Site Log

MASTER LOG:
June 1, 2010:
As of 00:00, YT subscribers sit at an official count of... 991. Wow! So close to 1k, but still quite impressive. It is gratifying to have such an audience for my humble talents.

I kicked into airbrushing the simple stuff on the J2. This model is now in it's mid-stage and getting ready for a hot landing.

The J2 fundamentally changed my ideas of what models I would be doing this year. So I'm opening up the choices to all of you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFy9Me8tBiM

May 15, 2010:
Things kind of stalled on me going into May. Day jobs overtook everything and left the J2 stranded on my bench.

The bench itself was somewhat overwhlemed as well. Spock took far longer to do than I could have guessed and still sits waiting for the final airbrush. Meanwhile, I picked up the 1/1000 D-7 for kicks and after 2hrs building that, it also stalled. My bench sits in a total mess. I may up a video update this weekend to show how bad things are.

The tv monitor I picked up works great for two of my three cameras, but not the one I primarily shoot with! So that's a problem. If I had a spare $800, I'd get a proper video cam.

Youtbe has shocked me. I'm fast approaching 250,000 video views - a number that seemed unbelieveable (now at 218k). And my subscribers shot up by 240+ in the last 5 weeks -absolutely unprecedented! 777 as of this writing and likely to break 800 by this time next week. Will likely blow past 1,000 by mid June. Thanks to you all!

April 1, 2010:
The Jupiter 2 is well under way!

I picked up and knocked off the PL 1k Enterprise -a fun little build; and I managed to stock up on a lot of supplies to carry me thru much of this year, though I could use a few more things.

The workbench took some minor evolutionary steps as things settle into shape; while the addition of a television knocked the vac table storage out of its place.

I already have a tv, what do I need another for? Well, a lot of my work winds up getting out of shot and all you see is my arm or empty table, which I'm certain makes viewing difficult for you folks. Thus, plugging the camera into the tv as I record will allow me real-time monitoring of the shot, improving the viewing situation for us both!

I'm still looking to a Star Wars summer as the J2 moves along. More J2 vendors are stepping up with their wares for review and thigns are going good on that front. While the kit seems much simpler to me now, it is still going to be a complex build. I'm looking to have the lighting done this month.

And lastly, I'll note that my YT subscribers blew past 500 this past month! Totally shocking and humbling! Thanks to you all. Your viewership is an inspiration. Subs now sit at 530 with 183,000 views while I close in on my 600th video. Wow!

March 1, 2010:
Welp, for such a short month, February really dragged its ass along. Little to
nothing got done. That's not entirely true actually...

EVAPod Clara was finished on Feb 3. The AWing made it under the wire on the 28th as did the Star Destroyer. That left a few other kits hanging as the Jupiter 2 took flight. Most of the month was spent working long-hours at a day job.

In the meantime, a pile of new tools were acquired and many supplies were restocked completely and for the long term -especially the leds.

Thanks to my 458 subs and everyone's comments and suggestions from all forums. As thanks, I'm thinking fo some kind of youtube raffle / competition / something-or-other with various prizes. I'll work the idea out over the next few months.

February 1, 2010:
Expectations do have a way of changing sometimes, don't they?

I had expected to kick into a star wars phase as previously mentioned the last few months, with an odd or an end interspersed here or there.

Well, I accepted a particular challenge put forth to me and will be doing the Moebius Jupiter 2, from start to finish in one go with the intent of producing a dvd of the build for eventual sale. This will be as much a "How-Not To" as anything else. Details can be tracked over here.

I expect to throw some love at some other models along the way, but the Jupiter 2 will dominate my build time going into March.

Later in the spring I am looking to finally get into resin casting at long last in aid of the model building effort. I should have the fundage rolling by then.

This months 'On the Bench' vid also shares thedistinction of being my 500th upload! Thanks to my ~400+ subscribers for all the support over the last year. I look forward to doing much more this coming year!

January 1, 2010:
Happy New Year!

In reviewing last year's entry, I noted several things...
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Jan 1, 2009:
-While December started off as the month for electronics, it quickly dwindled as natural selection took over. Some kits were boxed away whilst others jumped into the fray.

-Fiber optic work proved far more frustrating than I could have possibly thought. So I concentrated on finishing off some simple led and EL projects, and put the FO away for now.

-Christmas week saw the production pipeline ramp up strongly as the electronics went from leading edge to trailing.

-Per-kit written and photo'd log entries here drastically dropped off as I switched up to youtubing much of my work as it ocurred on the bench. As of now, I do need to backlog build entries here to reflect the master video logs. It's been quite the change up.
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-This January I change from elecs to painting/finishing several kits.

-FIber Optics have become quite easy and my elec knowledge has improved greatly.

-The Christmas week power ramp saw an excellent work burst.

-Still haven't backlogged individual kit pages with youtube content.

As to this year, in getting some OT at work, I lost time on the models leading into Xmas, but still gained significant momentum in that last week and got them all damn close to done.

By the end of Januaury, I expect to be in a Star Wars plastic phase through the Spring . Pick up on some Real Space for the summer, maybe do some cars and start some military. We'll see how things progress as I expect to move others along their way and set them aside again.

In terms of skills, I want to become proficient at resin casting and much better at vac forming, improve my electronics, fiber work and airbrushing, get much better at surfacing and shoot for 1 model/month complete.

Thanks to all the Youtubers this year. Going on 150,000 views of ~475 vids and and ~300 subscribers.

December 1, 2009:
Finished up the electronics on time and as expected. I am now into a putty and paint stage. I expect to finish 7 models by New Years, making 14 built this year.

While 14 is half of my previous years' averages, these kits pushed my building skills to their limits. I made significant strides this year and gained valuable insights into the modeling process.

Coming up next year, the plan is to head straight into a Star Wars plastic phase, incorporating a few off topic builds and bring the pipeline along when possible.

Thanks to all my youtububers for pushing my videos above the 110,000 view mark. 400 views a day is becoming normal. Viewership has not fallen below 200 views per day in almost 4 months now. Subscribers have topped 250 of you and I thank you all very much! Your insights and tips are most helpful. I look forward to doing a lot more this coming year.

Happy holidays to all those who celebrate them!

November 1, 2009:
The workbench gets more minor tweaks with another shelf section, magnets and some old fashioned saw blading.

Been concentrating on fiber and leds for the last few weeks and the day job has kept my model time to a minimum. Too much to do on the evenings. :(

But work progresses and I expect to be into airbrushing by December!

