Don, Have either you or fright tried Optivisors. I have been using them for maybe 50 years. Most of the doctors use them too. They are fairly cheap & available at a lot of hobby places. I think I spelled that right.
They fit on your head & have different strenth lens. I have used a #5 for a long time. They also have what they call an Opti loop, but I have one & never liked it. I just don’t build on a model without that thing on my head, & my old eyes are still pretty good.
I have developed a hand shake in my right hand, but if I brace my hand I can still do trim painting & shooting too. Shooting is mostly 2 handed anyway. That is my second love.
Gene, I’ve been wearing glasses since I was a teenager, as I’m pretty nearsighted.
I bought an Optivisor when I got back into modeling in my early forties. I’ve gone from a 2.5 set of lenses to a 4. I wear it over my normal glasses.
My understanding is that the number is the magnification factor divided by two. The main thing I found when picking lenses is to determine the focus distance. With my glasses and the 4 Optivisor on, thats about 10" in front of my nose. Thats comfortable for me, but I would not want it any closer.
Yes my derm wears them when shes cutting pieces off of me. It’s pretty funny. She’s a real cute little lady, when I go to see her shes got the lab coat on, the pearls the leather flats. Goes out comes back in in clogs, a gown and that optivisor on. Yikes!
Fright is really good isn’t he. His connie is really a great build with a lot of extra nice details. Lights too.
GM, the Optivisors are great aren’t they. I have 3 or 4 lens that graduated to 5 a long time ago. They are comfortable too. I guess that’s where I am working at, 10 or 12 inch’s. My Derm is a man, an ex navy Commander & he uses them too, but sounds like he is not as pretty as yours.
Gene - thanks for your tip on the Optimisers. I’m going to look into getting a pair for these tired eyes of mine! Thanks for your compliment on this ship - I majored in Art so I guess it helps me along with paying attention to details. I hope you have a wonderful Holiday and let’s see what we come up with in 2017! Take care.
Templar1099 - thank you for taking a look at this one and for your compliment. I inherited my 1st model kit after my father-in-law passed away. He was in the sub service so, after sitting on my shelf for approx. 3 years, I decided to build it in his honor in 2012. It was Revell’s 1:72 scale Gato sub. I had so much fun building this kit, I went out and purchased the John Brown Liberty and PE set as my next project. I also tackled a badly warped kit of Lindberg’s Captain Kidd pirate ship. I’m now trying my hand at Revell’s 1:96 USS Constitution model kit. Thank goodness for forums like this to help one along and spark one’s ideas. I majored in Art which helps me in paying attention to detail, to the best of my skills. Have yourself a wonderful Holiday season! [D]
Robert, I wondered how you got so good so fast, but with an art major that really does help doesn’t it. I think your weathering is really great . What did you use ?
Gene - I used graphite powder on my decks and along some of the scuppers and portholes. I also used a wash of dark gray watercolor on the deck. The rust was either oil pastel shavings brushed on, or Testors CreateFX enamel stain rust. Also used a fine point #2 pencil here and there. I used a light gray watercolor on the lower red part of hull to give a salt water appearance and tried a little Green Grunge weathering powder over that. Here’s a closeup of my rudder I made from styrene sheet and rod. Without these forums, I would never have have tried my hand at scratch building this rudder. Many thanks!
Onyxman - I looked at some pictures of liberty/transport ships and noticed that there were sections along the hulls that showed ‘patch job’ painting by crews, either done at sea or in port, while on their voyage. I thank everyone for taking a look and giving me some pointers along the way. This was a nice learning experience for me and I’d love to someday be able to do a scratch build of an AP Troop Transport ship to pay homage to my dad who shipped out on the G.O. Squier AP-130 in WWll. I’m amazed that the model companies completly overlook these ships ( HINT HINT) - I guess everyone thinks we teleported our troops overseas! Have yourself a good Holiday season!
