Art - Hay field

Had to get some pencil crayons for school, where we were tracing signals on electrical schematics.

It is near the end of the semester, and I am feeling homesick, so I just started sketching up a landscape based on a panorama I took a couple of years ago.

I like how the right side of the drawing came out; not very impressed with how the left mountain came out. I need to figure out how to get depth into a object.
  

full page legal (8.5 x14) using Staedtler pencils.

Halloween Story

I'm not much for Halloween.  When I was a kid, I could not understand why there was a special day for scaring people; Prehaps I still don't understand it, but like it for being the one day I can show up in unusual attire.

I tend to avoid scary stories, movies or games. I will read plot summaries for them, but actually watch it? Ugh.  I think the System Shock games was the closest I have been to playing a horror game, and even then I only came close to finishing one.

But it's Halloween.  I do have a (true) story to share with you related to the subject.

Back when I was a kid- maybe 5 or 6 years old, I had this dream. I don't remember what time of the year I had it or even the events in my waking life leading up to it. I think may have had trouble falling asleep before the dream.

The scene fades in with a dim, pale green light. The entire dream seemed to be in this light throughout. There is a little girl in a rain poncho, simular to little red riding hood. It is raining, She is singing a little diddy of some sort while lifting one leg, claps her hands, then turning a little bit before lifting the other leg and clapping her hands.

She does this for about a minute before lightning begins to strike.  It seems as though the lightning bolts are chasing her, and the girl starts to move to shelter - what, I don't remember, but I think it was a house.  The final scene I remember is the girl removing her poncho and casting it aside - in slow motion - just as a lighting bolt rends the poncho in two.  The scene ends after this.

The next thing I know, I'm supposed to reenact this. I put on a poncho and walk out to the rain.  I think I walk around some before the lightning starts to show up.  I think I try to take my poncho off to throw it aside, but either I don't do it fast enough or the poncho becomes awkward for me to take off. The lightning bolt hits me.  The bolt seems to push me on my stomach and then pushes me forward on the ground, seemingly about 15-20 feet.  I remember water and mud splashing on me as I slid forward, and I was in a bit of confused fear and shock.

I wake up after the lighting finishes sliding me along the ground.  I didn't have any reaction to the dream, other than just lying on my bed and thinking "Just what the heck did I dreampt?" I refreshed myself and went back to sleep.

I don't think I ever had as haunting a dream like that.  I may not think about that dream for a few years, but if it ever shows up in my memory synapses, the whole memory sequence comes back.

I don't know what might happen when I share this - Creepypasta always has something where the haunting is shared somehow; But I know that this is burned into my memory and I can never forget it
- the dream of the little girl dancing in the rain.

Model FMC Skidder - Part 4

Alright, now it gets messy!

I had mentioned that I this was my first scratch-build, and to be honest, the first plastic scale model I have come close to finishing.  What this means is that the model has a fairly considerable number of newbie mistakes that, even now, make me feel a little embarrassed about. Looks don't match, the plastic got messed up and became a gluey mess in spots, and maybe I should of considered painting as I went.

I figure since this is a model that I don't want to draw too much attention to (Otherwise those problems will start to become apparent), and partly because I want to stretch the project out, I have decided to put it in a display case.

But not any display case; a diorama!  Have a scene where it is being used! Finding a figurine in the pose I wanted (and not military) was a bit of a challenge, until I stumbled upon Slot-Car accessories.

I  settled upon a 1:32 figure holding a fuel hose as the pose I wanted.  I cut off the fuel hose and the top of the guy's head, and some sculpty gave him a hardhat.  a quick repaint got me a pretty convincing late 80s / early 90s logger.

After priming the model skidder, the painting started.  I had initially wanted to try airbrushing, but I psyched myself out on preparing for it, and I decided to settle for brush painting.  It was messy, it was brutal, but it came out looking pretty acceptable.

The arch came out a little short, but I figure if I have it tilted in the diorama, no one would notice. I'll use some copper wire as the cable.

I'm going to have to do some weathering (And figure out what the hell I'm going to do for decals) to put it in the diorama, but this is a major landmark for me!

So onto setting up the diorama! I figure a lot of it will involve terrain modeling similar to what is done with model railroading.

On technological ages

In Sim-Earth, the population's settlements were marked by what technological age they were in: stone age, bronze age, nuclear age etc.

I got to thinking that the past century could be divided up into 'ages', where rapid development was being made and mainstream opinion was largely positive.

1800s:Steam age
1900s-1940s: Mechanical Age
1950s: Nuclear age
1960s-1980s: Chemical Age
1990s-present: Electronic Age

Model FMC Skidder - Part 3

In part 2,  I had prepared the tracks and some of the components.

The blade kit arrived and I thought while the blade did not look right at all,  I could use the hydraulic cylinders.  I'll talk about what I did a little later.

A little of the ol' Chop-Chop!

I had mentioned I had gotten a M548 kit -  Well, I thought I ordered it- It never did show up.  So as I was thinking where to start, I started looking at the main body of the M113 and started thinking... then grabbed the handsaw and some styrene.

