Falke Seating

Since I has some time today, I decided to have a more detailed look at the Falke. To me, although it is 1/20th scale, the model is still very big. Then again, I am not sure why I am making such a fuss on it. Sure, the main body has the biggest single piece I have ever seen apart from Polar Light's 1/350 Enterprise 1701-A and NX-01. But them again, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Machinen Krieger (or Ma.K) we're talking about.

This kit is produced by Hasegawa and comes as injected moulded plastic, something which I feel very comfortable with. Of course there are other alternatives which this model could be made in, such as resin, vinyl or even vacuum-formed. But I have my problems with these since I have not mastered them nor like them very much.

Then again, plastic is, to me, easier to work with since I like the details on this model and I would very much like to light it up (not again).

These are sprues A, B abd C. Note the rear thrusters
which is located on the bottom right.

And these are the D, E and F sprues. Nothing special
about it until you see the seat details.

But before we do that, this is the picture of the last

sprue which are the parts for both the pilot and a
girl as an 'extra'. They both have extra heads and
the one for the pilot is very nice, which I can use
a LED or some fibre optic to light it up. The wires
can go through the body as they are actually
hollow.

Coming back to the rear thrusters, I took this pic
much earlier. Notice the difference between the
model part and the Vitagen bottle? Bruce theorised
that there is a possibility that the Vitagen being sold
in Japan could be smaller compared to the ones on
sale here. So, who is going to Japan, please get me a
Vitagen bottle, OK. But wash the bottle first.

This is one of the reason why I am starting to
warm up to the Falke instead of the Lunadiver.
(Of course I still want a Lunadiver). The detail
on this front dashboard says it all. Imagine how
it would look like when it is lighted up by a LED
from the back and maybe, some fibre optics for
that blinking effect. What? You can't imagine it?
Neither can I because I have yet to think up of
its colour scheme.

This other part, which is the underside detail for
the Falke's cockpit cover, was a possible seat for
the Pilot. I said was because it was just a wishful
thinking because the actual seat...

...is this one. Very plain and very.... well,.... buckety.

It lacks detail and looking at it, it does not look very
comfortable at all.

Now, this is what caught my attention. The seat's

headrest. If I were to turn this upside down, it
would look like one of those arcade headrest that
uses the Q-sound stereo speakers very common
in the late 90's. To me, they're just loud.

In case you cannot imagine, this is what I wanted it
to look like but them I would have to modify the
seat to accommodate the change.

So, I just had to settle being a good boy and follow
the instructions on the manual. Using the parts for
the pilot, I did a mock test and from what I can see,
the seat is very uncomfortable as he literally need
to crouch inside that seat.

At 1/20th scale it is very big. Personally, I think this
is the main reason why I like the Falke. The seat and
the cockpit's dashboards was just excellence by itself.

And if I were to do such a thing, this is the part which
I would start first and build the craft from there.

Test fitting of the seat onto the lower part of the
Falke's fuselage. In the instruction manual, it says
that you'll have to place the pilot in there first before
you seal up the two halves of the fuselage. This is
going to be a problem as I am still undecided if I
want the pilot to be in there or not.

The proof is evident in this photo. Once the two
halves are glued together, there is no way you
can remove the pilot figure in or out due to its
fixed sitting pose. So, this is going to be a
problem later on.

Although it looks nice, but I can't help the feeling
how ugly it looks from the side. This is because
although the model looks nice from the top and
also head on, but for me, it looks very bad from
the side. I will have to do something about this.

And once you have the pilot in there, the whole
cockpit would look very cramped. This is how it
looks like, without the head and the dashboard
panels on the side and the front.

With the sidewall (or is it fireproof insulation?) in place,
I can cover up most of the unwanted area inside since I
have no intention of putting anymore details inside. Like
Bruce said, once you close the hatch, whatever detailed
work you have done inside the cockpit can't be seen.

So, there is a problem with my Falke. Should I do cockpit details or just leave it?

1) With Details
I can light up the dashboards and also the Pilot's helmet plus some ambient red lights in there. Maybe put in some glowing and flashing lights would make the cockpit look nice. This would also mean I have to do some seat-belts too. And how to do this? My original plan was to show the Falke shot with aircraft machine gun with the pilot mortally injured while some extraction team was tying to set him free. Alas, Bruce said this has been done, but with a Lunadiver instead.

2) Without details
I can just put in some missile pods and call it a day because, without the details, I would now have the cockpit parts! Woo hoo!

