Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Finished the first book of a new trilogy. It really started to get good over the second half. Am already tucked into the second book. So I’m less worried about this set taking me months upon months to finish. Which is a relief. I hate to start strong and then fizzle. Also, on the modeling side of things, I’ve gotten the main body all decaled up, and have started in on the tail section. Now for arms, legs, and then the mammoth weapons on the back. A few days of work at least. But if I go methodically through it, I should hopefully have a nice looking kit when it’s all done. Then on to weathering! My favourite part. That’s where you get to hide all of your mistakes, and make things look purposefully done. Giddy-up!

The Urn base has been glued and patched. That will require some sanding attention to even itself out a bit. Then on to the main chamber, then tray, then cover, then hours of scraping, and sanding, and finishing with clear coats and polishes etc etc… still a ways to go yet before I can call that done. I am concerned about the mitred corners for the main chamber. I always seem to get one wonky corner. And I have some trepidation about moving forward. Oh well. Onwards and upwards. Go slow, think things through, and give it all you’ve got. And on that note, I will go start working now. Ciao Bella!

The day is upon us. Valentine’s Day, that is. Nothing much different about this day, except both my kids thought it was a school free holiday. Of which I had to disabuse them of that belief. No my sweet summer children, next Monday is the holiday. Today is just a Tueaday. A school filled Tuesday at that. Not to say I don’t have goodies for them once they come home. As I do have some small items for them to have, and a tiny bit of candy. I didn’t go as extravagant as in years previous. I went overboard at Christmas, and needed to scale back a bit. Can’t keep that pace going all year long, oh my! But I did but some small more thoughtful gifts for my kids, and spouse, several weeks ago, in fact.

So it turns out we had some sunshine yesterday, so in between working, I managed to prepare some elements of the Urn I need to build. Red Oak and plywood to the rescue. Long way to go yet, but progress was made. Also, I got a second full gloss coat over top of my panel lining details on the VF-1. So a touch more progress made there too. Small steps forward. About as much as I could ask for at this point. I even got some good ideas down on paper for a Logo job I’m doing that comes due at the tail end of March. Add in the sunshine, and slightly warmer temperatures and it was a pretty great day yesterday. I’ll take it!

I do need to figure out how to salvage my mitred cuts for the Urn base. Three corners meet perfectly, and one is off by almost an 1/8th inch, even though each pair of parallel sides are equal size. I hope there wasn’t a bunch of released tension once I made some cuts that has caused some warping this early on in the build process. That’s going to be really difficult to work around if an hour in and things are twisting, buckling and warping every which way. Wood filler and clamps abound! I’d prefer it not look like ass when completed. Sort of a big deal to have a decent finished product.

You know the part where your kids are desperate to buy the specific kind of Valentine’s Day cards they absolutely have to have, to give their friends. So you buy them, and then the kids covet them so hard – So. Hard. But then become immediately disinterested and refuse to write “To my friend” and sign their name? Yeah. Guess what I’ll be doing inbetween the dishes, laundry, vacuuming, mopping and general tidying up and work today. Yeah. Writing out two sets of 27 Valentine’s Day cards to both of my kids classes. Wonderful. What a world we live in.

I had given some thought to starting the urn today, but now we’re forecasted rain for days, and that moisture will buckle and warp my wood, so indoor projects only this week, unless it dries out a bit more. So unless there is new paid work coming, decals it is!

Today is Monday February 13th, 2023. The Superbowl was last night. It was a very close game. Shame the Eagles didn’t take home the win, but, eh! What are you gonna do. Like I said, I didn’t bet on the game, so no problem. That last attempt at a *long bomb* was about 20-30 yards short, and kinda sad to see. Could have been the play of the year, but… nope! Better luck next season.

I did put down my book long enough to watch Rhiannon dance and sing from those dangling platforms for thirteen minutes. Was the supposed *baby bump* the special guest people were going on about endlessly for the last week or so? If she is pregnant, great for her! If not, red is still very much her colour. Did that mean she was a Kansas City fan? Or is that totally coincidental, the wardrobe colour choice, that is. The closing seconds had those raised platforms just a jiggling in the breeze. Whoo-boy that gave me the nerves just watching. Yikes. It was a fun time. Oh, the new Flash trailer looks awesome. And the GOTG Vol 3 trailer looks sad and conclusion(y). Shame that we don’t get all of the same epic television commercials here in Canada during the broadcast, but both DC & MARVEL Official accounts posted on twitter, so I could watch the trailers there. In some instances the commercials are the best part of the whole programming block.

