ScottsGT

I think it was late fall of 2021 I installed them. Living on the lake we get some strange weather patterns. We’ll get fog so thick some mornings you can’t even see the end of our driveway that’s about 200’ long. Once winter set in the fog went away. I retired in the spring of last year so I didn’t get a whole lot of actual “fog” use out of them. But man, what a difference they made. If it was really bad I’d just turn my headlights off and run the fogs only. Agree on the expansion of width. Unreal. We have so many deer in this area just grazing in neighbors yards, you can spot them much sooner and be prepared for them to run out in front of you.

I installed the Diode Dynamics yellow fogs on my 2015 Mustang GT. What a difference! Much brighter and the yellow light really cuts through the rain and fog and also makes deer more visible on the side of the road. I almost bought the “Too bright for highway use” but glad I didn’t. Mine are fine as is. Would have been blinding oncoming drivers. EDIT: My absent minded wife smacked a steel pole in a gas station parking lot last month. I’m going to order a prepainted bumper and install it myself. I’ll probably get her a set of the yellow diode dynamics for her Pilot if they make them. Since I have to swap the bumper, might as well do that too.

I call them “Ramtards”.

Alrighty! More progress today. I painted the dark gray base, dry brushed the rock formation and started gluing down rocks around the base. Some are actual rocks from my yard, some are just kitty litter! After it,sets up, I’ll brush on a coat of the Mod Podge and then paint the rocks to match the rest.

Okay! Progress at last. I got all the joint compound brush streaks sanded out, edges cleaned and taped up and a heavy coat of Mod Podge flat applied to seal the clay and compound. Entire base coated Next step will be a base coat of dark gray and black and painting potato mountain.

Hey! I found the magic trick to smoothing and filling the clay and cracks. quick setting drywall compound. The kind you buy as a powder in bags. I mixed up a couple of spoonfuls this morning and brushed it on while forcing it into the cracks. Lots of sanding will be required to get out the brush strokes, but here’s a shot of “mashed potato mountain” after a quick sand job.

I think I mentioned earlier that I consider my yard care and improvements a hobby. Last fall I carried a battery powered sprayer all around the yard walking a pattern with that heavy thing slung over my shoulder. A week later I was laid up in bed with one of my worst back episodes I’ve ever had. Told my wife I went cheap and now I’m paying the price. So I looked into a sprayer I could mount on my ZTR mower. All starts with an ATV “luggage rack”. Welded up a few brackets yesterday and got it mounted. live got a 16 gallon sprayer system on order that will sit on the rack. I know it looks close to the engine in this pic, but it actually sits higher.

Colors are actually FS 36375 on the top and FS 36622 on the bottom. According to all the syfi forums this is about the closest match by eye according to the experts. Of course throughout the different seasons of filming there were some changes made with some shading and mild color changes. And to add to the confusion, there were two different filming models. One was an 8’ used for all the underwater scenes and a 12’ model for surface shots. And each one had little differences. I built mine as the underwater model. Now the pilot movie had a completely different designed sub with 8 windows on the front and no hanger bay for the flying sub. I’ve got one neighbor already going nuts over this build. He was telling me I should have made it RC so HE could play with it in the lake. Told him to fund it, and I’d do it!

Thanks! I’m not use to hearing those words. 🥰

Aww hell naw, nothing is under control here. Just happy mistakes!

I kill myself sometimes. FWIW, just wrapped up all the clay coverage. Let the cracking begin!

Sorry, I don’t do crack.

Went down to look at things last night. Found a few large flakes that had dried and lifted. Coated the wood under the flake with Mod Podge and stuck that sucker back down! I also coated everywhere it was dry with it as well. I plan on mixing up a thin slurry of clay and brushing it on later to help smooth things over. Large cracks I’m packing with new clay.

I wish I had that problem. Let’s just say that I survived anorexia in a big way.

The clay is kicking my butt. I’ve soaked the wood below pretty good, but I’m still getting some serious cracking and flakes lifting on the edges. I’m experimenting with mod podge and white glue to see if I can save it or if I need to get it all off and start over with a different technique. What really sucks is I have to try an area and let it dry a couple days to see the end result. This is going to take forever.

