James: RSD in Paint!

I have finally started painting on the RSD.

The stripes are masked off:

 And the final result:

 Engines and main guns:

 I used my Dremel and and new cutting tool to make the base:

Almost done now, just a little more detail and painting the underside and this project will be done.

James: RSD - ready to paint

I finally finished adding detail to the trenches and am now ready to move on to painting. Here is the total build progress so far:

This is a picture I forgot to post last time, it compares the resin barrel for the forward guns with the styrene replacement I used.

 Trench details:

 Bottom of the hull:

 The puritst in me won out and I removed the cross support from the two bridge towers.

 Finally, here is everything ready to paint.  All of the small stuff has been drilled and mounted on sticks to allow for easier painting.

James: Republic Star Destroyer, Movin' right along

Yes, I do listen to Muppet music while modeling.  I got a little more work done this week. I used my trusty pinvise to drill out the barrels on the main guns, then added a little photetch detail to them.

With those cleaned up I've moved on to detailing the front of the hull. I added some more detail around the bridge towers:

The RSD has a set of forward guns on the side trenches, this kit came with resin barrels that were thick and looked out of scale to me.  I replaced them with some smaller, and thinner styrene barrels from the 1/700 scale battleship kit:

All that's left now is to add some extra detail to the trenches and I'm ready to start painting.

James: Republic Star Destroyer - Detail

I originally went to the hobby store just for paint, but things didn't work out that way. I think I finally know how my wife feels at the antique mall. When I got there they were having a sale on open box models.  I found this 1/700 scale battleship for $5.00:

Great deal, I'm not sure why but they are normally about $20.00. I wish they had more that one, because this kit comes with all kinds of great parts for detailing. I also found some really cool photo etch parts. They are for 1/25 scale model car hinges, but to me they just screamed armor panels.

With all of this, my plans for a stock build of the RSD were blown. Instead of painting, I have been spending this week adding detail to the rear of the ship. I still plan on adding more the side trenches as well.

James: Venator Class Republic Star Destroyer

The mighty Venator, backbone of the Old Republic's navy. I love this ship, not only is it a great design but you can clearly see that it is a predecessor to the Empire's fearsome Imperial Star Destroyer. This kit I got for Christmas, and it is truly spectacular. Mastered by Nicholas Sagan and cast by .jpg models, this is one of the best resin kits I have ever worked on, the level of detail and accuracy is better that most styrene kits, and that includes the RSD produced by Revell.

Now for a few pictures:

Here is the kit with all the goodies it comes with

 

Not included with the kit, my new favorite tool. A gift from the in-laws, I don't know how I have ever lived without it.

 My copy came with only one big casting flaw. This top part of the back "fin" was gone.

 Not a problem, I used some sheet styrene to build and replace the fin and armor panel. Now good as new.

 There were also a  few minor air bubbles in my cast, but nothing a little bit of putty and sandpaper can't fix.

 Smooth

And that's it so far. I'm going to the hobby shop tomorrow for some paint, and hopefully have some more update pictures soon.

Jen: Potty-training...

So we've seriously begun the world of potty-training.  I've been lax about it, because we've travelled and we've been sick and this and that, and now that Lee is quickly nearing the age of 3, I'm feeling quite the strain to get him potty-trained as soon as possible.  So our endeavors have been pretty much to take the potty wherever we are playing, and make him sit on it at least every hour.  

To parent's who have successfully done this before... helpful hints, tips and advice would be greatly appreciated.  

Lee doesn't mind sitting on the potty.  He hates "going to the bathroom to sit on the potty."  I've done everything from bribing him with m&m's as a reward for going, to doing celebratory dances.  He's happy when he's proud of himself, but the real truth of the matter is that he simply doesn't care if he goes in his diaper vs. going in the potty.  He won't tell me when he needs to go.  He'll let me know after... sometimes.  Pooping in his diaper is fine with him.  He won't initiate coming to me to tell me he's poopy.  

I have gone to Target and bought him several training pants along with those plastic covers, and they are helping.  He at least knows and feels when he's wet.  I hate cleaning out the non-urine undies, but it's part of the job.  As green and earth-friendly as I want to be, I don't think I could ever do cloth diapers.  I just don't enjoy it.  At all.

But wish us luck.  I hope we're not completely behind the rest of the world in this.  I think I'm just going to have to do one week straight of potty training - religiously - and then, at the end, hopefully, we'll be done with diapers.  

At least, for now.

Jen: The Sinus infection virus from HELL!

We are on day 10 of having a sinus infection virus thing.  On day 2, we took him to the Doctor - my goal was to nip this in the bud early before it became a full-fledge upper respiratory infection.  I didn't realize then that this wasn't a quick 24 hour sinus infection.  We're on day 10 of Lee being sick (Day 5 of me being sick) and still going strong.  

The Doctor is positive it's viral, and therefore, anti-biotics are mostly ineffective.  I've been on amoxicillin for 4 days now, and am not any better, so I'm going to guess the Doctor's right.  My Doctor was at least going to try something when I sat in her office and begged for anything that could possibly help clear my nose, relieve my headache, stop my watery eyes, and get rid of my sore throat and cough.  

Please note that I am a life-long Zyrtec subscriber, and will continue to take that probably until I die.  It also, has been ineffective in helping relieve any or all sinus infection symptoms.

Lee was given an antibiotic on day 4, to which he immediately threw up (within 30 seconds of being given first dose) and then continued to be sick for the next 2 days.  The Doctor believes (we haven't done further testing on this yet, of course) that it was probably an early allergic reaction to the anti-biotic.  So great.  Something else to worry about in the future.  Sigh.

Lee's been doing his nebulizer 4 times a day.  The poor baby can't really clear his nose well, and I am almost physically unable to hold him down anymore to try and bulb out his nose...  Not that I still haven't tried on several occasions.  But at least I can hear a slight improvement in his lungs after each neb treatment, and his nose usually runs buckets afterwards, which is better than clogging up, I suppose.  

He hasn't really run a fever, but his overall lethargy and easily tired behavior makes me believe he doesn't feel his best.  

I sincerely hope this doesn't last much longer for either of us.  It's turning out to be the longest 2 weeks ever.  This illness is one of the more long-term I've experienced... I've gotten very used to getting an anti-biotic or Z-pak or something that gets you feeling better in a day or two's time.  This just sort of knocks you flat until it runs it's course, and I'm not seeing an end in sight yet.  Need prayers!

Lee doing a nebulizer treatment.  They have a special face-mask for little kids, which makes it helpful to keep on.  It's not his most favorite of things to go through.

This was just as he was feeling a bit better and recovering from the anti-biotic illness.  Notice I covered the couch with a sheet, and there is also a trash can right next to him.  He didn't want to be set up in the den in front of the TV.  He much preferred watching James' iPad at the end of the couch.  Silly boy.  I've also kept a steady cup filled with half gatorade, half water to keep him dehydrated.  We had a scare on day 4/5 to which we had to get at least 5 oz. down him by 6 p.m., otherwise, we would have had to take him to the hospital.  Can I just say that frozen gatorade popsicles are a hit?