The latest marketing creation from Ford shows a late model Mustang tearing up the urban streets with skateboarders. The idea and concept is great, but the general consensus on the web is that they could have done a much better job on the CGI. Read more about the Mustang skateboarding at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

Jalopnik recently did a post about the so-called 8 greatest Mustangs from racing history and obviously there were some real classics in the list, if you know what I’m saying.

Take a look at this 1965 Ford Mustang A/FX for instance, a Mustang that was commissioned by Ford and built with express intent of drag racing. Exactly 11 were built, half with 427 cammers, and sold to drag racers for a princely sum of $1.

Or what do you think of this 1965 Ford Mustang GT-350R that raced in the SCCA series from 1965-1967.

And of course not to miss a 1970 Mustang BOSS 302, that raced the Trans Am from 1970 to 1973. Not my personal favorite Stang but sure looks mean

And one commenter shows us this Coca-Cola BOSS 302 that got 101 wins out of 150 odd starts when it was still racing.

And last but not least – a little bit more extreme – this ‘Trojan Horse’ another commenter on Jalopnik asks: “How did you forget this one?”

Don’t tell me you don’t fancy a good old classic race now

Check Jalopnik for the other – more recent – great Mustangs from racing history.

Varied terrain? Check!

By Judy Oldmeadow, Owner & Master Horsewoman, Samaria Creek Morgan Horses

As promised, here’s my take on Andrew Bowe’s www.barehoofcare.com site.

Brumbies and American Mustangs have amazing feet. They don’t get trimmed, but they do travel many kilometres each day over varied terrain to graze and find water.

So why question thousands of years of evolution?

Historically, horseshoes let soft-footed domestic horses be used in any terrain. They helped mankind conquer the world in war, agriculture and transport.

Yet shoes come with a host of problems. If you’re not out conquering the world, these problems come to the fore.

Shoes protect the soft inner structures of a horse’s feet. But in so doing, they impede all other foot functions.

Absorption

The equine foot is a complex, three-dimensional shock absorber.

It’s designed to absorb nearly all the concussion from ground impact before it reaches the lower leg joints (which can only handle a very small amount).

Shoes blow this function out of the water. Not only is the frog unable to act as the initial and primary weight-bearing structure, the impact of the rigid shoe goes straight through the hoof wall into bones and joints.

Circulation

Proper function lets blood and lymph freely access every living cell in the foot, providing nourishment and removing waste. This is called perfusion.

Shoes seem to significantly compromise circulation. This is most evident on cold mornings, when healthy bare feet are warm to the touch, but shod feet are cold. There’s even a temperature difference between shod feet and bare feet on the same horse.

Shod feet grow much slower than bare feet because healthy tissue can’t thrive with poor circulation.

Weight Bearing

The equine foot is designed to share the weight bearing responsibilities across most of the ground surface (the inner wall, some sole and most of the frog). Notable exceptions are the outer wall and quarters, which aren’t designed for weight bearing.

The foot even adapts over time to the ground it’s living on to optimise this sharing of the load.

A shod foot, however, carries the weight of the horse entirely on the wall (including the outer wall and quarter, which should NOT be weight bearing).

This change in weight bearing may squeeze the coronary artery, causing blood to be shunted to the vein above the hoof. It may also cause a failure of the valve system that would otherwise lock the required blood into the foot at each stride for cushioning and perfusion.

If a horse can’t stand comfortably with vertical cannon bones, it must brace its neck and shoulders to engage its stay apparatus.

This causes fatigue and these poor animals can’t even get a good night’s sleep! Over time, this bracing manifests in the overdevelopment of certain muscle groups.

Deterioration

Horse feet deteriorate with domestication. The situation doesn’t improve with each successive shoeing. Rather, the more times feet are shod, the more they rely on shoes.

Chronic lameness is a degeneration that develops in a dysfunctional body over a long period of time and manifests into such problems as: laminitis, navicular, ringbone, side bone, degenerative joints – all of which are huge problems in the equine industry.

Horses are much better not shod in the first place.

Why Barefoot?

With barefooting, we maintain a horse’s feet in a physiologically correct framework, so they can move correctly, rest comfortably and remain functional at all times.

Rather than prop up dodgy foundations with shoes, barefooting develops strong, healthy foundations beneath a horse.

This leads to better long-term soundness.

Happy feet = happy horsie!

After the Mustang Forest… we got the Mustang Ranch, and it can be yours for $700.000 (well if it ain’t sold already that is).

