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Just Craftin' - Episode 003 [Halloween Edition]
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On this special bonus episode, Shawn and Ed are joined by Dave Strutt to talk about extra spooky Halloween decorations and a lot more.
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Transcript
Crafting Podcast Introduction and Humor
00:00:00
Speaker
What kind of music would be in front of a crafting podcast? What do you think, Dave? What would... I don't know. If you're doing Halloween, it's the Monster Mash. But, um... I like that. I like that. Um... Oh god, yeah, I have no idea for it. We'll do like ten seconds of Monster Mash. Let me think about it. Yeah, yeah. Think about it.
00:00:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, just message me. you got We got time. That's the sound of like sprues. Like you know how they take like the hard drives and they'll like do stuff to them to make them make sounds. But they'll like do that with like sounds of ah like snipping sprues or like a Dremel tool. Yeah. like that ah do If you really want to like encompass the entire kind of crafting that like just have like 30 seconds of just non-stop expletives. Yeah. And stuff being thrown across the room. Yeah. There you go. Just under your breath. Yeah. Yeah. That bit it that YouTube video of like, this is what happens when you try and paint eyeballs. And then it's just the du like swearing the entire time, having to redo it.
00:01:08
Speaker
i do I do have to start with an apology because I know I've been bugging Shirley, Chris, and Ed because I found this one account on Instagram where it's this dude who like, all of his content is model making and it's the funniest stuff ever. Where it's like, most of it's just him sitting in silence. It's like, this is what modeling is like. And it's just him sitting there twiddling his thumbs, just rocking in his chair and like twiddling his fingers, like looking looking at the sprues and like, hmm, I should paint something. Getting all the paints out and then being like, hmm, I'm gonna get on my iPad.
00:01:37
Speaker
This messing around. It's like, I know like this one. This one's the same as the last one. But guys, this is so funny. You have to watch this. That's me. Oh, my God. Anyway, OK. All right. Ready? um Give me a countdown. Wait, wait, wait. This is episode three. Three. Yeah.
00:02:01
Speaker
Oh, three, two, one.
Meet Guest David Strutt and His Crafting Journey
00:02:05
Speaker
Welcome, everybody, to episode three of Just Craftin. This is a special one for you guys because of the time of year. We are getting close to a popular, I think it's more popular in the USA versus other countries, but Halloween coming right up in a week. And we thought we'd bring in a special guest. But before we get to that,
00:02:35
Speaker
My name is Ed Bossart, and I'm joined with Sean Hoffman. That's a good intro, buddy. i'm liking I'm liking how this is going so far. Is it OK? I'm digging it. I'm winging it. I like the transition from like kind of the intro, and then all of a sudden you're like, and by the way, I'm Ed. Oh, know by the way. You caught me off guard. I'm like, hm, I like it. That's cool. That was good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot the fundamentals.
00:03:00
Speaker
um So yeah and ah we are without our usual Chris and he's probably because we're recording this at 9 p.m. and it's like 3 a.m. there.
00:03:15
Speaker
but ah he couldn't, we couldn't make our schedules work for Chris Hall to join us. So we're doing this tonight and we're gonna get our special guest and his name is David Strutt and he loves Halloween. Dave, how you doing? I'm doing good and after that intro, I think Jimmy Dice is fired.
00:03:41
Speaker
I like it. Oh, man, I fucking suck at it. Sorry, Jimmy, you're dumb. yeah um Yeah, it's yeah. I'm very jealous. How are you?
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah. What do you think about this? This like a crafting pod. What do you think, Dave? Like I I think crafting and I immediately like Dave's been doing it way longer than I have. So I don't know. Like like we're going to we're going to talk to you, Dave. We're going to get to know you. Yeah. We're going to figure out when you started this. OK.
00:04:14
Speaker
Uh, how you got the itch, all that shit. And, uh, let's, uh, you want to start there, Sean? Yeah. Yeah. It's like, what do you, what do you think about crafting? Like the crafting podcast is an audio only medium. What are your, what's your, what's your con of your thoughts on that and how that how, what's our rate of success there? Um, great success I think is, um, is I think the ability to.
00:04:42
Speaker
spread as much bullshit about how good you guys really are without people going to actually see it. Even though you guys actually really are good. No, no.
00:04:54
Speaker
You had me in the first half. That's it. All right, I'm done. I guess it's my life. Maybe that's why Ed's doing the rank or he's like, I'm right there. I was waiting for the rank to come up. Dude, he showed me the rank earlier on. Yeah, it's finished. It's it's done. It's finished. It's the best miniature. It is the best miniature. It's the best. eat it's it's it's
00:05:20
Speaker
It's Return of the Jedi Chrome edition. It's fantastic. Ah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah It's done. Yeah. It's like if Luke Skywalker's was, you know, noir. It's modern, deconstructed. Jabber noir. I mean, Jedi is- Zenithal, if you will. It's Zenithal. Oh, yeah. They're a matte lens. ah Consistent lighting. Snap it back. There's hobos everywhere.
00:05:50
Speaker
Everything's through blinds. It's fantastic. Yes, yes. So so Dave, let's let's go back.
00:05:58
Speaker
You love, you love, um we know you love k crafting. We know you love painting, like doing things, making things look pretty. um Take us back to when it started. Like what, what, what was your first, what got you into it?
Rediscovering Model Making and Tools of the Trade
00:06:16
Speaker
Did you leave it? Come back? Like what, what, what how's your, how's the Dave Strut history in credit?
00:06:23
Speaker
I'm gonna spin you a tail. So I originally got into miniature painting when I was
00:06:38
Speaker
15, 16. So that would have been... More hammer. Yeah. and though it It was 40K. Yes. And I did do... um um Space Hulk as well and actually who if it wasn't under a bunch of crazy look Space Hulk is right above me my original set with all the miniatures painted and it's complete as well ah so Space Hulk for the Listeners that don't know is a and I haven't played it. So correct me if I'm wrong. Mm-hmm
00:07:15
Speaker
It's like a branch off from Warhammer 40k like a mini board game where you board a derelict ship and do things. Yes. So it is um it is a basically kind of like a scrolling kind of tactic game. Smaller than the normal war. It is like a squad based. is Yeah. So it's a single squad of terminators, five terminators. um And they're on a derelict spaceship um that has been infested by your favorite. Tyranids. Quadrupeds. Tyranids.
00:08:05
Speaker
The many armed guard, many armed guard. Um, yeah, so it's, yeah, so it's, um, it's a far simpler, it's a lot, it's, it's more of a, uh, traditional kind of ball game kind of thing. But my main bread and butter was, uh, Warhammer 40 K and.
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah, that was that was where I really kind of like started. Did you make an army? Or did you just dabble in everything? I did. My main core army was ultramarines.
00:08:36
Speaker
um but But I did kind of start to kind of branch out a little into chaos. um i forget which I forget which chapter.
00:08:54
Speaker
Probably black. Was it black? I mean like color? What? Oh dude, it was the late 90s. Everything was black. There was just different hues of black. It was like your rancor. No, it's white. I swear. It's xenophobe. Love it.
00:09:12
Speaker
ah Yes. ah did And then I, I did that for a good few years and I can't remember how I kind of
00:09:24
Speaker
I didn't necessarily fall out of love with it. I think it was just, and I'm not gonna say I grew out of it either. I just like phased out of it. um So that was kind of like where I first kind of got kind of, you know, properly kind of into, you know, painting stuff. for And it was obviously, it was a lot different back then. It was a bit simpler.
00:09:49
Speaker
Um, but I did used to dabble with air fix stuff with my dad when I was pre-teen kind of stuff, but that was just kind of, you know, kind of doing the occasional thing and everything was hand painted as well. And it was basically just camouflage, you know, different shoes of, you know, either green or gray. Um, all over drab, olive drab, indeed.
00:10:19
Speaker
Um, so I assume you're in England when you get 40k. Correct. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was, um, uh, there was a small group of us. There was like three or four of us. Um, and we always used to play at my house because, uh, I had the largest dining table.
00:10:41
Speaker
That so table size does matter. Yes. Size does matter. Yeah. So, and so, yeah, so I used to kind of, you know, we used to have like a green bit of kind of felt cloth that we used to like, just like drape over the table, just to give us our base kind of area. And I used to.
00:11:07
Speaker
make little kind of like bits of train out of cardboard and do that. Oh, dude, so many cocktail sticks. Everything was spiky. It's yeah got to be spiky. Yes. Yeah. So yeah, that that digs into that like. It's world building. Yeah, it really is. It's completely world building. It does. It's it's you know, in all the like little sections of river, if you put them together, they would all kind of fit. But You could put them in, you know, 10 or 15 different configurations to make the train slightly different and we always had like a war thing just to kind of cut certain parts of the board off so
00:11:53
Speaker
You know, it's so, all of a sudden, only long range would be able to kind of hit that. Yeah. part of The board. So it became like a cover not cover. Yeah. So it wasn't just kind of like a, car it wasn't just like a charge into death. You know, it was, you know, we really had to kind of think about it. And yeah, it was.
00:12:12
Speaker
It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. Um, yeah. And so, yeah, moving forward. Did, did you like, was there a gap? Like you stopped? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. A gap of happened to me.
00:12:31
Speaker
I think what kicked me back into
00:12:39
Speaker
probably model making, just kind of like kits was when I found that Bandai were making Star Wars kits. Oh, yes. No, we're talking Sean's language. Here we go. and and And the first kit I bought was Poe Dameron's X-wing. Cause I was like, they make a black X-wing now. Oh, good.
00:13:11
Speaker
And so it was like from from there on in, I kind of got back a bit more into kind of like the modern making part of it. And that's where I kind of started to like really just kind of like look into what products are out there, what kind of paints people are using these days, airbrushing. I'd never used an airbrush in my life. And I was like, I feel like I need an airbrush,
00:13:39
Speaker
And I kind of think I'll enjoy it. So I don't want to get something really basic. So I went out and dropped $500 on a set. Oh, damn. you're Yeah. That's more than I've spent. but i'm saying it was I'm saying yes, but silently and going, yeah, I did. I did that. Yeah. i yeah But I don't regret it. I got a hardened steam back dual action airbrush, which I love. oh Good choice. I've got the dual, I what a, was it the power jet pro. So it's a dual tank. So I don't have to wait for any, um, um, you know, refilling. You want to, you want to hear something really stupid?
00:14:20
Speaker
Uh, I have two of those. Oh shit. Because I, I had one at home and then I got kind of got stuck in Indiana for a while during the pandemic. And I was here for an extended period. I'm like, well, I want my, I want to do models because I'm very bored. So I bought another one and it was here. And so then after time, like, and I have two of them at home and go, I don't really know what.
