At Traveller TL13 Battle Dress is introduced. GURPS (TL10) calls it Battledress.
It's whiz-bang stuff.
The Imperium is kind of light on the gun control, even if individual worlds might have severe restrictions.
Battledress is something the players are going to want because it's damn handy in a fight with Traveller state-of-the-art weaponry.
How does a GM keep that from happening?
It's clearly not illegal where the CR is low. Players have many mischievous ways of putting together the funds to purchase it.
Supply is the answer.
The Imperial megacorporations are all owned by a noble, a noble family or a consortium of noble families. The company that makes the battledress for the Imperial Marines simply doesn't make more than are ordered. The Marines order 100, 100 are made, they are never sold to another customer.
Not available at any price.
Why doesn't someone else make the stuff? Patents. Remember the Imperium is feudally organized, the Emperor can declare certain patents eternal.
Battledress isn't really that destabilizing to not be available for individual purchase, but it's symbolic. If the troops landing are in battledress; they're Imperial Marines. It sends a message. It affects morale.
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15 July 2014
14 July 2014
Low And Left
The Glock 17 shoots low and left.
Front sight is (measured at the rear corners of the sight blade):
Side of gun; 0.442"; sight; 0.3935"; side of gun (0.02425" off center to the right). And it's loose, with 0.0235" of L-R play. So it's 0.00075" to 0.02425" to the right depending on how the sight ends up.
That should make the gun shoot to the left! 1.14" left at the 25 yards we were shooting at.
The rear sight is:
Side of gun; 0.1125"; rear sight; 0.0685"; side of gun. 0.022" off center to the right canceling the error of one extreme of the loose front...
The rear sight is already drifted to the right a bit.
Dry firing here and now tells me I am avoiding moving my shoulder because 100 rounds Mosin.
When I take a sight picture I notice that where my wrist wants to be and feels right is pulling the barrel left. When I pull my shoulder up where it's a little sore from the steel butt plate abuse the geometry corrects itself.
Also moving my head against the sore muscles corrects.
Something to keep note of.
Front sight is (measured at the rear corners of the sight blade):
Side of gun; 0.442"; sight; 0.3935"; side of gun (0.02425" off center to the right). And it's loose, with 0.0235" of L-R play. So it's 0.00075" to 0.02425" to the right depending on how the sight ends up.
That should make the gun shoot to the left! 1.14" left at the 25 yards we were shooting at.
The rear sight is:
Side of gun; 0.1125"; rear sight; 0.0685"; side of gun. 0.022" off center to the right canceling the error of one extreme of the loose front...
The rear sight is already drifted to the right a bit.
Dry firing here and now tells me I am avoiding moving my shoulder because 100 rounds Mosin.
When I take a sight picture I notice that where my wrist wants to be and feels right is pulling the barrel left. When I pull my shoulder up where it's a little sore from the steel butt plate abuse the geometry corrects itself.
Also moving my head against the sore muscles corrects.
Something to keep note of.
Gay?
"Did you know these celebs are gay?" in the suggested "from around the web" articles.
No. I did not know.
Because I don't care. I do not care if any particular dancing monkey is a homosexual. Which really has a lot more to do with a disinterest in the off-screen lives of dancing monkeys than disdain for people's rights. Which raises the question: are celebrities people or just a very human-like great ape? There are dangers in anthropomorphizing...
I got my degrees in business administration and mechanical design; not primatology. Someone else can study this.
What I am curious about is why several sites pop that suggestion up for me. Is it the kilts?
No. I did not know.
Because I don't care. I do not care if any particular dancing monkey is a homosexual. Which really has a lot more to do with a disinterest in the off-screen lives of dancing monkeys than disdain for people's rights. Which raises the question: are celebrities people or just a very human-like great ape? There are dangers in anthropomorphizing...
I got my degrees in business administration and mechanical design; not primatology. Someone else can study this.
What I am curious about is why several sites pop that suggestion up for me. Is it the kilts?
13 July 2014
Caseless Ammunition
Ask anyone who reloads. A not insignificant percentage of cartridges fired must be caseless as they simply disappear after firing.
Krag
I posted about an 1898 Krag the other day, and stumbled across this today.
An article on the Krag from the Spanish American War.
h/t Ace.
An article on the Krag from the Spanish American War.
h/t Ace.
Mosinday!
Willard, Marv, Young Thomas and I went shooting Mosins today.
I don't think we missed many variations.
I had the Type 53, Lei, and Kiv/28-30, Hanna.
Marv had his 91/30.
Willard had his 91/59 and a PU sniper.
Marv had the group of the day with the sniper with about a 1.5" inch group at 50 yards.
11 July 2014
Whippersnappers
Just in case some damn kids get on my lawn...
Hey, open carry is completely legal on my own property. The next door neighbor was laughing her head off about it when we mentioned the Gran Torino tie-in.
Also notice that my mower is not gas or coal powered. That's a BACON powered mower!
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| Not a political statement, just making a humorous picture. |
Hey, open carry is completely legal on my own property. The next door neighbor was laughing her head off about it when we mentioned the Gran Torino tie-in.
Also notice that my mower is not gas or coal powered. That's a BACON powered mower!
Twenty Year Tupperware
A police trade in 2nd Gen Glock 17.
The serial number look-up says it was made in September 1994. Why is that date familiar?
Something about that date...
Oh yeah! That's when the so-called Federal Assault Weapon Ban kicked in and if your magazines held the proper number of rounds you had to mark them up like that.
It seems really strange that this twenty year old gun is "modern" and the eight year old gun is "antique". I guess we won't mention that the first year's production of Colt AR-15 SP1's are now C&R....
Compared to the first wonder-nine...
Compared to its larger cousin...
All in all, the Gen2 guns are my favorites. The finger grooves just don't hit my hand correctly on the Gen2.5 and Gen3. I've not played with a Gen4 to see if swapping the back-strap helps. I think I am OK missing the rails.
Not that I am opposed to using a light... or a bayonet...
The serial number look-up says it was made in September 1994. Why is that date familiar?
Something about that date...
Oh yeah! That's when the so-called Federal Assault Weapon Ban kicked in and if your magazines held the proper number of rounds you had to mark them up like that.
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| OH MY GODS THEY'RE TOUCHING! |
It seems really strange that this twenty year old gun is "modern" and the eight year old gun is "antique". I guess we won't mention that the first year's production of Colt AR-15 SP1's are now C&R....
Compared to the first wonder-nine...
Compared to its larger cousin...
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| In addition to both being Gen2 guns, they also both have dead Meprolight sights! |
All in all, the Gen2 guns are my favorites. The finger grooves just don't hit my hand correctly on the Gen2.5 and Gen3. I've not played with a Gen4 to see if swapping the back-strap helps. I think I am OK missing the rails.
Not that I am opposed to using a light... or a bayonet...
10 July 2014
Success
I got the GURPS stats Sulieman to fit into a 1400 m3 hull that retains the classic lines of the original!
The deck plans are completely different, of course. I had to totally rearrange the staterooms and make the drives 6m tall instead of 3m like the original and the GURPS: Traveller show.
Here's a render of the solid model to tide you while I finish the deck plan...
You might notice those teeny blisters to fit the taller and longer drives.
The deck plans are completely different, of course. I had to totally rearrange the staterooms and make the drives 6m tall instead of 3m like the original and the GURPS: Traveller show.
Here's a render of the solid model
You might notice those teeny blisters to fit the taller and longer drives.
Iris Valve
I've actually found an iris valve that you could use in Traveller!
Sizes up to 3m and up to 5 bar!
Color me impressed.
I'm going to assume that by TL10 they've solved the vacuum welding problems.
There was something else in the product information that struck me; a hand wheel for operating the valve. It's so darned obvious that it never occurred to me; but they have pneumatic, hydraulic, electric and manual operation models available with manual being offered along with the other three as a back-up.
