Hello again!

Well, another long delay but I did manage to sneak in a few updates. Lots of projects in the works that I'm really excited about. In the meantime I'll keep updating photos and pages when I have time.
Thanks for looking!

Still here.....

Hey all,

Well it's been a bit of a rollercoaster these last six months. Long story short, a health issue that I thought was stress related turned out to be a congenital heart defect. One surgery later and a couple months recovery and hopefully things will be back to normal.

One good thing about medical leave, I got a TON of projects done! I'll be posting quite a bit of new stuff soon.

A little later than I anticipated....

But the first post of the new year!
New models, new art and more are coming soon. I've also made some updates to the automotive art page and will be adding new stuff to the model gallery very soon. I've built a lightbox for shooting pictures and have much better photos to show.

It's been a busy January....I've already had my first vendor booth event, and landed two commissions the same week that I will be starting in the next few days. Work work work.

More to come soon!

My "day" job....

In between all the other stuff I do, I actually do have a regular nine to five job (actually 8 to 4:30 but close enough.) I work for a sign shop where I get to make some pretty neat stuff. Check out the new "9 to 5" header for more!

Just a couple things, real quick......

From now on, when I update the pages for individual projects I will move them to the top of the "Pages" column on the left. Anything that has been updated or modified will be at the top and should be indicated in a darker color.

Thanks!

Nick

Bad Movie Night #1

I have a confession to make. I have an addiction. When in the throes of it I lose hours of my life at a time. I think about them often, how they came about, why they were made,  where I can buy more, and why I love something so much when it does nothing beneficial for me.

I LOVE bad movies.

As a teenager fresh from a deployment overseas, I was introduced to the fledgling network Comedy Central and a little show known as Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K). I fell in love with the format, a bunch of guys enduring bad movies and the range of reactions a bad movie can bring.

My friends and I did this a lot, we would go to Blockbuster (RIP) or Hollywood Video (RIP) and look for the cheesiest, low budget movies we could find. Now the discount box at Walmart or secondhand video places are the best to find them. Combined with late night Dungeons and Dragons, junk food and alcohol and you've got a formula for quite the evening.

Nowadays there are a lot of places to talk about bad movies. There are podcasts about bad films that have been running for years. (Check out How Did this Get Made,  Red Letter Media's Best of the Worst and We Hate Movies, to name some of the best.) The MST3K guys have Rifftrax, and with downloading we have access to bad films from all over the globe. There are filmmakers worldwide who have made utter crap for us to enjoy.

When I'm not doing as much with the model side of the page, I figure I'll make good on a promise I made long ago to talk about some of my other interests. Bad movies are dear to me and I'll write about them as often as I can. I will no doubt cover some well-trod paths that many other better sites have already traveled, but I'm hoping to introduce people to this world that aren't familiar with it. So those of you who have seen some of these, I hope I'm at least a little entertaining.

Buckle up, kids. The truckster is on its way to WallyWorld, and we're not stopping.  Not for anything.

Mecum Auctions

A bad movie can tell you a lot about the person watching it. Some will laugh hysterically at the ridiculousness of it. Some will be fascinated by the inept technical aspects of a film, be it the editing, bad effects, lousy writing, etc. Some will dissect the plot points (or lack thereof), attempting to find some logic in it. Some will just stare dumbfounded.

Then there is resentment. Sometimes, a movie is so awful, so insulting to the viewer's intelligence, or so ineptly made that it taps into the primitive lizard brain and dredges up the basest "fight or flight" response. These people will either turn the movie off in frustration, never to finish it, or begin a slow burn of indignation and anger at the film and themselves for watching it.  

It's especially fun when you have a mix of all types at once. It's a truly special movie that can elicit so many diverse reactions without having a single positive thing to present. 

I'll just leave this here.

Movie #1: Future Force.

For my first foray into reviewing bad movies for complete strangers, I decided to start with one that is near and dear to my heart. Part one of a two part epic saga, starring David Carradine.

RIP.

This one is available on Rifftrax. I've loved this movie for years. I haven't watched their version yet as I don't want it to affect my review here.

Some critics describe certain films as being "gritty" or "dark". This movie is "sweaty". I almost used "moist" but that made me think of Dr. Horrible and I laughed. There is little to laugh about in this movie. 

EVERYONE in this movie, with the possible exception of the female lead, looks like they spent 90 minutes doing wind sprints through a trough of KY Jelly in a hot yoga studio with a quick roll through the parking lot to even out the finish.

And now, the "plot".

David Carradine (RIP) is Tucker, a member of C.O.P.S., a group of sweaty, mullet-headed, denim and polyester clad group of borderline personalities whose job is to bring in convicted felons for bounties. Or kill them, whatever. They get paid either way apparently. It would also seem that their bounties have been convicted in absentia, since they are on the streets despite having some pretty impressive convictions they aren't yet in jail for. They appear to be the primary form of law enforcement in whatever shithole city this is set in, as real police never show up to the numerous gun battles that take place in major urban settings.

