Happy New Year!

With only a few more hours to go til midnite, I just wanted to wish my readers ;-) the Happiest and Healthiest of New Years!

Pioneer WIP

Work has been slow on my Pioneer in 1:24 scale. I have a bad habit of doing the skin first and then thinking about the foundation. So in trying to backtrack there is quite a bit of Aves Apoxie in there. But it's working and maybe someday I'll learn. ;-)

As of now I added the top to the probe as well as that little engine made from two sizes of styrene rod and some more Aves to create the bell. It's primed to check for gaps and uneven places in the styrene - I used 0.01 styrene for this build so it was pretty flimsy.

Up next will be to saw off the metal tube used for a place for the stand, and to build the little rockets on the bottom. The hole in the side will also be filled with Microscale Kristal Klear to mimic the lens of the camera.

After that will be the hopefully not to difficult job of masking and painiting. (HA) The micrometeorite detector will go on last. Stay tuned...

New In-Box Review: Dunkleosteus

This is a newly released kit from Paleocraft Models. Its the Devonian terror Dunklosteus who swam the prehistoric waters 370-360 million years ago. This placoderm weighed in at a ton, and measured close to 20 ft. long, like a killer whale of his day. They died off at the transition betwen the Devonian and the Carboniferous and left no descendents. Fossils of this monster have been found in North America, Poland, Belgium and Morocco.

The Dunkleosteus kit measures in at 15.5 inches long which works out to about a 1:20th scale. The kit comes in 7 pieces: the body, the lower jaw and four fins. A resin coral reef and wooden bases completes the picture. As typical with any Paleocraft kit it is an excellent work of sculptor Sean Cooper. The model is in a cream color odorless resin, and shows absolutely no bubbles and only the minimum of seams. Cleanup should be completed in no time. The only down side I had to my kit was that despite Sean's excellent job of wrapping and packing the model for shipment the last 5cm of the tail was snapped off. Looking closely there was a huge bubble that formed in the resin in the area and as a matter of fact the whole tip was hollow. But it snapped off cleanly and it should be quick work to fill the bubble and pin the tail back on. Pics show the kit and the snapped off area.

Astronomy - Finding Uranus

Yeah, I like astronomy too, tho I haven't been doing much since my son was born. I was out the other night doing a sky tour for people at the NJAA Observatory and we looked at Uranus. In another forum there was guys having a hard time finding the planet so I made these maps.
The first map is a wide shot showing it's position.
The 2nd. is a closeup of where it is in the little asteriem.
The 3rd is where it will be in Nov. Good luck

A new build - Pioneer 1

Many times while building Rea space models, there just aren't enought kits produced out there. So what can you do? Make your own of course.

I was looking for something fairly simple to build and I decided upon Pioneeer 1.
On October 11, 1958 the Pioneer 1 Lunar Probe was launched on a Thor-Able rocket on a mission to fly by the moon. A programming error in the Pioneer 1 launch vehicle upper stage resulted in Pioneer 1 being given insufficient velocity to escape the Earth's gravitational field. Although Pionner 1 newer reached lunar orbit, it was not a complete failure. In fact it did reach an altitude of 113854 km above Earth (A record at that time) and provided data on the extent of the Earth's radiation belts. The vehicle reentered over the Pacific Ocean 2 days later.

New Ware has a kit of a Thor Able if you would like to build one. Also my friend Barry D. has an article on build on of the Thor Able family of rockets.

But anyway lets build. I started off by using the card model of it from Niels Paper Models as a template for building it in plastic. First thing I did was take the card model printout which was 1:6 scale and reduced it to the "standard" 1:24 scale. Thats makes for a small model, but I likie to have my models in the same scale. Then a quick trip to the hardware store for a few "For Sale" signs the source of the thin (0.010) plastic and I was ready to go. Here's some pics of the WIP. I'll have more as the build progresses. The black dot on the side will be the TV camera that was installed on the craft. I've yet to install a "lens."