In the real world this kind of valve is used to meter flow of gases and liquids; not primarily as a shut-off valve. They are better than a gate or butterfly valve because they don't introduce as much turbulence or cavitation to the flow.
For granular flows there's a fabric style valve too.
Something all of the real world iris valves have in common is they're round. It seems that it's inherent in how they work; a geared ring turns and it has posts that run in slots on the plates against stationary posts on the coaming.
I've settled on a 1.2m diameter as the standard iris valve hatch. Normal hatches are for when you want a pressure door in a shape other than round or where you don't want the computer to have any control over them.
Sizes up to 3m and up to 5 bar!
Color me impressed.
I'm going to assume that by TL10 they've solved the vacuum welding problems.
There was something else in the product information that struck me; a hand wheel for operating the valve. It's so darned obvious that it never occurred to me; but they have pneumatic, hydraulic, electric and manual operation models available with manual being offered along with the other three as a back-up.
In the real world this kind of valve is used to meter flow of gases and liquids; not primarily as a shut-off valve. They are better than a gate or butterfly valve because they don't introduce as much turbulence or cavitation to the flow.
For granular flows there's a fabric style valve too.
Something all of the real world iris valves have in common is they're round. It seems that it's inherent in how they work; a geared ring turns and it has posts that run in slots on the plates against stationary posts on the coaming.
I've settled on a 1.2m diameter as the standard iris valve hatch. Normal hatches are for when you want a pressure door in a shape other than round or where you don't want the computer to have any control over them.
Childish
I've put a finger on my yearning desire for open carry.
It was not any of the justifications I've made.
It's because someone says I can't.
Being forbidden didn't work for my mom and she was my MOM!
She could punish me for disobeying, as the police surely will if I open carry locally, but they can't stop the "wanna" that stems naturally from "you're not allowed and I'm not going to explain why." Mom discovered that explaining worked pretty well. The explanations as to why OC should be illegal ring hollow even if reasons to forebear from open carrying, such as tactics and politeness, are solid.
Like so many things, I suspect that once I'm allowed I'll do it once and never again. Maybe twice. Once to show I can, twice for novelty then...
PS: I've heard that open carry was sort of legal before the shall issue law was passed... Legal at the local sheriff's sufferance. I've also heard that the shall-issue law made open carry completely legal until the very liberal east side of Florida panicked about it. I've found several dead links that supposedly discussed it.
It was not any of the justifications I've made.
It's because someone says I can't.
Being forbidden didn't work for my mom and she was my MOM!
She could punish me for disobeying, as the police surely will if I open carry locally, but they can't stop the "wanna" that stems naturally from "you're not allowed and I'm not going to explain why." Mom discovered that explaining worked pretty well. The explanations as to why OC should be illegal ring hollow even if reasons to forebear from open carrying, such as tactics and politeness, are solid.
Like so many things, I suspect that once I'm allowed I'll do it once and never again. Maybe twice. Once to show I can, twice for novelty then...
PS: I've heard that open carry was sort of legal before the shall issue law was passed... Legal at the local sheriff's sufferance. I've also heard that the shall-issue law made open carry completely legal until the very liberal east side of Florida panicked about it. I've found several dead links that supposedly discussed it.
09 July 2014
Rifle, .30 Caliber Model of 1898
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| Pictured with the near contemporary Mosin-Nagant |
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| Proofed! |
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| Accepted! |
The Krag-Jorgenson!
The strength of the action is often questioned because of the single locking lug.
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| There is, of course, a safety lug. |
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| The ejector is activated by the bolt going to the rear. It sits flush into its slot otherwise. |
It's a quantum leap ahead of the trap-door it replaced and is nearly "obsolete" at the time of its issue.
I say obsolete, but unfashionable is a better term for what happened. It had adequate range and power. It's not overly long or heavy. It's sights are bit too fine for combat, but they work.
