Other hobbies/Obsessions?

traco

Sadly my verbal abilities are even worse than my driving skills. That said the 25 year old design is magical.

Cienciano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118660638#Comment_118660638

The perfect 2 car garage imho, beautiful Mercedes luxury tourer and a convertible sports car. Throw in something like a ducati streetfighter and it's everything I'd ever need!

unkel

Nice post! The Boxster is a brilliant drivers car. Had mine for 5 years. The only thing better would be an electric Boxster. And I hope Porsche won't bother wasting money paying a famous film music composer to make up a fake engine sound for it. Sure we'll miss the sound of the flat six that has been around for nearly 100 years, but we'll get over it and rejoice on the new superior car...

Lorddrakul

For the model makers and aviators alike, from the Planes That Never Flew pile...

https://twitter.com/exoticaviation/status/1511410360217182228

banie01

I had the good fortune to spend some time talking to a legend of the model aircraft community today, Mike Kelly and saw part of his collection in SNN as we are waiting to fly out.

1st time I saw part of his collection was 5 or so years ago and it was all civvy on display then. Now SNN have moved his collection airside and given him a place to display a small part of it and to show off his diorama work too.

When I say a small part, it's massive but Mike reckons there is approx €1million value in the stuff still at his house 😮

Rather than spam a million photos, I will show just 3, views of models that aren't display and that were taken out of presses as we talked and my own bits of knowledge were tested to see if I was worthy😉😁

Also, for any amongst us worrying about how expensive our watches are...

The Mriya/Buran combo shown here. Is a scratch built model 1 of 5 originally built in late '70s by a Ukrainian scientist from of all things waste material, as a protest at pollution and it's dangers. It's worth at least €25k 😮😮

The 3 Concorde's are part of his collection of all 32 originally contracted airlines. It's the only known complete set.

Fitz II

A day for the summer car....got up early and went for a hoon up the wicklow mountains before the guards and cycling tourists woke up. A gen 2 997 C4S for those interested.

unkel

Used to do that myself, there is literally nobody out there at 6-8AM on a Saturday morning 😁

Used to go for a day long hike after the spin. Miss doing both.

unkel

Long been into renewables like solar PV, electric cars, bikes and scooters, batteries, etc. Had this delivered to me in a sorry state last Saturday night. Completely dead, no response to ignition, not driving, not charging

EV conversion, formerly a '96 BMW E36 318tds - closest I've ever come to owning a diesel 😂

A few days in, the car is now starting, driving and charging. Still a lot of work to do. It is officially classified as an EV and taxed as such and passed an NCT as such just 100km ago, but that was 2 years ago and the car was literally driven into the ground since then. Plan is to get it back on the road again, tested and hopefully wrapped. Not spending serious money on it though, the premise about this car was that it would be a €1000 EV conversion and I'm going to try to stay true to that. So far just over €40 spent on it on a 12V battery, old laptop battery charger and a pump for the windscreen fluid.

For anyone interested, google "Damien Maguire" "Red Arrow"

micks_address

Looks like a nice diy project unkel..are you planning any ev upgrades to it?

Lorddrakul

@unkel Interesting project.

What's the battery capacity? Has much been done to lighten the car? Anything chucked or stripped to that end?

unkel

@Lorddrakul - The green packs are 69Ah, 6 cells in series. Had 10 of them but one was beyond saving, so now down to 9. Total nominal capacity 3.2V * 9 packs * 6 cells * 69Ah capacity = 12kWh

Should give a summer range of about 70-80km, the car is pretty light, lighter than it was originally. Nothing stripped out except the spare wheel and anything and everything to do with the diesel engine, so the fuel tank etc. Car is still using the original manual gear box. But you only ever need third gear LOL torque FTW

@micks_address - the motor (from a forklift truck) can take anything you throw at it and the system is designed for a theoretical max of 1200A. Even at half of that with the current battery fully charged at near 200V, it means 120kW of power, which is quite a lot in a light electric car like this. The only real, easy to achieve improvement in terms of range / power / acceleration would be to fit a bigger battery. But the cost of that would be prohibitive (to the original premise), so not going to do that.

Lorddrakul

@unkel thanks for that, fair play.

Gorgeous donor for a great project.

Looking forward to long term reviews! 👍

blue5000

Sorry I have a criminal mind, but I wonder how long will it be before ppl rob the deep cycle batteries for the landing lights at Dublin airport. Great idea Unkel, looking forward to seeing your progress.

My latest 'rolling restoration project' from 1987, which I blew the Rolex savings fund on.

