Digital Blend-CL

Tilluminati

2011-03-07T13:47:00.000-08:00

Tilluminati

This is my most recent work.

HTML5 and CSS3

2010-06-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are not in web development web content looks the same every where, but trust me it isn't. HTML5 and CSS3 represent the future trend of web development and design. I personally have been reading and study both technologies, and I have high hopes for both of them. I found several good tutorials and information about CSS3, and HTML5; Apple posted a neat section on their website with some demos for HTML5, but you will need Safari to browse the HTML5 features.

Apple's HTML5 section

Understanding The Basics Of CSS3

50 Excellent Tutorials for Web-Development using CSS3

Take your time to look through and learn more about what will be used in the future, some of these things can already be used and are supported by certain browsers already.

Hazel Completed - Various post left from build

2010-02-13T12:25:00.000-08:00

I finished this model on December 14th, 2009, you can go onto my Flickr account and checkout the finished model. I really enjoyed doing this project, I would not have continued to work on this project had it not been a labor of love, I have never before built a project this ambitious before. But I had fun doing it, and most importantly, I completed the model project.

I have to thank all of the posters at FichtenFoo forum for their support and encouragement through out this project.

The only thing left to do now is build the base.

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Hi Everyone,

I have made some more progress on this project, I spent the weekend working on the Beam Pistol, I made lots of progress. Unlike the other parts of the Hazel, I this part of the project was very easy. My goal for this part of the project was to make the pistol as light as I could, weight was a big issue since I did not want to add to much extra weight to the Hands and arms. I almost forgot to do one very important part of the Primrose Unit, the two stablizer fins for the Primrose unit; there are two on each side, one folds up inside and one is fixed on the outside. I created the two outer fins, they will be mounted once the shield is completed.

This is the fully assembled beam pistol, I only have to build the locking leaver at the back of the Beam Pistol and the swivel mount for the sight at the top of the gun.

This is the fully assembled beam pistol, I only have to build the locking leaver at the back of the Beam Pistol and the swivel mount for the sight at the top of the gun.

Once I finish the rest of the Beam Pistol, I have only the shield to build.
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I have been hard at work this project since the last update, have started some of the painting of the model. I painted the exposed parts of the internal frame, especially the arms, I was hoping to avoid this part of the process until I was completely finishing the construction process, it could not be avoided.

The problem is that I had to putty over the holes I drilled for the elbows, I did not construct a internal frame for this model, so I painted the elbows and shoulders in Tamiya German Grey, and joined the four pieces together.

I have also started painting the other parts of the interal frame in German Grey, Eventually some of the parts will be covered in a lighter shade of grey and metallic colors.

The other major task that was done was painting and assembling the cockpit of the Hazel, I am not going to wire and illuminate the model, but the cockpit door will be open, and the internal bay would look so empty without something.

Before I forget, I also built the maneuvering thrusters for the Abdomen, I used some styrene tubing and other parts from Fulcy to build the thrusters, now the Abdomen looks better. Now the next task is to build the eight left thrusters, I am not sure how I want the leg thrusters to look, but I am happy. the Abdomen thrusters looks great.

As of now, most of the parts are assembled and ready to paint, I just need to wait for the arrival of some parts so I can finish the priming process.
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I have been busy working on this project since the last update, I found the right size screw heads for the knees, added the front lights for the two ammo clip mounts, and added some extra detail to the surface of the torso, abdomen and shoulders. After I re primed all of the parts, I had to go back and fill in some of the seams that I missed. I decided to add some extra detail to the shoulders and the torso. I know that all of the drawings did not show any access doors, but I decided to proceed any ways. To simulate these access points, I used some scrap styrene and added them to the surface. The extra detail for the front Knee trusters and the top half of the Thruster engines were purchased at the local electronics store. For the screws, the length is not important, the head diameter is, I drilled a 4mm hole, so I needed screws that would fit into the hole I created.

Another thing that I did was rebuild the fingers, this time I made the front tip of the fingers move like they are suppose to. I suppose that if I were to try a 3rd time I can get the fingers to articulate like a human finger, but that is for a future project. I am happy, the hand can close similar to a human hand, the beam saber, shield handle, and beam pistol will be able to properly fit into the hands now.

I started to assemble the engines for the thruster pack, I have been putting off work on this part of the project because I could not figure out what to use for the top half of the engines. After visiting the hardware store and Electronics store, I found what I was looking for. I went through my scrap box and found the parts from several tank kits to be used in the model, I used some 5 min epoxy to glue everthing together.

I also spent some time repriming the parts that I have been sanding and filling as well. I could have made more headway, but I was busy reading up on HTML5 and CSS3, I even figured out how to get the webrowser to read the tags.

Funny Dilbert Cartoon

2010-02-12T11:33:00.001-08:00

Hazel Update - the lower legs again...

2009-07-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

Once all of the epoxy and primer had a chance to set, I went back and did a series of test build on the Abdomen and the Legs, to see how all of the parts fit, I did notice that the thruster pack was not clearing the rear of the adbomen so I had to raise the height of the Hazel's Torso mounting plate so that it would clear. This time none of the parts needed tape to hold themselves together, but the legs are still very wobbly.