Oh, you know it! I just bought a quart of pre-thinned clear lacquer from the auto parts store for $35 and a dozen glass bottles off Amazon like the old MRP paints came in. Also bought Mr. Paint flattening agent. I’m going to sit down hopefully this week and experiment with ratios and bottle up some flat and semi-gloss clears and gloss in the bottles. This quart can should last me a lifetime. Edit to add: I bought soma MCW lacquers and recently used them. I was having flashbacks from 40 years ago spraying lacquers in the bodyshop. Each brand had its distinct fragrance from the big 3 paint companies back then. DuPont, Sherwin-Williams and PPG. NAPA Auto parts had a line we used as well, might even have been this one, but the odor really took me back to my youth when it was all about when I caught the fumes. Paint fumes, gas fumes working on cars and perfumes-chasing the girls. They say (who the hell is “they” anyway?) that the sense of smell is the strongest of all to give one a memory flashback. I couldn’t agree more. Just open up a new box of styrene or a tube of Testors cement and see where it takes you. And they (there “they” are again) said sniffing glue was bad for you… I was walking in to work from one of the lower parking lots about 25 years ago. Along the pathway was a line of live oaks that lined the sidewalk. I got a good strong whiff of the smell of the decaying oak leaves and acorns and and in my mind I instantly shot back to a day when I was probably 4 or 5 yo playing out in the yard and in the trunk of my grandparents old car under a huge oak tree. About 2 or 3 years ago I was somewhere and got a good whiff of a perfume a woman was wearing. Blam! Instant flashback to when I was around 20 yo driving my ‘65 Fairlane cruising the boulevard with a friends cousin I had a heavy crush on. Now talk about chasing the fumes! I had completely forgotten about that girl in my life until someone almost 40 years later walks past wearing it again. Oh well, enough off topic rambling….

So, quick question. Did you pull the data sheet on Mr. Color for this info? The reasons I ask is when I was a paint and bodyman in my past life, we had 4 different levels of lacquer thinner. A low grade clean up/primer thinner and hot or fast, medium and cold or slow that you would select based on your desired drying time and weather temps. Mr. Color is a slow dry that allows the paint to flow. I also pulled this off line: Lacquer thinner may include a combination of the following solvents: toluene. xylene. methyl ethyl ketone. acetone. butyl acetate. Now it obviously says “May” contain. I’m just wondering which chemical speeds up or slows down drying times, or is it a ratio difference?

Finally back to the build. Started laying out the clay for the sea bed on the base. I made the underwater cliff and high bed out of styrofoam insulation. You have to brush on a coat of white glue to the foam to get the clay to adhere. Just water on the plywood base. Shaping the clay is a pretty good arthritis workout for the hands!

Seriously? I have that one in the stash. Had no idea it was hard to find now.

I just found out a few weeks back the airbrush cleaner is the same as their cement.

Every day is a party around this place! Come on over, the beer is cold and the scotch is almost top shelf! Wait, now that I think about it, it was on the top shelf at the liquor store.

Back to building! I spent the past week or two of my free time (yea, hard to believe I’m retired and I have to look for free time) tackling a project that’s been on the books for over a year now. Cool thing is, it’s modeling/man cave related. Kind of why nothing has really been added to my Seaview thread in the group build. When we moved in and I was strategically placing my model and Diecast collection I was quite disappointed in the basement lighting. I did find a wall switch that did nothing. Stuck my head up in the dropped ceiling and found a wiring box with nothing connected but that switch. BINGO! I’ll use that circuit to turn on the man cave! Last year I bought some cool looking “studio lights” off Amazon. Has barn doors where I can control the lights. One problem. Wife hated them. So I compromised and painted them white. Yea, this is when I burned out my old Monokote heat gun and wasted a lot of good model paint. I know, looks like some kind of Star Wars robot. I installed one and hated it. Too much light blasting back in my eyes from the closed barn doors. So now I have probably $150 invested in these things. Switched over to recessed LED eyeballs. These were for my Diecast displays since they are tall and narrow. I also hung the neon light from the ceiling to make room for the Seaview diorama when it’s done. Along with my Bud Light spinner on the circuit, here’s my display case lit up now. And of course the Diecast collection. Well, part of them. Gotta build another display for the garage. That big green thing in the corner? That’s a real studio light from our old studio 1 at USC before it was dismantled for the new chemistry labs. That light has seen a few famous people that came through there in the 29 years I was there. I converted it to an LED accent lamp. Still need to find a good spot to hang it. Probably it the garage somewhere. Man, it feels great to finally get this one crossed off the list and back to model building.

All we got was about a 3 to 5 min down pour of rain. Very little wind, no thunder or lightning. But thankfully enough to kill off the pollen smog for today. Came around a corner yesterday and it was a heavy yellow fog bank. Funny thing is, I was heading to my oral surgeon for a follow up as well.

I know what you mean about the brakes. First “heavy” load I ever hauled was a yard of soil. I was shocked at the lack of responsiveness and gave myself a lot of stopping distance and watched my speed carefully approaching intersections. My rear anti locks don’t work and I think it’s due to the old trailer brake system installed by the original owner. Came in handy last week when I almost missed my turn, stomped the brakes and the back end swung out so I could pull straight into the auto parts store. 🤣