Past projects, paper model edition!

I'll be featuring a few of my past projects here and there.  Today it's paper models.  Paper models are just like other model kits except that you print the parts out on sheets of heavy paper, cut them out, and glue them together.

Benefits to paper models
--> Dirt cheap...there are literally thousands of models freely downloadable from the internet, many of extremely high quality...and the only supplies you really need to get started are cardstock, scissors, and glue.

--> Can be done by anyone...the models range from simple cube shaped characters with 5 pieces to 6 foot long spaceships with 100+ pages of parts.

--> Flexible...because they are just digital images, they can be sized up and down to make them bigger and smaller, and for those that are adept at graphics software, they can even be re-colored or modified.

-- >Forgiving...don't like the way your model is turning out?...reprint it and start over.  Screw up a part?...reprint!.  Want to build a whole fleet of your model?...print 10 of them!  Try that with traditional plastic models.


Enough talking...on to the pictures...

This is the Axiom, the space cruise ship featured in the animated movie "Wall-E".  Cute movie if you haven't seen it.  I got it here: Axiom.  I seem to remember I printed this one at 1/4 size to make it smaller.  It ended up about 6 inches long.

And here we have the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars which George Lucas will probably sue me for posting.  I got it from this page: Millenium Falcon (takes you directly to the .pdf file)  This one is at about half size...maybe a foot long.

And my crowning glory...the Red Baron's Fokker Dr.1 triplane from here: Red Baron ...needless to say, I scaled this one down too...I don't remember exactly what the ratio was...I basically just shrunk it until I had trouble seeing some of the parts.  Yes, that's a penny.

The Great Tomato Project continues

I have a tomato!!  It's just a little baby tomato, but a tomato none the less....

There seems to be a little flaw in my tomato planter design though.  You may recall from my first post in The Great Tomato Project, that I put a cup with slits in the sides down in the bottom of my planter buckets...

The idea is that the water in the bottom bucket would seep through the slits in the cup and up into the soil in the top bucket, watering the plants from below...

Here's what I didn't do that I probably should have...As I was adding the soil to the bucket, I should have been wetting the soil...I filled the bucket to the top with dry soil, and it appears that the surface tension on the water wasn't letting it seep...I'd water the bucket from the top to get things going, and 2 inches down, the soil would be dry as a bone, with the water just pooling on top.

I ended up pushing a small stake down through the soil to the bottom where the cup is and running water down that hole until it soaked the dirt from the bottom up...hopefully, now that I've got the dirt wet all the way through to the bottom, the seeping action will work.  Consider it a lesson learned.

Pet Peeve Wednesday!

Pet peeves... we all have our personal favorites...here's a few of mine...


Don't put your money on the counter...put it in the cashier's hand.  If you do put it down on the counter, don't be surprised if the cashier puts your change down on the counter too.  And speaking of the grocery store, here's a little before and after photo of some shopping carts....

 

Nest your shopping carts please...it takes literally two seconds, and look at how much room there is now for the next person to put their cart into the cart corral too.



Here's another one...you've eaten at your local chain fast food restaurant 2,647 times ('ve been following you around counting)...and this time you've been standing in line for 7 minutes...you know what they have...they have pictures on the menu...there's no excuse for not being ready to order when you reach the front of the line.  And speaking of fast food restaurants...don't be a slob...your mother isn't here to clean up after you.

Finally...the striped areas next to the handicapped spaces are for extra room and maneuverability for people in wheelchairs and other assisted mobility devices.  Likewise, the fire lanes in front of the store are for the fire trucks to park in if the store catches on fire.  Neither of them are so your lazy privileged ass doesn't have to park in the parking lot with the rest of us.  And while we are talking about people that can't park...

REALLY DUDE?...REALLY?

Maybe if you can't park a super duty pickup, you should have bought a Honda Civic.

Happy Peeving!

The Great Tomato Project

My first two posts mere minutes apart...I guess I jump into things feet first...

Anyway, The Grand Tomato Project is something that has been in the back of my mind for a long time...Every year though, it was "next year".  Well..."next year" almost came last year...I started a whole set of plants from seed in a mini greenhouse built from an Ikea kit.  (you'll be hearing about Ikea from me on a fairly regular basis).  They sprouted and started to grow...and then they died.  Crap...

So, this year, I decided it was going to be "this year".  I recognized my limits though and bought plants already seeded and sprouted.  I also spent some time floating in cyberspace and came back with a few designs for a self watering planter in a 5 gallon bucket.  Follow along...

Materials:
-2 five gallon buckets
-1 inch pvc pipe
-tomato stakes or similar lengths of wood
-a cheap plastic cup
-your favorite potting soil mix (i mix bagged potting soil, compost, and topsoil because it's what I had)
-plants (I did tomato and basil in one, and yellow squash and chives in the other)

First, cut vertical slits in your plastic cup...not all the way up and down...just maybe 2/3rds of the way up from the botttom...about 5 or 6 is fine...this isn't rocket science... and then cut a notch out of one end of your pvc pipe...

Here's your bucket...cheap, useful, sturdy...boring...Lets turn it over and cut some holes in it...

The big hole is for the plastic cup and needs to be sized so your cup fits down into it but will not go all the way through.  The small hole should be a tight press fit for the pvc pipe...push the pipe in, notched end first until about 2 inches sticks out the bottom of the bucket.  I then cut the top so it only sticks up about 2 inches over the top, but that isn't necessary.

Now you need to add your stakes to the bucket.  I ran a screw through the bottom of the bucket into the bottom of the stake and then screwed the stake to the top of the bucket with a short wood spacer, but there's absolutely no reason you can't just put the stakes against the sides of the bucket and let the soil hold them in place.

That's it for the first bucket...the only thing we need to do to the second is to drill 4 or 5 drainage holes in the side of the bucket about 3 inches from the bottom, and then put bucket #1 into bucket #2...

Carefully fill the cup in the bottom of the bucket with your potting mix so as not to dislodge it, then fill the bucket the rest of the way up and plant your plants.

Squash and Chives (from seed)                                        Tomatoes and Basil

Quick and easy...but why not just chuck some plants in a bucket of dirt?  This arrangement is self-watering.  To water your plants, you pour water down the pipe into the bottom bucket until the water starts coming out of the drainage holes.  The water will seep through the slits in the cup and up into the potting soil, watering your plants from the bottom.  I'll be updating how well this works over the next month or two, but I've read that this will keep your plants watered for a week.  

Happy bucket gardening!