A good mix for the day. I’m Getting ready for a Sub run in September. This will be the first one I will attend since Covid, the very real non-fake pandemic started. I only have 3 working subs these days as I sold off many of the big subs and even some of the small ones awhile back. After selling them I used the money to buy and build that big RC J Class sailing boat which I get a great deal more use out of.

I got this smaller Type 7 U-boat and a smaller Disney Nautilus I could handle better. Both those boats were huge and they were getting difficult to manage.

This type 7 U-boat from WW2 has always been a favorite and this model is just the right size and very scale to the actual boat. I placed the cylinder inside the hull yesterday and hooked it all up. She’s ready to dive in Sept. BTW I still have my Seaview! Never will I part with that one.

I also started the flying saucer area 51 Bob Lazar sport model yesterday and got it in primer and started the silver paint.

And a little more work on the oval dirt track. A slow process but a fun one.

Friday we go to town to Burmans to pick up silicone to mold the Laser Blast figure and the new rocket. We also ran out of resin to cast parts of rockets and resin cast figures, teeth and more for our orders.

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This is hope. If you have kids let them watch this trailer. This isn’t taught in schools although it should be. If we ever hope to understand who we are and our deep connection to the universe we need to be in space and embrace it. It is the greater reality.

I feel like taking this class myself. What Chris is doing is a tremendous effort to engage all ages in the importance of space exploration.

Show people this trailer because he speaks the truth and the trailer alone is an inspiration.

My late wife gave me this boat for my birthday in 2006. Fiber glass hull and nice details I have always loved this fishing boat. It was upstairs nearly forgotten. The riggings rotted. The line they used on this boat was very poor and didn’t last. I replaced it with good line and tuned it up.

The speed control no longer functioned so I replace it with a new marine ESC.

Got the lights working again and added a receiver. Everything works again and next week she goes out to the Marina. It will be useful in helping stalled sailboats back to shore should something goes wrong. She’s also very fun to just run. Sails are non functional and it runs on motor power.

I also plan to weather it to appear more like a fishing boat that has had some use.

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I finally got back to the Marina yesterday only 5 minutes from the studio. As close as it is it’s hard at times to just get there. But things have gotten quiet again at the studio and it was time.

Spending time with my hobbies more these days is very important to me. These hobbies keep you healthy upstairs and inspired. When you are inspired and passionate about a hobby it contributes to your well being and health.

I have too many hobbies. Or do I? All the things the human race has done on land, on sea, under the sea, and in the air and now space. It’s just so amazing. And all of us can participate in these amazing things through hobbies that emulate these great feats of engineering and imagination. In some cases models have contributed many times to new inventions and contributions to the successes of full sized planes to space craft.

Yesterday I met with the local sailing group at the Marina. They race sail boats every Thursday there. Although I didn’t race I just sailed with them for a while and we had a special visitor.

It was a wonderful cool day and sunny. Winds were just right and everyone had a great time. Almost everyone there was a retired engineer with the exception of myself.

I shot a bit of video with my cell phone when our special visitor arrived. Great time and I look forward to more ahead.

Yes I was born in San Francisco in 1952. What a different world it was then. Or was it? I still see the same stupidity going on now as there was back then. Maybe even worse. But in all of that there was a light that burned bright and has remained doing so. Maybe even more.

This book launched a thousand astronauts, space craft, and dreams. It changed my life. Your life. I remember literally sleeping with this book as a small child. It was my bible and hope for the future we so desperately need.

It was a time of great vision and imagination that put us on the moon 17 years later. that’s what inspiration and true passion can do. Thank the stars above for Elon, Branson, Bezos and the others that continue to keep this torch lit!

Felix I will turn this into a PDF. This book was given to me a Chris present. My original book was long lost to time. This was one of the best presents I ever received. Thank You J Paul Moore!

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I know I have been doing a lot of slot car stuff lately but it’s my summer vacation of sorts. It brings a lot of joy and fun to ones soul in these dreadful times we have been going through the last 4 years or more. Just watching the news or hearing it is enough to trouble anyone. We all need a break from it and hobbies really fill that need.

So I tested the little dirt track with a true dirt car yesterday. It worked great. Now to get on with detailing the track to look like a real oval dirt track.

The car I have is the wrong scale for this 1/32 track but I’m planning to build the correct scale once I find them. The track is about the right shape and size too.

Back in 1990 I had a company called Dreamland Effects. I sold my art as resin cast busts, even full figures of my greys and more. These were the early resin cast busts I made back then. I scanned this old photo today. I always like it.

It had got on the net more than once and some people as usual claimed it was real. It was. My “real resin busts”.

This was a day when I had a large order for them and I lined them all up and took a 35mm camera and shot this picture.

Vern Moresman of Ventura Hobbies was kind enough to give me this 50 plus year old Revell slot car track. I’ve had it for a while and it’s just like the one I had when I was 12 years old. I had set it up back then in the garage and made it a dirt track oval like the type my dad used to race on. I loved the Offenhauser midgets the best and had a couple back then.

 

Yesterday I got it out of the box and it was really corroded from all the years. But I cleaned it up and to my amazement it all still worked. Every from the controllers to the power supply.

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It’s mounted on an insulation foam board and eventually I’ll add dirt and some landscaping. The whole thing is very light weight and when done I’ll bring it home. It’s about 8 ft. by 3.

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I ran my unfinished Bentley build on the track. Today I’ll bring the Midget to the studio and give her a spin!
So much fun and my dog Rosie likes it too!

With the success of the V-2 in resin it’s time to do another kit of a Von Braun design I have loved since I first watched it on Disney’s “Man in Space series in the late 50’s. The Collier’s Man in Space book I still have. 

It captured my imagination and I fell in love with manned exploration of space and all things spacecraft and rockets. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. That series must have spawn 1000’s of rocketeers, scientist, pilots, engineers and more. I’ve seen it all from the Space Ferry’s trip to space and back again via Disney animation to Elon’s monster Starship sitting on the pad getting ready to go to space. The child excitement still burns bright in me at nearly 70 years of age and shows no sign of burning out.

Mark Helmick and I start our planning today at the studio. He has already 3D printed a small model based on the Collier’s images. It’s my plan to make it large enough that the Space Ferry itself can free flight glide back to Earth. Vacuum forming the fuse may also be an option. I know it has been done successfully in the past with a pretty small rocket that Ryburn Ross did this awhile ago.

With the shape of the body tube on this beautiful rocket the launch lug will pass through it and out the side near the top. The entire body will be resin cast. I’m able to get it pretty thin now and light weight. My big concern is keeping the Space Ferry fuselage light enough to fly well. It will need to have balsa wings but the rest of this rocket will be all resin cast and very scale to the drawing with those lovely curves.

This has been a bucket list item for a very long time for me. It starts today.