Can you guess what it is yet?

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

I was struck by a recent comment by DM, in a discussion about where to purchase mounting brackets, who pointed out that these were things a modeller from 50 years ago would naturally think of making for himself. Nowadays, modellers are much more likely to assemble a box of parts or buy a fitting rather than create it themselves.

Model boats seem to require the most 'fittings' of any type of model, and there are regular requests for sourcing things like a 1/88 scale winch or a 2mm fender. 'Back in the day' we had to make our own, and this skill (and attitude) seems to be dying.

The EeZeBilt range of boats that I have a particular affection for were cheap starter kits, and there was no way that a young kid's pocket money would stretch to expensive fittings for them – so fittings on an EeZeBilt were invariably made from straws, wire, cotton reels, drawing pins and other household impedimenta. Here I present a simple thread where I show a selection of raw materials and ask what you might think of making from them. The first one comprises a Kinder Egg container and a plastic bottle – and, yes, as Diede suggested a little while ago, it will be a weapon – at 1:48 scale. May I encourage readers not only to guess, but to contribute their own puzzles for our consideration…!

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Converting useful objects…

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Come on, DG! This is like Blue Peter – but in reverse. We'll be having Cap'n Bob and his "sticky-backed plastic" before you know it.

Gizza clue, m'duck!

DM

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Ok, Dave – seeing as it's you…

As I said earlier, it's a weapon at 1:48 scale – and here are the bits I'm using…

[Diede van AbsParticipant @diedevanabs87670]

Oh dear, DG is making a pokemon-ball-firing gunboat, and picture above is the ammo

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I thought it was the Mk 1 eyeball.

Colin

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

I once made a Bofers gun from the top of my wife's anti persperent bottle. Am I getting warm? ( I should have waited until she finished it)

Chas.

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Yes – you ARE getting warm – but think of the other side of the Iron Curtain…

P.S. – I'd love to see how a deodorant bottle turns into a Bofors…

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by Colin Bishop, Website Editor on 15/09/2017 15:51:40:

I thought it was the Mk 1 eyeball.

Colin

At 1/48th ??! That would make a human figure approximately 300 ft high….

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Could it be a Nudelman-Nemenov NN30

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Paul has it! Though you would not usually call it a Nudelman-Nemenov NN30 – that's just the gun designation. The complete system – fitted to lots of Warsaw Pact boats as a CIWS – is an AK-230.

See – **LINK**

And here it is assembled (though not yet complete):

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Incidentally, the AK-230 system comprised one or more automated turrets with twin 30mm cannon, all centrally controlled by a quite distinctive radar – NATO code name 'Drum Tilt'. For reasons that you can see:

And we find that Kinder Egg containers are quite useful here too, once they are shortened a bit:

More guesswork tomorrow – unless anyone else has some contributions?

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Good Morning, campers!

 

Here is today's puzzle. Soluble aspirin and some bamboo from the garden. Again, the scale is 1/48th, but this time it's not a weapon. Any takers?

 

Edited By Dodgy Geezer on 16/09/2017 10:21:00

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

Mushroom vents? Cut blister from pack, & glue to a bit of bamboo?

This is fun, I'll have to try and remember something.

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Dead right! That didn't take long!  Bamboo is:

• cheaper than dowel
• stronger than dowel
• comes in a wide variety of diameters on the same stick

 

I'll have to think up a harder one for tomorrow – or perhaps someone else will have a go…?

Edited By Dodgy Geezer on 16/09/2017 12:41:43

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Well, this thread doesn't seem to have attracted much attention, so here is my last offering, It looks a bit vague – but the clue is that Keil Kraft had already proposed a use for old glue tubes on one of their EeZeBilt plans…

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Rolled up and used for nose-weight?

DM

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

A nice idea – but no. This is for a boat – and glue tubes aren't made of lead. Think about shapes….

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

How about cutting off the spout. Instant klaxon.

Chas

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Ah, Chas, you are getting too good for this! Unless you have been peeking at the Eezebilt plans?!

**LINK**

It's not actually a klaxon – but you're so close we'll give it to you. The TRITON plans suggest using the spout with the neck of the glue tube as a searchlight, adding a bit of clear plastic on the front and a dressmaking pin head as the bulb…

Here it is on the left. To my eyes it looks more like a lamp shade…

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

Model boats mag or maybe it was RCM&EE used to have a hints and tips column. As a kid with little money, all the time and money saving ideas were invaluable. I just never lost the habit. Bycycle spoke linkages, split pin and piano wire railings / stantions ( very strong) and lots of uses for bits of brass from 13 amp plugs. I call it modelling.

My contribution to this ethos is to recommend getting old cine cameras for a pound or two. The zoom motors and gearboxes are superbly made, and great for radar scanners, gun training etc. I say this tentativly, because I once mentioned this in an enquiry about what to buy for that job. I was shot down, the attitude being a special item should be bought. Hey ho.

Chas

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

Forgot to say, not so much a lampshade, more a witches hat. Got to go now, the chaps in the white coats are coming.

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

…….

My contribution to this ethos is to recommend getting old cine cameras for a pound or two. The zoom motors and gearboxes are superbly made, and great for radar scanners, gun training etc. I say this tentativly, because I once mentioned this in an enquiry about what to buy for that job. I was shot down, the attitude being a special item should be bought. Hey ho.

.

Yes – there seems to be a general feeling that has been running through society for the last 20 years or so that there is a 'right' way to do things, which is the officially sanctioned and approved way that is published by an authoritative body, and that any individual who decides to do something on their own, or questions the 'approved' answer to any question is instantly suspect.

And if there IS no 'official guidance' on a topic, there is a clamour for some superior body to tell us what to do…

[Diede van AbsParticipant @diedevanabs87670]

It seems that stuff in the UK appears to be of a different kind of plastic than here on the EU mainland. Here, most Kinder Eggs, deodorant caps, glue caps, bottles… are made of either PE or PP, both plastics being a complete pain in the hind to paint or glue Luckily, I have my own 3D-printer and I can use 3D CAD programs so I can design and print my own fittings, but it still sucks that a good number of decent shapeholders cannot be used on account of being shitty cheap plastic.

Edited By Diede van Abs on 22/09/2017 07:57:17

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