Voyage of the Spammed - Part 5: "It Was 57 Years Ago Today"

 Welcome back to the Atlantic Ocean, Readers.  It has been a few years since the last post in this series so I felt it was high time to get back on the boat!  And as the title suggests, today is the 57th anniversary of the departure from Liverpool way back on June 2, 1964!  

So this post will focus on the many varied activities to do during the 7 day voyage.  Of course this is not a luxury liner with the amenities of today.  It was back to basics, take it easy and relax.  Eating and dining was on a schedule, as were many of the activities.  

On the Empress there were 8 decks that was accessible for the tourist class.  (First Class had their exclusive areas which were off limits, mostly in dining and a few activities).  The best way to illustrate this is with the following cut-away image found on the internet.  (It was posted on several sites with no indications of copyright.  Please don't sue me; it is only for reference and I do not make any money on this blog...)

I have augmented some areas as well as indicated the areas of dining and leisure.  The coloured ellipses will make more sense when you refer to the Entertainment Cards which were made available to all passengers.  There was a specific card for each day.  The cards measured 5"x7" on a heavy stock with a colour illustration.  

This is the first card of the trip from June 2, 1964.  It opens up to 10" x 7" to reveal the text inside.

Now this being the day of departure it is of course not a full day schedule.  The ship is set to leave Liverpool docks at 1630 hours; I have no idea what time we boarded but I am sure it was early.  Giving people time to find their berth, unpack and get settled was the priority, but there is always time for Tea, being served at 4:00pm in the Carleton Restaurant.  

Now as you can see from the cutaway,  this is located in the lower deck of the ship, actually the Restaurant deck, which is Deck 7.  (light green ellipse)  At least it is two decks high, but except for a few portholes, no exterior views.  This is where Tourist Class will eat all meals for the next 7 days.

Now with the ship underway, there is an event in the Windsor Lounge.  This room is located on the Empress Deck.  (middle red ellipse)  A casual room with seats, sofas, tables and a piano.  I believe people came here to socialize, read and play board games, which were available upon request.  At 6:00pm there is a radio News Broadcast.  I think it was possibly the BBC.

And now it is dinner time.  Since the Carleton had to accommodate all the Tourist Class, there were two sittings.  One at 6:30 and the second at 7:45.  You only get an hour and a quarter for dinner so more than likely no seconds!  Besides, who wants to spend time in the "basement"?  (If you would like to know more about what the food choices were, please refer to the previous post in this series from September 26, 2018 - "There's no spam!?")

Back to the Windsor Lounge now for some bingo at 8:00pm.  If that is too much excitement for you, you can take in a movie!  The cinema is located on the Main Deck.  (green ellipse).   It is two decks high and seats 212 from what I can gather.  Tonight's film is "The Great Escape".  Is that a metaphor?  Nice that it's a fairly recent film, only one year old.  Surprisingly there is no smoking in the theatre.  I find that very unusual for the time.

The film is over at 12:00am as it is a 3 hour movie; I believe the ship shuts down by then.  No all night parties or carrying on past midnight.  Silent running...?  The last bit on the June 2 card is a land lubber's guide to ship terminology.  So ends day one at sea.  I am sure most were exhausted to attend many events, but the big surprise was yet to come!

That was the cover for Wednesday, June 3, 1963.  This is going to be our first full day at sea.  For many of us, it will be hell for the next 24 to 48 hours.  Before I go into more detail on that statement, I would like to describe other activities which I was not able to indicate on the cutaway.

Starting from the topmost deck, the Sun Deck, you could play deck games such as shuffleboard and tennis.  You just had to ask the sailors on duty for the game pieces.  Here is a previously posted pic of Mum on the Sun Deck where you can clearly see the playing areas.  

There were also some areas on the next deck down, the Sports Deck.  Deck 3 was the Promenade Deck, and only walking was allowed for Tourist Class.  Amenities on this level was First Class only, the cheek, but there was this little niche called The Den... 

The Empress Deck was the main gathering place of the Tourist Class.  Besides the afore mentioned Windsor Lounge, there was the Banff Club (a casual gathering place and bar), and the Canada Room.  This was a large expansive area; the main Ballroom.  There was a large dance floor and small stage for an orchestra and grand piano.  Also on this level was a Beauty Salon, Barber Shop, and Gift Shop.  

The Upper Deck was mostly cabins, but there was a Library and Writing Room.  The upper void level for the Cinema was also on this deck.

