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December 28, 2006

Well, it’s finally time to relax. That said, I’ve made some cosmetic changes to this web site. For many months I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the text do that fancy trick of wrapping around to automatially fit everyone’s browser, but I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that the software I’m using can’t do it. So that feature will have to wait until I rebuild the site with DreamWeaver. 

My next fan fic, The Downside Of It All is approaching its end and should be up sometime soon. I’ve added the rest of the synopsis and some more characters to the description. The story is set in the present day and looks back into the past so I have a whole bunch of original characters and history in this story. There are many more original characters to come than are listed at the moment on the Fan Fic page. I’ll be listing the other characters very soon without posting officially under a new date here. 

December 10, 2006

The first photo of my kitbashed Alternator Bluestreak, complete with shoulder mounted missiles is here. The lighting outside at mid-day just isn’t great in winter, and neither is the weather, so more photos will probably follow next year.

I also decided to start a photo page for my Alternator Smokescreen, here. Today I have just one photo, but more are in the planning stage. 

Lastly, I’ve added a quick synopsis of the story The Downside Of It All.

December 1, 2006

As you can see, a new picture is up on the home page here. You can click on it to see a larger version in my Fan Art section. In case you’re wondering how this picture was made, I built landscape and it was lightly snowing for real when I took the picture outside. I positioned the model so that the real life trees in the background on the right would give the perspective of a hill side below. The Christmas lights in Jazz’s hands are real model Christmas lights and are actually lighted up by two AA batteries, although it’s a bit difficult to see in the daytime. 

I have ideas for some other dioramas that I would like to take photos of and post, but it will take a while because I have to build some more models for those pictures.

 My kitbash of a Trailbreaker Alternator is on hold for the time being. I have the parts and the sticker conversion set ready, but was told to wait until after Christmas because I just *might* get some hobby tools for Christmas. So, I’m waiting. I have another kitbash that I want to do of the character of my own creation that I wrote into the Spark Cell. For anyone who hasn’t read it, I’m not giving anything away, but, I plan on making this character. I have a sacrificial Alternator figure and a 1:25 model car body that matches the character’s vehicle mode. (The Alternator vehicle modes are 1:24, so I figure I can make this work). I have no idea when I’ll get all of this stuff done. It looks like I have enough to keep me busy for quite a while.

Also, I found some after market chromed missiles and missile launchers for Binaltech figures, and will be getting them in the next little while. So, my Bluestreak, Hound, Sideswipe, Mirage and Smokescreen will get equipped with shoulder mounted missile launchers like they are supposed to have. I can’t retake Hound’s roadtrip pictures with a missile launcher on him, but I can retake pictures of Bluestreak next spring/summer when lighting conditions are better. I’ll also be retaking the kitbashed Prowl pictures because I outfitted him with the G1 sticker set from Reprolabels. I’m planning on keeping a link to the existing pictures in case anyone just wants to see them again once the new pictures go up.

November 26, 2006

I just finished a big photo update of My Collection. I put more figures into both of my first two display cases and updated the photos to show the changes. Also, I finally got the third display case put together and started to put stuff into it. I don’t like the present organization of the third display case, but it will have to do for now. 

The Christmas diorama photo is done, but I’m not putting it up until December 1st. I don’t want to over do it and jump the gun on Christmas too much.

Lastly, I’m slowly working on a picture of Wheeljack and Ratchet, and working even more slowly on the next two stories. The first two fan fics started the same way – very slow at first, and then they picked up as they went along.

November 13, 2006

Two more things are going up today on the Fan Art page! First, I finished the picture of Bluestreak I was working on. I tried a different coloring style with this one, and it looks more realistic. Lately, I’ve had plenty of time sitting in traffic on grey days to study the way that light reflects off the cars and I tried to put my observations to work in this picture. Personally, I’m amazed at the way this picture turned out. The only art pictures I’ve ever done on a computer are here on this website. (AutoCAD drawings don’t count.)

I also managed to get the Autobot “treat” to turn out. I wanted to make some gingerbread cookies and got the idea for cookies in the shape of Autobot symbols when I noticed that the plastic base for my Titanium Ark spaceship toy looked like it would make a good cookie cutter. It even had the Autobot symbol embossed on the underside, which served to leave the impression of the symbol in the cookie dough. I have done amateur decorating before so it wasn’t too hard to ice the cookies. I would have liked better lighting for taking the photo, but beggars can’t be choosers..

November 10, 2006

A few more things are in the works. I’m well into another Fan Art picture so I put up a thumbnail of the picture in progress. This one’s another picture of Bluestreak – I do like him! 

Other stuff that’s happening… I’ve got all the props for a Christmas diorama featuring Jazz that I’m planning on putting on my home page, instead of the picture of Autobot Headquarters, in time for the holidays. I’m not sure what day in early December to put it up at this point. First, I’ve got to take the picture, and to do that I have to wait for there to be enough snow on the local ski hills to get the picture taken in the right environment.

Just for fun, I’m going to try making an Autobot treat (literally) this weekend. It’s a bit of a surprise – something that jumped to mind when I was looking at my Titanium toy of the Ark spaceship. Provided that it turns out alright, I’ll take a picture and post it.

November 7, 2006

I’ve started not one, but two more fan fictions. I’ve had both of these planned out since the time I was writing The Spark Cell, but held off so that I wasn’t taking on too much at once. Doing two at once will be interesting, but I think I have to try it this way because sometimes I get spontaneous inspiration for one storyline or the other and I need to write it down before it gets away. As with the previous two stories, I’ll update the cast of characters as I write them in. I anticipate that The Downside Of It All will be a “shorter” one (ie shorter than An Insecticon Disruption), but Through The Kaleidoscope is going to be a longer story. Already, I’m a few pages into both stories.

Also, the pictures of my second display case are now up here. I still have to put together the smaller, third display case. You know, looking at the quantity of figures I have yet to display, I’m starting to wonder if I’ll need a fourth one. On my display case pages I now have a date stamp to show when an updated picture was last taken. This is as much for my benefit as anyone else’s who wants to take a look at my collection. Sure I can take a look at the real thing easy enough, but it lets me know how old the picture is.

I went out after work today and picked up my copy of the 20th anniversary edition of the Transformers animated movie. I’ve been waiting many, many months for the anticipated November 7th release date. I bought my copy of the movie from HMV. They advertised that they were giving away a tee shirt with the purchase of the movie. I didn’t figure there were that many people around that were ready to spring upon HMV for the DVD right away, but was surprised to walk away with their very last tee shirt when I bought my copy of the movie. I feel lucky.

November 4, 2006

Today I present my second fan fiction: An Insecticon Disruption. This story is a total of 69 pages long (in MS Word), which is considerably shorter than The Spark Cell, but still long by usual fan fiction standards.

Whether you’re rooting for the Autobots or the Insecticons, you’ll be sure to enjoy this action-packed story. It’s full of lots of your favorite characters and puts them in a situation I’ve never seen or heard done before. I had a good time writing this story, and will be starting another fan fiction shortly.

The next story will feature Huffer. In my Bio I stated he was one of the characters I never really liked, so that’s why I decided to write a story about him. I want to take a deeper look at who he is and see if there is something there that some of us can relate to.