“There are windfalls of dreams, there’s a wolf in the stars,
And Life is a nymph who will never be thine,
With lily, germander, and sops in wine.
With sweet-brier.
And bon-fire,
And strawberry-wire,
And columbine.”
Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
“Why did she cock her pretty blue eye,
At the lad with the silver buckles?
When the penniless lad who was handsome and spry.
Got naught but a rap on his knuckles?”
Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
Disk One
The Original
Chestnut
The Stray
Disk Two
Dissonance Theory
Contrapasso
The Adversary
Trope L’Oeil
Disk Three
Trace Decay
The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Bicameral Mind
I just completed watching season 1 of WestWorld. Although the plot was excellent, I am left feeling a bit disturbed by the ending of the last episode.
Recently found a new epoxy for assembling metal parts. Usually these epoxies dry in a grey color. Gorilla Epoxy can be used to bond metal, wood, ceramics, glass, and most plastics. Gorilla Epoxy sets in five minutes and dries clear.
“Who are you? Who is me?
Answer my riddle and come and see.”
“I milk blue ewes; I reap red flowers,
I weave the story of dead hours”
“What is it that’s a tree, and yet not a tree, a man and yet not a man, who is dumb and yet can tell secrets, who has no arms and yet can strike?”
“Dig and delve, delve and dig, harness the mare to the farmers gig.”
Riddles as spoken to Master Nathaniel by the fairy, Polumus.
Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
There are four sprue full of random sized stones. These look dressed stone, AM Models # 502, and they look like they would need form roughing-up with a razor saw or wire brush. Perhaps I’ll apply a hobby knife to a few of these stones to suggest the stones being knocked around a bit. They will also need some paint and dry brushing. Might be great for a foundation. The online ad mentions that the package will cover ten square inches.
I recently came across these HO scale AM Models #550 latches and hinges. The package includes four latches and twenty-four hinges. The castings come on two sprue and are delicately formed out of polystyrene. The hinges will make a great addition to some larger door and the latches can be included on industrial structure of some sort.
As found in an ancient illustrated volume bound in vellum, titled the Herbal Plants of Dorimare.
“These berries are win-coloured, and crawl along the ground, and have the leaves of wild strawberries. They ripen during the first quarter of the harvest moon, and are only to be found in certain valleys of the West, and even there they grows but sparsely, and, for the sake of birds, and children, and other indiscreet lovers of fruit, it is well that such is the case, for they are a deadly and insidious poison, though tardy in their action, often lying dormant in the blood for many days.”
Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees
Pridham is the creator of "Safe Harbor", an incredibly detailed miniature village, which took more 4,000 hours to build. Each individual component of Safe Harbor is built from scratch. I admire Pridham's fortitude and dedication. His work is truly inspiration.
The following page, with its page sixty pages feature many examples of scratch-built structures of all sorts. I am no where ready for a larger project like many of these. I believe that one should start with smaller projects and build up your skill level and competence. I have scratch built a few structures, some I am proud of any I have had many that I have not been happy with.
So here I am building, kits. But instead of building them as per instructions I find ways to alter them a bit. Find ways to weather them, making your kits to look like they have not been kept up with.
You will find many fine examples of scratch-built structures on these pages to inspire you to dream. To dream of the day when you have the skills and the competence to build a master piece. Until then keep on building. Build those simple plastic kits, build a craftsmen's kit or two, here again, try a simple kit at first, and try your hand at scratch building small structures at first. Make use of a verity of materials and techniques and above all have fun.
Interesting site that features Sheds, Shacks, & Shanties sculptures.
This is a small Woodland Scenics structure constructed of white metal and looks like it will be a quick and fun little project. The smoke house comes with a pile of wood, a fire box, a rack for meats waiting to be brought into the house, three “stone” wall sections and a wooden door. It seems that there are pros and cons on the use of construction materials and how a smoke house should be constructed. This smokehouse seems to be constructed rather tightly, with the possible exception of its wood plank door.
It is really in the details. A model can look great; however with the right details the project can be exceptional. I have been slowly unpacking my scratch building materials and stowing them away in my workbench cabinets and draws.
Most injected polystyrene scale doors have very little detail, which is fine for those structures that will not be placed so close to the front of the layout. But for those that will be receiving some scrutiny add those hinges, latches, and door knobs, even if it’s only a glob of brass paint.
These hinges could be used for ¼ scale or on some heavy door in 1/87.
Nuts and Bolts make structural components more rigid and secure, however there is very little need using these very small bolts on anything that is not going to receive a lot of scrutiny.
I read somewhere that one should detail those scenes that are close to the front of the layout in detail. A viewer then gets the idea that the whole layout is just as detailed. These bolts are for ¼ scale but will definitely add the scene by amplification.
I am sorry, I have been in doldrums. I hope to have more on the deck this month.