New Kits

As I mentioned in my last post I have been on a buying spree as far as models are concerned. It started at the IPMA Nationals in Virginia Beach and it continues to present. But one sidebar here while I was looking to pack some models to take to the show I realized that I built only one model this year. So I made a resolution with myself that I could build one every two months at least! Lets see what happens.
But in any event, at the Nats, I was able to pick up an Anigrand A-12 Avenger 2 and an alien bust with pedestal.
Getting back home I had two boxes waiting for me. a previously ordered Star Wars Clone Battleship, and a 1:20th scale Rader Studios Apatosaur, and Brachylophosaurus . I also was able to buy for my birthday a kit I've wanted since seeing it on it's release a number of years ago - Paleocrafts' Tar Pit Scene. Many modelers remember the old Aurora line of Prehistoric scenes. Inthat collection was a Tarpit, pit a Wooley Rhino half submerged in the tar and a vulture waiting for it's demise. Well, someone commissioned tyerrific artist Sean Cooper to do an updated accurate model o f the scene. In it he has a stuck in the tar Colombian Mammoth and a dire Wolf and Sabertooth cat fighting over the victim. It also includes a base and tree. Once the commissioner got his sculpt he allowed Sean to kit the sculpt. Once sculpted Sean handed it over to Mike Evans at Alchemy Works to do the molding and casting.

On the sci-fi scene Fantastic Plastic has been knocking 'em dead with a number of star Wars kits (can you tell I'm a big SW geek?) including the TIE Bomber and the Escape Pod, which both arrived recently. FP also has a Sandcrawler that has just been released and I'll be picking that one up asap.

BTW, if you haven't already visited the Fantastic Plastric site. It is a must see. The owner and webmaster, Allen Ury, who is a fan of sci-fi and spacey looking x-planes and the like has a tremendous site. He's broken down his models not only into model type - x planes, real space, pop culture; but also further divides the models don't as to which time period you would have seen them (not which year the kit was released). Very cool. Grab a cup of coffee and take a look, you could quickly spend an entire evening enjoying the models.
Wish me luck on my resolution! ;-)

Gemini XII for exhibit

Hi all, Long time since I published anything here. I've been doing A LOT of buying but not too much building. But that changed last week when I needed to dfinish off a 1:24 Gemini capsule for a Buzz Aldrin exhibit at a local Observatory in NJ. It's supposed to represent the then recorded breaking EVA by Buzz. The figure of Buzz was taken from the Spacer Walkers kit by New Ware. Tomas at New Ware is a great guy, so there's no worries sending mony to the Czech republic. I felt kind of rushed doing this and didn't stop to take in progress pics. But here are a few of the images from the finished display.

A new home for our Family blogs

In an effort to simplify things, I've created a new blog to separate my hobby stuff from the family life stuff. You can see the new blog at : http://kanddshome.blogspot.com/
Of course come back here to see what I do in my spare time... ;-)

Card Star Destroyer.

Not all the time do I model in resin and styrene. For a while I had a real love affair with all the card models out there. For those that don't know card modeling is just simply a pattern on paper thats cut out, folded and glued together. This is a good way to aquire out of the norm kits, as it's much simplier to fabricate a few pages of paper than master and produce a kit in either resin or styrene.

This time I found and printed out The Imnperial star Destroyer. If you'd like to try it you can get the pages for the model here: http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~sf-papercraft/Gallery/Destroyer/Destroyer.html . Normally I would also remind you to print out the directions as some of these models can be tricky. But in this case there is practically no instructions. And you just have to wing it. The best part is that if you mess up, it's just a matter of printing out a new page and picking up where you left off. There are also plenty of websites that will give you tricks and tips to card modeling. The best one was at a sort of forum at cardmmodel.net but they moved to a new forum with a nice long url - http://www.zealot.com/index.php?page=cardmodels.net .

Originally I had planned to make this a WIP and show the build as I go, but as usual I never got around to posting and have now finished the model. So here's a few pics of the build - -

This is how it comes. You then have to cut it out. I found using an an E-xacto knife is the most accurate way.