00:14:43
Speaker
to do there's so. That's if that's like that's like a five star Amazon review. It's like I have two of these stupid things and I don't need them. There's no reason to have two of them. It's just an air compressor. So, yeah, I five out of five. The good pick. Yeah, it's absolutely phenomenal. It was um I forget it was I have a harder time to realize as well. Yeah, dude, they're great. Yeah. I love that thing. um And I think it was I think the So the, my choice of airbrush, I think I just kind of took like a shot in the dark. Um, because I could dig kind of like at that point in time, just to kind of see kind of like how methods has changed, et cetera. I jumped on a bunch of YouTube channels, um, found to that solely. Unfortunately, one of them, they shut themselves down and they removed every single video, which really sucked because they were brilliant. Um,
00:15:45
Speaker
And I did kind of you know send a message through Facebook Messenger saying, hey, yeah I know this is a bit of a question like how long is a bit of string, but you got any kind of like, I'm not gonna ask for what is the best one to have because the best one doesn't exist. It's you know it's all um subjective. But I was like, do you have any kind of like recommendations or what I should be kind of looking for?
00:16:13
Speaker
So that gave me a little bit of kind of information. And that's how I kind of chose my airbrush. But my the reason why I bought the compressor was because of tested. So whenever they were, you know, in like the earlier days of tested when you know they were still kind of doing kind of like airbrushing and stuff like that and just kind of doing sitting down, that kind of stuff um like the non Adam Savage parts of it.
00:16:41
Speaker
Um, that was the compressor that I always saw. So I found out what compressible does. I was like, well, if it's good enough for them, it must be pretty rad. And to be honest, when I saw how much it was, I was like, Oh, that's actually not bad for something that's tried, tested professional works. I mean, I've never had a bad day with it. It's like you do, you do do that. Like quick Google search. It's like, can I just use like a, like a power tools air compressor? Like I can get those for half the price.
00:17:11
Speaker
Right. It's like, is that possible? And they're like, no, it's it's really not. and it's like Well, you know, you learn like the correct me if I'm wrong, but you need like a two stage thing where like one part of it like is there in a more uniform manner. The storage tank is the critical piece. Yeah, yeah that's because it's like the one the one that I gave you, Ed, like.
00:17:35
Speaker
You're like, Oh, i do i'm like um it's like no I hate that thing. So you can have it and learn from it. Cause it is fun to learn on. Cause like when you first get an airbrush, it's like, yeah, most of the information on the internet is like, here's how airbrushes work. And then you get one and go.
00:17:48
Speaker
That's not what I'm experiencing, um because it is so much technique, paint, model, and like the freaking humidity outside. yeahp And so it's like, the thing I learned pretty quickly was like, oh, that storage tank to keep the pressure consistent was was the game changer for me. It's like, I had a bad time, and then now I'm having an, OK, now all the problems are me related, not tool related. yeah yeah And sadly, that costs money. But anyway, it does. It does. It does. But. When you when you find something, it's just yeah, it's it's rad. So anyway, looks' like so it looks so cool, though. Oh, it does as well. I mean, it's. It's glorious. The fact that it's got the. Little kind of a little. out to kind ge it's It's like a little miniature computer. like It hopefully does. It totally looks like a little kind of like gaming computer.
00:18:45
Speaker
Sounds like one as well from time to time. That does. I just stick some lights in it. That'd be fun. So so Dave, you. You came back into it. So it would have been about 2015. OK, yeah, that was all i right. And I. That's right. Yes. So it was with like with the return of Star Wars. And yeah's so I kind of bought a bunch of a yum, a bunch of those kits and.
00:19:14
Speaker
Um, but that, but to be honest, at that point in time, I was just, I was in in the UK. Oh, okay. So I was just kind of like, you know, building these and, you know, and we're in rented accommodation. We're in a flat, um, or apartment. Um, and so it's like, I didn't really have anywhere to do kind of, you know, this kind of stuff. So I did everything in my hand. yeah I would occasionally get like a,
00:19:44
Speaker
rattle can of, you know, a Tamiya rattle can and kind of quickly went out back into the parking garage kind of area and, you know, did my kind of paint there but, you know, I wasn't able to do anything kind of spectacular. It wasn't until I moved to the U S and we bought the house. And then that's when all of a sudden I could kind of like build up the workspace, get the right tools. You know, you know, I, that was when I got my air compressor and airbrush, my Dremel set up. And more recently the 3d printer and, you know, just kind of create a bit more kind of, um, more of a dedicated workspace for it. And then that's when I kind of started to really kind of,
00:20:31
Speaker
do bigger kind of better things. So I still have a horrible, horrible pile of shame. um We know about that. We have experience with that. And I'm glad I could add some of mine to yours.
00:20:46
Speaker
yeah How's that Falcon doing, Ed? It's right there. yeah It's going to happen. It doesn't count. It doesn't count if you don't open the box. how do i At that point, you're just like sitting on something. It's like, am I going to gift it, or am I going to do it myself? Oh, I opened the box for him. It's a gift to me, so I can't gift it. I opened the box for him, and I gave him a couple of tight scaled typefaces as well. Yes. Nice. And some lighting effect, correct? And some lighting, and a little lighting kit as well. It's going to happen.
00:21:17
Speaker
I know. I know. I know. I'm just there's because I know these guys get on your back about your shit as well. We all have our piles of shame. I like it. I just descend i so I send them. I just send them gifts. It's like, hey, you want to you want a stormtrooper? You want to? Because I'm like, I'm never um because I'm never going to build it. I but i have a band. I shit like just like. Oh, my God. I i have one of those stormtroopers. They're brilliant.
00:21:46
Speaker
See, had yeah like like you have to paint them white or they like come out. No, it's all it's all pre-colored plastic. And there's you know, it's there's black plastic in there. There's the white plastic and there is kind of like rubber pieces as well. So so I assume like if you want to get if you want to get detailed on it, you matte spray it for clear, clear coat, matte spray. And then you can like go to town on it. Do a little zenithal highlighting, maybe. And then yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:22:16
Speaker
We'll just start over and just paint it all black. Well, I mean, it's pre-Xenithals. A stormtrooper? Yeah. Yeah. The recesses are all dark and, you know, the actual whites. If I'm completely honest, I think that's why I give the stormtroopers away. It's like, I just don't know how to do this. I don't know how to do the shiny, the shiny white.
00:22:36
Speaker
I'm going to, I can't make it dirty. Like I do everything else. So it's like, Ed, you figure this out. I don't, I don't know what I'm doing yeah i mean and gonay as well. It's because of how it's kind of put together. You could totally do everything on the sprue and then put it together. Nice. Yeah. it I think I tried that one time. I'm going to pre-paint it then. Uh, no, not all, not all band. I think it's the, I think it's more of the figures, the band like figures.
00:23:04
Speaker
because of the way they kind of connect like action figures. They have a lot of them kind of undergates and stuff like that. yeah The ships are not, unless you are an absolute pro at cutting sprues, which even then it's it's not going to be perfect. Cause sometimes they do like the edge gating and the, or the undergates and stuff. And yeah it's, it doesn't cut clean. And, and it's, and also it's kind of having your,
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, especially when it comes with the down down to kind of like aging and weathering is because of how those parts are kind of like on the sprue. They're not in any particular order. So when you're aging everything, you've got to be kind of thinking, oh, where is this going to be in return to this part? OK. Yeah, because you got to get like a continuity of. Like they don't put all the white armor pieces together. Yeah, like it's going to be there's going to be like other pieces.
00:24:02
Speaker
and Yeah, you could you could maybe prime all the sprues at the same time. But at that point, I don't really know what you're what you're saving. Yeah. Right. like Saving any time. You might as well put it together. Yeah. So we. Go around the horn and talk about what we've been working on lately or what we bought lately lately and then. We'll end with Dave and him talking about his Halloween.
00:24:32
Speaker
Endeavors this year because we've seen some pictures Dave and we're impressed um Dude, I'm so impressed. I was trying to figure out like for a long time. I'm like, is it his job? Like is he? Does he get paid for this so much? mind I wish because it's kind of it's like it's that good and it's like but it was paying you that's the sizzle for Dave's Dave's what he's been working on. ah Sean, do you have anything you've been doing or no? I've been doing a couple, I mean, like, light, real light. So one, ah a buddy of ours had a need for some Halloween stuff and i helped out in that regard, helped cut some stuff on the old Glowforge. Nice. got to got to Got to burn through some of the pile of shame of materials that I have. The old MDF sheets. I was gonna say. Ooh, very good.
00:25:29
Speaker
Dude, that pile is stunning. it's It's like, I can cut anything. But then somebody's like, do you have a neon green? It's like, it's the one I don't. How about how about MDF? Do you like that? Do you like neon pink? I have that. Or matte white. um So that's that's always fun. um But yeah, I did that. That was fun. It's turned out really cool. i will tell them That's all the more I'll say about that.
00:25:57
Speaker
um And the other thing I've been doing is it's mostly been doing stuff for other people. So my mom has recently gotten on a crazy crafting kick ah into sewing and like she's really into that kind of like Midwest rustic Christmas. I think that's the only way I can describe it where everything everything's kind of sewn and there's.
00:26:16
Speaker
rusted buttons and bells and everything smells like cinnamon. I don't like that hope that paints i hope that paints a picture for people. um Or just smells like cinmon cinnamon when you look at it. yeah I think she put cinnamon in the stuffing of something.
00:26:32
Speaker
her hands And she's like, she's like oh I make a made it smell like cinnamon. Is that like okay to do? like i't i That's completely foreign to me. like I know they sold those like pine cones at the grocery store that are like coated in cinnamon oil. oh yeah but that's about That's as far as my knowledge goes. um But they're they're awesome. It's really cool. But she had me, she was like, oh, I only have a but printer. And like I'm trying to apparently cut like a three foot tall snowman template. So I also used the Glofor, the laser cutter to to like the chipboard, the real thin kind of cardboard chipboard stuff that like card backs are done on. I'll put that in there and I was cutting like fabric templates on it.
00:27:11
Speaker
Uh, that's cool. So it's like, ah, the only reason I'm saying that is maybe people out there like know somebody who does sewing and patterns and like, that's a fun use for a a laser cutter and it's easy. So you just pop it in there instead of somebody trying to like do enlargements on a eight by 10 printer and like tape them together and try and do this. So it's like, I can do that about four seconds and then try to figure it out, how how to get it on an airplane and get it home. So yeah those are, those are kind of the main things that I've done. Cause I've been, as you know,
00:27:41
Speaker
I'm not at home, so that's the core of it. Yes, Sean is visiting parents. I'm at my mom's house, and yeah, I'm checking out all of the fruits of the labor. I'm trying to get her to open an Etsy shop, because I don't want to take this stuff home as gifts. So she's she's got the creative bug, eh? Yeah.
