Posts by Gman

I know there are some model builders here, just wondering if any of you have experience building fairly complicated sailing ship models.

I'm in between newb and intermediate in terms of model building ability, and I want to pick up the Heller model of the HMS Victory and build it for a start of a ship display in my office to compliment the aircraft. It's 2300 pieces, and to me looks complicated as shit to build. Anyone here do something like this, or have experience in something similar? Am I biting off more than I can chew not being a pro modeler? I'd like to build some battleships, carriers, and other surface combatants as well eventually.

https://www.amazon.com/Heller-…el-Building/dp/B0002HZZ42

Due to skill (lack of) level, would I be better off buying a pre built model of Victory?

https://www.wayfair.ca/Old-Modern-Handicrafts-HMS-Victory-Mid-Size-Ee-Model-Ship-T033-L1191-K~OMH1126.html?refid=GX185871351059-OMH1126&device=c&ptid=258098233615&targetid=pla-258098233615\\

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My friend's mother is the manager at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver, I don't recall anything spectacular about the mattresses, but it's been a few years since I stayed there.

You really need to try before you buy - I've bought my mother 1/2 dozen different mattresses since she got sick, as she's been bedridden now for a couple years. A few of the "super foam" twin XL to fit her hostiptal adjustable bed, none were that great for the $500 ish they all seem to cost or more. I spent $2000 on a pillow top mattress, but the squares of the pillow top aggravated the places where the cancer was in between her vertebrae.

I got the firmest mattress I could find, and it took a while to get used to it, but now I can't sleep on anything else, as the m missus demanded that, and I was either a water bed or super soft mattress sleeper. IMO you can get used to anything, after a few weeks. The firm seem to last a lot longer, but it sure did suck getting accustomed to this one.

I think the water bed type route is smart, I grew up sleeping on the old 80s style water bed, my father built a large wooden frame and bought the bladder when I was about 8, and I slept on it until I left home at 17. It was great. The first place I lived in Calgary had a queen size water bed in the room I rented, and that was fantastic too. If I was alone, I'd probably switch back.

I think Milo is right, when you watch the in cockpit video, it supports this too, you can see the locking cue in the HUD just jump over the command truck, and ZAP, insta fires. Interesting mode of fire, unless obviously the crew screws up the switchology and this happens.

A lot of the folding fin air rockets, or any rocket/missile, are well over mach 1.8, and considering a 556 or 30 cal round is only going a few hundred FPS faster than that - yes, rockets are very, very fast. They Hydra family of rockets for example reach 2500fps very, very quickly out of the pod, and that's .303 rifle velocity. You sure wouldn't have time to react, other than your brain to tell itself "oh shit". Looking at the effects of the US FFAR rockets and other Soviet era ones in various vids, the explosions from those would have wiped those other cars and guys with the camera right off the map. Lucky they weren't antipersonnel flechette rounds that the pilot had his negligent discharge with....

I've seen armored glass fracture yet stop rounds, many times. Funny thing - there are only 3 companies certified to make the armored glass used by the US and NATO gov/military agencies, but there are literally hundreds that make the armor plate and inserts in the vehicle bodies. They cheap out here. I've posted pics of the BMWs my company used on the old site, they are level 7 standard. When stitched one day by 2 PK machine guns with AP ammo, the windows stopped every round. The rear panels in the passenger doors failed, when they were rated for 762x54 AP and higher. My boss would have been dead had he not just got a Paracleet wraparound armor kit, which stopped one of the rounds that got through the car's body armor.

RazBam's AV8B Harrier manual, at least a pre production/early access version is available to read if anyone is interested in getting ahead of things. I read a bunch of it this morning, going to be a great module.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rwxk…20Pocket%20Guide.pdf?dl=0

I saw this today and came to post it too - Reporters, NYET!

I was surprised to the low effects, the camera guy was so close you would figure he should have been peppered with secondary fragments, same with the nearby vehicles. Maybe the were low yield training warheads, or just HE with limited blast/frag pattern.

