Model Forum / General / Models / July 2007

The strange visions the Testors liquid cement brings on; I once wrote a
posting about that. in regards to the Ertl re-release of the AMT
multiple space rocket set:

" XXX wrote

makes

it is

For some reason that I never did figure out, the kit included one or
more of both the CSM and LM- what makes this strange is that they were
molded on a separate "tree" from the rest of the rockets; as AMT sold
them as a separate kit unto themselves. (Whoop-tee-doo for the young
space enthusiast who's parents gave him this tiny gift rather than the
Almost God-like Revell Saturn V; or wonderful Apollo/Lem kit with upper
S-IV B stage and escape tower in 1/48th scale... I say that we track
down the address of every Commie-Loving Pinko Parent who thought that
they COULDN'T afford a DECENT Apollo model for little Timmy; and have
Buzz beat them to within an inch of their Miserable Red Lives- so it may
have meant taking a second job....would you prefer Timmy to be a ROCKET
SCIENTIST...or some DOPE SMOKING, ANTI-MOON HIPPY because YOU couldn't
spring for the few extra dollars that the child needed for a REAL model
of an Apollo?! My parents bought me THE GOOD ONES, and as Monogram
Models assured us on the side of their model kit boxes: "A Boy's Future
Begins With Model Building....".... ABSOLUTELY FUKIN' RIGHT, MONOGRAM! I
remember those days... frantically gluing and painting those wonderful
models in our tiny unventilated kitchen dinette, woozy as hell from the
fumes of the Testor's paint and plastic model cement, and thinking:
"THIS IS HOW MY FUTURE BEGINS- I DON'T NEED DRUGS!"...and from the
ceiling, Wernher von Braun would reach down to congratulate me on my
civic patriotism, and place his winged, purple-clawed hand into my
translucent twelve-fingered one.....excuse me....I seem to be drifting a
bit.)
I have no good explanation for why the the extra ones are in the kit-
they showed up in their separate kit form by the dozens once at our
local Surplus Center Store, being sold for 50 cents each- maybe ERTL had
so many left around the warehouse that they stuck them into the kits
just to get rid of them, and add a little extra heft to the box.

Pat"

That, and battle the Sea Hag. ;-)

Pat

I'll second that...I dwell in the Mojave, where sunglasses aren't an
option...and even though docs will tell you that diet plays no role in
Crohn's, anyone that actually has the disease will definately tell you
different.

I've had 20/15 or better vision until I was 42, and a GDX of my eyes
show I have a retinal neural density which is enough above average to
get my doc's attention - even in a community of fighter pilots.  I can
see 20/20 or better with glasses now (astigmatic correction only), but I
still feel like I'm handycapped in comparision to the eagle-eyes I had
before.

Unfortunately for me, my eye problems are what is known as an
"extra-intestinal manifestation" of my Crohn's disease.  In fact, my
development of Iritis (white blood cells attacking the lining of my
inner eyeball) several years ago was just a pre-indicator of my
intestinal disease.  There's a trifecta - Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis,
Iritis, and Arthritis.  I have two of the three out of the trifecta,
though I'm also starting to have increasing discomfort in my joints.

All are inflammatory diseases involving having an over-active immune
system and white blood cells inappropriately attacking healthy tissues
of similar classes, so I have to be very careful about doing anything
that will actually strengthen my immune system.  I jokingly refer to it
all as "anti-AIDS", but that's just my sick sense of gallows humor...I
used to jump out of airplanes for fun, too...