Kasey's Page of Mindless Rants

I meant to post this last month during Christmas, but I never got around to it. Now that all the politics of 2008 are finally settling down, I thought it would be fun to focus on things that are a little bit more lighthearted for a while.

So, I've decided to create an entry about the model cars and airplanes I've been putting together lately. When I was a teenager I spent a lot of time building models, and I've gotten back into it over the last couple of years. I originally set up my "workshop" in our basement when we first moved into our house in 2005, but recently it's become more of a "studio", since I seem to spend a lot more time putting together models than building anything useful.

So I'll let this post serve as something of a quick photo documentary with some (hopefully) entertaining commentary. Now you all (both, rather) can see just how big of a nerd I really am.


First off, of course, is the General Lee:


The reason I start with the General Lee is because when I began it, it was the first model I had worked on since 1994. (The last model before the General was a really cool P-38 lightning that I put together in my dorm room at BYU my Freshman Year. I'd show you a picture of that, but while I was on my mission, Jordan and Scott dispensed of all my previous models with a couple of 12 gauge shotguns. I would have been mad, but they got the idea from me in the first place. )

I started working on the General in 2001 (while Amy and I were still dating!) and I finally finished it last September. It took me 7 years to finish it, which I believe is roughly twice as long as the series lasted. There is also some pretty cool detailing in the engine, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I may post it later.

Next up is my Chibi Gundam:

"Chibi" being a Japanese word meaning "Miniature" and "Gundam" meaing "Mechanized Killing Machine". So this guy is a miniature mechanized killing machine. You'll never see him coming until it's too late. I call him "Steve".

Then there is my SBD Dauntless:


There were no papers of any kind inside the box. The only instructions were the diagrams on the back of the box which, as I mentioned before, are in Japanese. There were no painting guides of any kind, and there wasn't even a photo of what the model is supposed to look like! The only picture of the ship included in the whole set is the drawing on the front cover, which is an artistic rendering of a real Japanese ship and looks nothing like the model I am building. I've been able to pretty much piece things together thus far, but it's been quite a trick.


Once I'm finished up with the ship, I've got a really cool F-15 Eagle to put together. I think I enjoy working on the airplanes the most. I want to eventually build a B-17, and I may revist the P-38 Lightning at some point. I also got a flyable remote control airplane for Christmas, which I'm going to mess with as soon as it warms up a bit. If it works out like the helicopter that Scott got for Christmas, it will at least fly once. It's the landing part that seems to be the issue with these things. I'll keep you posted.

The other thing I've been messing around over the last couple of years is model rockets. I've built two so far, and I've managed to have a couple of good flights and a whole bunch of not-so-good flights. I'll probably devote a post to that later.

I think I'm going to split this post into two. I have another set of photos I want to put up, but this is taking longer than I thought it would; plus I'm getting tired of moving photos around the blog editor. So tune in next week, because the next post will be more than meets the eye...

(And yes, that last part was a reference to something, by the way. If you don't get it, just ask any guy who was between the ages of 8 and 12 in 1985.)

Merry Christmas, Everybody! I'll post a couple of entries over the next couple of weeks, but I really quickly wanted to plug Names in Stone. It's a really cool genealogy tool that some of the guys I work with put together. It's a cemetery map based website that lets you search through all the records of any cemeteries that participate with the site. Right now most of the cemeteries are in Utah, but there are a few others scattered around the US and anybody can map cemeteries right through the site.

I just used it to find a couple of names I have in PAF (Personal Ancestral File) whose burial locations I already knew. I looked them up on the site and found info on them and links to other ancestors whose names I hadn't found yet. Anyway, the URL is www.namesinstone.com . I'll post again soon.