This month's On the Bench video also happens to be my 400th upload to youtube! About 95,000 views and just over 230 subscirbers, one day peaked over 700 views!

Thanks to you all!

I'm glad my mistakes and ocassional insights are of benefit. Also want to thank eveyrbody at the various forums for their feedback, tips and tricks! 3yrs in and getting better all the time!

October 1, 2009:
The workbench gets minor tweaks as situations occur. All the components make a great fit. Should have the last shelf added to the window box by the end of the month.

Picked up a couple plastic kits in the last days of Sept. I'm well stocked on most supplies at this point. There is a danger of depleting any one stock , so I am watching and carefully resourcinating all I got.

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Build Status:

AWing needs basic wiring;

Falcon is about done with all internal lights -got a lot of externals to engineer now;

"Mini-Cooper" has been getting fiber all along as well as neodymium magnet upgrades;

EVAPod is ready for final sand and prime;

BoP is getting body work and then ready for final sand and prime;

Tru Godzila stepped into the mix with some seam work;

AMK is nearly all painted -gotta do the dish details and wire the plaque up;

USSat waits for the final body details and painting;

CMK and GerSat have not arrived yet;

Both TIE's went on the current backburner as I need to cast lots of parts for them and therefore need to learn casting.

Otherwise, looking to finish several models by the end of the year.
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Looking ahead, star wars plastic will kick next year off and a couple prize kits should be in by then such as the new C-57D. So a few newbies will jump the line and get work straight away.

For the summer, I want to start up the two naval ships and a 1/24 car I have.

I've got five battlemechs patiently stored away. I want to make casts of them first, so they can't be done until I can afford to copy them -for the personal collection.

And I am hoping to get some big resin over the year, so that will interject where possible.

As always, old wips will get worked on as the pipeline cycles, moving them along in a slow state of ceaseless progression.

In YT terms, the old "beta tube" is now the standard. I will try to keep things easily findable. I do not want this layout, but there is no point in fighting. My faves have been wandering off the 'mostly models only rule' but I gotta keep these gems somewhere.   Subscribers broke the 200 mark and my ~380 vids have been watched ~85,000 times in one year! Thanks all.

September 15, 2009:
The workbench is just about idealized, minus one new shelf attachment. From there, all will settle into perfect for some time to come.

Four of eight lighting models are done with the other four proceeding well. Started messing with Aves earlier. Mixed results, but overall it will be a good product to work with.

Found a new grail kit. Tamiya 1/12 Caterham 7. Nice. $300. Not so nice.

October 1st, youtube will be switched over to the new format. I'll see you on the other side.

September 3, 2009:
I think this is the first time I've missed the 1st o' the month... Anyhow, the workbench video was done a few days early and that counts more lately. There is worrisome talk around youtube not only about the beta, but also the big media deals that are likely to push us lowly people out of the way in favor of them. Hoepfully, this can be fought by page counts.

In other news, the resinfest proceeds well. EVAPod is nearing paint, AMK got striped again due to bad paint, but it's Pod is painted and ready for decals with the wall plaque ready for wiring; The BoP needs some under hull work and will be ready for paint; Hero TIE is about to get the d4 needed to make the interior; Pyro TIE awaits enough material for lots more wings; AWing is getting lights and then the body gets sealed with some painting in the meantime; cylon raider is sealed and ready for paint having gotten a full lighting job in 2 days -a new record; US Sat awaits me on the wall while German Sat should ship soon and CMK is hopefully making good speed. I may bring a couple other models up to speed with lights and fiber optics while I am at it.

The Bench got a good clean and upgrade with new shelves. More to come with any good luck.

C'ya.

August 1, 2009:
I gotta say, it was good to have some time off! That the vacation coincided with upgrades, resupplies and the youtube beta strike was prime synchronicity.

Workbench v3.
Expanded the storage cab to the wall and organized all sections w/ another round of tidying to commence. Added an orbital sander and dremels' buzzsaw mod to the arsenal. In terms of suppplies, I'm fully stocked on leds, fiber otpics, 18g wire and related; glues, epoxies, molding compounds, including Aves apoxie; and most all other supplies I'm likely to need in the next few months.

Back in April, my bench's television set lost it's disc player. It had been sick for a long time and this was not unexpected. It went noisely one night with me hammering my fist on the case hoping to jig the laser into reading the damned dvd or cd I was trying to play. At $26, 3 yrs ago, it was worth the time we had together.

Replacing it is a dual 3ghz, 4gb, single terabyte of distraction. Expanding that to a 3tb Raid 5 is an immediate step when finances allow. It also needs a proper 4 or 5 ch, fm stereo amp to make things right. There's about $500 there. Ouch.

Back on the computer side of miniatures,
I've got one more greenscreen episode to round off the Intro lesson utilizing the USS Excalibur. Down the road, I'll do an in-depth, 3d, cgi integration lesson using a better choice of miniatures.

In terms of building, may it now commence!
TIE Hero and Pyro,
US Sat, Chi Sat, Ger Sat,
EVAPod,
Aries 1/80,
350 BoP,
and probably an AWing (or two) and the CC CMK.

Youtube beta came and went.
If it isn't up as of this writing, then it soon will be. The standard (old) YT layout allowing several thumbnail previews for all categories is ideal. I will make the best design of the new channel as I can. I think it's gonna be lame. And a quick nod to all new subscribers over the last month of my vacation! Near 160 and counting.

Though I didn't get rolling until a few months later, it was a year ago August 20th I uploaded my first video, Models and Magnets. Now at ~315 vids and over ~61,000 views in a year, that amazes me. I can't guess how many hours that is. My sympathies to any who watch it all.

July 1, 2009:
Finances picked up some, allowing me to snag a pair of cheap impulse buys and restock some of my most basic supplies. There's still more to go; leds, epoxy, solder, wire, a couple spools of F.O, more...

In addition to shooting several models, documenting the basic greenscreen and computer process, June also saw published my 2nd GK construction manual (w/ more on the way) and a greenscreen tutorial series starting up at Miniatures, Models and Magic. <http://www.modelermagic.com/>

While I had expected the next build line to be an exclusively 2001: Modeling Spree, three additional kits join the fray. (Five, sir.) Five additional kits join the fray. The BoP 350, the SS IFC and the 1/24 A-Wing. The 2001: German Satellite from AJAM and Atomic CIty's Big D CMK, are both pending release.

