Making, Casting and Weathering Details DVD By Darryl Huffman
I recently purchased Darryl's latest DVD on model building and about to go downstairs and watch it again. I love it!
Darryl takes us through the steps to make some simple detail items such as a picnic table, lobster traps, birds nests and store room shelves. But its not the details that are important. Its how he constructs them and the techniques surrounding the assembly. He makes it look so easy.
I like his natural approach to keep it simple. Anyone can watch this video and go to the shop and reproduce what he's done. There is way more than $20 worth of information and you don't have to scan over ads like a magazine.
It is of great value and I highly recommend it. The filming still leaves a lot to be desired, but it is tough to get close ups of some of this. His wife's hands make a guest appearance and they are much easier on the eyes than Darryl's. But all in all it is a fantastic skill builder!
Since I don't sell advertising I can say whatever I want...so this one gets 4 out of 5 stars!
I'm kind of tired today and its raining, so I think I'll just clean up the shop. The guys are coming over FridayI carried this quart of Eggshell paint down stairs. Marie got if for me for free on line at the Glidden site. Apparently they will send you a quart of pain for free, shipping included!
The back to school sales are running rampant, so I bought two of these quadrille notebooks for $0.50 each. Great deal. I use them for making sketches.
Also snagged for the basement were too large storage jars.
The workbench is a disaster, the victim of three work nights. Better clean it up first.
The nut and bolt assortment is always handy around the house. I'll put it back where it goes underneath the bench.
The drills are all out of power, so I'll put the batteries in the charger and put the drill bits back in their holders.
We've been using the drill press, so I'll vacuum it and give it a coat of WD-40.
This little 2 gallon shop vac is light and portable. Perfect for sucking up sawdust.
There! The drill press is clean again.
...and all the drills are in place and charged. Tape measures, bits and other tools are organized in the same place every time so that my team can find them easily. They know when the come over that they can grab a tape measure and a fully charged drill. And a cup of fresh coffee.
Much better! The executive boardroom is suffering from dust and clutter. This is where we go over plans and sit down to make things.
The dust was worse than I thought, so I removed everything and gave it a good sweeping. One of these days this will be a finished crew room and bar.
All the trash and scrap lumber has been removed and everything is nice and tidy. Wow...it is bigger now.
We won't be sawing much any more, so I better clean up the saw corner as well.
I thoroughly blew off and vacuumed the Dewalt cut off saw and the vacuum system. Now to tend to the floor. I didn't take a picture of it when it was done, but it was all clean and neat.
The shop is a bigger mess. I forgot to clean up the coffee from last train night. Also, I had been cleaning and reorganizing my scenery bins, so there is misc scenery stuff everywhere.
The guys love coffee, but it sure is messy. There is always a coffee spill. I cleaned out the coffee pot thoroughly.
Note to self: buy some more hobby knives. For some reason I keep losing them!
There! Much better. Now I can see my electronics workbench.
The main assembly bench was even worse than this because I forgot to take a picture. Lots of project remnants. Flash! All clean. Trash can is now full and all the tools are back in the draws.
I picked up the floor, too.
I bought some cable ties the other day and they need a place in the electronics bench. There are still some open drawers, so we'll use a big one.
I won't need all of these, so I'll put an assortment in the drawer and put the rest in back up storage somewhere in a cabinet.
There! Now we need a label on the drawer so we know what is in it.
I use this handy (and expensive) labeling computer. Its nice, but not cheap.
There! Now we know what is in it. I better label the drawer above it as well.
I cleaned up the main assembly workbench. It was covered with wood.
The metalworking bench is a wreck. I found a bunch of things in the basement that belonged in the shop, so we'll have to put these away.
Zoom! All clean. This all took about an hour. Well worth it. Mainly so that my team can find what they need when they need it.
Since tomorrow is Father's Day and I have to work, I'm kinda taking it easy today. I got up early and took the family shopping. My kind of shopping. I went to the Ace Hardware (heaven!), Lowe's (sweet) and the Home Depot (paradise). When I go I take my shopping list with me.
Google Docs has a free online spread sheet program that is web based and you can access it anywhere with your secret code. I use it to keep a list of things I need to buy, which is always lengthy. Anytime I need something I just log in and put it on the list. I keep everything in a priority ranking - things I need quickly for the layout are "A" items. Things I'll need eventually or that I'd really like to have are "B" items. Things I want but need to save up for or that aren't critical to what I'm working on are "C" items. Things I can't afford are "D" items. Always lots fo those! Today's shopping netted well over $100 worth of stuff. All of it I needed for the Swamp Layout. You can read about what I did today here: http://swamplayout.blogspot.com/.