Hazel's Abdomen

After test fitting all of the parts for the legs, I decided to get off of my lazy ass and rebuild the piston rods for the leg struts. The other struts were to short, every time I extended the rods they would fall out, so I had to make them longer. Making the ankles move normally is not possible with this model, there is to much weight to support, and not enough surface tension to hold everything in place. I also found out that the leg plates for the lower legs had lots of surface holes in them, so I had to fill in the holes and resand and putty the area so that it looks right.

Hazel's Legs also looked to bare after I did the test build, so I have to add some extra detail to the ankles.

Lower Legs

Hazel Construction Update

2009-07-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

Being short on cash during the 4th of July holiday, I spent the weekend priming and working on the model. I finished priming the parts, so I assembled and glued the Torso and Abdomen of the Hazel, everything fit together for the most part. I had to sand down the insides of the side walls so that the base plate for the Hazel's neck will fit onto model. The hardest part was getting the two halves of the primrose unit to line up and fit onto the mounting plate. But otherwise the construction process went well.

Surprisingly the hardest part was getting the Abdomen parts to line up and fit together, I neglected to sand down the brass rods, all of the primer thicked the rods so that they did not fit inside properly. But after some sanding and filing the parts fit together fine. After all of the primer had a chance to set, I glued the rear section of the Hazel's abdomen together.

I am very happy that I was able to assemble the Primrose Unit, I was really worried that I would not be able to glue the Thruster pack to the Primrose Unit. I am not going to glue the remaining part of the Primrose Unit to the cockpit since I still have to paint and assemble the cockpit.

Torso Parts...

Abdomen Parts...

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It's been a while since I have updated this thread, I was on vacation in Euroope for two weeks, but after I got back to town I started to prime all of the parts that I have finished.

I used Automotive and Surface primer to cover the parts, still have more parts to cover, then I have to let the primer set before I do any more work on the model.

Here are the photos from my trip.

Lisbon, Portugal London, UK Stockholm, Sweden
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I am making progress on the Ammo units, I glued on the outer layer of each of the ammo clips and beveled the edges of the ammo clips. But I did run into some alignment issues, and had to reglue the styrene plates so that they line up, otherwise I am finished with the ammo cips themselves. Now I have to build the motorized arms that control the two clamps that attach to the Hazel's Hips.

On Saturday, I spent the day cleaning up the parts that I had already constructed, I added the copper wire that simulate the Hazel's lighting on top of the tomohawk, and drilled out the holes in the sub-arms that mount the fingers. But I did have a close look again at the drawings in the Gundam Quel model, after some debate and thinking I decided to correct the angel of the hazel's hip unit. I had to use a disc cutter and cut off the extra styrene and make the bottom of each hip unit angular and not flat. I later added some extra detail for looks.

Well, that's it for now...
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I spent the weekend working on the internals for the hip, and some of the other details around the primrose unit. The main thing was adding the pipes and control cables for the various electronic components in the hip, and the two ammo carriers on each side of the hip, I used copper wire and aluminum tubing for the cables and pipes.

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Ever since the last update, I have been hard ar work on the joints for the shoulders. In order to make the shoulders sit properly on each side of the Hazels hips, I had to build a joint for each of the shoulders. The two joints will allow the shoulders to move outward not just front and back motion. I am not going to make a set of 90 degree articulating shoulders, just about 45 degrees, which will allow the arms to rest on each side of the hips with the two ammo clips attached to each side.

I also worked on the detail for the neck, after glueing the brackets for the side plates around the neck, I added the support rod for each side.

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I have been busy adding the surface detail to the all of the Hazel's parts, I added the two mounting bolts that attach the supplimental armor on each side of the shoulder. a brass rod was cut into pieces and then filled flush with the surface. I added the two access panels which allow the maintenance crew to remove the front ankle armor, and added the two access panels for each of the hip sockets. In both situations, I cut and glued a piece of scrap styrene to the surface.

I still have to go back and add any additional access panels and covers to the other parts

Most of my time and energy has been focused on detailing the cockpit, I built the LCD Screens and the Cockpit Chair from scrap styrene, and went through my parts box for the rest of the cockpit components. I still have to add the wiring and tubing that run along the walls and ceiling, but otherwise I am making good progress. I found a 1/35 scale seat for comparison, I got the dimensions correctly, but I was really amazed at how small the cockpit really is. I am not to worried about making the components accurate, it will be very difficult to see most of the detail anyways. with all of the other parts surrounding the cockpit.

Besides the wiring, I still have to build the center console and the two control sticks that the pilot uses.

Head

I know it's been a while I have updated the thread, but I am still working on various pieces of the Hazel, I went back and added detail inside of the tomohawk on the hazel's head. This part normally illuminates. I went back into my scraps box and found several pieces of styrene, and later I will use some copper wire to simulate the lighting tubes that run through the channels.

Cockpit

I also worked on the cockpit, I added the rest of the detail to the roof and side walls, I used various pieces of left over model parts to simulate the various control surfaces. I also used strips of styrene and copper wire to simulate the wiring for the various control surfaces, I am not going for accuracy since very little of the detail is not going to visible.

Beam Saber

Another thing that I did was build the beam saber, I used a styrene tube as a base, then filled in one end with Milliput Putty, and wrapped the tube with 2 long strips of stryene thicken the tube and let it dry. Later I had to use putt to fill in the uneven surfaces created by the glue used.

The hazel's beam saber has a antenna so I used a two pieces of aluminum tube to create the antenna, on the other end, I used a piece of the barrel from a Panzer IV Tank to create the front of the Beam Saber. I went back to several books and images and found out that the Bean Saber sits at angle, I used some scrap styrene to create the tilted platform that the Beam Saber rests on the back pack.

Hip

Inside the two cavity on each hip they contain the various pieces of machinery that help control the legs and thrusters inside the abdomen. I used various pieces of model parts left over from other model projects to build all of the components in the below photo.

I had to stop for a while, I took a trip to Toronto to visit some relatives there. Below is a photo of Toronto's newer city hall, it was used as the back drop for the Umbrella Corporation's Racoon City HQ.

Hazel's head test assemble - 3rd round...

2009-03-01T18:52:00.001-08:00

I am back hard at work on the head, I had to insert the pins and rods needed to mount the head onto the neck and the two antennas onto the side of the tomahawk. I also started work on the 4 explosive struts on each side of the hazel's neck that keep the Hazel's head mounted onto the primrose unit, You don't see these parts in the models, but they are visible in the cover illustration for the AOZ book.

Now that I am done mounting all of the rods and pins, I did another test assemble.

I am making progress, but not the kind of progress I thougth I would...

What we have been waiting for!

2009-02-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

I spent some time today test building the Hazel, I have completed most of the repairs to the parts, and I inserted some rods into the primrose unit to provide some support. Now the cockpit does not tip over any more and fall off on to the floor.

I still had to use tape to hold the model together, but it is not drooping to one side like before. On the other hand, I will have to correct the angle of the arms, they are drooping forward. I did not put the lower arms on, I am going to have to build two joints for the elbows. I was hoping that the arms would be able to rest comfortable in a forward position, but the subarms are in the way.

I added a piece of styrene to the one of the legs, but it is not enough, this really annoys the hell out of me. How could I have miss judged the height of each part of the leg. This is why the two legs still look funny, one of the legs is still short. I am still finding cracks in all of the leg parts, the parts definitely move jiggle around more than they use to.

I am so happy, the model actually stood still with all of the parts and it did not fall over. :D

Well, enjoy everyone... :-)

We all have been waiting for this moment.

The Big Crash...

2009-02-28T20:04:00.000-08:00

I hate Friday the 13th...

I was trying to do a test assemble last night, but the Hazel fell forward off of my table and on to the floor, the two front armor plates and the leg struts are all broken... :( had my back turned and did not see what happened, but I did hear a loud boom, and saw all of the pieces all over the floor of my apartment. :( was hoping to do a complete test build, but now I have to repair the damaged pieces, and check all of the other parts. Most of the parts are not damaged, but I can hear things rattle inside of the leg parts... :(

I am still going to press on with the Hazel, but I need to do some repair work...

Hazel test assemble...

2009-02-01T20:25:00.001-08:00

I have been hard at work on the Sub-arms and the joints for the front side skirts since the last update, The one issue that I ran into for this part of the construction was that I built the two joints that connect the two front skirts to the hip to thick, so I had to sand down all of the parts. Another issue I ran into is that the mount that connects the two sub-arms to the abdomen was to short, so I had to make it taller and longer.

You can see here that the side mount is much taller than before.

Here is a shot of the two front skirts and the joints.

I finally cut and glued the brass rods for the sub arms, here is a shot of the completely assembled subarms.

Ok, I attempted my first test assemble of the Hazel, I got as far as assembling the entire lower body minus the sub-arms and the slide mount. I ran in to a few problems along the way which has caused me to stop the test assemble in mid construction.

The problem is that the knees wanted to keep bowing outwards, and the ankle joints had to much movement. This also contributed to the knees wanting to slide outward. I am going to have to put extra rods in the hip and knees to prevent unwanted movement in the abdomen. Right now the abdomen has a tendency to side to either the left or the right; with out extra tension in the joints and some extra support, the legs will fall over. In several of the photos, I used a wine bottle and my cellphone for a size comparison. On top of everything else, I made the 4 piston rods to short, so when the legs are fully extended back, the rods will fall out of the strut housing, you can see this in one of the photos, the rods have fallen forward.

I hope that next time, I will be able to do a full test assemble, I was not surprised that all of the pieces did not hold together this time. But I am happy that I tried, now I know that I need to work on making the knees stronger and add extra support to the hips.

Here are a few photos of the test assemble effort.

Another issue that I ran into is that the back thruster flaps are to long, on top of that, all of the holes that I drilled for them are useless. So now I have to shorten the flaps and drill new holes. :( This is why I did not add the flaps to the rear of the legs.