The work may not start for a few more weeks as I transition back to building. This endevaor will last a few months, if not into next year. It will run the entire gamut of the assembly line.

June 1, 2009:
Welp, finances bottomed out in May causing the production line to come to a grinding halt as supply after supply ran low or completely out of stock. I've got a big list for the quartermaster when the finances pick up again.

As a result 90% of all my builds are now for sale! Five are gone already, so get them while you can! My loss is your gain! See the main youtube page for details! http://www.youtube.com/user/ModelManTom

To pass the time, I've stepped into a new pipeline entirely: Post-Production! Involving everything from setting up the greenscreen to applying final touches in the composite.

I've finished shooting the current batch of BSG and Trek kits, so it's on to the digital side of things next. I may be able to pick up the 2001: A Modeling Spree pipeline before the end of the month as the Aries-1B has now safely docked. If so, I will update as always.

And a BIG THANKS to all my youtubers! Just shy of 300 vids with 100+ subscribers and near 45,000 video views! Wow! Thanks all!

May 1, 2009:
Wow! Some radical advances this month. I incorporated vac forming into my skillset (-big thanks to warmplastic.com!); along with bondo, cmos, custom decals, prototyping model masters and making significant progress on several scratch built models all while upgrading my workstation with a new cabinet and other tweaks. I want to thank all the youtubers who have viewed my 260+ vids over 36,000 times. Thanks everybody!

Had the Aries model kit come in this month, I would have switched over to a 2001: ASO modeling pipeline. However, in its delay, I get to continue learning the scratch building skills I am working on now.

Thanks to all my yotubers! Over30 new subscribers this month helped shoot the total videos

Apr 1, 2009:
April sees the scratch building come back for a bit. Once a particular model comes in though, I will likley switch up to a different pipeline. That remains to be seen...

March was a fun month with electronics! I made significant strides and gained good insight into what is needed for several kits and even knocked a few models off that have sat around for years -literally!

In other news:
This site has been getting some love in the form of page reformatting. You may notice that the 'kits' page has decentralized into three more appropriate categories. This should help on page loads for slower connections out there. There will e more changes down the road as things evolve and take better form.

Youtube has taken control! With 225+ videos commanding over 26,000 views from people across the entire planet, this experience has been truly humbling indeed. I look forward to bringing my viewers more tips and tricks over the coming years. This has been an excellent experience! Thanks to everybody for tuning in! You can look forward to much more in the future!

Mar 1, 2009:
I was gonna get back into another round of fresh builds, but have decided to go back for the electronics I dropped a few months ago.

The youtube is proceeding well and I hit 20,000 views to date with 170 vids loaded up. Thanks everybody!

Feb 1, 2009:
With the new year came the re-re-re-release of the AMT-005 kit, more commonly known as the 18" Enterprise. I wound up buying five of these, w/ one tin box version remaining in perm. storage. Two of the four became Connies while the other two began filling out the 'Franz Joseph Four' as a tug and Destroyer.

In scracthbuilding news, I started up a scale Dreadnought to finish off the FJ4 and that pipeline will get some renewed interest very soon.

The four AMT kits brushed aside what I had been working on and now that they are about finished off, February's goal is to finish those pushed aside. With that, I'll have a fresh start and see what presents itself.

The other kit to note is that I finished the Whitefish Bay at long last.

In website news, since moving over to youtube, things here have fallen to the side. I don't remember the last written entry, but I have been keeping up on the kits status page. I need to do some heavy backlogging and put up all the youtube links.

Thinking that's about it for the moment,
Happy Modeling

Jan 1, 2009:
Happy New Year.

While December started off as the month for electronics, it quickly dwindled as natural selection took over. Some kits were boxed away whilst others jumped into the fray.

Fiber optic work proved far more frustrating than I could have possibly thought. So I concentrated on finishing off some simple led and EL projects, and put the FO away for now.

To fill time, I also casually pursued some resin and plastic kits, rendering them far along to various stages of completion. Christmas week saw the production pipeline ramp up strongly as the electronics went from leading edge to trailing.

Scratch building officially entered into my skill set with no less than three projects springing into existence nearly at once. It will be fun to see where these go, however they turn out. While I have 'scratch built' a couple dioramas to date, these new ones are all vehicle/craft builds, not set pieces.

Per-kit written and photo'd log entries here drastically dropped off as I switched up to youtubing much of my work as it ocurred on the bench. As of now, I do need to backlog build entries here to reflect the master video logs. It's been quite the change up.

Dec 1, 2008:
A whole lotta not much went on electronically. The working world demanded huge time from me. I did spend about 3 hrs threading FO in the star destroyer. It all fell out as I tried to tape it into place for long term storage. I boxed that kit up right then and crept away from FO for awhile. I did put some spare effort into the three new resin kits that came in.

I also began youtubing my logs instead of so much photo and typing..
http://www.youtube.com/user/ModelManTom

Nov 1, 2008:
Taking several more months than I thought it would, I finally finished the airbrush with an October week to spare! I finished Huggie McFacehugger at 9pm on the 23rd. Everything was packed away within the hour and the electronics bench took over.

The 1st Sculpy test phase lasted a few hours. It led me to seek alternative clay, air drying and resiliant. Baking the sculpy means heating the figure the sculpy is wrapped around -which means potential warpage to the figure. I found a good clay, but it chips very easy. I now need a poly-resin sealer that wil give it some plasticity.

But most important of all, it was into electronics to round October off! I've been analyzing the Falcon while I drill the Star Destroyer with hundreds of holes. Also in line are the Galileo, Robot, MedBay, Vader's TIE, the Rifleman, possibly the Mercury Capsule and the 'Tombaugh'. Are there others? I'll dig around. The Vipers are a definite pass this time...

I don't know what I can finish, where things stand or far things can go. I have some fiber optics, but the cash for more is not soon. I can use up my entire stock without worry though. There are plenty of leds. I should stock up on copper wire, I need to stock up on magnets in a big way.

I'm giving the next 40-60 days to wiring, I will be back into building before the year is up though! I am now on 60hr work weeks for the rest of the year, so we'll see how much I get done in my 'spare' time.

There are a number of high end kits coming along that I hope to be fortuiitous in getting.

Oct 15, 2008:
More workbench mods this month hampered the pipelines some, but I'm still cranking through.

I now have a working-prototype-of-a-collapsable paint box, a dremel drill press, rolling utility table, plexi-glass cabinet display case and lots of conveniences such as better lighting, dual box fans, better power access/distribution, utility hooks, clamps and more.

