Fire House

I have officially started work on Firehouse #3. Still in use in Gary, IN

Let the moaning and grousing begin.

The holidays are upon us

Here’s a thought as we enter the gift giving season.

Instead of hanging out in the big box stores and feeding your hard earned money into the insatiable maws of the 1%, buy from small artisans, creatives and individuals (maybe even a couple of brothers) who will inevitably put that money right back into the economy and get things moving in the right direction.

Your local artisans won’t send it off shore. They will do things like buy food (locally sourced) and pay bills which will allow then to express their creativity and bring new and fun products to all. Will Wallmart listen to your wants of a new firehouse model kit? Of course not. They want you to buy some new plastic storage bins to fill with cheap foreign made sweatshop clothes. No, if what you really want is to have influence on what’s created, it will be the small, personal folks who will do it. But only if they can  prosper well enough to have the opportunity to give you what you want and need. Walmart, Target, Bestbuy, they dont care about you.

This holiday season let’s all do what we can to help the little guys help each other.

Happy holidays

Things to come

Here’s a moon truck that is included with the lunar base set.

I know some of you consider this blasphemy, but it’s all fun and we’re just trying to make a living. Mabey I could put a BNSF logo on it.

Wood's mill update

Wood’s mill will be complete in the next couple of days. I want it ready for Trainfest in Milwaukee.

One hold up has been the waterwheel itself. The horizontal slats that catch the water on the prototype are angled to catch the water like a bucket. Some waterwheels have flat boards that are just straight up and down. I couldn’t decide whether to be accurate to the prototype or make the model easier to build. After looking at a lot of prototypes I’ve decided that the easier way is just as prototypical as the hard way, so that’s the way I’m going. With this decision made there’s nothing holding me back from commiting to the final state of the kit.

Clever Models Mobile

As you may remember, I have moved into a 30ft RV with the idea of traveling between shows more often. We have hit a snag. A small windshield crack has kept me off the road because I can’t get registration before I fix the windshield. That piece of glass is over $700.00 bucks and with our sales currently being so down, It’s not going to get fixed anytime soon.
I wonder if I can crowd fund the windshield?