As you can imagine, this beast is huge, I was shocked as to how massive this thing is after I completely assembled the feet, legs, and abdomen. Despite all of the problems, I am happy that at least I am on the right track, all of the pieces fit, and there were no major flaws in the design.

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The Hazel construction update

2008-12-06T22:43:00.001-08:00

I have not forgotten about this thread or this build, I have been busy working on the surface detail since the last post. I went back to work on the Tail unit, and glued the top plate to the rest of the tail unit, I used some strip styrene underneath to re-enforce the top plait, I spent some more time filling and sanding down the seams. I have also been working on the abdomen as well, I have been working hard to get all of the pieces to fit properly. I went back to the hands, lower legs, and added detail that I needed to make the parts stand out more, this included the Primrose unit, I added the slots for the two front lights, I also went back to the two front armored skirts and added some detail to them. I have not decide if I am going to keep them like that or not. The other big thing I did was dress up the hands and added some parts for a german tank model to dress up the wrists.

The biggest task was to get some serious work done on the sub arms, I had to move the connecting joints that attach the Sub-Ams to the abdomen to the back top corner instead of the center, again I checked the plans and drawing that I created and realized that I had drilled the hole in the wrong place. I also added the Y shaped seam that is on each of the Sub-Arms and the support struts on the bottom, I decided to use thin styrene to construct the struts since they will not be visable one all of the parts for the Sub-Arms are assembled.

I also added some re-enforcing struts on the top and back to each of the connecting joints, I also started work on the armored covers that go on top of the rollers that connect the two Sub-Arms to the Abdomen. I still have to build the fingers and the motor for each of the lower arms.

This past weekend, I bought the brass rods that I needed, and cut them to the length that I needed, I also drilled out the connecting holes for the rods. I have started to glue the rods to the Abdomen and the thruster pack, since I am only test fitting the parts at this point, I am not going to glue all of them now.

After long last, I have test fitted all of the pieces for the body, I had to build a extra part so that I can connect the cockpit to the Hazel's body. But this is not a issue, I am not designing the Primrose unit to transform. The head looks kind of funny, but that is because I added a piece of plastic inside to help the head line up with the neck. As you can see below, the project is starting to come together. Yes, the hips look wider than the primrose unit, but I have checked everything, and looked at several photos to be certain. the Hazel's Primrose unit is suppose to look much smaller than a normal torso unit.

I still have a lot of work to do, I am not done by a long shot.
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It's been a few months now, I have been hard at work on my hazel the past few days, I got side tracked a little bit. I was busy playing Tomb Raider Underworld, if anyone has played the previous two games, the story is very interesting since it ties the previous two games together.

I have been hard at work on the front leg struts, I started out with left over styrene tubing, it's probably plastruct, but don't hold me to it. I have had it for a while, and I don't remember the brand, but I have been using brass rod to build the internal part of the shock rods. Since there is a gap between the brass rod on the inside and the outer plastic tube on the outside, I had to use some aluminum tubing that I had to fill in the splace.

All I did was role the aluminum tubing under a Xacto Knife a few times, and the short piece of tubing will break off. I had to use a hand saw to cut the plastic tubing to the desired length and then sand it down flush. All of the pieces had to be super glued together.

Here are the two completed sets of leg pistons, I know that the exact length may be off, but the most of the front struts will be hidden from view. you will only see the bottom portion of the support struts anyways. I did not build the rear struts because there are two hosed that run the length of both legs in the back. I am following the drawings of the Gundam GM Quell, since the Hazel and the Gundam GM Quel shared the same basic leg design, with the position of the front and the rear leg, both sets rear struts will not be visible.

I was going to construct the two ankle joints from scratch, but since I had a few extra scrap parts left from the arms, I decided to recycle the remains of shoulders in the construction of the ankles. Along with some styrene strips, Brass rods, and Milliput putty, I have finished the anke joints.

In the second photo, I have super glued the rods to the top and bottom of the ankle joint. There will be a 3rd rod that joins the two halves together.

Here is a test assemble of the entire internal foot unit and ankle joint. I have build the two sockets that the 2 foot thrusters will sit in.

I still have some extra filling and sanding to do on the ankles, but otherwise I am almost done.

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More sanding, and more updates...

2008-09-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

It is another week, and it is time for a update, I have been having a difficult week at work, everyone including yours truly has been in a rotten mood. So it is time for some stress relief, and time to work on the rest of the Hazel that I have neglected. :meh:

Upper Leg unit

After repeated sanding, the exterior joints of the outer shell became very weak, so I ended up having to re-enforce the outer shell with milliput putty. While I was at it, I glued, filled and sanded down the other wall of the interior portion of the upper leg. Once done, I glued on the front armor skirt support stopper. The Gundam GM Quel has one mounted onto the top of each leg, I am guessing the thing prevents the armored skirt from slamming into the leg when the Mobile Suit is moving. I also drilled out the hole where the socket joint for the legs will connect to the legs to the abdomen.

