Life in Plastic (Styrene, specifically)

Big ol' snap-tite

Anyone who works at home knows about the distractions and interruptions that constantly arise. Had one of those today, but it was expected. Molly and I went plastic shed shopping last night and this morning our new building arrived. Un-assembled. But it was only eight pieces and no glue or special tools were required.

So I lost about 25 minutes figuring, sliding, pounding, rechecking the instructions...

Now we've got a big box to put our yard stuff in. Have to decide yet where to put it. The current central location will not work at all for the canine (on the left) that has to chase tennis balls.

scratch hunt

With silver paint being applied to the three Saabs at the moment, I decided to hose some on the ol' big-wing as well.

Nothing reveals surface flaws like a coat of silver. Actually I was pleasantly surprised with how little of seriousness I found. Of course there are going to be scratches on a project like this. Those areas got a squirt of thick primer and will be sanded smooth yet again.

A bigger setback was the case of the nose. It's a resin piece from the windscreen forward and I stuck it on a long time ago. Don't know what I used to align it originally, but examining it now, I found it veering noticeably (to me) to the left. Sitting her on a sheet of graph paper confirmed this. Since I don't plan to do another of these things, I think the one I do produce should be as good as I can make it. That meant hacking into the joint with a razor saw and snapping the front end off and re-setting it correctly. Got a mess to deal with there at the moment, but big-wing does continue to inch forward.

Saab Trio

These three have finally been fitted to stands.

All Saabs of some description and all 1/72nd Heller kits. The Draken's nose cone vanished, but I had a spare Hasegawa piece. Stuck that on and the nose look decidedly short. So...broke it off again, extended it and filled the gap with epoxy putty. That looks better.

Eventually they'll join that J.21 seen around here earlier. To be followed, of course, by a Viggen and a Gripen. (But those are still stuck on their sprues.)

"That was sweet!!"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNJHqgTKWCg&feature=related

 

Love to see/hear airplane exuberence -- not my own.

Omission oops.

So what's wrong with this picture?

Usually I don't catch this sort of thing until the model is gone. Happily, the decals reappeared (buried and forgotten under stuff) while the model was still on hand.

That's more like it. Now she's ready to ship. I guess this is evidence that my audience knows as little about this subject as I do. Or were you just being polite?

 

Piece delivered

I posted this past Feb.1 that I would be devoting more time to two-dimensional work than I have previously. Kinda jumped the gun on that wishful statement. Only yesterday finished my second drawing for the year. Delivered it today to a happy client. Meet Dakota the black german shepherd.

Had to use four separate pictures to do this guy. Not at all the way I like to work, but I'm assured it looks just like him. That's the important thing. 9 X 12 colored pencil on Stonehenge paper.

To see more like this, visit my Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1011065853040.1539.1716829168

Veggie patch

Yesterday was cloudy, breezy and not stifling, so I paid an overdue visit to the garden. Natural hothouse conditions of late made everyone but me happy. Weeds especially. Well folks...they never knew what hit them.

And look at this.

Getting a little excited now. Dreaming of a big BLT.