Fleet Air Arm Group Build

sfcmac wrote:

OOOOOOH!  that's the fellow that married Shelly!  I wondered were he went and had gone off too! Fell walking I thought was on the way home from the pub?

Mr. McNeal,

an Officer and Gentlemen never falls on the way home from the pub.  He staggers, and gets his mates to carry him.

Cheers!

TANGO 1 wrote:

Hey, while I'm here.................any  of you chaps heard from DesertRat lately?

Not a peep. He got that Job with the Border Patrol and vanished soon afterwords. I like to think that he found a girlfriend and that has been keeping him busy. Youngster that he is.

 Nammy had got the upperhand on some health issues and touched base once or twice after I called him.  Seems he has also vanished in lifes rollercoaster. I do hope they both find their way hom here again.

 Cpt Bondo being the fine fellow that he is seems to get word if anyone has most likely.

 ruddratt! I warned you about moving to the country! With those NY girls!

 Dee was my best friends GF in HighSchool! Came back from my first tour in Germany and he was married to someone else and she was a senior in College.  Took her to dinner and haven't been able to ditch her yet!   Told her when she turned 40 I was gonna trade her in for 2 twentys but that hasn't quite worked out as planned.

Wow, lots of interesting walks of life that share a common love of modelling!!!!

I am 42 and currently live in Australia. California native born in Sacramento. At 18 after I graduated, dad retired and we all moved to Arkansas where after a few years I decided to join the USAF in 1988 and spent 4 years in service. In that 4 years I nearly got a free trip around the world, albeit not pleasure trips, except when coming home. Worked on B-52G's on Guam for 15 months and then C-141's, C-130's, and F-15's at Robins AFB for the rest of my enlistent. Then let my hair and beard grow. Worked at a print shop with my then gf for a few years til we were both layed off. Then got on board as Civil Service at Robins doing what I really knew, aircraft maintenence. Met my now ex-wife online and landed a job here working on Qantas 747s and lovng it here in Oz still. Have a wonderful gf now that is Vietnamese and was one of the lucky ones to get out with her parents after Saigon fell. Her name is Tanya, we have been going out now for 10 months. She was the main force behind me getting my Swordfish finished in time for the contest and like to see my work. No kids of my own, unfortunately. Seems fate has never swung that way for me. Other interests include, Railroads, Muscle Cars and classics(have a 1/18 die-cast collection of Ferrari's), reading about military history, Blues music, PC games and flight simulators, and of course just aviation in general.

Any questions arise just ask, I don't bite, unless ur made of chocolate!!!!!!! Glad to know more about us all and really proud to call everyone of you 'friend'. A comeraderie that can only be compared to 'A band of Brothers'.

WOW!  This is really good stuff.  I am thoroughly enjoying reading each and every bio here.  Like has been said, this GB has some of the Best of the Best here on the forums.  A group of people who share a common interest, and are to help one another no questions asked.  Coming here and reading what has been going on is like coming home after a long, hard day.  I am proud to call each and every one of you my friend.

Right!  I think a glass of rum would do us all rather nicely.  Suzanne!  Drinks all 'round on the XO.

Cheers everyone!

Daywalker=11,000 Post

Frank that is a Good Reason to celebrate and a good enough distraction for me not to do a bio. 

Summit wrote:

Daywalker=11,000 Post   Frank that is a Good Reason to celebrate and a good enough distraction for me not to do a bio.  Oh good lord!

Summit wrote:

...a good enough distraction for me not to do a bio.

AHA!!!  You won't get off that easy.  Now, spill it sailor!

Daywalker wrote:

Summit wrote: ...a good enough distraction for me not to do a bio. AHA!!!  You won't get off that easy.  Now, spill it sailor!

Dern right Buckaroo, spill the beans or there may be a cross border raid to interview your wife and kids and make up my own bio for you! 

razordws wrote:

Frank, Congradulations... AGAIN!!!  Sheesh!!!

Motorfingers!!!!!!

 This just begs to ask the question as to why it takes the XO  six months to paint a Tamiya prop but only 2 weeks to get 1000 post?  Could there be some other more sinister motive involved here?  Or maybe he just gabs to much and paints to little?  Hard telling! Frank you know on TV we saw videos  about people doing the craziest things. They were riding go -carts!

 Now  the Bio's make for some interesting readingbut Ritchie is just being shy.  The truth be told he was on a secret mission in a specially adapted B-52 when nature called.  Well the bathroom's toilet paper roll was empty and  he went in search for a substitute.