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| They are also fiddly. |
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| Your choice, notch or peep! |
What you can't do is load from stripper clips. If you're going to call yourself an army in the 20th century, your service rifle has to load from clips! The rimmed .30-40 and the side gate design do not lend themselves to that.
Speaking of ammunition... Lot SIX of 1914.
The magazine is the source of much mystery, and has been from the first trials.
The way the magazine works is elegant. There's a leaf spring parallel to the door. The tip of the spring works on a grove in the base of the follower arm. Simple stuff so far. The neat part of the follower arm is the swinging tip.
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| Shown with side-plate removed. |
It keeps the rounds marshalled and has an open base around the hinge point that lets the arm push on the last round to get it around the corner to be presented for the bolt.
The Krag was also the first American rifle to have a magazine cut off, to keep the slovenly grunts from "wasting" all of their ammunition.
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| Cut-Off "ON" meaning no feed. |
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| Cut-Off "OFF" meaning the magazine is free to do what it's supposed to do. |
This would be an epic fight against that spring, but elegance shows again. The base of the door has a cammed surface that pushes down on the bow of the leaf spring, removing tension on the arm and letting it easily flop down into the door's recess. The protrusion also holds the arm down so that it doesn't get in the way of loading.
I learned more than I planned about the magazine because I decided to do Willard a solid and put some oil on the hinge pin so that the dust cover on the bottom would stop moving with the magazine. As I was moving the cover (which is part of the hinge pin) back and forth I accidentally moved it down past the first loop of the door. PING! Now the hinge pin is partially out and the door is at an angle! The door pressed readily back into its home but didn't feel right, so I took the pin the rest of the way out and made sure that I had not broken anything.
I hadn't.
There's no way to put this together wrong! The "felt wrong" was just some dried up cosmoline or oil that had escaped where it had lain for over 100 years.
Since I had it apart, I cleaned and lubricated it.
And took some pictures. Evidence for the defense in the matter of the Murder of one Angus McThag; idiot: by one Willard F Angrygunowner. Justifiable homicide if there ever was...
I most certainly made sure it was back together and working correctly before making this post and posting the pics.
By the way, the rubber footed carpenter's clamps make holding the door aligned with the holes in the receiver a piece of cake! Without damaging the gun no less!
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| The protrusion on the magazine door/cover. |
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| How it interacts with the follower arm. The curved part of the protrusion bears against the arm on the left side here. That retracts the arm into the door for loading. |
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| The magazine spring presses against this hook. |
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| The magazine spring to show how they relate. If they were in the gun, the muzzle would be to the left and the right side of the rifle would be facing down. |
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| The door, follower and spring as they interact. The spring holds the door closed too! When you open the door, the surface the arc of the bow is touching flattens it, taking the load off the follower and making it easier to open. |
Rearranged
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| Click For Bigger |
I don't have a way to note it in the drawing, but you can get out of the ship through the aft hatch if the landing gear is stowed. You have to worm your way around the folded legs and there's an access panel bolted to the landing gear doors. If you remembered to bring tools, you can remove the door and exit that way.
Edit to add the original LBB5 design.
08 July 2014
Rantus Interruptus
I had a raving rage on about how all the progress in gun-rights is in areas that don't affect me.
It's all defused.
I am fortunate enough to live someplace that, on the whole, has excellent gun laws.
This last legislative session saw five pretty darned positive laws passed in my state.
It's too easy to lose sight of how good I have it.
While, yes, it could be better; it could easily be worse. Strategically it makes sense to attack the DC's, New York's, Chicago's and California's before we attack the piddly stuff where things are pretty darned easy on gun ownership.
I want open carry and the Hughes amendment repealed, and I am frustrated that those things aren't moving.
I have to keep reminding myself to have some damn perspective.
It's all defused.
I am fortunate enough to live someplace that, on the whole, has excellent gun laws.
This last legislative session saw five pretty darned positive laws passed in my state.
It's too easy to lose sight of how good I have it.
