New Year New Ships New Saga ?

Hello everyone,

Happy new year everyone. I hope it's a good one for you all.

I've started the year with a bit of a saga ... I currently have 2x Google Pixel 4 phones. Oops. But first ... thumbnail !

What could it be ? More later. There will also be Internet Spaceships and other spaceships.

Phone saga - I attempted to upgrade to a Pixel 4 last week but ... did it through the new phone bit instead of upgrade bit, so there would have been issues keeping my old number. I've had that number for maybe 25 years now ! (Depends whether I had phone before uni or after) Don't wanna lose that. Long story short - the new one is cancelled, upgrade has been delivered, all my 2 factor authentication people will be very confused by now (as is the bus ticket people !) and I need to smuggle the new one back to Three again. Apparently the shops can't take returns from online, which feels a bit daft. It seems like the shops would be the perfect place to transfer custody and check that all the bits are in there.

Internet spaceships has seen a new arrival :

That's the Searching for Potatoes, a name inspired by the lovely Kolo and that ship will go around the galaxy over the next few months. Should be good. There were some shenanigans with the old ship first though ...

Including some planetary base exploration ...

Shenanigans in the rover ...

Oops.

That ship looked like it came down pretty hard.

And ... new games may have appeared :

It's called EarthX and it's about managing a rocket launching company. Looked promising, although it's an early access game (by a 17 year old on their own - awesome job already) so it's not done yet. The initial peek was fun.

Back to work tomorrow. The holiday period has been pretty dominated by what feels like a mix of nasty cough and benign cough. The cough itself wouldn't be too bad ... except there's been a few incidents where it has felt like I've had a brain shut down and reset due to coughing too much. Not good, hopefully all gone !

But ... about that boat ?

That's what's in the box. I'm trying something new here ... the new phone automatically uploads pictures to my google account so instead of copying them over via Bluetooth, new technique time. Hope it works out.

Every ship (well - most of them !) starts with a keel laying and my first exposure to elastic bands on this project. There may have been some sorcery with knots required but on the whole, the kit went together pretty smartly with the knobbly bits fitting in to the holes snugly. It won't be coming apart in a hurry and minimal sanding was needed to encourage things to fit. (Disclosure note - I bought the kit, watch for post and packaging costs - 1 place is cheap, 1 place is super pricey on P+P).

A side panel appears.

And the mechanisms start to take place. There is a driving wheel and a pair of wheels that give the boat a wobbly motion. And a wind up thingy !

And the starboard side goes on the boat. Including pendulum ... Oh as always, click for bigger and more detail with these.

Decking appears at the stern. Wonder what that is right near the stern ? More later.

The bow of the ship with the forward hull in place.

A view from a more assembled starboard side.

And much more assembled now. There's a fair bit of mechanism inside there. This is actually as complete as I'll take the model !

A view of the bow.

And port side. There's a lovely finish on the model. It isn't varnished (would probably interfere with the flat pack and assembly!) but the wood is lovely and gives off a nice woody smell.

Last one from above.

The mechanism is pretty tight so it isn't doing its elastic band powered forward movement thing but I think that's misalignments from me during build and a need of some of the waxing to lubricate the joins.

Would definitely get another of these :-D.