Arm and exterior plates

I have also been working on the arms and the lower legs, I added the exterior detail to the outer surfaces, so far I have worked on the lower arms and legs, plus the primrose unit. This photo shows you the work that I have done for each of the parts. I have cut the general shape of each plate then I glue it on, then sand and fill in the seams around the corners. I also ran into a problem. The .10 styrene is to thin, as a result, it is warping when I glue down the sheets to the parts. So I have not choise but to fill and sand down the cavities that are left behind. This is why I have putty applied the lower arm as shown in the below photo.

Primrose Unit

I spent the previous 3 months or so working on the legs and other parts, it is time to give the primrose unit some attention, I started by building the front door for the cockpit, and the exterior detail for the cock pit, and the wings of the primrose unit. I used styrene tubing, and thin sheet styrene to build the exterior detail. I have been following the photos and drawings that I have, but since all of the primrose units built were all slightly different, this will give me some leeway for the details.

I have added the two slots for the wing lights, what I found is that I over sanded part of the wings so they look crooked. I had to correct the angle by sanding and filling the gap that remained after I glued the new piece of styrene. Now, both primrose unit wings are the correct shape, I worked on the two wing mounts that the anchor the wings to the abdomen. As you can see in one of the photos below the anchors attach to the back of each wing.

There is still more sanding and filling ahead for me.

High Speed Power Unit

I also had to work on the High Speed Power Unit, this time I had to create the support struts that go on the front and the back of the power unit. I cut tube styrene, and used some thin sheet styrene to create the support struts, and the nozzles at each end of the Power unit. I had to extend the length of the rear side walls with some scrap styrene and putty, once the putty has set, I sanded down the rear to obtain the desired shape. The two thruster nozzles were harder to create than I first thought, I had to repeatedly sand and cut the styrene to obtain the desired shape. The other remaining task was to create the internals of the Power unit. I am going to simulate the internal mount that attaches the Power Unit to the Thruster Pack, I turned the Power Unit over to give you a idea as to what I am planning. I

Also, on the maintenance crew unis, I had a look at the last episode of Gundam 83, I saw that the maintenance crews for the Titans wore the same grey uniforms that the EFSF wore. I guess I am going to have to watch Z Gundam and and see if there is a difference, I know that Orange is for Anaheim Electronics.

Legs, Legs, Legs....

2008-08-10T19:20:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I have updated this thread, but rest assured, I am hard at work on this model. Most of the time in between updates has been spent sanding and filling. At the Comic-Con, I got a good idea of the size of a Mobile suit after I saw the Iron Monger at the Marvel booth, it did a great job on inspiring me to press on with my work, even though most of the time has been spent sanding and filling. I went back to work on the legs, I ran into problems with several parts of the hazel, I noticed that some of the pieces were to short in a few spots, so I had to use lots of milliput, patience, and sanding to correct the angle, and shape of the legs, and make the sub-arms longer.

One evening I decided to look at my plans for the Hazel and examine all of the parts, I discovered that I the sub arms were to short, so I have to correct the length of the sub arms by cutting away the bottom part of the upper sub-arm and reposition it. This also ment that I had to rebuild the lower half of the upper arm, and re putty and re sand both of the upper arms. I had a closer look at the AOZ book that I have, I saw that I am missing a crucial piece of detail a the top of the upper arm. so, I had to build this part back in to the upper arm.

I am so Mad at myself for not seeing this sooner.

I noticed several things wrong with the parts for the lower leg, the angle of the thighs armored plates were bent in to much, so I had to correct the angle, and all for pieces of the lower leg had to be completely symmetrical with one another. In the photo below, you can see that this is not the case, so I had to spend some time sanding and filling all of the parts. I also have started to ad the detail for the lower leg's access levers and the hinge,i am not going to make the doors open and close. I don't want to create any more work for myself than I have already have.

.010 styrene sheets were used to create the seam of the access panel on each of the lower legs, I drew out the shape of the access panel's seam, measured and drew the guide lines then cut the pieces of styrene. I still have to sand down the pieces of styrene that I used to build the bays were the access levers are housed.

Since I am working on the lower leg, I decided to finish the work on the rear thruster for the lower leg. I added the ports for the rear thruster nozzles, and built the rear fins.

Once that was done, I had to add in the detail for the rear of the knees, I had a look at the Gundam GM Quel's legs, and there is a intercooler fin box at the back of each of the knees, so I used .010 styrene to build the individual fins in the fin boxes. I am going to use the same idea for the 2 sets of thruster nozzles for the High Speed power unit, I am dreading the assignment!!! Assembling the the fin boxes was a major pain in the ass!!!

Compared to the intercoolers, the support arms for the knees was not so bad, ow that the task is done, I don't feel so bad.

Once the knees were completed, finished work on the individual parts for the tow front armored skirts that protect the hips. I added the surface detail in the front and in the back. I drew out the patterns that I wanted, and I drilled holes in the corners, then cut the styrene in between the holes to create the desired patterns I needed for the skirt details.

At this point in time, I have finished correcting the shapes of the lower legs, glued together a few of the parts for the shoulders and the legs, build some extra detail parts for the feet. I decided to simulate the arms that lift up and out the armored shell that protects the components in the feet. When you look inside the cavities of the feet units it is really empty, so I needed to add some detail to these spaces.

