Was ist Freiheit - What is Freedom?

Pressefreiheit? Freiheit hört dann auf, wenn diese Freiheit anderen verletzt. Pressefreiheit trägt auch große Verantwortung mit sich, und wenn die Presse ohne Verantwortung oder Gewissen handelt, dann ist es keine Freiheit mehr sondern Unterdrückung durch die Presse.

Freedom of the press? Freedom ceases when this freedom causes injury to others. With freedom of the press comes a great responsibility and when the press starts handlig without responsibility or conscience, then it ceases to be freedom and becomes opression by the press.

Dear Spammers

To all you spammers visiting these pages:

Do not bother! you will not get any extra publicity by posting your spamtrash here - there is no automatic post approval and there are almost zero clicks to be gained by posting a link to Louis Vuitton goods or sexually explicit pages.

So I am sorry to disappoint you all, but your time and comments are wasted.

The Sunday Rant

Isn't the world a horrible place? Terrorism, war, big business greed, weak and ridiculous laws, disease, environmental disasters on the increase, overpopulation, global warming... you name it, it's all evil out there.

Worst of all, I see way too many people giving up and complaining about lack of options...

In a democratic society I blame the non voters first and foremost. If you can vote but don't, then the blame starts with you for helping create weak governments. If you vote and then complain because the other side wins, you're just as bad. Democracy means accepting "defeat" and supporting the winner despite your grievances.

Corruption? It can be beaten. Name and shame. There's still waste, but I have seen small inroads in German politics - there are less personal gain claims happening under politicians because there's plenty of naming and shaming from the press.

Wars? They happen when politics fail. They needn't. But... The Kurds are out on the streets protesting that the west isn't helping enough. The Kurds are also out on the streets attacking the first mentioned Kurds. The Syrians and the Turks are holding back. Meanwhile we are asking ourselves: IS, ISIS, ISIL, good Kurds, bad Kurds, Shiite, Sunni, Ba'ath, Ayatollahs, Koreans, Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, Mexican drug gangs, Brazilian land rapists?

Disease? Plagues? Bird flu, swine flu, human flu, mad cow. Now it's Ebola (which of the several strains is worse?)

Or possibly the worst plague: humanity itself. We're spreading faster than any disease and our "Maslow's Pyramid" is on the verge of being turned upside down (check this by googling and you'll see what I mean - the lowest tier of the hierarchy (breathing, food, water...) is going to become prime survival factor that will kill us off if we do not keep focussed...

What you negatives need is faith (no, not in the religious sense) in human nature and that we can overcome any problem. If WE don't solve the problem, then nature will. What's a few million years to the planet? Does the universe care at all, if we wipe ourselves out? Hell no!

Is there a cure? I think any half way intelligent person can come up with populist ideas (shoot the ba***rds) but we need some real intelligent problem solvers (not just IQ, but high EQ and MQ as well - i.e. emotional and moral quotients). We need people who are prepared to put the world first.

Yes, this is overly simplified. But dammitalltohellandgone, we NEED simple. Having travelled reasonably extensively, I know that nearly all "normal" people have the same needs regardless of coulour or creed. That means we need to have leaders who believe the same. We also need a set of scales to weigh up new ideas as they are thought of and we need to think if these ideas are good for all.

Is it too much to hope for leaders who always ask themselves what the people need and not what they think the people should think they need.

The biggest flaw is that there is no immediately visible way to give the human race a figurative "slap in the face" to make it stand back and take a deep breath.

Ah well. Enough rant for the moment. Looking out of the window I see the sun shining so I will grab my lunch, take it out onto the balcony, take a glass of wine and enjoy life. 

As Satchmo sung:

"...what a wonderful world"

Still practicing

A week or so has passed and nothing has happened - what a life!

Well, not quite nothing. I have been practicing painting my heads. I think I am slowly getting the hang of things, although at 1/16th scale, it's a devilish job getting the eyes looking anywhere near acceptable, let alone realistic.

But as the old saying has it - Practice makes perfect. Plenty of practice left for me! One of the things I had problems with was that the paints tended to dry a lot faster than I was prepared for. I now know what fluid retarder does - great. A worthwhile lesson, even if it was 30 heads (ish) too late.

So now I am also using a selfie as well:

Another lesson I am learning is that the eyes on the model are too white. So the photo serves to give me a pointer or two, and as you can see, I also have a couple of larger scale heads on poles. These two in this picture are 1/9 th scale. 

Keep following - you may be witnessing the makings of a half way decent modeller - if I should be around that long.

Getting Further Ahead

So, in my last post I described seven phases I wanted to try and follow up for painting heads. So how far have I gone then? Well, apart from having around fifteen heads nearing completion, I have a short sequence to show you:

...and after a further few hours of practice, this is where that officer is now:

Not perfect yet, but I feel I am getting there. I still want to add some stubble and I want to try to add some more eye-lining. Damn! These heads are tiny!

If you want to get a head....

It's not masterclass, but it is what I would call my first real success at painting heads.

There is more that I could do, but this is at least what I will allow myself to call a finished object. So as a reminder, here's my sequence:

1. paint the eye area white
2. paint the irises onto the eye
3. paint the pupil (I found that a 0.2mm technical drawing pen - such as the Rotring series - works great
4. paint the red areas like a mask around the whites of the eyes
5. paint the flesh
6. paint the hair
7. paint the headgear (if moulded on)

I think I will practice this some more and do a photo-story one day. Until then I leave you with my favourite farewell greet:

"Procrastinate!"

