Monthly archives: June 2008


On the modelling table- Post Apocalypse Pony

Post Apocalypse Pony- front view with grunge

I mentioned my plans to make a bunch of cars inspired by Mad Max, Car Wars and the upcoming Death Race remake, so here’s the first. This is the Post Apocalypse Pony, a 1980s Ford Mustang that’s seen better days and has been kitted out to survive on the grim highways of the future.

It started out as a Monogram Snap-Fix kit. I haven’t made many modifications to the body or interior, just added a cache of weapons and equipment. Only after finishing the weathering did I think that it should have had some battle scars or dents. Oh well, the driver’s just very good at avoiding things but crap at cleaning his vehicle.

Interior-

Post Apocalypse Pony- interior

The tub was painted Tamiya Buff with detailing picked out in silver and flat black. The seats are Games Workshop Snakebite Leather. The dash is flat black with white and silver detailing. The passenger seat has been sacrificed to make space for supplies and weapons, all of which came from an old Airfix multipose set of US Marines. There’s a knife on the back of the driver’s seat, a pistol in a holster on the doorb and the submachine gun propped up on the back seat as well as binoculars, a water bottle, ammunition clips and an entrenching tool. Before fitting the tub into the body I may add a few more bits and pieces because I don’t think it’s cluttered enough. The interior was given a wash of Games Workshop Badab Black to pick out details.

Body-

Post Apocalypse Pony- From above Post Apocalypse Pony- right side Post Apocalypse Pony- Rear view with grunge

I’ve made no changes to the shape of the body. The bonnet has been painted a nice dark blue, a Games Workshop foundation colour but I forget its name, and the trim is flat black. There were no instructions on the colour of the lights in the rear clusters so I made that up. Rust was added in various spots and then I experimented with a wash to weather it. The thinners I’ve been using for quite a while was so full of paint that it was no longer any use for cleaning brushes. But it did provide a nice grotty green was for the car. I pooled it on the roof and let it run down the body naturally, pooling wherever it was stopped. It looks a lot like the sort of algae you often find growing on cars in scrapyards, as if the vehicle’s been discovered in a barn and pressed into service.

Chassis-

Annoyingly the photos I took of the underside of the car are all out of focus. I’ll get some more before I put it all together. The chassis was painted flat black and a sump guard was made out of a piece of plastic card. Then the whole thing was liberally brushed over with rust and a few silver spots picked out where stones have caught it.

The wheels were painted flat black and then the ribs were picked out with silver.

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Another step toward algae diesel

An American company called Solazyme has announced that its algae derived biodiesel has passed US standards testing and is compatible with unmodified diesel engines. The process can use waste materials and has a big advantage over farmed biodiesel in that it doesn’t take capacity away from food production.

via Jalopnik

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Critical Mass, June 2008


Critical Mass, June 2008, originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

It didn’t rain during the ride, but it was still a bit grey and cold. I was about to blog a picture from my phone when we set off, and then I forgot to post over the weekend.


The tropical Atlantic ozone sink

Measurements in the Atlantic have shown that the actions of ultraviolet light and sea spray are scrubbing ozone and methane out of the atmosphere in the area faster than expected. Which is fairly good news, if only we can stop pumping out so many pollutants the Earth may clean the rest up faster than we deserve.

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A Posse’s worth of severed cowboy heads

Trust me, there is a plan for these. Not a very nice one, I admit.


A Posse's worth of severed cowboy heads

Trust me, there is a plan for these. Not a very nice one, I admit.


Energy independence begins at home

Gordon Brown has announced a £100billion renewable energy plan. The Daily Mail and its readers have reacted as you’d expect, ignoring the boost to the economy from all the jobs created and the opportunities through grants to go energy independent.

So, those of you who can, I’d recommend stealing a jump on the whingers and using their tax money to go off grid. When I researched grants for solar panels last month I found that the existing scheme had been phased out, which was annoying. I’m now willing to give Brown the benefit of the doubt and hope this was because they were gearing up to a new and improved scheme. It isn’t easy. I’m not as obnoxiously and knee-jerkingly anti Brown/New Labour as the Mail’s readers, but past performance does mark the Government as untrustworthy.

The schemes for householders will be announced later this Summer. I’ll be looking out for them and will try to do some number crunching on them when they arrive.

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Well, I’ll be an interesting 40 year old, at least

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…
I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth;
oh nevermind;
you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….
You’re not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you
Sing
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss
Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen….

Baz Luhrman – Sunscreen


Well, I'll be an interesting 40 year old, at least

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…
I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth;
oh nevermind;
you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….
You’re not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you
Sing
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss
Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.
Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.
Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen….

Baz Luhrman – Sunscreen


Oh to be a Domai photographer

Warning– All the links in this post are to pictures of naked women. Depending upon where you work, you may not want to click through until you’re certain no-one’s looking.

I want to be a photographer for the Domai website. Not only do they get to photograph gorgeous women they get to do so in some incredible locations.

There’s a special offer on for the rest of the month, so you can get more of the gorgeousness for less if you’re quick.


Heinz Deli Mayonnaise makes you go gay!

Or something. A silly advert for the new product showed two men kissing (the magical properties of Deli Mayo having morphed Mum into a gruff New York diner chef) and a handful of people with nothing better to do have complained so it’s been pulled.

I’m reminded of one of the many satirical radio adverts in GTA IV, which plays on this tendency of some parents not wanting to do any responsible parenting and demanding the rest of the world should shut up so they don’t have to explain things to their kids. Heaven forbid they should try to prepare their little ones for the real world by having to explain that we’re all different.