Moments of Zen

[DogfighterZen]

My first attempt at sculpting a human figure... and first time using the Magic Sculp stuff i'd bought a few years ago and had never even opened it... 
I started on the head cause that seemed like the best way to get the dimensions correct. Had to redo it a couple of times because i kept putting my fingers on the nose and squashed it twice...
So, here's the first stage done, left to cure overnight so i can continue the rest of the figure without fear of messing up what's already done... again!!



Don't forget that he'll be wearing the Blue thunder's helmet and i don't mean the one that comes with the kit, which represents the normal helmet they used flying the Police Jet Rangers in the movie, the older GENTEX HGU 55. The helmet used for the pilot's targeting system was a dual visor helmet so it had a bigger visor cover on the top/front, which means that i'll have to, either make one on the figure using the Magic Sculp or, i can use the kit's part and modify it. Either way, it will be done as it wouldn't make sense to use a helmet without the cueing system in it like they did on the TV series... IMO, the TV show was bad, although not as bad as the Airwolf rip-off that looked like it was shooting lasers out of mortar tubes in the belly... 
I think this kit was made to depict the TV show's take on the Chopper. I say this because of the helmet and the interior, which doesn't have the smaller console on the left of the big computer screen.
so, this will take some time as i've only started work on the figure this afternoon but i'm glad that i've finally got over the "first time fear" of using these two part epoxy putties. I have to say that i'm surprised with how easy it is to use. Now i just have to get my sculpting skills refined so i can make an acceptable figure to use...

[NARSES2]

Impressive, indeed very impressive for a first attempt 

[DogfighterZen]

Impressive, indeed very impressive for a first attempt 

Thanks, Chris! 
It still has a long way to go but I think it's on the right track.
Gonna try to get the body done tonight.

[TheChronicOne]

Looks good to me. Looks like the old German General in Downfall that almost got executed for ditching to the West.

[DogfighterZen]

Looks good to me. Looks like the old German General in Downfall that almost got executed for ditching to the West.

Thanks, Brad! 
What a great movie! Already watched it a few times. Trying to remember which one you're talking about but can't remember. I'll have to watch it again. 

[TheChronicOne]

It's free on Prime! They have it under Documentaries however. It's the movie that the "Ranting Hitler" video memes came from. Kind of follows a typist lady (Traudl) as she was hired to transcribe for the Fuhrer during the last 2-3 days in the bunker during the Fall of Berlin. Damn good film, in my opinion.

[DogfighterZen]

It's free on Prime! They have it under Documentaries however. It's the movie that the "Ranting Hitler" video memes came from. Kind of follows a typist lady (Traudl) as she was hired to transcribe for the Fuhrer during the last 2-3 days in the bunker during the Fall of Berlin. Damn good film, in my opinion.

I don't have that service, i do have netflix but it's the missus who uses it the most to watch her favorite series. And also, you can watch it for free with English subtitles on Youtube. That's where i found it a couple of years ago. Because the movie is so long, it's divided in two parts.
Traudl Junge worked for Hitler since 1942, not only in the last days of the war. The beginning of the movie is when she is hired after the interview with Hitler in the Wolf's Lair. The movie then jumps to 2 and a half years later after the interview and goes straight to 1945 in Berlin.
It is a great movie with good actors and i believe that it is historically correct, or at least, the most of it is true as it's based on her version of the events.

Oh, and thanks for reminding me of the movie, i had to watch the whole thing again and ended up burning my spare time for modelling and falling asleep during the last hour of the movie so, i blame you for that... 
Regarding the figure, i'll have to make some adjustments to the size cause it's a bit bigger than it should be but it's no big deal, just a bit of careful sanding/scrapping  should do the trick.

[TheChronicOne]

       Yo that's what happened to me!! I was just going to let it go in the background while I tinkered but it was so compelling I just sat there and watched it. Three hours later it's like, "Oh damn, woops... well there goes another day on the build."           

[DogfighterZen]

     Yo that's what happened to me!! I was just going to let it go in the background while I tinkered but it was so compelling I just sat there and watched it. Three hours later it's like, "Oh damn, woops... well there goes another day on the build."           

At least you didn't fall asleep. I've been sleeping way less than i should and that is taking it's toll on the modelling cause i just feel so tired at the end of the day that i can barely stay awake for one hour after dinner... then i wake up at 4 a.m. and can't fall sleep again till it's time to go to work...

