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The simplest way to include your family into your hobby is to install things they can relate to. My beloved worked at one of these when she was in high school. This one was a freebie available for the price of postage...
I have a scan of the original peel-and-stick graphics that I will dress it up with later.
---And yes, I'm even at this moment trying to work in a way to make that bucket rotate...
...those who know me can appreciate why I want one...
...from an Ebay pic...
From Donald Miller's blog...
Recently I started reading the New Testament again. My friend Ron Frost recommends reading the Bible all the way through, then reading it again, and then again, until you die. So I am taking his advice. And I’m enjoying it. I didn’t start in Genesis this time, I started in Matthew, and so read the account of the Birth of Christ.
Each time I read the Bible I’m taken aback by how much we dilute the power of its stories with sentimentalism. The story of Noah and his Ark has been reduced to a Children’s story (a God-orchestrated massacre of all humanity) and the story of the Birth of Christ into a regal pageant complete with gifts and robed choirs of angels (A poor virgin and her new husband delivering a baby in a manger of a stable. Followed by an angry king slaughtering all children under two years old to try to kill off the Messiah.)
What I like about the Bible is it doesn’t clean up history. It isn’t a clean book, and God does not always look good (from our finite perspective) and yet it doesn’t hide or sell or bait and switch, it just tells the truth.
One of the problems with sentimentalizing the text is that we begin to sentimentalize our actual lives. We begin to think the Christian life should be free of hardship. We think God is going to navigate us around the hard things. But there is really nothing in scripture that should lead us to believe this. What God offers, instead, is to be with us, to not abandon us, even in the midst of our hardship.
Laying in bed this morning I was thinking about a difficult thing I have to do. It’s nothing compared to some of the stuff you might be dealing with, just a big job I have to complete. I remembered the scripture from Philippians 4: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I’ve said that verse to myself a thousand times, I am sure. But laying there, I realized something the verse didn’t say. It didn’t say “I can do all things through Christ who makes it easy.”
This paradigm shift is important because if we think God is going to take away our troubles, we assume there is something wrong with us if He doesn’t. We assume we did something bad, or that God doesn’t like us, or perhaps even God Himself isn’t good. To be sure, some of the hardships in our lives happen because we made bad decisions, but even in this we are given the grace of a God who is willing to discipline us in love and restore us. A careful understanding of Biblical stories reveals every hero goes through difficult trouble. Nobody is spared.
In an age where we are taught through commercialism there should be no struggles in life that the purchasing of a product won’t relieve, the Bible is incompatible. But the age of commercialism has let us down. Many have found their stuff has made life more meaningless. What we’ve forgotten is that every great story has to involve a difficult ambition, and must then travel through the land of conflict. The best stories have their protagonist wondering if they are going to make it. What scripture teaches us, then, is that God will be with us in that place, and will give us the strength to endure a hard thing.
Here’s to the courage to face conflict, the bonding benefit of hardships, and to living better stories.
Years ago when I was a child, our Christmas garden featured a building my father had constructed using cardboard, balsa and kitty litter as a stone facade. Shortly after I got married, my beloved and I continued with that low budget idea on our garden...I being the builder, she following with paint...
...most were done with a heavy card that I was given a box of, using lighter gauges of shirt box cardboard and the wooden sticks from large kitchen matches. My beloved would paint them with inexpensive craft paints. The windows were fitted with hand drawn and colored decor on typewriter paper.
...well...almost N scale. My primary MOS when I was in the reserves was POW/Corrections security. Thankfully, as RTO, I saw little floor duty.
We sponsor a prisoner I've known now for over 20 years. He's an "uncle" to my kids and it's been a joy to watch him grow in Christ over the years. Because the prison system he is in does not provide basics like underwear, shoes and toiletries and he does not have any family, we've been trusted by God to take care of his needs over the years with what He blesses us with.
We normally send him pictures that the kids have drawn for him. This time around, I put a picture together for him from my model work---"Uncle Bud goes for a bus ride". You can almost hear Axle Foley belting out "Roxanne" in the background...
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Here, there or in the air, buddy, it won't be long now.
...slightly modified with a marque light purchased at a train show...
I did this for my club some time back, it was fairly easy to remove the circuitry from the jewelry it came in. Once out it was simply a matter of sizing up and centering the hole and printing up a sign.
...Geoff Robinson Photography
Wow...
One of the hazards of doing a project is the effect it can have on previous work.
My N scale layout was given to me by a retired architect and the evidence of his craft is everywhere. The street are perfectly laid out as only an architect can, using various scenic items available to that trade. The buildings are not weathered and nicely assembled. While not accurate in every way---the sidewalks are a glaring example---it has a certain charm that I cannot in good conscience violate. In short, should this man or any of his relatives come by, I want them to recognize his work.
---But---
...it is now my layout and I am going to personalize it with some of my own additions, only with the idea that they don't take away from the original. I've added several light effects including traffic lights, working police flashers and welding effects.
With the pharmacy project completed, one thing that had to go was the wide sidewalks to either end of merchant's row as seen in the final picture of Feinstein's. I found that by moving both ends out, it gave me a space a little over an inch wide to drop a small shop in between. With that, a small pizzeria named after my two children was born, cobbled together from the scrap box with HO scale windows glued side by side and other scrap bits...
It still awaits paint and a sign but it definitely takes merchant's row in the right direction without compromising the layout builder's style. The narrower sidewalk looks much better and now the kids have a place named for them as well.
BTW...you ain't lived until you've heard the words, "Uh oh." in a child like voice, coming from the vicinity of your trains.
...I can't believe I finished one. My beloved did a fantastic job lifting the signage and scaling it down using Printshop and Gimp 2. More details on its construction can be found here...
...in N scale. In honor of a modeler who recently passed away and spurred on by other efforts over at the N Scale forum, I plan on finishing out my recuperation by building a fairly close model of this pharmacy.
Dimensions don't need to be critical so long as anyone familiar with this location can see it at first glance and know what it is without prompting. I'll be using a Model Power hardware store as a base.
The keys to success will lie in reproducing the wall mural, roof line and color, I'm looking forward to this and will keep you posted.
Growing up I was surrounded by Christmas gardens and so my intention was to recapture those memories in my own scenery. Plasticville was a required element...
About half of the buildings on our Christmas layout are made of various grades and thicknesses of paper. I would design and build them and my wife would paint them. Window art was done by me with pencils, pens and colored markers. This diner is my favorite and named for my beloved...
Still reeling from the outstanding flop of his first major motion picture, Speed Racer takes up delivering pizzas for some part time coin, hoping the DVD sales will make up the rest. He's been spotted around Selbyville recently, hoping the economy hasn't hit the girls in the clothing store and Sternly Hardcase at his garage so hard that they can't cough up a good tip...
Now, while you Mattel folks are at it, how about making...
---"Batman Begins" Tumbler
---"Back to the Future" DeLorean
---Racer X's car (the real one, not that goober movie thingie)
---"Better Off Dead" '67 Camaro SS
All in 1/87 of course...I can think of more but this'll be a good start.
...or, what does an LSU fan give a Buckeye fan when their team folds like a cheap lawn chair under your team's defence in the BCS Championship game...
It simply amazes me the work one can do from your own computer with a basic graphic program. No more cheezy pre-printed billboards for me.
