I remember way back in the 70’s hanging out with some of my now famous and infamous friends of makeup effects. We were so happy to be making monsters, aliens, and creatures. We studied Dick Smith, John Chambers, and even became friends with these amazing people later on. We read Famous monsters of filmland. We were inspired. I remember well we all vowed never to stop doing this work until we dropped.

As I stood in my studio for 5 hours straight making this Talosian mold that memory ran through my mind.

Nearly 50 years later here I am making monsters, aliens, and creatures. So far I kept to that pledge.

I find making large two piece full head molds a bit harder to do today but doable nonetheless. And it’s always the same. “What’s next”.

That is how art works. And if you are truly an artist, that passion to do the next piece never dies. I feel like a lone beacon of strength sometimes but some of those people are still here and still doing the craft. Ve Neill and Rick Baker are still creating art and that’s good. Ve is teaching and passing the craft to the future. Rick is doing beautiful paintings and sculpture. Knowing these things makes me feel happy and well. Never give up your passion. The world needs it.

The mold of the Talosian opens today and I’ll clean it out. Next week I’ll pour the first 3 and paint them up. And yes, what is next? How nice to dream and wonder. What a gift.

It was a full and busy Wednesday. I started by finishing the Talosian sculpture. The mold begins today.

Then I worked on a bit more covering on the Double Trouble free flight airplane. I also went over my free flight Fokker DVIII. I plan to fly this plane and many more at the WESTFACs event in October. http://www.westernfac.com/

And lastly I started a new painting. I only had about an hour  but I managed to get the background massed out. that is to say the basic blocking. It’s not finished yet.

The painting is of the famed Vance Gilbert. A colorful genius, artist, writer, musical artist, and one of the best free flight model airplane builders I have ever seen. The man is prolific to say the least.

I saw this picture of him taken at the Geneseo NATS(National Aeromodeling Championship). He’s standing in the field used for the event with his arms stretched out for the sky. This is very symbolic for me because this is what aeromodeling and flying is all about. It’s an experience that combines so many skills, wisdoms, and a communion with nature to touch the sky. 

We were all just kids who wanted to fly in the sky and never stop dreaming and flying. We still are and Vance is one of those kids. We are all proud to be members of the Flying Aces Club.

http://flyingacesclub.com/wp/

There is much to do still. I’ll finish the background and add Vance. I am enjoying this very much. Mary has been my inspiration to do more painting and I have learned a great deal from her and the videos we have that teach you by the masters. We have watched together many videos by the masters that teach you their techniques. We have a lot of fun. There’s nothing like painting.

I caught up with all my orders again yesterday with the exception of the Talosian orders. I still need to mold the sculpture and today I will recieve my layup clay so tomorrow I can make the mold. It won’t be long after that that we can have a look at the first latex casting and pain job.

I painted the last set of Spock ears and shipped them and the Balok to their happy homes.

I had some basket weaving time at the end of the day and started the finishing work on this “Double Trouble” free flight plane. I have a few to build before my free flight flying event in Arizona in October.

I’ve started the covering process and I’m putting in details on the Cessna. that wraps it up for this blog post.

Monday we took off to just have a relaxing restful holiday. We rarely do this and it was nice. We went to the studio for a while to work on personal projects.

I worked on making some of the modifications to my Fokker DVIII. First thing I tackled was the wheels and tires.

The original kit build wheels were solid balsa and they didn’t work that well on the tarmac. As soft as I landed they still cracked at the hubs.

I found some nylon wheel bearings and they hit the landing gear wire perfectly. I made new balsa wheels on my lathe and drilled out the centers on the drill press and mounted the bearings with CA. In Fact I hardened the balsa with thin CA. I lightly sanded and painted the wheels.

I used rubber round 1/4 inch insulation foam to make the tires and glued them to the wheels with CA. 

The wheel covers were made using paper.

The plane rolls better and the tires offer a little more impact resistance. Plus the wheels role very smoothly. 

I also added the cockpit padding I had neglected when I originally built the plane.

Next up is to add some down thrust to the motor and that should do it. She flies again Sunday. This time the nose weight is secured well.

The Cardinal is nearly ready for test flights. I need a little dulling spray on those decals and a few more details and she’s finished. The dope over the last few days tightened up nicely and there are few wrinkles now in the covering.

Today I’m shipping Balok and the Spock ears. Then it’s back to the Talosian. I plan to finish it today and the mold starts on Wednesday. 

Yesterday was another visit to my airfield to fly once more. This time I took down from the ceiling a little plane I built over 2 years ago. It was made of stick and tissue and built much like a plane from the WW1 era.