It’s a shame to see such a collection of fine cars rot away, anyway here’s the story on how it was discovered by a reader of Jalopnik:

“I have just returned from a vacation somewhere tropical. On the way back form a day excursion I chose an alternate way back to the highway. Ok, I made wrong turn somewhere and rolled with it. This "scenic route" brought us upon what was recorded by these images. It was my wife who first saw them. "Oh look, Mustangs!" I turned my head in time to see a metric shitload of vintage ponies. I immediately turned around and pulled into the driveway. There was a gentleman in the yard who turned out to be the caretaker for the owner of the house/treasure trove. It turns out that the guy who collected all these cars recently succumbed to cancer and his wife wants all these pretty ponies sold en masse for what is by local standards the princely sum of $700 large (I think there plenty of room for negotiation here).”

More images on Jalopnik.

My Bodyguard

This is Shiloh, the wonder mustang and my body guard – Darling, of course I need a bodyguard!  All this publicity has made me a target for some unscrupulous humans!  If not for Shiloh I could be…  oh, I can’t even think about it!

Let me tell you a little something about Shiloh.  He is wild – well, actually he was wild. He was born in the mountains of Nevada and I met hima few years ago while I was vacationing on a farm in Pennsylvania. No, darling, not a fat farm.  I have a personal trainer and so I don’t need to do any crunches – thank God!

This was a lovely little farm where I went just to get away from it all.  Shiloh was also there and we had adjoining stalls in the same barn.  One night one of those horrible Pennsylvania Bears came knocking on the door looking for donuts.  I was just terrified!  Shiloh must have heard me – those stall walls can be very thin – and he made such a ruckus he frightened that bear away!

That’s when I KNEW he was the bodyguard for me!  So, when I decided that I was much better suited for life in Hollywood, of course I asked him to come back with me!

Now he lives in Pasturerville and keeps an eye out for the paparazzi that always seem to be popping out of the bushes.  All of the other mares are tout jealous!  Of course I understand why – he is quite handsome.  As a matter of fact, I think he bears quite a passing resemblance to Brad Pitt… at least around the eyes – n’est pas?

Well, that’s all for now my darlings!  I’ll start to introduce you to the other horsewives and their friends here in Pastureville in posts soon to come, but for now, I have to get my BEAUTY SLEEP!  Ha!  Bye bye for now – love you – mean it! - Beauty

Fantasy of Flight Aircraft Collection

28º 10’ 52” N / 81º 48’ 33” W

Polk City Florida USA lies between the Tampa and Orlando. Kermit Weeks chose property there to not only house his extensive airplane collection but to build an entire experience. A wealthy man, he built an airfield to resemble a WW II era air base. The visitor observes a retro water tower with its checkered livery, a grass air strip (underlain by an engineered surface to enhance draining) and a lake for landings by aquatic aircraft. Inside there is a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress one walks through and around — as it sits as if being serviced in the field. And then one walks into the first of two hangers. There are more aircraft here, by far, than in most museums. Only national museums rival the scale of this collection. The range of airplanes on exhibit spans aviation history from its earliest times through WW II — no jets here — notably, the majority are kept in flying condition.

Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina and retro water tower of the Fantasy of Flight Aircraft Collection — photo by Joe May

There is one aircraft here that drew me like iron to a magnet, the Short Brothers Sunderland Mk V — a four engine flying boat flown by the RAF in WW II. As a bonus one is allowed to walk through the main deck to see the aircraft as used when it was an airliner, not a military maritime patrol aircraft. The aircraft is immense and one can see it as it sits on beaching gear in one of the hangers. What it must have been like to tow the Sunderland to the water, float her and then remove the unwieldy beaching gear? There is not only a Ford Trimotor but one of its contemporary aircraft, a Stinson Trimotor.

Fantasy of Flight Aircraft Collection North Hangar with Short Bros. Sunderland Mk V — photo by Joe May

Stinson Trimotor — photo by Joe May

There are too many aircraft to list here but there are about four dozen housed in both hangers. Three of the especially historic aircraft are a Grumman F3F (nicknamed Flying Barrel), a Cierva C.30-A Autigiro* and a replica of a Bachem Ba-349 Natter (Viper). There are many more, to be sure, including a Curtiss TF-40  Kittyhawk, Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVI, Lockheed Constellation, Grumman J2F Duck, North American P-51C Mustang and Fieseler Fi-156 Storch (Stork).

North American P-51C Mustang — photo by Joe May

Getting there is easily done by driving along interstate I-4 to Polk City. The nearest major airports are Tampa International Airport and Orlando International Airport. Entry is about $20, there is an excellent diner/café and modern restrooms. Extras are also on hand … a tour of a third hangar used for restoration work, a tour of the restoration wood shop, a daily flying demonstration and biplane for-hire rides.

