Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Coast Guard Station






While looking through the recent 6 ½ set plan book as mentioned in my last post, an idea came to me after seeing a plan for a Dam model. I started building the Dam and wondered how one of my card model boats would look if I changed the design to be more of a bridge rather then a Dam. So I raise the center section to appear as a high arch under which a small boat could pass under. It looked pretty good, but for some reason, my photos did not come out well and I had taken apart the model to soon, thus no pictures.

I will have to wait till my next Social Security Check arrives so I can get something that looks like water at the hobby store. Still wanting to expand on the idea, I took an old blue mouse pad and started my own design for a dock and station building. The pictures show how the model turned out and the small German Patrol Boat made it perfect to name the model a Coast Guard Station. Both boats are card models from Germany and cutting them out and building them is another pleasant past time of mind.

Maybe one of these days, I get all my eggs in oder and assemble a model that is not distracted by all the background clutter.



3 comments:

Alan said...

That looks nice! [I start eyeing my Anker boxes]

The water looks fine -- a lot of stuff ends up looking better in pictures than it does in real life [and some stuff looks worse].

For backgrounds for small structures i simply build on a large flexible piece of art paper of some low key color, then bend up the back & support with books for the picture taking. Build the structure on a smaller piece of paper on top of the larger piece if you'll need to rotate it for pictures

For larger constructions, I have one of those tri-fold display boards widely available in several colors, in cardboard & foam-core, for children's school projects. Mine is black, which reduces shadow problems.

Those same places with kids' project or art supplies will probably also have 12"x18" pads of construction paper in multiple colors -- I've even gotten one at a dollar store. These provide green, blue, & brown underlayments for water & terrain, and other colors for other projects. The per-sheet cost is cheap enough that they can be trimmed for special shapes & thrown away when they start looking battered, without breaking the budget.

[My SSDI travels the magical direct deposit wires tonight. :)]

Model Builder said...

Thanks for the heads up, I never gave the dollar store a second thought!

My wife's SSD comes next wednesday and my SS on the last Wednesday on that same mystical electronic wire direct to our credit union. Sure wish they would change it to a specific date rather then a floating date.

Wonder how long we have to wait for our Stimulus payment?

Alan said...

I did do an Ankerstein construction today, and even posted a picture showing my use of a piece of cheap construction paper to hide clutter. :)

I can understand how the SS/SSD folks processing the payments like the weekly cycle, but I hate the months with five wednesdays (like this one) which mean five weeks between payments.

 
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