Crafting stuff

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Phosphorus wrote:

That is a superb bear! He's got this slightly angular shape to him, like a real polar bear. Also, I imagine doing the final seam on the ball was a right pain.

The geese are air-dry clay- they're simple enough for even me to make... They're now most of the way through painting. Foxes next!
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Thanks. Loving those ducks and what you’re doing there! So good to see it all coming together! I’ve really got a thing for unique and old gameboards. Have quite a collection here. When I was staying in a miner’s cottage in Cornwall earlier this year, I discovered some I’d never heard of before. I read somewhere here on WP talking about a game called “Alaska” that they loved from their childhood ... loved the look of that(it had a polar bear moving piece! Here’s a pic I took of one of the games in Cornwall that I’d never heard of before ...

Alaska Board Game ...

I used to have a game called "Up Periscope" when I was little. It was given to use from my uncle and aunt I believe? I don't remember. I enjoyed that game.

Yes ...would be lost without forced perspective on the train layout! Using all sorts of tricks and techniques to create the illusion of distance, done with subtlety. The objective being, to fool the viewer’s eye, not punch it, as someone once said.

Some examples ...

The term "Low relief" comes to mind. If one puts buildings at certain angles one can use the backscene to cut the buildings in half this saving space.
Also the buildings near the backscene can be made to a smaller scale which is what "Forced perspective" is.

Thanks! Most of my work is eternally in-progress as health issues have made me so slow now and I rotate between project topics to keep from getting burned out on a given topic.

Well, here, these photos will give an idea.
Almost none of them are 'pretty' pictures of completed projects; most have been used to illustrate things on forums.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dwm440/albums
and
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93483263@N03/albums

^^^^^ Oh wow! I used to make kites! Matters not that yours in the photos were store-bought ... nice range! Your avatar has been a favourite for awhile ... sincerely, and it’s fun to see it in your pics. So much eye candy there! Thanks so much for sharing! Excuse me while I totally lose myself for a bit in your kites, trains n cats!

[On a sidenote, sorry to hear about your burnout ... been there and know only too well. Hang in there and do what you can, when you can.] I definitely share your interests ... I work in 00 gauge on my layout(made this time last year), have 2 cats(ragdolls ... in other words cats that behave like dogs, very affectionate and follow me everywhere), plus have a thing for kites. Thanks again for sharing those links to your work etc.

Just went into your Trainz TANE images ... Did you design the software for this yourself?? Ah, it’s a railroad simulator on Steam! Very nice!

Nope, designing software is not my thing; I just assemble other people's software in to landscapes and railroads I like.
Is also available directly from manufacturer in Australia, http://www.trainzportal.com/product

Last edited by kitesandtrainsandcats on 10 Dec 2020, 5:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Welcome. And thank you.
At this time most of the model building is on hold while I work on a sci-fi book which has a long history of being worked on for a couple weeks/months then put away for five years or so, then repeat.

It started way back in 8th or 9th grade in late 1970s while reading a book of Star Trek short stories in school library.
One began with Enterprise encountering an unknown alien ship and comment was made in story, "The ship was beautiful."

Hmm ... what would a 'beautiful' starship of my own creation look like?

A couple weeks later a style was settled on.
Then it needed people and the people needed a story.

Hmm ... what story would I like to read that tells me what I want to know about the places and people?

Fall 2018 I happened across the creative writers group in our midwestern county seat farm burg and started going and started working on the story more diligently.

Transcribing things from yellowing loose leaf paper in to the computer.
Have discovered I really like writing and editing on the computer.


At some points in 1980s and 1990s I made some miniatures game sized models of ships from my story.
Had them for decades until they didn't survive the move to where I live now.

I'm not going to try to recreate them.

Mostly because with the mess my health is now that's too much work.

And also because the used a lot of model fighter plane parts such as drop tanks from Monogram model kits and Monogram went out of business several years ago.
And then trying to find the other parts from beads, buttons, earrings, that I got at Woolworth and Ben Franklin would take ages and ages if it is even possible.

