Flashback Friday! Rotoscoping (Cartoonish NSFW)

Rotoscoping has been used as a technique for animation a very long time. Almost anyone (male) my age went to the theater to see the movie "Heavy Metal". Aside from the animation that is old school and admittedly driven by adolescent fantasies there are things here that stand out (I know, I know). The movie was farmed out to several teams that worked on segments of the movie. The soundtrack has some things you just cannot get anywhere else. Nice tunes from Steely Dan and Stevie Nicks as well. 

So here is the raw footage of the rotoscoping of the heroine Tarrna. The live action part was played by Carole Desbiens.






So what does our fictional heroine do? Well this for starters.





Yes, a guilty pleasure from long ago. 

Smith and Wesson Top Break!

So my Curmudgeon at large whips this out last weekend. Says he has had it for over 30 years. Wants to know if I can find anything out about it. I'm in over my head here. All I can find is serial numbers on the cylinder, top of the back strap, and butt. They all match. 

There are patents stamped on the top of the barrel. First patent seems to be Jan. 24 '65 and reissued with the last date Jan 03 '82 (I think). Hell even the big honking magnifying glass is letting me down! 

Big pictures! Click to enlarge! 

 

It will not go in to battery. It has a small bulge slightly over half way in the barrel. I don't even know what caliber it is. 

So what to do? You know I want to fire it! Clean it? Leave it alone? I know I can zip some money to the S&W Historian to find out more but I thought I would ask for some help here first (*cough, cough, Tam*)! Any would be appreciated! 

Oh the Curmudgeon has a lap top and stalks constantly! Typing is not his thing! 

Thanks again for any help you can offer!

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Someone is channeling the '80's!

The lovely and always amazing Brigid seems to be going through an 80's flashback. 

So I will play. It has been said that the Eagles chronicled life in California in the 70's. Steely Dan picked up doing it for the early eighties. 

So although I love the Eagles, I tend to gravitate to the technical precision of two people that hired studio musicians   for everything else. Much like The Alan Parsons Project. I know. I dated a piano player hired for "The Turn of a Friendly Card" album. She was amazing. Made me walk in the rain with her. It was never to be, but those were times I fondly remember. 

Here is Steely Dan with one of my favorites from them.

The second thing you do to a new M&P!

After shooting several hundred rounds through it simply this:

Get an APEX sear spring, sear, and trigger spring for it. 

Void factory warranty by beating on it with a hammer and removing parts (click to well, you know):

Sear assembly on the right. New sear lower right on the punch block. 

Then move to the trigger assembly to replace the trigger spring:

Trigger assembly to the right. Ambidextrous slidestop levers to far right. Trigger housing to upper center above the slide. 

APEX provided a slave pin for this and it helped!

Then beat on it some more and you get this:

So now I have a trigger that is MUCH smoother and has a quicker reset. Almost like my 1911. It is worth the effort! 

Oh crap! NOW they tell me to have this installed by a competent gunsmith! I should have read the directions first. 

FTC crap. I payed for all of this, thank you very much!

So I briefly entertained the thought today to audition for the 4th season of Top Shot. Any thoughts?

You do what you can...

Local media was at the range yesterday for all the wrong reasons. We all do everything we can and still wind up with senseless tragedies like this. How very sad.

Range Review- The S&W M&P VTAC

So lets get the big question out of the way. Does this make my rear end look big?

Seriously though I have found this Handgun surprising. Many pundits on the Interwebz decry the sights due to a perceived notion that having 6 dots on the sights "overwhelming" or  "too visually cluttered". I will let my range partner from yesterday handle this. I always think I am the Curmudgeon at large. My older friend by several decades brings it. He LOVES a Colt 1911 and is a firm believer that "Colt's are for Semi-Autos, Smith and Wesson for revolvers". Period. End of story. He even gave me some Blog fodder to take pictures of for later this week.

After warming up with a 1911 we go to the M&P. First five rounds by me destroy the "Q" at 7 yds. from a duh, wait for it, an FBI Q target. I did not take a picture as I had a witness. He goes to it. He is drilling the target. He remarks the pundits on the Interwebz: "Full of S**T, these are the best sights I have ever used". He adds that he can't see! 

The stove pipe issues with the reloads are slowly going away. We run 50 commercial rounds through it with no problem. I loaded my reloads to minimum powder charge and they worked fine on a older M&P Pro series. The fact the Pro had a 5" barrel vs. the VTAC 4.25 barrel and being new is probably the factor here.

Today was tactical training for the coming zombie bowling pin apocalypse. After getting the customers out of the way and the range closed I go back to it. Pins fell, the QEB target had everything ventilated properly.

I will put the APEX kit on it. 

Bottom line? I trust it. I will carry it. It is fun to shoot. I will be carrying with these:

 

The sight thing is a non-issue in my book. If there is enough ambient light for the VTAC fiber optics to work they will. If not, the Trijicon nights sights will pick up the slack. 

So for now my Colt will live in semi retirement. I must say that I think this Handgun is for right now a worthy successor.  

Space updated again!

Several have commented on the fact they like the look of the new gun. Ok, I gave it another look after cleaning and lubricating. On the other side of the VTAC Logoed fiber optic sights I find this:

Trijicon night sights? Really? OK, I'm impressed for the night sights! I have them on my Colt. So I attempt to come to grips with all of this. Plastic gun, plastic holster right?

Fobus paddle holster. I used it at the AFHF class. The holes on the side are for you to index your trigger finger on when you get your firing grip. I am beginning to come to the dark side. 

So plastic gun and leather? Can they coexist? DeSantis leather:

 
















Ok, maybe I was wrong! I am becoming at least tolerant of this new stuff! I DO prefer the leather holster still. The plastic one does shoot fast though! Oh, and less shiny gun stuff on us is always good right? 

FTC disclaimer. I bought everything here. So there!