00:28:02
Speaker
yeah She used to she used to I'm about to get her on the podcast one of these times cause she used to she also so that'd be amazing that'd be awesome She used to so like these like Joanne fabrics. I don't know if that's that people are familiar with that story I don't know if that's regional or national. No, no, no, it's we have them here. Yeah i've seen yeah Like back in the 90s. She used to sew these like bunnies like kind of like think of like a boy's bear but like a bunny rabbit but they're like human and they were like human clothes and Don't ask. I don't know. It was the 90s. It's like in a kind of with like like funny. No, it was like it was like a bunny doll like picture like a bunny bunny rabbit with arms like in. Was it was it kind of like an oversized Sylvanian family kind of thing? Remember Sylvanian families? I know. I know. I mean, I'm looking up real quick. I'll vamp. I don't actually. Oh, it's like.
00:28:56
Speaker
Kind of, kind of like that, but like the heads weren't so big, right like more, smaller, but like made out of fabric and stuff. And so then it died for many years. And for years I've been like, you should like get back into that. You should like put the iPad down and like do something. Like you made cool stuff. Fulfilling, it's fulfilling, right stress relief. and now about the And now I'm about to re,
00:29:18
Speaker
reap all of the rewards of that those years of pushing for that because now it has just absolutely exploded. like I'll get random phone calls during the day and she'll be like, hey, how do I like take safety pins and like rust them? I'm like, I need context for what what we're talking about. please First of all, please don't Google that because I don't need you buying chemicals on the um on Amazon. And so I gave her some tips. I'm like, please like dilute it, take your time, monitor it. And so like the first couple of times she's like, I pulled it out and there was like nothing left. I'm like, yeah, dilute it some more.
00:29:57
Speaker
but i like you on there like what are we Don't do that indoors. And like also for her birthday in September. Like she asked for like a, apparently they sell four inch table saws. Like the blade is four inches tall. Like a little miniature table saw. Dude, I've seen those. My brothers wouldn't buy it. They're like.
00:30:16
Speaker
You're going to lose a finger. You're going to do this. I'm like, hell yeah. Dude, got getting it. This is awesome. It's like sitting in the garage. And I'm like, she's like, I used it. And then the pieces were flying everywhere. It's like, did you read the instructions? like What are you doing? like like She's like, oh, yeah, I did. I'm like, please just wear safety glasses. Don't wear like long sleeves. like just like Come on, don't make- Watch your appendages. don't make me Don't make me look bad, but no, she's she's good with it now. she's She knows how she's doing, but I support it. I i support my seven-year-old mom just vibing in the craft space, winging it, figuring it out with power tools. I support it too. Let's go. Me too. Yeah, that's what I've been doing. That's a good time. Right. More than I've been doing.
00:31:00
Speaker
i've been doing nothing because I went to England and but have been sick. You could probably hear it in my voice a little bit. I'm getting over that. But in England, I did buy a Warhammer thing and it's the Primark of the Thousand Sons and it's ah Magnus the Red.
Halloween Crafting Trends and Techniques
00:31:21
Speaker
And it's a giant fucking model. um It's one off, it's like a one, it's not like you're making a squad of 10. It's this giant fucking model and it's got wings. It's like two and a half rain course. It's super vibrant and super colorful. It's clearly gonna be something I'm gonna use the airbrush on for the wings at least oh because I feel like that would work really well on it.
00:31:53
Speaker
Uh, I'm excited to paint it. I'm also really intimidated by, um, that looks like a wet blend, a wet blend nightmare. Yeah. We'll, we'll, uh, Oh yeah. We're a wet plan. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. That's cool. That's cool though. It's like a big, what angel looking thing at like big angel wings, big angel wings, demon looking guy with ah horns and shit. Yeah. Big stick. Yeah. Yeah. He's got like the, what's the,
00:32:20
Speaker
the blue, the blue Marvel Avengers, oh the Tesseract, the Loki stick thing. That's a very good comparison, yes. Glowing cloth, good for him. Glowing cloth, yeah everything you want to paint, right? Gloth is so easy to paint. It's super easy. Dude, it's just layers. It's just layers. Along along with the wings. Wings are easy to paint, too. yeah yeah yeah ah And glowing orbs. Unslowly.
00:32:48
Speaker
yeah So fucked. I'll get to it. Sure. Add it to the pile. Yeah, it's it's on the pile. We need a sound bite for that. Like the sound of boxes stacking. he Add it to the pile. Clunk. But just stuff falling into a void. I have not started to do back Stormtrooper yet, which is my next model in the Star Wars. In my list of shame.
00:33:19
Speaker
What determines ah the order of this? I'm curious. Is there like, oh, I got to do the do back because I'm using it for a game or is it just like this is next. It's warming up for the rank or after this is the ring. That makes sense. I know I do that. It's like I want to I can mess these up and I won't be as sad. Yeah, I start with the job, ah go to the do back with the stormtrooper. Yeah.
00:33:42
Speaker
than the Marine Corps. it's like It's kind of like a video game. It's like you you kind of pick up skills. You're like, I know what I kind of have an idea of what I need to do. And I don't have those skills yet. So I'm going to kind of like practice this one on here. I'm going to pick up a little here all to have the final boss and just really hope I don't lose. It's more it'ss lose or to affirm my logic in my process. Because like when you're working with ah contrast paints and regular paints, it's all about the order.
00:34:13
Speaker
I'm finding, like and there's obviously like skill with a brush and all that shit, but I'm just saying like, like when you're, when you're painting with contrast paint and you know how it works, like it's an order of operation. Yeah. It's a confidence that I never really seem to ah acquire. Uh, so it's a lot of analysis paralysis and just kind of a lot of second guessing and waiting, being like, I should, I should, I will do that tomorrow when I have more.
00:34:43
Speaker
mental fortitude. Right. that The kind ah contrast paint thing changed everything. Like it's now like like before you start dark, you go lighter, you know, you go move up in the colors and you go light. Yeah. Now with contrast paint, it's like you start light and you you throw contrast paint on it.
00:35:04
Speaker
And that gets in the crevices and makes those darker and that like solves it, like saves a lot of time. Acid wash, some people would say. Yeah. acid but And then you work from that going. So like there's a whole thing. And then when you're airbrushing contrast paint, we're talking about airbrush. Airbrushing contrast paint is a whole nother thing because it's not as likely to gather in the crevice as it would with a brush. So you're You're having to use darker than lighter, instead of lighter than darker, I think. um I might have to reverse. Not to go down this rabbit hole, but does it behave like a filter, like more like a filter in a like a shade and an airbrush? Since you're I imagine it dries pretty quick. It does. Yeah. Fun fact and a cheat. You guys probably use it too, but I use a hairdryer. I have a hairdryer like right next to my right airbrush.
00:36:01
Speaker
I have not. Dave's turning around. He's picking up. There it is. There it is. Her hair. Her hair. dry Nobody hangs from here, but I didn't want another table. Look weird if you had a hair dryer hanging from above you. Yes. I have a a larger airbrush that I have plugged into my second port of my my water and I have the pressure cranked up really high on that. And so I'll use that as like a little mini. It's not hot, but I just air. So I'll pull that one up and go.
00:36:28
Speaker
Right. And then like that works, too. I swap mainly because I have sketchy wiring, electrical wiring my house and I don't trust a hairdryer, but that's where I'm at. Fair enough. So so when I was doing paneling on my Warhammer ah chaos nights, they're bigger. They're huge. They got huge panels. I would start light green and I would go darker green on the edge. And with contrast paint, conscious paint works really wear well in an airbrush.
00:36:58
Speaker
So it's the opposite of what you do with a brush. You go light first, like if you want to, wait, I already said that. You go dark first, darker, and it would fill in the craft. And then you go light with like regular paint to highlight edges. So it was a, I will say though, the method with what the paneling that did, it's hard, really hard to fix mistake. Like you don't want to make a mistake at all when you're airbrushing.
00:37:37
Speaker
and Yeah. I got to a point where I was like, thank God I'm doing chaos nights and not imperial nights because imperial nights look super clean. Right. I'm like, thank God I'm doing chaos nights because that mistake is just going to look like a you know blemish, like like weather bullshit, like chaos nights.
00:37:57
Speaker
It's no-go stuff. Yeah, it's no-go shit. But that yeah, sorry, I digress. I have nothing in my week. which I just bought that thing, and it's going to go on my pile of shame. Magnus the Red. Oh, I'll get to it. You'll get to it. so We believe. We believe. Another time. Yeah, it's it's and see that's one of the ones where, yeah, i you know it's here it's a that's where you're stepping towards.
00:38:26
Speaker
it'
00:38:28
Speaker
It's like a holy, it's like of that army. It's like the, the, it's like the and yeah right. Yeah. So like, I will have to spend a lot of time. It's like my, it's like my perfect great Falcon that I'm like, I won't even take the lid off of my, I'm not ready. Once you do, once you do Sean, do it. The amount of the the the amount of mental wrestling I had with myself.
00:38:58
Speaker
for not buying that perfect grade Falcon was, I was intoxicated. I was intoxicated at celebration and I talked myself into it. And it's, I mean, it, I mean, it's, I've seen it completed and it is stunning.
00:39:19
Speaker
It is a stunning model. It was my compromise because I i don't know if you're familiar with like the, the Augustini. Mail mail and yeah like a big so if anybody's not familiar they did like a Mail like oh you subscribe to it like a week It was black but i'd like mail you a couple pieces and you and you have a magazine and you put it together and it was very weird because it was insanely expensive and like I Got like for the longest time was like is it real? I don't have this kind of money But I'm interested and you don't really see in a lot of people talking about you could buy the whole kit
00:39:52
Speaker
yeah i think I think they went out of business and they got bought again and then they're selling it again. But I was like, i can't if I can't afford that thing. So like the perfect grade was kind of like, this will be my my like my muse,
00:40:07
Speaker
my like my my my masterpiece when the time comes. I'm not ready for it. I'm not ready for it yet. it's like So it sits in its box and I'm like, that would be cool, but I'm not. Yeah.
00:40:19
Speaker
There's still a lot of stuff I need to learn before doing that. Yeah. I mean, it's certainly not something you want to, um, you'd want to mess up. It's yeah. Yeah. Well, even, um, i I'm sure you're, since we were vamp and Fred a little bit here, I'm sure you're familiar with Bandai stuff. The, there are chemicals and products you do and do not use on Bandai because there are things that would just say that Bandai just says, yeah, I can't take that and just dissolves or cracks and becomes brittle and.
00:40:46
Speaker
And so i I want to wrap my head a little bit more around what enamels does Bandai not like. And why does it seem to be so many, um, before I, before I do anything to that, to that Falcon. Right. Yeah. Cause I mean, I think that is one of those ones that you would want to kind of like.
00:41:07
Speaker
do kind of like sub builds, paint those, and then kind of slowly kind of, but as yeah I mean, especially in kind of like, like the engine wells and, um, not, not the engine wells, the, well, you know, like the top.
