US/UK Lexicon

The greatest problem I have with the English language is the darstardly works of the evil Noah Webster, who single handedly created an entire nation of illiterates.

I've always known them as Mole Grips FWIW (South East London).

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**LINK**

https://www.wonkeedonkeetools.co.uk/mole-grips/a-brief-history-of-mole-grips/

Slightly (only ?) off topic; I believe that they were invented about 55 years ago by a young man called Mole, who lived somewhere near Cheslyn Hay in the West Midlands of UK, and have been copied, many times, with varying degrees of success, and quality ever since.

Howard..

Or as a book of typos and 'shrdlu howslers' I had as a teenager put it:

"For every motorist: the self-grip wench"

N.

You may be thinking of Adrian Mole, who is 50 3/4.

Neil

It starts with plastic kits but to make a living at it, you have to be prepared to go up in scale.

Film models have come a long way since Fireball XL5. Although well made I suspect it was based on a plastic bleach bottle!

Dave

Most of the early Anderson stuff was made from wood, at least the hero models. Balsa and Jelutong were favourites because the lighter the models, the thinner the wires they could use (and cheapness). Guest models would often be cobbled together from plastic kits and household items. By the time they reached Captain Scarlet and the Thundebirds feature films, fibreglass was coming in. I was a huge fan and had the annuals, comics and records, and it's why I now do what I do. Ironically, Steve Begg the FX director on Casino Royale and I, standing in the model hangar above, were joking how much we would both love to reshoot the Thunderbird 2 launch sequence but with models the size and budget we had on the Bond movies.

I've still got my Supercar licence somewhere!

Your first picture of the Skyfleet airliner is amazing - I can't tell it's a model at all. The second photo is only betrayed by that giant sneaking into shot. Apart from the quality of the aircraft and hangar there are loads of small details in the background that make it completely real, at least on my computer. Even on a big screen at the cinema I never spotted which parts of the film was done with models.

As a youngster in addition to Gerry Anderson's work, I was very struck by Oliver Postgate and Ray Harryhausen. All still watchable today and very impressive considering how little money was spent and no CGI. Brilliant.

Dave

Something unseen in the film but visible in the background of the photo is the second aircraft under construction complete with internal framework and engine panels off. I'm glad you didn't realise it was a model because it meant we did our job well.

I meant translating instruction leaflets!

But have made some income from modelling - Dartmoor!

Must be a fun job.

You remind me I greatly enjoyed a 'Tank Talk' by the stuntman who worked on Godleneye and Kelly's Heroes amongst others - Jim Dowall. Great stories of modifying T55s to run on Centurion tracks and even make a lightweight fibreglass one on a Saracen chassis for a single brief scene where it had to run along a waterfront road.

Neil

Actually, I think that many Airfix kit instruction sheets of the late 50s - early 60s were written in an extremely clear and informative technical English, the like of which I've not seen since.

Learning this style stood me in good stead in the 70s, writing routing instructions for machining and assembly jobs in the mechanical controls industry, and later on writing user-specific procedural instructions for the use of computerised ERP systems. So there's more than one way of changing the scale to make a living.

"Locate and cement part 34 to part 35."

Back then, they told you what parts 34 and 35 actually represented, and any special details of how they were to be fitted. And the sequence could catch you out if you just followed the exploded view, as many did.

The days when "toys" were genuinely educational too. I probably learnt to recognise more aircraft from an Airfix catalogue than any aviation book.

Mick, have you seen today's Airfix instructions? There appear to be no accompanying words at all. The pictorial approach is the way instruction leaflets/manuals appear to be going generally, and the loss of clarity in some cases is colossal.

Bad English translations in manuals won't change as long as corporate decision makers happen to be non-linguists, or at least people without the intelligence or humility to realise that translation is a specialised skill that you skimp on (and that includes handing over responsibility for it to a machine) at your peril.

I've done something of a study of Chinese-English translation and I can say with some confidence that generally speaking the only reliable translation work from Chinese to English done in the PRC is at the behest of central government.

On the UK/US lexicon topic and continuing the aviation theme, I do remember flying with American Airlines many years ago and being someone taken aback when we were nearing our destination and the captain announced we would be "landing momentarily". I caught the eye of my fellow passenger (who was also English) and said I hoped they would at least give us enough time to get off.

Two nations divided by a common language, still.

Exactly. The skills to write such instructions seem to have receded, along with the skills to read and follow them.

Edited By Mick B1 on 23/01/2019 22:06:54