Evening folks.
Several months ago I built an N scale size flying saucer about three inches in diameter, painted it silver and hung it over in the corner of my layout. Then the other day a family member comes over to visit and sees the saucer and starts in on me saying - You really don't believe in UFOs do you?... Uhhh, yes. As a matter of fact I do. I just can't believe that out of that vast galaxy of ours out there filled with with billions of stars that we're the only intelligent beings there are, let alone the billions of other galaxies in the universe. However. I do realize that because of the great distances and the speed of light limit that we may never meet oneanother or even be able to communicate because of the differences in out technology. Anyways, from there it went into religious beliefs and all of that and we had to shut the subject down. Oh well. Each to their own.
By the way. As for the speed of light limit, they use to think that the sound barrier (750 mph) was as fast as an aircraft could fly. We found out that's not true...
Tracklayer
Cant even have a little fun. How many guys have a dinasaur hidden on the layout. Most visitors just laugh and go on.
Dave
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
DavidGSmith wrote:Cant even have a little fun. How many guys have a dinasaur hidden on the layout. Most visitors just laugh and go on.Dave
I have two, one on the roof of a structure and the other one likes to take an occasional ride on a flatcar.
UFOs? Dinosaurs?
I thought we were trying to be prototypical modellers here.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Regardless of whether or not one believes in UFOs... How would one determine the proper size for an N scale flying saucer?
That's what I was thinking... What prototype were you following when you built the model space craft? Your friend was probably just irritated that you didn't use the right paint scheme, and the dynoflectors were more appropriate to the phase three model, when the serial number was clearly that of a phase 1.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
TwinZephyr wrote: Regardless of whether or not one believes in UFOs... How would one determine the proper size for an N scale flying saucer?
Simple. Measure an N-scale cup.
As far as UFOs - the acronym means UNIDENTIFIED flying object. If there is an identifiable model of ET's ship hanging over the layout, it doesn't meet the definition.
During WWII a UFO was called a 'bogey.' If identified as an enemy aircraft, it became a 'bandit.' If identified as anything else, it was named accordingly. (You might ask your picky relative if he's ever heard of a UFO called a, "Bee-one-Are-Dee." Regardless of the reply, have a couple of Audubon 'feathered friends' prints handy. Only a confirmed birdwatcher can quickly identify a flying critter at long range.)
Layouts are entirely exercises in imagination. Who, other than the builder, has a right to say that a dinosaur, Paul Bunyan's ox or an O-scale yardhand on an HO layout is all right, but a hypothetical spacecraft isn't?
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - without Godzilla)
wm3798 wrote: That's what I was thinking... What prototype were you following when you built the model space craft? Your friend was probably just irritated that you didn't use the right paint scheme, and the dynoflectors were more appropriate to the phase three model, when the serial number was clearly that of a phase 1. Lee
I PM'd him the blue prints to the one I arrived in. And everyone knows dynoflectors are obsolete.
Tracklayer,I know a guy that has a small (about 4" long) milleniumfalcon hanging over his layout.
I wouldn't take that comment to heart..
Remember,its easier to debunk the unknown then to accept the unknown..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Hmm, I actually did see a UFO once, near Los Alamos in northern New Mexico. Or maybe I'd just been out in the sun too long...
In my layout room, I have a round, louvered vent that just happens to be located over the highest ridge of mountains that stretch almost to the ceiling. I often refer to it as the "UFO lurking over the San Juans."
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
GN 599 wrote:On our modular club layout for shows we have woods with a flying saucer. That and a couple dinosaours, a.t.v.'s and wildlife for the viewers to find. There is a checklist and folks have a lot of fun with it. Obviously your friend isnt into model railroading, no imagination!
We do the same thing in the club I belong to. As it relates to this thread, I bought my nephew a couple of the micro machine star wars ships + figure sets that were available about 8 or so years ago.The only thing I asked is that I got the Chewbacca from the one set . He's generally hanging out at the gas station or donut shop on the layout talking to the other HO figures.
Rob
Kinda makes me thnk of the Clint Black cover of that song by Eric Idle from The Meaning of Life,
"and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, cause' i'm afraid that we've been cheated here on earth."
There was a guy I knew who was modelling a 1940s scene and he needed something to fill a portion of desert like area on a module..... so I thought about it for a bit, and ended up with, What about a Roswell UFO crash? He currently is on hiatus since he moved and left his modules here, but i thnik he is kinda digging the idea.
RJ
"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling
http://sweetwater-photography.com/
MisterBeasley...
That is TOOOO perfect. Rob
Well, the speed of sound and the speed of light aren't really comparable. One is the speed that a vibration or wave travels through an elastic medium, e.g. sound, where the other is the speed of electromagnetic radiation through a vacuum, e.g. visible light. The former being of function of basic physics, the latter being a physical constant.
