Things you don't see anymore

[DJ360 5,618]

9 minutes ago, Oztalgian said:

The good old days, greasing the kingpins, ball joints and steering linkage, universal joints on the prop shaft, checking the oil in the gearbox and diff, adjusting the valve clearances and checking the brakes and wheel bearings before you went on a "long" journey...…. Nottingham to Skegness?

I look under the bonnet of our current car more out of habit than the need to do anything. The only thing I ever need to top up is the windscreen washer fluid

 

The only thing I can be bothered doing these is changing the oil on my Civic.  I use posh oil and change it and the filter every year whether it needs it or not.  It's a pig of a job because you can't see the filter from above or below, so it is all done by feel.  Drop the oil, get the old filter off, clean the mating surface by feel, replace filter, etc.  The rest.. I pay somebody.  I spent half of my best years sodding about changing every conceivable bit on cars, including complete engines.. because I could never afford a decent car or a 'pro' mechanic.  These days.. I pay somebody.. mostly.

[mary1947 1,502]

Balsa wood model planes 

used to watch my brother cut out the shape of the wings with precision and gluing the plane together , then when finished wound up the laggey band , and let the plane fly, only to crash and break into little pieces,

or well lets start again.

[Oztalgian 2,347]

Our new car comes with free servicing for two years and then fixed price services until the end of the five year warranty.

If you are passing the dealership they will even give you a free car wash. Still have to vacuum the inside though. If they can have self cleaning ovens why can't they have self cleaning cars?

[DJ360 5,618]

Keil Kraft was one of the main producers of balsa wood kits for aero models.  You could certainly still buy them in the 1980s, because I made a couple.

 

It seems they are still available...  https://www.vintagemodelcompany.com/keil-kraft.html

 

 

[Oztalgian 2,347]

Can you still get Airfix kits?

[DJ360 5,618]

Think so.  My nephew has been making Airfix and other brands of plastic models all his life.  He is now a 'big noise' in the IT business with BaE Systems, but also makes models from all sorts of manufacturers and reviews them in magazines.  He is very, very good at it.  He writes for 'Model Airplane international', and 'Airfix Model World'.

 

https://www.magazine.co.uk/magazines/model-airplane-international-magazine

 

https://airfixmodelworld.keypublishing.com/2018/10/11/terrific-treble-3/dsc_1897/

 

[Oztalgian 2,347]

Thanks DJ and yes you can still get them in OZ.

My pride and joy was an Avro Lancaster painted in cammo with Humbrol? paints. The only problems I ever had was getting the transfers on symmetrically.

As a retired former toolmaker I can appreciate the skills involved in making the moulds back in the 50's and 60's when multiaxis CNC, CAD CAM and spark erosion were not around.

[Cliff Ton 9,041]

When I was young I went through several phases of being mad on Airfix kits.

 

For a while I'd be on the WW2 aircraft; then I'd work my way through all the cars (1960s stuff); then I'd move on to tanks and armoured cars (again mainly WW2); then I'd have a go a ships/boats for a time. I didn't have a problem doing the small, fiddly bits; and could paint all the small details and apply the transfers.

 

The main source of Airfix kits was Woolworths stores. I've read that they had a special contract to stock all the Airfix range, and if you went into a WW store, you were guaranteed to find a large Airfix display.

[DJ360 5,618]

5 hours ago, Oztalgian said:

Thanks DJ and yes you can still get them in OZ.

My pride and joy was an Avro Lancaster painted in cammo with Humbrol? paints. The only problems I ever had was getting the transfers on symmetrically.

As a retired former toolmaker I can appreciate the skills involved in making the moulds back in the 50's and 60's when multiaxis CNC, CAD CAM and spark erosion were not around.

 

Indeed.  When I first watched my nephew making them in the early 70s, the first thing that struck me was the way he applied the transfers or 'decals'  There was always an excess bit of transparent decal around them, which would remain visible.. except that Alan would very carefully remove it with a scalpel before applying them.

He also became very good at trimming the parts for better fit, making slight modifications to represent model variations, and using airbrushing and other technigues to get very realistic paint finishes.  At BAe, he's worked a lot on 'Tornado' 'Typhoon' and has constructed lots of models for colleagues, finishing many if them in the sort of dirty yellow/green primer finish in which they are built, before being painted in the 'livery' of purchsing airforce/country.

 

https://www.facebook.com/alan.price.986?epa=SEARCH_BOX

 

One of Alan's Spitfire builds. Note the 'worn' paintwork on the wing root below the cockpit, where the pilot would climb in and out.

 

[philmayfield 4,411]

I suspended my Airfix aeroplanes from the washing line and picked them of with my air rifle. I did make a model of HMS Belfast just before the Falklands war but after the war ended we ceremoniously burnt it.

[mary1947 1,502]

It's  a good job we did'nt use super glue for our Airfix planes.

[IAN FINN 264]

Is it a ground to air rifle Phil?

[philmayfield 4,411]

It was an old BSA .177 which I had when I was about 10. I’ve still got it! 

[IAN FINN 264]

My father had one to i used it to shoot at crows and rooks it also could shoot the different  colored darts. I was about 10 years old at the time.

[philmayfield 4,411]

I’ve just found it and it’s actually a Webley Junior. I do have an old BSA but that’s a .22. I bought that from a friend who lived in a flat in Mapperley Park where he used to take potshots from his bedroom window! I do have a more modern Theoben Rapid 7 which has a 7 shot .22 cartridge and is powered by compressed air and charged up from a diver’s bottle.

[denshaw 2,649]

Toilet rolls in shops.

[Beekay 2,992]

The thread, "Keep one, Drop", that I were on. Been back pages and pages but none that have me on. Just a new thread started by Ian Finn, 10 hours ago. Is this a normal occurrence when a thread is full?

[Waddo 919]

Just a guess BK, but I think, because there's no reason to refer back as you can in other posts, once so many have been submitted, the previous pages are deleted. Otherwise, there would be zillions of pages for the word game. Might be wrong but that's how I see it,  but I'm no computer buff.

[denshaw 2,649]

Go Go Girls, the ones I knew have all gone.

[radfordred 5,561]

Remember when isolation & social distancing was all the rage?

[philmayfield 4,411]

They’re all queuing for chips at Skeggie, no doubt berating Dominic Cummings or saying ‘if he can do it so can I, except of course that he kept his distance. I foresee another lock down.

[radfordred 5,561]

West Bridgford park solid yesterday afternoon with most bars & cafes doing takeouts, street party come rave in Top Valley last night (both areas of Nottingham) was well attended hit the 100 mark 

[woody 397]

Can't help thinking some people need protecting from themselves. Obviously the deaths of some 50,000 people has not registered with them and what the result of not being cautious could be. I agree with you Phil, another lockdown is on the cards and next time it could be even more severe.

[Brew 4,284]

Saw the pictures on the Beeb of the beach where idiots hurt themselves jumping of a cliff. There have must have been couple of thousand people in the crowd watching the helicopter land.

[Jill Sparrow 8,614]

Lemmings have more sense. I am convinced the human race is a lost cause.  Let them get on with it but the NHS has more important work to do than pick up their broken pieces.