Author | Lightnews

Paul Gallagher

Paul Gallagher

@tardate.bsky.social

510 followers 1.8K following 300 posts

Code, music, books, scale models, or mixing genres with electronics and a microcontroller 🇸🇬 9V1DI https://linktr.ee/gallagher.paul

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Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 17h

Painting up the Water Line Series IJN Tugger Set. Not the most detailed examples, but still great "scatter" for port/dock dioramas!

modelart.tardate.com/projects/ijn...

#scalemodels #700scale

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 1d

The Chengdu J-10S of the Ba Yi Aerobatics Team 八一飞行表演队 with the team's first female pilots 盛懿绯, 余旭, 陶佳莉, and 何晓莉 who joined the team in 2013. Sadly 余旭 passed away in a 2016 fatal training accident. Spirit soaring...

modelart.tardate.com/projects/pla...

#scalemodels #72scale #plaaf

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 1d

adding Context7 MCP to most of my coding contexts! GenAI/LLMs without good data == creative shit

codingkata.tardate.com/tools/ai/con...

#a1

LCK#373 Context7

Using Context7 MCP Server with VSCode and GitHub Copilot to improve code generation quality.

codingkata.tardate.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 1d

Like many, I mourned the shutdown of Pivotal Tracker back in April 2025. But I was able to smoothly migrate all my ongoing PT activity to alternatives. Here's the story of the solutions I checked out, and what I'm using now...

blog.tardate.com/2025/10/afte...

After Pivotal Tracker

Reviewing the successors to Pivotal Tracker

blog.tardate.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 2d

Finally, the Kotare 1/32 Hurricane Mk.I (Early) pre-order is open! I've been increasingly tempted by the scale as I've seen their Spits and 109s in production. But I've been waiting for my fave 1940 subject to drop ever since I heard it teased😁

www.kotare-models.com/products/k32...

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 5d

This week's @cassidoo.co challenge: read and format csv data. I used this opportunity to review #rust csv support options and factoring for console IO testing.

codingkata.tardate.com/rust/csv-to-...

LCK#372 csvToList

Using rust to format CSV data for printing; cassidoo's interview question of the week (2025-10-13). I test two common approaches for deserializing CSV in rust, and consider factoring of console IO for...

codingkata.tardate.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 8d

Trumpeter catalog updated, couple of new releases this month including 1:72 M1132 Stryker and 1:16 Tiger II.
NB: this is my "fast mirror" of the real thing.

trumpeter-catalog.tardate.com

#trumpeter #scalemodels

Trumpeter 小号手公司 Custom Catalog

Explore the complete Trumpeter (小号手公司) catalog of plastic scale models including military vehicles, aircraft, ships, and more. The simple and fast interface is ideal for scale modellers wanting to loo...

trumpeter-catalog.tardate.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 10d

This week's @cassidoo.co challenge: batching logs.
Tackled in #ruby.

codingkata.tardate.com/ruby/group-c...

LCK#371 Grouping ChangeLog Edits

Using ruby to group data in 10-minute buckets; cassidoo's interview question of the week (2025-10-06).

codingkata.tardate.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 10d

Next time I'll brave myself for turnbuckles😁

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 10d

Thanks Matthew. Tbh the prop is 95% thanks to Alexey at ProperPlane!

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 10d

Yeah, I tried this line on my boss too, but he fired me for "working" on company time

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 10d

Fairey Flycatcher stationed at HMS Hermes, China Station, 1930. This is the Armory Model Group kit in 1:48, with a hand carved prop and wood decals by ProperPlane of #Ukraine. All upstaged by a couple of cheeky seagulls.

modelart.tardate.com/projects/roy...

#histscalemodels #scalemodels #48scale

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 11d

..and 50% is in the name. I mean, how can a plane called the "Buccaneer" not be swashbucklingly grand?😆 Blackburn redeemed themselves this time (Skua, Roc, Kangaroo..🙄)

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 11d

The kit does include crew figures, but they are not posable and are identical. I used some replacements from PJ Productions ("Modern RAF seated in aircraft" No. 721118 1:72)

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 12d

Blackburn Buccaneer S.2C; brilliant 2019 tooling from Airfix. An ugly brute, but pretty magnetic when tooling around the sea at 60 feet! I think also the only time I've used the so-called "invisible" acrylic rod conceit😆
modelart.tardate.com/projects/roy...

#histscalemodels #scalemodels #72scale

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 12d

All the wonderful ways of handling command line args with the #ruby standard library

codingkata.tardate.com/ruby/cli-opt...

LCK#370 Command Line Options with Ruby

Comparing all the various ways of parsing command line arguments with the Ruby standard library.

codingkata.tardate.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 13d

Good call! Yes, maybe some like paras in jeeps eurekaminuk.com/products/us-...

US Paras in Jeeps (20mm)

Price per set (12 figures). *vehicles not included.

eurekaminuk.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 14d

Matsu-class Destroyer Sakura (桜). Fujimi 1:700 KISS build: no PE or rigging but replaced some newer parts and couldn't *not* fix the stern profile once I'd seen the issue!

modelart.tardate.com/projects/ijn...

#ijn #histscalemodels #scalemodels #700scale

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 14d

oh yes, wonderful stuff, thanks for the tip!

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 14d

I built up the Airfix 1:76 Bedford QLT & QLD trucks the other day. Mainly for fun and hopefully a diorama if I can find some suitable troops. I don't want pointing, running, jumping, or shooting.. just bored and sitting please!

modelart.tardate.com/projects/bri...

#histscalemodels #scalemodels

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 15d

😂 "not my fault - all the tests were green!"

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 18d

Just testing a classic CD4011 touch switch circuit. Resistor values are important (and probably environment-specific)

leap.tardate.com/electronics1...

#electronics

LEAP#794 CD4011 Touch Switch

Testing a common CD4011 touch switch circuit with separate on and off pads.

leap.tardate.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 18d

This week's @cassidoo.co challenge: finding out how easy it is to overflow while calculating a hyperfactorial.

codingkata.tardate.com/rust/hyperfa...

#rust

LCK#362 hyperfactorial

Using rust to calculate the hyper-factorial of a non-negative integer; cassidoo's interview question of the week (2025-09-29)

codingkata.tardate.com

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 18d

Indeed! So far, Platz and Sweet are my favourite 1:144 brands. Even though most of the toolings are from 20 years ago they still hold up today. Others I've yet to try but have high hopes: Valom, Beacon Models

Paul Gallagher @tardate.bsky.social · 18d

🍻