It’s buy a mask Friday! You know you need one. I sit and stare at my Galaxy Being every morning at the studio with tea. He reminds me of how good TV shows were in the early 60’s. The messages were strong. “You must go out and explore the mysteries of the Universe”. So true.https://steveneills.art.blog/collectors-mask-store/
Watch this clip. If we spent less time killing each other and gorging on greed we might of listened to this enlightened being. We still can.
I went a bit overboard and I’m slowly softening the weathering. I should finish tomorrow. I have nothing but praise for this kit. I finally got another bucket list accomplished!
So, I’m getting a lot of interest in this sculpture. This will be turned into a model kit once it’s molded. The gun is 3D printed but the rest is all my work and it portrays me as I appeared in the beginning of the 1978 movie, “Laser Blast”.
The sculpture needs a few more days of work and next week it gets cast in silicone. From the silicone mold a resin cast will be made. I’m only making 25 castings. All models will be finished and painted by myself and signed and numbered.
I’ve played lots of roles as monsters, aliens, and the gorilla but this one was my first.
I am back to work on the 1/6th Laser Blast figure of myself from the opening of the film. I will only make 25 of these. Cast in resin, hand painted, 3D printed gun and standing on a base.Each one signed and numbered by me. We are taking preorders. Be prepared to wait a few weeks for delivery as I make each one up as I get the order.
I have always loved cars. When I was very little my dad took me to the races to see the spectacle of amazing cars and incredible drivers. My dad also raced dirt racers, midgets, and more. My dad had an early Porsche 356 that was baby blue and he’d take me out on highway 1 and drive and drive it hard. I loved that car and the experience of pushing the edge of the envelope. That’s when it gets into your blood.
Both my mom and my dad had a love for cars. My mom had a Fiat spider two seater I just loved too. They both always had the most amazing cars. I watched Indy on TV religiously with my Dad every year.
One day, I can’t remember exactly when, my dad got a Stromberg Slot Car set. He bought extra track and made an Indy replica track. It was huge and it captivated me. He used to have famous drivers over on the weekends to race the track. They’d play the sounds of the race track on the record player. Even burned a bit of racing fuel for the smell. They put money into a pot and the winner won the money. My dad was quite the modeler and he made up the cars with special liveries to match the actual cars at Indy. I met A.J.Foyt, Mario Andretti, Eddie Sachs and many over famous race drivers. We later both got into 1/24th scale cars and would race the local tracks. Then sadly when I was 14 my dad died in a senseless car accident on his way to work caused by a wrong way drunk driver. Slot cars came to an end for me. It did for many with the Vietnam war taking many of the slotters to war. Many never returned. And some of my friends that did were never the same again.The tracks closed and interest faded away. But not completely. There were some that kept the torch lit. And in recent times it has come back. Many of us including myself never really lost the passion. It was always there but now that the kids are gone and many of us have the time for such things we checked online and found slot car racing alive and well. In fact it has blossomed into a growing hobby with incredibly realistic cars and tracks like we have never seen before. I discovered the FarrOut slot car club. I had just joined and had my first race with the club at Stephen’s track Feb. 18th 2020. It was a wonderful time and then covid struck before the next race could happen.
Yesterday after almost 2 years of covid lock down I returned to racing with my club. It was a 2 hour drive to Los Angeles up windy roads in my 1985 Z to Eddie Shorers track where we all met and had a blast. We didn’t talk about anything else in the world except cars and racing. Well Fingers did bring up our love for our dogs. Richard Rodriguez was a big help to me getting my car tuned up well enough to keep it on the track. Eddie was a fantastic host. There was pizza, cookies, drinks, and lots of Lays potato chips galore. We met at 11am and by about 4pm it was all over but not forgotten. Never once was there an argument or complaint from anyone aside from Stephen putting me in the crap house for bad Marshalling. LOL Or the screw Stephen lost from his car during a race that ended up in my lane which really screwed me up. Tom tore it up and was the big winner. His cars were beautifully painted custom liveries too. This is the second time I raced with these fine gentlemen. I’ve never played with a better group of kids in my life since the days of the races with my dad.My dad was there too. Right in my heart.
The drive home was scary. Driving a restored sports car on the freeway these days is a roll of the dice. With so much rage and poor diving skills on the road I never watched my mirrors so much. There were bad accidents several times on the way home. Despite all that I enjoyed the long drive in my time machine from my youth in 1985. Back then I had just worked on Ghostbusters and Fright Night. We were all making lots of money and bought sports cars. I’m glad to still have mine. I enjoyed the drive and the day very much. It was an adventure. Thanks to everyone at the FarrOut club for keeping this all alive and well. Thanks for the experience!
Below are images from the day. Including the car that got me there and back safely again to my studio in Ventura.
How many of you that know what I’m talking about remember a somewhat confusing Halloween when you were just a small child? I have a memory of this and I have spoken to others that had too.
This was back in the 50’s. Before Twilight Zone and other movies that might have suggested to our subconscious minds such things as our many debunking enemies have deluded themselves to believe.
Yet it remains. The doorbell rings. It’s Halloween and outside on the porch are two small children that look a bit like Casper the Ghosts. It goes dark after that. Little more is remembered.
This is concurrent with other reports of walking home from school and seeing a circus tent in an open field and being invited in by strange looking clowns with big black eyes. I’ve heard it all and experienced it too.
This piece isn’t finished. I just started it. It wil have a jackolantern in the background, the bag the visitor is holding will have “Trick or Treat” on it. It’s very unfinished but I thought you might enjoy seeing the process of my art. I’m using pastels, my very favorite medium. I used this a lot back in the 90’s when my art on this subject was all over.
It does. This is a big game changer. No more glitchy submarines and stripped servos from old FM radios from 20 years ago.
I’ll be switching out all my old radio gear for 2.4 ghz. Sure I won’t be able to dive deep and sit on the bottom. But really? That has no appeal to me anymore. Parascope depth is just fine.
We still can.
The Art of Steve Neill 