I really appreciate that Adam Savage is a scale modeller. There aren’t many “celebrities” that you can point to who build models, or at least admit in public to doing so. Of course, Savage was a prop builder at Lucasfilm so it makes sense that he would probably also build models in his spare time, but it’s such a rare admission that any mention of it is noteworthy. In saying all this, I just want to post this fascinating scratch build he recently did showcasing many of the techniques he used at Lucasfilm.
Quiet Human – Leader to the Starry Skies (FREEBIE)
I can’t claim to know much of anything about Quiet Human but I stumbled upon this album today and liked what I heard – quiet, gentle, acoustic-ish progressive rock. I wanted to know more and found their Bandcamp page where I checked out samples of their other music… which left me profoundly confused. Everything else they’ve done is death metal. And then there’s this album that hearkens back to progressive rock of the 70s, with clean singing and everything. I’m sure they are proud of everything they’ve done, but come on, death metal is a crowded genre and it’s much of it is very samey, but Leader seems like it’s the start of something pretty special even among progressive rock. Give it a listen below (and if you like it, grab the album for free from Bandcamp.)
“Was it a farm smell?”
Refocusing, or maybe really defocusing
Alas, things change. The whole idea of this site was simply to be a place to show progress on models I’m working on. And that’s mostly because I found it so helpful to find others who’d worked on something I’m considering, thinking that maybe I could help someone else out. The problem is that I build slowly. Very slowly. Kind of like how I read books – sloooowly. I like to say that I “savor the process” and while that might sound silly, it really is true. I don’t rush, or I try not to, in general, because once something’s done, it’s done, and even revisiting it won’t be the same. But at the same time, I realize that following along with someone who isn’t rushing is not the most engaging experience, and it’s one I think we’ve all dealt with. I know I’ve looked up a particular kit and found a great build log… only to find that it stopped halfway through. I don’t follow blogs like I used to so I have to make a conscious effort to revisit that site to see if more has happened since the last time (more often than not, that answer is “no.”) The idea of “regular” blogging again has been bugging me since I started this site some time ago and I contemplated starting a different blog. And I like this particular domain a lot and it seemed silly to create another site with a new name that I probably won’t like as much. So only made sense to change the focus of this site from just models to whatever I feel like. If models bore you, well, I’ll have posts about music, or news, or just whatever dumb crap I feel like spewing about. And maybe I’ll post more often than once every six months or so.
Weird watch of the day
Pegasus 1/48 scale Martian War Machine, part 2
I opted to fill in the rotatable neck “flange” so that the body would be perfectly smooth and less toy-like, as well as the indented mount area on the bottom of the ship. This was my first time messing with the “super glue and baking soda” method of filling and I have to say it works pretty awesome. So much faster than typical filler.
Continue reading “Pegasus 1/48 scale Martian War Machine, part 2”
Pegasus 1/48 scale Martian War Machine, part 1.5
Well, that search was short: I found the ideal copper spray paint in the form of Krylon Foil Metallica Copper. Continue reading “Pegasus 1/48 scale Martian War Machine, part 1.5”
Pegasus 1/48 scale Martian War Machine, part 1
I left to pick up paint at a favorite nearby store, Andy’s Hobby Headquarters, and came home with this:
Continue reading “Pegasus 1/48 scale Martian War Machine, part 1”
Bandai 1/12 scale R2-D2, part 2
R2 has come a long way in the past couple of days. This is the beauty of these Bandai kits. With just a little extra work, they turn out amazingly well. I really haven’t put all that much time and effort into this little guy but it looks pretty impressive, IMO. That said, everything is painted and weathered, and that really makes all the difference in the world from a straight-outta-box kit. I’m almost sad this is going together so quickly, but that just means I can move on to the next thing in my stash, right?
Bandai 1/12 scale R2-D2, part 1
I needed a break from reality so I put the mostly-finished Apache aside until I can airbrush it and grabbed my neglected R2 kit. I started on this last summer and then got distracted by other kits. Now, however, I’ve dived in to finish this one before building another. We’ll see.
I don’t feel like bothering with the airbrush right now so this is all spray paint. I didn’t like the slightly yellow-tinged white plastic color and found the blue to be very plastic-y looking, so I painted them with Tamiya spray paints. White parts are getting white primer followed by glass clear while blue gets an under coat of aluminum followed by a dark metallic blue that looks reasonably close to the “real” R2. Once the blue started to dry, I went at corners and edges with a toothpick and dinged him up like we always saw in the films. It came out pretty well just from putting the dome together.
SodaRobot 