Or, I would just wait for an idea to come by and also at the same time, look for spare cockpit set. Anyone has this that they do not want?

The Rabbit, the Cat and the Mouse

This style is very similar to Kristine's and this is natural since Kaelynn is younger than Kristine and so, copies whatever she does. But, this is the first time I have ever seen a rat and a rabbit drawing from either of them.

The rabbit (top left) and its carrot. The rat (bottom
left) with its cheese and well, the cat on the right
with nice eyelashes. Heck even the rabbit has some
eyelashes too...

Kaelynn's Drawing

In the last few moments, Kaelynn decided to follow Kristine and I for the Martial Arts Class. Before I would let her follow, I asked her what she wanted to do to while away the time and she answered that she wanted to do some drawing. So, after she has collected her stuff, we started our journey.

Kaelynn looking for inspiration for her next
masterpiece. She is very similar to me but
there is a slight difference in the sense that
I dig my nose instead of scratching it...

I like her style. This is a far departure
from when she was 'copying' Kristine's
style. Here, there is a bit of a similarity
because Kristine drew in that style too
but when you look at the faces and head,
this is very much her style.

Her next piece was to make a house. Which, is very
pretty too. But because of the fan above us, it was
very hard for the house to stand upright.

Next, she wanted to draw
something good. How?

Like this, lor...

Yep, this is her house and she wants to give it to me.

An evening at KFC

Right after the Workshop, I had to rush back to the house as we need to buy some workbooks for Kristine. But because I was driving like a snail, it was too late and we changed our plans to have dinner at KFC. It has been quite some time since we all ate together at KFC and so, it was agreed.

What I hated was that since we do not come here
often, the menu literally changes everytime we
are there. And so, it was a tough time choosing a
package which is just right for the four of us. So,
we settled for some mixed original and spicy 9
chicken pack with cheesy wedges. I feel funny
saying this.

I gave Kristine some skin from the Hot & Spicy
and told her it was not hot. Which, she took it
and agreed with me. She also agree that when
she does not like a certain hot food, it is hot...

It was time for another round of fries which
I included this weird cheesy volcano which
was nothing more than a hollowed out sausage
with cheese/herb mixture in it. Its crispy
on the outside and well, cheesy on the inside

And the girls really 'love' it. Yum-yum. Ha ha ha ha

Finally, their faces showed how much they liked
this trip to KFC.

And well, the night did not end there as after coming
home, they changed to pyjamas and then it was time
to relax with the air-con blasting away. I am not sure
if they ate the cucumbers after that, though.

SFTPMS LED Workshop Session 1

The Session for today is part 1 of 2 and so, I had to be there early to set up my stuff. Raymond was there and he was very helpful in making sure I did not have any problems setting up. Not only that, he has cleared the workshop just for these two Saturdays.

This was how it looked like before the class started.

Time for a break. My Mom packed some lunch for
me, which I misheard and thought it was bak-chang.
When I opened it, I have never seen a bak-chang
made in this shape and covered in pandan leaves....

That's when I realised, this was the Petai and prawn
sambal made by my Sister in Law weeks ago, and this
was the last one from the fridge. Knowing the fact if I
ate this now, I might get some very serious stomach
ache. But the petai was too tempting.... And it was
still not enough. Together with Razman, we went to
a reataurant where I had rice with dhal. Yum-yum!

Raymond has kindly supplied a lighted magnifier
for me just in case. It was very helpful later on. I
did use the CCTV camera for close-up soldering
but I think its resolution was not great enough
as when I looked at the screen, it was still very
blurry. Maybe, one day, I'll get those higher
resolutions one but then, it would be a waste
since I don't think I'll repeat this workshop.

By about 1445, all the members have arrived and
were setting up their equipment before the session
begins.

The first exercise of the day. Soldering practice where
each member has to solder five sets of resistors and if
there are any mistakes, they have to try again.

They have to do this before starting on the real
Projects where Failure was not an Option.

The act of soldering produces a lot of fumes and so,
Raymond demonstrates how an air-brush booth
can be used for this purpose as not only does it
have lights, there is a suction fan too.

For those who have made too much mistakes, they
have to remove the solder and resolder again.

Once that is done, with almost everyone having a
go at soldering, it was time to try with the first
project, which is a simple LED tester.

