Building Utility boat by Maritime Art Pt.1

Finally I am picking up some speed. First two or so weeks after coming back from Europe were tough. It was hard to get in a mood to build something. At some point I even thought I was going to give up the hobby. In addition the second season of The 100 came recently out on Netflix which I have been waiting for for quite some time... Yes, I did some serious binge TV watching. I hadn't done anything like this since I got Netflix streaming service and discovered Lost. That was in about 2009. So... I have caught up with all the shows I had DVRed as well so I am ready to do some serious damage to my stash of the kits and the pile of unfinished projects.
Before I did any rigging on the trawler I viewed it as being extremely intimidating. I had my reason. Provided diagrams are useless, many pictures on the CD that comes with the kit are out of focus or show something else other than rigging, the manual is full of unfamiliar terms. No surprise that got into deep procrastination mode. However, since I've had the trawler and the utility boat in my possession for about a year I felt quite guilty. I wanted to make some progress but in no way I could get myself out of procrastination so instead I started working on the utility boat. I should have started with it though. It is simpler. The hull is of better quality And the rigging isn't that complicated. It came with extra detail pack included so instead of one boom my version will have two. That adds some extra rigging as well which I am about to start working on. However after all I would have been better off had I started with the utility boat.

Building Duffy's Coal by FSM Pt. 1

I have been gone for a little haven't I. I took a trip to Europe that got extended by a day due to Lufthansa cabin crew strike. I am back now and I am back to building models. Modeling is still a little challenging due to the jet lag. It is hard to stay awake in the evenings yet. I used to get back to normal in a few days but not this time. I am not sure if I am getting old or it is just that time of year. My all previous trips to Europe except for one were in the summer.
After I got back I found that Trainmasters TV episode with George Sellios and F&SM was available so I didn't waste too much time. Unfortunately my Google phone didn't want to cooperate and ruined whole experience. I use screen cast feature to watch videos on a big screen. Before upgrade to whatever version of Android it worked fine. After upgrade I am getting all sorts of problems. Sometimes video stops and only audio keeps going. Sometimes video and audio is out of sync. Other times it throws "Video cannot be played" and quits. I have read that it most likely is because of WiFi bugs in newer version of Android that show their ugly heads more often in older Google phones. I doubt that the issue will ever get fixed. I recently upgraded to yet newer version of the operating system but the situation didn't improve. Fortunately, there are other solutions available. I bought mini HDMI to regular HDMI cable for my Kindle Fire. I had some concerns that it might not work but I was wrong. The cable was exactly what I needed. I didn't spend much time watching Trainmasters TV but I can say that quality of the video has improved. It is much sharper now and has no playback issues. Now I need to find time and watch George Sellios video again.
Coincidentally I am working on one of the George creations. Duffy's wasn't on my short list of kits to build but I have been asked and I have taken the opportunity. I don't think I will be pointing to the errors too much if any at all unless I make my own. So far so good. Like always the pictures don't reflect the current status of the build. I have made a little more progress since then.

Building Trawler by Maritime Art Pt.2

Exactly one week ago FOS Scale Models introduced their fall limited edition kit Printers Row. I am surprised that the kit is still available as of right now. I believe last year's kit sold out in 5 days. To me the Printers Row is as good if not better than the Red Hook Wharf. I am not sure if over all drop of interest in craftsman kits has something to do with it or perhaps "investors" got disappointed by eBay sales of the Execution Rock and the Oyster Hill. You can still expect to make some $50 selling
these two kits but that is far lower number than if you happened to have the Red Hook Wharf for sale. It sells for about a double of what the list price was. Another possible cause may be release of the Red Light District some 6 months ago. Not everyone's wallet can handle two kits of such caliber per year. In any case let's hope everything goes well and the Printers Row gets sold out in the next one or two weeks.
The pictures of the Trawler I am about to post are some 3+ months old. However up until last week the kit was in exactly the same state so the information isn't that outdated. Since then I have pushed it to the top of my priority list and I have actually some work done. The boat is shaping up...

