Siggi

My god, I could go professional at making stuff look like s**te with photography! If yours looks that good in a photo it must be stunning in the flesh.

Ah, that is superb! I can only imagine how it looks in the flesh. Suggestions...gloss the eyeballs (assuming they're not already done and it's just the photo), and maybe make some reflective points on some of the hardware (bright gloss-points on metal). I've done only one proper figure in my modelling 'career', a 1/24th SS soldier. Ain't that camo a biyatch! :D I'll post a pic in a while. He's a bit damaged, I did it over 20 years ago and only recently got it back from my mother. I've also done some 1/6th Dragon dolls (basically an action-man with real fabric clothing which cried out for weathering, as did the hardware). I'll post a pic of one of those as well.

The salt is used as a mask. When it's removed it's supposed to leave the undercoat exposed as if the top coat has worn and chipped. I'm going off it though as it often produces questionable results. The tubes and wires etc are made from anything I can find. I've collected a lot of stuff over time, sourced from many weird and wonderful places as well as obvious ones. On the ground next to telephone junction boxes is one, hospitals is another (I raided the rubbish bin when my kids were being born). After 40-odd hours spent super-detailing this motor (including a fair bit of revision/rectification work) I'm not sure the result so far has justified the effort. Sure, it looks a bit better than an OOB example, but 40 hours better? There's still a fair way to go however, so I'll suspend my final judgement.

So, the latest pics. Photos really have a way of making stuff look crap, but hey ho. The engine is ready to go into the cradle.

There will be some pics added to that link later today. The engine and cradle are not far from completion.

Not with that poxy gunsight in the face, I loathe those things.

16th Jan 1917. What a morning! We have our new Tripes and what a whizzo little bird she is! Just got back from our first patrol and it was a real wing ding. A bunch of Albs took us on and soon wished they hadn't. I was all over mine but I somehow managed to fly in front of him as he stalled during a sharp climb and he sprayed some rounds in my direction, a few of which hit and damaged the engine. I made off but there were planes all around me, and as the engine was still pulling strongly, despite coughing and spluttering, I went after another Alb. Well wouldn't you know it, it seems the hun has been given a new type also, it was an Alb but it had rounded tips on the main-planes. And this bugger had an all-green tail and didn't he know how to fly. I managed to get behind him but I couldn't stay there long enough to get a decent burst into him. And then I had to let him go as another DII got behind me and chased me off. I got behind him after a couple of turns and let him have it. And such joy, a decent gun with a decent number of rounds and a clear view over the sights. I went around on my hun a few times and pasted him on each pass until he went down into the lines. I made off after that and got back home without further incident, to be informed two of my claims have been rejected. Well try this one I thought. I shall try to find out who the chaps are with the green tails, or if the one I encountered is a known ace. Would have been a coup to have brought him down, whoever he was, in his shiny new plane.

In the UK pink was for boys and blue for girls, up until the 20s/30s.

Looks like Puff had the perspective correct all along (right wings looking abnormally long).

Insane skills: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39122

I installed everything from scratch without running anything, seemed to work fine.

14th Jan 1917. Furnes. Went up this afternoon on a balloon raid, in absolutely horrendous weather. I hit the gasbag with two rockets on my first pass and the blighter went down in flames. We were re-grouping when a bunch of Albs came in and we got stuck in. I latched onto one but he would just keep climbing in a circle and I could never get close enough. Then his pal joined in and I decided to make a run for the lines. I got over ok and the chap behind looked to be a fair way off. I then saw a plane a couple of miles ahead and decided to look him over and he turned out to be another Alb. I got nice and close behind him, he was oblivious to my presence. Put a long burst into him and then got the fright of my life when the chap who had been chasing me did likewise to me. A shower of hits all over and I put the nose down hard and cork-screwed to the ground. I was then chased for a good couple of miles until I turned around and went at him. Got behind him, pulled the trigger and nothing, the blasted gun had jammed. Nose down and run for it again, flying between trees and making for the nearest freindly field. Old hun couldn't get his guns to bear on me so I was feeling quite chipper, until the engine coughed and then burst into flames! I was only a few feet from the ground at that point, so I cut the ignition, put her down and jumped out before she'd even stopped rolling. The fire went out but the plane is in pretty poor shape. Hoorah! I doubt they'll find me another before the Tripes arrive. I was jolly tempted to set the bugger alight again. Well, after that I trudged through a couple of miles of rotten snow until I reached a road and cadged a lift. The CO sent the Sq bus out to pick me up, congratulated me on my gasbag and gave me a bit of a stare when I told him I'd written off another Nupe. He asked me if I have shares in the company, whatever that means. I'm going to get proper tiddly now.

Ah well, I'm just a young English lad abroad for his first time and doesn't know his arse from his elbow.

13th January 1917. They've had me on liason duties with the artillery chaps the last couple of weeks, which has been a godsend as it means I've avoided flying that horrible little plane. But I'm back at the field now and it looks like I'll be back on flying duties as soon as I'm found a plane. Rumour has it the Tripe is due any day now.

For the modellers amongst us, got this for Christmas and have been at it for the last few days. Early days yet but it's getting there. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42185

Bloody Nora Puff, those are both superb!

There's an amazing resemblance of your gradfather to Uncle (Christopher Plummer) in Aces High.

Maybe it's just me flying like a doofus, but whenever I pull tight turns in OFF while pursuing a target I find my gunsight goes off-line and I have to physically move my head to bring it back in line. It is, in effect, exactly as if g-forces were pulling my head out of line with the sight.

I suspect if OFF, or any other full-sized map sim, implemented the graphical finery of WoP it would slow to a crawl in the FPS dept. Which is why ArmA doesn't have the graphics of CoD (for example).

No, you don't have to register anything, that was just an install message.

I didn't say they were tiny, I asked. But I guessed they probably were.

You don't need 1 and 2, BH&H is a standalone product. BH&H Super-patch 1.32 Mini-patch (hotfix) 1.32g Expansion HitR (optional) HitR patch. Edit: You do have CFS3 installed and patched?

Is it photo-realistic with smooth-as-butter FPS because the maps are tiny?

Panzer Blitz was made by Avalon Hill.