Jack12477

19 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

And wear mittens  - "Must wear mittens"😁

 

OC.

No, use the cut resistant gloves woodcarvers and chefs wear.  Now ask me how I know this! 

7 minutes ago, lmagna said:

Manuals are for sissies Jack!

Until they can't figure out how to turn it on and you have to tell them "read page 26" 😎😎😎😎😎

40 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

I'll read the instructions now

When I was in programming we had an expression for new and old users.  RTFM.    Since this is a family oriented site I won't translate that. 😁😁😁

I grew up in western NY with Lake Effect snows, avg annual 150 inches......  my oldest granddaughter saw her first snow day school closed  in 12th grade when Buffalo got 8 feet of snow in 48 hrs.......  I never heard of snow days growing up.

Try driving the Million Dollar Highway, US-550, from Ouray Colorado to Durango Colorado, it is 100 miles distance but takes about 4 hours to drive. There are three passes you have to cross, each one being about 10,000 feet in elevation, no guard rail and no shoulders, just a drop off of about 2,000 feet. As we were driving uphill from Ouray we met a full size Winnebago camper coming downhill, all the Admiral could see out the passenger side window was no road just a steep drop off.  We could not (safely) drive faster than 25-30 MPH, in 2nd gear most of the way.   Fantastic scenery with 13,000 and 14,000 foot peaks all around us.

Asked my brother-in-law, who grew up in Denver,  why no guard rails. He said they used to have them but accident rate with all the flatlanders was so high they decided to remove them,  when they removed them the accident rates dropped dramatically. Also asked him why the huge iron gates along the route, said they close the passes when it snows heavy. 

Thanks, Denis 

Thanks, Carl 

I have 2 daughters, a son, and 2 granddaughters. Both daughters have their Doctorates, EdD and PhD Epidemiology.   The oldest just celebrated her 25th anniversary as a cancer research Epidemiologist at the world's oldest cancer research institution (hint : it's in western NY), the younger got her EdD 4 years ago. The oldest granddaughter graduated from college last week and the youngest graduates next week from 8th grade.  My son is an artist, as in Fine Art painter, and Professional Painter, commercial and residential.

And oh did I mention I have 5 younger sisters and 2 younger brothers 😁

Thanks Mark, Lou ! 

Congrats on the birthday.

And, yes, I have a 14 year old granddaughter who could pass for 18 or 20.....  

My memory is a tad foggy these days but I remember something about preserving tree moss/lichen in glycerin (?????) or something like that.  

Just don't use RIT brand dye tho.  Rusted out my track and wiring with their salt.  Lesson learned

6 minutes ago, Egilman said:

You can also run down to your local Garden supply store and get a bag of dried moss.

Yes, I have some of that. Also dead  twigs from my trees,  road gravel from the winter highway dept sanding, even shifted dirt from yard (best to bake it in oven at 125-150 degrees first to kill any bacterium), play sand from the kids sandbox,  dry sawdust shifted.  Lots of stuff. 

53 minutes ago, Edwardkenway said:

Ahh thanks, I did think you'd gone above and beyond and used the Admirals prized bonsai tree!!

She doesn't do bonsai, I do !  

Thanks OC !

Edward, you should be able to find a source for Woodland Scenics product in UK. They are mostly geared toward Model Railroading but easily adaptable to any other scale modeling.  Their products are quite good.  

16 minutes ago, Egilman said:

What did you have in mind as far as location time period? I know it was early... just can't place it....

Heh heh  didn't really !  I sort of went off the villa by Verlinden,  maybe Ardennes area of France, maybe elsewhere,  around '44-'45 time frame due to tank,  the 4 extra soldiers (2 long coats, tommy gunner and kneeling rifleman)  were an add-on Dragon 101st Airborne Ardennes figure kit I happened to like, and rest was just winging it.  

Thanks ! Glad you like it.

1 hour ago, CDW said:

Wow Jack, your diorama looks super! Did you learn doing the diorama's with model railroading?

Basically, yes, Craig!   Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman magazines published a lot of How To articles on scenery building , along with a couple of softcover books on the subject. Did most of my practicing there. Rest I picked up from either Shep Paine's or Verlinden's articles on diorama building.  Today there are a number of YouTube videos on How To.

Back in the '80s when I had a top notch brick and mortar hobby shop run by a modeler, there was a guy who would display some of the most detailed armor dioramas I've ever seen, even to the point of using real .22 caliber short and long rounds (minus powder and primers of course) to simulate tank rounds, at 1:35 scale they were almost a perfect match. I used to study his model dioramas for ideas.  Unfortunately, no digital cameras back then to record them.

The only drawback to dioramas is the amount of shelf space they require. This one is 12 inches by 12 inches by about 7-8 inches high.

Thanks !

14 minutes ago, Edwardkenway said:

What are the lichen bush branches made from?

They are a spongy like material (rubber ???) from Woodland Scenics, the tree is a white metal bendable casting from them also, as is the white crush stone rubble. The scattered brick is from Pegasus, the cobblestone road is Sculpey dark gray clay, dry brushed with various chalks.  The dark brown/black earth seems to be ground up Model Railroad cork roadbed.

Thanks !

Okay, I guess I can call this a wrap.  Been hampered a bit by the lockdown, had to drag out my leftover Model Railroad scenery stuff to finish it. Aside from maybe darkening the fallen brick in the rubble pile a tad I think it is done (have to wait till the white glue completely dries to do the touchups otherwise things move around to easily).

14 hours ago, Egilman said:

Your welcome to post a pic here if you like Jack, I'm sure it came out beautifully.....

Okay,  I found the 3 variants I built years ago.  Here's the 3, the one on left is I think the one you are building EG , middle one is the Vietnam era one I almost include in my M16 Diorama, and the one on right is the TOW version which seems to be missing a few parts as is the one on the left - missing machine gun. And all are showing the wear and tear, dirt and grime  of mounths on the battlefield.

Thanks for letting me post them, EG

13 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Your welcome to post a pic here if you like Jack, I'm sure it came out beautifully.....

I'm not so sure about the "beautiful" part, it was from my very early days of armor modeling. I will try and get a photo of it/them and post it.  

I think I also have that same kit in my completed models stash.  Will have to do a little rummaging.  I know I have 3 variants of the Jeep.

3 hours ago, lmagna said:

Jack isn't here yet

That's because he was still sleeping, Lou.    

Cool looking model, Craig.    

30 minutes ago, lmagna said:

HATE getting behind a car on a two lane mountain road who insists on driving twenty miles an hour UNDER the speed limit

Must be one of those flatlanders who has never driven in the mountains 😁😁😁   white knuckle time ??? 

50 minutes ago, Egilman said:

I saw ya trying to hide up there

Oh darn! Knew I should have used that Klingon cloaking device ! 

I'm in stealth mode in the rafters