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Yogi's builds - to boldy glue, where ...
Thought I give you some background, pix of my builds, and some philosophizing to lighten your day.
I got back into card modelling last winter. I've been building for a long time - plastic models, simple index card boats, balsa fliers many years ago. Evolved into carpentry and associated boat building therapy. 'yer simplest boat: 12' can-yak at 1:1 scale from 1/4" plywood (that's paper before the pulping for the purists here...) Retired after 28 years service and became active doing education with the local Air Force Association chapter. We do an annual educator workshop for local teachers (STEM - science, technology, engineering, and math). Local AF base tour (flight line and flight simulators), speakers and hands-on seminars on bringing STEM into the classroom. The 2008 workshop had a session on stomp rockets (cardboard tube launched from PVC pipe attached to a 2 liter soda bottle - stomp on the bottle and the rocket goes!) and a display of a straw rocket launcher ($200 !!! from Pitsco). While working up the 2009 agenda, I thought I could do stomp rocket launchers and a straw rocker launcher for door prizes. Showed the (CRUDE) prototype straw launcher to some local teachers at one of our meetings - and it was immediately conscripted and disappeared into the trunk of someone's car. So, I figured they would make good door prizes. A little more design and I had one you could build for less than $10 - as functional as the expensive launcher but more rugged (kids can go hands on) and cheap to fix if they did manage to break it (one bent tube - easily straightened - so far in all I've made). Plans for stomp/straw rocket launchers posted at LHVCC (jleslie48.com) under the downloads / miscellaneous . Decided to look for something more exciting than just straws to launch - tried a few simple flat gliders. Then I found these: NASA shuttle glider in 20# bond paper printed at two pages per sheet and a similar build of a free Cub from Fiddler's Green via the USAF Civil Air Patrol's education efforts. A bit of work on the straw mounting and center of gravity and they make really good fliers off the launcher. Neat as they were, I went looking for rockets too (Google is a wonderful thing). Found lots of links and sites - then the Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Center. Roland's 1:288 ARES I was perfectly sized - add some internal card washers with 1/4" holes and it flies! A scaled down (1:200) Landsbergen Soyuz and similarly scaled Long March/ShenZhou from Hong Kong (or a link from U-don's) also works well. The reaction from the teachers at the workshop was enthusiastic and gratifying (gave away 4 stomp rocket and 16 straw rocket launchers as door prizes - and everyone got plans to make, or have the students make, their own). We had Winston Scott (astronaut) as keynote speaker and Les Gold from the traveling NASA team with a programs update and Lunar Material custodian certification class for the teachers - my competition was tough. So, I could make paper rockets and aircraft without worrying about display space or dusting (wife was firm on the dusting models issue -NOT her job). I had plenty of teachers asking for real space builds - and the rockets were sturdy enough for the kids to handle, cheap enough to replace if needed, and simple enough the kids could build their own if it sparked an interest. It was too cold to finish rebuilding my dock (still post hurricane Ivan repairs, this will make the third rebuild) so I spent some time in the shop. A short period of insanity ensued. To be continued ... |
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Gee Yogi, not into rockets or anything are you? :D
Sorry couldn't resist, but that is a great looking assortment of goodies and the air launch system is a great idea to capture some younger builders to the hobby. Gotta luv your "Can-Yak", anything built by hand has my attention, especially if it goes on the water, very nice. I guess it is a good thing you retired, far too busy enjoying the retirement for any sort of steady work. Looking forward to more as you go along.
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Jay Massey treadhead1952 Las Vegas, NV |
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Rockets?! Rockets?! We don't need no stinkin' rockets!!
Thanks for the kind words. Actually, I was just practicing on the rockets until I got good enough to add to the wife's penguin collection (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!).