Best of all was doing the severe vacuuming that needed to be done. It was a couple months of drilling, slicing, sanding and mayhem all over the floor, in the paint box, along the windows and so on. I will do a touchup vacuuming before I move into the next round of construction.

Getting back to the airbrush has been great. I did a good job on the first kit and got better from there. I wrapped it up with the French satellite and Poppa Doc 2 at long last. Sadly, the American satellite did not make it, nor did Ed-209.

Next, I'm into a quick sculpy phase, followed by electronics and lighting tests. We'll see how far and where that takes me.

Then, it's all new kits! I can't wait to hit them.

Oct 1, 2008:
While I had the airbrush handy the whole time, I brought another kit or so up to completion to throw in the airbrush pile. And I managed to catch up on all my posts here.

I inadvertantly beefed up my star wars collection. I hadn't bought an SW kit in almost two years. I more than doubled the count this month alone. I think it was alll the reading over at Resin Illuminati that I've been doing.

There's so much studio scale work going on over there that it spilled over into my plastic desires. I'm now over it now. Apart from a Tydirium, I have now covered all the SW models of my yesteryears. These will be far superior.

The workbench has evolved into a more efficient and 'safer' configuration with two box fans on the spot.

The greenscreen has lagged some lately as I must roll the floor up everyday to keep my cat off of it. I was hoping ot leave it permanently setup for minimal hassle. I've got kits building up in line now that I have to shoot. I'd rather have a backlog of photos to process than a backlog of kits to shoot.

Sept 15, 2008:
Today is the second anniversary of the moment I walked into my local hobby shop and bought the Millenium Falcon from their shelf.   After 15 years away from this beloved hobby, I had returned. Last night, I purchased my 90th kit and was quite stunned when I reflected on that number.

During the past two years, I have seen my skills go from using magic marker to 'paint' that Falcon, to the advanced airbrushing, electronics and sculpting techniques I now use today (and as detailed over those 90 kits in their build pages). I have learned a lot and there is so much more to know!

And, not uncoincidentally, my taste in kits has gone from the standard $20 plastic kit to the studio scale resin kits costing hundreds of dollars each.

I am not surprised. As my skills have improved, so have they warranted greater and greater challenges. Challenges which I look forward to conquering with greater and greater precision. The cheap-o kits have been wonderful practice for the mucho-grande kits that have become the norm lately.

Well, perhaps I'll add a little more later, but for now I bid you adieu.

Additional:
On this anniversary, I threw in a low bid for a star destroyer I came across and won it. So it is that I returned with the Falcon and I now mark the ocassion with a star destroyer.|

Additional, Additional:
91 Kits Total
02 Abandoned and Sold Off.
06 Perma-boxed.
07 In Progress.
34 On Hold/Pending.
42 Built!

Happy glue sniffing! Oh, uh! Modeling! :D

Sept 1, 2008:
Well, the airbrush continued well into August, far beyond my expectations. A few more kits stepped up as ready and I got them down. Airbrushing will continue into September or I ahve to put what's left on hold...

Major badness was losing about 60 pix of models in progress covering about two weeks of work over seven kits. My point and shoot permanently scrambled its memory card. That was bad. I didn't want to expose my new DSLR to the workshop elements too often, so for a couple weeks I got almost no pix of anythign in progress. Towards the end of the month, I happened across a mem card and now things are back to normal.

Sculpy, followed by the electronics pipeline, are coming up fast.

Picked up a few Mecha kits and others.

Discovered several Studio Scale SW kits that I will be getting when they are released as well. I'm hooked on these high-end garage kits! The filming possibilities are astouding!

Aug 1, 2008:
Got back into the swing by dropping some serious sanding on the Botany Bay. Once that was done, I dropped into the airbrush action and polished off several kits that have been sitting around for a long while. At least five kits down, not more than ten. I was quite psyched.

I finished July off by getting into a Sculpy Phase. I expect electronics to dominate all of August.

I've discovered a number of excellent forums and am learning a great deal from them. I have to update the dag-blasted links page one of these days...

The workshop split off into two areas. The soundstage and the workbench.

It was the bench itself that had me nervous as it is now two smaller tables and I wasn't sure how the couch was going to fit into the picture. Once I picked up the Botany Bay though, it all went smooth as if I hadn't been away for several months at all.

The soundstage is now on version 3.01 alpha.

July 10 2008:
Just put a pile of star wars reference in the library. More will come along.

July 2008:
While I'm posting this month's update a little early. Not much will change over that time and I will be into the fun for a good couple weeks in July.
...

It took a year and a half, but the site is finally as up to date as it can be!

All pictures, all text and all everything. Well, the dioramas have some catching up. And there's the Swordfish... ;)

Built a green screen stage for shooting the miniatures. Also decided on the new workshop. Designed, provisioning, furbishing and just about getting it all set up and and moved into for most of the month. While I started spring cleaning back in February, I'm finally done now!

June 2008:
The backlog of kits and photos made its way along in fits and starts and is pretty much done! There are still a handful of kits that have no photos, but that's because none were ever taken. A big oversight on my part.

There are about 20 photos over 3 dioramas that I haven't posted. However those already have some of the largest collections going and these do not add to the information that isn't there already.

I did succumb to an unplanned model purchase, getting several vinyl kits at once off of ebay. It started w/ a Brachiosaur -a rarely seen kit, then happening across three possible Ming's in alternate scales.

As the 2060 males have been very scarce up to now, it was a good opportunity. Especially for a lead character in the series. One of the three turned out to be so tall upon arrival compared to the others that he went from being a Ming to being a Poppa Doc. Another figure I've had kicking around recently converted into Dune. Such is the way of things.

Additionally, I am now waiting on a couple of factors to sort themselves out for the purchase of two planned kits. The Avenger and the Chinese satellites. Quite anxious on both counts!

In other news, I have found the perfect camera to shoot these minatures with! I would have bought it already, but as I am about to transition between jobs, I have to make sure the bills are paid for any possible downtime while I look for another project to join. More details on the camera under Tools when I get it!

What the heck. Search for the Casio EX-F1 and you will find an amazing piece of technology particularly suited to shooting miniatures as visual effects shots!

Could it be? Back to modeling next month? Could be! Joy! :)

May 2008:
A few days ago, the most significant manifestation of the studio's re-engineering occured: the transmutation of the workbench into a normal table.