Martin B-26 Marauder — photo by Joe May

The post scheduled to be published on 2 December 2009 will describe the Fieseler Fi-156 Storch flying demonstration I thoroughly enjoyed watching.

* For more on the Cierva C.30-A Autigiro please see 007! He knows what to fly! — Little Nellie and other autogiros, which published on 7 October 2009.

First of all, my apologies for being absent for so long. I really like blogging here but sometimes just lack the time to do it. Anyway now we got that out of the way, here’s something I came across this week. From November 22nd until December 1st the East African Safari Classic is going on in Kenya and look who’s in the lead…

Photo by McKlein

Indeed, a Mustang. Day 3 of the rally just passed and Ian Duncan is currently leading this rally with his classic Mustang, proving once more the versatile quality of the car I suppose If you want to find out some more about Ian’s 400 bhp Mustang, check this out.

Go Ian!

Champion: RAIN 10.91

1st Runner Up: HOTROD 10.53

2nd Runner Up: IRONMAN 10.37

and the rest: Sleeper, Tiger, Aday, Mustang, RR, Cobra

How cool is this? Ian Duncan, at the wheel of a 1967 Mustang packing a 351 and a four-speed, is currently leading the 2009 East African Safari Classic Rally. From the looks and sounds of it, the rally is no joke, traversing harsh country at high speeds. The ‘Stang is leading cars like Mercedes, Porsches, and Datsuns. This rules!

You can follow Duncan’s exploits on BangShift’s events homepage and there is another great page of photos here. The rally has been run since 2003 and is comprised of vehicles produced from 1974 and back. The Mustang is a total departure from the normal stuff that competes. Most of the other vehicles have had some type of rally history and are Euro-mobiles that sound like sewing machines when lined up next to the snorting, V8 powered Ford.

The only thing we can say is, go Ian go!

Another great Photographer out of Atlanta..has some seriously quality rig shots.  And some even better stills. Check out his Flickr, and personal Photography site to see some Atlanta’s baddest rides and more.

CH@DBee Flickr

A few of my Automotive favorites:

]]> http://wollreflections.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/4tpglossy-sundaystills-macromonday-photo/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:13:04 +0000 WildBlack http://wollreflections.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/4tpglossy-sundaystills-macromonday-photo/

Hi Friends,

This is my contribution for this weeks Sunday Stills – Horses! and Ofcourse for the MacroMonday as well!  Finally I added a small glossy effect to fit in the 4Tp  category!

Software used: Photoshop CS2 (Features used: Layers, Fill Layer & Elliptical Marque tool )

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Open up an image in photoshop!!!

Set white as the foreground color. You can easily do this by pressing D to reset the foreground and background to the default colors then pressing X to switch the foreground and background color.

2. Goto  Layer > New Fill Layer> Gradient Fill. Click OK.

A Gradient Fill window will appear.

3. In the window, change the Gradient to Foreground to Transparent, style to radial, and scale to 150%.Check the Align with Layer. Change the angle accordingly to make the gradient effect bigger/smaller.

4. Activate the Elliptical Marquee tool and create a selection with a bulge.

You may need to zoom out (Ctrl+-) to get enough room to draw the selection.

5. With the Elliptical Marquee tool still activated, move the selection so that it covers about half of the top image.                  Select the layer mask of the top Gradient Fill layer and press delete.

6. Adjust the Opacity and Fill on your layer pallette to get the desired results.

7. Your Glossy photo is ready!

1 of my Favorite S197 Mustangs in Atlanta owned by a good friend.  I have seen the car go from a stock mustang with STEEDA suspension bits.  To a Novi Supercharged 500hp joyride, and has a real mean look from all angles.  George got a little photo session from CF Photography.

CF Photography

Picture Thread on Import Atlanta

I see in the future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of the war.”
- Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

The Lost Caves of Mustang kingdom in Nepal Even though foreign visitors have been allowed to the kingdom since 1991, tourism to Upper Mustang is regulated. Foreigners need to obtain a special permit to enter, which costs US$500 per 10 days per person.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Lo ManthangMustang (from Tibetan Mun Tan (Wylie smon-thang) which means fertile plain) is the former Kingdom of Lo and now part of Nepal, in the north-east of that country, bordering China on the Central Asian plateau between the Nepalese provinces of Dolpo and Manang. It is roughly 80 km long (north-south) and 45 km at its widest, and is at an elevation of over 2500 m. Mustang is also known as a “Tibet outside the Tibetan Border” for it survived the Chinese invasion of 1951 and hence it fosters the original Tibetan culture, although it is now politically part of Nepal. Life in Mustang revolves around animal husbandry and trade. The region is the easiest corridor through the Himalayas linking the Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia with the tropical Indian plains, and it enjoyed a trans-Himalayan trade. Because of its strategic importance it went through many wars, and hence various cultural and religious practices thrived in parallel in Mustang.