At this point in time, I am starting to add in the surface detail as I go along. I am not going to do a test assemble yet. The feet are not finished yet. I still have to re-enforce the heels and the feet before this can happen.

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The Hands of Hazel

2008-06-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

Besides following the US open, my other project for the weekend was to build the two hands for the Hazel, I already had the .100 thick and .25 inch wide styrene strips already. My big worry was how I was going to build the joint covers for the fingers, I got lucky and found the hollow square strene tubes that are close to the size that I need. All I had to do was to cut the tubes to shape and cut out the wall on one side.

I decided against using the EZ8's hand for the model because the shape of the Hazel's hands and the EZ8's hands are totally different. So I had to scratch build the hands myself.

I used a hacksaw to cut the pieces that I needed, all in all, there are 20 pieces of Square styrene that I cut for the hand. I am so happy that the hobbyshop had this in stock, it saved me a lot of work.

I spent Saturday and Sunday cutting and sanding all of the pieces of styrene for my hand, I started out by test building a few fingers before I got the right size that I needed. I eventually got the right one that I needed.

After spending Saturday evening and Sunday morning cutting and glueing the pieces that I needed, I spent the rest of the day sanding down the small pieces, and test assembing all of the parts of the fingers and narrowing the with of the styrene strips so that they will fit into the space of the square styrene tubes.

This is a picture of the test assembled hand, I spent the previous 3 days measuring and cutting the parts for the hand itself. That was the easiest part. The fingers were a real pain in the but to sand and cut. I decided to round the corners, this created lots of extra work for me.

Now, I have to build the armored cover and the surface detail on the top of the hands, and build the wrist units.

Lower leg construction and all othe parts...

2008-06-11T22:52:00.001-07:00

It is time for another update, I have been busy sanding and puttying all of the parts, it seams like over the past 3-4 weeks all I have done is sand and putty. So after traveling out of town and taking a short break away from this project to do some LCD TV hunting, I am back at work.

I have been working on the lower leg armor shell, I decided to discard the original pieces of the lower leg that I previously built, the more I looked at it the more I hated it. the two halves did not look right. So I decided to build both lower legs at once, and have two matching pieces. Yes, it is more work, but I am happy that the pieces match, they definitely looks better than the old piece. The problem was that the 4 ankle caps did not look right; they looked cut in half, now there are 4 pieces for each lower leg, the front and back halves, and the two ankle caps.

Another project that I have been working on is the Roller insert for the Front Slide mount, I went to Home Depot, and used three pieces of PVC Pipe, one is for the Roller mount, the other two are for each of the sub-arms that connect on to each end of the roller mount.

After cutting all of the pieces of the base for the roller mount but I cut the two sides plates to short, so I had to use some Milliput to correct the angle of the base that the PVC Pipe sits on.

In addition, I have been working on the head, I created the eyes for the Hazel's face, thickened the two antennas, and glued the two plastic plates that cover the two head cannons on each side.

Ughhhhh..... More Filling and sanding!!!

At this point, I decided to do a progress check on all of the pieces that I have completed. I also have to clean off all of the putty dust that has accumulated on all of the parts have to be cleaned off, I also found that I forgot to sand off the putty on some of the parts.

I laid out all of the parts that I have completed on my dining room table so that everyone can get a idea of how much work I have done over the past 10 months.

I haven't covered my dining room table yet!!!

At this point, I have to add the surface detail to all of the parts, finish the sub-arms, build the hands, Cockpit, Cockpit hatch, the 8 leg shocks, the Shield, Beam Saber and the Beam Pistol.

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So much putty and so little time.

2008-05-24T02:35:00.001-07:00

So far, I have been very busy this week, I have a number of Freelance Projects that have kept me busy. Plus my Mom has finalized her divorce from my Step-Father, both sides had their four ways mediation meeting. I am happy now, 2 1/2 years of misery are coming to a close.

As for my Hazel, I have been busy sanding and puttying the parts, there is not a whole lot of new construction going on right now. Also built the eyes for he head and worked on the different parts of the head. I am still not ready for a test assemble yet, I have not made the legs strong enough to with stand all of the weight.

Unfortunately, I have the two halves of the right lower leg armor to build, and the rest of the Sub-Arms to construct, so I am not finished by a long shot. Plus, there is still all of the external detail that I still have to add.

Here is the Previous post that I made some weeks back.

I spent part of the weekend working on the Hazel's Thruster pack, I have completed the High Speed Power Unit's support arm, and added the mounts for the two thrusters that will go on to each side. The thruster pack is really starting to come together, I also spent most of the weekend sanding and filling the seams of the right lower leg's parts. I am out of super fine Milliput, so I am now using silver grey Milliput.

I have also been working on the eyes, for the hazel's face, I am not going to light up the eyes this time, I might try to make the eyes and the sensors on the head Mohawk light up another day. I have so much that I still need to do, so I am going to leave the eyes alone for now. The rest of the work done has been more sanding and filling, my front porch is now covered with milliput putty from all the sanding :ninja: :yucky:. At the end of the evening I look like I got into a flour with a pastry chef... :meh2:

Earlier this week, I did a test assemble for the various parts of the abdomen, I am more or less done with the various pieces of the Hazel's abdomen so I test assembled all of the pieces that I had completed so far.