The kit was a good kit made for free flight. But I turned it into a radio controlled electric powered plane. There were many question marks that went along with this conversion and one never quite knows what to expect on that first flight. Although I have built many kits and scratched built planes over my many years there’s always that question mark. Will it fly?

My friend Mark Helmick put it on the runway because as the full sized plane the model didn’t have a tail wheel but rather a tail skid.

Once placed on the runway I slowly ran up the motor until the little plane got on the step. That is to say the tail came up off the runway and she started turning to the right. I easily corrected this with a little left rudder and she went straight down the runway. A little up elevator and she took off the runway and started to climb. 

Suddenly she pitched up at a steep angle of attack. Mark saw a piece of nose wait come out of the plane through the forward battery hatch. This was a worse case scenario. She was now a bit tail heavy and this is always bad for any flight let alone a maiden first flight.

I trimmed the elevator with as much down trim as I could and throttled back to about half throttle. I was able to level out the plane. Amazingly, she responded well. Still I could feel she was tail heavy and to be safe after a circuit of the field I thought it best to land if I could.

I throttled to about 1/4 power and she held nicely as I descended to the runway. I lined up straight and eased her down. I reduced power to about 15 percent and she was about 5 feet up and slowly descended to the runway and landed perfectly on the main wheels. I cut power and dropped the tail. The plane hit a crack or something in the runway which caused her to nose over but it was gentle enough there was no damage.

I can’t begin to describe the feeling one has as a result of such a flight. Not only did you build the plane well but your experience as a pilot just saved what might have otherwise been a disaster.

I have a few more adjustments to make before I fly her again this Sunday but this plane flies well and I’m pleased. It was all worth the effort for such an experience.

I had a visitor yesterday. Ken Hertlein. Visit his website we does amazing work:

http://www.kenhertlein.com

He did mind watching me work as I needed to. I get behind when I have people visiting the studio. We chatted and I painted Balok. It waas a good time.

I also worked on the Cessna Cardinal. I have nearly finished it.

Next week Balok ships and so do the Spock Ears. Thanks for the orders, people!

Today we are back to business painting masks and getting them ready to ship Monday. Before I left after yesterday’s event I did a little more work on the Cessna Cardinal. Later today she gets the decals I made up for her. That should finish up the plane.

It’s been a long time since I worked on Ghostbusters. Seems like a lifetime ago. At the time when Stuart Ziff called me to work on film it was a great opportunity but I never thought the film would come to much. Little did I know 48 years later it would have the stay power of Star Trek, and Star Wars.

The fans of Ghostbusters are an amazing group of people that live and celebrate the joy these films continue to bring them. For that reason alone I am so proud to have been a part of such an epic film.

Yesterday I met two of these amazing people. They are super fans of the films and the effects people that put the magic on the screen. They came to our studio to meet me. They had me sign numerous pictures and posters from the first movie for the fans that collect autographs.

They started a company called “Ghostbusters Autographs”.   https://ghostbustersautogr.wixsite.com/website

And here’s there Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/321286908506923/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=1044502436185363

Matt Henry and Tom Sanders arrived at the studio with a lot of Ghostbuster swag for me to sign. We had a wonderful time together and I shared with them some of my stories about working on the film. I showed them around the studio and Mary took pictures.

I showed them my original crew jacket and they were amazed by it. Seems many of these were thrown away or went to Goodwill as one person told me. I wore it one last time before I gave it to them to sell or auction. I’d rather see someone enjoy it in their collection rather than have it collect dust in a closet as it has for years. I signed it on the inside lining. some lucky collector will get it.

It was a bit sobering as I have seen my experience with the movie go full circle from the day I arrived at BOSS Films up and until yesterday as the film I worked on continues to bring me such joy and life.

I give my great thanks to the fans that love this film so much. I thank you for keeping Ghostbusters as alive as it was the first time it hit the silver screen! You are the best!

And thank you Matt and Tom is was so wonderful to meet you and spend time with you!

Tues was great. I got the Balok out of the mold and it’s nice and thick. It will take a day to fully dry out enough to point up and paint. Same applies to the ears. They are very thick and should last a lifetime.

I nearly finished the Talosian sculpture. It’s at that point where it needs to dry a bit more to finalize the detail. Being that this is a water based clay sculpture the drier it gets more firm it gets like an oil based clay so you can really carve it. We should be there today.

Next Monday I’ll mold the sculpture and make the first 3 masks.

The little free flight plane has all it’s covering now. Next step is to make the windows.

The rest of this week is interviews, zoom meetings, and signing autographs for a business that collects them for resale .Thursday I’ll be signing lots of pictures of my work from Ghostbusters and other films I have worked on in my career. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/321286908506923 This group signed me up. Check them out.