The Naked Silo

Both sides complete. This project took a long time to complete –not because it was difficult or time-consuming, but because I paused many times for long periods since I decided to give this old toy a bit of an upgrade a couple of years ago. It had been sitting around in an old dresser drawer at my parents' house for years and years until my return to modelling inspired me to give this a shot, using some new techniques I've learned. October 1979. I think the toy itself dates back to 1978 or so, but I definitely got it for my eighth birthday in 1979. It's possible this was a gift from my friend from across the street (seen here holding the gun, fresh out of the package), but I honestly can't remember who it was from. It could have been my two other neighbourhood friends on the left or my cousin (third boy from left, and that's my sister behind me). I apologize if the gift-giver is reading this, but I just cannot remember. Original packaging. ...

(shot before the final clear matte coat.) I totally got this idea from Brian Thompson over at his Smuggler's Room YouTube channel, where, earlier this year, he repainted an LED lantern (which already had a very Star Wars-style design) to make it look even more like it belonged in that galaxy far, far away. When I came across an almost identical lantern in a local hardware store, I knew I'd be giving it a similar makeover. Fresh outta the package. Because they only cost about $9 and, repainted or not, they'd come in handy, I got two of them and gave them a similar paint job. You just pull the top part up and the LEDs light up automatically (they require 3 AA batteries each –not included). The original colour is a nice dark metallic so I used this as my "reveal" colour when I got around to chipping my added colours. I sprayed this layer with hairspray and then airbrushed a dull brown over top. After I chipped that to reveal the original metallic colo...

Multiple tributes, here. I remember first seeing  Beverly Hills Cop  on video at my friend Chris K's house, 'cause his family had a VCR and we'd watch tons of movies (and record music videos) together. The summer of 1984 was a special time for us (having created a strong bond in school since Grade 6 a few years before), going on biking adventures around the 'burbs and into the city, etc., and home video played an important role from then until I moved to the opposite end of Scarborough just before we started high school. We liked the movie a lot, both of us fans of Eddie Murphy from his  Saturday Night Live  days. I don't think I'd seen the movie since then (it would have been 1985, probably summer, since the movie came out in late 1984) and I became curious to see if it still held up. It did. It does. I found Murphy as charming as ever and the comedy (and even the action) holds up very well and its very re-watchable and very entertaining.  Beverly Hi...