So basically, you're walking home from work and a grimy, possibly drunk Kwai Chang Caine in a denim vest is waiting at your car. You can come with him willingly, or die. So you do have a choice, I guess.

Most criminals as a rule (especially in movies) are not very smart. The ones in this movie are exponentially dumber than most, as not one takes him up on his offer to come in and, y'know, live. Most die by gunshot, but several meet their demise via Tucker's flying robotic Power Glove that he keeps in the back of his clapped out Jeep Cherokee. Because this is The Future.

Yes, it flies. It can also hold a revving car in place anchored to nothing more than a then-53 year-old man who appears to be dying from consumption. And shoot lightning. The only thing it can't do is fit inside the trigger guard of a pistol that is used far more often.

 Like so many "I work alone" hero types from the eighties, Tucker has a partner who does most of the grunt work and computer 'hacking' that most TV and film producers apparently still see as a form of Dark Magic. He dies too, of course. But I digress.

A TV reporter comes up with some incriminating footage involving the head of the C.O.P.S. organization, and a bounty is immediately placed on her head. Exciting Things Happen and she winds up looking for protection from Our Hero.

The rest of the movie is pretty much just a series of low speed car chases and gunfights with unlimited ammo interspersed with sweaty strip club shootouts and a few knife kills from badguy #2. It's not nearly as much fun as it sounds. But it has its moments. 

The movie is really firing on all cylinders when Tucker brings out the Power Glove with its single button garage door opener remote to dick-punch the bad guy into submission. And the main bad guy dies in a hail of bullets as all 80s villains are contractually obligated to do. Happy ending, sunset, drive off. Credits.

And this movie got a sequel. I won't go into too much detail but time travel and Tucker's son are involved. So this guy impregnated somebody in this film's universe. Let that sink in.

Ladies.......

Ugh. Never has a blank page seemed so intimidating.....

I seem to be repeating myself a lot when I do manage to post here, but I have to say I'm sorry again for the lack of updates. Even though things are going pretty well for the most part, I seem to be busier than ever and trying to put together blog posts has fallen by the wayside. I did want to make a brief post about some upcoming changes to the blog.

I am putting together a new layout and reorganizing the pages to something a little less cluttered. I may even divide individual projects into their own pages as well.

I will also be adding a page for drones, as I have amassed several in the last year or so and they have made R/C a part of my hobby life again.

I have a couple of new gallery pages I will start linking to in Imgur and related Reddit posts when I have additional information to add to a project.

My new(ish) job is going great, and several of my coworkers share many of my interests so you might start seeing some additional faces pop up every now and then. You'll definitely be seeing more posts about R/C and some video too.

I'm hoping to put together some interesting and informative content and make a habit of regular updates. My friends out there, keep me on it! I feel bad that it's taken so long to get back.

Thanks,
Nick

Ch-ch-ch-changes.....

Well it's been an interesting six months or so. I apologize for the infrequent updates, I've been pretty busy and only managed a few small changes here and there. Back in September life decided to throw me a curveball and I got released from the job I had been at for 17 years. I did find a new job fairly quickly but my schedule seems to be a lot busier than I thought it would be with the new job and teaching part time evenings and weekends.

As always, there are a lot of irons in the fire including several commission projects and a bunch of really cool new models that I have been documenting my progress on in preparation for posting. I really hope to get quite a few more updates in soon, and I promise to try to devote at least one day a week to getting new material out there.

Thanks again!

My first published work!

A year or two ago I agreed to do some illustration work for a local author's children's book. I am happy and proud to say that the book has been published, and is now available through Amazon and direct from the publisher. It turned out great! We are both very proud of this project.

Whew.....this year so far has been crazy. Lots of new things to report on, and I have already posted updates to several pages. More to come soon!!

Happy New Year!

Well it's another year, and another string of promises that I will try to do a better job keeping this thing up to date. I've been keeping very busy with both commissions and model work, and I have a lot of new stuff to talk about, including my long overdue bad movie articles. There will be a lot of new posts in multiple categories, so stay tuned, and thanks again for everyone's patience.

Back again!


It's been a while but I finally have some time to get this thing caught up. I have been working a lot the past ten months or so and there will be a bunch of new things going up soon. I've finally made real progress on my first bad movie write up, and I have already posted some new Automotive Art. There will be some progress updates on several model sections, and hopefully some new sections added soon.

Thanks for your patience!

Hey Everyone.....

Apologies for the extended absence. I've been working a lot, with a new part time job and some additional commission work I've been much too busy to do any  of my own stuff at all, much less work on this blog. I do have some neat stuff coming up, and I'm hoping I'll be able to get it on here soon.