While, yes, it could be better; it could easily be worse. Strategically it makes sense to attack the DC's, New York's, Chicago's and California's before we attack the piddly stuff where things are pretty darned easy on gun ownership.
I want open carry and the Hughes amendment repealed, and I am frustrated that those things aren't moving.
I have to keep reminding myself to have some damn perspective.
Preflight
I want to have an airline that's nothing but flying boats...
Just so the stewards can say, "in the unlikely event of a runway landing, your shoes can be used as locomotion devices to carry you away from the aircraft."
Just so the stewards can say, "in the unlikely event of a runway landing, your shoes can be used as locomotion devices to carry you away from the aircraft."
Spelling
Nautical spelling tripped me again...
I couldn't remember how to spell gunwale to save my life just a moment ago.
Why?
'Cause it's pronounced "gunnel".
I couldn't remember how to spell gunwale to save my life just a moment ago.
Why?
'Cause it's pronounced "gunnel".
Finished!
Christopher Carson class scout/courier. The stats are identical to the beloved Sulieman.
There are four habitable decks, arranged along the left side of the drawing from bow to stern (top to bottom).
Forwardmost is the main airlock, cargo, machine shop and air/raft dock.
Next is the main common, which includes the kitchen and a dining area, and two staterooms. One fresher is shared between them.
Next is the "crew" deck with its small common area. The captain's stateroom has a hatch leading down to the control room.
Then there's the control room itself. Clockwise from noon the stations are gunnery, helm, navigation, engineering.
The tunnel leading aft from the control deck is the main boarding ladder and can be used as an airlock. The landing gear must be extended to use this hatch.
This project actually began a long time ago when I became enamored with the look of the Erma Felna comics. I then noticed that air-liners and sea-going ships all have a look in common with one another. This made me think that the vast variety of shapes in Traveller was not right, so I made a series of re-works of the Book 2 designs with Book 5 stats and my home-brew deck plans.
Sadly, I deleted the hard drive I'd saved the drawings on because I got confused about where I'd saved the information.
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| Click for bigger. |
Forwardmost is the main airlock, cargo, machine shop and air/raft dock.
Next is the main common, which includes the kitchen and a dining area, and two staterooms. One fresher is shared between them.
Next is the "crew" deck with its small common area. The captain's stateroom has a hatch leading down to the control room.
Then there's the control room itself. Clockwise from noon the stations are gunnery, helm, navigation, engineering.
The tunnel leading aft from the control deck is the main boarding ladder and can be used as an airlock. The landing gear must be extended to use this hatch.
This project actually began a long time ago when I became enamored with the look of the Erma Felna comics. I then noticed that air-liners and sea-going ships all have a look in common with one another. This made me think that the vast variety of shapes in Traveller was not right, so I made a series of re-works of the Book 2 designs with Book 5 stats and my home-brew deck plans.
Sadly, I deleted the hard drive I'd saved the drawings on because I got confused about where I'd saved the information.
Retractile
I have a CAD program, gaming stats and time to use them.
This is a detail of the landing gear of the cylindrical (GURPS) TL10 Type S Scout Courier from the inboard profile section.
The blue is the aft fuel bunker and you can just see the beginning of the machinery section forward.
The whole design, a work in progress...
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| Click for more detail. |
06 July 2014
Packaging
The "dildo" design was originally made with LBB 5: High Guard.
It's a TL 12 100 ton, jump 2, 2g design.
GURPS: Traveller uses an entirely different ship design system... Still 100 ton, J2, M2; but now TL10 because GURPS uses a different scale.
The maneuver drive takes up more space. There's no fuel requirement for the maneuver drive. Streamlining takes up space. The way the design system works the power-plant is not a distinct system but is bought in "slices" with the Engineering controls and the power needs of the machinery added (so the maneuver drive includes power plant as part of the mass and volume).
What this means is the machinery that fit perfectly in a belt around the outside of the cylindrical hull no longer fits in it. But other spaces become available inside the main hull so the deck below the control room is now machinery with fuel below that instead of being just fuel; other fuel is now above the cargo/air-raft bay.
