SPA Modeler

Those are sweet, Declan! Looooove, Love, Love the ‘49 Merc! The color looks good on her! Well done!

Thanks Blacksheep! I actually think that the car is a 1950 oldsmobile custom.

My mistake. Not a '49. Didn't see the whole pic from my phone. I don't think there is a 1950 Olds kit. Looks like a Plymouth or Ford.

It was this kit:

Magnificent work Declan! Way to go man!

Thanks man! The problems with plumbing and other household/workplace problems really took the wind out of my sails. I was not really enjoying modelling at all, so getting something done was good.

I know how you feel. I've had that feeling for a couple weeks due to so much stuff taking the wind out of my sails. If it hadn't been for Hobby Day, I doubt I would have had anything done!

Aw sorry to hear that... What is hobby day? Glad to hear it helped!

Thank you Declan. And to answer your question about hobby day, here it is:

Hobby Day is a two-day event we have at a local Knights of Columbus Hall in Anaheim. It is free to attend and you can stay as long or as short as you want. I usually open the Hall on the Friday at around noon +/- an hour or so; and we remain open until around 10:00PM. The next day my friend Harmon (who started Hobby Day about 18 years ago) comes in and opens the Hall at around 9:00AM and keeps it open until 10:00PM. We are available those hours for anyone who wants to come in and enjoy games, model building, figure painting, arts and crafts, or just camaraderie and friendship. We encourage everyone to bring in anything they want to work on; if they haven't anything, we have some tools, models and games on site for anyone to use.

As mentioned, it's been going on about 18 years and we have but two rules:

-> No computer games as we promote this as a place to improve social interaction and social skills

And for the modelers we have this tongue-in-cheek rule

-> No bleeding at Hobby Day!

Here are some shots of things happening at Hobby Day.

Two game tables where games are being played. Anyone is welcome to join in:





Harmon Ward, the founder of Hobby Day is the one sitting at the far left foreground in the above pic.

Here is a game table in the process of setting up. We do any types of games, from board to fantasy card, to miniature tabletop games:



Here is one of those miniature gamers set up to paint some of his figures for his Armies:



And the final result in 28mm:



At one time we had a group of high functioning mentally handicapped people who came in for an hour or so a day for activities. It was always the highlight of their month. Most of them played the games we had available for anyone, but when some of them saw my model toolbox and projects under construction, they wanted to build models too. So I arranged to get some additional models, tools and supplies for them. Here are some of the models and tools we supplied for them:



And yes, if they finished their model, they got to take it home with them.

And finally, here is one shot of the branch office of Maddog Manufacturing. It is in the back, with my portable tool box buried under all the model boxes I brought to work on that day. To the right is a figure painter painting his minis and a car and plane modeler on the left:



And here is a closeup of my toolbox I bring to Hobby Days to work on things. I always try to make sure I have extra tools inside for those who bring models but forget certain tools:

Bottom drawers:



...top section for knives, tweezers and paint brushes:



And the middle section holding my pants, glues, decal solvents, weathering powders and fillers. I got this so that I could put all those tall containers on the right side in here standing up:




And yes, that is the all-important shot glass for additional "support".


Now that I have so thoroughly hijacked your thread, I now return you all to our regularly scheduled programming....

Great photos and explanation of Hobby Day Mark!