Yesterday was a quiet day at the studio. Mary and I and the two dogs chilled working on various things. With my orders all caught up with (for now) I’m working on Mary’s annual birthday present I have done for the past 7 years. 

7 years ago she asked me to sculpt her a flower. The first one was a silver rose. Every year I come up with a different india from a dragon flower to a Lotus flower that glows all different colors of light. This year it took me a few days to come up with something new. I’ll be able to show next Friday.

I was able to work on my customer build of the Battlestar Galactica from the original 70’s TV series. I spent a lot of time reducing the part count by glueing all the parts to the fuselage I could with closing it up. Before I do that I need to light block the hull halves and place all the electronics and lighting. It’s going well. I only have two trees left with parts on them.

And then there’s that big P-51 Mustang build. I made the landing gear skits for it and placed an armour seat back and head rest in the cockpit. I made up some zinc oxide paint for the cockpit. With any luck today I’ll get the tail painted red to complete the Tuskegee look to the plane. Another week and I’ll be flying her. 

Editing in the film, “A Conversation with my Father” is going well. I work on it every night. 

Then I finish off the evening with some nice laps around my favorite race track, “SNG Raceway.”

Yesterday was spent packing and shipping the masks, and a bit more work on the P-51.

Next up, back to the TOS Battlestar Galactica. 

I’m starting a new rocket. This one is my own design using components from the V-2 rocket kit we make. Mainly the nose cone. It has a camera shroud for a 2k small camera that fits inside.

The rocket is framed up and over the next few days will be painted and readied for its first test flight in March. It’s designed for a D-E motor and can reach 600-1000 ft or more.

This is a larger alternative to the Estes Astrocam with its BT-80 body and larger V-2 nose cone. It can house a larger camera as well.

The camera I’m using has a very clear image and only costs about 40 dollars from Amazon.

This will be offered in our model rocket store soon.

What an amazing weekend. It felt so long and I worked and played hard. It started Saturday morning early with a rocket launch which was a success on many levels.

Proof positive both rockets I flew survived without a scratch.Back home safe and sound.

I followed that up with a long day in the edit bay producing and cutting the weekly update, launch report, and then Sunday Slot Car fun. 

Sunday morning the newsletter. Then some early morning radio controlled flying at our field.  That was all followed up with a long difficult editing session for our new film.

It all ended at the track with some of my favorite cars, a shot of tequila and my dog by my side wanting treats.

  I warn you this is a long one. It covers the amount of work that goes into making my rocket kits. Also my masks. The reason I thought this pertinent was due to the fact that I sometimes get criticized for my prices being too high.

Look I don’t have things mass produced in China or somewhere else so I can offer them for cheap. And the quality of the things I make is much higher. And they are all made here in the USA by a guy that has a long and colorful career in the film industry.

So this video takes you through this stuff close and personal. Believe or not I have been told by my customers on more than one occasion that my prices are too low.

I do keep them as low as I possibly can and still make a buck. I need to in order to keep this place going and my rent was just increased by 300 bucks this week. And materials, shipping, and all the rest.

Oh and I sign all the masks and resin figures too.

Video Video tomorrow. This is my Mercury Redstone. A replica of Gus Grissom’s spacecraft.  tomorrow. This is my Mercury Redstone. A replica of Guss Grisom’s space craft. We love you Gus!

I was putting hair on masks all day yesterday. These will finish Monday.

Standing at the top of the stairs to our upstairs I saw this scene.

Lots of editing today and a rocket launch. Video this weekend.

If there’s one thing I have learned from 57 years of Star Trek, it would be that life is an adventure. I was 14 when I first watched Star Trek in 1966.

I never would have thought that at age 70 (71 next month) I’d still be watching it. We have grown wonderfully old together.

I was so blessed to have worked with Gene and the original crew and the Next Gen crew too. What an amazing journey that still continues.

Yesterday was spent entirely on mask production. And again I shot video of every single step. A lot of hard work goes into hand crafting masks.

I dremeled the bubbles off the rubber, cut the eyes and mouth open. Dremeled smooth the eye openings and mouth. Filled bubbles with cabopatch and painted the masks.

I straightened out and steamed the crepe hair. Hackle and comb the hair and started the process of laying it on the masks. 

When I got home I spent another 2 hours in the edit bay working on our new film. It is more than half rough cut. Very full day.

Please click on the pictures for the full size image.