...hmmmm, cut these off...narrow this down...shorten this...shorten that...add stuff here...glue the mess together... There we go!

I managed to get the profile I was looking for. 
It is a little crude looking, but as I started converting measurements from my reference photos to the model, the artistic process of "That looks about right" started applying.

As I built the body, it occurred to me I didn't need to worry about the engine or the transmission, as those were not visible anyway.  Shifting the focus from a precision interior / "just like real life" construction helped me in the modeling process, as it would have overwhelmed me as a first-time scratch-builder.

as the front took shape,  I switch my attention to mounting the blade. The blade kit I picked up had some pivots that I could use - a touch with a jewelers drill and some brass wire gave me some working piviots, and messing around with some styrene got me a proper stacking blade.  

How I left it over the summer

After a summer break, I thought about how I should continue this.  after digging up the reference photos again,  I started on the operator platform.  the TLAR system sets the winch in place, then I start adding control levers and details.

The seat was rather interesting to design. After not finding anything in the right profile in 1/35*, I brought out some sculpty and set to work.  in about half an hour, I got a seat exactly how I wanted it. about 15 minutes in the oven, some sanding, and its ready for paint!

Right now, I'm working on the cable arch.  I need to build the fairleads and complete the log tray, then I can start preparing it for paint!












*1/35 is a common scale for military models, and all I could find in part accessories seemed to only be for military, and WW2 stuff at that.  I don't mean to rant or knock a hobby, but, what about civilian equipment? The only equipment that comes close seems to be because the military used it (Such as the soviet S60/S65, regular farm tractors that were conscripted to tow artillery). Come on. In World War 2, Unarmored bulldozers were very common with US troops and there is a picture of Massey Harris farm tractors that were being produced for the Canadian Air Force.  It seems absurd to not include civilian machines into dioramas

Finding regular construction equipment in precision scale plastic models seems to be extremely scarce.  It's probably related to competing with the die-cast models. Only other option seems to Model engineering and Remote control, which although extremely cool, is also extremely expensive. 

Operating Equipment

Whenever I come home from school,  I somehow find some excuse to run the bulldozer.  I'm not entirely sure why, but even at a young age, I was attracted by the metal-tracked machine.  Dad wound up having to mount a child's car seat in the one corner of the canopy so I could ride along without him worrying about running me over.

Perhaps its the way the tracks move past the operator's station.  Perhaps it is the "Clacking" noise paired with the bouncing of the tracks moving that fascinates me.

On the farm, we are using a Cat D6D to clear land and keep the driveway cleaned. When operating it,  I seem to "Zone Out" a little, where I don't really think about what I am doing - rather,  I think of what the machine is doing.  You feel every vibration; hear every noise; Sense the load on the engine and the position of the blade;   It's a bit of a neat experience.

I think for me it is a form of meditation.  The concentration needed to make the machine flatten ground or knock something down forces you to forget the outside world and focus on your immediate area. Sure, you can think of other things during a long push, but a lot of those thoughts are forced to be "Background Processes"

So I leave you with a poem:

STUDY OF A BULLDOZER

Abominable machination.
A destructive reputation.
Angry figure of claws and blade.

Yellow paint and rust, polished blade and tracks,
it does not care what others think.
It tries to understand the earth,
by carving into the ground.

Strong willed,
it goes where it pleases,
shaping the earth with its art.

-Chris Pritchard (2011)

FMC Skidder Model - Part 2

I had received a couple of the kits and began assembling what I can. The main part assembled was the tracks - each individual link had to be drilled out and pinned with some brass wire.

The drilling was pretty simple - especially when I put the 0.5mm drill bit in a Dremel and set it for a low speed.  The pinning was a little tedious, mainly over the size of the links, but I'm glad they are not any smaller!  

I also selected a bit of paint for the machine.  I am going to try out acrylic, mainly because I never had good experiences with enamel.

I understand acrylic is more prone to fading, but I believe a proper clear coat will avoid those problems.

So far, I am impressed - I did not use a paintbrush on these parts - I spread a bit of paint on the engine using the toothpick I was using to stir the paint, and I covered the road wheel literally by smearing the paint that was on the cap.

In both cases, the paint not only dried to show the details, but also had no translucency.

The paint scheme I am going with is what FMC used - Red for the undercarriage, blade and arch, and white for the operators cab and hood.  The engine will be that ugly marine green that Detroit Diesels are known for, and I'll go with a dark grey for the steering gearbox and transmission.

I'll need to delve into resin casting for the transmission.  On the M113, the steering gearbox was almost in-line with the engine with a direct connection from a Allison transmission.  On the skidder, the engine is elevated somewhat, and uses a driveshaft from a Clark "dropdown" transmission.  What I will do is play around with modeling clay until I have a proper "Master", then start looking around for casting kits.

I bought a model winch that I will use for modelling the cable winch in the back.  It might be on the small side, but I should be able to use it or even play around with it with resin.