Hobby and Craft Corner

[pacific]

Love 'em!

[maddocgrotsnik]

I can also do pretty much any cotton or polyester clothing. Just need the appropriate print medium.

Which is nice. See, as a tall fella, I traditionally struggle to find non-plain jeans in my size, and within my tastes. But now? Now I can decorate any old black pair of jeans as a I see fit. Black specifically because I’m a goff, innit,

[Haighus]

Jun 14, 2023 14:32:21 GMT -5 maddocgrotsnik said:

I can also do pretty much any cotton or polyester clothing. Just need the appropriate print medium.

Which is nice. See, as a tall fella, I traditionally struggle to find non-plain jeans in my size, and within my tastes. But now? Now I can decorate any old black pair of jeans as a I see fit. Black specifically because I’m a goff, innit,

Ah, so you will be decorating them with white checks and dags? Ready for a good krumpin'?

[maddocgrotsnik]

Well, I am partial to Ska, so maybe!

[bobtheinquisitor]

Had to make a superhero costume quickly and under budget.  For the body, I’d bought a red jumpsuit and a purple cape on clearance, with some purple gloves and old snow boots for the body of the costume.  A Magneto helmet costs a lot of money, but a cheap Greek helmet, not very much at all.  Unfortunately, I had less than 12 hours to alter it, so no time to spray paint it red and add purple trim.  Dollar store foil tape to the rescue!

!

[mdgv2]

And whilst to you it is July, to me it is….a Tuesday.

Wait. No. Thought I was M Bison there for a second. Don’t you hate it when that happens,

Anyway, to me, it is also July, but that just means it’s time to gear up for this years Great Global Ghost Hunt. This is a FB group where crafty type make wee ghosty trinkets, and hide them around their towns for people to find. No charity behind it, no politics. Just a fun wee project.

I currently have enough silicon moulds to do 26 castings at a time. But I want to get that up to 40 castings. So I’ll need another 7 moulds, which I’ve already picked out on Etsy (because being crafty, I like to support small and micro businesses in turn).

Other than those, I’ve somewhere around 3/4 to 4/5 of resin mix left over from last year (I checked. And it’s shelf stable so won’t have denatured or owt), so one more batch of that, and some gorgeous chameleon tints should be about it for this year’s production run. You can find the tints here www.amazon.co.uk/LETS-RESIN-Chameleon-Saturated-Shifting/dp/B0978SSZWT/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=0fEJu&content-id=amzn1.sym.72fa84e5-4730-4039-9e38-3a9afc8c18e9%3Aamzn1.symc.adba8a53-36db-43df-a081-77d28e1b71e6&pf_rd_p=72fa84e5-4730-4039-9e38-3a9afc8c18e9&pf_rd_r=0P56SREZ1JA6M0SF38H1&pd_rd_wg=UojWn&pd_rd_r=0f718fbc-f641-4da7-874c-162d4b4996bc&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m

As I have friends wanting to help distribute, and I’m pretty sure my colleagues with Smols wouldn’t say no, looking for a total production run of around 600 this year. Because not only is it a nice thing to do? But it’s a pleasant way to spend an autumnal evening. Fill your bag, wrap up warm, head out on a wander.

Will also send a bunch up to Mah Paw, who volunteers at Abbotsford, a borders country house built by Sir Walter Scott, who recently added a Witch Trail to their attractions. So it just makes sense!

[mdgv2]

Also, another new hobby presents itself. During the Pandemic, I supported my formerly local live music venue via their Patreon. As I was saving a significant sum each month due to no commute and no pub, I did their top tier. Which included a free electric guitar at the end of the year.

A guitar I never did pick up from them. But….it’s still there, and being posted to me!

My mate Dave is a mental good and self taught guitarist, so hoping to get some help and pointers in due course.

[mdgv2]

And having last month found a set of Real Ghostbusters for a decent price? This month I’ve just bagged a Firehouse.

I think I’m about done with that collection!

[mdgv2]

It’s October! Which means The Great Global Ghost Hunt begins soon.

First two batches of 40 each well underway.

[pacific]

A hobby I have other than mini painting (which I guess is quite adjacent to it) is plastic model kit building (mostly planes, sometimes motorbikes or other sci-fi stuff). Just finish off this 1/72 scale harrier, which was a very old (80s I think) Fujimi kit - which are normally great, but the old kit meant I spent weeks trying to sand/file it down to get it to fit. It was only £7 but probably not worth the cost in labour!

I was really struggling to find somewhere to display the stuff so it has all gone on the wall of the man-cave (I thought "I'm in my 40s now and f*ck it I will do what I want! ) These are all 1/72 scale, a lot of which were done since the original lock down and when I had a lot more indoors-time on my hands!

Attachments:

[bobtheinquisitor]

They’re cool. I especially like the Eurofighter and the Flanker.

[Haighus]

I have a soft spot for the diddy Harrier.

[pacific]

Thanks guys! They are all planes that I have a fondness for (which helps considering how many hours they take!) The Flanker I've modelled on the exact plane that came to the Fairford Air Tattoo in the early 90s - there was a brief period when relations had cooled and loads of the Russian air force came over to the UK, as hard as that is to imagine now - and I think it was one of the first showings of the Flanker in public, at least in Britain. I remember there had been a few Tornadoes and Jaguars taking off, which are all impressive enough in their own right, but the Flanker pilot must have been told to push the envelope and show off a bit - he literally just pointed directly upwards and went straight up from take-off till he was a dot in the sky. Then you had all of the tail-slides, stopping in the air and things of that nature, which really a plane of that size shouldn't be able to do. It was just the most awesome thing my young teenage self had ever seen, and has stuck with me to this day!

The Harriers are impressive as hell, too, definitely one you need ear buds for! You still get some European (the later McDonald Douglas/US version) but I still think it's a real shame that there are no more in service with the RAF.

[bobtheinquisitor]

I remember seeing that footage in the 90’s and being blown away. The Flanker was already shmexy as hell, so the thrust vectoring pushed into my shortlist for most awesome airplanes ever.


The Harrier is cool, but the vibe I always got from the military shows in the nineties was: “Send in a helicopter!” “Don’t got none.” “Send in an A-10!” “None of them neither.” “…” “…” “*sigh* Send in the harrier.” “On its way!”

[pacific]

Nov 6, 2023 13:35:30 GMT -5 bobtheinquisitor said:

I remember seeing that footage in the 90’s and being blown away. The Flanker was already shmexy as hell, so the thrust vectoring pushed into my shortlist for most awesome airplanes ever.


The Harrier is cool, but the vibe I always got from the military shows in the nineties was: “Send in a helicopter!” “Don’t got none.” “Send in an A-10!” “None of them neither.” “…” “…” “*sigh* Send in the harrier.” “On its way!”

Yes right, there was a quote (off the record) from a British commander in Afghanistan that said he would gladly trade in a whole squadron of Harriers for a Single A-10. I guess it was a bit of a 'jack of all trades' in that respect in that it got co-opted into lots of roles it wasn't really suitable for, but could nonetheless perform to an extent. Always very impressive at air-shows too, and of course the end of True Lies gave it the big screen feature it deserved!