Anyone using SMS for Bitcoin as well should be cautious, the SMS/Cell network has been completely compromised, so counting of 2 factor ID using text/phones is out the window now.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/t…itcoin-hack/#59707b5a41a4

Also heard one on XM yesterday, selling a land title lock service, all it takes is a bit of personal info, forging some docs/signatures, and hackers can use your equity on your home titles to take out huge amounts of cash setting up fake HELOCs and shit like that.

Seems nothing is truly safe. I keep a lot of cash and gold very securely hidden, but it's just a tiny fraction of our assets, the title one scares me, as the only time you'll know is when you get hit was lawsuits or liens, even seizure orders. I'm looking into the title lock service this week, and if it's less than $30 a month I'll be doing that, as I have 3 now I need to secure now that my mother has been placed in pallative and I have full power of attorney now.

Hackers suck, get a fucking job FFS, even drug dealing, something, anything other than ruining someone else's life, hurting their kids especially. No mercy, Chinese justice for them, gunshot to head, send bill for round of ammunition and execuioner's salary for the day to the next of kin.

I've listened to Jocko's since he was on Rogan's, I have a tweet that he answered back that I sent him, saying he should start his own podcast after he was first on Rogan's. He still wakes up at 4:30 every day and tweets a picture of his watch as he hits his weight pile. Guy is a machine still at his age, and has many wise things to say and intelligent opinions I usually agree with.

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There's no indication they were illegal. There's many things you can call it, but illegal may not be part of it.

True, without more info it's possible they weren't illegal, although I can't imagine how. With no warrant, wiretaps aren't legal, nor is any comms monitoring by law enforcement. What crimes could the victims here be suspected of that a judge would sign off on a warrant is the question then - it looks more and more like just one political group wanted intel on another, not that Obama or any in the justice dept or administration were concerned about illegal acts or espionage at that point (ie "the Russians").

Not a question of fair, illegal wiretaps are a felony. Typical liberal hypocrisy, had a conservative group or person illegally wiretapped Brother Obama, they'd be in prison.

Joe Rogan, a few military and shooting ones, some poker casts, and a few sci if ones. I like them better than audio books on the road.

Big improvement tonight with ep 02 for The Orville. I laughed more than a few times.

Adrienne Palicki = teh hawt, Lady Jaye in GI Joe, only good thing about that was her ass in that film, she was good in John Wick too.

I've only shot about 50 rounds through one - it's an interesting design, there are benefits for the rotating barrel system, and since they've used better materials so the lugs which sheered so often on the 92 models in the past are now stronger, reliability and especially longevity should really, really spike up. The trigger I did find sort of odd, I know there are aftermarket mods for that though. The magazines were very tight, we only get 10 rounds up here, but the one I shot was a CBSA (border/customs guards) pistol with full up magazines, and he can't get the last 3 rounds in either of his 3 issue mags.

Specifically about the rotating barrel design, it's supposed to eat up energy rotating instead of all of it being transferred back into your hand thus lowering recoil, also increasing accuracy due to being more linear and consistent, and mostly less muzzle flip that is just inherent to the design, not sure of the actual physics of it, but it's true from the few rounds I put through it, very straight and light push, almost all to the rear, very little flip up, at least in the smaller caliber.

It has a pretty low bore axis, points well, very, very accurate with the barrel system and with a bit of experience with the trigger, or mods to it, has very fast follow up shot capability. A shooter I really respect who worked for Sig Saeur while i was there and was a sponsored shooter who won every IDPA title out there with a Sig 220, Ernest Langdon, shoots for Beretta now and swears by the PX4, says it's 5x better than the G19 in terms of accuracy and general shootability. I really like the dimensions, and the low bore axis points great for me when I shot it, off a bench at about 20m or so I was really impressed with a couple 5 shot groups strings I shot with it with duty issued ammo the CBSA used, he wouldn't let me run anything else through it as their armorer has cats if they do that.