I took the table that the bench replaced and made that the new workbench. The entire supply cabinet is fully organized. Various models are strewn around the room, generally occupying the space that they will ultimately occupy while they wait for the airbrush.

I got a bunch of fiber optics at last! 10, 20 and 40 mm. Samples are each a few feet long. Once I get an idea of the more useful sizes, I will buy spools of those.

Slotted next in the pipeline is the airbrush. This month will be heavy at work, but I should have some time to bring a couple more kits into the queue. Then, it's into electronics and fiber optics specifically!

I made a category sheet of all pieces not yet finished. Forty something models total. I think I got them all.

I sorted all the photos from the last four months and must proceed from there. The three backlogs that I concentrated on first were the 2001 Nukes and the AMK.

Additionally this month, I helped improve the old ODEC forum, updated Clavius Shipyards, and, not waiting for someone else to do it, I also set up the basics of a new forum called Space Station V. This one will cover the Aries, Orion and the upcoming release of the Space Station itself!

Apr, 2008:
On Dec. 5th, my computer went down in a bad way. A few days ago, I got the RAID working and we are now 'go'.

In that time, I wrote about 60 pages of notes and took hundreds of photos. It will take me some time to update this site with so much backlog going on. There is much to tell. It will take many weeks. I should be caught up in June. Stay tuned. It's good to be back!

Everything is as it is. Altering one component can often have profound effects. In re-engineering my model shop/living room, I continued on to my office and sleeping quarters. A full spring cleaning!

Otherwise, minor glueing, filing, detailing, repairs and overall progress did occur over many kits. No airbrushing though. I picked up some new files and heat shrink. Not much of nothing else to report.

Mar 2008:
It was an exceptionally light month. There was a lot of life to deal with.

Standing Projects:
01. Cthulhu -airbrush
02. Ed-209 -airbrush
03. US Nuke -airbrush
04. Stegosaurus -airbrush
05. China 05 -airbrush
06. Iria -pending
07. Zephyr -pending
08.1701-22 -decals
09. Romulan tos -decals
10. D7 tos -decals
11. AMK -assembly
12. China 04 -putty/sculpt

Upcoming Model Wish List:
01. 2x Revell Viper $50
02. R.Cooper Avenger $620 -- $670
03. Timeslip French Bomb $90 -- $760
04. AJAM Chinese Bomb $X. -- $760 + x
05. Resin Pris and/or China $X1 ($80) -- $870 + x + x1
06. CC Aries 1 -- B $400 -- $1270 + x + x1
07. CC Survey Team $X2 ($200) -- $1470 + x + x1 + x2
08. CC Botany Bay $200 -- $1670 + x + x1 + x2

Supplies
Fiber optics various links, various sizes $200 -- $1870+
Paint -- jars and sprays, thinner etc. $200 -- $2070 +
Tools -- putty, sculpy, files, bits, etc. $$400 -- $2470 +

No more purchases until the end of 2008!

Other kits to consider however:
Uchikoma from Wave. The
Fine Molds Tie fighter and Y-wing.
3rd Viper for Boomer.

Any spare cash will be for emergency Randy Cooper or Atomic City builds! All this, plus supplies for the year equals ~$3000 budget for 2008.

I concluded February by completely moving my living room/work shop around. All my gear is contained in the media cabinet. I got a bigger TV and decided to put the cabinet on its side. This gave me much more storage space. I do need to create several shelves for greater efficiency and simplicity. The new TV goes on top of what was the side wall.

The end of the month saw a big backlog on the airbrush. Several kits built and mostly primed to finish. A couple other kits newly in, but backlogged until the airbrush pile goes away. Almost a dozen will be finished in the next month or two.

A new category of work is' severely long-term class'. K-7, China 04 hair and jacket, etc. These kits are essentially finished, but need long-term final touchups: done, when they get done.

Having reengineered the model shop, I need to finish off a few touches before I can really get back into modeling again. It won't be this weekend for sure.

I almost purchased several decal packs but I'm not sure if Fed Models got the order right. Romulan, D-7 and Republic for almost $40! No other options. I also still need fiber optics!

Feb 2008:
I broke into a lot of kits that I hadn't thought I would. Not having the computer around freed up massive time.

The burst has trickled down to three kits in active process. I'm going to knock around for a little while longer before digging into the electronics work. That will open up a big flood of work for quite a while.

Kits to get this year:
01. $600 Star Destroyer, Randy Cooper
02. $250 Battlestar Galactica, Timeslip
03. $400 Aries 1B, Captain Cardboard
04. $200 Botany Bay, Captain Cardboard
05. $200 2nd AMK, Captain Cardboard
06. $300 2nd D-7, Captain Cardboard
07. $50 Two Vipers, Revell
08. $? Orion Liner, Captain Cardboard
09. $? 5.5foot 1701, ?Jim Keyes?
10. $? Galileo, Randy Cooper

Jan 2008:
A year ago this month was the official launch of this subsite. It is now about 15 months that I have been modeling again and it has been quite the experience. I am very glad to be back!

I finished off six kits and brought five more close to completion while doing minor work on several others still. I finished the last work of the year on Christmas night. Work will resume sometime around the first weekend of January.

I have to review the master list and figure which of the pipelines to bring back. I Need the fiber optic wire most primarily. I should have the cash by the end of January.

There are 3 vinyl kits, 3-5 kits for lights, 3-5 plastic kits, two 2001 kits will be their own line of work, 3 - 4 resin statues also need some work. So, no predictions yet for this coming year

I got the three vinyl kits in under the 2007 wire after all. I began them at 071231.19 and continued that session until 080101.02.

Not having a computer for the last month has really pushed the model making to the forefront. It's been too cold to hang out in my room and too boring in the living room to do anything else, so the models have taken a rare precedent.

I'm glad to have gotten so much work done on them as I have. It would otherwise have been awhile before I got them to where they now are.

Dec 2007:
A year ago I was deducing the basic layout of this site. I've recently had a few kits demanding that I rethink the page layout as there are so many pictures on a single page that it must be very difficult for folk w/ the older modems to load those pages. That includes the main Kit page as that is now sitting at 60+ kits, with about 40k per rollover. Changes will be implemented over the coming months.

At the beginning of November, I had ten kits in active progress. By the end of November, I had ten kits in active progress. Just kidding! Well, not the same kits at least! A couple finished up and the rest are all lined up for mowing down.

