For a short period of time I was the owner of a hobby shop. This was one of those random things that happen and are generally difficult to repeat. If you read the last post you know I finished up a modeling project and had started thinking about the next one. As the idea began to develop for the next diorama I found myself looking for a model of a railway car. There were of course, plenty of them available on eBay but I thought I would try Craigslist first. In my search for “model” I turned up an unusual ad. There was a fellow up in the Brighton area that had a rather large pile of “stuff” in the middle of his garage that he was trying to sell as a single lot.

In the pile of toys and action figures were models. Quite a few of them in fact. And although the picture was poor I could tell that they were the type of models that I am interested in. I contacted the guy and asked him how many models were in the pile and would he consider selling them separately. He would and he thought there were between 60 and 70 of them. So, that Saturday we took a drive in the Jeep, a large sum of money changed hands, and we drove home with a Jeep full of model kits. That afternoon was spent cleaning up the dusty kits, photographing and cataloging them. When all was said and done there were 65 model kits sitting in a stack in the basement. If you have heard the expression “kid in a candy store” you will have some idea of the excitement I was experiencing.

Now honestly, I had no intention of keeping them all…although the thought did cross my mind once or twice. So the more difficult task became which ones to keep and which ones to sell. I managed to whittle it down to a dozen which I set aside for later enjoyment. The remainder I began to list on eBay. We went out and purchased some shipping boxes and packing supplies. It took two weeks to get them all listed and each and everyone sold. Some for $5 and some for as much as $50. In the end, after recouping my investment, paying the eBay and PayPal fees, and deducting the shipping supplies, my little hobby shop turned a profit of $325. Plus I got to keep a dozen models that cost me nothing. Including the railway car I was looking for. Not too shabby for a random business venture. Oh, and special kudos to my “shop assistant” that supports me in crazy schemes like this. 😀

It’s Done. After many hours of careful, detailed craftsmanship between Kristina and I the diorama has been officially declared finis. It becomes difficult with these things to draw the line because there are always additional little things you could add to make the scene just a bit more realistic. However, if you want to move on to the next one you have to stop somewhere. I don’t think the Mistycastle site goes back far enough to detail the beginnings of this creation so if you want a little history on the project you can read the article I wrote back in Oct 2009. It talks about the beginnings and shows some intermediate results.

When Kristina was back for Christmas a few months ago she encouraged me to finish it up so we could start a new one. I decided that was a good idea and we got it out along with all the modelling supplies. Most of the paints were in bad shape being some ten years old but we got the lids off and added some water to them. For the most part the remained usable but I would not want to start a new model with them. the bulk of the diorama was already complete but the 88mm gun had never been painted and the figures all needed to be positioned and mounted to the board. Also missing was some required supporting “stuff” that was needed to round out the scene.

One of the things that had always held me back was painting the gun. I have painted many models over the years but always by brush. I really wanted to learn how to use an airbrush and even purchased one along with a small air compressor some years back but have never gotten serious about using it. Somewhere along the line I sold the little air compressor but I fortunately replaced it with a big air compressor to blow out the sprinkler lines so I still had an air source. I borrowed an air tank from my neighbor and picked up a little regulator from a surplus center and was all set. I practiced on some extra parts from the model that I did not use and it went pretty well but the old PollyScale paint just kept clogging up the airbrush so I decided to invest in some new paint. After a trip to the local hobby shop I was all set. The new Tamiya paint made a huge difference and I am pretty sold on it. I like the way it sprays on. Mastering the airbrush turned out to be easier than I had thought. Keeping the pressure low allows you to be pretty precise with where you put the paint.

So the gun was painted a nice camouflage pattern and looking good. I painted up some new and expended shells, a few tools, canteens, rifles, and decided to add a radio. The radio was from an accessories kit and consisted of six pieces that had to be assembled and painted. I added a wire from the front panel to the antenna to make it look better and sat it on the wall. Not bad but still not quite right. There should be headphones. The kit provided headphones but they were molded into the soldiers head that was using the radio so that did me no good. I decided to make them from scratch using a bit of flattened solder wire, some rubber bits, and tiny wire. It was very tiny but came out looking rather well.

Photographing it turned out to be somewhat of a challenge as well and I ended up taking it outside so there was plenty of light. This adds a distracting background but at least you can see the diorama. One of these days I’ll try and do a proper job of it with some lighting and a plain background but for now here are some pictures of the diorama. For perspective, the motorcycle wheel is the same size as a dime.
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With Winter seems to come an itch that I need to scratch… a project car to tinker on. Two years ago it was the white Jaguar XJ-S. Last year I was in California and then in the midst of moving so no joy. But this year…well, I’ve been on the hunt for a new project car. Mostly I’ve been looking locally on CL for a Triumph, Lotus, Jag, MGB or something British. I missed a really good deal down in the Springs on a TR6 which bummed me out. There hasn’t been much available, which is not surprising given the time of year, but this is the best season to find one priced under the market. I finally expanded my search to eBay which I knew was dangerous because the bulk of the “nice” cars available tend to come from CA or FL. Of course, the selection expands dramatically as well and I was finding all kinds of interesting stuff. I even started looking at some Italian, German, and Japanese classics from the 60’s and early 70’s. Ultimately, I bought a 1971 Datsun 240Z which doesn’t need much work really, mostly cosmetic and interior improvements. It was of course, in CA. “sigh”

So, it is being shipped today. I think this is the first time I’ve ever bought a car sight-unseen. Pictures help a lot but there is only so much you can tell from pictures. I developed a pretty good rapport with the seller during our email/phone exchanges so that helped. I think it will be a fun little project. I’ll get it spiffed up, drive it to a few events this summer, and then probably sell it. Might have a hard time parting with it though! Could always keep it as an “investment”.

We will definitely be having a “White Christmas” this year! This has been one of the snowiest years that I remember since moving to Colorado. A storm came over the Rockies the other night and dumped anywhere from 1-2 feet of snow in the Denver area.  I think we ended up with around 10 inches as we are quite a ways east of the foothills.  I certainly have been grateful for my foresight last summer in buying a snow blower. It was the middle of the summer and we were having a scorcher when the thought occurred to me. You see, we live on a corner lot with one side being adjacent to a main street that runs through the neighborhood and by an elementary school just a few blocks down.  I was killing the weeds along the fence which separates us from the main street when it dawned on me that, when it snowed, I was going to have to clear that sidewalk along with the one in front of the house. That would be a lot of shoveling.

So, I figured what better time to get a good deal on a snow blower than when it’s 90+ degrees outside. I started watching Craigslist and soon found a fellow that was selling one that had belonged to his father who had passed away this year. Barely used, it still had the little whiskers on the tires and it was a Craftsman, self-propelled, electric start, and I got it for $120. WhooHoooo! Let it snow….I’m ready.  And, snow it has…this was the third storm so far this year that has dropped over 4 inches.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to ALL!