Hasegawa 1/700 IJN Aircraft Carrier Akagi

This waterline model was a gift from one of my daughters last Christmas and I just got around to building it. It went together pretty quick and I had fun with it.

Dragonsdawn Booknook

 My oldest daughter loved the book nook I made her for Christmas so much that she asked for another one for her birthday, in two days! This time she wanted a theme based on Anne McCaffrey's Pern, another book series she loved growing up. I started it two weeks ago and modeled it after the Dragonsdawn book cover art by Michael Whelan.

Full painting by Michael Whelan

This was a real challenge for me since I am not an artist or sculptor. I thought about it for some time and decided to go with a 3D flat image effect for the figures. I started by rough cutting out the girl and dragonets. I glued the girl to some 7/16" basswood, then cut the figure out with a Xacto knife, and sanded the edges smooth. I painted the exposed edges to match the front. The dragonets were glued to some cereal box cardboard scrap and cut out. The wings, tail, and heads were bent to give more of a 3D impression.

Next I glued up some packing foam scraps to form the cave. I filled in the gaps with watered down vinyl spackle, and sealed the whole thing with Mod Podge.

I used cosclay to make three of the larger tree trunks.

I had to make an attempt at a sort of alien landscape painting for the inside of the box.

My second attempt at the landscape and I called it good.

I worked in the trees, using the ones I made and some more made from weeds and wood putty.

The lighting consists of a yellow and two white LED chip lights, a coin battery pack and a secondary pushbutton switch mounted through the front.

I decoupaged three of Michael Whelan's cocept drawings to the outside case.

And an alternate bookcover to the otherside, not wanting to duplicate what is inside.

I hope she likes it!

Back to Ships

I pulled my Kriegsmarine fleet back out, and finished installing the labels. I need three more light cruisers: two Königsberg class, and one Leipzig class. Pluss several U-Boats. I'm saving up a list with more British, Japanese, Italian, and French ships to print, the next time I start up the printer.

Hogsmeade Lighted Diorama

I finished the next Christmas present on the list. This one is for the youngest daughter, to go with the small lighted Hogwarts diorama I made for her last year. This was actually a sort of sickening experience. Since I wasn't sure of what I was doing, I didn't plan very well. I added so much detail to make it really Hogsmeade, then ended covering it all up with snow! I just felt sick about it. But that is what she wanted, Hogsmeade in deep snow, like in the movies. If I were to do it again, I would leave out 80% of the detail!

I hope she likes it!

Hogsmeade traced out on the foam base with the lake portion cut in

The base I used is an old part of an old Barbie display package left over from my daughter's childhood. I saw its value back then and saved a few of them. I never throw anything away!

3V coin battery pack installed

The bottom of the foam base hollowed out for the battery pack

Checking out the placement of the village houses. I printed the houses on my Ender 5-Pro

Setting the railroad track

Preliminary paint is on and the houses are set in place

Details are added and some more dry brushing

The boathouse and dock ended up including three overturned boats in winter storage. All covered up by the snow

All of the flocking, brush, trails, and street detail get completely covered over