Sorry- No real update this week.

Hey folks- sorry, there won't be a real update this week.  I am over my head in work for school.  It seems like all my classes have papers, reviews, assessments, tests or exams coming up.  I have been studying and working until midnight or 1 AM for the last few days just to try to keep up with everything.  I wanted to have time to work on the clipper, but it isn't happened before next Monday at the soonest, unless a prof decides to cut us all a break, which I don't think is going to happen.

But get this.  I was planning on taking a picture of my workshop desk (which is next to my computer and the is place where I have been piling up all my text books and notebooks and packets and whatnot), because its a pretty impressive collection of accumulation of academic amassment; despite the unplanned way I have been picking things up and putting them down, there is also a chaotic beauty in the pile.  BUT I pick up my digital camera, and what does the screen say? "please recharge battery" and ker-putt! the camera turns itself off.  Camera fail on top of blog writing fail.

But hopefully these fails are the price I will pay for not only NOT failing my classes, but actually doing ok in them.  I can only hope.  But I need to get back to work.  As soon as my head is above water again, I'll get some work done on the clipper and write a post about it.  Hopefully soon.  In the mean time, be good to yourself, and have a good one.

Until next time,

David D.

Final Build-A-HQ related post for a while...

The title says it all.  This will be my last post related to my Build-A-HQ project for the foreseeable future.  If you have been here at all for the last month or so, you are aware that I used the plans from Vexar Designs to build my own diorama of a lobby/security desk and tactical operations center for 1/18th scale action figures.  I made some mistakes, but overall things went pretty well.  I learned a lot and ended up with a pretty cool little dio.  But now my problem is, where do I put the thing?

The finished model is 22 inches by 8 inches by 6 and a 3/8ths or so inches.  I put a base of foam board under the styrene floor itself to protect it from scratches and wear and tear.  I can't just put it in a gap on my self between various action figures on a shelf.  Its too big.  I need some real space to place this thing.  Hmm.  The good news is that I have plenty of book shelves in my little basement Man Lair where I built this model.  The bad news is that those book shelves are mostly full of books.

But but but!  Not all the shelves are packed.  I noticed that there was some space on the lower shelf of by bookcase next to the computer where I store the boxes for video games.  Plus there were boxes of games I am not playing again any time soon.  Games like World of Warcraft; I had the box for WoW, The Burning Crusade expansion and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.  I haven't played WoW in about a year, and I have no plans on doing so in future.  Goodbye, WoW stuff.  That's 3 inches of shelf space liberated.  I also realized that if I turned the boxes for Medieval II Total War, Rome Total War Gold, The Orange Box, Star Wars: Best of the PC, and Star Wars: Empire At War, Forces of Corruption on their side, it saves a bit more space.  Like 2 more inches. We are on a roll here!

I figured where I wanted to put the model.  I have another book shelf near the computer where I have already started moving books off of it to make space for toys. On the top of that bookshelf I have my modern Millennium Falcon, and a Star Wars walker from the new trilogy..  On the shelf below the space I are taking books from I have totally dedicated to displaying my little urban commando team.  The team is made up of War Machine, Cable, Duke & Ripcord in their Delta 6 Accelerator suits, Black Widow, a figure from the Target "Bravo Team" line, both of my GI Joe Cycle Armor figures, a Batman Begins batmobile driven by Deadpool, and my custom Coyote.  I have my Vamp Mk II sitting on my printer and a GI Joe Steel Crusher APV there as well.  It seemed to be a good place to put the diorama, and there weren't that many books on the top shelf.    Going though books you haven't read in a while is fun.  I haven't read all of the books I have down here, but between my wife and I, we have read about 95% of them.  Nearly all of the books we haven't read we inherited from her grandfather when he died a few years ago.  The man was a dedicated bibliophile and he had a bunch of things I haven't read but should: The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich, Crisis Of the Old Order, Profiles In Courage, stuff like that.  One day I'll get around to them.

Not all the books from the top shelf fit in the freed up space on the other book shelf, but as I said, there are plenty of book shelves in the Man Lair.  I got about half of the books to fit in the newly opened up space and found homes for the other books on other shelves.  Finally, I have a suitable home for the Build-A-HQ dio that does not include it sitting on the David's Workshop project bench. 

You can't really tell from the picture here, but I have Mainframe and Helix turned facing each other in the Dio. Mainframe figured he was too much of a tech nut for a lady to ever be interested in him, but Helix doesn't seem to find him unattractive at all.  She's impressed with his skill, and under his tough shell, his sensitivity.  Who knows where their relationship will take them.  Cover Girl on the other hand isn't the least bit interested in Pit Commando.  Strictly professional on that side of the TOC.

Ok- now on to the clipper project.  Until next time.

David D.

We done, baby. We done.

