Catching Up

Only made four sections of Imperial Highway -- at approx 6" each, that's two feet of road.

I'm really not happy with the paint. Well -- in person the texture shows up much better. As a reminder, the entire thing was sprayed with Krylon hammer-finish before casting, and that texture does come through on the model. But in pictures, even the grooving between the stones sort of drops out...and the dry-brush work looks even splotchier than it is.

Because they don't stack well and are somewhat bulky even broken down into wall and road parts, I whipped up a box out of birch ply and stained it with whatever I had in the shop over at work. Didn't get any pictures of that. There's room in the box for at least two more sections, if and when I feel like casting up some more.

Also, several people have been asking at the RPF when I will be ready to take more orders of M40's. I guess it's about time to go out to the machine shop and cut a few more. I have six left over from the last run, at least.

And there's been some new print orders for V150's at my Shapeways store, and my Renderosity store just sent me a small check. So feels like the economy is slowly turning up again. As of today, there's officially enough air between me and living from paycheck to paycheck that I actually have two undeposited paychecks...and I don't even need either of them to make rent!

(But I'm still far from having the savings to get my water pump repaired, or get some needed dental work done. I'm getting less per hour than I have on any hourly job over the past two decades. The biggest difference is that I'm getting forty hours every week.)

(Well, a few less this week, but that's because I'm taking two mornings a week off to work a children's show. Which pretty much makes up the difference in paychecks, plus I'm putting in extra hours to make up hours at my first job, and at OT rates the difference goes away real quick).

Slowly, I'm adapting to full-time work again. Still haven't moved on a lot of my electronics and props or other projects (have this sudden terrible urge to do a solo jazz piano arrangement of the Black Mesa theme). Since I can do research during work hours (aka listen to a lot of history) I've managed to put up the latest chapter in my now 95,000 word Tomb Raider/SG1 epic cross-over. That chapter has a grand total of 163 hits and 1 comment, so take that accomplishment with a grain of something. Feels like one of those shows where the people on stage outnumber the people in the audience. Been there. Been there.

That, and the fact that the next chapters are wandering around Croft Manor, dealing with an illegal dig at an Indian Mound, and learning about (sigh!) Atlantis, is no big surprise I'm a little more motivated towards propwork at the moment...