The population is around 9,000, spread between three towns and approximately thirty smaller settlements; the people are either Thakalis or Tibetan.

Most of the population of Mustang live near the river, 2-3,000 m above sea level, but the tough conditions cause a large seasonal migration into lower regions of Nepal. The administrative centre of the district is at Jomsom (Dzong Sampa), population 5,363 (1998), which has had an airport since 1962 and has become the main tourist centre since the area was opened to tourism in the 1970s.

Mustang was once an independent kingdom, although closely tied by language and culture to Tibet. From the 15th century to the 17th century, its strategic location granted Mustang control over the trade between the Himalayas and India. At the end of the 18th century the kingdom was annexed by Nepal.

However, the monarchy ceased to exist as the Kingdom of Lo in Upper (northern) Mustang, with its capital at Lo Manthang on October 7, 2008, by order of the Government of Nepal.[1] The last king (raja or gyelpo) was Jigme Palbar Bista (b. 1930), who traces his lineage back to Ame Pal, the warrior who is said to have founded the Buddhist kingdom in 1350 [2].

Two National Geographic Specials, SECRETS OF SHANGRI-LA and LOST CAVE TEMPLES OF THE HIMALAYA, Climb Inside Untouched Caves; MUSTANG – JOURNEY OF TRANSFORMATION Relates the Story of a Tibetan Culture Saved From Extinction

Inside caves, a team of climbers and scholars discovered a rare library of ancient Tibetan texts.

High in the Himalaya, in the most remote kingdom in the world, explorers have found thousands of mysterious caves. Their dark portals beckon with the promise of a glimpse into a lost world. Now, in two new riveting National Geographic Television specials, produced exclusively for PBS and airing Wednesday, November 18, 2009, on PBS, a team of climbers and scholars sets out to reach them and give viewers a glimpse into the forbidden kingdom of Mustang and the unseen treasures these lost caves contain. SECRETS OF SHANGRI-LA airs 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET, followed by LOST CAVE TEMPLES OF THE HIMALAYA at 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET. A third program, MUSTANG – JOURNEY OF TRANSFORMATION, airing 10:00-10:30 p.m. ET, tells the compelling story of efforts to rescue ancient Tibetan monasteries on the brink of extinction. Richard Gere narrates.

The kingdom of Mustang lies on a windswept plateau between Nepal and Tibet. Isolated both by geography and politics, Mustang is culturally and ethnically Tibetan, but politically part of Nepal. The area was completely off limits to westerners for 50 years.

In an attempt to unravel a mystery, seven-time Everest summiter Pete Athans and a team of internationally renowned climbers and explorers journeyed to Mustang, joining forces with archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians. SECRETS OF SHANGRI-LA follows their excursion to enter long-hidden caves and rescue rare Tibetan texts from crumbling landscape before looters get to them. The texts are adorned with beautiful “illuminations,” small paintings worth tens of thousands of dollars on the international art market.

As they prepare to climb into the caves, the Lo Manthang Youth Club, a political group from a nearby village, tries to stop them. What ensues is an intriguing set of events involving the King of Mustang, the highest lama of the land and even the divinities that are believed to inhabit the area.

“These caves are probably the most reliable indicator of the continuous history of this area,” said Oxford University anthropologist Charles Ramble, who has studied this culture for 28 years and has lived among the Mustang people. “The kinds of things we find in there, from the archaeological record to perhaps the richest literary repository we’ve found, means that these really are the places on which we need to focus if we want to establish as full as possible a picture of the history and culture of the Himalaya.”

In April 2007, a team of climbers and scientists had climbed inside these long-hidden chambers for the first time in modern history. In LOST CAVE TEMPLES OF THE HIMALAYA, viewers follow the story, told by filmmaker Liesl Clark, as Athans, Clark’s husband, and big-wall climber Renan Ozturk take on the dangerous job of climbing into the crumbling caves. Their goals are to get inside the inaccessible cave cities, unoccupied for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, to document what’s inside and to search for nine legendary cave temples called “kabum.” What they find goes far beyond their expectations, rocking the Himalayan world and rewriting the history of this remote and mystical region. The treasures include a 55-panel painted mural and piles of old Tibetan manuscript folios, some printed in silver and gold. Each vertical move into a cave opening is a step into the unknown.