Well, its official.  The Build-A-HQ project has been built. This morning, I cemented the last video panel in, just above its one inch styrene conduit, waited 30 minutes, and called it complete.   Here are the photos.

Busy night in the TOC.

First a shot of the Tactical Operations Center itself.   I played around with a few different figures, but Cover Girl, Pit Commando, (aka Red Shirt), Helix, and Mainframe just looked the best staffing the workstations themselves.  I put Mainframe's computer next to him on the back wall desk, and General Hawk's briefcase computer next to Cover Girl. They are nice accessories and fit in well here.  I've got Sargent Stone briefing General Hawk in the front.  The graphics Vexar Designs made to go with their Build a HQ design are fantastic. I purchased both clear and white project paper to print the graphics on, and my advice for anyone else trying this is to print your decals out on the white paper, and trim the white edges off.  The clear paper, especially when it is being placed on dark styrene, ends up looking too dark and the stickers become hard to see.  The white paper keeps the ink fresh and bright regardless of what color styrene you put the decal on.  If you have to use clear sticker project paper, use it for graphics that are going to go on white styrene surfaces.

Snake Eyes is glad to be home.

Next up we have the lobby; Scarlet and Snake Eyes are back from who knows where.  Ripcord is clearly happy to see Scarlet back, and Duke keeps an eye on the feeds from the security cameras around the base.  Oh yeah- one thing I still may do is build a little Cisco IP phone for Duke to have at the reception/security desk so he can keep in touch with the rest of the base.  Back before I started grad school, I worked at an IT company and we all had IP phones on our desks. They looked pretty cool.  They were also completely redundant, because when you have IP phone systems, you can actually answer your phone using your computer itself.  We all had wireless headsets anyway, so we didn't need a phone handset or a deskset.  There was a little app we had installed on our laptops to place calls choice voice mail, etc, and any calls themselves placed using this app would be routed via Bluetooth to our headsets, which we were always suppose to have in our ears.  But people are just used to having phones on their desks.  I think having an IP phone at the security/reception desk would just be a nice touch, and as soon as I can find an image I can turn into a decal, I am making Duke his own little deskset phone, which is technically unnecessary, but something I think will look cool and useful on his desk.

Stg. Stone updates General Hawk on global ops status

Ok, here are Stone and Hawk.  Check out the beauty and detail in Vexar's decal images. In this picture you have a world map with different hotspots in red, a satellite image at the Pit Commando's left workstation (lower right side of the image), a sound wave analysis of Destro's voice and a work screen at Helix's workstation (lower left side of the image) and a keypad just to the right of Hawk on the right middle section of the image.  Vexar spent some time putting these things together.  I printed them up at highest quality on my HP deskjet printer, and they look crisp and near lifelike, as if they could plausibly be the kinds of screens one would see on computers performing the various tasks in a tactical operations center.

Scarlet checks in.

At my old job, the company I worked for was global and dealt with some security related services.  In one of our buildings, we had a TOC with a window between it and the lobby so potential clients could walk past and be impressed with our sophistication.  I never worked in that room, but I knew people who did.  They said it was actually a pain in the ass to work in there because while they always had the newest hardware, that also meant they were also always fixing bugs in the new machines and that everything in there felt like it was for show instead of actually being useful for the business.  Which I'm guessing was probably close to the truth.  

In the next image I've got going here (just above this paragraph) is the lobby from the right side.  You can't see Duke's keyboard or mouse (yeah, I cemented the mouse to the desk- it isn't going anywhere, and I decided it was a wireless mouse, so I didn't have to make any kind of cord between it and some part of the desk.) You can see the Exit, keypad and security screens decals here.  I think we kind of have a love triangle going on here between Scarlet, Ripcord and Snake Eyes.  Sorry Rip, I've got my money on SE.  He's got the strong silent type thing *down*.  Nothing personal, but that is what Scarlet is into and I don't think anyone can compete in that arena with Snake Eyes.

Helix, Mainframe, Cover girl and Red Shirt process their feeds.

Ok- Next image is of the TOC from the left side  Yes, the first thing I will always see here is the fact that the right most screen of Cover Girl's workstation is about 1/16th of an inch lower than her other computers.  I could try to pull the screen off and re-cement it, but the desk itself is *extremely* fragile, and comes disconnected from the rest of the dio if you look at it too hard, much less try to pull a piece of cemented styrene off of it.  I have thought about redoing that screen many times, but the fear of having to fix who knows what else keeps me from doing it.  I'll just have to live with the results, even if it gives me the heebie jeebies. I think Mainframe and Helix would make a good team together.  Helix strikes me as a kind of computer wizkid, and Mainframe looks ever the tech guru, like the kind of guy who writes COBOL code in his sleep, whereas she is more a Ruby on Rails kind of girl.  Yes, I don't think you'd ever seen developers or engineers working a TOC in real life, but its a flavor thing.  More than techie, I am going for a non-combat look in the TOC, and there aren't many non-combat looking figures in the GI JOE universe.  Beggars can't be choosers.