The coolest thing I bought was the countersink/screwdriver device that lets you pilot a hole then flip the tool around and screw the screw in. How cool! Packrat Paul had one the other day and I just had to get it. This one comes in a fancy case that I don't need and will probably throw away. Cost was about $12 at Lowes. The bucket brigade!
Ace Hardware was the first stop. My father and uncle both owned Ace Hardware stores and I grew up working in them when I was a kid. I love that store! Today I bought nuts and washers for the gurney project on my layout and some brass screws. The brass screws are for mounting rails on the model railroad at the module joints. Bob Wheeler showed me how to tin the tops and solder the rail to the top for a permanent hard-fixed rail alignment position. Works very well.These are 1 inch #2 screws. I bought more #6 - 1 5/8" drywall screws. You can't buy enough of them when you are building a layout. I should have bought the big bucket. I'm always breaking the 3/32" bits so I bought some more and some other bits to fill the empty holes in my bit box. I bought some light socket adapters and some electrical socket adapters. The light socket adapter turns a light socket into an electrical socket. The electrical socket adapter turns it into a light socket. These cheap and handy devices provide light and power in areas of the basement that aren't yet finished. Thanks Mike Devaney for the light socket idea! The area where my work table is located is not very well lit. I do have electrical outlets in the ceiling so I just put a bulb into the device and... Let there be light! I took the drywall screws and filled up the bins. They are all marked for identification and stored in one area where my friends can easily find them. The bins are removable so they can be taken to the work area and accidentally dumped on the carpet for my bare feet to find. Howard Goodwin told me about Patch n Paint. This is a stucco patch material that he uses to fill in gaps in foam scenery. I suspect it has lots of fun uses and I'm going to play with it. My wife reminded me to look on the Oops! paint shelf at Home Depot. I found a gallon of gray acrylic and a gallon of beige acrylic. The gray will be used a base coat for lots of things. The beige will be the base coat for the top of the layout and the foam material. $5.00 a gallon! Normally $24.00. You can't beat that! If they had not painted the lids, I'd have put the paint on them. I'll also write on the cans while I intend to do with it because I'll forget. A quick swing through Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers fast food restaurant for some ice tea yields some more souffle cups. This handy little ketchup cups are disposable and good for small quantities of glue or paint. I use them in the shop by the dozen. I borrow a hand full every time I visit, and some spoons, too. I didn't realize the castors I bought required fine thread nuts. The hand Ace Hardware guy saw it right off.
Marie needs some more wood filler, so I took a reminder picture. When I download the "note to myself" I'll add it to the shopping list. Digital cameras rock! I just had to play with the countersink & screw bit. Its a two headed bit with a #6 countersink on one side (which can be changed to other sizes) and a Phillips head bit on the other. So cool. I know you probably have one of these, but I was unaware of them and think the are handy! Today I was working in the Swamp and the concrete was bothering my feet. I keep a stack of these handy floor pads and put one in every area where I might stand for a while Today it was in front of my assembly workbench.
It is hot today, so I kept the fan in the Swamp running. Continually moving the air makes it feel cooler. I cut some wood today out in the back yard. I'm a firm believer that if you can't afford $500 for a table saw, just don't buy one. This cheap Ryobi ($89) has cut a lot of wood but it is very dangerous. It has no weight to it, the fence is wobbly and doesn't cut worth a damn. I could just go to Home Depot and have them make big cuts for me. Cheap tools don't work. Cheap power tools are dangerous. Ask yourself, "How much are my fingers worth?" Coming off my Chop Saw accident, I'm changing my mind about some of my tools. This one is now history. Clamps. Here is my policy on clamps. When you think you have enough, you've just started. When someone else says "you have a lot of clamps" you are now half way there. When you find clamps in upstairs closets you now have enough. These cheap clamps are used to hold some boards and temporary legs in place. I have a huge box full of them, all kinds. Steel C-clamps, grippers, bar clamps, pipe clamps, you name it. Still don't have enough.
I recently purchased Darryl's latest DVD on model building and about to go downstairs and watch it again. I love it!