I lose the deck dedicated to a common, but that's taken care of by changing the size and shape of the staterooms. Let's be honest, the original Sulieman deck plans over-allocated for common area compared to the space made available by the design.
It's a TL 12 100 ton, jump 2, 2g design.
GURPS: Traveller uses an entirely different ship design system... Still 100 ton, J2, M2; but now TL10 because GURPS uses a different scale.
The maneuver drive takes up more space. There's no fuel requirement for the maneuver drive. Streamlining takes up space. The way the design system works the power-plant is not a distinct system but is bought in "slices" with the Engineering controls and the power needs of the machinery added (so the maneuver drive includes power plant as part of the mass and volume).
What this means is the machinery that fit perfectly in a belt around the outside of the cylindrical hull no longer fits in it. But other spaces become available inside the main hull so the deck below the control room is now machinery with fuel below that instead of being just fuel; other fuel is now above the cargo/air-raft bay.
I lose the deck dedicated to a common, but that's taken care of by changing the size and shape of the staterooms. Let's be honest, the original Sulieman deck plans over-allocated for common area compared to the space made available by the design.
05 July 2014
Additional Volume
The GURPS: Traveller Sulieman is proportioned differently from the Little Black Book version.
It's 2,455.6 m3 so it's WAY more than the 1,400 that 100 dTon should be; 175.4 dTon to be exact...
The good news is that the decks fit better, but the forward placement of the cabins means the forward, outboard corners are clipped to match the hull.
The volume of the interior spaces totals 1,030.7 m3 (207.3 + 788.5 + 34.9) or 73.6 dTon; which is close to the 80 dTon it's supposed to be...
I used the dimensions given in the SJ Games Traveller Deck Plan 5: Sulieman-Class Scout/Courier accessory because the plans shown on page 131 of GURPS: Traveller don't match the stats given.
It was rendering the deckplans in 3D solids that made me make what Erin called my dildo design; which came in at exactly 1,400 m3 or 100 dTon, just like the specifications require!
Left to right: GT, LBB and Dildo.
Bloody Expensive!
In 1954 a British L1A1 cost £30. That was about $83.50 at the time or $749.34 today (USCPI31011913).
A brand new FAL from DSA is MSRP $1,700.
I think I'd be tickled pink to get an L1A1 for $750.
Positively giddy to get one for under $100.
Of course, if an FAL was $85 everything would be cheaper with it, and the household income would be proportionally smaller as well.
Inflation is something that really only matters if your income isn't keeping up and/or if you have a loan that's in a fixed amount of a given currency.
If your income isn't rising at the same rate as inflation, your income is actually shrinking.
If you have a loan in a fixed amount of a given currency, inflation makes the loan amount smaller.
This same sort of equation is why you can honestly say that funding for a given item was cut when spending in dollars actually increases. If the increase in spending doesn't meet of exceed inflation then it is an actual drop in funding because the money buys less.
I used the US Consumer Price Index to get the L1A1 value because it's handy. But since the USCPI doesn't account for a lot of everyday items in its "basket" and the items in the basket change over time and aren't 100% fungible with each other it's accuracy is debatable. Many means of calculating inflation far outpace the USCPI.
Using the FAL example, real inflation on guns is more than twice what the CPI says it should be.
Addendum:
With all this in mind, if your method of savings isn't paying more than even the official inflation rate, you are losing money as the value of the deposit shrinks. It's shrinking even worse under the real inflation rate too.
If you managed to get a loan with interest smaller than inflation, congratulations! You're actually making a smaller payment every month as they fall behind on the value.
A brand new FAL from DSA is MSRP $1,700.
I think I'd be tickled pink to get an L1A1 for $750.
Positively giddy to get one for under $100.
Of course, if an FAL was $85 everything would be cheaper with it, and the household income would be proportionally smaller as well.