Never a dull moment.

Here it is- the entire thing on one overhead shot.  I don't know if I mentioned it before, but all the chairs swivel. None of them can turn a full 360 because the back of the chair bumps up against the desk, but none of the chair backs will hit each other in this dio, so I can have my TOC staffers turn to each other for a conversation or have Cover Girl or Mainframe twist to check out the computers next to them on the desk.  Everyone could turn toward the back of the room if they needed to give General Hawk their full attention.  Duke, in his security desk seat, can spin there too.  It gives a little action feature capacity to what is otherwise a cool but utterly frozen in time diorama.

Well, that is it for this project.  I'm thrilled with how it went, and I hope you like the results.  I do have some plans for a next project- Dr. Mindbender is going to get a robotics lab from Cobra Commander and work on the next generation of cobra food soldier there.  Before I work on that project, I may work on the long neglected Clipper custom.  I should give that one some time.  It has been sitting on the edge of my workstation for a long time now.  ::sigh:: that means I'm going to have to brush paint again.  We'll see how that goes.

Until next time,

David D.

Work stations done!

Ok- getting close to the finish line here on the Build-A-HQ project.  I have finished the work stations in the Tactical Operations Center, which is three computer screens at four locations, each screen made up of three rather tiny pieces of styrene and cut just so to match each other, and to fit little computer screen decals.  Each station also has a little white keyboard with keyboard decal on top as well.  Doing the computer screen step was actually one of the most tedious steps of the entire project so far, and for what felt like the least amount of work, but once everything was glued in, none of that mattered.  Everything looked absolutely amazing. Check it out for yourselves.  

I took these pictures as soon as I was done cementing the screens and keyboards in place.  If you think they look good like this, you should see what they look like with actual little action figures at each station.  They look *sweet*.  Since the last set of pictures I posted on the project, I have redone the stickers for the map display on the back wall of the TOC, the Exit sign above the lobby door, the fire alarm by the reception desk, the "No unauthorized personal beyond this point" sign at the reception desk, and the keypads by the lobby door and in the TOC itself.  The last set of stickers had been too small; when I figured out how to print everything out at the correct size (see the "sticker update" post about this) I decided to pull the old ones and redo it them.  The correct sized stickers look much, much better than the small ones. 

There are a few things I still plan on doing.  I have at least two more monitors I am going to post on the common wall between the lobby and the TOC, on the TOC side of things that will have visual data for the TOC.  Those are not up yet.  And in the time between when I took these pictures and wrote this post, I have done some touch up work with a paintbrush and some paint to fix some cement stains on various surfaces of the model.  The stains my have been too small to see in these pictures, but I'd really like to get everything looking good before I finish this bad boy and put him up on the shelf full of figures.  I didn't want to have any steps left undone that I will spend the next few years noticing and thinking 'Jeez that looks like crap' so I went ahead to did the touch up work.  As I sit here typing, the paint is drying and leaving very little indication that it was ever there, so that's cool. I was worried it would really stand out from the white and black styrene, but nope- its all good. 

What else is there to say?  I'm not sure how much longer it is going to take to finish this bad boy.  Maybe another hour (knock on wood) at most. I've painted up a white styrene dowel in grey to match the walls of the TOC to look like conduit that will run between the table and the two new monitors that will go in there. I haven't cut the styrene for the monitors, but I have plenty of scrap that will be the correct size and have the decals that will be the images themselves all ready to go.

My last issue is figuring out which figures are going to staff the TOC. At the moment, I am thinking Mainframe, Helix, Cover Girl, and Pit Commando.  These figures seem to be the most appropriate dressed (save Helix) for TOC work.  What I would really like to have in there would be the figures from the Toys R Us Troop Builder 5 pack, which included Dial Tone, Footloose, Law and Order (without the dog), Zartan, and Repeater. These figures are all in fatigues and would look great in the TOC, but I can't find it for sale anywhere at the moment except on eBay, and the five pack is going for about $45-$50 including S&H there, and I'm going to have to save my pennies for a bit to pick that up.

I need to run pretty quick, so I'll end this post about here. Thanks for keeping up with this project.  It has been so much fun to work on.  I've done my share of screw ups, but I've learned from each mistake and this thing really looks cool.  No mistake thus far has been a project killer; when I cut a section of styrene too small, I can recut it.  When I cut it too big I can sand it down.  When paint gets where I don't want it, I repaint.  This is very forgiving.  Its also a fun in that each step makes the display much cooler, so I never feel like my time or energy was wasted.  I hope you like the pictures.  I think there is a good chance the final product pictures will be up soon.

Until next time,

David D.