Well things were begining to get critical so he grabbed  what he thought was a remove before flight tag but in fact was an emergency exit cord. So Off he went!

Always something eh?  Well  luckily he had an old pair of Panties from a hot date the night prior that he was able to use as a parachute. ( He was really drunk on that date btw)

and he managed to land safely but stranded in the Austrailian outback!

So being the resourceful type fellow that he is... He got it together and got a job with the locals! Polishing boomerangs.

For food he hunted the local flora and fauna!

and  of course made friends with the ladies!

He seemed to adapt to the land down under well enough that he stayed .

but he usually has to order his models by phone now. 

Heres to you Ritchie!

You know if Sean doesn't come clean I could always use my imagination!

Aaron, you are bloody funny!!

Gentlemen, let us salute our mate Richie and his incredible escape and evasion skills.

Gentlemen,

please be upstanding for our X/O who has yet again hit another mighty forum milestone. Now he can't build a Corsair in a month, or a year , or a decade....................but he can type quicker than a SR-71 on full re-heat!! He one of the nicest chaps you'll ever meet and I am proud to have him here as our X/O.

CONGRATULATIONS FRANK!!

Crew! Charge you glasses! God bless the X/O !!

CHEERS!

Summit wrote:

Daywalker=11,000 Post   Frank that is a Good Reason to celebrate and a good enough distraction for me not to do a bio.

Sean,

get your butt out here and spill the beans............................thats an order!!

"Master Chief Summit?"

"Sir, the CAG has ordered me to give you the truth juice...........he said I am to use whatever methods necessary to get you to talk Sir."

Hi all, Im sorry ive not been around lately. Did i miss much?

Frank, congrats on the 11,00 posts. Geez i thought i talked a lot LOL. Joking apart, your one of the guys on here, that i noticed, right from when i 1st joined. You, to me anyhoo, were one of the talents that i hoped someday to emmulate. Your work has definately gotten better, if a little longer to appear Keep gabbing, big boy.

My biog,

My interest in modelling started as soon as i got pocket money, i reckon. Me and my little bro used to walk up to the corner shop and buy something Airfix and cheap that we could build in an afternoon. The 1st kit i remember doing was a 1/72 Fw190. I so wish i still had it. I thought it was ace.

I built right through to about 12-13 and then it was all, Girls, mates, mucking about etc. (Nothings changed) and the models got sidelined. It was at about 13 i started Shorinji Kempo. Continuing this through to my early 20's.After school i became a mechaniac, and have worked on cars, trucks and boats to various degrees. I have a tendancy to get bored quickly and changed jobs like my pants (Once every 2-3 yrs) I flitted between other jobs out of mechanicing. I was a postman for a while and Prison officer too, at HMP Dorchester.

It was in 1999 that my life changed. I was one of 3 brothers. Im still one of 3 but now only one is still physically with me. Since then i find i enjoy my own company alot more. Modelling has helped a lot since then and i can while away many hours in my pit. Much to the Future ex-missus's annoyance LOL. Ive always been a lover of all things millitary and im a prolific reader. I always have some war biog or history on my bedside table. I seem to collect reference books and spend far too much time leafing through them than actually modelling.

Hopefully im moving house soon, so my appearance my be even more irratic. But where theres a will....

...Guy

sfcmac wrote:

You know if Sean doesn't come clean I could always use my imagination!

After ur interpretation of my story, I have GOT to hear this!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm all ears er......... I mean eyes Aaron!!!!!! Spill what the Lord Mustachio fails to tell!!!

Thank you very much fellas!  So glad we are always able to find a reason to celebrate and have rum!   I shall try to type less and paint more, promise I will!  Got this FAA Corsair to finish before my new 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire Mk.IX arrives!

Guy- Thank you very much for that, it means a lot to me.  I have watched your skills improve considerably here in the last couple of years.  I remember a 1/32 G-10 that looked good, but you have seriously pushed the envelope in the past year or so.  Your Reggy builds are over the top good!  I am quite impressed.  Sorry to hear about your brother, I cannot even imagine losing mine, as we are very close indeed.

FAA Christmas gift exchange update:

Bill

Darren

John E.

