Moments of Zen

[DogfighterZen]

Frank's looking good 

Thanks, Chris! I was very pleased and surprised that i managed to do a reasonable job of my first human sculpture. 

Ok, almost a month after my last post on this thread... i have been modelling, although not much has been done in this past month. I've been tired from work where i've been asked to put the forklift aside for a while, now that it's less work in the warehouse, and use my knowledge of gardening to set up three new lawn areas.

First i had to design and set up the irrigation system after finding the main water line underground...



Then, the dirt is dumped on the respective spots, it has be spread out to level and shape the areas...



As shown in the pic above, before you have tubes on the ground, the connections and valve boxes have to be mapped and laid out. After that, tubes and valves are connected and then you can put the sprinklers in their final positions to be able to cover everything up.
After that, it's time to flatten and clean the dirt. No stones or pebbles so everything can be laid out as smooth as possible.
First area ready for the turf rolls...



Then the second...



And the third is waiting for me to finish fixing the drainage pit for the warehouse's ceiling water drainage system...




So, i know that this isn't a gardening forum but this has been the reason why i've been so tired and not much modelling has been done in this past month so i thought i'd share a bit of what i've been doing... 99% on my own, no help at all except for the dirt that was brought in and dumped in place by a co-worker with a dumper machine.

So regarding models, i did get all the Blue Thunder's fuselage close up, seams ready and a bit more...

The side camera pods had some mods...


Drilled the cameras out, added plastic sheet to the bottom section to make it more accurate in shape and also added the cylinders with the fins, although i have no idea what they were supposed to be or do.
Then i find out that this box was missing a part and i hadn't noticed it before. Lucky thing is that it isn't a hard part to scratchbuild so that's what i did with some evergreen strips. Couldn't skip it cause it the gun and front camera pods' support that wil connect to the sensor that goes on top of the BT's nose so i just got my other BT kit out of the storage and use that kit's part as a template for the main measures and roughly sanded it to size. Still needs some work but i'll wait till i'm working on those parts.



Sprayed and brush painted some bits and while i was waiting for some more sprue-goo to dry on the interior of the exhaust pipe, i finally got the J.A.F.O. going and that's the white thing you see behind Frank in the pit.



Now i'm waiting for the Magic Sculp stuff to harden so i can shape it some more. I'll be masking the interior of the canopy after some polishing has been done so i can spray it and glue the center top instrument panel in place.
Let's see how long that takes.

[Pellson]

Impressive! And then I'm mainly referring to the earth works, if you don't mind.

(I like the helicopter too)

[TheChronicOne]

I'm with Pellson. Absolutely magnificent work. I used to do irrigation work and installed entire systems from the ground up, all the way from bidding and selling the project to doing 100% of the job myself. Small jobs, large jobs, huge jobs. There is so much that goes into it all the way from knowing regulations and dealing with local governments to knowledge of infrastructure and even electrical. And by god, if you don't know how to "dig," be-it with a spade or a high-dollar trencher; you're in for some trouble. Roots,.. oh my God,.... roots..  I'm downright impressed! I'd pay you one hell of a nice tip if you was doing this for me!!  Excellent!



Anyway... I was happy to see this update and that you made your way here to tell us what you've been up to. 

[DogfighterZen]

Impressive! And then I'm mainly referring to the earth works, if you don't mind.

(I like the helicopter too)

I'm with Pellson. Absolutely magnificent work. I used to do irrigation work and installed entire systems from the ground up, all the way from bidding and selling the project to doing 100% of the job myself. Small jobs, large jobs, huge jobs. There is so much that goes into it all the way from knowing regulations and dealing with local governments to knowledge of infrastructure and even electrical. And by god, if you don't know how to "dig," be-it with a spade or a high-dollar trencher; you're in for some trouble. Roots,.. oh my God,.... roots..  I'm downright impressed! I'd pay you one hell of a nice tip if you was doing this for me!!  Excellent!



Anyway... I was happy to see this update and that you made your way here to tell us what you've been up to. 

Thank you, guys! 
I've been gardening since i was 19 so i'd better know what i'm doing, right? 
I've learned how to do almost  everything related to gardening but i have no other professional skills accreditation besides phytopharmaceutical products applicator. Although it can be obtained through dedicated schools here in Portugal, i'd have to stop working cause the schedule is during work hours and that has always been a problem for me since i got out of normal school, no money meant i had to be working all the time.
Anyway, i'm pretty sure i'd love to work for you, Brad. Somehow i get the idea we'd get along pretty well.
I've spent too much time and money on music since i was in my early 20s and never thought of starting my own gardening company or do jobs on my own cause i've always lived in the city, in a rented flat so i had no space for tools and everything you need to work on your own... and besides that, the south of Portugal was already bursting with gardening companies by then as it is the country's tourism resort so, i've always worked for other companies.
Now that i live further north, i'm in an area where gardeners aren't that needed and that's why i'm a forklift operator now. My boss knew i was a gardener before so i guess he wanted to see what i can do...