Here are photos of the test assemble, I did not take any more photos of the rest of the pieces. I still have to finish the two halves of the waist and add the internal components for the hip armor motors and power units.

Also, no Hazel would be complete without the sub arms, so I am pressing ahead with the construction of the the two sub arms and the slide mount that goes along with it. Wow, they are huge!!! :twitch:
Right now I am in the process of puttying the seams for the lower arms, and I have glued most of the external plates to the upper arms.

So far, I am making good progress, I still don't have all of the pieces completed for a test assemble yet, I still have to build the right lower leg external armor plates, construct the hands, then I have to build the cockpit and the armored door that goes with it, the shield and the weapons. :beatdown:

That is it for now...

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Hazel TR-1 Progress Report.

2008-05-03T16:33:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know that it has been a while since I have posted anything that is worth while, but I am making progress on my Hazel TR-1. So far, I have finished the other foot, both knees, the entire lower right let, and front leg scoops. I still have the lower arm unit, the slide mount, and the two hip armor units to build.

Since I am builiding a second set of parts for the lower leg, I made much more rapid progress for the lower right leg. I have also finished the knee armor plates that protect the joint that connects the lower and upper leg together, I used some plumbers putty that has been sitting in my garage for years as filler for the parts. I used some panther tank road wheels for the base part of the knee, after I cleaned out my parts box, I had a lot of tank road wheels left over, for this project, they came in handy.

I have contemplated building the twin shield boosters in 1/35 scale, but at 27" inches or 67.5 cm long, (I am making a educated guess here...) it will be just as tall as the Hazel itself. But I am getting ahead of myself.

My next big project is to tackle the construction of the ankles, but that comes after I build the slide mount for the lower manipulator arms.

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Hazel TR-1 Update - Foot and Tail...

2008-04-19T13:31:00.001-07:00

Wow, what a busy week, things have been really stressful at work, so I have not been able to devote as much time to this project as I would like, but I got to work on one of the feet.

I have completed the two front armor skirts for the hip, and the tail unit.

The left foot is a very straight forward build, but I have to drill and cut out a slot in each foot for the two thrusters. I have to build the ankles and the armor that attaches to the ankels.

I also did some more heat forming, I used another road wheel to build the ring mount that joins the primrose unit to the lower body.

Here are some of the progress photos.

This is a size comparison photo.

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Hazel TR-1 Primrose - AOZ (Advance Of Zeta)

2008-04-16T19:55:00.001-07:00

I started this post on a different forum in Autumn of 2007, I decided to publish the various parts of my post for the 1/35 Hazel TR-1 model that I am building here so that it is easier for people to follow, instead of having to read through pages of forum posts.

First Post - November 14, 2007

I know that I have not posted a major in-progress thread in a while, my previous project before was the Tsukasa Bullet 1/6 Heat Blade Resin Figure, I finished that model all the way back in August, but I have not posted any photos of the model on this forum.

It has been a while since I did a major scratchbuild project, so after much deliberation I decided to build a TR-1 Hazel Owsla/Primrose for the AoZ Unlimited Competition. I like the whole modular aspect of the Owsla and the Primrose Unit, there are a large number of possible configurations that are possible. I had already started drawing the plans and looking for photos and information in September, and started to build in mid October after a lot of planning, I am constructing the model now.

Before the contest was announced, I had already been playing with the idea of building a Hazel, I spent time drawing out the plans for the various parts of the Hazel. Below is a plan for the parts of the Primrose unit, I have made lots of progress on the Primrose Escape Unit, as of now.

I have completed the construction of the basic shapes of the various parts of the Hazel.

I have decided to start with the Primrose unit first, the past month I have made stead progress on the primrose unit, I started out with large 12”x24” sheets of Styrene from Walthers Inc. model railroad. I am using .100 to provide support and rigidity, .040 for the outer surfaces, and .010 thickness for all of the exterior details. So, now I am busy cutting, sanding to shape various pieces of styrene into the different parts of the Primrose Unit, right now, I am using 150 grit sandpaper, a exacto knife, pliers and a wire cutter for the construction work

I have been glueing and lamenating the various pieces of scrap styrene from the construction process to ad thick ness and support for the individual parts of the model.

After lots of sanding, filling and covering the floor of my dinning room with white styrene dust, I am done with one the construction of the basic shape of one of the parts

I have finished construction of the rough shapes

Here are the various parts of the Primrose Unit, this is my progress so far.

Update - November 18, 2007

The model will be 1/35 scale.

Here is a photo that I took early in the photo shoot, it will give you a sense of how big the model is.

Update - November 26, 2007

The best advice I can give you is to take a lot of time to draw out the various components of the model you are going to build, the more planning and thinking you do the easier things will go.

Since many of the Titan and TTT MS used similar weapons, you should be able to take weapons from other kits, as for the thruster pack it really is not that hard to build, I bought one of the AOZ books and looked through the images thoroughly before I did any cutting and sanding.

