Shame, shame… Bad Influences, the whole lot of you! who started this thread anyhow?!? [:D] It reminds me of that movie a few years back - October Sky, i think it was called. This kid wanted to become a rocket scientist and his first rocket was a plastic model filled with gunpowder tied to his mom’s fence. More like a grenade than a rocket. Blew the fence apart… hahaha!
Great thread, Shrikes. Reminiscing those heady days, huh?
Ive had my share of firecrackers. I wanted to get “realistic” gunpowder soot (you cant get more realistic than this) on my heavy cruiser so I lit up some sparklers beside it. I was gonna astound and awe my friends with the result of this cutting edge approach. Apparently (and unfortunately), it was too close that a glowing chunk fell onto it, burning right through the deck.
Hey Shrikes it’s a good thing you brought this out! To think at that time I thought I was the only one doing it. It was real FUN. What I did then was collect the blackpowder from the firecrackers and stuff it inside my broken Mosquito and light the fuse. No big bang but there’s a big flash and thick mushroom of smoke. I hate to throw my models even the broken ones so a lot of them made their exits this way on new years’ eves.
At least you didn’t do what my dad did when he was young. He threw a firecracker down the hole in an outhouse. Blew the whole thing apart. [censored] every where. My grandfather made him dig a new one and build another outhouse without any help. Dad said it took him several days to do the job. And he thought I was bad for putting firecrackers in old models, just to watch them blow up.
Hehehe… Betcha it was one of them 5stars that the “sintaron ni judas” (Judas’ Belt) and "sawa"s are made of, huh? LMAO Ah… kids are dumb (it takes one to know one[D)])! What’s it they say: “Youth is wasted on the young”? Maybe now that we’re older it’s time to get our youth back! [}:)][:D]
Did anyone ever pull a model tank across a street with a string - in front of an unsuspecting vehicle…
No - I didn’t think so - who would ever do a thing like that. Besides - you would probably have to be prepared to run your butt off after the driver stopped and started to chase you. But that would never happen
October Sky is a fantastic movie! One of those rare flicks I can share with my whole family and not have somebody turned off because it’s too violent or too chick-flicky.
Regards,
-Drew
Hey Berny,
Found that balsa thing in my backyard a few years back. It was well weathered from a long flight!!!
Wroper
Wroper
Send me a picture of it. At least that way I can prove I built something that would fly.[(-D][(-D]
Wouldn’t mind seeing some of THOSE videos![:)]
I had an old battleship kit that I had dropped and repaired a few times. Decided to get rid of it with style, so I took off the superstructure, filled it with pine straw and tube glue and set fire to it. This was the Battle of Savo Island. I threw firecrackers into the pond all around the model. Great scale geysers from “shell hits” and near misses. The flames rose higher and higher and then the Yamato, ably represented by an M-80, fired a salvo that did the US BB in, sending her to the bottom. In big pieces, little pieces, medium size pieces, flaming pieces. It was GREAT. Too bad I didn’t take any pictures. Would have been something 
The first pyrotechnic ‘show’ I came up with was about 1970. A neighbor had one of those Texaco Tanker models that they gave out at the gas stations, and I came up with the brilliant idea of having it burn and sink. We poured lots of BBs in the bottom of the hull for ballast, spread in a BUNCH of tube glue and set it afire in their pool. Do you know how long it takes two twelve year olds to scrub burnt melted plastic off the bottom of a swimming pool?
Since then I have advanced to turning a 1/32 Revell F-4 Phantom into a three wheeled landspeed racer powered by two Estes D-12-0. Went fairly well until it hit a pebble and became airborn. The landing was not pretty. Now I have photos of a seven foot long balsa car powered by an Aerotech G motor. That one really went fast!
Has anybody picked up one of those Piezo Popper cannons from that guy on eBay? Pyrotechnic fun for IN the house!
Matt
I practiced my marksmanship on a small fleet of ships in a nearby river with my BB gun.
First I’d blow off all the superstructure, then try to make as many holes above the waterline as I could before the “coup de grace”. Sometimes I’d salvage them, repair them, and sink 'em again!
Well, when I was around 8, I built my very first kit, a Revell Bundeswehr F-4 Phantom. So there I was, standing on the balcony of our fourth floor apartment… Let me tell you guys and girls right now: plastic models may look realistic, but they definitely do not fly like the real thing!
Growing up an Air Force brat we were always moving, and Dad was always saying we couldn’t move the models, so out came the firecrackers every couple of years and we’d blow 'em up REAL good!
My eldest son, when in Grade 10 a few years ago, had an assignment to build a race car using a rubber band. Most kids in his class used the rubber band to store energy to provide the motive power. My son (proof the apple don’t fall far from the tree) used the rubber band to strap two D rocket motors to his sled, hid them under a plastic car body, and fired the lot off in the school gym! Needless to say he had the fastest car. I think he should have gotten marks for creativity as well, but the teacher disagreed …
Bruce