The designer actually added a recessed part where Leia's craft was drawn into after capture.

Here the superstructure starts to go in. This part got a little complicated without the instructions.

This is the aft section just before the engines go on...

I'll have the final image up later...

Need A Cruise?

Next time you're ready for a cruise, think of my buddy Tom Papanier. He and his wife are Cruise Planners. Take a look at their website here - http://www.newyorkcruiseplanner.com/ .
Let them know I sent ya... ;-)

Peter's 6th

Though Peter's party was weeks ago, his scheduled Bowling Party was today. So over to Rabs Country Lanes. The party starts off in a nice little party room where the kids get their bowling shoes and then off to the lanes we go. Our party took over four of the lanes and with bumper guards firmly in place the slow motion bowling began. ;-)

One of the moves known only to 6 year olds is the "wishing the ball would move over" head lean.

After an hour we all go back to the room have have pizza, soda, and then some birthday cake. All in all it was a very nice day!

Fantastic Plastic 1:72 Snowspeeder in box review

There was a large envelope waiting for me when I got home from work this evening. It was Fantastic Plastics snowspeeder.
The first thing I noticed was yes, this ship is small. But anyone reading about it already knew that. The next thing I noticed was that there was a little more flash and pour stubs than I've seen in other FP kits. But no problem, flash and pour spouts don't scare me. But there are a good number on tiny parts and I would go thru and make a parts inventory so something needed doesn't get thrown away as flash or as part of a stub. The kit is actually very nice. The parts are crisp where they need to be - rounded parts are as such and straight edges are crisp and straight. And a lot of detail was packed into this little 2.75 inch ship. For example all the little "tubes" around the two main thruster nozzles are well done and crisp despite being only 3mm long. The same clean lines are found in the rear heat dispersion fins and the similar fins in the front. The two pilots are terrific. The clear resin cockpit is what it is, altho it's not as cloudy as some I've seen. After polishing and a few dips in Future it should be pretty respectable. There are options for making the air brakes open or closed. This gives a chance to make an interesting dio if you bought more than one. I only have one right now but am thinking of getting another. The decals were done by JBOT and are well done. The decals also come wioth a two sided color page showing placement of them. Nice touch for these little decals!

Two sections do stand out a little. The laser cannons are well represented and the barrel is straight. But in mine, while it IS straight it is a little flexible. So I guess you could cut the business end off (which is well done) and substitute a thin aluminum rod(s) for the cannon barrels. The other thing I noticed was the converters. In the center are supposed to be spaces. They are there but there are only 6 of them. Going to images there are more - I didn't bother to count them, but just suffice to say there are more. I'll go out on a limb and say it is represented this way just as a matter of fitting as much detail as human fingers can fit into a 4 mm space and not lose mold rubber in there. I guess if someone wanted to cut out that section - the forward and aft parts are good - they could subsititue a similar sized tube and scribe "more" of these spaces in to the center of the converter. With the one I have I'm not going to do that; my eyes are not that good and I would spend more time scribing these tiny things then it would take to build, paint and weather the craft.

The last thing that one notices is the harpoon. Looking down into the muzzle the 2 barrels are off set in an 8 oclock/2 oclock postions. That looks strange. So I go online looking and see that there are 2 barrels indeed, and the larger one is directly above the smaller one. Then I see an image from the SSM site and while that part of the ship isn't highlighted it does look like they are offset. Okay, so now I take out the DVD and start going thru the battle scene. Yes, as usual there is no canon placement of the harpoon barrels. ILM modelers must just have thrown these harpoons together. One snowspeeder as it leaves the base has the harpoon barrels straight up and down but the small barrel is one top and a space in between them. Other's are straight up and down with the larger barrel on top and a space inbetween. Wedge and Zev Senesca's (Rogue Two) harpoons appear offset. Finally Luke's harpoon is straight up and down with the larger one on top, but his has this rectagular piece of harpoon part inbetween the two barrels filling the space. Sheesh. So if you want Wedge's or Zev's ship just install the harpoon. If you want any of the others just cut the barrels off and rotate them into the postion that best represents the T-47 that you want.
All in all I give it a thumbs up. Thanks for producing this Allen!

