SPA Modeler

That's it! I'm giving up modeling kits! Gonna take up quilting instead! Very nice work and attention to the finest detailing.

Thanks guys! Back from fishing and I'm pretty tired still.

speedgraflex wrote:Have you fished the Owens River? The east slope of the Sierras is to the North, the White Mountains are to the South. Ansel Adams took the photo "Morning Light" from the town of Bishop. Good spot for trout, if that is what you are getting ready to do.

BACK TO THE BUILD.

I spent my lunch break today with the first part of your thread; the ammo chutes. It was a great break. Now It is after dinner and I am catching up on your latest piece of progress. I like that you are opening up the paneling a little in all the right ways; I feel there is a bit of improvisation to your choices which suits the build of the plane itself. Am I off target here and this is all planned? I like what is happening a lot because the structural details are coming alive in areas where visual cues are important. Your work looks amazing, John!

I am not a fly fisherman but have fished the Rock Creek area a few times.


But yesterday was a bass fishing trip to Barrett Lake here in San Diego County. It was a slow day and I only managed to catch and release nine largemouth bass. Compare that with my April trip to the same lake when we caught 219 between two of us.


Bruce... to your question regarding choices. Some things are planned while others are spur of the moment. The boarding ladder opening was something that I neglected to do on my last 1/32 Dora build. I chose to leave the boarding ladder off completely rather than just tacking it on. So it was on my mind to hollow out the opening for this build. Fabricating the ammo chutes was more of a spontaneous decision. I was actually leaning on leaving the chutes alone until Carlos posed the question, "Are you going to open up the spent ammunition chutes as well?"

I was just wondering...
Pay no mind to the guy with movie delusions...

Man that looks like a great place to visit and fish. San Diego county? Is that out towards Alpine?

Stikpusher wrote:

I was just wondering...
Pay no mind to the guy with movie delusions...

Man that looks like a great place to visit and fish. San Diego county? Is that out towards Alpine?

Hey, sometimes it takes a comment to jar us into doing something worthwhile. It WAS on my mind but I was grateful for a little motivation to push me to action.

Yeah, Barrett is just a little east and south of Alpine. It is a pretty cool lake and great place to fish. It is operated by the City of San Diego and is one of the few lakes to hold northern strain Largemouth Bass exclusively. It is strictly catch and release with a limited season (May through September, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday only). Tickets are sold through Ticketmaster so there is a maximum cap on the number of anglers that can fish there on any given day. Because of the catch and release policy and the limited angling pressure, fishing there can be phenomenal. The wildlife there is pretty neat too. Very common to see deer and coyote along the shoreline. Sometimes you'll see a bobcat. There are ospreys and a pair of bald eagles that regularly roost there.

What bait are you using? I use my bro-in-law's Buckala Bait system. Catches Bass every single time and never ever lost a lure. Send me a PM and I'll send you a couple riggings. I do the riggings al the time and it's easy to do.

BlackSheep214 wrote:What bait are you using? I use my bro-in-law's Buckala Bait system. Catches Bass every single time and never ever lost a lure. Send me a PM and I'll send you a couple riggings. I do the riggings al the time and it's easy to do.

Now THAT"s a hard question to answer. On a slow days, we usually resort to throwing our whole tackle box at the fish. This past Saturday, I recall throwing an assortment of topwater lures (Whopper Plopper, Dog-X, frog), a spinnerbait, a squarebill crankbait, weightless senkos, weighted senkos, various texas-rigged plastics (beavers and similar creature baits), dropshot rig with a small finesse worm, swimbait... I'm sure I've forgotten some.

Coincidentally, one of things that eventually led me back to scale modeling was busting out my dusty airbrush and trying my hand at painting lures for fishing.

I take it that you enjoy fishing John...

Thanks for the information on that lake. I looked it up online. I've only been down that way once a bit over 20 years ago. And based on that trip I'm a bit surprised to see that setting in that area. That is quite nice.

That's one big @$$ fish for dinner! LOL!!!

Hey Bruce... I love raptors! Another carryover from my childhood. When I visit Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, I am always on the lookout for birds of prey on our long bus rides. During the first two years, I was surprised at the lack of them. This year I was speaking to a local about it and he mentioned that he sees them all of the time. WHERE? I asked. In the trees. I had been looking in the sky since that is where I see most of the hawks in southern California. And yup, as soon as I started looking in the trees, I began to see birds of prey. The best shot I managed to get was not very good but I was able to make a preliminary ID.



This appears to be a Rough-legged hawk (Buteo lagopus). What's interesting about this bird is that it makes its home in Central Asia, where I saw it, as well as in the United States. I thought that was cool... traveling half-way around the world to see a hawk that lives in California!

Yes, Carlos, you guessed correctly. I do like fishing!

Blacksheep... that California Halibut was my personal best at 35 inches long. I released it in good health.