The Beginning Again

Hello and welcome to my blog. I have many reasons for starting this so I'll skip that and get to business. Today I have started a project that I began many years ago. It is a cathedral set from the great team over at Armorcast which I purchased many, many, many years ago. So long ago that they don't seem to offer this kit anymore though you can still purchase all the parts to make your own. Actually I tell a lie because they don't seem to offer the roof pieces and I will inquire and post as to if those can be ordered.



Not much to say today except that this will be a, hopefully, weekly blog. There might not be a video every week as those take a great deal more effort and the one currently up was more of an equipment test. What did I learn from this test? That I really need to work on my speaking skills and get the cable for my nice Shure PG81 microphone. I do like my new webcam and it has a very nice microphone but it just doesn't capture my voice well late at night, which is when I will be doing all this posting.

Speaking of late at night, it's late so here we go.

So far I have cleaned up some wall pieces of the cathedral and assembled the basic shape. Once I knew the size I was able to cut a board for the base. This actually was a more important step then anyone might realize because this model is heavy. I mean really heavy for its size. I'm not sure what resin was used for the little guy but I've only ever run into it with Armorcast. It has a very unique scent when you're cutting it and is a bit dusty (wear your dust mask if sawing or sanding).

Due to the weight I knew I would need a sturdy base so I cut a piece out of some scrap wood. It was a little bit warped but that was handily fixed. I placed the board over a steaming pot of water for several hours and upon removal was able to slightly bend the board into a more flat shape. The trick is to slightly over-bend it as the wood will spring back a bit. Then I placed some heavy weights on it for a few more hours. What once was a wobbly board is now almost perfectly flat.

Next time I hope to have some progress on putting the cathedral together and some gap filling work to show you. Future projects include more of Armorcast's set pieces (some require some clever conversions and modifications to fit my bill), re-felting of a dice box, random digital art pieces, a unique customization to Privateer Press' Cryxian models, and many more. Also feel free to check out my Youtube channel though this time it's a poorly done repeat of what you just read here.

*I weighed it at just over three pounds which in itself is not a lot but for a plastic model that's significant.