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Making springs

As part of the Cylon Raider Diorama, I needed springs.... those kind that the Mak. guys add to their armored suits to look like power cables. I'm running electrical wires across the deck and wanted to hide them in a "big ass power cable" and springs was the easiest way to get there. The problem was... the way I wanted to run electrical wires required a spring bigger than I could find easily. (Read more about this on the Cylon Raider project page) I had previously purchased a bunch of beautiful springs from HobbyLink Japan. They were relatively inexpensive, long enough for my needs, and arrived quickly. But... there was no way they were big enough to fit the large wire I was using. I search Grainger, McMaster-Carr, and a variety of spring selling online businesses. I even ordered a few off Amazon and realized I'd gone way wrong. I did [...]

By |2024-02-29T18:26:40-06:00February 29th, 2024|Tips & Tricks|0 Comments

Challenge coins and alternate recognition

At the IPMS Nationals 2023, I was lucky enough to receive an incredible award. It wasn't an official medal from the IPMS judges. Nope. I got a couple of those and they were cool, but not as cool as the real award. A poker chip. This chip was from one of the members of the Las Vegas club. They put a few of them down on their favorite creations as a way to say "good work". These are "challenge coins" as people commonly call them. Receiving one of these was a fantastic feeling. It wasn't an award that comes from rules and judges and comparison and some level of randomness that comes from a particular group of judges. It was a single person saying "Damn, this is cool". The day that coin showed up next to my diorama, Matt McDougall and I were at lunch talking about how cool it would [...]

By |2024-01-22T10:16:29-06:00January 22nd, 2024|Random thoughts|0 Comments

LED lighting basics

Thanks to a wonderfully helpful call with Barry Biediger recently, I now understand some of the fundamental basics of LED lighting. It's funny how the LED tech has made it so damn easy to wire up basic lighting that works well and lasts a long time. Because Barry is awesome, he followed up our call with some details that he was cool with me sharing with y'all. I'm also adding a few tidbits I've learned from Barry and others along the way that may help you. Wiring tips and tricks My current supplier of choice for LED lights and related accessories has been Evan Designs. They provide reasonably priced, high quality products, are quick to respond to questions, and ship fast. Recently, I picked up several different types of LEDs: Pico, Nano, Chip. I asked them how much different the amount of light each one kicks off vs. the other. They [...]

By |2024-01-11T00:58:29-06:00January 10th, 2024|Random thoughts|1 Comment

2023 Recap: A productive year!

It’s been a loooong time since I’ve done any sort of blog/social media “year in recap” of my modeling work. Like a really long time. Mainly because my productivity and completed output has been, let’s say, minimal. But 2023 was a bang up year for finishing shit. At least by my standards. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, getting on Zoloft and quieting the inner voice of harsh personal criticism was a huge reasons for the productivity. As was finding new friends in the hobby and really spending time in the SMCG Facebook group. It was a perfect storm that came together to make some good things happen. 2023 was the Year of the Diorama for me… I finished one that had been in the works for several years, started and finished another for an existing unmounted model, banged out a cool vignette in record time, and made significant [...]

By |2023-12-29T19:44:16-06:00December 29th, 2023|Modeling thoughts|0 Comments

Volunteers, change, and my give-a-fucks

Unless you've been living on a moonbase (the kind without internet access) the last few months, you know that the IPMS USA continues to step on it's own feet in a Looney Toon sorta way. Every time a new issue involving IPMS flairs up, I can't help but think about Bugs Bunny bending Elmer Fudd's shotgun barrel back on him... so when Fudd goes to shoot the Wabbit, he instead blows his own head to smithereens. We continue to hear well intentioned members of IPMS leadership ask "what would you want to see change?" and we continue to see folks offer a laundry list of potential changes. As a follow-up, there is a near total lack of feedback and/or action about those suggestions. It's become a regular cycle: Issue happens Discussion flairs up IPMS leadership has to be shoved into participating in the discussion, if they participate at all Ideas are [...]

By |2023-11-28T10:46:23-06:00November 28th, 2023|Random thoughts|2 Comments

I can’t learn anything from Sam Dwyer

I can't learn anything from Sam Dwyer. OK, that's not at all true, but bear with me while I make a point. Sam Dwyer is a well known, immensely talented scale modeler who is so revered that people call him "The Sam Dwyer". His work is amazing. Per Olav Lund won a gold medal at Scale Model Challenge for "Men and Whales" and just thinks differently than I can. As the Sprue Cutter's Union podcast guys pointed out, he painted the water on that piece to represent reflected light off the bits and particles in the water. Amazing work. Jean Diorama does some absolutely amazing work in ways that I can't believe are possible with today's materials and knowledge. This list of amazing, talented artists could go on and on. The true masters of the craft that just operate at a higher level. The Lance Armstrong's of the scale model world. [...]

By |2023-11-06T11:20:18-06:00November 5th, 2023|Random thoughts|0 Comments

Name tags, downtime, and joy factories

Let's be honest... how many of you have gone to a scale modeling convention and found yourself wandering the halls killing time after you've registered your models, put them on the tables, and finished shopping in the vendor hall? As much as I enjoyed my IPMS Nationals 23 experience, as much I as enjoy the local events, the focus is mostly operational and commerce based. Come in, register and set down models, shop, kill time, awards, home. Now, before you start screaming "I see my friends! I make new friends!" let me slow you down. Yes, I too am always excited to see the people I know and meet new people as well. Sometimes the folks I know introduce me to new folks. That's great and happens a fair amount. But unless I am completely comfortable introducing myself to random people I've not met before or unless I get an intro [...]

By |2023-11-04T21:10:26-05:00November 3rd, 2023|Random thoughts|1 Comment

Innovation, competence, and patents

Recently, Mike Rinaldi posted a video (see below) talking about his experience at Scale Model Challenge and what he thinks about the state of armor modeling. He touched on a number of issues, but the one that has caused a hubbub in the modeling community was his position that our hobby, especially armor modeling, is due for the next round of "innovation". I put innovation in quotes because he doesn't really specifically mentioned what he means by that or what specifically he's wanting to see. Not really. As a community driven product development professional, I have a LOT of things to say on this topic! But rather than bore you to tears, I'll try to summarize with some level of value. The word "innovation" The first thing I do when people start talking about innovation is to understand what they mean, or at least what they are wanting to talk about. [...]

By |2023-10-26T17:21:26-05:00October 26th, 2023|Random thoughts|1 Comment

Sprue Cutters Union Podcast Interview

I had the honor and pleasure of being invited on my favorite podcast, The Sprue Cutters Union. Great conversation and I throughly enjoyed myself. Warning: the second half was about mental health. (I also talked about my own mental health over here on this post) Here's the official description from the Sprue Cutters team: Episode 50: "Naked Nightime Tractoring" featuring Jake McKee and Matt McDougall, is available now (yup, 2 days early) In this episode, Will, Chris and Tracy are joined by Matt McDougall and Jake McKee to discuss modelling, competition, and a lot more. They also talk about mental health and s**cide. If you are struggling at the moment you can reach out for help. In the UK there is a list of regional mental health crisis numbers at NHS.uk, or you can call the Samaritans 24 hours a day on 116 123, you can text the word “SHOUT” to [...]

By |2023-10-19T18:09:38-05:00October 19th, 2023|Random thoughts|0 Comments

My first models

I've been modeling since the 8th grade (want to see a goofy picture of me at my workbench?) and for a long time I saved those models. Well, my parents saved them in their attic. After several moves as an adult, I finally decided to give up on storing these and took some (terrible) photos then tossed them. At this point in life, I really wish I still had them. Oh well. I'll share and describe them below, but a few thoughts as I look back at these models in this stage of life and modeling skill: My interests haven't really changed. Expanded, perhaps. But fundamentally, the work I was doing in high school is the same general type of stuff that fascinates me today. The techniques I was using were... rudimentary. But fundamentally, many of the same techniques from then are what I'm doing now. Just doing it slightly better. [...]

By |2023-10-10T22:43:00-05:00October 10th, 2023|Random thoughts|0 Comments
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