Sticker update

Hey- I figured out what was wrong with my sticker sizes that I printed out from Vexar Designs.  My printer was fitting the images to page instead of printing them at 100% size.  I was pretty weirded out by the fact the stickers were so much smaller when they came out of my printer and were up in my dio then they seemed to be in the pictures on Vexar's website, so I did a little digging.  It turns out that the print size control is in the page preview option, not the print option itself in firefox/Windows Vista.  When I went to the print option in the file menu and said print without changing the settings in the print preview option, it just fit everything to the page.  Not what I wanted!

At least I have only made 3 of the computer screen before I figured this out.  I think the dio is going to look much better with the full sized computer screens, and with the full sized stickers.

One more thing- I have been wanting to thank the person or persons behind Vexar Designs, and I found him on Hisstank.com- user name Freedom.  It was great that he took some time to pop into the forum where I have been posting updates on this project.  Freedom, thanks for your comments and thanks for your design. 

That's all I've got for now.

Until next time,

David D.

GI Joe Renegades Wave 1 found at Target!

Carded Renegades Wave 1 in hand.  Woot!

Not a Build A HQ update, but still on the topic of collecting.  I found the GI Joe Renegades first wave of figures at the midway Target yesterday here in St. Paul.  I hadn't seen them anywhere for the last few weeks, including Walmart where it sounds like they have been showing up, according to the regular collecting websites like hisstank.com and theterrordrome.com.  I was worried they were going to pass me by.  But nope, after working out at the gym yesterday morning I ran by Target just to see if anything was in. And lo and behold, the new wave was fresh on the pegs.  I just grabbed one of each, leaving the rest for the next guy or gal.  Its great to have these acquisitions off my 'to buy' list. 

The best part? When I took them up to the register, they were not in the computer.  The cashier asked me if I remembered how much they were, and I said I think they were $7.99 or something like that, but I didn't remember.  I said I could run back and check. 

"No problem" she said.  "They aren't in the computer? I think they are $6.00."  And she winked at me.  So check that out- I found a wave I have been looking all over for, and I got them for 25% off.  Thank you Target.

Until next time,

David D

Chairs made and stickers up!

Peg warmer Duke is now warming the security
desk chair in my soon to be completed GI Joe
Lobby and Tactical Operations Center model.

Well, its been a busy past few days in Lake Woebegone.  Got the chairs made and am starting to work on the computers.  I got some sticker project paper from Office Max nearby, both the clear sticker paper and the white stuff for the decals, and have started putting it all together.  So far, so good.  Its a slow slog, especially with the computers.  Each computer screen is three pieces, and there are going to be a total of 12 computers and four keyboards.  It'll take some time to get all that cut and ready, but its looking good in the mean time.

The chairs were super easy.  I was not sure if I'd be able to bend the styrene well, but all it took was a little exposure to a small flame, as discussed in the project instructions. I used a candle lighter we had in our junk drawer, and I did it outside and with a mask on, because I figure styrene fumes are probably not the best for my health.  Turns out that a few  seconds of flame exposure makes styrene super flexible.  Just to be safe, I marked the parts of the plastic where I wanted things to bend, and put the flame on each face in the zone where I wanted it to bend- front, back, and both sides.  I was not sure if the heat would be conducted through the plastic, and I'd rather not snap good material.  I probably held the plastic just above the tip of the flame for about seven or eight seconds per side for a single round- I didn't need to heat sides again after I cooked them the first time.  It worked so well on the back of the first chair that I kept doing it for the remaining four, and had no problems with any of them.

Chair in place, stickers coming along, and all I really have
left are the computer screens.  I hope to have this thing done
in the next few days.

I printed the decals from page three of the decals website at Vexar Designs (again, thanks very much Vexar).  They printed out a little small. It seems to me that they should be between 50%-100% bigger to be the same size as they look at on the Vexar Designs site pictures, but I'll manage.  If I do this again, I'd try using an image editing program to increase the size of the stickers by 50% and see how that works, but the moment is passed.  Nothing looks really bad, and actually, the stickers make things look much, much cooler, as they always do when it comes to GI Joe related stuff.

I also noticed (learning tip!) that any stickers that are going to end up on black styrene really need to be printed on white paper, because if it is on clear, it vanishes when it is put over the black background.  Made that mistake with the world map on the back war of the Tac Ops center, but it isn't too bad.  There are plenty of decals that will be stuck on white styrene that clear stickers will find a home someplace.

Other big learning point: I was hoping this item would be strong enough to actually handle play like a playset would.  Well, not so much.  The desks themselves are very fragile.  Not the entire structures, but if you put more than a little pressure on the desk surfaces, they pop right off whatever they are glued to.  This styrene set is going to be more of a diorama than a playset, but that's cool. It looks pretty sweet.

I need to get back to cutting black styrene for the computer screens, so I'll end this update here.

Until next time,

David D.