MUSTANG – JOURNEY OF TRANSFORMATION, narrated by Richard Gere, presents the remarkable story of a Tibetan culture pulled back from the brink of extinction through the restoration of its most sacred sites.

At a time when Tibetan culture in Tibet is in danger of disappearing under Chinese occupation, Mustang remains uniquely preserved. In 1991, when Nepal opened Mustang’s border to the outside world, the first visitors were shocked by what they found – the old monasteries were on the verge of collapse and the Buddhist wall paintings were disintegrating. The impoverished people needed health care, education and jobs, yet the raja of Mustang’s first plea to outsiders who offered help was to save the monasteries. He understood … saving the art would save the people, for cultural identity is paramount. MUSTANG – JOURNEY OF TRANSFORMATION is a tale of hope and rebirth told by those who helped save the forbidden kingdom. The film features an interview with the Dalai Lama. http://realitytvwebsite.com/RealityTVNews/Three-Programs-Take-A-Mystical-Journey-Through-Hidden-Regions-Of-The-Himalaya-Wednesday-November-18-2009-On-PBS.html

For the first time in modern history, a team of researchers, scholars, climbers and explorers were able to gain access to some of the numerous human-excavated caves and overhang complexes of the Upper Mustang, a beautiful tourist spot in northwest Nepal. While exploring such treasurers, they used advanced mountaineering and repelling techniques.

Located in the upper watershed of the Kali Gandaki River and north of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri Ranges, these nearly uncountable, lost troglodytic civilizations revealed exquisite wall paintings never before photographed, nor viewed in modern times. According to the explorers, they also showed three or more periods of human use, as identified by ‘occupation layers that are separated, in some cases, by long periods of abandonment.

Disclosing the findings of the research at a press conference organized in Kathmandu on April 30, 2007, the team showed astonishing video clips and slides of the lost cave civilizations, the remarkable discoveries found inside, and the hair-raising process of getting there. They briefly discussed the urgency of, and issues surrounding, these cave sites, and announced plans for further research and documentation of the art and archaeological features of these national treasurers.

Other findings of the research include decorative wall motifs seen nowhere else in Asia, different types of Tibetan scripts executed in ink, silver and gold, pre-Christian era pottery shreds’, and likely burial caves and promising archaeological mounds.
The remarkable group of scholars, adventurers and filmmakers participating in the research team were archaeologists Prakash Darnal and Mr. Sukra Sagar Shrestha, veteran author Broughton Coburn, award winning filmmaker Liesl, seven-time Everest summiteer and North Face athlete Peter Athans, premier big wall climber and North Face athelete Renan Ozturk, high definition filmmaker Karl Swingle, Mustang art conservator Luigi Fieni, assistant art scholar Ian Alsop and Mustang royal family member Tsewang Bista. By: Agile Adventure Treks & Expedition (P) Ltd.

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It’s been a while since my last post of things carrying on, rather than finishing, so, let’s see where I am!

The 1/144 Minicraft P-51D Mustang has been almost finished for a long time, and remains in this almost stage! The aircraft is in silver, or, Revell 66 rather. The tail, and the propellor tops, are in Revell yellow, whilst the cowling is in olive drab (I can’t remember which one, Humbrol 116 I think). The spinner is in Tamiya white. I should point out that I tend to use the most convenient paint, rather than anything specific, unless I am really going full tilt on a model. Unfortunately I damaged the decals, but, luckily, I had the same decals from an earlier one I guess I destroyed years ago.

The Eduard 1/144 BF-109 has been sprayed in Humbrol 65 enamel, both underside and sides. Likewise the Academy BF-109 was sprayed the same, at the same time. Unfortunately, I forgot that I was holding the model by the tail, so, it wasn’t sprayed! Since then, I’ve also brush painted the tail. I use Humbrol enamel 65 because I have some, because enamel makes a lovely finish, and because it’s similar to RLM 65, which is the correct colour. I’ve also partially masked it, that is, using thin strips, I’ve outlined the areas to be masked, on the sides of the model (the RLM 65 sides extend upwards, to almost the top of the fuselage). Using thin strips allows one to turn the masking easier, to follow a contour, or, as in this case, to bend, as the prototype scheme did. Had a small accident with the propellor, where some paint thinner splashed onto it, and took off some of the paint. Guess it’s back to the paintshop for that!