Guy

have recieved their gifts as of this day.  Please try and mail off your packages before the end of the month to make sure it arrives in time for Christmas.  As I told Guy, wait till Christmas Eve or Day to open your gifts.  Also post pictures of what you got on the GB.  If you have any questions or concerns PM me.

Congrats Frank on the 11,000!!!

Aaron,  sorry for the confusion buddy. No NY gals for this guy. Jean was actually born and raised here in BC (how did we meet? - well, that's for another probably very long post ).

Guy, didn't know what Shorinji Kempo was so I looked it up...  One sentence in particular stood out for me...

"It is a form of Kempo that tries to get its practitioners to move through life doing minimal damage whenever possible."

Sounds like good advice for a man who drives a big bus in the city!!! 

ruddratt wrote:

Congrats Frank on the 11,000!!!   Aaron,  sorry for the confusion buddy. No NY gals for this guy. Jean was actually born and raised here in BC (how did we meet? - well, that's for another probably very long post ).

Come on RR, you're dyin' to tell us. I'll tell mine if you'll tell yours. mines kinda interesting. 

When I got out of Architecture school I went to work for SOM, think Boeing if you design airplanes. I was happy there and worked up to a respectable level over five years or so, working on big projects all over the world. The problem in hindsight was that I worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week, ate, drank, slept with and only new a very small group of like minded trolls. I did model armor at that point tho. I 1985 I was selected to be part of a team that was sent to China to explore markets and foster trade relationships in architectural expertise, and that firm is now dominant in Asia. We were there a month and I gave lectures on CAD was was in the way pre-Autodesk days and still was pretty much used through DOS commands on a keyboard, over a phone connection on off hours. But everyone knew it was coming. The trip was fantastic- lecture every morning, HUGE banquet lunch, and every afternoon a so-called factory tour. Now those last drove me nuts. They'd take us out to some hell hole where we watched people make (jade lamp bases, etc.) on ancient machinery in appaling conditions, then send us to the "gift shop" and pick us up 2 hours later. After a couple of these, I was sitting at dinner next to this lady who was a design partner I'd worked with a little but never known- private corner office vs. cubicle sort of dynamic. So we get to talking and she says, hey look I going to fake a cold and go see a mosque in this City tomorrow afternoon, but I'm not crazy about being a solo white woman wandering around a strange city. Care to come along.... boy did I. We started doing that every afternoo. We'd find guys to rent bikes from, tip to get us into places, and really exppanded our trip. I guess tongues were probably wagging, but I didn't notice. When we got back a month later, I went over to see her and never left.

It's funny because my immediate fear was that we'd get in trouble with the powers that be over fratenization etc. and I did end up leaving the company a couple of years later for other reasons. But at the time all manner of coworkers came to us and confided how they respected us, they lamented giving up their lives for a job, and supported us. Seems to have worked out. I always give one piece of advice to people who ask, which is meet someone through your interests, and you'll always have something to talk about.

 'm with Bondo RR spill the beans!  Can't be worse than playing hookie in China! Wagging tongues?  Well whatever trips yer trigger I guess? Dern er eyes CPT!

 Dee remembers me all the way bck from our sophomore English class! I was giving a speech on demonstrating the art of Model building ( tis true)  I never really liked forced assignments of the teacher so I went out with a bang and set off a shape charge I had rigged up inside the Ol Revell Missouri kit.  Made an impression on her I guess. Along with a big hole in the teachers desk!  Be branded a terrorist today probably and thrown in jail!

 Sign of the times!

I have it on good report that Sean is struggling with his bio.  But will come thru. Just a bit shy so he needs further encouragenment.

 Guy  I'm still analyzing yours.... 

Alrighty, Great and interesting bio's.. Bonndo Terrific story on how you met your Wife.. Classic Romance material

Myself I am 45, been married to the same lady (met her at a 7-11 store )for 19 years. We have two children - My Daughter whom is 18 and a senior in HS and a son who is 14 thats Played Varsity Baseball last season and lettered and is currently in the Boy Scouts. (plus I am also a Scoutmaster) Both really good kids.

Bondo it looks like my Daugter will be going to college at East Bay.. You might have to take over the job of chasing off the punks.. I will give you models

I have had two lines of work - Ranching and Heavy Equpment Mechanic. [Oh yeah I was also once worked as a Gunfighter for tourist entertainment]  When I was working as a mechanic the 12 hr days and travel time would make me a grumpy guy. So I would usually take a break in the Fall through late Spring and apply my skills as a buckaroo and clear my head ...  Had less taxes to pay that way also..

