Building Utility boat by Maritime Art Pt.2

Few years back every time I sent a completed model to Ohio using USPS Priority Mail service it used to take two days. Then at some point they started printing 2-day and 3-day on the shipping label. Since then two day delivery to Ohio became thing of the past. It seems even three day service may be going away as well. Yesterday I mailed out both boats. I checked the status earlier today and saw that expected delivery date was set to Saturday. I hope that it is temporary situation caused by number of holiday packages.

Miniature Christmas trees from Walmart

At some time before last Christmas while at Walmart I came across miniature Christmas trees. 6" ones were $1 each. 9" were $2 and smaller 74 cents. Some of them were covered in snow, others in glitter. I bought few smaller covered in snow. I figured I could possibly get off most of the snow with a wire brush or similar tool. Then I would spray paint them green and after paint dried sprinkle on some scenic grass. This is something I have yet to try.

It is no secret that majority of Christmas merchandise goes on sale next day. I didn't get out until the second day so my selection wasn't as big as it possibly could have been. All it was left was several
9" tall Christmas trees in glitter and some ornamental stuff.

I decided to give it a try and see if I can cover up all that glitter. This is where I am at with this experiment. After spraying with green paint some of the glitter is still showing through. I am hoping that after I sprinkle the trees with ground foam and hit with the dulcote the sparkles will disappear.

Building Trawler by Maritime Art Pt.3

Finally I will be able to get back to building what I like most. It was educational to do something else other than structures for a change but I won't be switching hobbies. I don't exclude possibility of building more boats in the future though. I would like to construct a layout with a waterfront so a boat or two will be must. For the time being I am going back to working on the structures.

Building Duffy's Coal by FSM Pt. 2

FOS Scale Models has new web site. It is www.fosscalemodels.com and it is completely re-designed. It is all around well done but the best part of it is large pictures. They showcase the kits much better than the old site. It makes me reach for my wallet...
When it comes to Duffy's I don't have much to say. It is moving along and if I don't make any mistakes then it will fall together without too much effort.

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...