2018

christmas 2018

Soon another year is over, in a few days is New Year's Eve and New Year. All of our family have been at home over the Christmas holidays and we have enjoyed the time together.
image xmas-tree
We do not need many or big gifts anymore. What is more important is the time together, which distinguishes this Christian pracitices and which we live.
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top of Winti

a quick survey of my team has shown that city sightseeing takes precedence over technology. I've already heard a lot about the tours run by House-of-Winterthur. On the 11th of December we met in front of the city library for a guided tour with a visit to the church tower.

It's a great thing to be on top of the church tower yourself, where the wind players serenade on New Year's. Photos from up there and from the guide are on my Flickr album.
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Fuerteventura in November

beginning of November I traveled to the Canary Islands for one week. On Fuerteventura, I've extended the summer almost for another week. Temperatures between 22° C and 26° C have been common.image lighthouse on the Janida beach
Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are bathing islands, the sandy beach at Morro Jable is 4 kilometers long. I also rented a bike to explore the southern part. It was worth it. Photos from the holiday week are as usual on a Flickr album.
image view from Mirador-los-Canarias
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new and fresh look

finally, after the usual detailed and almost endless selection process for a new design, my website is up-to-date again. This time, I also updated the content and deleted or updated some outdated information. There is still one big question: which logo should I use now? I have drawn these three owl logos, they are only visible on sit-down devices. Which one would you choose? Comments are welcome..
image uh-logo-decisions
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Ballonfrieden

it has been a quick decision; just a phone call on Tuesday evening that a balloon ride is planned for Wednesday afternoon. But I knew that such trips depend always on many factors. Everything has to fit together, and on the next afternoon we stood ready in Hohentannen to ride a hot air balloon. Piloted by Kurt Frieden (hence the name of this blog entry) we started near the lake of Constance and traveled up to Wil SG.
Of course I took a couple of photos, you may check them at my Flickr album.
image hotair-1s
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happy weaving

during the last couple of days I am heavily involved in all kinds of website creating. It started with Rapidweaver and proceeded with Jimdo. Teaching how to build websites I know both, desktop CMS programs like RW and also the sitebuilders like Mozello, Weebly and so on. However I seldom using Jimdo even it is very popular here in Switzerland. Since sitebuilders are self explaining it wasn’t a big thing to write a website Jimdo. But one thing I have learned: Jimdo is now available in two versions. The newer one costs more and has less features, but hey it had some kind of AI built in Gasp
image weaving-spindle
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change of scenery

or maybe even more than just a change of scenery (Tapetenwechsel). In addition to a long overdue new topic for the .net website, a revision of the content is also necessary.
And then we already write the year 2018 (late 2018, August to be exact). A few days ago Realmacsoftware released their latest version of RapidWeaver: RapidWeaver 8. Now my english website (.net) definitely belongs to the old iron.
So there is a lot of evidence of a total rebuild of the website.
image 10years-of-rw-icons
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exhibition in Andelfingen

over the weekend of 25th and 26th August, we have organized the 4th Modeling Exhibition of the MC-Wyland in the Löwensaal in Andelfingen. This was my first exhibition where I showed my own models; my set of famous Lockheed aircraft and from earlier times the US space flight on a scale of 1: 200.
image modell-uh-2018-andelf
It has been two interesting days that have been fun for me. Very nice conversations with visitors, who remember their story about a certain model and then the model makers also talking to each other. A good atmosphere and an interesting mix of exhibitors. My favorite was that little boy who was enthusiastically studying my rockets and could not get enough information from me about it. I have put together a photo album for our club on Flicker.
image ryan5
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Lockheed P-38J Lightning (1:72)

my collection of „famous Lockheed aircrafts“ has lacked one model so far; that of a Lightning P-38. The Lightning was used by the Americans in World War II in the Pacific PTO and in Europe ETO. For a long time I could not decide on a particular variant until I came across a picture of Mark Postlethwaite. It depicts the aerial combat of a Lightning with a Me-163 Komet.
Now I have finished this P-38J-15 flown by Capt Arthur ‚Art‘ Jeffrey of 434th FS/479th FG as a model in scale 1:72. He has been awarded the first (and only) shoot down of a Komet with a P-38. On the German side, however, no losses were registered on that day, which may well be true if one reads the various reports available.
image IMG_2028s
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two Airacobras from the Irchel

for several weeks I have been looking for any kind of information about the two French planes that crashed on July 16, 1945 on the Irchel. It started with the article „Fliegertod am Irchel" which was published last December in the Tagesanzeiger. When recently biking around the Irchel I remember that interesting story again.
image Rheinknie-Eglisau
If I can find enough information, especially pictures, about the two aircraft, then I’ll build these as models.
In the meantime, enough pieces of that puzzle have come together (telephone calls, e-mails, meetings, research in the Swiss Federal Archives). The two fighters are of the type Bell P-39Q Airacobra and they belonged to the 1ère Escadrille of GC II / 9 Auvergne (I have to learn French again). From the different sources, I know that they have not been identical types. The main distinguishing feature (in the model) are the propellers: 4 blades versus 3 blades.
image IMG_1928s
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J8M1, RC-rocketfighter

just finished my rc-model of the Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui (sharp sword) a Japanese interceptor built during WWII.
image IMG_1687-rdy-built
As the original the model also is starting with rocket power. Mine will burn for about 6 seconds and reach about 80 meters high. From then on it is a glider but a really fast one (photos taken by Samuel).
image j8m1-starting
The Japanese Shusui was a copy of the German Me-163 Komet. Most modellers are painting their model in red therefore I decide to go with another easy to apply color as the Shusui has.
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Camel F.1 and S.E. 5a (WWI fighters)

currently I am building models from the first World War (WWI). Aircraft from this time, just 15 years after the first flight of the Wright brothers are small compared to those from the second world war, and they were built from different materials (steel, wood and fabric).
image camel-f1-72
One of the most popular British fighters is the Sopwith Camel F. 1. I have built three different model kits, all in the scale 1:72 (see the photos on Flickr). The Roden company has incorporated the finest details, unfortunately the assembly is a nightmare.
image se5a-72
Also from Roden is my S.E. 5a. This Britisch fighter had a Hispano-Suiza engine and no rotary engine as most fighters of the first world war. My model is flown by the Australian Leslie Holden. He has his airplane completely painted in red. There are more photos of them on my flickr album.
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