A Set of Retro Spaceships

I recently took these screenshots while watching three of the four movies on a newly acquired DVD. With thier less than steller acting and almost comical special effects these videos are definately in the B-rated category. However, I with thier depiction of future space craft I am willing to award them a "E" for effort even though some of their depications are similar to space craft I have seen featured in retro science fiction texts.

Some of the ships, like this one, look like depictions of what we all hope to see sometime in the near future.

Now this space craft definately has retro feel.

As does this one. I have seen this purported design or similar on fronts of clasic books and magazine covers.

Making Miniature Papercraft Architecture!

I am glad I had a "Micro" label for this post. Otherwise I would have had to create one. These miniature structures look like they will be fun to build, even though they are so very small. You will find links to the card stock models and the tools mentioned under the video on YouTude.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. See you all in a few days.

The Bat Mobile

The Bat mobile in the bat cave.

Bat mobile on the street in pursuite.

Screenshots from The Dark Knight.

'Star Wars' exhibit offers rare peek at original artifacts (pictures)

A closup view of dozens of star wars artifacts.

The Wares of three Makers

Three makers three unique projects and a lot of inspiration.

Woodworking - Making a Wooden Pipe

I recently posted a blog post featuring "makers" perfecting the art of pipemaking. Having reclaimed a walnut board at about the right size for a pipe or two I have been looking for ideas for my own pipe project. The author, not only turns out a nice pipe but also a box to store it in.

Saw Making

Although most of the process is a bit out of my skill set the process was simply amazing to watch.

Woodworking - A Treasure Chest of Secret Drawers made from Pallets and Scrap

I have another one of this authors builds that I will eventually post. This author is skilled in multiple disiplines, that is the author made the chest of reclaimed wood and fabricated hinges, a lock and key out of recycled metal sheet. He also used copper straps made from what looked like reclaimed copper sheet. Watching the author pull this project together blew me away.

Symbols are Placeholders

"There is a gateway to the imagination you must enter before you are conscious and the keys to the gate are symbols. You carry ideas through the gate from one time-place to another time-place, but you must carry the ideas in symbols."

Destination: Void, Frank Herbert

And Flattery found himself caught by the wonder of the revelation:

"All men are parts of the total stream he thought. We are tributaries-and our minds are tributaries, and even our most private thoughts. Every pattern in the universe contributes to the whole-some gushing like a freshet and some more like a single touch of dew. All structure is an expression of the same law"

Destination: Void, Frank Herbert

Megatron Mech Unit

I found this mech-unit along with its compatriots at the Dollar Tree. Megatron, appley named, stands approximately 60mm tall and is made from PVC plastic.

The package claims that they, the mechs, are more than meets the eye, but these are static figures and cannot be converted back into their puported original objects.

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Updated at 6:58 PM on 12/11/22

More Japanese Prototypes- Akinori's Toy-Box

Akinori has surely put together a rather collection of his reviews items that interest him. This page is a review of a narrow gauge box cab, and passenger car kits. The kits are cast, from what looks like polystyrene, and are finely detailed.

Akinori has added some details of his own and an oval of track to run his small train.

Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Gandalf's Pipe!

Using the techniques mentioned here, Adam produced a very fine copy of Gandalf's Pipe, that is of the Hobbit fame. However, please keep in mind that the materials and techiques used here are not the best for a pipe you want to actully want to smoke.

1. Using pine, with its high resin content I don't feel it is a good choice for smoking any substance.
2. Adam used a mirrowed copy which he glued together. Having used glue for the stem shouldn't be a problem, but using glue for the pipes bulb kind of concerns me.

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Other Resources for Pipe Making

There are many videos dealing with pipe-making. The following makes suggestions on the types of woods that should and shoudn't be used for pipe making. The authors goes on to describe his chosen techniques and practices for pipe making.

Space Sleep

Cover art of the first edition of Destination: Void

"Aboard the Earthling, they were a hand-picked lot, the 3006 survivors of the toughest weeding-out process the Project directors could devise for their Doppelganger charges. The final six had been the choicest of the choice-the unbilicus crew to monitor the ship untill it left the solar system, then tie off the few manual controls and turn the 200-year crossing to Tau Ceti over to that one lonely consciousness, and Organic Mental Core.

And while the 3006 lay dormant behind the hyb tanks water shields in the heart of the ship, their lives were to remain subject to the servor and sensors surgically linked to the Organic Mental Core."

Destination: Void, Frank Herbert

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Destination: Void-Illusions

"There is nothing concerning ourselves about which we can be truly objective except our phyiscal responeses-the reflections of behavior. We exsist in a forest of illusiosn where their very conception of consciousness merges with illusion...

To be conscious, you must surmount illusion."

...

"Consciousness can project illusions-unsubstantial stimulus objects-onto the screen of your awareness."

Destination: Void, Frank Herbert

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Updated at 12:00pm on 12/12/22

Destination: Void

"Four Scientists and a Human Cargo of Thousands

They were headed toward a planet circling the far distant Tau Ceti-a ripe Eden world waiting to be plucked for the future of the human race. But three fourths of the way through the Solor Stystem, their ship failed: its propelling engines and three all-powerful human brains had suddently, quite inexplicably gone mad.

They were trapped in space, at the mercy of the ship, and there was only one possible solution for survival-to create a "conscious" mechanical brain able to guide them to their destination.

But would there be enough time before they plunged into oblivion-for they were working with limited resources, under unbearable pressure...and against impossible odds."

Destination: Void, Frank Herbert, Berkly Publishing Company, 1966

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Review of and cover art of other editions of Frank Herbert's Destination: Void

5 Essential Frank Herbert Novels That Aren't About Dune

Miniatures, Dioramas, and Structures

• 102 Detailed And Fun Miniature Dioramas
• 25 Cool Examples Of Toy Photography
• Collectors gather 1,200 tiny buildings