The D-7's finished within a week of each other; putty work on one of the resin characters finished; a few kits came in needing immediate assessment, work and storage treatment; the airbrush didn't quite come online, though the line got much longer waiting for its' services. Look to December for the airbrush work and then the new year for fiber optics!

Cutting to the head of the work line was the US Nuke Platform from Mad Dog Resin! Also newly arrived, the Lunar Models Discovery (1994) and the Captain Cardboard EVAPod!

Next up is to get some fiber optics and get back into the electronics thing. Starting with the Falcon, moving onto the Big E, Galileo, K-7 and etc.

The AMT D-7 was the last plastic kit I buy for awhile, excepting for the pending Viper release which I will be getting a few of.

Incoming kits: The CMK - AMK combo.

Upcoming purchases: Randy Cooper's Avenger and CC's Aries for the Spring; the TImeslip Frech Nuke Platform as well.

Long term: CC is also releasing an Orion Liner sometime after the current round of projects comes to a conclusion. There will likely be other CC kits as well. The Space Station is a promise!

Nov 2007:
A year ago, this site began to hatch. January is the official anniversary.

The D-7 dominated October as long curing times were invoked to help finish off the finish. The Romulan BoP got some love in the form of a massive priming and sanding routine.

I got some clay work in as well with China 05. Working with the clay was great fun, but it had a lot of cracking issues that made the piece difficult to complete. I built a suit and the geisha hairdo as well. I was able to save some parts, but putty is the new suit ingredient.

At the beginning of the month, I was thinking that as soon as I finished off the D-7 (it has no storage space so must be done before anything else), that I would have some time to airbrush several characters and call them done. Well, three of them had very fast fixes and went fast. The others however... Not so fast.

In other news, I also cleaned all, and consolidated some, model boxes. All loose parts were baggied per subject per box. Now things are much nicer in all regards.

I read a process-overview by the guy who painted the TMP 1701 and he therein says that he would do base spraying and the modelers would go in and sand the area smooth, more paint, more sanding, layer after layer before putting down the dozens of top coats. So I am going in the right direction in that regard. I frequently put down a dozen primer layers all the time.

All told, I now have directly in front of me six Federation ships, eight resin characters, four vinyl kits, and a resin D-7... This list does not contain the severely Long Term Projects now on hold. This is just the immediate batch in front of me for standard airbrush-putty-sculpt-finish work!

Once I get some fiber optics, that opens a whole other pipeline of operations all its own! It was finally time to order some!

Oct 2007:
Early in September, the Imperial Base had an emergency which tied up a couple weekends of resin character work. Last weekend I acquired Atomic CIty's D-7 and that dominated the last two weeks of work. While waiting for paint to dry on that, I dug into a few other kits to pass the time efficiently.

A number of kits have gotten to the airbrush stage and sit waiting for the slackers to catch up. This should happen relatively soon. Then, at least half a dozen kits will go 'red' in the kit list.

So whent he D-7 finishes, I finish off the 2-3 character mockups with putty and sanding. They then join the 3-4 kits that are waiting for the airbrush and all get knocked off in a nice row. After that? We'll see. I've got a few different production lines I can ramp up -vinyl, plastic, electronics, lighting and even a primer run.

I think knocking off some of the older ones in line is beter, so electronics / lighting is likely the next line. Though I could do some minor work on the vinyl line to get them up to spec... I've still got a few weeks to think.

Once the EVA Pod comes in, that will put aside all other work for a short time. The Pod is an exceptionally long-term project to get it perfect... So some initial work surfacing and maybe a basic primer pass...

Also, I got many more pictures for many kits posted. I thought I got them all, but just discovered that there are still some gaps. A number of other kits have outdated or no pix whatsoever! Getting there. I'll jinx myself and say they will be all updated for New Years. Maybe I'll come up with a better navigation interface...

Lastly, it was about this time last year, Sept 20th, that I picked up my first Falcon in over a decade-and-a-half of model-hiatus time. Since then, I'm on to 59 kits, 20 something of which are done, a dozen are in progress and the rest are on hold.

So, it hasn't quite been one-kit-a-week, but that would have been excessive. But one kit every two weeks still seems like a hefty amount!

Every one of them has been a great learning experience and taught me something which makes the next kit all that much better a build. I look forward to many more years of happy modeling!

Sept 2007:
Weekend work has become the standard.

I'm working on several resin characters simultaneously. As any one of them finishes up with a stage, it goes on hold until the next kit and the last in the batch join the first, whereupon they get reviewed for final touches and go to the next full stage of work. They should all be airbrushable by early Sept, finishing them by the end of the month.

Got a big supply of leds for cheap. 100, 5mm white leds for @ $10. And 7 sets of 15, 3mm colors for another $10. All with resistors. Now, I'm looking to get some fiber optic at last, in which case, I can finish off some of the older kits that are coming up on their one-year purchase anniversary.

This bulk purchase of leds should last throughout most of the current lighting. The colors will be used sparingly for now to get a handle on them.

- - - -

Last year when I bought the PL 1701 Refit, I thought 'that's a lot of money for a single kit'. When I started pursuing Tamiya's CVN-65, the average ebay price was the most I could ever imagine paying for a kit.

When I bulk purchased the 2nd PL 1701, Atomic City's Mercury Capsule, Heller's Space Station and Revell's Space Shuttle akk in one go, I thought 'that was a massive amount of money to spend, only justified by the fact that I got 4 models and a minor discount.

Having then discovered the work over at Atomic City, I first saw the 6" EVA Pod. I thought 'Jeez! For that price, never!' Or the Aries-1B, 'Beautiful work, but not a chance! Far too much cash to justify for a single kit!'

Then I came across the D-7 A.C. now offers which changed everything. Suddenly, big money seems reasonable! And the D-7 plus the Aries makes perfect sense. Rounding that off with the Pod ain't so bad a stretch either.

However, to blow all that away, A.C. announced a limited run of the XD-1 Command Module from the eleven-foot model they make! You get: the ball, interior flight deck, interior hanger bay, 3 pods, the collar and spine mount! How could this be anything other than my next purchase?

Atomic City's work is pure craftsmanship! Exquisite, the level of quality is beyond words and limited to simple, neolithic expressions of astonishment and wonder.

In site news, I began getting the 2nd round of photo posting going on the site, with minor page updates here and there

Aug 2007:
Got back into things w/ the purchase of some thinner, marblex, putty and some plastruc...