The other models I had been working on were two Hasegawa P-40’s. These are carrying on nicely, but then, they are Hasegawa kits! Hasegawa kits in 1/72 anyway tend to follow the pattern of a the underside of the mainplanes being one unit, along with some of the fuselage. The problem with this method is that it means that the unit has fit in several planes, perfectly. Many kits result in ’steps’ at the back (where it joined the back of the fuselage), especially as one tries to make the wingroots perfect. This is not the case with these kits. A quick swipe with a sanding stick sort out some irregularities, and, then, a perfect fit. Really quite remarkable!

If the under-wing unit is a characteristic of the Hawegawa kits of this era, then, the other is moulding in too much, such as antenna, pitit tubes, gun barrels, and even aiming devices. Whilst potentially a good idea, reducing fiddly work load, it’s actually bad for two reasons. Firstly, they easily break off, and secondly, if one if sanding down an item, they can get in the way. This was the case with the P-40, where I found it difficult to get around the gun aimer, to smooth in the join. With another Hasegawa kit, a Shinden ‘George’, I broke off the antenna.

This kit was made for the Finescale Forum’s Mad Weekend Group Build. A Group Build is where modellers on a forum, follow a thread (usually) where they post posts and pictures of their build, that follow a theme, usually with start and finish dates. I found this Hasegawa N1K2-J Shinden ‘George’ for just £3 at my local hobby shop (often called an LHS on forums), because it was sans instructions. Still, a very simple kit, like the P-40’s, so I reckoned I could finish it in a weekend. Well, I might have, if I had worked at it properly, and not used enamel paints!

The first part went well, and it fitted nicely. However, I soon found that Gunze Sangyo acrylic paints do not brush nicely. I was using no.58, interior green, as it seemed to be fairly close to reality. Yet, the paint didn’t go down nicely. In had to sand it down, a couple of times, and thin the paint, thence, a few coats. One nice touch is that the cockpit can be fitted from underneath a completed fuselage. Not much interior, but it does come with a decal instrument panel. I used some light dry brushing of silver to bring out the seat, but I managed to forget to put in seat belts (I realise as I write this!).

The engine went on well. I painted it in black, then, over painted it in silver. I know that’s backwards, but it looks good! One major change I made during the build was to use Slater’s Mek-Pak. It’s weird stuff, which sometimes produces a great bond, and sometimes doesn’t! I apply it using an ear bud (not a used one!), to both parts to be enjoined. Still it flows well, but it dries so quickly! In places, I used some Zap-A-Gap instead, where it had to be an excellent join, or there was a slight gap.

The fuselage around the cockpit wasn’t as good a join as could be expected, but the wing roots were perfect! Yellow strips painted on (Revell yellow again), with a few coats. A slight sanding turns them matt, which is perfect. Next up, the underside, which is either natural metal, or light grey, but I’m going for the latter, for which I plan to use Revell SM371. This time, it’s because it’s close, not because it’s an opened tin (it’s not). Topside will be an Imperial Japanese Navy olive, probably Humbrol 116. Props will be Revell ‘military brown’, which is similar to Humbrol 10, plus flashes of yellow.

The Eduard 1/144 ME-262/C-92 kits (three of) are progressing with the seats/cockpits painted in Xtracylix RLM66, and the seat cushions in Humbrol 186 (because it happened to be available!) which is a decent dark leather. Next up: seat-belts (in 1/144, strewth!). This is for the Finescale Forum ‘ME-262′ Group Build.

Finally, some work on the Eduard Roland, that is, I painted the engine in Metalcote aluminium. Not much!

Next time, some more progress, and some pictures too…!

The Lost Caves of Mustang

Okay, maybe they are still searching for the fabled Himalayan paradise, but the search has resulted in some startling finds.  On November 18, 2009, PBS aired two shows, Secrets of Shangri-La and Lost Cave Temples of the Himalaya. I found them really fascinating, but of course the FIRST things I noticed were the depictions of stretched earlobes on the artwork painted on the cave walls.

Mustang (pronounced MOOSE-tong, as far as I could tell) is a tiny former mountain kingdom between India and Tibet.   It’s politically part of Nepal, but culturally and ethnically Tibetan.  Archeologists have found numerous caves, especially in upper Mustang, which have the potential to hold hidden treasures–if they can only get to them.  First, they need permission from the government, which is very rare.  Then, they have a 60 mile trek on foot from the nearest town to get to the region.  THEN they have to climb up crumbly, unstable rock to the nearly inaccessible entrances to these caves.

