Kukri

With assistance from Mad Mike Williamson, I have obtained a kukri. One more item checked off the bucket list. Nearly ready for the zombie alpaca lips.

Fighter Factory

Josh and I had our first visit to the Fighter Factory / Military Aviation Museum in Pungo. There are two groups of buildings; the one at the far end of the driveway has the workshop / maintenance area and the WWI planes, while the main building has the WW2 planes and some vehicles.
Some of the planes:

• P40 with Flying Tigers livery
• P39 
• P51 Mustang
• FW190
• Yak 3
• Corsair
• B25
• Junkers Ju52--larger than I expected, and the exterior is all corrugated, including the wings
• Mosquito
• Spitfire
• Storch observation plane--they said it had a 300ft takeoff roll
• Fokker DR1 triplane
• Fokker D VII biplane
• Albatross D.Va
• Sopwith  1 1/2 Strutter
• V1 flying bomb

They also had a display of the various types of ammo in use, from .30 cal to 30mm, and several vehicles--staff cars, gun tractors, that sort of thing. They also had a British antitank gun from the North Africa campaign, and a 89mm Flak gun in an Afrika Korps paint scheme, which was cool -- nobody was looking, so I sat in the gunner's position for a while, and thought about...well, what I actually thought about was telling Josh to go get the car and see if we could surreptitiously tow it home. We could put it behind the house. I can see the conversation when Diana gets home:

"What's that?"

"It's a tree, sweetie."

"A tree?"

"A fliegerabwehrkanone tree."

"When did you get it?"

"We've always had a tree in the back, hon."

The OMG-AR15 Unicorn zombie gun - Boing Boing

The OMG-AR15 Unicorn zombie gun

Just in case your little girl needs an assault rifle with chainblade.

Self guided bullet

According to Wired, Sandia has developed what the article is calling a "self-guided bullet", i.e. a four inch long, finned bullet that can home in on a laser spot.

Shooting

Josh and I got a shooting lesson tonight at A&P Arms. We each fired at 5 yards, 10 yards and 15 yards with a H&K 9mm. Josh had all but two of his rounds within the red circle, and those two were less than an inch out. My fire was a little more widespread; I'm having a hard time with the "left eye dominant" and "focus on the front sight, not the target" part. More practice...

Rapier

Coolest birthday present of the year:

This is an R6 swept hilt rapier from Zen Warrior Armory in North Carolina. It arrived today and was greeted with much glee and cries of "Shiny!". This one has the 40" rapier blade and bell pommel; the balance is about an inch in front of the guard. Shiny!

Blades

Rob Brunner recently emailed me a reminder of Darkwood Armory's excellent rapiers. That's going to turn out to be an expensive email, I'm sure. I prefer straight quillons--but which guard to get?
Closed hilt double ring?

  Closed port swept?

Swordplay

I made it to the Barony of Marinus fighter practice, and got the meet some of the people and to try a couple of rapiers, 37 and 43 inch lengths. They didn't have full fencing armor this time--most of the guys there were medieval fighters, with broadsword and shield--but we did a little half-speed sparring. It was tiring--those rapiers only weigh a pound or so more than a modern fencing saber, but that extra weight makes a huge difference after a while. It was also a lot of fun. Thrust, parry, riposte, diengage, remise, beat, lunge!

SCA combat

As I was driving back from the beach yesterday, I saw signs for an SCA event. I was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism 25 years ago, so I stopped in to say hello. Back then, all combat was medieval style--I fought with spear, two handed sword, mace, and brush hook. Now, however, they've added rapier, including cut-and-thrust, and that looks like it would be a lot of fun; I'm thinking of adding a rapier to my Christmas list.

Virginia War Museum

We went to the Virginia War Museum in Newport News, about 45 minutes drive from home. They had some cool stuff, and it was kind of depressing. The exhibits are mostly about things-- weapons, uniforms, vehicles--rather than people or events; and they are mostly things that were mass produced, stamped out at a factory, rather than something an artisan put his time and skill and attention into. Even the propaganda posters were mostly simple, blocky, ugly. I was reminded of something from Cryptonomicon, where Cantrell is talking about guns: "Holding one of those things in your hands, cleaning the barrel and shoving the rounds into clips, really brings you face-to-face with what a desperate, last-ditch measure they really are."

But then you turn a corner and one of the posters is about the Rape of Nanking, and you're forced to conclude that no matter how ugly and stupid and wasteful war is, some times it really is necessary as the only way to cut short a greater evil.

Guns

I'd originally thought about getting a Glock 19, so I went to A&P Arms on Lynnhaven to try one. I studied the range safety sheet and got my card for passing it, then looked around a bit. They have quite a few implements for making holes in things--including a Barrett 50 cal rifle available for a mere $8500, just the thing if you expect to hunt irritable posleen, lightly armored vehicles, or rabid elephants.
The 19 turns out to be a little small for my hand, but a 17 fits about right. So, for $36, I rented one, bought a box of ammo and a target, and went to Bay 2 Lane 8. The first thing you notice is the pistol isn't all that heavy--only two pounds unloaded. The second thing you notice, immediately after opening the door to the range, is that they're loud, even with ear protection on. The third thing is that they take a little figuring out, but only a little. The button to drop the clip is just above your thumb. The clip only goes in one way, and a few seconds of looking at it is enough to figure out how to put cartridges in--although that takes a bit of effort, especially with cold fingers, and the last few rounds take a fair amount of pushing. In future, with a fifteen-capacity clip, I'll probably stop at ten rounds. Another button brings the slide forward and chambers a round. After that it's just point, pull, BANG, and wonder where the bullet hit.
I missed the target low on the first couple of rounds, but once I figured out how much to compensate, I got the rest in the black. The slide locks back when you're empty, so no need to wonder "Was that fourteen rounds, or fifteen?", just drop the magazine, reload, and do it again. When you're done, reel the target in, pick up the brass, and turn the weapon in.
I had a good time. I don't know that I'd want to make it a once-a-week event, particularly with the obligatory weapon cleaning afterward, but as a--pardon me--one shot event, I enjoyed it.

Guns

I've been mulling over getting a firearm or two to supplement my collection of sharp pointy objects, since it might be a bit more difficult to purchase a gun after the election. And one of our friends is considering moving to a remote area where it would be a good idea for her to keep a shotgun handy. We have a neighbors who's a Blackhawk instructor, so I asked some advice. The recommendations I got were Glock 19 pistol, Remington 870 (20 gauge, #4 buckshot) shotgun, or Armalite 15 if I wanted a rifle.