The Main Deck was again all cabins (including our berth), and the Cinema.  The Restaurant Deck is self explanatory with the good ole Carleton Restaurant.  There was another smaller restaurant on this deck known as the Salle Frontenac, which was used for other events.  

And lastly, deep in the bowels of the Lower Deck, was the Coral Pool.  Not your usual outdoor luxury pool with sunbathing spaces and waterslides.  This was more institutional with no windows for natural light.  This deck was right on the waterline so, please, don't pull the plug!

So back to the Wednesday, June 3,1964 itinerary.  Pools open early for an early morning swim, two times for breakfast, the film from last night is playing again.  The Orchestra is playing in the Windsor Lounge and we can get a nice hot cup of Bovril if we want one.  Over luncheon we are making a short stopover in Greenock, Scotland, departing 90 minutes later for a view of the Firth of Clyde on the starboard side.  

The big event today is at 3:30.  The Boat Muster.  Actually life boat drills; this little event I remember.  Horns and whistles and everyone running about with bright orange life vests on.  No first class distinction here!

A few more afternoon events, dinner, the same movie (three showings today), and then the first dance in the Canada Room.  A few other activities as you can see but then it all shuts down at midnight.

 

Its Thursday, June 4, and this is when it got interesting.  Now we are officially in the Atlantic Ocean and based on the tales my parents told me, most of the boat was down with sea sickness.  Our lot was incapacitated except for youngest sister "M".  Getting a table at the Carleton would have been no problem; I am sure it was pretty empty most of the time that day.  

New film today, "Charade" with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.  A nice little romantic mystery from (again) 1963.  The cinema runs the film four times a day from now on.  Dance classes are available, if you can stand,  more music venues, bingo and later more dancing.  This Record Rendezvous in The Den is a mystery.  Just listening to vinyl records before bed?  

Now it's Friday, June 5 and it appears most of us are finally getting our sea legs and keeping food down.  Maybe we can all do something today...?

Hey!  Cartoons in the cinema!  Can I go, Mum?  New film "Zulu" today, and only 5 months old.  but this ain't you family film, it's a war epic.  Playing four times today too!  

I saw them advertising for something called the Atlantic Derby.  I cannot find any info on what this event was.  I think it was basically a race for woman?  I doubt that would not go over too well these days.  The usual routine with meals, bingo, dancing and music.  

It's Saturday and everyone by now has adjusted to life aboard ship.  No more evidence of sea sickness in the family; all is well.  Even though we were all sick, the weather up to this point has been great.  Mostly sunny; the rain stopped once we were clear of the British Isles.  No more land in sight and if you look very carefully you can see the curvature of the Earth.  Freaky!  Another memory.

This was the only schedule that was marked up.  Looks we we went for an early swim and a later breakfast.  Cartoons too but looks like no deck games today.  New film for the weekend.  "Running Man" (no not that one...) from 1963 about a man who fakes his own death.  Doesn't look like a family movie either.  Thank goodness for the cartoons!

Dinner tonight is the Gala Event.  Guess we got dressed up for this, but I fear we had dinner and then the kiddies were banished to the cabin.  

Sunday, June 7, 1964.  Since these days are still treated with some respect and tradition, it will no doubt be a quieter day.  As you can see from the itinerary, there are less scheduled activities.

You may have noticed I am not describing every event on the cards; I will let you use your imagination as to what was going on.  At last a family film, and it's animated!  Disney movie from 1963 so the kids could get dumped at the cinema while Mum and Dad have a break.  Church service in the Canada Room, and no dancing tonight.  Looks like we will be turning in early...

The card illustration for Monday, June 8, 1964 is the same as Thursday's; must have been a limited pool of art.  This is our official last day at sea.  Newfoundland is looming in the distance, and we have been passing by many icebergs (unfortunately the photos taken of that subject have been forever lost).  

Same routine as before.  Swimming, eating, listening to music and dancing.  Final film for the cinema for this trip is "The Thrill of it All".  It's a Rom-Com from 1963; think I will give that one a miss.  No cartoons today either.  Maybe this is the captain's way of weaning us off the ship and back to dry land?  And it doesn't appear to be another late night.  Oh well, tomorrow we arrive!

If there was a card for Tuesday, June 9, 1964, Mum either never got one or did not save it. Breakfast would have been served surely.  As we are expected to dock in Montreal around 12:30pm, most I'm sure are packing, buying souvenirs, having a last walk around decks and watching the fast approaching Canadian cityscape as we cruise down the St. Lawrence Seaway.  