00:41:19
Speaker
The grills that the little circle, the circle grills and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And the the, um, like the little kind of ports where there's all kind of like the crisscrossing pipes and they'll greeblies and stuff like that, you know, the the exposed pieces where you can kind of see down into the ship a little bit. Yeah. I forget what I forget. Well, like the correct term for something like that would be, but yeah, those bits there, it's, you know, you really want to kind of, you know, kind of like, there are so many pieces in those little wells that.
00:41:46
Speaker
You got to kind of make sure you kind of get the paint really in there and yeah, you don't want to over spray into it. You don't want to something to be thick and gloopy and those because you don't want to lose detail. So yeah, it becomes more of a. A challenge on something like that when it is so detailed. When I'm sure we've all had that model that that humbles us a little bit, like you get a little, little big for your britches and all of a sudden you're like, mine was a Bandai Y wing. Uh, that's right.
00:42:13
Speaker
And all of a sudden you're like, I'm going to do it the same way I've always done it. And then all of a sudden you realize like, I probably shouldn't have put all of the pipes, like something that's got a lot of pipes and stuff around the outside of it. It's yeah i like, oh, my my process is broken because I can't hand brush these pipes and have them different. And it's like, ah.
00:42:30
Speaker
All right, so that's that's that just what you were saying reminded me of that, of like, you need to have a plan for certain pieces and be able to identify and have the eye for, okay, there's a lot of pipes. Those will typically be different colors. They kind of go down into ah a groove or a crack that's recessed and hidden. I can't hand paint that, so do I need to paint those ahead of time? Do I need to appreciate them? Do I need to do this? Just paint them black, man. And then...
00:42:51
Speaker
Then the air or dry brush over it. It's it's Millennium Falcon Noir. and Um, can you use acrylics on Bandai, you know, you can use acrylics on any though you could put acrylics on paper you can yeah, I didn didn't know if it was like super annoying or No, do I do a matte spray for so it can stick no acrylics will acrylics will stick to pretty much anything it's the the rule is kind of like you can put acrylics on top of anything, but what you put on top of acrylic, you got to be careful. Yeah, like like it's when the lacquers and and ah Bandai does not like enamel period, like and most enamel products, like some of the like what are the Tamiya panel liners that are like God's gift to modeling where it's like the little square bottle and little and brush that
00:43:44
Speaker
Eats. Like if you do not have layers of paint on top of a Bandai plastic, that will that will crumble, crumble Bandai stuff. Like my ATST is just barely, especially thin parts, they are barely holding on. Like I have that thing. It's been shot to hell, right? Yeah, that's what it is. He's just really weak. The the the the the repairs have been neglected by the Empire. by But if you have a big, thick, chunky part, like you could slather that crap on, but it's like, oh,
00:44:13
Speaker
thin, thin pipes, thin bars. It'll eat through that. But yeah, enamels are the problem for most of the, uh, the, the band, the band. I said, yeah. Yeah. But that's where clear coats come in. Yes. Yep. To me, a dull coat, lock in the color, protect it over. Then you can do whatever you want. Lock in your base layer and then you can do whatever you want.
00:44:36
Speaker
And then, then, you know, when you're getting into modeling, not really knowing how much is enough of a clear coat. Cause it's like, I feel like I didn't really get much on there. Is that going to be protected? So then you use like two cans and you're like, I think that paranoid. Yeah, you get paranoid. It's like, I'd rather have too much and then too little.
00:44:51
Speaker
then you get it and it's kind of fuzzy. I could totally see myself do that. I have it, I have it. And all of a sudden there are no panel lines anymore. This has been filled in. It's just kind of, it's kind of, if you use matte, it's kind of fuzzy or if it's like the the auto stuff, it's just, it's just smooth. You just create and a whole new model. yeah Just repels anything wet. You put paint on there, just beads up and it's like, well, I think we got a problem. that Anyway, let's,
00:45:21
Speaker
Let's move on to Halloween because this is this is what I really want talk about. oh So, Dave, is it your favorite holiday? It's all right. Yeah, it's all right. Sorry. Right. Right. Right. No, yeah, it's um yeah, it it is. um I mean, it always has been.
00:45:45
Speaker
um But because it's not, it's not super popular in England, right? So like, how did that becoming more popular? Um, but I, I, I, I, I've always kind of loved Halloween, but it has become more and more popular over the last kind of four or five years. I mean, at least back home. Um, but I kind of, so my wife and I kind of, we did a long distance thing for,
00:46:17
Speaker
a good while. And so, you know, we would kind of even it out every three months, there'll be a trip. Either she comes over to here. Sorry. Either she comes over to the UK or I come over to here. And at that point in time, she was living in New York.
00:46:32
Speaker
um And I think it was, and it was around then because I visited a number of times around like, the house you know, around kind of like October time. And so, you know, we'd see all the decorations out and you know, it's, you know, we're going to Michael's or something like that, just to kind of, you know, check out stuff. And I would like walk in and I'm kind of like, this stuff is fucking awesome. brilliant's like i love to Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. In not as many words.
00:47:10
Speaker
ah
00:47:13
Speaker
i was so was I was like, this is, yeah, this is Fantastic. Um, you know, every single time when, you know, we always like buy something and we've still got a bunch of it. You know, we've been putting out out every single year for, you know, 15 years. Uh, and it's still some of the stuff we got back then is still some of this, my favorite stuff that we put in the house. Um, and it just kind of stemmed out from, from then. And then when.
00:47:41
Speaker
wife moved over to the UK and she brought all the stuff with her. We would always put it out. Oh, this is great. But we never had any outdoor space. Well, in England, that makes sense. Yeah. Well, as you said, at that point in time, we were just renting flats, you know? Yeah. So we never had any kind of outdoor space to kind of put anything. And it was something that I always kind of wanted to do. But then when we moved,
00:48:12
Speaker
and we got our own house with an outrageously oversized front yard. And it was kind of like, right, okay. You mean a canvas is what you mean. A canvas. o Talk dirty to me, Ed.
00:48:28
Speaker
um um And so I just started off just going to Home Depot and just buying kind of stuff from there really. Um, you know, cause you know, they did some, and they still do some, you know, for the money and the quality of them, they still do some, you know, pretty good kind of headstones and stuff like that. You know, it's, it's red i was going to own and they've only gotten better over the years. They become far more, uh, elaborate. So, so to preface before you get into it for the listeners, so Dave DIYs.
00:49:10
Speaker
decoration, correct me if I'm wrong beer for Halloween. Um, is, and it's more of a recent thing or is it you've been doing it. I've, I am in my.
00:49:25
Speaker
Third year. OK. Yes. So three. I feel like you've stepped it up like a lot in this past year. But anyway, you could talk about that. Yeah. You're you're you're you're skill progression and like it's just like it's just showing up. That's quality, man. That's awesome. Tell tell us about the start of the year one and move on, move on. OK, so we'll react. I will I will I will prologue year one.
00:49:52
Speaker
um So when I was talking about the um ah the headstones from Home Depot, they were kind of put in the ground and I was super happy and I was using, actually, oh i there I was using these just, you know, they're solar power LED spotlights, which I that which are in a stone. It looks like a stone. It looks like a stone. So it blends but a bit more into the yard. Cool, because they're all out front. So they're in front of my display. So I didn't want these clearly obvious, you know, LED fixtures in front of it.
00:50:42
Speaker
because it kind of takes you out of the atmosphere and yeah the fire. You're going for more of a natural look, not a, hey, here's my headstones. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So um I was using these and the, and how the...
00:51:00
Speaker
um and how the headstones basically fixed into the ground. it was um It was a small, it was, it kind of looked like a sprue. It looked like a modeling sprue, but it was in a T shape, spikes on each end. And basically how it was, was that the shorter section of the T had the spike on there, just so you could put it into the underside of the tombstone for storage.
00:51:33
Speaker
But then how you put them into the ground was that you basically pulled it out, you rotated it 90 degrees, so they were of dignity. And then you would put one into the um the headstone, and then you put the other end into the ground. And so that was how they would stay up. All well and good. The problem is, though, is that each section of that tee is only about six inches long.
00:52:00
Speaker
e First year, no issues. Second year, there was a particularly windy night. Cut right now. Dude, they weren't even cut right in half. They were, they were all, they were all across the yard. Oh my God. And so I woke up, I went to get into my car to go to work and I'm like,
00:52:26
Speaker
Where is everything? And so it was, I was like, Oh my God. Okay. So I grabbed everything. I quickly put it where it's basically because the spikes were still in the ground, but the headstones were got, you know, Picked up like a sail and just. Oh, okay. So they didn't break. They just flew off. Yeah. They just flew off of these. it's It said, cause there's only six, you know, so, so this is a 24 inch headstone, but only six inch of it inches of it is.
00:52:51
Speaker
basically held by these very thin pieces of plastic. okay And so I put them all back and I was like, I'm missing one. Looked everywhere. I was like, okay, I've got no time for this. Jumped from my car. After four days, my neighbor around the corner, I just had, it was because when I was leaving and coming back home, it was dark. So this one day it was light because I left,
00:53:21
Speaker
later in the day than I normally would. I drive past me. It's, I find my final tombstone and it's wedged underneath the front wheel of my neighbor's parked RV.
00:53:35
Speaker
So I was like, right. There it is. Pulled it out, stuck it in the trunk, went to work, came back, put it out. And I was like, I need something better. Yes, you do. I need something better.
00:53:49
Speaker
Time for upgrade. Time for upgrade. ah Wait, before you move on. Yes. Is there anything on the tombstone that ah appealed to you? like ah Or did you did you write something yourself on that? I know you did for your recent one. No, no. they were they were just they they they I don't even think they even had like epitaphs or anything. They just had like R and P and then some you know kind of graveyard symbolism kind of Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. But one thing about them, which actually was cool was that they had like, um, like the fake Moss attached to him. And I think that was why I kind of chose those ones because I was like, you know, it's like a store bought thing that actually looks pretty good. But so yeah. So, uh, DIY, some fake Moss dude. So I was like, okay. um So, so yeah. And then.
00:54:47
Speaker
i I... We're going into year two. We're going into year two. Okay, we're going into year two. So this is when I started to kind of... Now, I can't remember what I searched for. In fact, I can't even... In fact, I'm not even 100% sure I kind of went into... Did a search for how to make... It wasn't as specific as in how to make your own tombstones.
00:55:15
Speaker
I think I just like was looking for like, ah like store alternative, you know, like alternatives to store crime brand. And I came across this one YouTube channel and that YouTube channel is, um, uh, Van Oakes props. Um, and Derek, the guy who kind of runs it, he, um, he basically kind of like,
00:55:44
Speaker
taught me or at least gave me the starting blocks of everything that I kind of know. I have come kind of bits of information from other places. It's like I've expanded upon it. I've kind of found better methods to do things. But basically it was that YouTube channel was how I first learned how to make tombstones out of pink XPS foam. So it's the big sheets with the pink panther on.
