What to post when the Oldies have stopped travelling for a while? How about some photos of how they fill in their small bits of spare time? Here's some of what Dad and I have been up to. Normally we make plastic models and had a collection of over 1300 1/72 scale aircraft before we moved into the (smaller) apartment. Dad's eldest son, my big bro Andrew, has a huge garage and the collection moved into that. Then we started on 1/700 scale ships, a real test of Dad's ageing fingers and eyes, but some photos of these (the ships that is) will appear soon. However, while reading a modelling magazine we noticed an add for card models of 4 Australian lighthouses we have visited. We always try to get to as many lighthouses as possible on our trips, as my long-time readers know, so Dad ordered the set. Before starting on them, we found a site on the web where we could get free downloads of some UK lighthouses at the same scale as the set, 1/250, to practice on. So here's the results. The first 2 images are of Cape Byron lighthouse - the real thing and our card model. This is the most easterly lighthouse in Australia. The second 2 are Green Cape light in southern NSW. This one is a the end of one of the worst roads we have ever driven.The middle row is Hornby, Mum's favourite lighthouse on the south head of Sydney harbour. The first 2 on the bottom row are of the small lighthouse at Tacking Point near Port Macquarie in northern NSW. The last image shows the difference in size of these lighthouses. This sort of comparison is the great advantage of building to the same scale, so the obvious next step for us is to build some 1/250 card ships to compare with the lighthouses.
The other thing that has been happening is another trip/adventure being organized, so we will be away again soon.
If you would like to try your hand at card models the sites we used are:
http://papermodel.com.au/ for the lighthouse set
https://www.papershipwright.co.uk/ for free downloads and lots of sets.
Labels: lighthouse, models
The week of the Apollo 11 50th anniversary was a busy one in Canberra, after all, the tracking stations near here played vital roles in the Moon landing. As well as going to as many of the exhibitions and lectures as I could talk the Oldies into taking me to, I managed to get first day copies of the stamps and coins that Australia Post and the Royal Australian Mint issued. There are 4 stamps in the set and, if you were quick enough, you could choose them in several different packages. I chose a folder with the stamps, the story and some of the technical info. There was also a folder with a commemorative medallion; had to get one of those as well (after all, Mum was paying). The Mint issued coins of the usual denominations. Only the $1 has a special imprint, the Honeysuckle Creek dish and trackers in the control room. I got a set in a special folder. These "ordinary" coins will go into circulation, but there are also special collectors coins, some of them quite expensive. Mum was not paying for any of
them for me. The $5 coin is spectacular, but it sells for $195 so I guess I won't ever own one of them. So, 50 years since that historic day and the Moon still has nobody living on it, maybe due to the lack of small bears as mascots in the program.
Labels: Canberra, space