Towards the end of June and into the front of July I pulled out all the resin characters that have been on hold and did some simultaneous work on all.

First up was the soapy bath. This seemed to have helped as there were no problems with the primer eating up the surface as has happened in the past (except for one...). This was followed by 8 cans of primer. Black, then a white coat. Any that needed the dremel got it all at once.

Assembly began on most, though a couple were put aside for later. Got some putty going on all of them, but more will be needed before the next round of primer.

Spent some time working on MedBay as well. Wasn't finished by the end of July as I hoped. The more I look at it, the more I realized that a good amount of effort will be needed to bring it home.

And I ordered a few more vinyl kits for when I finish with the current resin and electronics load. A motorcycle accident killed the first full week of potential work this month. Then I was back on contract at a real job by mid-month. Still, got some work going: weekends, mostly.

July 2007:
As of June 15th, I was officially on a fiscally imposed production hiatus. (It's just as well as I had to get some digital work done for a few weeks -inc. some 3d modeling.)

June was, therefore, a relatively slow month. Though, I did finish off the Imperial Base, made significant strides on the the Med Bay, Falcon Cutaway and basic layout of the Galileo and its' accompanying diorama.

I had thought I'd get far more heavy into the lighting this month. However, with the failure of the fishing line to even come close to fiber optic quality, all my advanced work went on hold.

I did however finally (!) come across a seller of reasonably priced fiber optics out in Ohio. As this still requires more than a few bucks in cash, and as I am between job contracts, this purchase is pending. So late-July or August should see some major fiber optic work at long last!

In the meantime, I concentrated on regular lighting work, though I ran low on those supplies as well, slowing things further (heat shrink and resistors mostly). This kicked me back to doing minor gluing and sorting on several other kits and diorama.

However, as stated in last month's post, my only overriding goal this month was to update all the photos for all the kits! And this took a major effort to get things sorted!

Additionally, the photo reference section I mentioned back in May is still in the works (though the navbar has now been prepared)! I have generated quite a lot of pix for many kits. The Star Wars model exhibit the other month was invaluable!

The bad/sad thing about gathering first hand photo reference is this: At the time, you are quite sure that you are getting lots of, if not complete coverage and likely have more than enough than you need. (And then your card runs out of storage and you are forced to go with what you got afterall).

It is only later, as you are sorting through your pix, that you discover the gaps in your coverage. And too often, it is too late to get more -the SW exhibit being a prime example. However in the case of the Mercury capsule, I am quite set as it is a permanent exhibit. You win some and you lose some. And having more camera cards than you think you need is always a benefit!

June 2007:
Dug into some new kits and knocked some others off: Ming, two China's, Blue Ice, Poppa Doc, Pris and T-Rex are complete!

Nearly finished off the Space Shuttle in one go. Got a lot of the Mercury capsule finished and generally wrapped up the resin figure work in anticipation of getting back into electronics that've been on hold for some time now.

I need to catch up on some dioramas this coming month. I've let them go long enough in some cases. For the most part they simply require some wiring to knock them off. Following that, I expect to get into some initial resin/dremel work on several figures later in the month.

My main goal this coming month is to make sure all kits have updated photos! There are too many entries with outdated pictures. In numerous cases there are no pix at all! This must cease now.

May 2007:
Worked like a madman this month w/ literally no time for myself until the last week. However, I did get some things done...

I amassed just about all the electronics I need to do all that I need done.
CCF tubes, LED's, EL wire, photon and audio switches(!) with a potential, and quite cheap, fiber optic substitute as found in monowire fishing line.

A notion that quite surprised me was that the lead model maker at the post house I worked at this month simply sends requests off to purchasing where it is they who hunt it (fiber optics, in this case) down.

Oh well... Next time.

Ming's 'missing parts' came in, so he was first up no matter what else there was, as he's been waiting the longest now and will be quick.

So, the above paragraph was last week's notion and not completely as I thought. First thing I did w/ my time was dividing all the major light components to the dioramas and kits that clearly needed specifics. Have some leftovers for later, which is nice. Need more leds.

Also, look for a germinating photo reference section soon.

Also, Also: Got more kits.
This will be it for some time now as I get the older ones out of the way.

Apr 2007:
Painting was the thing for this month. Well, not really...

While a couple more resin kits just came in that will need the dremel, I had plenty of time to get back to paint, sort of...

Immediately upon firing up the airbrush, I discovered that the thinner I had was turning the paint into blobs of gum. It took a couple hours to clean the airbrush out and a couple jars of paint to test and confirm this oddness.

Needing to attend to many other events in my life, everything got packed away for a couple weeks. It was not until St. Patricks' that I got the brush going again. By that point, the month was mostly over with already and it was time to concentrate on a number of other necessities.

Nevertheless, the brush wasn't working all that well, though a gravity trick I tried did get some blotching going on. More paint wound up on my hands than on the kit.

Gave it another go a week later at which point the brush wasn't accepting any liquid whatsoever. The needle is soaking in thinner for at least a week now. I'm starting a new job w/ massive hours for April, so we'll see when I've got the time for airbrushing again.

Also, I gathered more EL and LED's into the fold along with several other wall warts. Also getting into cold cathode tubes in a major way -they are going to look great! I'm still having a terrible time finding fiber optic cable though.

Everyone is selling digital fiber optic cable for audio or computer systems. When I do find the kind I'm looking for, it's either in kilometer long spools costing hundreds of dollars or it's hair-strand-thin, built into toys, and less than a foot long!

You'd think Los Angeles would have the stuff coming out of its ears with the film industry here, but not that I've been able to find so far! I'll be checking with the model department at work over the next couple weeks. I expect to resolve this long standing issue then.

Finally, I had amassed quite a collection of links that I was going to post. The unfortunate thing was that I found some malware on my machine. As I didn't feel that I could trust my browser any longer with my genuinely important links, I didn't save the bookmarks at all. So, I'll be rebuilding those over the next months. There's a number of good ones I am unlikely to ever find again. Regrettable.

Mar 2007:
Wow. 36 kits, 6 dioramae, nearly 1,000 photos(!) and thousands upon thousands of words -all updated in one go! It took several, full, 10 hour days just to get the basics laid out. Even more to revise and proof what was there. It's no wonder I didn't get as much kit work done this past month as the previous months!

I hadn't realized the content was so incomplete in some cases! I hadn't taken one single picture of the Swordfish kit until after I'd put all this together... A number of complete kits were missing final pictures completely, and several others had no shots taken during their entire build!

