Westlake Publishing Forums

Russ, Glad to read the owner of the laser company was upstanding with you. I wondered what you'd been up to as there hadn't been reports of sightings of bikini clad beauties lately.

I'm contemplating laying some salmon out back to get it smoked from all the smokey haze from the Canadian forest fires we been having around here (actually it's nowhere nearly as thick here as it's been in NYC). It all reminded me of your uncertain situation with the fires there a while back.

It has been so quiet I've decided to burden you with the story of why construction stopped on the Southern Pacific depot I was building.

In our last exciting adventure a piece of ash permanently stained the model's rear wall. So I started from scratch, redesigned the floor and sub-walls, and laser cut all the parts again. After about three weeks I had rebuilt the walls, doors, windows, and trim and the depot was at exactly the same stage its predecessor had reached: Ready for a roof.

Then my laser broke and set fire to the roof parts I was trying to cut. The problem was related to one I reported last year when the unit was under warranty. At that time the U.S. distributor's tech support team I contacted blamed the issue on me. When I asked for help this time they said the laser is now out of warranty and it will cost several hundred dollars to repair!

I spent a month arguing with them while trying to diagnose the cause of the problem. I finally gave up and contacted the manufacturer in Australia directly. The owner himself dealt with me and has sent some replacement parts at no charge and I'm working with his tech support guy. My wife enthusiastically has suggested I abandon the hobby along with the laser.

Well, I'm not yet ready for that so today I'll fiddle around inside the laser again and replace a circuit board. And that is why you have seen no posts from me about model construction.

Russ

Hi Lawton.
The scale is not perfect I know at least 3 manafactures of 1/32 figures and they are all different but I live with it.
This group is glossy but again I live with it but the quality is outstanding.
I believe these figures are actual people,the subjects are scanned and then printed then individually painted anything with fingers  I will buy.

Hi.
It humbles me when I visit a country like the Netherlands where English is common,also the Dutch will have either of both German and French.
Here we are at the bottom of the world and isolated,it is very uncommon to have another language.

That is a great self portrait.  You who work in larger scales are lucky to have access to figurines with expressive faces and with 3d printing can get one which nails a feeling perfectly.  The simplicity of the background even helps set the mood.  You look a bit tired after all the work you've done on the diorama.   

Hi Kim,
Thank you for your comment !
My english is not perfect but I try to write correctly. I sometimes use a translator when I can't remember a word.
It's harder for me to speak English than to write in English

Morning Russ.
I have had a DSLR for years just an entry-level camera.
I wanted to get a lens that I could a lot of a scene in focus with depth of field.
So researched on U Tube the theory about what I wanted and then on Marketplace searched the options.
There is a lot out there and with mirrored DSLR it is getting cheaper,
The lifespan of a mirrored DSLR is between 50 thousand and 100 thousand shots depending on the quality, so I could just keep updating my old camera technology or spend a lot of money on a Digital camera with better focus and bells and whistles.
We will see .
cheers

So did you buy a new camera or lens to take that rather nice photo? -- Russ

All the best Ray.
The world of cameras is changing, mirrorless cameras are here and many of the major camera brands are no longer making lenses etc for cameras with mirrors.
This is excellent news for me as a lot of professional photographers are offloading at really good prices I love it as I am a self-student and want to improve .
Here we see Walter waiting for the postman shot with an 18 to 200 mm lens.
cheers

Nice progress!