popeye the sailor

they're missing out on the satisfaction of assembling a layout from the ground up

really nice bit of rigging there what did you use to seize it? looks very life like............model's look'in really sweet!

yep.........Rt 114 takes you through town. I almost took a side trip out to Clough State Park..........back in the day we used to go there and give pony rides to the visitors. that is.......until the park folks would {politely} ask us to leave got to the point, they got to know us quite well......if it wasn't for safety reasons, they wouldn't care. I used to climb the cliff face near the Army Corp of Engineer's building {the dam}, and look over the lake....you could see everything from up there

probably why it's so secular from the other modeling mediums....even with scratch builders. it takes a direction all it's own

it was good to see my younger brother David.......I hardly ever get to travel out there, in and around the home town of Weare. he has a shop in Henniker. a small college town. darn place is growing at a fairly fast rate I sometimes wish we could move out there..........back out in the country. it's funny.........the pace is faster in the city.........but go out there, and everything slows down.........even the speed limits

child labor was the thing back then it seems........I used to work with my father too. he was a truck driver, delivering institutional foods. I used to ride with him, or work in the warehouse. if I wasn't doing that, I used to work with my Uncle, delivering the Union Leader newspaper.........used to go all the way to the tip of New Hampshire.......Gorham, Intervale up past Conway and Wolfboro. the workload varied, but it was fun.....bank rolled my modeling.

when I was a lad, I used to have a Lionel set.......it had a plastic form layout and tunnel , on a 48 X 48 square of plywood. it was set up in the living room.....a small room off of the kitchen, with access to the bedrooms {walk through}. it should have been in the den, thinking back on it.......that was a long room, where the TV was........it was a much larger room too. it went well though, the way it was set up.......that is, until my older brother got cute with it and turned up the speed, sending it into the mouth of the tunnel, breaking part of it away. Dad got mad and banished it to the depths of the cellar......a small room where the water pump was located. determined, I decided to set it up down there........but in doing that, I must have damaged something on the pump, so it stopped working. not a good day in the Wenzel house hold........I can tell ya that! I can't recall whatever happened to it from there. when I started to work on the snow plow, I had to find trucks and couplers. HobbyTown was where I found them.......pretty knowledgeable people. I think I still have some of the parts in the kit / diorama, I have in the works for it. I was going to scratch build some buildings for it, but I've been getting catalogs from Micro Mark, and I sometimes browse Walther's and Model train stuff websites........I have others book marked.

brief report........there is some progress.........last night I tried to derail it though. I had the tender on my desk........I was play'in a computer game, and in the boredom of chaotic mayhem, I dozed off ........I'll leave the rest to the imagination then add the goings on that I outlined in the China Girl build, and life has been a bit disrupted....to say the least. rain keeps me from doing things outside, so I'm quite sure that there will be an update.....perhaps later. as always........thanks for look'in in and follow'in along

just a brief update........pretty much the same between getting the car inspected.........which that pesky check engine light came on at the last possible moment and spoiled it.........that is on going. I just need to change the OX sensor in bank 2. I have 60 days to do it.......I have a garage that I can't really work in comfortably......so I need to do this outside, since I need to jack the car up. rain at the moment.......but I heard that nicer weather is on the way. then we have the landlord, who decided that this would be a good time to rip out our bathroom I can sit down today, so I should have something to report later on. thanks for look'in in and following along

one of these days........... I've been wanting to start a small layout with the grand kids........the two oldest are almost there {age wise}. I see I'll have my work cut out for me., learning all the ins and outs

chiming in a bit late.......but you answered some of the questions I had. it's such an interesting model....the architecture and construction is really stunning. I'm amazed that this isn't a kit.......the workmanship you two did on this model is really precise. surly there are other landmarks that could be done.......bridges come to mind, if you enjoy this type of construction. very nice model.......the display is really ingenious

the one thing I see is that the dead eye attached to the top, isn't captured on both sides. when the shroud line is rigged, it may pull to one side and might offset the looks of the assembly. running the fotock line though the hole, capturing the dead eye, and running it back though the same hole, would do the job better I think.

great looking art work at the stern very well done!