I'll document the events of June 9, 1964 in the next post.  Still more schedules and ships rules to post, the Captain's final message to the ship, and the last pictures of the arrival in Montreal.

On a sad note I would like to dedicate this post to my elder sister Angela, who was taken from us far too soon last August 2020 after a thirteen year battle with cancer.  She was 9 years old when we took the voyage.  She still had so much more to give.  Good-bye Angie, you are so missed....

Flammkuchen Freitag!

Yet another project is complete!  This one started out, with all good intentions, to build a mech based on a design from modeler/manga artist/anime creator Makoto Kobayashi.  Long time visitors to this site know of my admiration for this individual.  Check out his other work; there's lots of it out there!

One of his more bizarre designs is a mech first created for Z Gundam, the Baund Doc.  Not your regular anthropomorphic style, this one is almost bird-like with spindly arms all atop a saucer.  There are many variations, and the style evolved into another mech for his "Dragon's Heaven" OVA called a Gampf.

I have wanted to build one for quite some time; there were many false starts and delays over the years.  After the snow globe diversion, I resurrected the concept.  I just had to find the right parts.  Luckily I had in my possession a previously enjoyed Slave 1 model (thanks Joe!), which would make a suitable saucer.  The rest of the parts would be liberated mainly from two other Bandai Gundam kits, a Jamru-Fin (from ZZ Gundam), and a Hygogg (from War in the Pocket).  But I could not bring myself to pick and choose the parts, so instead I scavenged what I needed from the greeblies box; tank parts and other models from way back.  Copious amounts of dollar store bits also made it into the mix.  

So in this jumble of bits and pieces are acrylic shapes, and parts from several kits, mostly some old Dorvack suits and early Gundam models.  So no new models were harmed in this venture!  There are also toy parts and (very weathered) ping pong balls.  Those were used under the saucer.

I kept the underside detail to a minimum as it would only be seen from the sides.  An acrylic scoop was used to house all the upper parts.  (I was surprised to see that other modelers making variations of this mech also used the Slave 1 saucer as their base...)

One final test assembly.  The left forearm (with the claw) is actually a handle for a mini driver, and of course there is the customary Zaini egg. And now it's Prime Time!

The model went through many changes over the weeks.  The original intent was for it to have that massive bulk of tanks under the saucer as in the concept sketches, but after the attempt it looked like crap, so I went more Gampf than Baund-Doc.  First it was going to be spacey, then ground based, then spacey again.  Eventually I settled on a ground based unit, and decided to make it part of the "North Africa: 2042" scenario I started way back in 2015.  As the Tortoise was a British unit, I made this a German machine.  But it is much larger, the Gottesanbeterin!

The model is built to 1/72 scale, and the design has strayed quite far from the original Kobayashi concepts.  It is more Dieselpunk now, and ready for some future desert combat!

The "Gottesanbeterin", or Preying Mantis, is a mech from the fictional "Neues Deutchland".  It skims above the ground (using rediscovered 20th century technology from the "Haunebu" projects), and it rips and tears at enemy armours with the heavy claws.  

With a crew of three, and only the one main gun, this unit relies on other smaller support mechs for defense.  (Not built for this diorama unfortunately, but maybe soon...).  

Painting was done using primarily Krylon Ultra Camouflage rattlers, which are becoming hard to find these days.  Two basic colours for the base coats and then mostly Tamiya acrylics for the accents.  

  As before, I wanted to keep the weathering to a minimum as I doubt this monstrosity would have been (will be?) made using iron and other metals.  I used pastels to accent and put a fine layer of dust on the model.  After a few salvaged decals from other German kits, I layered on some camo netting to help hide it from the other guys...  

So the title of this posting, (Flammkuchen Freitag!), is roughly translated to "Pizza Friday".  End of the week is usually rewarded with pizza, especially around here.  And even in North Africa 21 years from now, nothing has changed.  But how do three hungry fighting men in an armoured mech get pizza way out in the desert?  You have it delivered of course!

I had this 1/72 Kettentrad kit from Hasegawa around for quite some time, so I thought this would make a good delivery van.  Now it takes awhile to get pizza out there; no thirty minutes it's free.  But in the near future the pies are shipped in thermal stasis boxes; as fresh as the day they were made!

