Spent the day on this Werewolf of London mask order. Today the hair gets laid on and out it goes.

Started a new video about building Little Joe II the rocket that tested the Apollo Capsule and escape tower in the 60’s for our moon program. This is a medium sized rocket for D-E motors and will have a duel recovery system. The model is pretty scale and accurate to the actual full sized space craft.

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SNG gets a new project-Adam Savage

I was just saying to myself the other day I wasn’t going to build anymore RC airplanes for awhile.. I have enough and I only want the simple joys of building free flight rubber powered models. I was just finishing the larger PA-20 Pacer and planning the next FF build.

So there I am and it’s Saturday morning and I’m on the way to get my first Covid shot. Mary is driving and I get an email from Adam Savage challenging me to build a 6 ft span Wright Flyer. Two in fact. Both radio controlled that he can fly. 

I can’t say what the builds are for yet, this is Adam’s secret for now, but it’s enough to say this will be one heck of an RC undertaking.

Although many will say right off it can’t be done with an RC model they would be dead wrong. It has been done with great success more than once. A lot of people pioneered getting this unstable, first powered man carrying aircraft to fly as a model.

This is Pat Tritle’s 40 inch span wright flyer. A kit that you can still buy and I have one on the way. Although not entirely scale to the original the anhedral has been removed. Dihedral added, just enough to allow the enlarged rudders to roll the airplane and turn reliably enough to avoid making complicated wing warping used on the original. Also the canards for pitch were enlarged and the length of the fuselage lengthened a bit to make it easier to achieve a proper center of gravity. Do all this and she flies very well.

Once I get the kit, we build it and fly it. Get all the date and then enlarge it about twice size and build two using carbon fiber and Depron foam for the wings. This will produce an ultralight airframe that will need little power to fly it. It will also be more durable than a balsa airframe so if anyone dumb thumbs it, it can survive. Also I’m putting in an onboard flight computer-gyro to make it easier to fly. It will nearly fly itself.

Then I have to teach Adam to fly it. That will mean driving up and staying in San Francisco. Should be fun.

This will keep the studio busy for months. I’ll document it all in posts and videos. I’m sure Adam’s crew will shoot video when we go north to my home town to fly it and teach Adam.

Sound interesting?

Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining. Just grateful that people like our masks. These are keeping the doors open and more. I do plan some new ones this year. I have arrived at what those might be yet. I’m working on it.

This is a Sighting TV series mask and it just got finished yesterday. I also poured up a Werewolf of London mask as well that should be able to come out of the mold today. It’s very thick rubber and can take tow days sometimes to dry out enough to pull.

Still trying to get back to the Crater Lake Monster Sculpt but it’s been so busy he’s hard to get near. I’m hoping tomorrow. Got to finish it and show you how we make a silicone mold and produce the product.

As always click on the thumbs for the full sized image.

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This gets clicked and shipped today.

Mask making, airplane building and prepping for rocket launching.

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The little free flight Piper Cub building video is coming along well and so is the model.

For my birthday I bought myself this nice radio controlled PA-20 Pacer 1940’s high wing beautiful I’m slowly assembling.

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We’ll have video of the launch on Friday.

I made my first world. Not finished but really cool. Find me on Altspacevr. Better than Zoom and Facebook could ever be. You are virtually there and can experience social activities again from exploring worlds and going to parties, raves, lectures, music events, teaching classes on any subject, and more. It’s the closest thing to being there.

I’m using Unity to create the worlds. The meshes I make in Lightwave and convert to FBX files that work in Unity.

Here’s a few frame grabs.

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Click on the thumbs for full sized images. These are frame grabs from 2D. If you don’t have VR you can still attend in 2D on your pad, phone, laptop or desktop. But VR is better.

Although a bit sparse I’m adding new things all the time to this world. The large screen with my art piece on it wwill be a movie screen where we will run movies, videos and more for specials SNG Studio Events.

To get a free account for Altspace follow the link: https://account.altvr.com/ It’s easy to use and you can make your own worlds with there own tools they offer. If you don’t have a headset and are wondering what one to get I recommend the Oculus Quest 2. With the Oculus Quest you don’t need an expensive high end PC or Mac. It’s stand alone and cordless.

We have one and Marry loves it. I use the higher resolution HP Reverb.

Hope to see you there. My user name is:

SNGsteve

We got an order for the Sightings mask. It’s been so cold in the back it’s taking days to dry out this thick mask. I make them very thick so they will last years. Last one this same gentleman bought from me was in the 90’s and it it’s still find today.

Here’s is 30 year plus old mask from sightings.

And here’s the new one in the mold waiting to dry.

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I’m hoping to pull it out of the mold today. Thanks David Albaugh for the picture and buying a new one!

Still…mask making and…

They have been keeping me busy. I will finish today and pack to ship all on Monday. 

The in-depth show for this week is coming along well, Part 2 of building the tiny dime scale Piper Cub. Yesterday I got a wing panel built and it shows you how it’s done.

Getting back to the Crater Lake Monster today and tomorrow to finish the sculpt then we mold it on video so you can see how that’s done. Next! Laser Blast!

I hope you all had a great weekend. I spent the entire weekend learning how to make a 3D world in Unity 3D and transferring it to Altspace VR. 

Most of the worlds there are basic low poly social hangouts and raves but I wanted to make something a bit higher end. Realistic. It’s taken two weeks of my spare time and weekends to get it all working but yesterday at the end of the day I did and it was very rewarding after fighting for two weeks to get a world started and online at AltspaceVR.

I was standing in the middle Stonehenge taking it all in and someone popped in. They had found it already. I explained it was still under construction.  He was another techy and we talked about all the things I was going to add to the world. Then it struck me, I could build 10 Forward. The bridge of the TOS Enterprise. I already have a 3D model of the bridge I can convert and so much more.

What I have been making works with all platforms, MAC, PC, Android. Oculus, HP, Vive, Mixed reality all work with the worlds I’m making.

It’s my hope as VR catches on I’ll see more of you in there. This is clearly the future. A flat screen just isn’t an interesting way to appreciate 3D anymore.

This week we will we be doing more on the in-depth video and getting back to finishing the Crater Lake Monster kit sculpture and molds. As soon as it’s finished we will start the Laser Blast Model kit of me from the film as the alien holding my famous gun.

If anyone has a 3D printer and wants to help print the gun masters please let me know. It would save some time and you get a free kit build by me!

I’m looking forward to another great week at the studio!