that happens quite a lot in kits, especially if your adding extra lines that the instructions and diagrams don't show. cripe.....one kit I have doesn't show double blocks, but I know some were used......so I'm adding them in. of course, that will also add to the amount of single blocks as well it's madness I tell you!!!!!.....shear madness! so glad to hear your still making progress.......I hope you are well

the plastic looks thin.......that might save the depth perception problem that most kits have

good to see your still working on her....... looking very good nice job on the railings.

the start of a great project Greg........the port holes look so well drilled. do you use any type of reamer to take the edge off the drillings? when I drill holes like that, sometimes they seem to show a raised edge...even when using a new bit. look forward in seeing more

these were the perfect carrier birds..........the wings fold up and are easily stored. nice looking plane

a covered hopper........so this is a converted box car to serve the need. most hoppers that I know of consist of twin basins with a trap door in the centers underneath, to empty it's load. I was a bit confused with what you were doing with the side, until I realized that you were adding the ribs outside....not inside. it all makes sense now chalks up to never seeing one of these kits go together

interesting box car Ken.......the only one I've ever built was the snow plow. I really like the molded wood........I did look into getting some for my ship builds. looking forward in following along

you should have no problem finding a place to display it........glad to hear the admiral likes it what's not to like. next up ..........bat wings?

thanks J.........I made up the decals. I tried one.......I'll show you very soon.

thanks for posting the link. sadly, I already have this one The 4-4-0 General it has pretty much the same picture, without the flag banner. thanks for look'in in........hope ya follow along

yea.....like I make 'em every day I messed around with it a bit more.......I even went into the color spectrum. I tried blue tint........green tint.......etc. I did settle on a color....it will be close, but not a perfect match. what has to be kept in mind.......you can import an image, but to change the background is impossible. this is because your scanning an image..........it will be a single layer from this point on. if I had the original image, it would be different, because I could then change it's individual layers........printed in any way, and it's fused into a single layer. the same goes here with the Testor's {decal it} images........in it's original form, it has many layers.....but once imported into the program, it becomes a single layer. I can change the background color, but it will change the entire image too. as a test, I took the China Girl decal and laid it over the dragon. changing the background color, it also changed the dragon image, but not the text overlay. photo shop would have probably been better to use....but one would have to hunt up all the images and create the text needed. font can be changed to the desired effect and then sized. the decal program simplifies all this. I can't use what I wanted to use......they too would be affected by this problem. this gives me an idea though.......I can use some OK......I had wiped the sheet clean of all the images..........I have a copy in the folder, so I may not have gotten rid of them totally. I put a couple of the dragon images back up and resized them. I changed the background of most of them.........here is how this is done. first, the full color mode must be deactivated, to allow you to change either field. pardon the rippled screen........flat screens tend to do that more than analog. the image in the parameter box is the one I'll be changing. now I'll change the background to light blue. clicking OK will do the dirty work. having images drained of color is kinda bland........don't know why I didn't think of this before. lets change the foreground color........let's say red, since the China Girl text is in red. ....and there ya go........the dragon is now red. note that the areas around the images is still white. I can't change that, it's not part of the image. I can change the others at will.......... is is just a small part of what can be done with images. text can be manipulated in many ways......angled upwards and downwards........half circles.......full circles........changed fonts.....and even color. great for decaling life buoys and signage....but care must be taken to not lose the image due to the transparency issue. of course, I had to pick a color that would prove to be hard to match up with the decal maker.....duck egg blue. as mentioned, it won't be perfect, but I will try and trim them enough, so it won't be too much of an issue. I have been painting.....at the moment, fine tuning things. I'm not pleased with the roll cage part of it........it seems incomplete. then I thought I'd show you how easy it is to chop it down to a modified....just me being silly amazing....the stuff one can think up while tinkering

thanks Sam..........I have many interests. it has it's mistakes......I'm no expert, but I try to do a good job. in fact, a recent purchase just arrived.....a 1:16 scale Lindberg Concord Stagecoach. it's a bit different than what I've read about it, but it still looks good I've even got a couple of mods I want to do to it more on it soon. the thing that really staggering about this kit, is the box it came in. I had it repacked to reduce the shipping cost {the owner suggested it}.......and I'm glad I agreed. the box was huge.......probably the largest I've ever seen! saved me over $20.00! thanks for look'in in and the kind comment........and thank every one for the likes. I know I'm approaching this one a bit slow........I do want to thank you folks for the suggestions....they are a big help