A tale of bridges, coupes, and derby's...oh my

Liam

Kyle

 Troop 255 pinewood Derby...Kyle and Liam built cars and raced them...and did pretty well...finished in the middle of the pack...the boys learned a bunch, and next year they will have better design ideas and more hands on in the building....Kyle's car won best in show...Liam's car took home the T-13 effort award...As you can see from the cars in the photos...pinewood car building can take on all sorts of cool designs and shapes...a modelers dream....

car 7 & 8 are liam's and kyle's

more cars

track for pinewood racers

Caleb  bridge designer

Ben  team worker

 My son Caleb is in the MDOT bridge building competition.  His team, A+ Builders....have entered a bridge of his design taken from a Zelda video game...the competition is not only building a bridge, but putting together a proposal, and power point presentation.  The bridge is tested for its ability to bear weight...and judged on other areas as well....there are 3 members to his team...Caleb did the brunt of the building...Ben helped build, and designed the teams logo and cover page and worked on power point and proposal.  Lyvia(not pictured) did almost all of the writing for the proposal and power point.

 I will post up a picture of the bridge real soon, as the competition is Monday April 30th...

dads car in action

sanding and primer

drying after hand brush of future

 This is my attempt at replicating my dads 32 coupe stock car....I am not much of a car builder, and I did a horrible job on the engine and other things...I was attempting the paint scheme...and not so much color perfect...Plus this was my first ever go at airbrushing....

I did not take pictures of the process of masking...I forgot...as we all do at times...doh...my bad!

I did a fair job with masking..on the first round of paint...then I had to remask and paint again...this time I had paint lift...so I had to do it again...and I mixed the paint poorly and had some more issues..Finally I got to the point of...do I start fresh or let it go...I decided to let it go...I had some glue mishaps with the paint..some engine parts that decided to not want to go where they should.

 So, I said PFFFTTT....and just slapped it together. I took a bunch of liberty with free form gluing and fabrication...pretty much how Dad probably did it on the car itself...    ..I am going to make a 2nd 32 coupe stock car...and do it right this time..or AS CLOSE TO RIGHT AS I CAN DO IT...and bring the car into my view of a 21st century version of this stock car..

I hope to do that in the next 3 or 4 months...I have a bunch of Gundams to build and have to find a different kit of this car...

I had a pretty good time putting this together...and I have a sense of accomplishment....My first kit with a airbrush, my first car model in a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time...and as bad as I felt I did...it still looks OK

I am coming away from this build with a TON of respect for car model builders...

Modeling Frenzy...

Been a spell since I posted, but it has been a somewhat busy build time period.  Finished  the Ankoku Gyokuj Psycho SD, The Blue Dual SD, the Goog paint challenge (which still needs a waterside decal) and the Shiba-Shou Xi.

I think as a person who dedicates a significant amount of time to this hobby, you eventually feel a sort of "natural progression".  With airbrushes on the horizon, a whole new set of mistakes are to be made!  As a model building artist, this is how the game is played.  Mistake after mistake until a new plateau of mistakes occur.  All the models shown below are riddled with mistakes, but also lessons learned.  We here now at T-13 Modeling are on the brink of a new ERA!!!  As we celebrate this step forward with Gunpla brothers and sisters world wide, the golden age of modeling for my brother and I is upon us...and we shall embrace it!  Peace brothers and sisters!!!

Ankoku Gyokuji Psycho

Blue Dual SD

Mini Goog challenge

Shiba-Shou Xi

Gouf...mistakes and All

Finished up the Gouf ...I had so many mistakes on this kit...I had actually shelved it...I wanted to do an abstract cammo pattern...and even had primed it in about 5 different shades...then did some masking...it all sucked..I was ticked...shelved it...then..I said crap..fix it to be the best it can be...with my ability...so...not great...but better than bad...LOL!  I gave it the ol college try..learned from my mistakes...and will be a better kit builder for it in the long run....I think it is sad that some people do not post up pictures of their less than perfect projects...you don't jump into a hobby and become a Master on the first kit...or even the first  10(in my case)....You work, you refine skills, and the work begins to show from kit to kit..I am proud of my mistakes...and the hours I put into a NON-PERFECT project...because I am learning and getting more confident with each build...Thanks for Looking...positive comments welcomed..especially in ways to improve .......Cheers...and On to the next project......................

Goufing off, and stuff....

Well....after a long break...I am back rolling on some projects....the Gouf has been painted, and clear coated and now awaits the final stages

Gouf parts ready to go

SD Team challenge

Above are the parts to my Dom SD...for our team paint and build challenge...we must use black, silver, white and gray on this kit...not all the colors but that is the pallet we get to pick from...we must also mask part of the kit for a two tone design, and use a water slide decal somewhere...

Liam has a kit as well, and I will post his up later

The Bird build-off kit

The RX-78-4 above  is up next for a T-13 brothers build off...we will be repping our favorite football teams in our color schemes...more on that later

32 ford for my car project

 the above 32 ford kit is going to be my first car model in some time.  I hope to turn it into a close replica of my Dad's 32 stock car, but with my own little tweaks...

paasche compressor

aztek airbrush

After 7 years of owning the Aztek, I got a compressor for my birthday...and now my model building journey will basically start all over...as I learn the process of airbrushing...looking forward to making a mess with this thing....homemade booth coming soon!!!!