One of the things I remember as a kid was spending time in various family garages... my grandfather's, my dad's and even my brother who was eighteen years older than me. Although I have to admit that I am not one to enjoy rolling up my sleeves an getting grease and oil all over my hands I still have some affection for the sights, sounds and smells of an old garage and all of the things that seem to find their way there. It was here that I learned some of the things that later became the foundation for many of the things I do today. All of the adult men in my family taught me one or more of the basic skills that they thought might be important some day... measuring, cutting and drilling wood and metal, soldering, welding, sanding and painting. It took years for my dad to recognize that many of the things that he did in full scale I did with my miniatures. Well my dad is 92 now so Ericka and I moved my office to the other side of the house so that we could have a first floor bedroom for my dad when he visits. You have no idea how much stuff accumulates in a relatively small space in a few short years. Thousands of small parts, glue, paint, tools and projects never finished. I suppose the advantage of being a model maker is that unlike my dad and grandfather, my junk is small and usually pretty light in weight. One of the things that was uncovered was a project that I started about 18 or 19 years ago when I was planning on building a small 1/32 scale railroad module. The paying jobs always push the personal model projects to the back of the queue and that was the case with this one. Ericka and I took a few images this morning to share with you so you could see something well... non military for a change. The workbench was the place you could find my dad on any weekend. I had, and still has boxes, cans and jars full of old screws, nails and springs. The work bench was the first ting I built with the cabinet hanging above. I spent a fair number of hours there myself as a boy building wooden boats and planes. Now I sit at a workbench in the house and it seems totally fitting that I build one of the work benches of my youth... but very small Notice the nails, mitre box, hammer and plane. We always had drawers below the bench top and if something small fell in there while you were working it wasn't easy to find. The Mason jar with dirty paint thinner was made by turning some clear plastic rod with my Dremel tool and then polishing it. The bottom was hollowed out and then I painted the inside to look like dirty thinner. The top was painted to look like the lid. I made several other clear bottles for the garage including an old Whiskey bottle and a milk bottle. The shelf above the bench includes old paint cans. I photographed some old labels and cut the image from the pictures. The film layer was carefully peeled away from the paper to form a thin "label" for the cans. I don't know about you but I can never keep a paint can clean on the outside during a job so I remembered that in creating the model. I also added an "accidental" paint ring on the workbench with the small can while the paint was still wet. The stove body was turned from hard wood, sealed and then details of plastic and metal added. It was planned to put that in the garage too, but I think it will end up in a different building... someday. I wanted this garage to look right for just after World War I... just about the time my dad was born. There were always old tires (and there still is in my Dad's) hanging on the walls or in racks, old newspapers and garden tools. My dad still has one of those great oil filler bottles so I turned one of these out of plastic rod too. The old round style gas can was modeled after one at my Uncle's barn up North. I would love to have one of these today but they can be pretty pricey as a collectible. I like the way the sunlight raked across the brick floor in this image. I made brick patterns including some of the old style ones with designs or manufacturers initials molded in them for interest. The floor was laid up on Plexiglas one brick at a time. Concerning the last two images, the first one has Ericka peering in the rear window and another one with one of the WWI Germans I sculpted while a partner with ONWTC. I know this will help some of you as a scale reference.

When it absolutely, positively has to look real!