Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 18, 2016

I hope the pilot was able to eject safely.

My Ed “Big Daddy Roth” Ratfink models seemed to run into a bit of trouble once they were built.

When we have to die, our all plans run into this, into stomach of worms and a heap of bones!!

When I was 13, I spent over a year and a half on crutches. All I did was plastic models. I assembled more airplanes than Boeing and had a bigger fleet than Admiral Halsey. My wife thinks all the glue I inhaled says a lot about how I act now.

There’s a bunch of hobbyists who make large-scale models of warships, armed with cannon that shoot ball bearings … and then take them down to the nearest pond to blow the hell out of one another.

I had tons of fun shooting my model airplanes with a bb gun.

Calvin’s first law of applied mechanical construction: if it doesn’t fit, use a bigger hammer. You missed your calling. You would score high in demolition aptitude tests.

Don’t offer to help work on my car.

When it comes to tons of parts that need to match finely detailed plans, Calvin and I have a lot in common, both at that age and now.But I rarely take the hammer solution. That’s why I have a lots of uncompleted models in boxes stashed all over the place.Can’t finish them, can’t throw them away.

When the government was letting contracts to build the first military drones, the aircraft company I worked for asked company wide for aircraft model makers. Several surfaced, but one man in particular stood out, he made and flew larger models.When he is at his normal job, he is a machinist. When the company flies or demonstrates it’s drones anywhere, he is the pilot.

My older cousins would spend long hours & many $ during their cold winters in Wyoming building models with amazing patience and detailed accuracy. We would visit them around 4th of July, when large fireworks (M80s) could be purchased, and we would have amazing fun figuring out new ways to blow up these models. No wonder one of cousins became the only known West Point graduate from Wyoming – going in to Artillery! My favority: Hanging a P-38 from a wire with a very large rocket for an engine and watching it turn into one large fireball of flaming oozing melting plastic that started the grass on fire…whoops.

Let me guess. The instructions are written in Spanish?

xxx

@LeadingEdge

On the close up of your impressive B-17G…Perhaps some flight crew, some ground crew.Tail marking; Square U?

Luckily there wasn’t an ocean around. Otherwise those pilots would’ve been done for.

Sacrilege!

Destroyed at the factory while under construction!

I hope it was at least a model warplane.

A good firecracker helped during these frustrating times.

Only two of my models suffered wanton destruction. An Air Lines (Frog) B-26 met its match, literally and a Revell Willys coupe was hurled at the wall in my parents’ basement. Revell car kits were extremely frustrating back in the 1960s.

If you can’t build ’em, destroy them.

I tried building a model once. Tried.