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.

Yesterday I managed to finish all the rocket kit orders and get them shipped.

I also did a bit of prep work on the masks and will be painting them today.

For my basket weaving I added the exhaust stacks on the P-51 and the glare shield. The exhaust stacks ate open to allow airflow from the intake scoop on the front of the Mustang cowling through the openings in the fuse covered by the exhaust stacks. This will provide additional cooling for the motor.

Today is mask work all day. Hair work tomorrow and they are done.

Yesterday was spent finishing up 5 rocket kits. What I had to do was cut all the wood parts. I know, “why don’t I have these laser cut?” The answer is simple. I only make up small batches of these kits at any given time. To pre-pay a laser cutter and buy bulk wood would be very costly for me and drive the kit costs up double what they are now. So I hand cut using templates.

Here’s a frame grab from the video. All the wood parts I had to cut for one X-15 kit.

This weeks video update shows the entire process to help my customers better understand all the hard work that goes into making these kits. Because with my costs nearly doubling in the last 10 years I’m about to increase my prices to make up for it.

The Mustang has all it’s covering on at long last and I can start painting and detailing bit by bit.

Today I start prepping two masks for paint and hair work. Those go out next.

Moving along getting these rocket kits finished up to ship out today. I re-marked all the BT tubes for fin placement, made up the parts bags and vacuumed formed the tailcones in PETG clear. At first I made them in white styrene but found they pulled too thin and they could easily crack. The PETG is thicker and more durable.

I’m shooting a video of the entire process of making up these kits so my customers can see the amount of work that goes into these kits.

Later today I’ll start prepping the masks for paint now that the rubber has dried out sufficiently.

A few pictures I forgot to post of work around the studio this week. Rocket kits will be shipped next week. I just got my box of body tubes yesterday in the mail. All resin parts are cast. Masks poured up and ready to paint.

Remember folks I have a Patreon page where you can help support the studio and the making of these videos. Not to mention(I just did) you can visit our store and buy collectables.

patreon.com/steveneill

Yesterday I managed to get yet another gorilla mask cast up and a bit of covering on the wing of my Mustang while I waited for my old friend Jeff Helps and his wife Jean. 

The rest of the day was spent with them at a wonderful launch at the Marina by our studio. We sat outside and looked at the Marina, the boats and the life that goes one there. A very nice day.

Our front entrance to our studio has a new look. Our next door neighbor Lorie re-decorated the front to our surprise and it’s beautiful. Mary had a new flag made with, Art Studio and Gallery.

Today is Friday and I’ll be working on orders as best I can. This week has put me a bit behind but next week I’ll finish all the orders and ship them out.

Yesterday was one of those days again and today will be another. An old friend popped into town last night and wants to visit us today. 

However in the limited time I had yesterday I managed to get these masks out of the molds. And I made up the rest of the nosecones needed to fill my orders for rocket kits.

And yes I finished the rest of Mustang’s fuselage. Next I’ll start slowly working on the wing covering.

I made this film about 6 years ago. I was never really happy with it. There were things that just bugged me. So I have spent a month or more recutting the film and removing and adding things that make it flow better.

This film was met with much controversy and even anger. It is a subject people (as they often are) are very opinionated about. And these opinions are never based on research or knowledge about the subject matter. They are knee jerk reactions based on fear, and the training our media and government has influenced you to think. And over the years they have done a very good job.

Bottom line for whatever it’s worth, people of sound minds have experiences with things that science and religion have failed to explain. There is evidence. Mountains of it and most people that have experiences with the unknown rarely talk about it. But some do. And they speak sensibly the media will seldomly feature them. Always say the same thing. I don’t know exactly what is happening to me, “But Something is There”.

At 12:00 pm today you can see the film: