Underhand, underwater, and damned un-English

Hey lookit my submarine!

Now things are looking better. I have spent the week preparing all the hull frames and painting up the embellishments and gluing them on to the individual members.

Using some "extra grip" liquid nails and for the middle ones Marsha's grip, we attached them to the ceiling and walls. I had to splice in the straight sections in the middle using the same glue and some seam filler which was actually a model-railroading landscape foam that would not attack styrofoam and could be painted the same color. Turned out good, most of the seems are hidden now.

The light fixture is pretty neat too. It hangs a bit low for my taste but when I bought it I thought I'd be able to mount it flush to the ceiling but instead it has to dangle using one chain link. I will try to shorten it up some because right now my head only has about 8 inches of clearance and the heat cooks my noodle.

I'll be framing that small skinny window next and running some more rivet straps up the four corners and also, stay tuned for Map Version 2.0

Dumbasses of the Caribbean

That would be me.

I was looking forward to posting about my FINISHED map/plan holder but I had a terrible disaster in the making of Map version 01. I will be putting up a HUGE map of the Caribbean on the east wall that will double (with the help of powerful magnets) as a ships plan holder for easy reference. All very well, so I took the map spray glued it extra flat to the backer board and wanting that old world varnished look began Modge-Podging all over the top to seal it and give it some brush strokes. The map began popping up and wrinkling everywhere and since the glue was beginning to make the paper stiff I couldn't pull it taut again. Total Disaster! I removed the old map and took two hours sanding off the glue residue to re-use the board for map Version 02, which will be fully laminated and I have done away with the vanished look idea altogether.

It just shows that not everything works as planned and a project like this has lots of steps back as well as forward.

The first image is the hull frames, painted, and with some decorative flourishes I've molded from wood masters that I will be painting and gluing onto them to add that extra touch so they aren't so plain looking. The second and third images are of the map backer and the gilded frame which is now ready for installation when the new map arrives.

The frames are going up next then the map. Stay tuned...

Front Yard of Terror Part 2

"Booty Island" is a full size rendition of a Halloween village piece I noticed this year. The item is called "Greedy to the End", and it seemed to invoke a great back story for our skeleton dude here.

Originally there was to be an audio track for him as well but I ran out of CD players. It was going to be ocean sounds and seagulls and such and will be included in next years display. The whole island is fairly fragile being just stretched sand colored cloth with real sand sprinkled over the top for looks and the tots would have been clamoring all over it if not for the imposing looking skull/chain fence.

Notice my vast booty? (Hee) The larger parts are Goodwill store finds and the coinage was mostly bought in bulk from Party America. The glowing jewels effect is a textured clear plastic insert from an industrial overhead light fixture cut to size and set in the chest with some LED lights on a changing pattern underneath giving it that captivating glow. Not my original idea mind you but an adaption from something I saw on the web.

That guys' booty wasn't nearly as impressive as my own however.

Front Yard of Terror Part 1

I broke this Halloween special into two parts. Each part will feature some pictures and clips from the two major Halloween projects this year. i didn't get everything done I wanted but MOST of it and just like Linus tells Charlie Brown after another fruitless night waiting for the Great Pumpkin "Just wait till next year!"

This guy, "The Captain" turned out pretty good. The arm motion needs work, hes no Abe Lincoln in the Hall of Presidents, but hey its my first animatronic. There is a sea shanty song playing the whole time and when the scare is triggered a scream and some loud banging occurs. To my everlasting delight it terrorized at least three trick or treaters on theri rounds last night. Halloween is great!

The jaw you'll notice moves pretty well in time with the evil laughter and that part of the scare really worked well. Its just a sound activated servo in the Capt's skull to his jaw doing the dirty work but it was unnerving to a couple kids.

Next year our Captain is going to have a full scale WORKING cannon to fire based on the T-shirt tossers you may have seen at parades or sporting events.

I'm hoping for a nearly peed pants affect from that one!