I think if it fits your hand, points well for you, and you like the ergos/etc, it's a great option everyone including me forgets about in the G19/etc/etc sized typical CCW/issue combat 9mm handgun discussion. I'd absolutely want to check the mags first or get new ones that will fill to capacity if I was looking at one though, be sure to check that as it's a common problem similar to the early Gen 1 large caliber 45/10mm Glocks back in the day.

It has one of the same faults as the 92 series what with the safety position and function, very easy to accidentally engage it when doing a clearance drill or any slide manipulations, just something to be aware of. IIRC they were going to make a "decock" only version like the Beretta models Wilson Combat makes, that'd be what I'd get if it's available, for sure, who needs a safety with a DA/SA handgun anyway dammit.

If you want a Kimber IMO try and find one manufactured prior to 2005 or so. My company had a real tight relationship with them, I was the Kimber pistol and rifle national distributor for Canada, and they built me whatever I wanted custom as well back then. Their QC was fantastic back then, out of the thousands of handguns and rifles of theirs I imported, it was one tenth of one percent that had any issues at all, truly a huge value for the $ compared to others back then. Back then the Smith 1911 barrel crowns literally looked like someone did them with a hacksaw, and Springfields were so crunchy that you would swear every model had sand and rocks in the slide/frame rails.

What's happened is Kimber's quality slide, while everyone else improved. There are tons of makers like Baer, Wilson Combat, and Knighthawk that are factory/custom type deals that you can get a great 1911 for 2$k or more, but if you can find an early serial number Kimber of any variant, TLE, Gold Match/Combat, Super Match, whatever, that hasn't been shot out, it's often a great deal and way to go still. Even some new ones are great, it's just you need to really carefully check them all out before buying IMO. Kimber makes a great 9mm 1911 too, as much as I've been a 45/1911 shooter, my favorite 1911 I own is my 9mm Knighthawk with the bushingless barrel.

I have large hands as well, but find the 1911 fits them OK, there are 5 major and 10 minor factors in the hand in terms of size and shape, so it depends on where and how your hands are large/small in terms of fit and comfort with various types of shapes. For me the 1911 is long/wide/narrow in all the right places, although if I haven't shot one for a while and have been training with 9mm double stack autos, the 1911 always feels like a pencil in my hands for a bit again.

Good used Kimber if you're looking for a mid/higher end model, this is exactly what I'd go after and I've had several Super Matches, one made to my own specs that was more of a Super Combat with fixed sights instead of the adjustables.

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/696808225

This too:

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/696357822

Or this for $1000, if he took $900 or 850 it'd be a great deal.

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/694326238

Kimber truly deserves a lot of credit, they are mostly responsible for bringing the 1911 "back", when they came out with their first line, it was just a few makes and other than the Colt Match models, there wasn't a lot of options other than really expensive custom guys. Seeing Kimber's huge success - I sold 200+retail handguns alone some months and 100s of wholesale just in piddly Canada alone - other makes jumped in, and progress and innovation went up, and cost came down. Kimber just grew so fast that their QA suffered in middle years because of it IMO. My very favorite bolt action rifle I own is a Kimber 22 250 for varmint shooting.

"What kind of hand is your friend with a gun?". Always liked this scene from the first episode of Deadwood.

"They was all screamin in squarehead!". Hahaha. Screaming in squarehead. Cracks me up every time.

MurderFace, I've been waiting to watch that, I'll do it today. Ben Foster was in "Lone Survivor", and if you watch the "making of" film of that movie, he took to shooting/tactics like a duck to water, it was really impressive to see a pretty liberal actor actually get right into shooting and all the techniques like that. He's a gun owner now, there are articles out there about it and him. Notice how his eyes don't blink when he squeezes off rounds? Pro.

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his heart attack could have distracted him that could have caused errors at Gettysburg.

We Are The Mighty (great site btw) had an article just this week that had medical historians discussing how all of Lee's actions pointed directly to symptoms of a heart attack and some other medical thingamajig, as in exact diagnosis as close as they could do today, based on what had been written about his symptoms and behaviors just prior to Gettysburg.