Since most of what is in the Flickr album is for discussion of parts and problems on forums, I just went and added a couple screenshots from a nearly finished section of a layout I am assembling in the program.
Increase the hilliness some and that's pretty much what the landscape around here looks like.

Way cool!
That is a thing I've not done.

Thought about getting a sewing machine from disability settlement money in 2009 but decided that since health issues limit what I can do with my hands and for how long I would pass on kite making and 'save' my hands for doing trains since we were starting a model RR club.

Oh that’s exciting! Now that would be an interesting read, if you ever do complete this work-in-progress. Creative Writers Groups can certainly spur you on and motivate, that’s for sure ... I would gladly purchase a copy and happily review it for you! I used to love using a vintage typewriter for many years as I too love to write. Nowadays, it’s mostly poetry. Good to hear you’re enjoying the process of transcribing onto computer from yellow loose leaf paper, though yellowing paper has its own charm.

I’ve just discovered your interest in flight, space and more ... loving the books and fascinating bits and pieces you’ve collated there! I built a rocket and launched her once, really enjoyed photographing Cape Canaverel a few years back. I’ve been watching those “Dangerous Flight” shows lately as my son is learning to fly planes at the moment and popped over to show me some episodes! Talk about having you on the edge of your seat! His father is a Navy man, and as an Aussie, I used to sail and have quite a love of the sea.

You Mr Kites, Trains n Cats man are an interesting man ... some of what you have there blows my mind! Love the very cool looking model of the guy in your train there btw, not to mention your Woody! I’m still enjoying perusing it all ... truly, thank you.

Thanks. Dad and his dad, Grandad, were pilots.
Grandad was a civil pilot & Dad was a pilot at start of his Navy career until an eye problem ended his flying then he was on ships for the next 25 years but flew privately for several more years after having to end military flying.

While talking about making kites, there is quite a lot of interesting work here.
No, I don't know the language.

https://www.youtube.com/c/baronkojak/videos

I have a project like that... a novella in a stupidly over-ambitious sci-fi setting. I have about a third of it done, but that's in four years!

Hey, cool!

As that saying from the seventies says, "Keep on keeping on!"

If you by chance happen to be on Tumblr, there are a number of writing, and writing advice, blogs on there which come across as being of good quality.
Tumblr is the only social media style thing I'm good for doing any more, thanks to the effects of autism and ME/CFS.
Rather than list the writing blogs I'm going to be lazy and just link to my Tumblr's archive, where reblogs of some of their posts can be found, https://anumberofhobbies.tumblr.com/archive

A fun thing which can happen sometimes is when you write a character doing something then you sit back and find yourself thinking, "Ya know, I wouldn't have originally thought they would do that, but now that they have done it, it does kinda make sense, because ..."

My greatest insecurity about my story is, Do my characters come across as actual people?
Are they even partly as well rounded and interesting as we who live here in this three-dimensional reality?

Here in a couple hours is our local creative writers group's weekly Saturday morning meeting at a locally owned bake shop.
One fun thing we do is a 20 minute timed writing exercise to provided prompts, which can take one or more of several forms.
And it is a place to write things other than sci-fi.

Here's one from a while back; it was mostly done for the exercise, then the finale was added while we went out for lunch after group meeting,
"A cat named Highdive"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bjH ... sp=sharing

Oh, let's include one more just for fun, "5. Write a flash fiction story about a person named “Friday”."
(hmm, I seem to have a thing for including animals in my stories )
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UzB ... sp=sharing

Here, from a Tumblr, https://thewritinggrindstone.tumblr.com ... ng-journey



My parents still have a story I wrote on poster paper in red finger paint in second grade - half a century ago! - last time seeing it a few years ago I felt, Eeeeek!! !
But I gotta admit, the airplanes in blue fingerpaint weren't all that bad for a second grader's work!