Endurance and technical rock climbing skills were required to reach the sites, not to mention the bureaucratic hurdles and problems with the locals.   It’s a pretty impossible task, but the rewards are great.   These caves range in purpose from large dwelling complexes, with multiple rooms, and transversing corridors, to tiny monastic hermitages, and sacred temples, or kabums. In many of these, they have found thousands of early Tibetan texts written on daphne paper.  In one cave, the documents found pertained to the older religion, and were secreted away when Buddhism spread from the lowlands of India,around the 8th century.  Awkward for the adherents of the old religion to keep around, but too sacred to throw away (kind of like porn), they were merely dumped there, to accumulate centuries of dust and guano.

In many of the caves, they have found wall art showing ancient Tibetan script, and sacred icons, as well as depictions of sacred Indian and Tibetan avatars.  In one cave,  there are 55 panels showing the story of Buddha’s life, thought to date from the 12th century.  Many of the figures painted wear earrings in enlarged lobes, either heavy hanging ornaments, or tunnel-shaped jewelry.

No one really knows much about the people who lived in these places or how they lived.  Due to the limited access and restrictions on scholars, we are only slowly finding out.  I wonder if they will find some ear ornaments beneath the centuries of bird poop, bones, and relics in those caves!

You can watch online at PBS here: PBS Presents Lost Cave Temples. Here is the page at National Geographic:  “Shangri-La” Caves Yield Treasures, Skeletons.

Why is Buddha shown with stretched ears anyway? Beats the heck out of me.  A casual (very casual) internet search provides an amusing smorgasbord of suggested reasons:

1. he was a wealthy prince who wore heavy jewelry as a status symbol;
2. he was a monk and that’s what monks do;
3. it increases perception;
4. it’s a message to his followers to talk less and listen more;
5. it indicates longevity; or that
6. it was just a stylistic convention and he really didn’t have stretched ears!

What the true story is, I really don’t know at this point, but it bears further study.  I realize that my personal library and research does not contain any information on this region’s jewelry, and I am looking forward to learning more. Remember, this is just a blog post, not a research paper!  Do your own research!

Some links for you:

Wikipedia page on Mustang

PBS.org

National Geographic

Blog: The Himalayan Universe (where I got the second pic of the caves)

fin

This week’s ebay Motors Showdown really hit a chord with people. Even with our ongoing commenting issues (now even I can’t comment, and yes, we are working on it) we got a HUGE response on this one. At first it looked like the IROC was gonna walk away with it, but then the Fox body rallied, and in the end this one is just too close to call!

Looks like the 1988 Camaro IROC Z-28 got bid up to $4,550 with the reserve still not met before time ran out. The 1989 Mustang GT auction still has three days to go, with the bid currently at $2,550. But any way you look at it, both of these cars offer a big bang for the buck. And we’ll definitely run more Mustang vs. Camaro shoot outs in the future, cause they are a of of fun!

I’m starting to feel like I am the lead character in The Perils of Pauline. Just when I thought I was stripped of everything, my husband wiped out my bank account. I was planning on coming home. He was re-building me our car that we worked so hard to get years ago.

1984 Mustang SVO

She is beautiful isn't she?

I wanted to come home, but I’m defective to him now, not pure, and he is repulsed by me.

I am waiting for 1 of 2 types of people to come to me next:

the men in the white coats or the men in black.

I have nothing left…..but my mind is still strong…..

and even through my tears, I pulled myself together again to write this.

Thanks for being there to read. As I always say, you give me strength.

Angels are surrounding me.

Unfortunately, YouTube wants you to go directly to their site,

so you can’t watch it from here. It only takes a click, and the music video is worth it!

Some people shouldn’t be so jealous to think they own this song

Audioslave : Like A Stone Lyrics

Songwriters: Commerford, Timothy; Cornell, Chris; Morello, Tom; Wilk, Brad;

On a cold wet
afternoon
no room for love and emptiness
by a freeway
I confess I was lost in the pages
of a book
full of death
reading how we’ll die alone
and if a god will lay to rest
anywhere we want to go
in your house
I long to be
room by room
patiently
I’ll wait for you there
like a stone
I’ll wait for you there
alone

and on my death bed
I will pray
to the gods and the angels
like a pagan
to anyone who will take me to heaven
to a place
I would recall
I was there so long ago
the sky was bruised
the world was black
and there you led me on

In your house
I long to be
room by room
patiently
I’ll wait for you there
like a stone
I’ll wait for you there
alone

In all I read
till the day was gone
and I sat in regret
In all the things I’ve done
for all that I’ve blessed
and all that I’ve wronged
in dreams till my death
I will wonder on

In your house
I long to be
room by room
patiently
I’ll wait for you there
like a stone
I’ll wait for you there
alone
alone

2004 04 Ford Mustang GT New Edge V8 2V 4.6 5 Speed Manual Borla Stingers Catback Bassani catted X pipe exhaust

Mods: K&N FIPK, Accufab 75mm TB & Trickflow plenum, Bassani SS catted X, Borla Stingers, 31 spline T-Lok w/Moser axles, FRPP 4.10’s, Hurst billet/plus, MM XD LCA’s, MM XL FLSFC, Cobra brakes, Sniper tuned.