To some, it was difficult because the solder pads
in the boards were designed to be more compact
than a normal PCB. This was so that I can yield
more boards from a master size with minimum
cost. Loo CK was the first to master the kit.

Followed by Kenny

Then Harman

Vincent

Sonny, then Raymond and followed closely by
SACC33 and his wife.

All in all, it was a good day for the session and its still too early to get the feedback. But I think I did overhear about someone raising this workshop and going to a bar or something. Weird.

Its almost there... part II

Finally, the 12 boxes are all packed. But I am too tired to check every item and so, I have to trust the guys at the shop. Each box contains a lot of components which, I think, would have cost a lot more than it should. Still, this is my way for giving back to SFTPMS. I just hope that on that day, there were no last minute registration or whatsoever because to be honest, the thread is a bit weird. Sure you have a lot of people reading it but there were no replies. Even for days. Something which I am not used to, when in other Forums, the replies are very fast.

So, in each box has four industrial grade circuit
boards and components to make four projects,
plus one for soldering practice. If I were to put
a value to it, I think it would be RM135.

Kristine's Drawing

Me: What is this?
Kristine: It's a Unta
Me: What is Unta?
Kristine: Dunno
Me: Why you tick Unta?
Kristine: Dunno
Me: Unta is Malay for camel. Is this a camel?
Kristine: This is a cow
Me: So, why you tick Unta?
Kristine: Dunno.

After that, with her homework finished, she asked me
what drawing I like and so she could copy it for me. I
chose 'Hello Kitty' but she refused because it was hard

So I let her draw her own and this
this is what she came up with. I
must say, her drawing has clearly
changed again. It has evolved.

Yeah, she is please. Looking
at this picture, she looked as
if she is Kaelynn and vice versa.

Huff and Puff

OK, this is a puzzle. Sure it was raining but where

I came from, there was no strong winds nor any

signs of tonadoes. If it was a small accident, it

could be the reason but there was a break in the

barricades just a few metres before I took this pic.

Its almost there...

With the component list fully made up, its off to the shop for them to pack for me. Here, I got a nice surprised as he called me up while I was at a customer's and ask, if I wanted to put all the components into one big bag or, have them packed into bags, for ready individual person because from the looks of the list, he suspected it was the latter. Usually, shops do not do this as they just sell you the stuff and then that's it. So, there you go, guys, this shop is very different. Yay!

Here is the shot of the components being packed
into individual bags. This is for the first soldering
exercise.

When I left them, they're still packing the stuff,
even when it was their lunchtime.

Infected sticks

When my Dad related his incident about bringing a wooden pencil to Australia, I thought it was quite amusing. But then, Australia had its reason. they are not taking any chances with the possibility of Malaysian insects still living inside it. Heck, if let loose, they could threaten the Australian wildlife and in short, screw up the food-chain there.

And so, when I was at Mr. DIY here,
I noticed some weird powder in one
of the packets. These are wooden
skewers and no prize for guessing
where it came from.

One of the imported bugs inside the
packets. Unlike Australia, there is no
stringent checks for items like these.
Heck, it did not even occur to them
that such things could happen.

And so, hanging on the shelves, are these
wooden skewers, home to some foreign
insect which might or might not even be
a native insect, is eating the wood in there.

And what would happen you ask? Well, here is some likely scenario:

1) Someone would complain about the powder left on the shelves. The worker will take a look at it and if he is slightly more intelligent than the bug, he/she will do a 2+2 and look up and onto the packets.

2) The worker might notice this and call his/her Boss who will shout around and then call HQ or some other Bigger Boss who would just say, Baygon it and then dump it into the trash. The bugs enjoy a permanent migration to Malaysia.

3) Some idiot Engineer who writes blogs would return to the scene a week later and end up buying them because he is too cheap to simulate rotten wood for his models.

What am I doing?

I have no idea what I was doing, taking photos of a urinal with others looking bemused. I must be going nuts...

But I mean, look at the texture of the hole and all.
Its very very nice, as if it was a former Sarlacc Pit...

One damn good Nasi Lemak

Not sure what was so special about this Nasi Lemak at Jalan 19/1. But I can tell you this; I was so engrossed with it, I was not aware about a huge truck coming out...

A Coke (no Permanis), the last packet of Nasi Lemak
and a hard boiled egg...

And then this truck reversed in, about 8 feet from us
with that fella guiding him. Oh, it cause a huge traffic
jam from both sides too.

Come to think of it, maybe I was hungry after all....