[DogfighterZen]

Well, i'm back after over a month... life's been a bit crappy but i can say that nothing serious has happened, just "normal" things of daily life that have been keeping me mind busy and my modelling mojo away...
One of the events which i haven't told you guys about was that in the end of January i had a car crash while coming home from visiting my parents.
It was around 9.30 p.m. of a rainy day when i was coming into a 90º turn when i see a small dog in the middle of the turn in my lane and, although it's not a tight turn, it has to be done at a slow speed in wet conditions. I was driving slow as i should be but the fact that my rear tires were at the end of their life didn't help when i tried to avoid the dog by tightening my turn as i let go of the gas...
The back end slid right off and i ended up in a 90º position in the middle of the turn, which is also a bridge over a small creek that runs about 15 meters below said bridge.
I wasn't able to stop the car before hitting the bridge's cement wall on the opposite lane, which tore the front bumper and left headlight right off, along with some damage to a few more parts in the frontal area of the car.
The scary part was that i hit the tip of the wall, right before the ditch on that side of the road, which then drops steeply down to the creek. When the front of the car hit the wall, the car spun a bit more and sent me in the direction of the ditch and i only managed to keep the car on the road by pulling the parking brake as my front right wheel slid off the road and it was hanging in the air. I don't know how i managed to unclip my safety belt and open my door before the car stopped moving but i somehow did it and i was ready to jump out of the car when i realized it stopped moving and that could try to save it so i quickly disengaged the parking brake and shifted to reverse gear and after a few seconds of it sliding along the side of the ditch, i finally managed to pull it back into the road.
After picking the parts that came of my car, i managed to drive the 40+ km left back home, scared out of my head thinking about what could've happened...
Keep in mind  that his happened in the middle of the Foia mountain road where there is no lighting at all on the road and at that hour, there is almost no other cars driving by and there are no houses in the proximity of the area. Positives of this whole event where that i didn't hit the dog and didn't kill myself in the process so, i guess i'm lucky.
Anyway, to end the story, i've had to spend a bunch of money getting my car fixed and that has put a serious dent in the short savings i had aside and that has been one of the issues that has been keeping me awake at night for most of the past two months.
As i said, it could be much worse but that and other work and family related issues were enough to keep my mind on the darkside for a while and i just couldn't find the mojo to sit at the bench and work on models.

That said, i've finally found enough peace of mind to get back to where i was before all this happened and i've been working on getting the Frank Murphy figure finished to be able to move on to build the rest of the Blue Thunder chopper. Also did some sanding on the 2nd F-16W i had on the go since last year so, things are looking up.

[NARSES2]

Glad you came out of the accident relatively unscathed and I hope the other issues resolve themselves as well a.s.a.p. It's been a pretty crappy year for everybody, but hopefully we'll come through it all this year.

Glad to see you're feeling good enough to get back to the bench 

[PR19_Kit]

Phew, that sounds like a PHENOMENAL avoidence, in the fullest sense of the term! 

Well done for your quick thinking as if you HAD have jumped out of the car it would in all probability have ended up in the creek! 

Good to hear you're still in one piece.

[DogfighterZen]

Thank you for your words, gentlemen. 
I'm glad it was only steel and plastic that got hurt on that crash, it's the easy part to mend. It sure was a good reminder to appreciate the good things in life, although things have been crappy in general but, comparing to what i've read on the blogs page this morning, it's nothing compared to what some of our friends on here have been through in these past months. I know i'm lucky as health hasn't been an issue for me or my loved ones and we all know that when it comes to health, the rest is secondary.
Regarding the accident, i guess i can attribute my quick reflexes to my 20 years of bmx riding as i barely even thought of what i was doing until the car stopped moving but i still am scared of driving on wet roads... come to think of it, i've been scared to drive in general... Just last week, i almost had another accident, this time because of a cow crossing the road when i was on my way to work...
Thankfully, i've been driving even slower than i normally would before the January accident and was able to stop the car safely and shoo the cow out the road by honking the car's horn at it...

[Pellson]

So glad it didn't come out worse. While fixing broken cars is expensive business, fixing broken propre is so much more tedious.

As for reaching a certain level of "zen" beefier you can build - I'm so with you there. I can wander about my building table for days before having enough peace in my mind to actually get something don. Severely annoying, but a fact.

Godspeed with that car. And remember - there's preciously few cars that are irreplaceable.

[DogfighterZen]

So glad it didn't come out worse. While fixing broken cars is expensive business, fixing broken propre is so much more tedious.

As for reaching a certain level of "zen" beefier you can build - I'm so with you there. I can wander about my building table for days before having enough peace in my mind to actually get something don. Severely annoying, but a fact.

Godspeed with that car. And remember - there's preciously few cars that are irreplaceable.

Thank you, my friend! 
A car is just a machine after all, money can take care of replacing that sooner or later. I've always looked at my cars like i looked at my bmx bikes. I broke a lot of parts during my years of hard riding so, it's all replaceable but, when i think of the body parts, which i also broke quite a few of, those are way harder to put back together, let alone replace...
Regarding the "Zen" factor, it's funny that you mention it, i've been called Zen since i began riding bmx in my teens because i use to read a book about Zen meditation back then and i used to carry it with me to the skatepark to read before it was cool enough to ride during the summer. I used some of what i've learned through that book for my concentration when i rode and wanted to try dangerous tricks. My friends quickly got the name spread around and almost everyone i know calls me Zen to this day.
Peace of mind is something i need in order to be properly productive so i fully understand your words, it is annoying indeed but as you know, it only feels right when we are feeling right.