00:56:13
Speaker
um and so my first year I cut out 12 but I only finished 8 because I didn't start until about like a handful of weeks I think before Halloween so Um, so yeah, so basically the method for that is you cut out, you, you cut out your, um, um, phone pieces heads, your headstone. And the neat thing about it is, is that all of my original ones that I've done, they are all 18 by 24 using like a heated.
00:57:02
Speaker
Like, wire to cut them or are you just using like a... For my initial cuts, it's just a sharp blade. Okay. It's... It's... It's a knife. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I have to go with foam. I don't know if you have this, Sean, but they have that like tool that's like... A hot wire? Yeah, hot wire. I don't trust myself with that, but yeah. Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
00:57:27
Speaker
when i yeah When I've done it, i I usually like score the outline. I'll draw it and I'll score it. And like, if you if you at least crack the film on either side, you can just yeah in this shape pop it right out. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Cool. I don't have any experience with it. It's better than a hacksaw or something where you're like wait wait wait wait we're and you're just getting the pink dust everywhere in your lungs. Yeah. Yeah. that Well, it's it's it's there were a number of cuts. I'll get to it later on that I did do on a um ah circular saw.
00:57:57
Speaker
Um, just go have like the right kind of blade for it. And, you know, just nice, be careful. Um, don't go too fast because you can gum up the whole thing. And all of a sudden you just, all right. All right. And for a while. Um, but yeah, so, but the best thing about having them is 18 by 24 is that you can fit six perfectly on one of those sheets of, uh,
00:58:27
Speaker
of foam. So there is, you know, you get a certain kind of continuity and then it's cutting the rough shape thing off. Um, but once you've kind of got that all done, I then got one of the guys at work who has a cricket machine. Um, he did me a bunch of, uh, stencils for the epitaphs use a Dremel with a, um, with ah my one originally came with a, um, uh, routing cap on it but once again my man at Van Oakes he sells these ah in his Etsy store now it's effectively it is the exact same router bit that you get on a ah router sheath then you get on a ah Dremel but it has this piece of clear acrylic attached to the bottom and that stops you from rocking
00:59:27
Speaker
too far left and right, it gives you a greater surface area to um kind of use detail on for the epitaphs. Once I drill that out, spray down the entire thing, hold it upright, spray down the entire thing with water, get as many droplets as you can, and then this is where it gets really scary. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You have a piece of foam, you cut it into the,
00:59:55
Speaker
tombstone you want, give it the shape and you soak it with water. No, you spray it with a spray bottle. Yeah. You get as many droplets to sit on it as you possibly you can. What droplets like you want. Yes. Okay. Okay. And this is when it gets really scary because that's when you grill out the, uh, the, uh, uh, butane torch.
01:00:19
Speaker
Oh shit. I fucking love this. Keep going. Okay. And that's when you start to go over it kind of not too slow, but certainly not too fast because you want certain parts of it to scorch. Yeah. And the reason why you wet it down with water is because the parts in between the droplets of water is the only thing that scorches. Ooh.
01:00:48
Speaker
So then when you take it away and then wipe it off, you've got this completely random pattern of kind of where? Broken rock. like you you talk about Or at least worn rock. That is really cool. So that's that's the scariest bit because it's like there have been times and I still do it to this day on ones I leave it a little bit too long.
01:01:14
Speaker
Or what's really dangerous is when you get a couple or two or three, four of these droplets start to join together. And then that's where gravity kicks in. And all of a sudden you've got this streak and as you're moving the blowtorch along, it then streams. You've now got this perfect line going right down.
01:01:36
Speaker
the middle of your headstone, and there's nothing you can do about it. Is it is a heat torch, is like a blowtorch required, or could you use like a heat gun? Or do you think that would just- You can use a heat gun, it just takes a lot longer. A lot longer. Yeah. That's why yourre that's why yours looks so much better than mine. I didn't, I never, i've that's that's new to me, the kind of like the pitting, I imagine it's kind of creating like a pitting effect. It is, fair yeah. And it's like- It's just like pitting. I just, I just, like I saw your router, your router piece is like, ah,
01:02:05
Speaker
I just took a Dremel and attacked mine. So that's why yours look a little bit better. That makes a lot more sense. Cool. That's that's that's a nice little tip. It's a little more chaos than it. You know what I'm saying? like Yeah, it's it's it's it's more it's more it's more random, you know, because it's the human eye just finds patterns everywhere. um So it's just a bit more kind of random because you were literally having nature be your guide.
01:02:35
Speaker
when it comes to it. Um, then after that it's dry lock, um, or any kind of latex based outdoors paint just to give it its original kind of color and to kind of seal. I mean, kind of whether, I mean, the phone is pretty weatherproof anyway. Is that a color or is that just like, it doesn't matter. Dry lock is the brand dry lock is the brand. And the one thing about dry lock is that it's a, it's a textured masonry paint.
01:03:07
Speaker
And so, you know, it does kind of give... I don't have anything to hand. It does give you more of a... ah It's not self-leveling. It kind of has like ah like ah like a texture to it when you put it on. It does, yes. Oh, it does? Yeah, yeah. yeah Like a rough... yeah Is it rough? Like stone? It is, yeah, yeah. Because there is kind of very fine sand kind of mixed into it.
01:03:35
Speaker
OK. OK. And but isnt there' is there any color to it? Like, is it white or is it like what is it like? ah You can get it in either white or gray. Oh, you can get it multiple. Oh, interesting. And it's all tintable. You can tint it however you like. OK. So for these, what'd you get? Oh, I got the gray because it was it's stone. So I just kind of use that. And my first lot that I did, I did use the dry lock, but certain ones that I've done afterwards.
01:04:06
Speaker
um I just got a basic latex paint and I found a ah ah color on the color chart, which was wet concrete. And I was like, oh, that's good. Just so I can. Sounds like what you want. Yeah. Well, and it's, it gives you kind of difference because my base layers and my my my base colors to that point in time where everything was exactly the same.
01:04:32
Speaker
So whenever I then went to the next step and start adding wash after wash after wash, they all came out quite similar. um They still look great. yeah I'm still very, very proud of them, but they do all kind of look, this is definitely all from the same batch. you know This was all kind of cut from the same rock, which a lot of regional cemeteries do have very, very similar colored tombstones because you know they all use local stones. so yeah know I guess kind of without but you know I did want some kind of variation um so I did start to use um a different colored paint but was not sanded sorry but was not textured so I just went heavier on the pitting step and this is still the second year or were you doing this this is still the first year oh it's still
01:05:26
Speaker
Yeah. well you still risk was first year so That was basically and then I went for the electrical system. So I got rid of my solar ones because they were turning on and turning off. This is second year. Second year. No, and this is still first year.
01:05:42
Speaker
ah the i ball No, you're right. You're right. so This is like my basic. So, so this was like my basic first year kind of setup. So yeah, I just, I won't go into the ins and outs, the electrical system and electric systems and electrical system, but yeah I used, um,
01:06:00
Speaker
You know, the small kind of like lights that you see on um um car headlights, you know, they got like the little, some some of them, they got like the little spots above their main headlights. yes I basically used those Eagle Eye headlights, ah sorry, Eagle Eye LEDs, because they come in multiple different colors. um You just, I said, and exactly the same as I did with the, ah my original um spotlights, I just used some,
01:06:32
Speaker
Tamiya clears just like to um just to give them different tints of color. And they kind of gave swashes of color throughout like the whole thing. And then that was- That's a good idea. That was it. That was year one. Year two.
01:06:55
Speaker
ah um Like it was just, it was just in kind of like addition. So the ones that I didn't finish the headstones that I didn't finish from the first year. They at this point in time, they were still uncompleted. Um, ah can I, can I ask like, so you had these, these tombstone in the first year, did you have anything else around to add to it or was that it? Um,
01:07:26
Speaker
That was, oh, no, there was one more thing. There was one more thing. How can I forget? Um, I had, uh, fireflies. I had little fireflies. Well, um, just made from, um,
01:07:49
Speaker
um,
01:07:52
Speaker
uh, solar powered, um, uh, like fiber path lights. So it's path lights. So I used the, I used the gubbins um actually. I'll tell you what, cause I've been tinkering. I've actually kind of got one here. Um, it's basically, it's this yeah and there's a battery in there. And from this little hole here, I had, um, it's great for a pocket.
01:08:19
Speaker
It's like a solar puck minus the, minus the, minus the stake, like the solar light. Indeed. Yeah. And so, and where the led was, I clipped the led attached, I think it was like 16 gauge wire on it, which is like quite thin. And then at multiple kinds of lengths, I then had a, uh, uh, kind of like a yellow green led sat at a right angle.
01:08:50
Speaker
And then on the back of that, there was a, like a ah two inch, two, two and a half inch by one inch um piece of ah black tape. And it wasn't kind of sticky or anything that, so it was, I said, you had this little square of ah rectangle of black tape, and then the LED was poking through it. And at the top of the puck,
01:09:18
Speaker
I had a couple of small fins and then it was hung by wire to a fishing spindle to give you a completely free 360 degree rotation and then was basically just hung from hung from the guttering and the porch and basically the premise was was that when the wind hits the fins on the LED, sorry, on the solar panels. I was going to say why are there fins? It would spin around yeah and then the LED would flash.
01:10:01
Speaker
back and forth because it's rotating. So when it was facing a away, you wouldn't see it because the square of tape was in front of it. And then when it rotated back round, there it would be. So you would get this completely kind of, when the wind was blowing, you would get this kind of random kind of flicker and they would kind of slowly kind of like move in the the wind as well. Unfortunately, it looked great and Oh, by the way, I must say this, how it was constructed was basically not my idea. Um, this is how the, uh, have you ever ridden parts of the Caribbean? So in the bio scene at Disneyland, the fireflies, that's basically.
01:10:52
Speaker
Oh, that's how they do it. With what they do, it's a bit more constructed better. Mine was, you know, kind of down down and dirty. But that's basically how the Firefly effect is done on Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland. So that was everything. That's awesome. Yeah. um But you had a lot of win in the second. No. I did. I did. But they didn't blow away because. That's good.
01:11:22
Speaker
That was another thing. God, Ed, I'm so glad you're here because there are things that I'm forgetting because of how I put my tombstones into the ground. Oh, that affected the ah fire. I drew. No, no, no. How I drew.
01:11:40
Speaker
Because the main reason why I went to do start start to do all this stuff is because my original Home Depot ones flew away. Yeah. So basically drill holes in the bottom of the tombstones, which is terrifying after you've done so much work and all of a sudden you take a drill to the bottom of them. That is scary. and it PVC pipe, glue PVC pipe in there.