I always loved this line from the Gettysburg/Gods and Generals films - I believe it was the Longstreet character who said it "we should have freed the slaves first, THEN fired on Ft Sumter". If only they had done it, many in the South knew that slavery was coming to an end just based on economics alone. Imagine what would have happened had the Southern states acted first, and put the "freed" slaves into their ranks. Many blacks fought for the South as is, imagine how the ranks would have swollen had they been offered what blacks in the North were, and first. I'm not saying it wouldn't have been without its problems, but obviously Longstreet just having said that, it was on many a Southerners mind already.

The civil war can be laid right at the feet of Lincoln and his government IMO. They were the aggressors, raised troops, wouldn't leave or issue orders for troops to leave at Sumter, an invasion of its own at that point, one without having to have moved any troops. In no place did "freeing the slaves" ever come up in Lincoln and the North's rallying in the early days of the war.

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The North went to war to preserve the union.

After the South seceded to preserve slavery.

To what twat has said - it's actually not all that out there, but with one critical omission, and what I firmly believe is this: The North BEGAN the war, for whatever reason, and yes to preserve the union is near the top of the list. The South defended itself, and yes, that includes institutions and traditions it had including slavery. Had the North had from the beginning been saying they were going to war to free slaves, I could almost swallow Twat's party line, but it didn't, that came much later in the war, and was nothing more than an astute political maneuver at that point. Look how the North treated the slaves it "freed", hilarious, and as others said, the Indians may have something to chime in with regarding the "peaceful and reasonable North".

What Sherman did was worse than anything anyone had done on the continent of North America up until that point.

I thought it was pretty lukewarm, only laugh was also in the previews, running and cutting the alien blob in half in the corridor. Family Guy it is not. Creator is super SJW liberal sometimes too which = the ghey. Maybe it'll improve.

His western comedy was a let down too. You can only ride Stewie's voice so long brah........

Last time he made me laugh is when he did the Oscars with Shatner's ST skit.

I always perk up when they start throwing the "unclassified" word around. DAMN YOU. WANT TO KNOWWWW. Seriously, so much cool shit we aren't allowed to know, someday I hope that changes in some way, not that I want our guys and kids in harms way over civilians having access to stuff that puts them at risk, just a change in the whole dynamic.

Eagl and frequently Mace over at HTC would frequently do this in various ways, you could tell that they could make their arguments SO easily, just IF they could spill a little more info, in so many posts, I have most of the good ones saved, particularly the F35/Stealth ones Mace posted. What a shame he left the game, such a fantastic resource, a Top Gun instructor who loved sim flying and discussing it anytime, I have a pile of PMs that I should post with so much great stuff, but wouldn't do it without his OK first.

Just a thread for games is cool and the gang for me.

DCS = win this next year or so. They're going to sell that Hornet module like gangbusters, and IMO the F14 will even sell more I'd bet. That'll give them some resources to make even more cool shit. On the Blue Force server, it still bakes my brain what it's come to in the online sim world - it's amazing, back in my C64 and early days of Janes and Microprose sims, it's all I could have ever dreamed of. Now with VR, and in a couple years hopefully VR that doesn't look like shit in order to have it...good times.

Bill Jordan is a legend in the business, and he's as valid today as back then, culture and tech have just changed a bit is all. Mindset is something he absolutely preached, and it's hands down item numero uno on the list before anything.

I used to try and match his .27 double action and couldn't do it, I could pull those times as a kid doing single action/fast draw, but was always in the 3's at best for a DA handgun. I read everything he wrote as a kid. I got to meet Jeff Cooper, but not Jordan, and would have liked to have, and chewed his ear off for days.

My school adopted his position on cross draw (and by relation, shoulder holsters) as well, even while seated in a vehicle, or at a card table, whatever, there are better options (ie ankle, and others) than cross drawing and the extra hangups that come with that. I'm sure if you train anything enough you can make it work, just statistically and "overall" going past your centerline is always going to be slower, more prone to fumbles and hangups, and so on.