Building Smith Coal & Ice by Railroadkits Pt.1

Two days ago I got home after work very late. I took my car for a maintenance and missed my more less OK traffic window. I had a plan to build some models that night but after spending some time looking for the tools and supplies I finally gave up. Instead I decided put together a shelving unit, get things out of the boxes and get at least a little bit more organized. It wasn't easy. Under normal circumstances whenever I bring new thing it somehow finds its place. When everything is out of place at once it becomes huge puzzle. I managed to get about 15% of stuff organized that evening but at the same time I came to the realization that after I put in another shelving unit, bookcase, and a table I pretty much won't have room left for a layout. I'll have to make some radical changes when/if I start one.
I have been building Smith Coal for some number of moons. It is my filler project. Whenever I can't go to the next step while working on a big project or simply get tired of it I get out Smith Coal. I am not so far from the point when I will have to start turning it into diorama but it may be also the point where it stalls. I have a little backlog to take care of first.

Building Red Hook Office by FOS Scale Models Pt.1

Couple of days ago I received a text from my cell phone service provider that I had maxed out on my data. Only then I realized that the video stream I had been sending to my Roku didn't come through my WiFi connection but through the cellular network. The good news is that today is the beginning of the new billing period and the usage goes back to zero. However, from now on I need to make sure my data is off when I do screen casting.
I couldn't keep myself from building something during the move but I needed something small, something that I could possibly finish before I get back to my regular projects. FOS Red Hook Office was just the kind of project I needed. In the past I have modified in some way all Doug's freebies I have built. I didn't want to break the tradition so this build isn't exception. So far I have replaced the front wall with shingled one. To do that I had to cut new one from chipboard and glue shingles on it. I couldn't use the original because the thickness would have changed and I would have had to make too many adjustments to the other parts. I also added back door that I cut out of laserboard to match the one in the front. I have few more changes coming as well so stay tuned.

Final pictures of the Grandma's House by Campbell

Joe Fugate told me about Trainmasters TV at National Train Show in Atlanta back in 2013. I have been curious about it ever since but I didn't become a subscriber because I didn't want to watch it on a computer. Few months ago I asked Trainmasters TV if they were planning on making an app for Roku and/or other stream devices. They told me that I could use cast screen feature of my smart phone to send the stream to my Roku and watch videos on a big screen. Unfortunately my Roku was too old so I spent few months debating myself whenever I should get a new one. If not for TMTVs summer sale most likely I would still be in the same state. Actually two things happened at the same time, TMTV summer sale and Roku discount for an upgrade, so I cracked and got new box and became TMTV subscriber for a year.
So far I have watched two episodes.  I found them to be a bit too heavy on real trains. While I don't mind learning about 1:1 scale I am more interested in smaller scales. It looks like later episodes  are more geared towards modeling so it is all good. What I am missing at the moment is a chair. I am watching my TV sitting on the floor still.
I have completion of another kit yet to report. This time is an oldie. It is the Grandma's House by Campbell. It wasn't an easy build. The kit was very old. I don't know if sugar pine is brittle by itself or it was the age of the kit but I had to re-glue several wall pieces back together. Also after making the base according to drawings I found that not all wall dimensions match the drawings. Since I didn't have base material left to start from the beginning I had to sweat a bit to get more less acceptable placement of the base relative to the rest of the structure. Well, it isn't finest piece of my work but given challenges I had to go through I feel like I did decent job.
The experience with the Grandma's House raises the question whenever it is worth buying any of the old Campbell kits. Perhaps not even new as well because I am not sure if new kits are being produced using the same die cutting process and if sugar pine is still being used. It is possible that I would be better off if I obtained just the drawings and built from scratch.

Final pictures of Dill's Market by Laserkit

I have spent my last two nights at the new home. I guess I have officially moved. Last night I was assembling back a desk that will become my workbench. Unfortunately couldn't finish the job because the desk got damaged a little in the move and some parts had to be glued back together. It is still nice desk though and I don't want to ruin it so I need to find some kind of protector. As soon I get this done I will be back building models.
Meanwhile I have some pictures of the project a finished right before the move. It is Dill's Market by Laserkit. The signs are not from the kit. I thought without them the structure would look too boring so I added few.
Occasionally I get inquiries about availability of my projects so perhaps I should mention that I don't have it anymore.