01:12:01
Speaker
rebar, banged into the ground, over the top of it, and they are going nowhere. Wow. So, and A, they have to be thick enough for all that. yeah B, don't puncture through the other side. Nope. Or any side. Or just make sure you're going and straight because the foam I'm using is three inches. So, you know, there's- Okay. Yeah, that's that's a good good amount. yeah But still, um,
01:12:29
Speaker
So yeah, so that's how I mount them and it's super low profile as well. um Yeah. Then year two, I added some skeletons in there and nothing kind of, especially I got some foam pumpkins as well, made some like jack-o'-lantern faces and just use those like IR remote controlled LED candles and just kind of put them in there.
01:12:54
Speaker
nice um And yeah, nothing really changed then. That was skeletons were like or bought like they were sport. Yeah, there is target ones. 40 bucks. They look the best ones of all ones. You're not making silicone molds and casting bones. I feel like we would know about that. No, no, no. There'll be a pain in the.
01:13:21
Speaker
and as Oh yeah, 100%. I cast 37 plaster femurs. and There's just femurs everywhere. Got a giant undead army. like Oh my god. ah You say that. um So going to year three. Which is this year? Do you have so many bones here in the body? I have so many molds.
01:13:44
Speaker
Uh, I do. Hey, do I have, I do have the, uh, STL files for a fully anatomically correct skeleton. Every single bone is an individual print. I love this. This is what I'm more year four. I printed the next a hundred bones year five. I started painting the.
01:14:07
Speaker
A million bones. I don't know how many bones are in a body like 200 or something. and not A lot. A lot. Well, well, it's not going to be that bad because, um, this is something that's going to be for next year. This is a project for next year is of all my skeletons, the hands and the skulls are going to be 3d printed. The skull basically. So.
01:14:36
Speaker
I can kind of do more, you know, I can remove teeth, make them a bit more. Oh, yeah. You know, I can remove teeth, make them a bit more heavy, but the main reason why I'm doing the hands is because how you put these prints together is with, um, hanger wire, drill a hole in each one. So my skeletons will be able to properly grip things. Nice. That's awesome. Are we able to put things in their hands?
01:15:06
Speaker
Like that instead of like ligaments, like the the bones will be separate, but you have wire that connects like a palm to the finger, the fat part, and then the next part and not all that data that so you can like bend it like a, like a manic, i got like a, what are they called though? Little armatures. Armatures. Yes, exactly. Yeah. So that would be, that's one thing to, um, to do, but no, but this year I had a, almost a complete overhaul.
01:15:34
Speaker
I finished the rest of my stones that I originally started in 2022. um Completely redid the electrical system. like usually Did you use an airbrush in any of that? Not for the electrical. Not for the electrical. Oh, yeah. For painting. For my pumpkins, my jack-o'-lanterns, because they were I mean, they're most of them were the same shape, but I wanted to make them look a little bit different. So I completely repainted them. And then I did whip out my airbrush for the first time in about 18 months. I love it. um To basically ah um emphasis give emphasis to the the um the ridges on the outside of the pumpkin.
01:16:29
Speaker
um
01:16:32
Speaker
And during the day, they do look a little bit wild. They do look a little bit bright, um but under, my whole but under haunt lighting.
01:16:44
Speaker
you know, it kind of gives it a little bit more kind of color. You know, it's kind of like like the old like the old timey movies where they would do like the really contrasting like makeup. Yes. So so when are the black and white or whatever it would show differently? It would show differently. Exactly. um So yeah, completely redid it all the electrical is now 100 percent waterproof um because o law do you have issues with water. so i I didn't.
01:17:13
Speaker
Okay, so I didn't have any shorts. But you were worried about it. But there were times when it was like I was, when I would break it down, I'm kind of like, Ooh, this, this is a little rusty when it shouldn't be. So, um, yeah. So I started to run off of, um, IP 65 rated two pin.
01:17:38
Speaker
um, um, connections. Um, and I just, I got those off of, uh, Ali express, you know, it's just kind of buying from there. It's, I mean, I still still spent a chunk of money, but for what it is, it's awfully cheap. Um, just give us some lead time and you'll get everything you want for super cheap.
01:18:03
Speaker
It's gonna last. Plan in advance. and Absolutely. Um, read everything. And then because I redid my electrical, that was where I got the necessity to build so far of all my kind of stuff that I'd done for my whole, my crowning achievement, which is my monument.
01:18:27
Speaker
And it's constructed in basically exactly the same way as a headstone would be. It's just. got six larger sides. um
01:18:40
Speaker
So what what is this? So the big monument sits in the center and it's inside that monument is where I house, it's basically my Haunt Command Center. So that's where the power comes from, everything, for absolutely everything.
01:19:01
Speaker
um constructed in
The Art of Monument Building and Lighting Effects
01:19:02
Speaker
the same way. I did use some kind of thinner bits of foam to accent the outside, make it a bit more kind of dimensional. um That was when I bought my router, my hand router. And it's messy. It's messy. well So so um just to just to preface that for someone walking up to it, what does it look like? from Yeah.
01:19:31
Speaker
Um, it looks, looks like a, uh, a big kind of, it's a, a person. If you're, if you're looking straight on, it kind of looks like a mausoleum, like a kind of above ground mausoleum. But if you go from the side, it's kind of more like a boxy pillar. It is kind of, it's okay. Okay. I'm just trying to get it like a picture. It's, you would normally,
01:19:52
Speaker
kind of like seeing them out in the wild, you would normally see, okay, so say if you are walking through a cemetery and there is a really big kind of, I don't know, it could be a box or any kind of shape, but it's just got the last name on it, the surname. So if my family had one, it would just be Strut.
01:20:23
Speaker
And then in front of that, you then have like the individual. Ooh, okay. They might not be, they're probably not, if they do have headstones, they're normally kind of relatively short, or if not, they're just kind of like recessed into the ground. Like in- It's like a family marker. It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. So that's kind of what this is. I like it.
01:20:46
Speaker
But the interior is, yeah. So the lid comes off. So I have brain as to all my electrical and all my, um, kind of effects boxes as well for that. I like it for flicker stuff. So everything's there and it's all, everything is waterproofed. Um, everything is.
01:21:06
Speaker
weather sealed and I can still open up the box and there's enough room in there that I can still get my hand drill. Sorry. My, uh, screwdriver in there to check if something's shorter or anything. And I also have spares of everything. So it's also got a bird on top. It does also have a bird on top. And that was i like that. That's a, that's just a garden and a half.
01:21:36
Speaker
Um, uh, God, uh, half a ah dome of polystyrene and then a decoy crow on top and then just used epoxy patty to kind of. Put it all kind of together. It looks like whether, whether like bronze, like coppery kind of yeah youre like cool patina patina. Yeah. So spray paint, black, um, spray paint, black.
01:22:06
Speaker
and then patina washes. And that's the one thing ah about everything that I make is layers,
01:22:19
Speaker
washes, washes, washes, washes, which build up layer after layer after layer after layer after layer, and then knock it down. yeah You know, you got to kind of, e it's it's like it's like you see um with like the the the droids, the crisp belts,
01:22:39
Speaker
When he's got it all kind of glued together from just all the random crap that he's kind of found and put together, it looks like a complete, it looks absolutely bonkers. You know, you've got a, you know, a small screw attached to a coat can and then a toilet roll then glued it. I'm just plucking these things out. Yeah, that's not actually what he uses. um But it looks absolutely bonkers. But then as soon as he hits it with the primer,
01:23:07
Speaker
Mm hmm. It comes completely together and it's completely cohesive. and And that kind of works on every scale that you can craft in. That's a really that's a really good way of kind of stating, I think, ed like what I was, I think mentioning a couple of episodes ago where I was like, I clear coat all the time. But I think that especially at the end,
01:23:36
Speaker
a ah good Matt or doll code or something like that is what will knock, knock things down. Like depending on there's obviously exceptions, meant metallics, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like it knocks everything down to be a consistent, like level of kind of, uh, reflection, things like that. Like it really brings it all to end cohesiveness. So I think that's, a that's, I'm making note of that. Cause that's a really good way of describing and where I think I've, what I've been doing with a lot of that.
01:24:06
Speaker
And it's, yeah, it's, it's, it works. Works absolutely great. And the more I do it, I mean, you can walk past my haunt during the day and you'd be like, you made those ones first, didn't you? Like, yes, I did. How could you tell? Completely different. like Um, but yeah, but, uh, but the one, and the only other thing as well that I've kind of kind of done, so everything's been kind of expanded. There's more of everything.
01:24:35
Speaker
it kind of flows out a little bit further. You still have the skeletons. I still have the skeletons. They're all kind of out there, but they said they'll be upgraded ah upgraded for next year.
01:24:50
Speaker
um
01:24:53
Speaker
And so the only thing I've kind of bought, I have bought some floodlights. They will get plugged in though. Um, just because with just the spots, it was exactly what it was. It was spotty. Yeah. And there was a bit too much color. Yeah. So they're, they're, they're, they're, they're RGB floods, 25 watt, 250 watt equivalent, um, RGB. So I can program to a rainbow of colors.
01:25:31
Speaker
um But I've just kind of stuck with kind of like a blues just to, um I do have like one that's kind of like a real kind of like a ah moss green, just to kind of break up the blue a little paint a bit. But one of the reasons why I did kind of stick with like the blue is I do still have some of my spots. So when there are candles,
01:26:00
Speaker
Oh, I made the candles as well out of PVC pipe and hot glue and some brown wax paint. um Those are, I was actually like really proud of those. And I actually started on those before last Halloween ended. Those ah those look sick. They're like very, yeah they look like they look like the dramatic old like Victorian candles where it's like, there's a lot of melt coming off the top, whatever that term is. Yeah.
01:26:29
Speaker
There's a lot of milk and also they are high contrast to, you know, to work better in like the horned light is say everything's yeah because they're white. Yeah. Um, and it's also, it's almost actually something I should know. I'll touch on that shortly. Um, is that I still do have, so I made a bunch more spots, but I didn't tint them. They are all orange. I bought like the orange LEDs and.
01:26:58
Speaker
I do have those attached to small flicker modules. And on certain ones that do have more candles than other, I do have them pointed at them. So they stand out more orange. and And they flicker. Oh my God. And it's, yeah and it's the reason for that. It is a, it is a little bit of Hollywood lighting. Um, to so it's the candles themselves, were what we call practical lighting. So that's your main kind of light source. And then you would shine another light on it too. And that is called, um, Oh my God, I had him.
01:27:44
Speaker
Motivated lighting. So, you know, because, because candles don't create much light by themselves, even if, you know, I've got two or three little LEDs in there. So they do need something to kind of make them pop to add another dimension to the, the horn. Um, but the very last thing that I did was, and I actually only finished it. Um,
01:28:14
Speaker
I can't remember what day it was. Tuesday was, he touched on it earlier on was because of my man, Sean, right there with his glow forge and his excellent kind of know-how and picking like almost the perfect font straight away.