My wife told me today, "That is the weirdest model you have ever built..."  And I agree!  So much that I plan to do a proper Baund-Doc someday.  This time the spacey version sporting the tank farm underside.  Here are some more nice blue sky beauty shots:

So remember, there is always time for pizza.  And don't forget the pineapple!  Have a better one, readers!

Simon Says...

 Stalenhag a snow globe!  As mentioned in the previous post, I had more ideas for this little diversion from the ongoing major build.  So I decided to pay homage (albeit only miniscule) to another of this 21st Century's great new artists!  

I first saw Simon Stalenhag's work somewhere on the internet about seven years ago.  This painting of an anti-grav ship docked over a frozen lake got me hooked at once!

The hyper realism and attention to detail made this appear as more of a photograph than a painting.  His bio and achievements are impressive.  I could go on for paragraphs about his work but I implore to visit his site: (http://www.simonstalenhag.se/), read a book or two of his art, listen to his music, and watch the "Tales from the Loop" series.  I just heard there is now a movie in the works...

So for this snow globe project,  I took inspiration from this painting:

Now the problem was scale.  I had to try to cram a lot of interest into a 4" diameter globe and still try to tell a story.  So I rummaged through the greeblies box for a while, and a few nights later cobbled this together.

Some sharp eyes out there may recognize the base sphere; it was a failed TIE Interceptor kit from way back in the '80s.  Never chuck anything out!  I added on tank parts and other bits and pieces, and then secured it to a molded foam base to simulate snow drifts.  Again as with the first globe, all paints and glues could not be water soluble.  

I painted and weathered the globe as per the above illustration (and some other similar paintings), painted the base white, and added evergreen trees around the sphere.  But as you can see, all the paintings have people for scale, so a couple of rogue N scale figures were drafted.

Now secured to the plug, I added the missing dinosaur.  You heard that right!  Another one of Simon's talents is his "Paleoart", as well as including them in the landscapes with other mechs or harassing delivery trucks!  His colour palette is unique as well.  Inspiration from a swallowtail caterpillar provided the semi camo pattern for the Velociraptor.  

And as said before, all in a little 2" diameter base...

So the lesson here is simple.  Before you and your mates go salvaging abandoned tech, be sure to check out the local wildlife first.  Or at least make sure you let the other guy go first...

Distilled water with some glycerin as a thickener filled the globe, and about two tablespoons of fine glitter to simulate snow.  It took a few attempts to find the right grade of glitter that would work (never thought I would be saying that...); too fine it stayed suspended and too coarse it just clumped.  It was the sand issue all over again.  The "lid" was sealed with some teflon tape and another lid added for the base which was painted red oxide.  

Again surprised at how much the model inside is magnified by the globe and water.  Now for a little shake...

I think the snow globe demon has been purged; I do not plan on making on more.  I'm sure those other acrylic spheres purchased in a buying frenzy can be put to some other use...

That about wraps it up for our pair of hapless scroungers, and the (very interesting to say the least) year of 2020.  And as the snow flies around the miniscule Stalenhag sphere (within a sphere!), we can almost hear our hero say, "Maybe I can loose that lizard in this blizzard..."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

A Sandstorm in a Snow Globe (what...?)

 Still in the middle of a rather large build, I needed a break and wanted to work on something else.  Nothing too big and/or time consuming, and preferably a different subject matter.  It was during the weekly visit to the good ole dollar store (which are now frantically stocking every conceivable nook and cranny with Christmas merchandise), that I stumbled across a "DIY Snow Globe" kit, and that got the mind racing.  

It's a heavy duty plastic 4" diameter ball with a plug and screw on "cap".  Ship in a bottle came to mind but that has been done enough, so I began to think of something unique.  It's a snow globe, but does it have to be snow?  Going through many Anime books, I came across an illustration from the series "Dougram: Fang of the Sun".  I had found my inspiration!

I had seen this many years ago, in one of the many Dougram kits I have collected since the early '80s.  Funny thing was that I never saw an episode until a few years ago (RIP KissAnime), and was surprised that the first episode began with this image.  The series ran from 1981 to 1983 with a total of 75 episodes.  The mech designs are among my favourites, and were designed by Kunio Okawara, who also has done many other robot series such as the Gundam series, Votoms, and Layzner.  That CV barely scratches the surface!  Luckily I had a 1/144 scale Dougram kit from Nitto, but it didn't know what I was going to do it.