Well, I have an obscene number of cards to write out, so I best get to it. Ciao Bella.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, perfect sailed long ago on this model build up. There was little to no chance in attaining perfection this time around. But after wrestling with having to leave my project for days or weeks, or taking advantage of a 90 minute block of free time I had today, I choose to use the old method, and keep moving forward. Now I can move on the setting decals, weathering and rust effects, and call this hot mess done. Oh baby – yeah! Strike it from the list. Moving on!

Stopped out to pick up some Red Oak for the Urn build. Cost me a little bit of change, but I can go full steam ahead now, without having to cobble together remnants of other projects in order to Frankenstein this Urn together. Now it can all match in colour, tone, and grain. Mostly. I can stain it darker if need be. Also I feel as though I might end up making more of them as times goes on. Seems like a handy trinket to have on hand. Save ourselves the expense of buying it from a funeral home, or predatory sales person. “Wouldn’t they want – the best?” They say, making you out to feel cheap if you don’t go balls to the wall for a corpse. Idiotic. Why spend upwards of $1,200.00 plus bucks, when I can build it myself for around $200-$300 ? That just makes more sense to me. Now I can choose the fit & finish, as well as take some pride in my own workmanship.

Supposed to have sunshine and warmer weather this week, so perhaps I can actually start this Urn sooner rather than later. It will take many hours of sanding to get this thing to sparkle anyway, so… best get to it when you can. Make some room in the schedule if I have too. I have my materials lying flat on the floor inside the house. I’d rather not introduce any additional unwanted moisture into the new Red Oak I just bought. I really don’t want this to warp. I intend to build around a plywood core to keep everything as stable as possible. I feel a new build episode brewing in the back of my head! Getting excited.

The game day coverage is bound to start soon enough. Music, lights, and coverage, coverage, coverage. Saccharine stories of players lives, tales of a coaches rise to infamy, and all the shiny tight suit fabric you can handle. It is SuperBowl Sunday in February of 2023! So get your food orders in, if your local restaurants are still accepting any, and finalize those bets, if you partake. Sit back in a comfy chair, and try not to eat yourselves into congestive heart failure. Also, don’t drink and drive today either. Ni nanna ni nanni ni nah nah nah – naaah! *Fox Sports Intro Sounds Off*

Hit a bit of a low point with the model build up yesterday. Had some paint peel from under the low tack masking tape which made me mad. Had some finger nail scratches appear from handling and assembly. Was really getting overwhelmed by how lack luster it all looked. But I pressed on. Got the additional armor panels on, did several spot paint touch ups, and am less upset with the whole thing. It isn’t going to be the glowing bastion of model builds, but it is better than the previous one. I have discovered a new step to add into my process, that can take it all back to step one after priming. A hard lesson to learn this late in the game, but it will make the next one even better. Well two things. First, I definitely need to putty and sand the seam lines, as the thin cement and sanding didn’t hide them well enough. Second, go back and sand again after priming. It made the previously hidden nubs very apparent once the additional layers of paint went on. So, fear not. Go back and sand some more next time. Unfortunate that I had to learn it after spending ten to twelve hours painting over the last week, but… live & learn. I’m in a holding pattern waiting on some fluids to progress through my build. Not far to go now. Panel line. Gloss coat. Decals. Gloss coat, and then weathering & rust effects, and chipping paint to finish it all off. If I had everything on hand, it could be just one more week until I’m finished, but now that I have to wait on some deliveries, it could be three or more weeks before I can even start that weeks worth of work to close this project out. What a pain! I’m motivated now! Could always forgo the new fangled fluids, and go with the usual methods. I’ll have to mull it over and decide. Is finishing the project sooner more important, than trying to make it as close to great as I can make it with the new products I’m waiting on? Hm. A head scratcher for certain. Is the subtle boost in quality from the new products worth setting it all aside for what is essentially another month. Or, is it worth more to me to check a completed project off my list using my previous tried and true methods of panel lining, and setting decals?

Going out in the shop was a bad idea, as now I want to build the Urn, whether they want it or not. I have it on my mind, and I may just keep it for myself if they wind up going elsewhere. A useful item to have on hand. Can always make a newer better one, as the years draw on, but to know you have that settled would be kind of nice. I think. A tad morbid sure. But… we’re starting to hear talk of Avian flu killing upwards of 200 million birds already. And it has been killing seals, and dolphins and such in south american zoo’s. So who knows how long we’ve all got. The birds go, then bugs take off, and the ecology goes bananas, and we all starve to death anyway. Especially if the migrating birds all catch it down south, and die on the way back here, but bring it with them anyway to infect everything else that eats birds, and the non migratory birds catch it too. Ugh. What a nightmare.

So it is a sunny Sunday morning. The SuperBowl will dominate the tv for much of the day. Both Canada and the USA have shot down three (in total) balloon / UAP items out of the sky. Things are getting weird. The Yukon, Montana, and the Dakotas (iirc). Plus a huge toxic air event in Ohio that depending on the wind could potentially blow across Ontario. A train derailed while carrying toxic substances that it shouldn’t have without additional permits & precautions. Another case of money over safety. Pictures below:

So yeah. Lots going on. Take care of yourselves out there, because nobody else will. Ciao Bella.

The paint up is rolling ahead, at least for the moment. That is until I need to start panel lining. The fluid I bought especially for that step has yet to arrive. May take until early March to arrive. Same with the decal setter I need to use for the very next step after panel lining. I do have my old options open to me for doing both, but I bought these new materials expressly because they make the job easier, and do a finer job of it, than my current methods. Seems a shame to spend all that time airbrushing on paint, masking in finer and finer details, spot painting minor bleeds or errors, to just go back to the old way because I don’t have the new fangled *thing* on hand right this second. However, I also want to finish this VF-1 Valkyrie in a timely manner. Now that I am this far in I realize I should have opted for some Milliput and gone back to sanding after I got all the primer on, as I have found some pretty stark nub remnants, and seam lines which ruin the effect. Win some lose some. Learning hard lessons regarding masking, paint bleed, ink dribble, and assembly restrictions i misread, and then had to do minor cutting & reshaping to get parts to fit. Luckily it was for parts that lock together anyway, and you can’t see where I’ve had to chop, cut & weld parts together due to my mistake. I did not realize that certain parts were used to *lock* limbs into their position, so i assumed i could glue, and paint those bits in place, and then reattach the legs after i had completed the painting process in its entirety. Nope! Big no. Gotta look closer at the instructions for any other projects moving forward. D’oh!

It is a bitterly cold Saturday morning. My cough is still with me. In some ways worse, and in other ways better. Coughing is far less regular an occurrence during the day, but when it goes off, it GOES OFF! Blah! Tastes terrible too. That’s new. The coughing fits taste metallic and just kinda off now too. Nose is time, and the sore neck & head ache are gone. I’ll chalk that up to a bad nights sleep. Ear is still blocked. Made a bad ear worse, as far as sound quality & volume levels are concerned. Like hearing everything from way down a hallway. Still sound there, but greatly muffled and muted compared to my other ear. So that’s fun. Wee!

Sun is out for the moment. Just going to go stand in the window to bask in it for a second. Ciao Bella!

And it turns out it’s an ink, not a paint. That explains why no amount of adding white paint, and the lightest flesh tone paint you have to it, seems to make no difference at all. Of course it’s runny, if you’re starting from essentially what is coloured water. So, in essence, I might have just buggered the lot of my model kit build by layering on uber wet ink. Damnit. Double damn it. We will know more once it dries and I can remove all of my masking. Goes on lovely, but pools and drips like a MF’r. Oops. Hopefully I haven’t ruined several hours of painstaking painting from the last week. Fingers crossed I did a better job of masking, so the runs won’t kill my paint job!

If it all looks ok, the next step is several coats of gloss varnish to seal in and protect my paint. Or, if I feel like it, a few more panels can get picked out and high lighted with additional colours. Plus the hand canon needs to be painted black in the few spots it has rubbed off. Also, the inside bells of all the thrusters need to be painted yellow too. I thought that would tie them all together nicely. Chrome/gun metal outside, and yellow on the interiors. Really putting some effort into this build. Oh, and I’ve almost forgotten, the canopy needs to be painted aswell. And the cockpit details painted in too. That could be another hour or two alone. Hopefully it will all come together as something I can be proud of, rather than buried at the back of a shelf in shame.

The USAF colour scheme for my VF-1 Valkyrie is finally starting to show some promise. I have the main colours blocked in, and have begun the time vampire task of masking and painting smaller and smaller details. I’m not going to go crazy, but I do want to add some detail to the paint job by switching up colours on the panels etc… given that last Friday my airbrush was dead, and I was certain I’d have to shelve this until March, I am way ahead, and in line to finish by March(ish). I am waiting on some decal setter fluid, and panel link ink, so that portion of the build is on hold until those come in. So taking my time with painting isn’t an issue. As I can not move forward into panel lining, and decal setting, until those two products actually arrive. So a win for me now. No pressure not to spend extra hours fine tuning my masking techniques. When in doubt mask off more than you think, to protect against overspray!

Had several emails come in around midnight, so I know what my morning projects are for today. I hope to get some time to mix up a batch of yellow paint in order to keep the paint train rolling! Otherwise I won’t paint again until Monday, unless Monday is mental too. Good thing is my new air compressor is way quieter than the last one. Offers a bit more control once you get used to the gun mechanics.

Welcome to Friday! You’ve made it this far, yet again. Congratulations! We still have a busy day ahead. Valentine’s Day is next Tuesday, coming up quickly. And the following Monday is a holiday. Family Day for those of us in Ontario, Canada. Usually a bitterly cold weekend deep into February. We’re not going to travel to Ottawa, so we can find something fun to do closer to home. Maybe a movie in a real theater for a change? A different mall to wander around? Air Riderz or some kind of indoor fun park type thing? Who knows.

Waking up from a terrible nights sleep with a sore neck and a head ache that makes you want to vomit. Nice. The throat is still playing around with being either wretched or just annoyingly noticeable. Ear is not quite right still, and now my nose is runny too. Add the cough in and I’ve got my self a real life fiesta! Lovely.

So that was my 7:00am, and then it took multiple tries to get a sock on my foot, and I thought to myself, aloud. This isn’t my day. That’s cool. I can take one for the team. Yesterday was pretty good. Did some work. Did some painting on my model kit. Assembled a new tool in the garage, then spent some time lining up the materials I have on hand in case the Urn order actually materializes. Did a bunch of reading, and spent some time standing in the sunshine while it was 7°C yesterday afternoon. It was delightful. The cough was a hassle, but otherwise, a lovely, well rounded day. Today? Yeah not so much. Raining, with some freezing rain mixed in. Blah grey sky outside. And a touchy neck with matching head ache. Yeah. Not my tempo.

In other news my eldest brother has once again made Team Canada for the Invictus Games 2023. He’s off to Germany come September to compete for Canada as a wounded veteran of our Canadian Military. You can catch his news appearance from last night here:

https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/mobile/video?binId=1.1777487

I do have some paid work to dig into this morning, but I’m just waiting to see if my appetite makes a come back before I log in. The cough & cold medicine does a number on my insides after a day or two, so I’m seeing if it’ll settle enough to let me eat something. Had a glass of juice which went down smoothly, but no desire for a meal as of yet. I have some time, so no rush.

If you told me today was Friday I would believe you, but no, sadly, today is only Thursday. A somewhat relaxed week this week, in retrospect. Trying to manage my time between non paid projects a bit better this year. Get some reading in, model kit building, sculpting, painting, guitar, and wood working into the mix. Takes some planning. The weather, atleast this deep into winter will dictate what I can and can not do in a day. Sometimes it’s easier to plug in and jam on the guitar, than it is to go measure, cut, and hand work a bunch of hard wood pieces. The path of least resistance towards one of my many hobbies on any given day or week seems to work the best. With such a sunny day yesterday, it really was great to get out in the shop and tinker for an hour or so. Doesn’t take much to satisfy a creative itch. And on that bomb shell, I’ll bid you adieu. Ciao Bella!