01:28:43
Speaker
Cause in my head I had it as this kind of like classic font. So this is the name plate for my command center for my big. For the monument. It's right. yeah e all oh um So I originally kind of was thinking of this kind of like more of kind of like a classic kind of, you know, standard kind of font, but dude, I don't know which one you gave to me, but you gave it to me twice. You gave it once. It's just kind of like a plane. The files.
01:29:12
Speaker
yeah did The the font choice. Yeah, I said they had both versions or they. So I got it from Adobe Fonts and I was like, I just think either I think I typed in Halloween and just like, just like, is there any because I was saw your fonts that you had drawn on there and I'm like, I'm just I think I kind of enjoy that. Like, let's see if I can find a font ah that fits this. ah So I went around the rabbit hole. I'm like, that's pretty close. And then they're like, oh, we have like a a rough version, too. And I was like, well,
01:29:42
Speaker
Well, that's kind of nice. So that's why I sent you both. I'm like, well, there's like this one and there's that kind of the the squiggly version that kind of yeahp does some of the work for us. Absolutely. And so, yeah, so it was like it was it was like as soon as I saw it, I was like, that's the one. And then there were some you printed it off and it looked absolutely great. There was some There was some logistical issues, which you won't go into. Dude, that box, that that empty box of paper is still on your porch, I assume. So there's a neighbor who's watching our cats, and they i'm sure they brought it I'm sure they brought it in or something. so Yeah, she did say there were two FedEx boxes. I'm like, what is the second one? And just this moment, I realized, I know what the second one is. It's an empty box full of paper.
01:30:29
Speaker
Yep. That makes, that makes sense. Um, so yeah, so that goes me, I got home straight away, kind of put it together and attacked it in exactly the same way as the crow. But there was something about it this time. Everything,
01:30:49
Speaker
everything fell into place. I don't know if it was just because my pain, I wing it every time. I'm like, yeah, that looks about enough in there. Fill it up with some water. Is it this is from my patina washes and just lay out after lay and everything was filling in exactly as it should. And I took a step back and I was like, that's the best damn paint job I think I have ever done of anything that I have ever painted even since back in the miniatures.
01:31:23
Speaker
Yeah, just it's got this perfect like a like when you look at like an old warship or like monuments or things like that where like the water runs down off a raised edge and it slowly dries and kind of brings the sediment down and you have a dark surface with like white sediment kind of coming down where the water drips. Flawless no notes on this. It's like thank you. Fantastic. Yeah. um yeah and
01:31:52
Speaker
After it dried, I got home the next day, straight out the front, took a Palm Sanders to the front of the tomb, started the monument, which was a little bit scary. Um, just to flatten it all down, drilled some holes in it. Um, dowels on the back of the bank, glued it on, took a step back. Dude. I don't think I've smiled that fucking big in a lot i love it. I love it. Staying up, staying up year round.
01:32:22
Speaker
Uh, if we didn't have such harsh winters in Salt Lake City, I think I might. Um, but no, yeah, so yeah, that's it. But yeah, this is always, there's always more to do. And I do have a number of projects in mind when I'm already using the end-of-season sales to buy materials. Hey, you want to sizzle us with the little feature plans you got going? um Well, other than the skeletons and also a couple of um feature um ah feature headstones of one of which will will um will will be moving.
01:33:11
Speaker
elements of it will be moving. um And there will be a water effect on the front. oh shit Other than that, ah parts of a fence, destroyed fence. and again Just because my yard is so deep,
01:33:34
Speaker
I need to kind of bring stuff more and more forward. but I don't wanna bring everything too far forward. So with a fence placed in front or parts of fence in front with with pumpkins spiked on top, I've got some finials kind of printed already. Nice.
01:33:54
Speaker
um
01:33:56
Speaker
It will kind of give people a border. So you can kind of like, hey, it's okay to walk this far into our yard to check this stuff out. Playing with white space a little bit, effectively yeah where where are the boundaries of safe, safe viewing? Exactly. Cause the one, the one, this would be my kind of like closing kind of on kind of like how it all kind of like comes together. It's.
01:34:27
Speaker
I've, I like to think that I've kind of constructed something that's kind of not quite realistic. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's not something you kind of like see kind of like on like the everyday walking through a, you know, a cemetery or graveyard or whatever, but it's like a, a, a,
01:34:56
Speaker
It's like a ah ah if you close your eyes and think of a graveyard, what comes to your mind is not necessarily what a graveyard would look like.
01:35:10
Speaker
It sounds very
Philosophy and Inspirations Behind Haunt Creations
01:35:11
Speaker
theatrical or like an experience. It is, it is. It's meant to be viewed from a specific angles or have a certain, like, like i hate I knew you mentioned it earlier, but it's like it's almost like a Disney theme park. You look at the Haunted Mansion and it's laid out a certain way to give you a sense of depth in a certain situation. And it's, and and it is,
01:35:34
Speaker
Because I do, I i am an absolutely massive, massive fan of the Imagineers at Disney. I think what they do is...
01:35:46
Speaker
Stunning. um And I also think, you know, people kind of write off theme parks, but I think of what the i Imagineers kind of do, be it when they worked for Disney or did move on to other places like Knott's Berry Farm and places like that. You know, it's the work that they do and the engineering that they do, I think for the world is incredibly important. Yeah. It's much harder. I think it's harder than the movie.
01:36:16
Speaker
Magic is well but because is the audience movie magic. It's the audience is right there. It's fully immersive. They tell stories. I mean, it's uncontrolled environments. It's like you and you have to see cohesive inconsistent. We should by the way, we need to have day back on for a whole imaginary Disney parks episode. Like I was gonna craft them, but like just talking about other people's craft. That'd be really cool. I could talk all day. Yeah, it's it's I would like to just sit here, listen. Boring the socks off of everyone for the last hour and 37 minutes. No. No, it's because if you look at my horn, there are little stories
01:37:04
Speaker
kind of every, you know, I've got, you know, if you read the epitaphs of one of the ones, you know, there's, I've got dueling brothers who shot each other and now they're buried next to each other with portraits on their yeah stones. And there's another one of my skeletons that I originally wanted to have him holding a water bottle, so I had to cut the hand off, rotate it 45 degrees, and then attempt to glue it. But it never glued back on properly, and it kept on coming off. So this year I was like, you know what? I'm going to have the little rum bottle that I made. The hand is still going to be on it, and it's on the floor. And he's looking at what's left of his arm with a surprise look on his face.
01:37:49
Speaker
It's like, oh crap mate. That was something out of necessity that wasn't necessarily kind of like by design that was, as Bob Ross would call it, happy accident.
01:38:00
Speaker
um um But it's something that once again, I'm going to go back to Imagineering. It was when
01:38:13
Speaker
the gentleman who wrote the script for Pirates of the Caribbean. And, you know, again, I go back to that ride. He said, OK, I've written all this dialogue, but I think we've got too much. And Walt said to him, I've no doubt this is paraphrasing, but it's like, no, that's the perfect amount. Think of riding through this ride as you're walking, sorry, as you, in the same way as you're walking through a cocktail party, you're getting small little bits of story. You know, it might be a sentence, it might be something, but it basically kind of works into one big cohesive thing. And because you're going through there at such rate, every single time, obviously the amount of
01:39:02
Speaker
variations you get is finite, but almost every single time you ride through there, you pick up another little bit of story. And that's basically how I approached everything for most certainly, I've no doubt for last year, but certainly for this year, I've really focused on the little stories that you can pick up. The open narrative per se. It is. Like letting people discover things and find the nuance and it's so key. Exactly. And as with, and as with, you know, it's, it's, it's, my haunt will never be finished. You know, I'll keep on, you know, attempting to plus it every single year, even if it's just a rearrangement or a certain paint enhancement or even a,
01:39:57
Speaker
digital effect or something, you know, it's, my haunt will never be kind of finished. Things will be removed, replaced by he constantly. Yeah. kind one so yeah it's some It's something that I am very, very proud of. I can talk about it for way too long. I mean, if you, if you, if you think about it,
01:40:20
Speaker
It's no different than building like a diorama local small. Your composition is just much larger. It's a whole yard. And you're you're thinking about it the same way as an artistic, like an artistic. I mean i mentioned a canvas earlier and I was like, partway through it, I was like, he's building a fucking diorama. And it's right yeah doing a diorama he it's like, oh shit, are we about to get deep? Are we getting deep over here?
01:40:47
Speaker
Yeah. And, and, and it's, and it's, it's, it's a, it's an old saying is, but for a creative person, person nothing scarier than a blank page. Yeah. no So yeah, that's awesome. I have no doubt I've missed some stuff, but I said, I've really spoken for too long. And so, yeah, that's my, that's my thoughts. That's my, I think that's my method. So I do have a question for you. That's something I've i've always kind of wondered.
01:41:17
Speaker
as somebody who's kind of dabbled a little bit in the modeling side of things, but then also kind of the, I don't know what you would call this, like kind of the DIY crafter side of things. Like those kind of, they kind of have two camps, but you kind of blend in the middle. Like there's times when people blend in the middle and it's like, when I've done that, I've always struggled. I'm like,
01:41:35
Speaker
Man, my modeling paint would work really well for this, but I do not want to use it at this scale. But then all set you have to kind of be like, I have to zoom out a little bit. I can just use white craft paint and go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, dry brush it. Do you tend to lean more towards, for stuff like this, lean more towards like a ah Home Depot store-bought spray paints, acrylics, rattle cans, things like that, or more modeling or somewhere in between? Yeah. so so um
01:42:05
Speaker
So all my rattled, it's all Rust-Oleum. It's all Home Depot. yeah um yeah it's it's i But for my colors, my color paints, um I don use um ah do not use ah miniature paints.
01:42:31
Speaker
um Not necessarily because of, I don't know how they would work on something of that scale. Uh, it's just really, really expensive. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be insanely expensive. So the stuff that I see funny off, I do actually have a couple of bottles here. It's Michael's it's a folk art.
01:42:57
Speaker
Yeah. Like, uh, more like craft paint, like the, paint yeah it is acrylic paint. It's a crop paint because also you don't want to use acrylics in outdoor shit, right? Or you're coding it maybe. Oh, no, I, I, I, I, everything that, everything that I have outside in the yard is acrylic. There have been, there have been one that there has been certain things that I've sealed. I say rain doesn't affect it or anything. Like.
01:43:27
Speaker
So I kind of feel like I am, I kind of feel like I, I, because of where we live, there's not a huge amount of rain. ah I mean, it does rain. I mean, it was last week. I was kind of, I was at work and I took a look out the window. I was kind of like, well, my electrical system is going to get a test and a half today.
