Shot these last night durring the open house first friday event at our studio.

Last night we had an art show at the studio. Here are some pictures from the night.

The flower paintings are oils by our guest artist and friend Yvonne Resol La Mendola.

The rest are Mary’s alcohol inks and Pyrography wood burning.

And some pictures of my work from around the studio at night.

Please click on the thumnail to see all the pictures full sized.

It’s been nearly a month to the day but the Enterprise E is finished. I even installed the plug in the base so you can plug in the power supply and remove it for transportation.

This was a very hard build in part due to its small size and trying to fit an elephant into a glove box. The other is the decals. So many. Hundreds. And many of them are in poor condition due to their age.

I did get the rest of the decals applied yesterday. And I painted on clear by hand with a soft brush. I have found in the past if you use an airbrush the decals will sometimes fly off never to be seen again.

The clear I used was Testors acrylic clear matt which is self leveling and looks the same both hand painted and airbrushed. I will miss this clear. I had one bottle in my stash. Now that the evil Rustoleum people have seen to its demise after purchasing Model Masters paints, Testors Model Masters no longer exist and Rustoleum’s paints suck!

With the exception of maybe a couple of paint touch ups this model is complete. Now I’m moving on to the K-7 Space Station.

BTW Mary had an old friend stop by the other day who is also a film studio electrician. Our old fluorescent lights started failing a while back and they completely died a month ago. He fixed all our lighting in the building with new modern LED lighting and the place is so lit up you’ll need sunglasses. A welcome change.

For the first time in ages you can make out what the monolith painting is on the wall with the EVA Pod from 2001.

Tonight we have a “First Friday” open studio and art exhibit with a guest artist displaying her work in our Gallery.

All day again I applied decals. I darn near got them all on. As I had my fair share of problems. As it turns out these decals haven’t been sold for years and they were old. They were slowly disintegrating on me and I had to work fast. Overall they look good but it was a bit stressful.

All I have left to do is place the markings that came with the kit. Those decals are fine so it should go easy. Once they are on Friday it gets a clear coat to protect the decals.

I’ll start painting the base tomorrow too. It should all be done Friday.

I had a minute at the end of the day where I had to wait on some of the decals to dry. So I painted Philips Spock ears he will pick up Friday.

It was a good day.

I was sitting having a nice cup of tea with Mary and the beautiful lines of our car caught my eye.

At our studio one never knows what might show up in the mailbox. I always check in the morning and when I opened my box the package key was in my box. So I unlocked the box for oversized packages and took out the contents. I haven’t ordered anything and lcearly judging by the box it wasn’t commercial.

I noticed the return address and name right away. It was my long time friend and customer Christopher Hunt who I have built models for and masks for. From time to time he sends Mary and I wonder things at random in the mail.

I opened the box and I first saw this.

As I unpacked it the first thing I saw was a thumb and then an entire hand. Thing! He sent me Thing. This is the version from “Wednesday” which Mary and I are fans of. In Fact we love anything Adams family. 

Chris to say we love this would be an understatement! We adore it. Thing is the studio mascot. He has tea and lunch with us at our lunch table. Thank you!!!!

The Enterprise continues. I managed to get more than half the decals on her hull yesterday and will complete them today.

Soon I’ll be able to turn my attention to new projects as early as next week. It’s been a long haul.

These Acreations decals are the best I have ever used. They are making my life easier and respond well to Solvaset, Microsol, water, and my pulling and tugging very well. Excellent decals!

The model it all gapped up and the hull color touched up. So I started putting on the decals. With the lights off you can still see the window locations well. no need to scratch them out. With the lights on you can see them glow very well.

I should have most of them applied today.

Thank you for our freedom from facism. And as it grows once more against us we pledge our lives to never let it rise again, so that your fight, that cost so many lives, will not have been in vain.

Steve Neill

As I walked into my backyard my dog was curious about something moving in the blooming cactus. It was a single beautiful bee. 

It was aware of me but felt no threa. We connected and it let me get my camera right up to within inches of him while he worked. 

I thank nature for moments like this. I feel so blessed.