Friday, June 30, 2006, 10:37 PM
thom (thom<at>clevermodels.com)
Friday, June 30, 2006, 05:37 PM
When I build the test prototypes of kits I'm looking at a lot of issues. Most importantly of course is to find errors and then fix them. On the small house for instance (finished this morning) I made 4 big changes and discovered several possible modifications.
the biggest change made after building a first pass model was to add a second window or double window to the front wall. The second even bigger change came on the test of the production model which was to scrap the front porch design and replace it with something smaller. Those changes really brought things together. The kit looks great with or without the dormer. The damage system I talked about earlier is better then expected and will be a unique feature in our kits from no on. The skinny brick chimney and inset cellar windows are super details. the back porch which is enclosed and has a trellis like mesh below it can also be mounted on a side wall with a slight trim down in height or ever leave off the bottom trellis. This looks very cool and will help to individualize similar houses placed next to each other. I'd love to see an entire neighborhood of these. perhaps 30 or more with diminishing scales as they go back away from the viewer. O scale up front followed by a row of S and finally HO. It would look a lot like the part of Chicago I grew up in.
One totally irrational desire though is to cut one in half diagonally to make 2 flats. That will definitely have to wait for a wile.
Speaking of which. I have made a first test on an industrial flat in forced perspective. My goal is to have it ready by October for the international hobby expo. It's either going to be the coolest thing ever or go right over peoples heads. I have a lot of work to do. I have to find out how to post pix here in the blog. I know its possible, I just have to figure it out. I would love to share some of these very early tests.
later
Thom
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Thursday, June 29, 2006, 02:22 PM
thom (thom<at>clevermodels.com)
Thursday, June 29, 2006, 09:22 AM
TAKE THAT Spammer scum.
You shan't soil my blog. Be gone.
Ha Ha
Thom
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Monday, June 26, 2006, 03:10 PM
thom (thom<at>clevermodels.com)
Monday, June 26, 2006, 10:10 AM
Continuing to prototype the small house. With all the extreme amounts of layering possible there are so many variations. Of course I like to make the houses a bit distressed, so I'm cutting out extra panels of loose and missing insulbrick. Then again you don't have to distress it at all or leave off all the layers and have an all tar paper building. I've built all these variations and they all look good. What I really want to do is combine two houses into an L shape but that will have to wait.
Once I start working on a design, I start noticing the real thing all around. I notice that some have 2 or 3 layers of siding and many different sidings all on the same building. It makes me want to build an entire block of these things but I just don't have the time. (you know this isn't a full time endeavor, though it feels that way)
I hope to be able to offer this kit to you in a couple of weeks. I need to figure out how to show the flexibility of these kits in a way the average builder will understand. I understand of course that none of YOU are average.
One frustration I want to share. I have been sending new ad art to the various publications that we advertise in and for the last 2 consecutive issues, They have not run the updated ads. So you're not seeing pix of new kits, finding out about new textures or that we aren't going to try to get a kit a month out. We want to focus on quality not quantity but I just can't get the word out.
That's life, maybe next issue.
Thom
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Saturday, June 10, 2006, 01:20 PM
thom (thom<at>clevermodels.com)
Saturday, June 10, 2006, 08:20 AM
The small house project is nearly complete. Pretty good as it was not really planned. It seems that my favorite models always happen that way. What I like about this one is the multiple layers of wall texture. The basic structure is made of tarpaper structure on a brick foundation. Then there is a second layer of insulbrick or clapboard. the idea is that you can leave holes to simulate missing boards and sheeting. This is something I started doing with the mercantile stairway and It looked great so I expanded the idea. Now I think I'll use this on all frame buildings in the future. I also have an underlayment texture. that is rough board that has that dark stain from absorbing the weather treating and tar distillates from the outer covering. So if you wanted you could also expose the surface under the tar paper. I'll probably se that under the roof tiles.
These are small buildings about 20' square with a small attached, enclosed porch that is 12' x 4'. I have 2 planned additions. One is a false front and the other is a slanted rood side addition.
All in all another nice kit.
Thom
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Tuesday, June 6, 2006, 03:52 PM
thom (thom<at>clevermodels.com)
Tuesday, June 6, 2006, 10:52 AM
I wonder what it is about the culture of model railroading that causes folks to purchase a kit and then not assemble it for months or years.
This weekend at the great midwest train show, we got the same comments over and over. "Love your kits. Bought one last year in Inde (any show here) but I haven't put it together yet." "really can't wait to get to it in my build pile." etc. etc. This isn't a complaint, just an observation. hate to say it but A few of these folks are probably not going to the bottom of the stack before...well you know. Hope they have super glue in heaven. Or maybe thats purgatory. You have to finish all those kits before you get to the perlies.
Ok, strange thoughts I know.
Go build some models.
Thom
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