Inflation is something that really only matters if your income isn't keeping up and/or if you have a loan that's in a fixed amount of a given currency.
If your income isn't rising at the same rate as inflation, your income is actually shrinking.
If you have a loan in a fixed amount of a given currency, inflation makes the loan amount smaller.
This same sort of equation is why you can honestly say that funding for a given item was cut when spending in dollars actually increases. If the increase in spending doesn't meet of exceed inflation then it is an actual drop in funding because the money buys less.
I used the US Consumer Price Index to get the L1A1 value because it's handy. But since the USCPI doesn't account for a lot of everyday items in its "basket" and the items in the basket change over time and aren't 100% fungible with each other it's accuracy is debatable. Many means of calculating inflation far outpace the USCPI.
Using the FAL example, real inflation on guns is more than twice what the CPI says it should be.
Addendum:
With all this in mind, if your method of savings isn't paying more than even the official inflation rate, you are losing money as the value of the deposit shrinks. It's shrinking even worse under the real inflation rate too.
If you managed to get a loan with interest smaller than inflation, congratulations! You're actually making a smaller payment every month as they fall behind on the value.
Krag Disassembly
Willard says that I'll have to chop off his hands to get to his Krag.
Never let it be said that I'm not willing to pay what the owner wants to rent an interesting gun!
Never let it be said that I'm not willing to pay what the owner wants to rent an interesting gun!
Volume
The volume of an LBB Suileman scout ship as depicted in Traders and Gunboats is 1,634.52 m3.
That's just a bit over 121 dTon.
The upper gallery and forward cargo bay are uselessly short decks if you force them to fit inside the hull with the main deck centered as shown with a 3m deck height.
The interior spaces consume 894.04 m3 (66.23 dTon); which if things are scaled proportionately is a little too small.
Keeping the proportions and scaling it down to 100 dTons as the rules want it to be makes the percentage of interior space too big; and makes the upper and lower decks useless.
A render of the 3D solid made from the dimensions given in Traders and Gunboats. It'd be better looking if I did a lot of art stuff to make the surfaces pop and added color to the cockpit windows and their cut-outs.
That's just a bit over 121 dTon.
The upper gallery and forward cargo bay are uselessly short decks if you force them to fit inside the hull with the main deck centered as shown with a 3m deck height.
The interior spaces consume 894.04 m3 (66.23 dTon); which if things are scaled proportionately is a little too small.
Keeping the proportions and scaling it down to 100 dTons as the rules want it to be makes the percentage of interior space too big; and makes the upper and lower decks useless.
A render of the 3D solid made from the dimensions given in Traders and Gunboats. It'd be better looking if I did a lot of art stuff to make the surfaces pop and added color to the cockpit windows and their cut-outs.
04 July 2014
Grumble
Things that were simple in AutoCAD r11 through AutoCAD 2002 are somehow obtuse and difficult with AutoCAD 2011.
I am glad I got the student-non-commercial discount on this or I'd be right peeved.
Maybe it's time to actually take the tutorial that's included.
I am glad I got the student-non-commercial discount on this or I'd be right peeved.
Maybe it's time to actually take the tutorial that's included.
Fool Me Once...
The Army says the want to replace the M9 again.
What are we on? Is this the third time?
I know the contract is potentially lucrative, but the gun makers have got to be getting sick of kicking at the football only to haveLucy The Army yank it away.
What are we on? Is this the third time?
I know the contract is potentially lucrative, but the gun makers have got to be getting sick of kicking at the football only to have
I Do Declare
In Congress, July 4, 1776. [238 years ago]
The unanimous Declaration of the united States of America,
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
The unanimous Declaration of the united States of America,
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
There That's Much Better
It wasn't working like it was supposed anyways.
Export, delete, import tested.
Did not result in a method that made importing my LJ any easier.
Export, delete, import tested.
Did not result in a method that made importing my LJ any easier.
03 July 2014
Coming Soon...
Going to talk Willard into letting me take apart his Krag.
Pics of the inner workings of the magazine!
