Dedicating my Time to Model Building Again

I've got a project the art director here at Penn State Berks wants me to work on: an entry for the art show. I dont necessarily feel like a circus clown entering some 5th grade art project but I found it amazing that Penn State has allowed me to adapt, but also wants to bring out my strengths as well. I am doing a diorama of alien ships invading lower Manhatten with peeps running everywhere. The only catch is, I can't build kits out of the box: she wants me to stick things where they basically "don't" belong, and I am all cool with that.


I will have to update this post with pictures as soon as I can, but this project is going to be totally 100% unorthodox. The ship hull is upside down and the bridge is all screwed around. I love how the thing is turning out. A lot of the presentation will be scratchbuilt by myself since I cannot readily go get skyscrapers to build and destroy, but then again balsa wood blocks that match the size I need are EXPENSIVE. I will do my best to scratchbuild the buildings and add rubble and chaos from there. Should be a fun project!


I am about to finish my 1/48 F117 Nighthawk and I will bring it home for display. My next project was a 1/700 USS Yorktown (CV-10), but while I was at my local arts and draft store I noticed they had a Trumpeter kit for sale. It was the USS North Carolina, so I thought it would go perfect escorting CV-10 in a baseline water model. That will be my experiment with acrylic gel medium: the rest I plan to use for fire on my diorama/display. I have so many project stockpiling up that I am about to explode. I think I have 5 to 7 kits in storage ready to be built, so I need to freeze the bank account and build what I have ^^.


To save a post here, I learned that my cat had a duel with my 1/96 USS Constitution and unfortunatly Old Ironsides lost. The ship fell over I heard and the hull snapped back into two pieces. Luckily nothing broke off or cracked and all the cannon were accounted for. I actually need to thank my cat, because that tan job on the hull looked hideous and the (very rare) copper paint I found for it adds depth and will look great on the finished product. The cost? sigh we are back to square 1 with that Constitution model. I had no idea enamel sprays went on so clean, if that isn't the case then my skills are improving.

Old Ironsides sure lives up to her name.