Rader Studios Baryonyx OOB review

A white box was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday, and when I saw the return label was from Jon Rader Studios, my heart sank. For even tho Jon had marked the box "fragile" in a number of spots the USPS put this box thru the grinder. Almost every edge showed signs of being crushed and one seam had actually split open. But after I opened it, enuff peanuts had remained inside and with the ample amounts of bubble wrap all the pieces were intact! Whew!

The Baryonyx comes in 7 pieces of white odorless resin. The detail is terrific. The pour stumps have mostly been removed, and there is no evidence of their being any flash. Only it's hands, the very end of it's tail, and one leg show faint seam lines. The spines on his back are all there and only the tip one claw on one hand and the tip one claw on one foot was missing. No big deal replacing those with a tiny bit of Aves. Cleanup is going to take only a few quick minutes and once pinned, the joints are only going to need a tiny bit of putty to make them disappear. (Image is from Rader Studios)

Baryonyx (pronounced BAYR-ee-ON-iks) is an early Cretaceous theropod that roamed the Alluvial plains and river deltas of what is now England. It was about 20 feet (6.1 metres) long and probably weighed over 2 tons. Baryonyx had a long crocodilian shaped head and is known to have eaten fish as a fossilized meal containing fish remains was found in its stomach - and was for a long time the only known fish-eating dinosaur. It was found with a huge (1 ft.) claw. It is not certain if this claw was attached to the front or rear feet. It is possible that Baryonyx used this claw to hook fish out of water, while hunting on riverbanks. In any case, Baryonyx was named for this claw, Baryonyx means "heavy claw".

My final verdict is definitely two thumbs up for this kit. I too wasn't too jazzed about the meat hanging from his mouth. But once I saw the whole kit in person it's not obtrusive, and adds some "story" to the kit. Also, it's small so depending on how you paint it you could make it almost disppear if you wanted to. I'll say Baryonyx it's a must for dinosaur fans hobby bench. My only problem will be should I paint it a subdued or a Luis Rey style color.

Barking Mad Bust OOB Review

My Barking Mad bust arrived yesterday from Charlie Dunton and Mad Dog Resin. Wow what a kit. It comes in white, non odorous resin. The kit has 6 pieces - the head/torso, two arms and two hands. The base makes the 6th piece.
I couldn't find one bubble nor one obvious seam line. The only pour stubs visible on the bottom of the torso have been reduced to two small raised areas that are easily sanded off with a fine sanding stick.. The skulls on the base has tiny "bumps" on them that look like they should be there - dirt or moss. But could easily be sanded off if you want them smooth. The rest of the kit is imaculate. The detail of the face and hands are great and dry fitting the parts - arms to shoulders and hands to arms will fit with the tiniest piece of putty to hide the seam.
Overall I recommend this kit to any werewolf/ wolfman fans and even if your not, this is a good one to have to start your howling facination!

Thoughts on Recasting

In the scale model world, Recasting is taking someone elses work, making a cheap, inferior copy, passing it off and selling it as your own - which is just wrong. In certain modeling genres recasting is rampant.

There's not a week goes by over at The Clubhouse - a mostly garage kit figure forum - that there isn't an announcement that someones work has been copied and the recaster is selling it as his own.
Today, you can hardly trust any figure kits you see on Ebay anymore, especially if they originate from SE Asia (but it is certainly not limited to that region). Some recasters even have the nerve to say in the auction text that it is a recast. Even if it's not mentioned, you need to do a little homework before buying. Ask questiuons in places like The Clubhouse. Look around on the net; If other places are selling the kit for $100 then the guy selling on ebay for $25 is most likely a recaster.