Pics of the inner workings of the magazine!
Respect
Marv deserves some.
He also should get a t-shirt.
"I changed the plugs and wires on an LT4 powered C4"
He also wants ten minutes alone with the engineer who placed the heater box in relation to the #8 plug.
He also should get a t-shirt.
"I changed the plugs and wires on an LT4 powered C4"
He also wants ten minutes alone with the engineer who placed the heater box in relation to the #8 plug.
02 July 2014
To Be A Dick About It
Rather than boycott going to Target...
Go there, load up the cart.
Go to the check out.
When you get to where you're supposed to pay say, "oh wait, you don't want me or my gun here. My bad."
Then walk out without the items you've just wasted their time ringing up.
Now they have to waste even more time putting those items back.
Go there, load up the cart.
Go to the check out.
When you get to where you're supposed to pay say, "oh wait, you don't want me or my gun here. My bad."
Then walk out without the items you've just wasted their time ringing up.
Now they have to waste even more time putting those items back.
Off Target
Initially I was on the side of the open carriers. Embarrassingly so.
I was taken to task and I've come to Jeebus about it.
OCT done fucked up.
Now Target has caved and asked us, nicely, to not bring our guns to their stores.
I looked at the phrasing carefully. They don't ask us to refrain from open carry, they ask us to leave our guns elsewhere.
While OCT might have been who got this snowball rolling, they're not why Target feels safe enough to put out such a proclamation.
Let's recall that I've come to see that OCT was doing it wrong. What could we have done differently that would have changed the outcome?
I don't think the outcome was ever in question. Like I said before, there are almost no large corporations that actually like gun owners. They definitely fear the boycotts. So they pay lip service to us in the hopes we don't really look too hard at their corporate policies and donations. But when something comes along to give them cover to do what they've been pining to do for as long as their dark corporate hearts can remember, they do.
The only difference here is they thought our condemnation of OCT meant we'd agree. Like me, at the start of this, they confused the goal with the tactic. Most places were condemning the tactic, not the goal. There are a few outliers who oppose the goal, of course.
Now we're going to boycott Target. I hope they get the message.
By the way, the only place I still see OCT discussed is on the gun blogs. Maybe if we hushed for a bit it'll blow over?
I was taken to task and I've come to Jeebus about it.
OCT done fucked up.
Now Target has caved and asked us, nicely, to not bring our guns to their stores.
I looked at the phrasing carefully. They don't ask us to refrain from open carry, they ask us to leave our guns elsewhere.
While OCT might have been who got this snowball rolling, they're not why Target feels safe enough to put out such a proclamation.
Let's recall that I've come to see that OCT was doing it wrong. What could we have done differently that would have changed the outcome?
I don't think the outcome was ever in question. Like I said before, there are almost no large corporations that actually like gun owners. They definitely fear the boycotts. So they pay lip service to us in the hopes we don't really look too hard at their corporate policies and donations. But when something comes along to give them cover to do what they've been pining to do for as long as their dark corporate hearts can remember, they do.
The only difference here is they thought our condemnation of OCT meant we'd agree. Like me, at the start of this, they confused the goal with the tactic. Most places were condemning the tactic, not the goal. There are a few outliers who oppose the goal, of course.
Now we're going to boycott Target. I hope they get the message.
By the way, the only place I still see OCT discussed is on the gun blogs. Maybe if we hushed for a bit it'll blow over?
Video Gaming
I did not entirely give up trying to find a way past the blockage on Metro: Last Light.
Anglave's description of it as exciting.
Other gamer's descriptions of it as difficult, but doable...
I'm convinced.
GIT OFF MY LAWN!
Fucking whippersnappers and your new fangled vidyah games.
This skill set is beyond me, I will not get it, I cannot learn it, stop with encouraging me.
01 July 2014
Humanity
If you don't cry at the end of Ol' Yeller or at the beginning of Up, you're not completely human.
This is an Official Purity Test.
This is an Official Purity Test.
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