Sailplane...thing

The usual stuff: turkey bones, mylar, hors d'oeuvre toothpicks, balsa, disposable wooden utensils, rubberband, coffee stirrer.

P-51 Red-tail

Revell's 1969 1/32 scale P-51B Mustang. Red, yellow, and silver hardware store spraypaints. Canopy frame made from painted strips of electrical tape. Minimal decals. Didn't paint the propeller tips yellow, I thought they'd detract from the yellow wing stripes.

Living small

 Landowners and informal dwellers along Rio Tarqui are being moved out so the city can expand greenspace along the river, and add land to the Botanical Gardens to the east. In addition to the tire shop and stucco contractor in the photos, people raise animals and grow crops. Some of these families have lived here for at least 70 years. This used to be out of town, but no longer. The gov't paid out $550,000 for the land, and to relocate people.

Amor

 I got dis runnin' joke wit' my wife, who's 73. If we're going outta da house for whatever reason, I'll say "Oh man baby you're gonna make me look good today." And then we're out and running an errand and it's, "You makin' me look really good right now." And of course she scoffs at my enthusiasm. So today we're doing our weekly food charity thing in Centro. We come upon a coupla regulars, one who plays ukelele, and the other a shoe-shiner. I say "how y'all doin' Master of Music, and Master of Shine?" They say they're doing fine, and, "Izzat ya wife? She's muy guapa (very nice-looking)." I say, she is! Every day I tell God muchas gracias que ella es mi esposa/ thank you God that she's my wife! She made those sandwiches. They are so fine, you can't eat them, you hafta jus' admire 'em. And they are laughing, and saying oh no we got it! So my point is, from now on if wife discounts my indirect compliments, I can say, "What about those guys in Parque Calderon? They're objective; you should trust their opinion, since they are not blinded by love."

P-40

Revell's 50+ year-old 1/32 P-40 kit. New decals. Handpainted w/ craftstore acrylics, topped with pastels in assorted shades of green, brown & tan. I thought the kit exhausts were too understated, and replaced them with bits of plastic straw. Left off all the little pieces: pitot tube, tailwheel doors, antenna, gunsight, etc. Canopy framing made with strips of electrical tape.

Nessun Dorma

I help distribute food to the needy in Centro on Saturdays. Last week when I went to pick up food, I met a gringo in his car outside the pickup point- he was dropping off sandwiches. 'Kurt' and I got to talking. In his former life he had been a singer: musicals, operas, what have you. I said I'd been singing for the public (choirs and cantoring) since I was in first grade, but not professionally, and I really liked songs from opera and musicals. Anyway, we started singing Nessun Dorma from Puccini's opera Turandot, but shortly we stopped, as it was time to head into Centro with the collected food.

So today I'm handing out food, and I hear someone singing the opening line of the aria. I look around, and see Kurt in a car not 10 feet away, stopped at a red light. Can ya believe it? So we launch into it again, and almost got to the end before the light changed. Just a terrific moment.

There's a joke in Cuenca: it's a big city, but a small town: ya always gonna run inna people ya know. Once again it's true. The odds of randomly meeting Kurt on one Saturday, and seeing him again somewhere else the very next Saturday, it's too convenient. And we sounded great together with no preparation.

We both think the best singer to cover Nessun Dorma is Franco Corelli, an Italian tenor from the 1950s-1970s. Given how many people (including the usual suspects) have recorded the song, what are the odds of both of us liking this now-remote tenor's treatment? Life remains a wonder, and here is one of Corelli's performances, chosen for its subtitles. Like many other romantic songs, it reminds me of courting my wife.

https://youtu.be/e8MhdyfQq1A?list=RDe8MhdyfQq1A

Foxbat

 Hasegawa's 1978 1/72 MiG-25 Foxbat. Data for the model included field measurements of the MiG-25 flown to Japan in October, 1976 by Soviet defector Viktor Belenko. The following notes are from the instruction sheet.

“Within hours of its surprise appearance over Hakodate Airport, the MiG-25 was the subject of intense examination by the engineers at HASEGAWA. Videotapes of the aircraft's examination and measurements taken from the big fighter were checked against all previously collected photographs and drawings. Satisfied as to the accuracy and completeness of their data, tooling proceeded simultaneously with individual part and sub-assembly drawings. Working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, engineering, tooling and mold testing required exactly 100 days for completion.

Now the scale modeler can add an authentic replica of one of the most exciting aircraft of the decade to his collection.”

Finished in a post Cold-War scheme with acrylic craftstore paint and dry pastels.

Space Dog

 Whatever it is, it's done. Janet has named it Space Dog.  30-year-old keel clamp in bottom photo is for ship models; it  occurred to me that I could use it to align turkey vertebrae.

Le Coureur

Cardboard-hull 1/72 scale kit of the French lugger Le Coureur, 1776. 24.5"L x 18.5" H. Sails and many small bits were scratchbuilt.

Lateen Turkey

Inspired by pix of lateen-rigged fishing craft that my wife linked me to, and other such working boats in the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean; and racing dhows in the Persian Gulf. Mylar sails, bamboo skewers, bones from two turkeys. Some curvy bits are leftovers from a lasercut sheet of balsa from a Viking wooden-ship kit. 19" long and tall, purely by coincidence.

Another Turkey

 A small turkey means small bones, and less room for complexity. Sail theme taken from late 19th century America's Cup competitors. Mylar, skewers, and toothpicks, plus a permanent rubberband to hold the wingsail structure against the body.