A treasure trove of Tibetan art and manuscripts uncovered in “sky high” Himalayan caves could be linked to the storybook paradise of Shangri-La, says the team that made the discovery.

The 15th-century religious texts and wall paintings were found in caves carved into sheer cliffs in the ancient kingdom of Mustang”today part of Nepal.

Source:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091117-shangri-la-secrets-tibet-treasures-caves.html

My eyes were still closed when I began to regain consciousness, the city itself now feeling more like a miserable dream and I knew I had been dealt a losing hand. A car screeched by outside. I tried to move my cold, stiff body but an overwhelming pain begged me to lay back down. With a wince I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was the back of my passenger seat. Further in the front was, in fact, a driving console, to the left a steering wheel, and I was surrounded by fogged up windows, tiny beads of water sliding down them. I cursed the frozen air as my face grimaced at the resurgence of last nights antics, my head pulsating and my mouth bitter, and I may have even enjoyed that brand of flavor. The elements and my own body were conspiring against me, but I found solace in the sun that was only now coming up, the still dark sky helping to conceal the bereaved.

For the past four and a half hours the back seat of a 2004 Mustang had pretended to be my lovely bed, the results of a decision to date a mentally unstable girl thinking it would be “fun.” It was an unpredictable, maybe fun, few days until I ended up locked in the back seat of my car because selfish lovers do selfish things.

Before she left me the night before in a public parking lot (I don’t remember how I got there, or if she somehow found me), in her yelling tirade she slammed my driver door several times, screaming, over and over, “How could you do this to me!?”
At this point I must have stopped caring about her existence entirely because to her tedious questions I replied by closing my eyes and allowing myself to fall asleep to the gentle rocking of a four-wheeled coffin. She shut the door one loud, last time, before quickly disappearing into the night. I imagined her traveling back to hell in order to enlist the help of others like her to partake in the shredding of my young, tender body and consumption of my bloody, protein rich remains.

For the meanwhile, the villages in my mind were quiet and comfortable. Her leave had meant my victory, but the bells were cut short by the unerring silence she had left behind. I imagined her coming back, sledgehammer in hand, wholly focused on smashing my head into a paste-like substance while simultaneously asking if I enjoyed it.

The silence was almost long enough to dictate my safety, but just as I was getting comfortable I heard my trunk open, the unmistakable sound of keys dropping in, followed by one last shutting sound.

“I hope you fucking die, you asshole!”
To her credit, she did warn me against seeing a really good friend of mine. According to her, he was a bad influence on me.

A second wave of silence.
This time I was sure she wouldn’t come back, and in the back of my mind I knew she wasn’t going to send her minions to finish me off, she was an inherently nice person.
With all of my limbs intact, I declared myself the winner, specially since this meant I wouldn’t have to go through the awkward, and potentially fatal, process of breaking up with her seeing as she had done it for the both of us. Although, as expected, tomorrow morning she will have called me in tears, pleading for forgiveness and the promise of a continuing relationship.
Nay, I’ll say.

A smile decorated my face as I drifted off to sleep knowing that the back seat of my car had a secret latch that led directly into the trunk. I took a deep, relaxing breath, and let the below zero Las Vegas winter freeze the inside of my nose.

One demon had been extricated and now, too far gone to drive myself anywhere, I had the winter night to look forward to.
All I have to do is fall asleep and before I know it I’ll be awake, fresh and energetic, ready for the day ahead.

- – -

It sounds like a pleasant idea to spend the afternoon winter hours at dilapidated train stations, out in the open air, eating raw broccoli and waiting for absolutely nothing.

- – -

As the sun begins to set, what has been glamorized as a romantic aesthetic becomes a veritable fear.
Come sunset I’ll find myself filled with a vague sense of anxiety.
The apprehension will escalate the closer to the horizon the diffusing sun gets.
The intensity will grow into dread come nightfall and it will be at this moment that the reason for my fears will immediately come to the forefront and drown me in realization:
I wouldn’t remember to breathe if she left me alone.