Yogi Just one (of three walls - but she did "let" me build her the cabinets). Canon, Yamaha, and PaperToys (I think) critters |
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http://www.epson.jp/aqua/craft/01/index.htm
http://www.epson.jp/aqua/craft/diorama/02/index.htm Check those out
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"Rock is Dead, Long Live Paper and Scissors" International Paper Model Convention Blog http://paperdakar.blogspot.com/ "The weak point of the modern car is the squidgy organic bit behind the wheel." Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear's Race to Oslo |
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Thanks, now downloaded and on my build list (in reserve for the next time she uses the term "insane").
Yogi [cue maniacal laughter] |
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To insanity - and beyond!
Today's installment ...
I was having way too much fun, started feeling guilty (another character flaw, I'm still working on this retirement thing). I decided I'd build the current crop of manned launchers as a theme/purpose. I already had the Long March and Soyuz in 1:200 (so I rescaled everything to match that - no logical reason, just lazy) and added Alphonso's AXM Shuttle, enlarged Roland's ARES I from the LHVCC, and kit-bashed Lancer's Jupiter 232 (also LHVCC) into the latest ARES V configuration by stretching and redoing the engine section. I also did a downsized and simplified build of Ton's (smaller) Saturn V to provide some historical perspective. Now living at a local elementary school That led to building the series of space capsules - Precison Paper's Mercury (from the wayback machine), Ton's Gemini/Apollo/Orion, MARS Center's Soyuz (arghhh-lots of little parts, but I did get to brush up on my Italian with the instructions), and a very simple Chinese ShenZhou from Hong-Kong (also via U-Don's I think, Yuki Yuji had a much better one out a while ago but it's been pulled). I'm missing the Vostok and Voshkod - hadn't found Leo's site at that time. Out as examples for local High School Aviation Institute project - find and build your own for credit. Then I did a few airplanes - just for the heck of it. Paragon's CV-22, Paper-Replika's MQ-1, and a Piper Cub built to plans for an old friend (Air Force historian, two-star general on the weekends, and proud owner of the Cub "Patches"). Rather agressively claimed by a local school teacher, modified to USAF configuration - note a bit o' "fitting" for the lower windscreen. Had to cut loose and redo - my bad, I think, not the design's Donated to Combat Controller squadron Patches To be continued ... Last edited by Retired_for_now; 05-24-2010 at 06:51 PM. |
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To oddly go ...
Of course, my objective in building the models was purely altruistic - with no thought for myself ...
Anyway, I last saw most of the first batch of builds at (of all things) the local Junior League's "Spring Science Explosion." Despite a really nasty day (heavy rain and T-storms) and a last minute move across town, we had about 500 total folks drop by. About 300 kids, and they all stopped in. Had 'em standing in line to shoot rockets into a bucket. Even passed out cards with the URLs for the models - along with our usual literature. bait catch (it's well after closing time, had to run him off) Delivered the models to the various schools, then continued building. Next theme - tour of the solar system in 1:48. I'll take them in order, though I actually started with Ton's Pioneer 10/11 and some of the simpler NASA/JPL/ESA offerings. No visits to the sun yet, but I did find ESA's SOHO model. I was disappointed with its accuracy - box and a cylinder. So, I redid it. It wasn't too difficult as spacecraft are generally not complex shapes. Boxes, cones, and the occaisional cylinder. With the SOHO done, I found a NASA site about the Solar Probe Plus scheduled for a 2015 launch. No engineering drawings, but lots of good pix in their latest engineering report. Another design task. SOHO - available at LHVCC (jleslie48.com) Solar Probe Plus Mercury is being visited, soon to be orbited, by the MESSENGER probe so that was next. Had quite a bit of information on that one - one of the teachers I work with is a MESSENGER Fellow, part of the NASA education and outreach program. Unfortunately, the model they've put out is another box - no detail at all. So, I did another scratch design. It's desk-model level detail, certainly not museum quality but better than a box. To be continued ... |
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MESSENGER and Solar Probe... want badly... drool...
:D Very nice models there Yogi. I'm a big fan of your work from jleslie's site. |
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We can use the rain j
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I really like all the pics you are sharing with us! Thanks for keeping them coming
Chris
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Want to buy some models from independent designers? http://www.ecardmodels.com and visit the shop! |
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