Regarding exterrestrial life, amino acids and organic compounds have been found both in meteorites and in interstellar clouds, so it's most likely only a matter of time until we find life on other planets.
And UFO's? I think Calvin said it best:
With 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, and 100 billion galaxies in the Universe, the idea that intelligent life evolved elsewhere doesn't bother me a bit.
Since Sol is a thrd generation star, giving other ancient races up to ten billion years head start on us, it wouldn't surprise me too much to see aliens that have mastered unified space-time-mass-energy, able to "violate" the photonic speed limit at will.
Unfortunately, the idea that another race could climb out of the primordial ooze billions of years ahead of us, curve space at will, arrive here on earth with predictable regularity, and still can't remember to turn the flipping landing lights on the flying saucer's exterior hull off for a stealthy approach doesn't even cut the mustard on the Maury Povich show.
My two cents...
jeffers_mz wrote: Unfortunately, the idea that another race could climb out of the primordial ooze billions of years ahead of us, curve space at will, arrive here on earth with predictable regularity, and still can't remember to turn the flipping landing lights on the flying saucer's exterior hull off for a stealthy approach doesn't even cut the mustard on the Maury Povich show.
Hint #1 NEVER EVER talk religious beliefs with anyone!
Hint #2 Remember Hint #1
Johnnny_reb
Johnnny_reb Once a word is spoken it can not be unspoken!
My Train Page My Photobucket Page My YouTube Channel
mlehman wrote: Hmm, I actually did see a UFO once, near Los Alamos in northern New Mexico. Or maybe I'd just been out in the sun too long...In my layout room, I have a round, louvered vent that just happens to be located over the highest ridge of mountains that stretch almost to the ceiling. I often refer to it as the "UFO lurking over the San Juans."
That UFO was a rather large flight of lightening bugs reflected off swap gas.
USAF Project Blue Book's Book Of Explainations page 55 part C..
Tracklayer wrote:Evening folks.Several months ago I built an N scale size flying saucer about three inches in diameter, painted it silver and hung it over in the corner of my layout. Then the other day a family member comes over to visit and sees the saucer and starts in on me saying - You really don't believe in UFOs do you?... Uhhh, yes. As a matter of fact I do. I just can't believe that out of that vast galaxy of ours out there filled with with billions of stars that we're the only intelligent beings there are, let alone the billions of other galaxies in the universe. However. I do realize that because of the great distances and the speed of light limit that we may never meet oneanother or even be able to communicate because of the differences in out technology. Anyways, from there it went into religious beliefs and all of that and we had to shut the subject down. Oh well. Each to their own.By the way. As for the speed of light limit, they use to think that the sound barrier (750 mph) was as fast as an aircraft could fly. We found out that's not true...Tracklayer
Another fine example re-enforcing my fundamental belief that family, ESPECIALLY extended family, are for the most part, in all actuality, highly overated...
I gotta get me some of that there swamp gas for the layout.
Good Morning,
I learned at a young age never to say "Never" or "Impossible". Mankind has only touched the surface of "all knowledge".
IMHO, any logical person would consider that: our Sun is a medium sized star (FACT), and that it is known that there are millions/billions? of other stars out "there" (also a FACT), and it is a very high probability that many/most (?) of these other "suns" have planets revolving around them. Therefore, who is to say that life could not exist on at least one of those bodies???
FYI, when I was 12 or 13 back in the late '50s in Chicago, my parents and I were standing in front of our grocery store on a weekend morning. We heard "jets" in the sky and at that time we all looked up (jet planes were not a common occurance). Well, we saw a long tube shaped object (that could have been the profile from our viewpoint, meaning it could have shown us only its side) very high in the sky, and the military jets were "escorting" it. They were visible to us for a short time - but long enough to know that we had never seen anything like this before. Soo, they all disappeared from our view.
My Dad (WWII tank commander) had no idea what it could be, and said "there's a lot of stuff going on that we don't know about" - words that stuck with me to this day.
Of course we checked the papers the following day, and didn't find anything.
My point is, for those naysayers of what "can't be", tell them to have an open mind or ????
Hey, ENJOY,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
loathar wrote: wm3798 wrote: That's what I was thinking... What prototype were you following when you built the model space craft? Your friend was probably just irritated that you didn't use the right paint scheme, and the dynoflectors were more appropriate to the phase three model, when the serial number was clearly that of a phase 1. Lee I PM'd him the blue prints to the one I arrived in. And everyone knows dynoflectors are obsolete.
So hows life on Mars there? I heard there were some snoopy robot vehicles bugging everybody up there making funny noises and digging into the ground.