Real life thread

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
A while ago (before my cancer), my son Jared and myself took a wilderness drive on the Magruder Corridor Trail between Idaho and Montana. It's one of the most remote, and most beautiful drives you can take.

I decided to document it in pictures on Flickr and wanted to share the album. It is absolutely one of the greatest wilderness drives you can take in the lower 48. But beware. Only go after mid-July, and before October...and be sure to have 10 ply tires and two spare tires...just in case.

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Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Well, I just bit the bullet and put the money down to buy the 1/350 scale USS Texas, BB-35 battleship.

She served in world War I and World War II, and is the last surviving dreadnought ballteship, on display as a museum ship in the Houston area. She is a very historical vessel.

I visited the actual ship last year. see
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regarding that visit:.


14715808907_26963d4064_c.jpg

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You can also see my post on SD about that visit:

HERE ON THIS USS TEXAS THREADhttps://www.sinodefenceforum.com/history-of-the-uss-texas-names-in-the-us-navy.t6285/#post-300224https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/history-of-the-uss-texas-names-in-the-us-navy.t6285/#post-300224

Recently Trumpeter came out with the 1/350 injected molded platic model kit of her, and my favority online model shop. Free-Time Hobbies was having a sale on just receiving the new model kits. I coudn't help myself..


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[ur]
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I am really excited to get the kit in the mail (probably in the next 10 days or so), and then to build her and will have a thread for that build here on SD when the time comes.

Here's some more pics from the kit:

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And here's a video of my visit to the real thing:

 
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Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
Well, I just bit the bullet and put the money down to buy the 1/350 scale USS Texas, BB-35 battleship.

She served in world War I and World War II, and is the last surviving dreadnought ballteship, on display as a museum ship in the Houston area. She is a very historical vessel.

I visited the actual ship last year. see
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
regarding that visit:.


14715808907_26963d4064_c.jpg

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

You can also see my post on SD about that visit:

HERE ON THIS USS TEXAS THREAD

Recently Trumpeter came out with the 1/350 injected molded platic model kit of her, and my favority online model shop. Free-Time Hobbies was having a sale on just receiving the new model kits. I coudn't help myself..


View attachment 16742
[ur]
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

I am really excited to get the kit in the mail (probably in the next 10 days or so), and then to build her and will have a thread for that build here on SD when the time comes.

Here's some more pics from the kit:

View attachment 16744

View attachment 16743

View attachment 16745

View attachment 16746


And here's a video of my visit to the real thing:


a "dreadnought" with a seaplane, how much more fun could you have?
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
a "dreadnought" with a seaplane, how much more fun could you have?
Well, she carried two OS2U Kingfishers in World War II (a Vought aircraft I might proudly add). You can see them both in this photo from the Pacific in 1944 (between the two masts, sitting on top of the center 14" gun turret there).

bb35-01.jpg

In WW II she was in combat and earned combat stars in North Africa, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

This girl got around!
 

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
Well, she carried two OS2U Kingfishers in World War II (a Vought aircraft I might proudly add). You can see them both in this photo from the Pacific in 1944 (between the two masts, sitting on top of the center 14" gun turret there).

View attachment 16759

In WW II she was in combat and earned combat stars in North Africa, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

This girl got around!
Wow, I would hate to be in the "flying bridge" in any kind of a sea? did they climb a ladder in that leg, or was there an elevator? no doubt the elevator ride in the cockpit would be a wild one as well? as I am assuming the pilot stayed in the cockpit during the crane ride? to the water and off the water?

hate to show my lack of knowledge, but that is just an awesome ship? I would have been in Okinawa in 1960, there was a tomb behind our house, and we made a trip to a place called "suicide cliff"? a local shrine where soldiers jumped instead of surrendering?

oh and those "kingfishers" are very cool, would have to be a "tough bird" to live through all of that? Not to mention launching and recovering off the open sea?? we call them sea planes, but you could have a definite hard water problem, sometimes an "oil slick" was laid just to minimize the "white caps"?
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Wow, I would hate to be in the "flying bridge" in any kind of a sea? did they climb a ladder in that leg, or was there an elevator? no doubt the elevator ride in the cockpit would be a wild one as well? as I am assuming the pilot stayed in the cockpit during the crane ride? to the water and off the water?
Okay, here's a little walk down memory lane.

The OS2U Kingfisher was a scout aircraft and was used for several roles.

It could carry some light ordinance for either ASW (two 325 lb depth charges) or harassment duties (two 100 lb bombs), and it did have guns for self defense (a 30mm gun operated by the piliot and a 30mm gun aft for the radioman).

But mainly it was tasked with three things:.

1) Find the enemy and scout them.
2) Help with spotting for shore bombardment.
3) Find downed US pilots and either point them out, or help them. (SAR)

Here's some pics:

An OS2U Kingfisher mounted on its catapult:
0s2u-01.jpg

An OS2U Kingfisher rescuing downed American pilots at sea:
0s2u-02.jpg

An OS2U Kingfisher landing at sea:
0s2u-03.jpg

AN OS2U Radioman hooking up for lift onto their ship:
0s2u-04.jpg

An OS2U Kingfisher being lifted onto their ship:
0s2u-05.jpg
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Well, I upgraded to Windows 10. It's the first time since before Windows XP that I upgraded to the most recent Windows operating system without either waiting 6 months, or waiting for the first service pack. Quite frankly, I stayed on Windows XP Service Pack 2 until I wnet to Windows 7 a little over two years ago.

Anyhow, why did I do this?

Three reasons.

1) It was free.
2) I had upgraded to Winodws 8.1 over a year ago, but did not ike the lack of a start menu and how all of that worked (among other things) and since they were bringing those back, I thought, "What the heck?"
3) It has the new Miscrosoft Edge browser and I wanted to see how that was.

I started by making an image copy of my existing system onto a 1 tb external drive. (I have two 1 Tb extrenal drives, one for image backups and the other for file backups). That way I can go back quickly at anytime I want if I think I need to.

So, I then reserved my copy by responding to one of the on screen prompts, which placed the Windos 10 App on my tray. T then got an email confirming and asking me if I wanted to download it in background when it was available. They indicated it might be several weeks in the roll out before it was available for my machine and O/S. So I said yes.

Three days later, on Friday, August 7, I got the notification that the Software had downloaded (3 Gb) and I could install it. I arranged to have it installed Friday overnight, after 11 PM.

I woke up Saturday to a new O/S and logged in. It goes through the normal windows type set up. When it was done, I had my same desktop screen with all of the icons where I had left them, but I had the new Start Menu which I like a lot better than the windows 8 routine. I fired up Edge and found that it was fast, and allowed for a quick update to bring over all my favorites and settings. I have to say that Edge is working faster for me than Explorer. One issue is that the Favorites Bar does not have an Icons only view yet. Apparently there has already been a large outcry and Microsoft is working on it...but editing the Favorites Icons and adding short names was an easy fix for me and so I did that.

For the last two days I have put probably 10-12 hours into working on my system and I have to say, so far I am satisfied. We will see what the long term brings.

I will start a separate thread in the members club room for people to relate their experiences and to see if we can help one another (for those upgrading) if there are any issues.)
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Woo-hoo! My USS Battleship Texas in 1/350 scale came yesterday already! I got home from work and my wife had it there waiting for me!

I am working on a 1/72 scale EA-18G Growler right now, and hope to finish it this weekend...then it will be immediately on to this baby!

Quite frankly...I feel like a little kid and want to just set that other aside and jump into this baby. but I will restrain myself and wait...but just barely, LOL!

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As I build it I will have a SD Build thread all about it.
 
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