Anybody Have Other Hobbies Besides Motorcycles??

bluej58 wrote: Nice combo
I need to get the boat back in the water

Definitely

When I decided to get the bike back on the road I didn't have a truck to haul the boat so it got pushed into a corner but I'm ready to get it wet again
Just need to get the fuel system cleaned up , new batterys, stickers and a few odds and ends.
Here she is a few years back doing the Illinois river clean up, it was packed and still only drafting about 6"
, also my beloved Spyderco that I used to free up a bunch of 1 1/2 inch barge rope on that trip.

Gotta play with your toys...:woohoo:

Bought the Lund two years ago from the original owner who lives in a Chicago suburb. Before leaving the driveway he handed me a bottle of Sea Foam, and insisted I continue using it as he did for years to avoid fuel related engine issues.
So far, so good.

Alike to Dr. Gamma I have always liked firearms. The only time when I used firearms for hunting are long way back in my youth. I prefer to shoot improvised targets and skeet shooting. At the moment I own only Mossberg 590.





However, my brother has a larger arsenal of firearms and we visit local shooting range (quite abandoned) whenever I visit him (he lives some 230 km from me). Best of all I like his bolt-action .22 CZ. So does my son.

My son is also great fan of History (and Star Wars as well). His favourite periods are those begining slightly earlier than beginning of Great War and ending slightly earlier than the end of WWII and Napoleonic Wars. Sure, I support this his interest, as well as interest in firearms. In my youth I was addicted to scale models and this my interest I passed to my son. I have collected a large assembly of armoured vehicles in 1/72 scale for him in years past. However, one barely could find ready models of WWI tanks in indicated scale. So sometimes I put my work on motorcycles aside and assemble some new tanks for him (even as he could do it himself now).

I'm mostly proud of these Polish TK-3 and TKS cause they are tiny comparing to "ordinary" tanks of WWII era.

WOW!!!!!! Outstanding craftsmanship

When you put the Polish tank next to the Tiger, you can really see how small it really is!!!! Damn!!!

I hope one of these days, my modelling skills will raise to the level of what you and your Son have achieved!!!

Thanks for posting!!!

Thank you!

The most of models in showcase are "diecast" models that came with magazine and they are quite well made. I bought a set of them some 7 years ago. However, Great War period and period between two wars are not covered by ready models, so since then we expanded collection a bit.

I don't consider myself for the master, just mere amateur, but I enjoy working on models very much. Many things have changed for better since I was fourteen: all that fancy little knives, model mats, aerograph (airbrush), acrylic paints and so on and so forth. All these things make life of modeler much brighter. Take the painting for instant: aerograph allows to put very thin layers of primer and acrylic paint on model, fix result with acrylic clear gloss varnish, put decals, fix them with another layer of varnish. That's already at least 5 layers and one still make wash with oil paint, fix it with semi gloss varnish, put "weathering " with gouache paint and again fix it with matt varnish. In result you have at least ten layers of primer, paint, varnish and improvised "special effects" on the model and still these ten layers are thinner than one layer of who-knows-what-was-that paint I could put with brush on the model when I was teenager.

Now I have three WWI tanks to assemble: two Renault FT-17 with additional kits of photo etched parts and raisin model of St. Chamond tank, while my son (14 now) has 1/72 Bandai Tie Fighter and some assortment of 1/72 WWII German/Czech tanks and German/British planes (Spitfire Mk.I, Stuka and so on).

The only issue is time...

My latest nostalgia build, the 1960 Revell release of the M-48 AVLB and Scissors bridge in 1/40th scale. I did try to build this model back in the early 60's, but my modelling skills were not up to finishing it back then!!!!! Glad this one came out looking better than the one I tried to build back then.
I am very old school when it comes to the paint I use. I only use Model Masters enamels and some Humbrol products. I do not like any of that acrylic paint. I have tried to do some weathering on my tanks, but my efforts fall way short of looking realistic. Its very frustrating when everything I try at weathering comes out looking like hell!!!! The older kits that have sat around for years always end up with problems that the newer kits don't suffer from. Major warpage of parts, and yellowed decals are the two major problems I have with building the older kits!!!!!

I love the box art from back in the 50's and 60's!!!!

That is one heck of a collection Gazzz, really fine detail work too.

You guys are inspiring me to finish a old project that I built a longtime ago but chickened out at covering her :blush: I was never very good at the paper on these things so now that I'm older and have more patience maybe it's time.
It's a rubber powered Stearman PT-17 Navy trainer put out by Herr Engineering, a very nice kit, and hopefully it will look like this someday.

One of Mrs bluej's hobbies is animals, this is her bird feeding station.
or as I like to call it " the meat locker" if SHTF

Dr. Gamma wrote: GREAT LOOKING GUITARS!!!!!

You do some fancy building bluej58. Its hard to find workmanship like that today!!!

I can't play note on any musical instrument. But I did get to see two of the greatest guitarist ever many times up close in concert My favorite has always been Pete Townshend with Stevie Ray Vaughan a close second!!!

PETE!