How are you filling in your day in lockdown?

[Marty_d]

Finished the kid's xmas presents and wrapped them today.

They comprise a sword, shield and mini-scabbard on a belt (the blade extends through it).

 

I took OME's advice about white under silver, which worked well, but didn't bother doing the ageing process.

[onetrack]

So, there's going to be more than just bickering between siblings on Christmas Day at your place? There's going to be all-out War, with proper weapons?? 

[red750]

Hit my target. Hoped to have 600 aircraft in the Showcase by Christmas. Did the 600th tonight.

[old man emu]

9 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Finished the kid's xmas presents and wrapped them today.

Beautiful work!

 

I should finish the construction work on the helmet today and get to paint it tomorrow.

 

[Marty_d]

11 hours ago, onetrack said:

So, there's going to be more than just bickering between siblings on Christmas Day at your place? There's going to be all-out War, with proper weapons?? 

It's always all-out war with my kids.  I took these pictures before xmas because I'm willing to bet there's at least one broken sword by boxing day!

 

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Beautiful work!

 

I should finish the construction work on the helmet today and get to paint it tomorrow.

Thanks OME.  That helmet is looking really good!

[old man emu]

Marty_d

If you have the skills to produce those shields and swords from wood, you'll be able to make this knight's helmet standing on your ear.

 

 

With a bit of imagination and looking at pictures of knights' helmets, you can personalise the basic shape.

[red750]

Took a bit of time with the calculator on my phone (I'd better put it on the charger), but I came up with a count of the views on the Aircraft showcase. I had to start over a couple of times due to family interruptions, the dog playing up and a few keys hit incorrectly throwing out the total (e.g. accidentally hitting the % key and getting a number to 5 decimal places.)

 

[old man emu]

The helmet is just about finished. Here it is with a bronze base coat. All that is needed now is a coat of Chrome paint and the visor fitted.

 

[willedoo]

Picked up this Triton router and jigsaw table today for $50. It will be a good project for after Christmas (sorry PC people - Happy Holiday 😀). First step, add router & watch some Youtube tutorials on routing. Second step, count fingers. Third step, give it a go.

 

 

 

 

[Marty_d]

12 hours ago, old man emu said:

The helmet is just about finished. Here it is with a bronze base coat. All that is needed now is a coat of Chrome paint and the visor fitted.

 

Nice work OME.  What will you use for the visor?

[old man emu]

I am going to use a a polypropylene A4 folder from Officeworks.  

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/keji-a4-button-document-wallet-blue-kebdocwabe

 

I couldn't get it in a "clear" black, so I got a sorth of rose coloured one.

[old man emu]

13 hours ago, willedoo said:

Picked up this Triton router and jigsaw table today for $50

You are going to have to find an adapter plate to fit your particular router to the table. I gave up and simply drilled appropriately located holes. The only problem is trying to raise and lower the router to set the correct depth for the cutter. Actually, I have drilled holes all over the table to hold belt sanders, cut off grinders and table saw. I take the table outside when I need room for materials, or I just don't want to make a mess in the garage. 

[Yenn]

I have a fitment for the Triton sawbench to fit  a router. Very similar to the illustrated one. I also made my own, but as mentioned height control is a problem. There are special attachments made for tables to control height, but I persevere with a couple of nuts on the plunge column.

At the moment I have resurrected an old wood lathe and am cleaning up to find space to install it, much to my wife's surprise.

[willedoo]

4 hours ago, old man emu said:

You are going to have to find an adapter plate to fit your particular router to the table. I gave up and simply drilled appropriately located holes. The only problem is trying to raise and lower the router to set the correct depth for the cutter. Actually, I have drilled holes all over the table to hold belt sanders, cut off grinders and table saw. I take the table outside when I need room for materials, or I just don't want to make a mess in the garage. 

Thanks ome, I just had a look underneath the table and can see what you mean. Attached photo is from the manual I downloaded online. Mine doesn't have those same clamp fittings. It has a similar L shaped bracket attached to the table, but with a bolt hole sideways through the free standing part of the right angle and with no provision for those separate clamp pieces. Maybe it's designed to have sideways bolts fix into an adaptor plate somehow.

[old man emu]

not good photos, but this is the helmet with its final coat of chrome paint.

 

This evening I tried to do some weathering by going over the whole helmet with a brown acrylic wash, rubbed off when wet, then followed with a black acrylic wash to get an impression of dirt in the grooves. Too late to take a photo.

 

Due to lack of experience, the helmet is not as classy as a store-bought one. With my luck it will probably be turned aside in favour of some shiny plastic thing from China.

 

I'm having a bad week. I can't do a thing right for the missus, and I lost my wallet today. Luckily it only had $10 in it; my driver's licence and I only have one debit card.

Luckily I have other photo ID issued by the Transport Dept, so I'm not in a hurry to get a replacement licence.

[Jerry_Atrick]

The Helmet looks fantastic.. Well done! Anyone can 3d print this stuff, but what you (and Marty) have done will be appreciarted - if not immediately because of plastics, in time... And it is the enduring memories that matter..

 

Your post suggest you can do something right for the missus.. Jeez, I graduated away from that years ago 😉 Bugger about the wallet though.. Regardless of how few items were in there, it's still an inconvenience and a half.

