well, this is probably a bit late at night to be starting this, but i am led to believe there are some clock shenanigans tomorrow morning, which gifts me an extra hour. wahey, indeed. Spiros, please note that it is clock shenanigans i said. yes, i know you prefer what you thought it said, but not on my blog, look you see.
so anyway, today we built another helicopter. this one was one that fulfilled, to a satisfactory degree, a long term ambition of mine, which is to build one from wood. many thanks to the persons of interest reading this that sent it along for me.
yes, that's the packaging for it right there above. looks really smart, does it not? i quite like how, in it's flat and thin packaging, it felt the need to point out that it is, as point of fact, very much a "do it yourself" helicopter. good and useful clarification, that.
i am not sure one should be allowed to purchase anything but a do it yourself helicopter. if you are going to be all big and clever, right, pratting about flying in one of them, then i think it is reasonable for you to have built it before you do go ahead with that. James Bond did it, after all, in that film where the baddies were all in the converted volcano.
so anyway, on to building, i guess.
here are the two panels of wood, then, containing the parts one needs to make a helicopter, and the promised instructions.
no, i am not hiding something from you, this sheet is it in respect of instructions. and it is all in loads of different languages, with that top corner being the only gesture, or if you like concession, to English as such.
it's not really what one would call "step by step" instructions. pictured are the two panels of wood containing the bits you need, with the slots all numbered. this is most useful, as the instructions are pretty much limited to saying "try" to put it together by matching the numbers on the slots on each part, and it should go together easy enough. it also mentions that, overall, you should pretty much know what a helicopter looks like and how to build one, so just do whatever it is you think is right.
a close up of those instructions so you can inspect this textual outrage for yourself? not really possible with my blueberry, but here you go.
i of course know how a helicopter goes together. down at the helicopter club, after all, i am not called "Mr Airwolf" for nothing. i also get called "Mr Blue Thunder" too, and "Mr That One That Her That Used To Be Married To Prince Andrew Wrote About A Helicopter". i could probably build a helicopter in my sleep, i am that proficient. i dare say i have, and just forgot where i put it.
a close look at all the parts, slots and their numbers? sure, since for some reason i took a picture of that and put them here. well, it's not the parts of course, it's the picture off of the lavish instructions.
what would have worked better, for the amateur do it yourself helicopter enthusiast, is if this diagram looked rather more like the actual panels and parts. that would make it a bit too easy, i suppose, and attract the wrong sort of person to building helicopters out of wood. one would not, after all, go up to a group of trainspotters and suggest that they have a go at car number plates instead. actually, you would not go up to a group of trainspotters.
did i get on just fine with the trials of inferior, incomplete instructions and diagrams? of course i did, do not be so foolish as to think otherwise. here's a picture of it mid-construction, since i do indeed know what a helicopter looks like; down the helicopter club they call me "Mr Airwolf", etc, etc.
and then, in next to no time, the helicopter was complete. despite my proud name and reputation for nothing short of perfection when i undertake a project like this, it was of course important to get an objective, qualified and unbiased opinion. it was very fortunate that William was there to give exactly this.
he was, as you can sort of work out from the above, somewhat impressed with it.
and why would he not be? it is, after all, magnificent. far more fuel efficient than them metal ones they send to rescue people off of hills, mountains and ski slopes, at the least.
a look at the finished helicopter from a different angle? sure, why not.
i say finished, but of course it isn't. it still required its livery to be attached; which is to say that it needed a spot of paint to be applied for it to be complete.
i tend not to paint things myself due to the insurance implications. they do, after all, down the painters club call me "Mr Van Gough", or sometimes even "Mr Monet". my painting something leads to it gaining a very high value, which causes all sorts of problems getting it insured.
it was better, then, to let William have a go at painting. oh, his painting carries a high value too, of course, but a value that tends to slide right past; indeed below, insurance brokers.
indeed we did have a jolly splendid afternoon building and painting it, as you can no doubt tell from these pictures. William was having a blast painting it. so much so, in fact, that he decided to stop before the whole thing was done, allowing him to return to it tomorrow to do some more.
here is as far as his painting work got, then.
i certainly hope that he returns to finish the job tomorrow. i suspect he will - he has already weighed and measured up the helicopter to see if it would accommodate his Doctor Who action figures, and indeed they will fit in. that means he will be wanting the helicopter to stay.
we were going to build a bear too, but from what i could work out that needs some special bear glue. oddly i have been called Yogi Bear more than once, but not down at the bear club, because i don't go there. rather low class it is, the sort of place Spiros would think "rules".
anyway, let me see what else i should do with this extra hour business.
if this has inspired you to create, indeed craft, your own helicopter, happy days. my great thanks again to the parties who made this all possible.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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