And I’m excepting pre orders. Learn more here:

http://sneillfx.com/page28

Steve

Mold Story. Click on the Mold Story.

What a bunch of hard work. But the whole story is at that above link.

Steve

Got many pictures today from helpful friends and fans of the actual sculpture I never knew existed. So I went back over the entire sculpture and did it over again.

Tomorrow I make the mold. Oh brother.

Steve

After looking at more still pictures from the show theres enough of that bad foam wrinkling that I decided to put in the faint hint of them to try and maintain some authenticity.

Steve

Well looking over the episode full screen and freeze frame I stand corrected by my old friend Guy Conrad who was observant enough to suggest that the forehead furrows were a result of foam compression due to the weight of the foam upon itself. Correct. I have worked with foam latex enough over the years that I should have realized this. Interesting that in pictures it looks like sculpted furrows. There are some painful closeups in the show that on todays modern monitors tells all unlike the old D1 NTSC TVs of the sixties. Man you could get away with murder back then.

The head is almost done. I added the indentation in the back of the head I missed before and changed a lot of the bone structure in the face. Problem is in every angle it looks different as the light plays on it. That and the fact that the foam piece itself is heavily shaded.

I think we are looking at a mold tomorrow.

Steve

Was up at 7 am and found a pair of Mallard ducks swimming around in our pool. Nice sight first thing. We have never seen this before in our pool. I fed them and they took off later on. I figure they had been flying long range for awhile, got tired and spotted water to rest. The Squirrel has been with us for years now.

Steve

Just taking a look before I go further with a little help from Photo Shop. If only we had this in the so called old days.

Steve

Ed Martinez suggested I add eyes to this sculpture because many collectors prefer a display bust over a mask. I have just started the adding the eyes. It will take some time to dial them in but already I’m liking the the look.

Steve

First flight was perfect as it can get I guess. Lots of power with the 4s stock set up. Straight down the runway. Nice level take off and then after sufficient air speed and nice climb vertical to altitude.

Far too much aileron control even on the recommended low rate settings. Even with 40 % expo so I’ll be cutting that back down some more.

Elevator excellent. Over all excellent control. Half power was still fast enough. She glides easily so the drag on the airframe seems low. Recommended most forward CG I was and 1/8 ahead of and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Timer goes off time to land. The only other guy flying has ditched his P-51 on the side of the runway and crosses to get it. He yells “on the runway.” I say hurry up please. I throttle to about 1/3 power and circle the field. He’s there forever it seems. Finally he clears and at about 200 ft. altitude the ESC oscillates my power as a warning of low batt and then cuts off. Flame out.

I’m way out there but to my surprise she responds well to energy management. I trade altitude for airspeed and glide nose down nearly on the deck for what seems like a long time. I make it side ways to the runway and find I still have enough head speed to turn and line up center on the yellow line and make a perfect slightly flared landing and roll to a stop. A big sigh of relief. If that had not happened I’d never know that she had such a glide ratio and that all the reports of it being a tip stalling meany were over rated IMHO. Great plane!

Steve

The happy pilot home after his first flight.

Got it pretty smooth. Tomorrow it gets the texture and finished I hope. This weekend the mold will be made and documented here.

Steve