As usual this series was heavily merchandised, and many models and die-cast replicas were available.  Some may recognize this by it's American name as Zoltek.  Back in 84ish when robots were becoming quite popular in North America, Revell got the rights and repacked alot of the 1/48 and 1/72 Takara Dougram kits as Robotech Defenders, which was nice as they were cheaper than buying the genuine imports.  FASA also rebranded some 1/144 Nitto kits for their Battletech line, this time it was renamed Shadowhawk.  Even small, they were nicely detailed kits.

So I set about assembling the small parts not worrying about articulation as this was to be a static model.  And the one primary factor in all of this project was that nothing could be water-based.  Super glues, epoxy, and paint could only be enamels or lacquers.  

You get the idea how small this model will be.  The access hole in the globe is only 2.25" diameter, and should stick up somewhat from the plug.  Now trying to build a 3D model from a 2D illustration is not always easy, as I am sure the artist was obviously not aware of the limitations of the model.  It was like Sir Lancelot trying to do Yoga...  Pieces had to be removed and modified, and I had to have the mech sitting up a bit on a rock.  Eventually it all came together.

The green disc below is tooling foam, and was to carve in the rocks and terrain.  I also attacked the model with the Dremel and removed chunks and created gashes and battle damage.  It is now prime time!

Dry brushing was used to augment the rust and weathering on the mech.  I also mixed in some fine sand with the paint to create the texture.  Sand was also epoxied to the base and sand applied.  The base also got a good dose of dry brushing too.  Almost there...

It was now time to put it in the globe.  I read several ways to do the interior liquid, but that was only for snow.  Wanting to use real sand, and not some glitter or such, I tried several grades until I found one which wasn't too fine that it stayed suspended, or too coarse where it just drops.  The sand also had to be washed thoroughly as it had lots of dust and impurities in it.  Distilled water was used with a small amount of glycerin to hopefully slow down the grains.  It took seven attempts to get it right!

A wooden base a "plaque" finish the job.  To seal the threads I used plumber's teflon tape; so far no leaks!  

I was surprised to see how much the water filled globe magnified the model inside.  It amplifies it by almost double, and shows the extra work and detail.  

All in all about two weeks of evenings for this project.  Of course during the process many more ideas have come to mind.  Some more with sand and maybe even try a few with snow.  I have already been back to the shop and now have six more globes standing by...  But for now, a sand storm is approaching!  

Not exactly the winter wonderland for this time of year!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Cheap as Chips Spray Booth

Well, that was summer...

While working on my current project (still many weeks away before completion), I realized I needed another method of spray painting.  The part(s) in front of the old hanging sheet was not working too well.  I had 42 parts to begin with, and lots more coming.  After the first session, the workroom was of course covered by a nice fine layer of white dust from the primer.  This could not go on.  I did not have the time or resources to construct a fully operational paint booth, so I came up with a very simple and inexpensive solution which took only one hour to build!

I have had several of these large boxes used for storage since I saved them from the cardboard bin way back in the 90's.  These heavy 2-ply corrugated cardboard boxes were originally packing cartons for those bloody great graphics monitors (17" screens) which could kill you or at least give you a hernia to remember.  The boxes are cubes of 24" each side.  Now that I had the housing, I needed the mechanical parts.

I went to the local hardware store where I bought a cheap 20" box fan for $30.00 (these are Canadian funds by the way), a pack of three 20" x 20" fiberglass furnace filters, which were about $6.00, and a role of duct tape.  I paid the lady with cash and got back some more cash with a Scotsman on it...

Returning home I folded the flaps of one end of the carton inwards, which strengthened the box and made a four ply base to attach the fan, which fit perfectly.  I used some tapping screws to anchor the unit in place and applied duct tape to seal the seams.

I then placed all three furnace filters on the inside and duct taped all gaps.  I left the front flaps loose so I could adjust them to suit the task.  Setting up on a work table, I plugged it in and got the paint flying.  Worked to perfection!  The fan at high speed created a nice air flow and the excess paint went no further than the filters.  I did find that on some of the heavier sessions the paint would accumulate restricting air flow.  But waiting a day I used the shop vac and removed alot of the excess dried paint.  No more fine dust everywhere!  It is fairly lightweight and portable, and can be set up in minutes.  I wish I had thought of this much sooner...  Time will tell how long before it will be necessary to change the filters. 

So try it yourself!  A "Cheap as Chips Spray Booth!".