Blanchy90

My latest project idea is to try my hand at making watch straps, I'm fairly handy so I thought why not haha

The first batch of tools have arrived so I'm just waiting on delivery of the leather to get practicing

covey123

As may be evident from some of the other pictures I've posted,I love any kind of outdoor activity.

I had time off during the week and had been planning a hike in Kerry but the weather was a bit hit and miss so stayed closer to home an headed for Lake Muskery in the Galtees

Went directly up to O Loughlins Castle,and thankfully the weather cleared and was able to take the scenic route back down. Long enough hike at close to 16km but definitely worth it

funkyouup

Some pics from IWM Duxford, some amazing place to visit even if it was 40 degrees😃

banie01

Great little photo essay there Funkyouup! Some lovely shots.

I've recently had some new shelves for my Billy bookcases delivered. That lets me put a few more of my planes on display.

Up to 105 now and...

Counting! 😉

Let's just keep that ambition quiet from the Mrs tho.

Easily 2½ more shelves I can squeeze in 👀

fulladapipes

In my spare time I do a bit of this, this and this.

Name that gun, anyone?

Again with the picture rotation thing.

scwazrh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120145968#Comment_120145968

You’re not giving much away with that pic but I’d guess at a browning

fulladapipes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146848#Comment_120146848

Not far off at all.

Miroku MK38 Grade III. A heavy gun but good for everything from clays to duck.

Working class heroes

My main obsession. Mountain running.

This is me taking part in the IMRA Stone Cross to Lug race over 20 odd summits.

Neilw

Hoping to get this back on the road for the summer.

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120147263#Comment_120147263

Just thinking about that kind of effort has exhausted me 😲 Fair play 👍

scwazrh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120147040#Comment_120147040

Nice .it was the pattern on the receiver that had me thinking a browning , I shoot a 692 beretta myself , 32” barrel but still comfortable enough shooting on the clays which is my main interest now .Lovely gun but no engraving

Some of my other toys

A Ruger 10/22 with a few minor mods such as trigger and stock

And my favourite little rimfire , a cz455 .

fulladapipes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120147418#Comment_120147418

Oh, they're all quite lovely - the Beretta 692 is classic and modern at the same time.

I've had the Miroku for aboiut a decade - it's fine for the amount of shooting I do. I'm on the lookout for a nice 30" side by side for shooting on my brother-in-law's land (maybe an AYA). He has a Ruger rifle of some sort (and a Sig Sauer, which isn't for hunting animals).

Brief_Lives

I am a total drum nut... at the moment, in this country, I have an acoustic and an electric kit. Both lots of fun.

both kits on a rack. The Pearl is a 7 piece. I have had them since I was very young, for 26 years now, but quality is permenant with this kit. The snare and bass drum pedal haven't changed and it's very weird playing on another pedal... so much so, I bring the pedal with me, when travelling and take very good care of it...

the cymbals can change a lot, depending on the band/buddies I am jamming with.

The Electric, I bought in London in 2009 (I think) a Roland Td-9... such a great kit. Back then I used to go through lots of headsets, the output was so powerful. in 2012 I bought a set of Beats, and never had to replace them.

The photos don't do the kits justice. but, as hobbies go... it can keep you fit and depending on electric or acoustic, you can control the output to be a good neighbour...

Also I can't remember where I got the bass drum "RockSteady" cover. I think I tore the original 20 years ago, and just put that replacement on as a poor student, to keep my dads old renault 18 car seats from falling out... they were the best bass drum mufflers for the kit.

Brief_Lives

I also have a black and Gold Tag that goes well with the kit.

I will have to find a photo of both together..

Lorddrakul

I have a fairly simple home set-up:

Gibson Les Paul Studio Ebony Gold, Boss DS-1, Marshall G15RCD.

Works for me. :)

banie01

Just on the road back from a little getaway to Galway. We spent the night in the Salthill hotel, dinner and B&B along with plenty of walking the prom.

Aside from the romance 😉 A trip to Galway for me always involves a trip into Ray at DiecastModels4you in the Eyre Square shopping centre 😁

Anyway on our romantic night away...

I managed to pick up 2 hard to find models and that's a win for me!

A Brewster Buffalo and a Nakajima Ki84, that's one I've been after for years! Small win for me.

o1s1n

Been working on my vintage Japanese arcade machines a lot lately.

Recently built a thing called a MiSTercade that uses field-programmable gate array (FPGA) via a NANO DE10 dev board - basically rather than your usual videogame emulation, it emulates the actual hardware itself for a more accurate representation of the game.

I really can't tell the difference between it and some of my arcade boards.

Nice looking bit of kit when fully assembled.

I actually managed to break a D10 board when assembling it the first time, 350 euro down the toilet :eek:

In action: