Beer, Sex & IronHeads

To anybody out there is is paying attention or has an opinion.

I have begun painting the engine for the Land Raider, however I'm not really set on a color for the main body. My Space Marine Force so Far has been UltraMarines, but I have been thinking about either creating my own chapter or mixing up some schemes. Any thoughts?

What if I painted it up like the General Lee? Bright orange with the stars and bars. Do you think I could get away with saying that my Land Raider can make any jump across any difficult terrain once per game. Get a similarly painted army, call them the "Lords of Hazzard"?

Just thinking out loud.

-IronDrake

Current Location: between Rock and Hard place
Current Music: dukes of hazzard theme

Monday after a long Holiday weekend. I like to think i got alot accomplished.

First thing I did was turn my old Zune in for a brand new HD version
touch screen, and I really like the HD radio, since my car radio hasn't worked since I bought it.




Got Started on the Land Raider. I was going to wait on this, but I couldn't help myself. I had been waiting for paint and glue to dry on everything else. So I grabbed my nips and my sanding stuff and went to work. Everything went into a dish-soap bath. Remember Kids painting is 90% Prep work, if it doesn't look good before you paint it won't look that much better afterward.



Thanksgiving was hard on the dogs. So much attention. So much food. so very tiring...



This morning I started painting the Engine on the Land Raider. basecoated with Satin Black. I've only got 3 colors on so far. Brass, Boltgun metal, and Mithril silver. No wonder this kit is expensive. It has so much detail, but when it's assembled you'll never see half of it.Maybe I'll figure out a way to be able to take the top off or something.




That's all for now, more much later.

-IronDrake

I am working on a thought project. I am looking to get as many opinions and thoughts from you as possible, and if you want to share this to get other thoughts and opinions from others you think have a great deal to add.

I want to use the Toyota Method to "map out" pro wrestling as it involves: Indy wrestling as a whole.

I know there is alot here but please try to read through it as there is much that I think specifically refers to what we do and what we want to do.

I believe that in the times to come some things are getting lost in translation and some things have just become so routine they aren't thought about at all anymore. I wanted to get as much about your thoughts as possible. To do this I have written out some things to help you help me understand what we are doing and how to make things better. There is more here then this but it involves taking whatever you can give me and putting it to paper that "shows" so much and how to reach results.

At work we employ the Toyota method which is as follows: it's not the cars, it's how they make the cars. Using exceptional excellence as a strategic weapon.

2 Values: Respect for all people and Continuous improvement. The Toyota Method involves several elements.

The first is the fundamental Pyramid which as 5 steps:
1. Building Trust.
2. Mastering Conflict
3. Achieving Commitment.
4. Embracing accountability
5. Focusing on results.


This goes through a process of principles:

Long term philosophy
1. basing decisions on long term philosophy even at teh expense of short-term financial goals

Process
2. create continuous flow to bring problems to the surface
3. Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction
4. level out he workload
5. build a culture of stopping to fix problems to get quality right the first time
6. standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and empowerment
7. use visual controls so no problems are hidden
8 use only reliable thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes

People and partners
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy and teach it to others
10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophy.
11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them to improve

Problem Solving
12. Go and see for yourself to understand the situation
13. Make decisions carefully, implement rapidly
14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement

I've bee up since 5:30 this morning and I went to bed at 1:30 last night. Despite this I got a lot done today.

So I went out today and gave HobbyTown USA my Business, something one should always strive to do, though I think I splurged a bit much. Picked up a LandRaider and "Assault on Black Reach" which gives you a space marine army with terminators and a Dreadnaught, and a Heavy Ork force. I also found these awesome hinges to build the ramp and hatch on the Thunderhawk






Had the hardest time trying to find a "lazy susan" plate. Home depot wanted to sell me a whole cabinet and Ace didn't know what I was talking about. Jeez. Picked up these reflectors, and painted a few black, lots of things I can do with these




A little paint, some stickers and some finishing agent and...




And got the Voltron Shield done...Yeah!




I keep adding to this list. Right now my list of projects stand as:

1. Complete base for Enterprise to finish display.
2. Continue work on Enterprise A
3. Continue Work on Stryker project.
4. Continue work on Thunderhawk gunship
5. Continue work on Drop-ship.
6. Continue painting Heroquest, Lord of the rings, and Dragon Strike miniatures
7. Begin Work on Klingon Bird of Prey
8. Begin work on lighted Enterprise NX-01
9. Begin work on LandRaider
10 Begin work on "Assault on Black Reach" Miniatures.
11. Finish work on New Brass knuckles title belt.

...Did I forget anything...whew!

That's all for now, I plan to be busy for the rest of the evening and Sunday, and Thanksgiving break.

Current Location: chained to project desk

So the work continues on the Dice rolling tower. Always one to do my own thing. I decided to Make it look like the Castle of Lions From Voltron.

I swear once the paint is applied you can see where this is going.



The shield of Voltron. Waiting for the yellow to dry before I go back and apply the black which will cover up that smear on the bottom.



So the HobbyTown USA closed in Monroeville and is re-opening in Irwin today. I know it's expensive for alot of places in Monroeville, but Irwin is just a bit farther then I want to go, but it's still better then trying to get to Oakland and finding a place to park. I got a coupon in the mail for the re-opening $20 off any purchase of $40 or more. If they have a Landraider I'm getting me one of those...or I'm going to end up buying alot more paint.

A quick stop at the Hardware store to pick up a lazy susan for the spray booth and otherwise Metal Gear Solid 4 for the rest of the day. If you are important enough you know how to get ahold of me when I'm oot and aboot, go ahead and call to find out where I'm at I'm pretty much up for anything today.


"You turned a DeLorean into a time-machine?!?"

-IronDrake

Current Location: under your bed

I have to go to work and there are all these Imperial Guardsmen and Space Marines just milling around my desk. Don't you have Heretics and Chaos to take care of?!?

Current Location: Holy Terra

So before Bed I leave you with this.

Dice rolling tower.

I got this from this website: Terrain For Hippos terrainforhippos.blogspot.com/ Article Here: terrainforhippos.blogspot.com/2009/09/ishoo-seven-dice-towers.html

Lots of cool stuff here, and rather cute as well as informative. I seen this Dice rolling tower and had to make one. So here's how far I got so far.



Still working on that Belt. Lots of Paint to get off, so nothing of interest to report there.

I did however make the first forward progress on the ThunderHawk in almost 3 years.

TA-DA!



I started working on the engines. I also got more done with the wings. I swear it'll look better once I get more of the frame together and I can start put skin on the fuselage.

That's all for Today, I got plans for first thing in the morning before work, and see how well this week pans out for me.

Good night everyone

- IronDrake

Current Location: Fortress of Hera, Macragge

Watching the "Chiller" channel. Marathon running today, very interesting show called: Freaky Links. Kinda of a homebrew X-files. I like it.

So let's get this project train rolling. Let's see what we have on the bench for today.

Here I have all the miniatures that need painting set-up in the new spray booth so I can get them base-coated with Satin Black.



Once these are all base-coated they can get detailed. That is the part that takes the most time.

Also I have the Thunderhawk Gunship and the Drop-ship project back on the desk, maybe get some new life started happening this way.



Finally I have a Championship belt to work on. Yeah! this is going to take alot of work.



This belt belonged to somebody and was the "bringing Sexy Back" championship?!?!? I will be redeco'ing this into a real championship in the near future...meanwhile, I got a jug of paint thinner to attack this thing with.

So that's what I got for right now. I will be posting progress reports for all 3 of these during the week so stay tuned for whatever my demented mind can think up.

I love the game HeroQuest.  it has alot of the same good stuff as D&D with-out games going on for hours, or people reading through manuals the whole time to figure out what's going on.  Maybe I've just had bad D&D sessions or I have ADD.   HeroQuest is actually the brainchild of Games Workshop, the guys that created  WarHammer and WarHammer 40k.  It was made specifically for Milton-Bradley as a bridge for those that were familiar with board games but to try something that could increasingly be more challenging the more it was played and sequel packs would give you more quests and miniatures.  In Europe there was a true sequel: Heroquest advance.  Which followed more towards WarHammer, and Space Crusade; a board game version of 40k complete with Terminators and Tyranids.   Heroquest would later be cancelled and to this day I believe Milton-Bradly no longer holds the right to this, but neither does Games Workshop.  But does have a loyal following of players that have come up with more quests, and cards and tiles and lots more stuff to keep people playing.  Check them out here:

www.yeoldeinn.com/ 
HeroQuest by Pheonix:
www.freewebs.com/phoenixgd/


I bought HeroQuest back in '93 after playing it with my cousin and his friends and became instantly hooked.  Even my mom enjoyed playing HeroQuest.  Later on I found out that even though I had every right to paint my miniatures, some people did it surprisingly well.  Well I went out and scoured Ebay for another box, and Dragon Strike( the D&D answer to Heroquest, though not as good, but had miniatures as well.)

Here are some of my figures from the last time I painted them.

Current Location: The caves of Mordak

As soon as I'm done organizing things I will start on my projects again ( I swear)

Here's a small virtual tour to see how things look so far:



Here's the main painting and assembly desk with magnifying work light.  There are drawers built in to the wall to that left that hold most of the paints, tapes, glues, putties, stock and bitz partz .  Charger for the hand held dremel.  And other bitz in the desk drawer.

 

Here is the new Spray booth section.  this is made from a very small desk with a hutch.  On top are all of my spray paints, clear coats and thinner. 
The top shelf has holes in it to hang wires down to spray things in mid-air.
What you are seeing in the back is a Furnace Filter surrounded by cardboard walls.  Behind that is a fan and another filter creating a HOOD system that sucks all the paint away and traps it in the filters and not all over the wall or in the rest of the room and the window behind that.  Underneath you can see my compressor for running my airbrushes.  All that's left to do is get a lazy susan so I can have a rotating platform so I only have to touch that to turn my project with-out actually touching it and ruining it.




My little more spacious computer desk, with my awesomely fast computer. woot.




Notice the drawers on the right.  these match the drawers on the other side of the room and I have my leather working stuff, air compressor.airbrush tools, brushes, and other bitz in here as well.  I have lotz of bitz.


My credenza and bookshelf.  I actually have a place now for all my books, which is awesome.  The credenza will be used to display my projects, and store my board games ( You can see my HeroQuest in the background(awesome game))



Finally the last corner of my studio.  this will be a display for projects as well and you can see my lightsaber already on display, and my HumiHumidor shelf for all my good cigars, as well as my video library.




I still have a huge mess in the center of the room to organize, and a 6 ft table I may set-up for my gaming landscapes.  So by as early as 2 weeks, maybe December, especially with thanksgiving and Christmas break around the corner.  I will have plenty of time to get things started again, and I will have all of my tools in one place to create anything I want.

The past few months have been a whirlwind of events.  BDW shutdown, and BDW will be back again this month In Brilliant Ohio.  October was a sub-par month for me as Work really enveloped much of my life.  I have been awake since 5:30 trying to make some progress in straightening and organizing my studio room as much as possible.  I have been working at my comp from a very small desk and have been cramped in this room for very long now.  I have finally have one good day off today to try and get as much done as possible.  Well...that and I have Metal Gear Solid 4 on my new PS3 to play as much as possible as well also.   

Tomorrow: more work till Thanksgiving day  a small break, and then until Christmas.  See how much I can get done or how much I can screw up.



So I leave you with this:

Current Location: a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Pro Wrestling

I love this business.  No-one can say I don't.  I may not always understand this business, or all the people in it.  I may not always understand my place or future, but I have always loved being a wrestler and competing in the ring.



I got word Yesterday that BDW was closing it's doors.  A company that had run for just over 6 years.  I am proud to have been a part of something that was really great.

I met Rikk many years ago when I was first starting in this business, and he has always been a class act with me.  BDW was about the wrestlers and giving young guys a chance to break out  and turn heads...and it worked.  Alot of guys came through those curtains that gained the experience and confidence to do more with themselves. 

Overall the machine that is pro wrestling won't stop to mourn the loss of it's own, but something will be missing.

It was a good run.  It was good times. 

Here's to the future...

So a little primer and then it all went to hell...I'm going to do another one and just use the Krylon Satin white plastic paint as a base color.  This one I used the krylon and then hit it with Duplicolor metalcoat ground effects for a metal/silver color, which looks awesome, but is way too thick and hides alot of the panel lines.  It sure is shiny though...

I also used Clear metallic Red, Blue and Amber, otherwise looks alot like his G1 coloring:







There are still some panel lines to fill in and vents, that and such that need painted black...he's too shiny otherwise I thought some weathering might look good.  Not sure aboot keeping the nose cone blue or making it black.  I dunno.  Liek I said I'm going to do another one and maybe the satin white, or jsut use that as a primer and do light ghost grey which would really match his G1 coloring.  The Macross Variant , all the colors seem to be way too yellowish...maybe stick with grey/white for that also.

More later.

Current Location: Planet Junk

So while I have been busy cutting out the aztec pattern on the Enterprise, it has gotten really repetitive, ie: boring.  Just need something else to juice my brain a little.  Here's a project I've been thinking of for a while that I'm going to do during my Enterprise breaks.  More or less just repainting.

Transformers: Animated
StarScream







This is a great figure, but really stuck out about it to me were a few things:

1. His grey is more like a bluish/purplish color...really distracting. especialy the bright orange cockpit.
2. His guns, should look more like they can actually do something
3.Gerwalk mode!



So I got 2 figures.
1 is going to be an Original series repaint in his Grey/red/blue markings, and the other is going to be done like a Macross Valkerie fighter, the gerwalk mode really sells it for me.


That and a hell of alot easier to transform then official Macross fighters,ask me how I know :-(

Othe rthen modding the head for the Macross version and doing somethign different with the guns, it should be a great repaint which depending on how well I do I might end up Ebaying  jsut so I can do more of these.

So far I got a Satin white base on the Vf-1 figure


So expect a few updates with these two guys in it soon.

More later.

Current Location: SDF-1, Macross Island
Current Music: You got the touch

so...how long has it been now...I dunno...anyway.  On to Aztecing...is that a word?
I couldn't get my office copier to work with the low-tack frisket masking.  It would curl and melt.  I had kinko's transfer the image onto transparency and use spray glue to put it onto the frisket.  now that that's done you just cut, peel and stick.

I decided to cut out the clear sections...lots of little lines.  I'm using a very sharp, thin, pointy xacto blade to get the cuts right



As you start peeling the sections off, you can see the panel lines underneath which will give this so much more depth.






ok, ok...some lines need cleaned up a bit more, but once it's painted it'll blend very nicely...so I won't get nayhting else done till I get all these lines cut out, that goes for the bottom section as well as the top section of the saucer. 

Check back on me in a week to see if I'm still sane!

Current Location: Ten Fwd

I've been so busy these last few weeks, other then putting the Harley up for sale(no calls at all :-( )  I haven't gotten anything else done.

Knee - Strain and partial tear of my MCL.  Going to see the orthopedic surgeon next week.  Knee only hurts alot first thing in the morning...just enough to make me not want to go to work

Wrestling - Busted knee doesn't stop me from getting myself into this.  Had some good times and some scary moments, but everyone is allright.

Enterprise - This project has stalled since I took all that time to try and carve a nice base for it and realized later it was spelled wrong(sigh)  I need to finish this, and might try for that this weekend. All that's left is final paint, paint the model stand, attach all the other small pieces and attach to the base.  The plan is to have a dedication plate mounted to the base so it looks more movie like.

Enterprise A -  I fit the flux chillers into the nacelles and puttied them in, along with the garden windows.  I keep forgetting to take the aztec to kinkos or something to get it transferred onto frisket.  I should've had that done weeks ago.

Hobby Room -  When you can't find your window maker cement, it's time to clean and reorganize.  I still need to set-up a real paint-booth in the other room.  Maybe I do have too much stuff...

Other - I have to lay down wood flooring in the basement where I'm going to be putting in a bar.  Already have alot of alchohol, a dart board and a mini fridge.  Now I'll have some place to keep the nice stemware and shot glasses.  Maybe after all that I will get to relax this weekend.

Menwhile, I have to get myself to work.  The world won't save its self.

Well after much debate. I am selling the Evo Sportster.  Got an ad on Craigslist, so if it doesn't go too soon I'm not worried.

1994 Harley-Davidson XLH 883 Sportster Hugger.
22865 miles
Runs strong. light surface rust on bars and pipe shields. Mounted Saddlebags, Mustang Solo seat, Motherwell luggage rack. Flame Paint Job with Flame accent covers and "ride to live" covers. Top-end redone in 04. FLH Fenders, Back fender paint is chipped and cracked (picture). Great for touring or around town.   Asking $4000










I don't really expect anybody from here to be interested in it, but it sure is a pretty bike.  I'm not too interested in selling the Ironhead yet.  Had to go to the Hospital for an MRI yesterday, and took the Ironhead because I didn't want to pay for parking. hehe.  Hey it was bad enough I had to wait over a week jsut to get an MRI and I had to schedule my own appointment becuase my Doctors office wouldn't schedule for anyplace except for "their" clinic which had shitty hours.  Best therapy for my knee though has been working 10 hour days clearing out the old children's Hospital.  Now we officially have too much stuff.  Going to Oil City Monday to clear out another Hospital. YEAH!!

It has been a while since I posted and alot has happened.  I turned 30 and it felt like my body immediately started falling apart.  This past week I had another injury to my knee.  This first day the pain was incredible and made worse by the fact that the doctor couldn't get me a scheduled MRI till next week. WTF.  My knee feels alot better now, though hurts to walk sideways, but I can do squats and get up and down stepsand into my car with no problems, so I doubt I have a serious tear like the doctor thinks.


So anyway back to thsi project which i have left sitting for the past few weeks.  I gave the whole thing a shiny coat and then gave the saucer a flat coat for prep for the aztec-ing.  On the inside it got a coat of Black then a coat of gloss white, and I'm laying down reflective chrome duct tape to reflect as much internal light as possible.  


You can see the section that didn't get painted is yellow-ish white.  this is where the ship identifing deacls go and make it look like a spotlight would be illuminating them.  Got the idea from another website.



I didn't get to paint on of the nacelles yet and thought it was a good contrast..  The upper has the gloss white and reflective chrome behind the flux chiller so the blue will look fantastic with the lighting inside.



Outside of the main hull you cna see where I opened up the windows and cut out the garden room deck windows



I will use CD cases (everything I have has been exportred to my Comp as MP3's and I keep the discs in a soft case now anyway)  Just a little dremeling and frost the windows so you can't see anything except the light.  This will be fantastic. 

I know, I know. You're all wondering about the first model.  I haven't spray the finishing coat on yet and am still working with the base issue for the switch and batteries.  I need to finish teh base first then I will do the rest I plan on finishing it soon.  Meanwhile I still have the Klingon BOP to start and I picked up another NX-01 Enterprise becuase I want to light this one...Damn at this rate I will be busy for another year.





Just a pic of the DLM reflector dish with the sides painted allowing light to come in though the dashed ring of light.  Yeah!

I am officially an old mess. 30 years today. Certainly not where I thought I'd be 10 years ago, but not disappointed either. Maybe in 10 years I'll be on the other side of the world, but probably not. Chances are I'll still be kicking, out on 2 wheels or people in the head. Beer, Sex & Ironheads Forever.

Current Location: Shady Oaks retirement village