"Later..."

Another Short Story from One-Eye's Travels...

One-Eye’s Tale  Continues

We left old One-Eye snoring gently, face down in a bowl of pickled moles. Limp had gone outside for some fresh air, only to go limp from the numerous rounds. He woke up some time later to find a heavy dew had settled during the darker hours.

"Gerroffome, will you, Rabbi Goldstein!"

Shaking hands with his best friend, Limp signed the flower bed and strolled back into the bar to see where One-Eye had had gone. The other one was still there, but the left one was gummy and caked with sleep. Still, being a cheery cockney, he soon spotted old One-Eye and the pickled moles. Giving his best pal a dig in the ribs, he chirped, “Wotcher! Drinking again One-Eye? “

"Why thank you my dear boy! Barman! I'll have a pint of Uncle Elmersh number 5 pleash..." Now considerably refreshed, One-Eye laid his arm around Limp's shoulders. "Say, how's about we go do some water-skiing later, I know where we can get some water skis dead cheap - Candy's selling hers. They have never been used; she bought them a year or so ago, but got fed up because she couldn't find a lake with a slope. But I think I'd better have a hair of the dog, before we go and do the chores, Limp - after all, you have quite a few to do."

This totally threw Limp, after all, he'd been on laundry and washing up duty three weeks running. "Chores? What chores?" He said, somewhat indignantly...

(all together now...)

“Barman! I'll have a pint of Uncle Elmer's number 5 please - my wonderful friend here is buying. Oh, and a hair of the dog too."

Galland, a very worn and patchy looking Retriever, cocked an ear at this and rolled over to make a quick getaway, dislodging Speedy the Chihuahua from his warm "nest". Speedy just turned around three times as Galland made a dash for the dog flap, and settled down in a pile of faux beaver furs that some trapper (or was it a TV mogul) had left in the corner. No hurry for Speedy, after all - hair of the dog was no business of his.

Over at the bar, Fritz's third cousin Johann, thrice removed (...from his car - driving under the affluence of incohol) had just arrived in from the old country and was twiddling the knobs on the club radio set. There were some odd hisses and crackles, and then he tuned in to the marine network.

There was obviously some trouble on the water somewhere because a voice was constantly repeating "Mayday, mayday. We are sinking."

Being a polite and efficient Teuton, Johann pressed the talk button, "Hello, zis is Johann... vot are you sinking about?" There was a spluttering three seats down the bar, as One-Eye choked on a bit of mole. Well, it was actually a beauty spot on Sandy's cheek, but she didn't seem to mind much. Oh, we haven't introduced Sandy yet... Sandy is shandy Candy's randy sister, with the handy dandy mole.

She purred in One-Eye's ear: "Don't you think we should introduce Limp to Wanda?"

"Good idea Sandy! Hey, Limp - rather than lurk around in bars all alone, how's about us fixing you up with a date with old John Nuther's sister Wanda? You'll love that."

Now you ought to know this: Limp was a frustrated playboy, knew what, but didn't know who... always solo... "Yeah, that sounds cool. One-Eye. Interesting name... Wanda Nuther..."

...oh dear...

Let's Take a Look at Brushes

Paintbrushes! The bane of my modelling life! 

I know I am only just getting into some serious modelling, but it's not as if I have never done it before. In fact my first model was a P38 built with Dad, way back in the late 1950s and I have been on a war footing with brushes ever since.

In recent years I have collected more than just a few Revell "Deluxe" brushes because I had a model shop just round the corner. According to the German Blurb, they are made using Rotmarder hair. Might just as well be red squirrel for all the difference in quality I can ascertain. Although doing a Google translate tells me that that means sable hair. Sounds good.

Then I found Italeri brushes. Much better as far as I am concerned! And of course... I have Pelikan and other makes of brush in my collection. But when it comes to detail work, the single most important factor is to have a brush that keeps its point. The reason I now have fifteen Revell Painta Lux brushes is that the small point brushes (i.e. 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0) all "fray" after a few days of use. Take a look at this picture:

The brush in the middle is a Revell 4/0 and there are a couple more on the right. From right to left we have 2 Revell, 1 Pelikan "school" brush, 1 Revell standard quality, the much famed and frayed Revell Painta Lux and the Italeri brush. I'll get to the first one on the left in a bit...

Of all those mentioned (and many others) the Italeri brushes have been the nicest for keeping its shape, although the Italeri brush is starting to show its weakness in that the superfine tip is simply due to less hairs and that means less paint carrying. 

But then the revelation!

The brush on the left is a self-branded brush from an airbrush artists' supplier in Germany: Die Duese.

Now I have no claim to fame as an artist of any kind. I am just an enthusiastic amateur modeller learning the trade all over again, but these "professional" artists brushes are a pleasure to use and just look at the tip. I have used this company's brushes now for longer than any other single brush and that tip is as perfect now as it was the day I received it. 

...and the results show why I like them:

Incidentally, this is definitely a work-in-progress shot, so comments later please. ;)

These heads are 1/16th scale and after plenty of practice (about 30 heads painted and repainted in recent days) I think I am getting the hang of things - but let's wait until I have finished a few of these.

Incidentally - heads on sticks? Perhaps these could make a "Game of Thrones" type diorama?...