And, you're so right about digging, Brad. If you don't know how to do it, you're not getting things done properly and in time, and you'll break your back doing it. I also used trenchers in one of the companies i've worked for and that is fun. What is not fun is digging through roots, i totally agree. The way i used to get around that was to chainsaw my way through where it's possible.
In the wine estate i had to install the irrigation system in a garden which had so many old trees... no trencher could be brought in cause it was a garden surrounded by walls all around it... and my boss didn't want to spend too much money on it...
In the pic you can get the idea...



And another part of gardening, climbing lumberjack work...



You can see the statues and walls, which were the reason why i had to do it like this... 



But i also love the maintenance part, it's where you can get a bit more creative/artistic...







Ok, that's enough, i swear i won't be posting any more gardening pics but i'll end this with a pic of the vehicle that i used everyday at the wine estate, it was responsible for my broken wrist and me getting back to modelling while i was recovering from the ensuing surgeries. Massey-Ferguson 135, what a little beast, the pic was before it got restored almost to brand new...



And that does it, no more gardening related pics, this is a place for models.

[zenrat]

I was a building labourer for a while and did my share of digging.
Not sure which was worst; shovelling frozen sand, shovelling fist sized pebbles, or digging footings in clay in the pouring rain.

[DogfighterZen]

I was a building labourer for a while and did my share of digging.
Not sure which was worst; shovelling frozen sand, shovelling fist sized pebbles, or digging footings in clay in the pouring rain.

Yup, i know what you mean, Fred. It sucks to dig up hard stuff but digging in the rain... it makes it even more of a miserable job, i hate working under rain.
For the hard stuff like big pebbles or gravel mixed with dry and pressed clay i prefer the tool i call the "arm-powered caterpillar"

[zenrat]

The pebbles were hardcore to go under a concrete house slab.  They were tipped on site and we had to move them by shovel and wheelbarrow to where they were needed.
I slept well that night.

[DogfighterZen]

The pebbles were hardcore to go under a concrete house slab.  They were tipped on site and we had to move them by shovel and wheelbarrow to where they were needed.
I slept well that night.

Quite a rough job, indeed... and it's also "fun" to walk over that stuff with a heavy loaded wheelbarrow... or did you use wood planks to drive it through to the required area? It's so easy to twist your ankles on those pebbles.
Hard labor is good to make you sleep... that's why i fall asleep sitting at the bench when i try to do some modelling after some of those days at work.

[PR19_Kit]

Just READING all this has left me feeling tired! 

[zenrat]

I was young.  This was over 30 years ago.  No way I could do it now.

I can't remember if we laid planks over the pebbles but on the same job we had to unload all the bricks by hand and move them in wheelbarrows along a gravel path and I know we had no planks that day.
Hod carrying was one of my duties and when handling bricks I would wear through a pair of leather work gloves in a day or two.  I had no finger prints as a result.

[NARSES2]

Just READING all this has left me feeling tired! 

You and me both Kit  The only labouring I've done was when dad got me a summer job with some Irish navies he'd met in the pub whilst I was between O and A Levels. Hardest physical work I've ever done and I was mainly doing the "running". I learnt a lot though in those 6 weeks 

Good to see you back at the bench as well though Zen 

[DogfighterZen]

I was young.  This was over 30 years ago.  No way I could do it now.

I can't remember if we laid planks over the pebbles but on the same job we had to unload all the bricks by hand and move them in wheelbarrows along a gravel path and I know we had no planks that day.
Hod carrying was one of my duties and when handling bricks I would wear through a pair of leather work gloves in a day or two.  I had no finger prints as a result.

Ouch! That is rough, no doubt... Experience teaches us how to use less effort when doing hard tasks like those but i also know that sometimes hard tasks have to be done the hard way cause there's no other viable option at the moment.
The only construction work i've done besides landscaping was laying floor and wall tiles and that also had a similar effect on my hands during the winter, especially when it was time to clean the tile's joint filler, the fingers would suffer a lot from the water and the scrapping of the joints but i only did that a few months and decided to go back to gardening.

Just READING all this has left me feeling tired! 

You and me both Kit  The only labouring I've done was when dad got me a summer job with some Irish navies he'd met in the pub whilst I was between O and A Levels. Hardest physical work I've ever done and I was mainly doing the "running". I learnt a lot though in those 6 weeks 

Good to see you back at the bench as well though Zen 

Good to be back at the bench and on here, Chris! Thanks! 
Sorry, gents. Talking about hard work is not the most pleasant thing, i know. But hey, the positive side of it is that you get to know how hard it is from others without having to go through it yourselves. 
It's what you get for not studying, but in my case, i could never aspire to get a college degree cause my parents couldn't afford the bills of a son living in another city, the tuition fees, plus food, clothing and everything else. When i came to the end of my last year in high school, i had to find a job to help out with the bills at home so that limited my choices a bit.
Anyway, it is what is and i prefer to do hard work instead of sitting behind a counter and deal with a lot of humans or doing boring tasks in an office and you also get your daily workout done while getting paid for it. No need to go to the gym.

[TheChronicOne]

PLANT PORN!  Yeah!! 

[kerick]

Nothing worse than trying to dig through water soaked frozen sand! Might as well be concrete.

[scooter]

Nothing worse than trying to dig through water soaked frozen sand! Might as well be concrete.

Ditto Iraqi sun-baked desert.