I used speak wreck ignition for text, Izzy knot too grate thesis daze... But it certainly did speed along inputting all the construction logs, that's certain! Simply proofing the pages was far faster than the corrections I would have to have made were it all keyed in.

Deciphering some arcane translations was certainly tough! There may be some mistakes I missed in the first round of proofing, they should get better over time as I hunt them down.

However, now that the vast bulk of the site is uploaded, the next major work on it will be revisions to the structure/content/layout. That will be some time from now, let me assure you of that! Minor work includes adding new photos and text and then it's regular maintenence from there on out.

February was otherwise the month for resin and vinyl! I had pretty much finished off all the plastic kits that I had that did not require mods, leaving me with characters to sculpt. Ming was the first one down, followed by China. Entering the fray was: China's NeuroSlammer, Pris; Mentor, Poppa Doc; Driver, Demon D.; Tech, Dune and China's former-partner-now-
turned-vicious-enemy: Blue Ice!

Until Spike and Faye back in november, I had only ever worked with standard plastic kits. Resin has been a great revelation! Lots of fun as the dremel is used on every one of them! But a few vinyl kits also started working their way into the mix lately and T-Rex, Poppa Doc and Demon are the first vinyl that I've worked on...

At first, the spare vinyl was confusing and scary as the line between cutting excess flack and essential material is unclear at best and totally imaginary at worst. Carefullness is required every step!

Vinyl, as compared to resin, sucks. To my surprise, crazy glue does not immediately hold vinyl parts -and it stays wet for up to hours later! Ultimately, it does dry and seems to be a solid bond, so that is what matters.

Another of the many reasons I'm mod'ing all these existing kits into my characters is to check various scales out. Orantia Mockup from a few months ago is a whopping 1/4 scale and stands near 14" tall! Far too huge to be practicable, but nice for that one kit. There was no way to get this kit looking like it belonged in the dark future, so I made it as a medieval/fantasy piece. A genre to consider after I get the dark-future priority down.

The first 1/8th scale kit was Santa Pris. I decided then that 1/8th probly wasn't going to cut it. Upon 1/8th Dune's arrival, I knew for certain. However, by that point, I had already ordered 1/8th Demon. So those three can hang together. There won't be any others

It also means that I need to look for those three in a larger scale. Not an easy task. Basically what I'm primarily looking for in a kit is pose and attitude. If those two criteria meet, then I'm looking at how to mod the kit into one of my guys. If not possible, or far too complicated, move on. If possible, then price is the next consideration. Some of these kits get very, very VERY expensive (all things considered). And as I am essentially going to 'destroy' them, well... Priorities have to take priority as always.

So it turns out that about 1/6th is looking like the golden number. That would however make China (at 6.5' tall w/ heels 'n' hair) just over a foot tall for the kit! -Poppa Doc too. Pretty damn huge. So I'll set the scale to them and work down from there. Perhaps somewhere in a 1/7th is gold.

Oddly enough, though the majority of these kits I've gotten have been so-called 1/6th scale, none of them is really scaled to the other, though technically they should be very close. Hey-ho.

The last two kits I'm looking to get are a Daredevil that will look great as China's arch-nemesis, The Vulture; and another Ming based on Bruce Lee. After those, it's break time.

Thought I'd get back into the airbrush this month, but between real work and these last kits coming in, there was no opportunity. But I have essentially built up a backlog of kits needing the airbrush, so once I do begin, it will be a pipeline all the way.

Next month, should things go moderately well for me, I'm looking to get back into the electronics in a major way. I got some EL products (at last) and stocked a few more LEDs and misc components such as motion and photon detectors to use as trigger switches!

Feb 2007:
Finished off ten kits this month! -and very glad to finally get them out of the way. The Robotech 3 flew faster than I could have imagined! Whereas the Cylon Raider dragged its' ass all the way to the finish line.

I now no longer have any kits that can simply be knocked off without extra mods being done to them. All the rest require lights, armature, putty or other intricacies.

With the successful mod'ing of a few resin kits into the prototypes for a series-film-franchise that I'm developing, I've ordered a few more kits to round out the main core of characters involved. They're looking sweet!

I can take my 3d character files and turn them directly into molds and masters, but it's going to be hundreds of dollars for each character. Protoyping them from pre-existing kits offers enormous advantages from a number of points of view, not least of which being financial...

More site infrastructure is down, but there is still much more to go. I've developed the basic layout for each kits' page, now it's a matter of transcribing all my notes and dropping the pix into place. Patience is still a virtue! Another update or so and I'll be caught up.

Jan 2007:
From the ages of youth to college, my hobby was model kit building. While there were a number of the same kits over time (as they broke, exploded, crashed, smashed, melted or came to meet an otherwise untimely ending), there were, overall, several dozen different kits with, in a couple cases, a couple dozen of each kit!).

The hobby was lost sometime in college due to funding deficits, though I did produce a few kits over those years. Afterwards, for many more years, I was flat broke enough to not have kits on my mind. And thus, a pastime was lost. Until recently.

This site will serve as a log of the modern day kits I build. I shall elaborate on the process for each, the techniques, lessons learned and show the end results, both good and bad. Additonally, I will offer a critique and review of the kits as well. Also shared with you wil be my research links.

If my experiences help you out, lemme know! If you have any comments on my work or pointers, lemme know them too!

Dec 2006:
Lots of pics have been taken, but not sized. Construction logs have been written, but not typed.

This site is in active construction and testing modes.
Bits and baubs will be added in chunks as they are finished.
This and that will be moved, deleted or renamed as it occurs to me.
Design tweaks will work along as we go.

Nov 2006:
After a few weeks of model making, I decided to photo doc my progress. After reading a number of kit reviews, I decided to back the photos with a written log.

This site contains the transcription from the original scrap notebook which fast ran out of pages and the subsequent replacement. I don't now know whether future logs wll go straight to web or continue to be written first. I'm a sloppy writer, but a terrible typist in recent years.

The transcription may or may not be verbatim as memories are jogged in the writing, as addendum's are made in the proofing, the grammar finesse'd, and formatting is refined.

Having been away from this 15 year hobby of mine for 15 years, it is refreshing and exhilarating to get back into it. Never in my childhood would I have had the patience to take these kits to the level now taken.

For example, while adding lights and sound and such were nothing more than childhood fantasy and imagination. These are now becoming adulthood reality.

Tom.
November 4, 2006, 7 p.m