tower is finally structurally complete.

To my frank astonishment, the structure is also pretty solid. Those chaps who designed the originals for these clearly knew their stuff.

To my equal astonishment, the cunning plan to straighten the base out worked too.

This is a trick taken from cabinet making for using veneers: if you glue a layer of veneer to a piece of plywood, it will warp, as wood likes to do. To avoid bendy furniture, the solution is to add another piece of veneer on the other side to cancel out the warping.

In my case, after all the surface detailing had dried off, I glued paper on the underside of the base and let it dry overnight under a couple of books. The next morning, voilà: flat base.

Anyway, this is based on the only remaining tower of its kind in Recife, Brazil, which in the very short heyday of airships was the first stopping point for airships to South America from Europe and which would have hosted giants like the Graf Zepellin and the Hindenburg before the twit with the bad moustache came along. Of course, in my alternative history, 1930’s Germany is a loose federation of tiny states once more, and airships are the way to travel across oceans, so these towers are a regular sight around the world.

Ascension is developing rapidly as a junction for many airship routes, so in reality it would probably have several airship masts, but don’t ask me to make them all…