01:43:53
Speaker
Let's see if everything's still on when I get home. um and As long as it's fully cured, exactly acrylic will not reactivate with water. No. like But it's knowing that when like you're actually reading the bottle and being like, wait, how long does acrylic paint actually take to cure? like how do i like That's that like weird scientific side of things that we talked about before, where it's like, yeah paint dries. It's like, well, does it dry? Is it drying? Uh, understanding that and like, it shouldn't reactivate. It should be like a, like a leather or like a plastic seal on top of it, but that's not how it works. No, you know you can never, you never really know. And normally if something can go wrong, it will.
01:44:33
Speaker
and nor will um but you know, it's, you react. I mean, it's, it was, I remember my crow thing. I accidentally dropped it and I got this massive gouge out of that polystyrene dome. And so I was like, well, I guess I'm going to have to fix that and turn into like, uh, I guess I'm done making Halloween ornaments. Just throw it all in the trash. Burn it. Burn it.
01:45:03
Speaker
I feel like I feel like I feel like that's a chip in the stone. So I'm just going to turn it into that. Well, no, because it's bronze. Oh, bronze. OK. So that was so that was actually so that was like a little bit of a challenge because to patch.
01:45:27
Speaker
Something like that, which has got so many layers and depth to it. can be tricky without it looking like, oh, you've put a little bit more kind of paint on there. Lucky enough with that bronze, you can kind of make a little bit of kind of like a damage feature out of it. You can be a bit more shinier than the rest of it because, you know, so, but, um, it's, it's crazy how much you need to like know for these kinds of things. Like what bronze looks like if
01:45:58
Speaker
Yes. Reference. Reference photos. Reference. You can never have too much reference. You really can't. I mean, it's, yeah, there's, I mean, I've no doubt one enhancement. I'm going to, you know, look into kind of use some, um, acrylics and some of this stuff. The, uh, uh, acrylic medium, uh, modeling paste yeah basically thickens your paint and adds texture.
01:46:29
Speaker
Um, so kind of like stippling that on with a couple of different colors. That sounds like a cheap way to do, uh, bases on miniatures. Oh, a hundred percent. You could totally use that to base miniatures. Yeah. That'd be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Um, mix it with a little woodland, Phoenix below down there and make a little frenchch frenchch crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. Yep. Yep. It's just money. It's just money. Who cares? Yes.
01:46:59
Speaker
This is a eight fluid ounce container. And I think this was like 12 bucks. Yeah. i know but I couldn't see what you were pulling up. like I'm like, I guarantee that's the white bottle with the black label. And yep, there it is. Liquitex. There it is. Liquitex, big honking boys. Acrylic mediums and oh yeah. It's good good stuff. It's good stuff. Yeah. So um yeah. it's I mean, is it is, it's said it before, it's, I'm just using all the same, all the same methods that I used on my Warhammer miniatures. Just any grander. Almost 30, yeah. i um Almost years ago, um but just bigger scale. It's just bigger.
01:47:55
Speaker
I don't see a silly thing to say, because it is considerably bigger than, you know, like the miniature scale, but. And it's more reference and stuff like that. It's all there. But it's all, it's the big. Patience. Patience. My God. Patience. Don't rush. I have rushed things. They look terrible. I redid them. It's not a, it's not a weekend project. It's not an avid Adam Savage one day build. No. Like don't, don't go in with that mentality. Like make space, take your time, do the research, test things.
01:48:25
Speaker
Like I noticed one thing for me, like when I started really kind of getting into larger scale stuff, it's like Madison will criticize me. She's like, you like linger and like look at things more now in real life. Like we'll go somewhere. Like we'll go see like a, like ah a Navy ship or something ah like on a tourist trip. And I'll just sit there and be she's like, what are you looking at? I'm like, I'm looking at the way the water, like the water line rests along the side of the boat. I'm like, it's.
01:48:51
Speaker
Like, I know it's real, but it looks so real. And I'm trying to see, like, what makes it look real? She's like, God, you're weird now. Like, what? What happens? You're not weird at all. I started dude getting into miniature painting. I started looking at how light reacts with surfaces and all this shit, like, like glass and whatever. any And I'm like staring at shit. And my wife said, what do you what? What are you looking at? See the highlights on that that that leaf or whatever? Like, you see how the that's not.
01:49:21
Speaker
That's not actually like boring. It actually gets to like almost white. because are you You want to really piss them off? Light's hitting it. Just be like, you know, tree bark's not even really brown.
01:49:33
Speaker
but It's nots not even brown, bro. like It will blow people's minds if they knew. yeah yeah You really do start to kind of see see the world in a different way.
01:49:49
Speaker
I mean, guys, yeah, just the amount of like random photos are like, I would just happen to walk past a rock which has a little bit of, like because you don't get too much moss around here. I've been walking past and I was like, Oh, that's a really interesting little kind of arrangement of moss on that rock. I'll take a couple of pictures of that from different angles because you got to get different angles because the light changes the way how you look at it. Well, cause you got to build a, you got to build a 360. You can't just have the whole thing covered in moss. Moss doesn't grow on all the sides.
01:50:19
Speaker
Well, now, now when I take pictures of like my family and shit, I'm always looking at lighting and I'm always focusing on the. Why are you moving over there? Why are you like, like it's going to be better? I like when like lichen or something falls off a tree in our neighborhood and like, well, it's on the ground. I'm not really hurting anything. So pick it up, take it home, put it like an old prescription bottles like for dioramas and stuff like that. I could use this this lichen or whatever for later, like monster stuff and yeah materials.
01:50:49
Speaker
Definitely. Take they make they make a spray that preserves stuff like that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Like the stuff you like dip it in. You could pull out or liquid. Yeah. Yeah. and Like if you if you have pieces of leaves or that's the best or whatever you you preserve the leaf and then you take it out and then you get one of those little leaf stamps that you take the leaf and then cut little leaves out of the big leaves. Yeah. Yeah. Fucking inception.
01:51:17
Speaker
I love it. And then you have then you have little leaves all over your house. And it's like, well, you should have planned better but know for next time. So I'm going to do my Lord of the Rings miniatures anyway.
01:51:32
Speaker
ah
01:51:34
Speaker
What else we got? We got we we Dave, you is this are we up to current with your. prettying endeavors Pretty much. du The the the big ah big things have all been mentioned. There are some smaller things, but hey, don't want to show your whole hand. Small question. Any movie references in your front yard diorama?
01:52:01
Speaker
um
01:52:05
Speaker
No movie references. um Can I say that's kind of surprising to me? Can I say that? Yeah, yeah. Because I didn't want to, okay, so most of my, in fact, almost all my, no. I said all of my headstones with the exception of three, all the epitaphs are taken directly from the graveyard
01:52:37
Speaker
sorry, not the graveyard because it's not on the church, the cemetery out front of the haunted mansion. ah um And the ah the the name that I got you to put on the the the name plate for the front of my monument is ah in homage to um legendary Imagineer, Rowley Crump, who unfortunately passed away in March of this year, aged, I can't remember his exact names, but he was well into his 90s.
01:53:19
Speaker
um And so, Rowley is the most ah poignant name in my entire home, because he was, he was there from the beginning. You know, he was there in the early planning concept stages. Um, and so I wanted to give a ah proper kind of nod to give a proper nod to love it. Um, but no, there aren't any, there aren't any kind of like direct references to be completely honest. I think it's because it's that's that would be a little bit too much of a nudge in the ribs. Hmm.
01:54:02
Speaker
You know, like, uh, uh, see what I did there. ah So you, so you want to keep this like a, like spooky, but not like in your, in your face. Like, yeah it's it's like, it's, it's spooky. movies it's it's it's It's like, it's like haunted mansion. It's like inspired by yeah like a, like an ode to that of like, where it's not direct, but then if you like really read the epitaphs, you're like, well, wait a minute. Like that's, yeah it's real, but like it makes it, yeah make sure yeah Yeah, but for actual movie quotes, no, but for certainly nods to haunted mansion, pirates, and just imagineering in general, it's dripping in it. Are you going to start doing heads popping up behind the tombstones? Oh, that would require air cannons. You got to do a Beetlejuice sandworm coming out. Dude, the guys around the corner, the guys who I found the tombstone under,
01:55:00
Speaker
Yeah. The headstone on their RV, they do have like a massive like Beetlejuice arch with a little Beetlejuice and then a sandworm whose head actually does move. Normally I'm not an inflatables guy, but I looked at that and I was like, that's pretty rad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds cool. Yeah. Maybe do it. Maybe do like a, like a, was he the grave digger with the dog where he's like shaking and he's like shaking his boots.
01:55:26
Speaker
yeah but so well you're Yeah. You're sick. I am looking to, I see it too, right? I am looking to put, I am looking to put into movement in there because it is kind of static. Uh, I'm very happy with it, but it is kind of static. Yeah. Yeah. Nice dude. I love it. I've seen some pictures. They look amazing. and I love, I love even more now that I got some of that backstory, you know?
01:55:51
Speaker
Yeah. Now we got backstory. Excited to see where it goes. Dave, thank you for joining us. ah We look forward to having you on in the future as well. Thank you. It's been so because I know I know you paint neck rods really well. So I'm pretty sure you can paint some other things. Miniatures, miniature wise, really well as well. um But yeah, thank you, Dave.
01:56:20
Speaker
I'm just excited to talk about Imagineering. oh Yeah, that's it. Let's go.
01:56:27
Speaker
Do you see the demo of the boys at ILM? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Those are, those are the two. but Yeah. Thank you very much for having me on. This has been, this has been rad. I feel like I've talked
Closing Thoughts and Future Plans
01:56:40
Speaker
way too much. oh we wanted to hear We're giving the people what they want.
01:56:46
Speaker
They really want this. Um, but yeah, thank you very much for having me. And, you know, I, I love that you guys are, you know, really kind of talking about the, the little things that we really love and really kind of getting to kind of like the technical kind of detail. You're not afraid of talking about the technical side of it, not just, Oh yeah. i did And the struggles. I did this. Yeah. So yeah. It's, um, you know,
01:57:17
Speaker
Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm honored that you had me on and keep on doing it. Yeah. Well, thank you. Um, I guess that wraps up eps episode number three of, uh, just crafted. Thank you for listening. and I want to, I want to thank Ed real quick on the way out. Hey, if you want to listen to us, you can also hear us now on the scruffy looking podcasters feed. So yeah, episodes took me a while to post it.
01:57:46
Speaker
But yeah, but it looks good, though. It's like, man, they just cranked out a bunch of episodes. But yeah, now you can catch us on both scruffy pod dot com and just showing dot com until we one day. I don't know, getting the feedback. We're like, maybe we start making it a separate thing. Maybe it's everything. But I like it because it's kind of random. Like, you know, let's just do it. I just make all of our friends listen to it. ah friend pra Yeah. podcast. Yeah. It's anybody.
01:58:15
Speaker
Anybody that likes this shit, listen to it. We love you. Is that it? Is that how we got?
01:58:26
Speaker
Keep that in until until next time. Bye. Yeah. Wait.