Things you don't see anymore


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Oops, I thought I'd copied a picture of a "Nightingale ward" at the General Hospital. I still think they were better than the 6 bed bays of 'better' & later hospitals.

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Some folks only request information, which is fair enough by me. Maybe they don't want discussion, chat, banter etc. Different people want different things from a forum, and that's fine.  If

Things you don’t see anymore (times 2) A 1945 photo of my aunt, wearing a turban and scrubbing her front door step on Queens Grove, Meadows. She dug her heels in and refused to move when the

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Screw caps on the top of car batteries. You unscrewed them (6 of them) and then dangled the rubber spout of a hydrometer in the hole to check the SG of the acid and then you pulled the spout out, to check the next cell, and it being rubber it flicked acid on yer paintwork and yer shirt which was later covered in little  acid holes, there were 6 cells to do, and then you had to squint down the battery cell holes to see if plates were covered with electrolyte and if they were'nt you had to find that bottle of distilled water that you meant to fill up 3 months ago and when you found it, cussed as there was only enough for 3 cells so you gave up till you got some more distilled water then you could only find 5 of the caps to screw back on the battery meanwhile the hydrometer rolled off the radiator where you'd balanced it and it smashed on the floor...

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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

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As a lad, I was chemistry mad, but could never get hold of any half decent acid.. so, when I found an abandoned car battery in the fields opposite, I put it in an old sack that was also lying about and set off to carry it home and extract the acid.  When I was about half way home I noticed that I was burning a bit...  The batery had shifted in the sack and was leaking... on me...

 

By the time I got home I'd ruined a nylon shirt, nylon socks (nylon is easily dissolved by acids) and most of the rest of what I was wearing.  It was close run thing to get home before my clothes fell off my back... Mum wasn't best pleased, but I managed to extract about an egg cupful of sulphuric acid, contaminated with lead of course, from the battery.. before taking it down to 'Hendo's' and weighing it in.

 

I emptied an old battery off Mrs Cols car only a couple of weeks ago.  It still had the 6 caps.  I've got the acid in a clearly marked plastic bottle in the garage.

I may see if I can think up a few chemical wheezes to show my Grandson. He's into sciency stuff.  I will of course keep him safe.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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

 

 

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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/

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

75446572_1119921498399149_10797861615404

 

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

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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.

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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?

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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.

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