It's also detrimental to the hobby as it kills the producers incentive to make new kits. There are quite a few garage kit producers that havequit the business because they just can't compete with their own kit. They need to charge $100 for it, and some guy sitting it Thailand (which seems like the recasting capital) is selling a bogus copy of the kit for $25.

We have to stand firm and not give in to buying recasts of kits we just can't afford or are out of production. If you can't afford it - you can't afford it. Is it right to buy something out of the back of a truck just beause you can afford to buy it in the store? No.
If it's out of production there's always a chance that they will reintroduce it. Talk to the producer, if there's enough interest he may bring it back. Being out of production doesn't give a recaster the right to make an unauthorized copy and sell it.
We can't say we won't support recasters, unless they have something really want. That just doesn't work.

In my Links column, there is a link to a Recasters FAQ. Everyone needs to read it and stand firm against these thieves.

Dance Recital?

A few weeks ago when my son's school schedule came out for the month, we noticed a dance recital was planned for the end of January. What could that be we wondered? Not once did Pete ever mention he was dancing.

The day came and Deb and I go off to school where we met up with a number of other parents. The teachers move us into the gym, where we see the kids.

The show begins by them doing a number of exercises to limber up. Okay I thought this is going to be a glorified PT class set to music. But nope. Once they finish stretching they line up ala chorus line and the music begins. But before that the dance instructor lets us know that this is a dance routine from Christmas that the kids did for the rest f the school. Rather than coming up with a new routine, she felt it easier for them to dance the Christmas dance.

They do 3 routines and each time a new line takes the front so I guess all the parents have a good shot of their kid in the front row. Finally once the dancing was over they all went thru a gymnastics routine where they bounce on a trampoline then a few tumbles, and finally a gallop around the gym. It all ends up with them saying goodbye to us and then lining up and back to the classroom. All in all it was pretty cute. enjoy the pics -

My Band Dayz and Project 19 Benefit

Hi,

It was prolly more than 20 years ago when a bunch of guys (me included) from the neighborhood started goofing around in the rock/heavy metal band scene. From there is became sorta serious for some and very serious for others. Other guys from New Dorp High School band classes also formed bands. During it's heyday in the late 70's -early 80's there was prolly 12-15 bands playing around city. We were all friends and even when the lineups changed we all had a good time.

Fast forward to last year (2007) when former band mate Steve Line had the idea of getting everyone, or as many of the guys as he could track down, together for a reunion. He did a tremendous job and managed to get about 25 of us to meet up at Coles Dockside restaurant. It was a very nice place with good food. But it wasn't about the food, but the guys that many of us - me included - hadn't seen each other in years. I got to see everyone again including Tommy Papanier who was a very good friend while we were kids. Towards the end of my "career" playing music we were in different bands and we slowly lost contact with each other. Thanks to Steve we found out that we live only a few dozen blocks from each other.

I was also surprised (I don't know why) to learn that I was pretty much the only guy who had given up music. Everyone was either still playing or was in some other aspect of the music industry - one guy had a few albums under his belt! During the evening Steve unveiled another idea he had. This was to put everyone together on one stage for one big benefit concert. Plans quickly progressed. Since I hadn't played in all that time I had to decline the invitation to play in the benefit (tho I would have loved to do it!). Ever since the reunion I've been thinking of buying another guitar and amp and having some fun. Who knows... maybe I'll be asked again somewhere down the line.

Forward again to early this year (2008). Steve, true to his word, has gotten the guys together in Project 19 for a benefit concert. They will be performing at the College of Staten Island, Concert Hall, 2800 Victory Blvd., Staten Island NY. The monies from the benefit concert will go towards Nalitt Institute for Cancer and Blood Related Diseases. Call 718-982-2787 for tickets.

I urge anyone in the NY/NJ metro area to make the call and get tickets.

If you are not local but would still like to donate - checks should be made payable to Staten Island University Hospital Systems Inc. (Memo section on check: Nalitt Fundraiser 2008) 256-C Mason Ave., Staten Island, NY 10305-3498.

This is my first posting so I'll start off by saying hi, while I fgure out how all this works.