Models were scarce to the simple life I grew up to. But after In my twenties I would buy kits "to build for that day when I had time"  In mid twenties  built "Pro Stock" racecar models till the after market goods burned me out by making me to detailed oriented.. As I felt that expected of a build.. I blame Scale Modeler for pushing that... I quit modeling for several years but still picked up kits mostly aircraft and few armor. Since I was a young lad I had always wanted a ceiling decorated with aircraft..

I retired at 40 mainly due to several inuries that made it impossible to stand  12 + hrs a day.

My wife decided to go back to school and finish her Teaching degree at that time. (I think I made her crazy being home )

Always been a loner but have made more real good friends from this forum then through life.

 A Very Young Buckaroo - my Moustache back then was from Hot Coco !

When I was working (that was the baby shovel - should of seen the 5500)

And more recent times goofing off at the Ranch

I enjoy spending time with my Wife and kids, building models, collecting models, Light scale Mountaineering (Body does not cooperate much anymore) collecting models, Mtn Biking with the family, collecting models, chatting with my Forum friends and overlooking the River in my backyard and sometimes collecting a few more model kits.

 That is the Readers Digest condensed version.

Summit wrote:

My goodness, look at that 'stashe?  You look just like an old photo I saw somewhere...

Sean, thanks for sharing that.  Seems you mentioned collecting models a few times and buildig only once.  I guess that would explain the tomb then eh? 

Bill, I got a late start and by the time I graduated I was already married with children, couldn't buy into the work for 80 hours and get paid for 40 hours mentality with a family at home and my wife playing in the orchestra in the evenings.  Bounced around firms for awhile and never did become registered.  I now work for a nursery doing design builds and am much happier (though I am currently laid off for the season due to the broken hand )

As for meeting my wife there is a bit of a story to that, we knew each other casually through our church though she definitely walked in different circles than I did.  Classical muscian vs. Country Hick.  Turns out though that some loser was trying to ask her out to her University Grad and she  lied and told him she already had a date.  Now she had to find one.  I guess she had decided to ask me and asked for a ride home from some function that we both happened to be at but she was too chicken so she decided to call after I dropped her off and leave a message on my machine for me at my home.  See, in her mind, if I called her then it wasn't really her asking me out because I was the one that called.   Long story short she took too long to work up her courage and I walked in the door just as the phone rang.  She was so caught off guard and tongue tied that I just couldn't have said no even if I had wanted to (but I didn't ).  The rest is history.

Well Jason really started something here, it all makes for some very splendid reading.

Someone around here somewhere recently mentioned Il2 which is a very natty PC game, I went and got it thinking I'd have some fun but I've just spent all evening trying to take off and then crashing horribly, quite a steep learning curve me thinks!!

Anyway I'm Mike, 42 years old with a 10 year old son called Oliver, sadly I'm no longer with his Mum but I still see him all the time which I'm very glad about. I do have a partner called Dian, we met over Tequila slammers (ooohhh my head) at a friends party and we moved into our own house here about 2 years ago. All these house jobs keep me from modeling as much as I'd like to . I've been working for the same company for almost 20 years now, I'm a lab manager for a well known (in the UK) opticians, sometimes it drives me mad but in the current climate I'm lucky to have such job security.

Lots of interests including history, music, film and various sports. I've been finding out a little local history in the last year as I live only a couple of miles from the old RAF Hooton Park which was the home of No. 610 (County of Chester) Squadron, some of the buildings survive but its now closed to the public for safety reasons whilst most of the site is now a car plant. I dont read as much as I used to infact I have dozens of half finished books, even the ones I'm enjoying . I support Manchester United and Oliver supports Liverpool which is one of those BIG sporting rivalries.

Hey Frank and well done on the 11,000, I do think we've all been very patient and it is about time you rustled up a few more pics for us to admire.

Cheers everyone... 

Bondo, Guy, Sean and Dave-

Great bio's lads! Its great to get to know you a little better. Thanks for sharing with us.

Y'know, I often get it the neck from rivet counters  for running a group build that is home to "rum drinking and lunacy"

I tell you what though, they still read the posts and are never bored! Any of you chaps fancy a tot of rum?

This GB is so great because of the people here, thanks again for making this a wonderful place to hang out, laugh and build the occasional model.

Mike, you poor sod...........you should listen to your son, he sounds like a very clever chap indeed!