 

Over here, we are in a fragmented and what appears to be a random lockdown. Every so often, a pollie is caught out for not keeping to the rules (technically guidelines) and they seem to get away with it, with impunity. So, it is little wonder that the plebs don't always follow the rules.. Nicola Sturgeon, who has held herself the be most integral and righteous, was caught breaching guidelines, albeit in a minor way. But, as a pollie and a leader, they have to lead at the front and to not do so diminshes the importane to us plebs.

 

We were planning to go to the in-laws (whom I get on with exceedingly well) for Chrimbo. Alas, as the mother in law is to hit 80 early next year and is a bit of a cradle-snatcher with a husband (step-father-in-law) at about 72, we have decided to have Chrimbo in our own houses this year. Which means, they have a stonking turkey that I am now supposed to collect.Thhey live about 75 miles away normally, but as that involves a short cut through Wales and I may have to go the long way via Gloucestershire (the county they live in).

 

From Boxing Day, almost everyone goes up a tier... We move from Tier 2 to Tier 3. which as far as I can tell means that the pubs and restaurants close except for take-away. Retail stays open. We had 744 deaths yesterday.. Someone asked Hand-on-C*ck (Hancock) that isn't it inevitable that the whole country will eventually go to tier-4, so why don't we do it now to get it over and done with. His answer may have been, "bcause we dream about fairies and pixie dust, which will come to the rescue".

 

To top it off, we have a strain similar to the new one in Aus.. Although, as we won't contain it, c. 40 countries have banned people from the UK arriving, even in transit.. My attempted return to Aus just keeps gettng  pushed back.

[old man emu]

Well, the wallet turned up this morning - beside the driver's seat and the door sill. Guess I was trying to do too much at once.

 

I dis some weathering to the helmet last night and this morning gave it a light dusting of chrome paint. Later I'll give it a couple of coats of clear, then try to fit the visor. That's going to be the make or break task.

 

I've got the pork, turkey breasts and shoulder of lamb ready to start cooking very slowly at 150C for about four hours. Then I'll make salads and set the diner table. Unfortunately the daughter and son-in-law can't make it. One, because he is in the RAAF and is not allowed to go more than 50 kms from base, and two, if they both come up here, they have to quarantine before they can go back into the ACT to work as they live just across the border in NSW.

 

So it's just the missus, son, grandson and me for Christmas dinner. 

[willedoo]

On 19/12/2020 at 10:28 PM, Marty_d said:

I took OME's advice about white under silver, which worked well, but didn't bother doing the ageing process.

Marty, if they turn out to be as popular as hoped, they should be well aged by Boxing Day.

[old man emu]

Like a lot of Christmas present with the helmet was finished just before Santa made his appearance in the early hours.

 

  

 

It got the Royal Seal of Approval .

 

[Old Koreelah]

Inspiring workmanship, you blokes!

 

My wife is over tents and wants a little camper. We’ve tried out a few camper trailers; there are heaps of designs but none exactly match our needs, so I’ve brought forward my long-range plan to build one of our own design. (I’m an unusual shape, have unusual preferences and little money but love designing and building things.)

Several partly-finished projects, which are cluttering up my shed, will have to wait while this one gets priority. I spent my meager savings on materials and tools and have starting the project in my shipping container, which is vacant while the plane is hangared at the airport. 
 

[Marty_d]

 

Well done OME!!

 

Luckily the swords and shields were a hit.  Most of the day the kids were battling out on the deck - they made their own rules (only hit between shoulders and knees, if arm or leg is hit it's "chopped off" and sword must go to other hand, etc).  I had several trips to the shed to replace plastic gems - figured out to sand back to bare wood under the gem and use 5 minute epoxy instead of hot glue - but overall they stood up well.  

The shields are now looking impressively battle-scarred, @willedoo hit the nail on the head there!

 

At one point my eldest (12) came up, gave me a hug and said "Thanks, Dad, excellent work on these!" which made the whole exercise worth while.

 

I can tell my 2021 challenge will be not only the helmets which OME has impressively demonstrated above, but possibly the entire Mandalorian armour for all 3 kids.

 

[Marty_d]

 

Well done OME!!

 

Luckily the swords and shields were a hit.  Most of the day the kids were battling out on the deck - they made their own rules (only hit between shoulders and knees, if arm or leg is hit it's "chopped off" and sword must go to other hand, etc).  I had several trips to the shed to replace plastic gems - figured out to sand back to bare wood under the gem and use 5 minute epoxy instead of hot glue - but overall they stood up well.  

The shields are now looking impressively battle-scarred, @willedoo hit the nail on the head there!

 

At one point my eldest (12) came up, gave me a hug and said "Thanks, Dad, excellent work on these!" which made the whole exercise worth while.

 

I can tell my 2021 challenge will be not only the helmets which OME has impressively demonstrated above, but possibly the entire Mandalorian armour for all 3 kids.

 

[willedoo]

Bad stutter there, Marty. Too much Xmas spirit perhaps.

[nomadpete]

He's repeating himself because he's so proud.

[nomadpete]

We aren't in lockdown but I've been treating myself to watching Morgan Freeman's series on SBS on Demand. It's a nice way to see the diversity of scientific research, connected with all sorts of questions. Last night I watched a pre Covid episode about the state of research into pandemics, and anti-viral development. Right on the money, and partly showed why it has been possible to produce anti Covid immunisation so quickly - they were already half way there!

 

Watch "Through the Wormhole."

 

It's addictive.