I am out of town right now, I got 1/2 way through construting the rough shapes for the thruster pack before the Thanksgiving holiday, but when I finish building the thruster pack, I will post some progress pictures.

________

If you have not done any scratchbuliding before, try scratchbuilding something that is not so demanding like building different turret on a 1/35 armor kit or something that is not so complex. This is how I got my start in scratch building. Look around the major armor building websites, they are good places to read about scratchbuilding, or you can look through some model building books from Osprey or Verlinden.

Update - November 29, 2007

I am back from my Thanksgiving trip, since then I have progress on the construction of the Hazel's thruster pack. So far so good, but before I left, I started to build the side thruster housing for the Hazel's thruster pack, I still have to build the high speed power unit that mounts on the top.

I have finished cutting the .100 thick styrene, all of the pieces have been cut and glued together.

I also completed the preliminary construction of the front and bottom Primrose thruster vents and the cable cutter blades. One note, I had a look through Ninja Science's Flickr gallery, in the drawings of the Primrose Unit the cutter blades were different for each of the units that were illustrated, so I chose the shape that I liked, and went with it.

I know that the two cutter blades fold under each of the Primrose's wings, but since I am building a static model, I am not planning to have the two blades fold in and out.

Now that I am back from my holiday, I started construction of the outer plates of the Hazel's thruster pack. I used the scrap pieces of plastic that I had left over from the construction of the primrose unit for the side thruster housings.

This is a interior shot of one of the thruster housings.

Here are some more shots of the side thruster units.

I have cut out the thruster light housing, and test fitted all of the parts that I have built so far.

I still have a long way to go before I finish the Hazel's thruster pack, I still have to build the Bean Saber storage tubes on each of the thruster units, plus the high speed thruster unit that mounts on top of the thruster pack still has to be built.

Update - December 03, 2007

Question asked to me:

1/35??!! thats gonna be a lot of styrene sheets lol

this is gonna be a monster project for sure!
looking really good so far...makes me want to join the group built..
or even just get back to modeling...
but i'm in midst of exams right now... sigh
anyways seeing your work is very inspiring!

_____________________________________

Yes, the Hazel Owsla is going to be 1/35 scale and big, but not to big, so far I am doing very well with the styrene. The most complicated part of the initial construction was the primrose unit, since has a lot of moving parts that transform (I am not going to make a transforming Primrose Unit), I used a lot of styrene to construct this beast. Otherwise, the construction of the rest of the MS is going well.

I bought styrene in 12" x 24" sheets, so I am doing great on styrene, if you ever do any kind of scratch build, buy the styrene in large sheets, this will save you a ton of money. :shifty:

The more people who join the build the better, don't let me scare you off. :-)
___________________________

Over the weekend, I constructed the Rear Booster for the Thruster Pack.

Like the other parts of the Hazel, the frame of the Booster Unit is made of .100 styrene laminated together, I repeated the process until I had the completed booster unit.

After working on and off through out the weekend, I completed the Booster/High Speed Thruster unit for the Hazel Monday evening. I have a basic shape of the booster completed, I still have to construct the thruster nozzles for the Booster and Thruster pack, and the mounting/support arm for the thruster. I used .40 think styrene to cover the frame that I constructed.

I did a test assemble of the Thruster pack parts, the Booster Unit at the top, looks a lot bigger in the photo than it really is. :ninja:

Update - December 06, 2007

I am using .010, .040, .100 Evergreen Sheet Styrene, I bought the styrene from Walthers.com, it is a great place to buy stuff for modeling, they mainly sell model rail road supplies and kits but the sell a lot of stuff for scratch building. :lol: :-)

.010 for the outside surface details like non moving hatches, doors and levers
.040 for the outer panels, and .100 for the main structural parts, the
.100 styrene will provide structural support for the parts.

Here is the URL for Walther's Styrene page.

Again, the price of the styrene varies according to the thickness.

Update - December 09, 2007

Test Assemble of Primrose Unit and Thruster Pack

A few days ago, I test assembled the Primrose unit, to my relief everthing for the most part everything fit. Right now I my main goal is to construct the pieced of the Hazel, once all of basic components are completed, I will begin filling and sanding all of the seams and rough spots. I included a 1/35 German Panzer Grenadier for comparisons, during the construction process, I switched liquid cement, I am now using Plastruct, so far so good.

I still have all of the small elements left to construct, my next goal after the constuction of the arms is the top High-speed Booster Unit mount, that goes on the top of the thruster.

Here are some photos of the test assemble.

Hazel Arm

Now that I have finished constructing the Primrose Unit, I decided to start construction of the arms, I was going to do the feet or one of the lower leg armor units, but I am running out of styrene, so I settled on constructing the arms, the hands are a different story all together. ^_^

I cut the pieces of styrene just like I constructed the rest of the MS built so far. but since I cut all of the pieces of styrene before I started the assembly of the pieces of the arm. I used a sharpie to label all of the different pieces, as a result, the assembly went much smoother than I expected. :D :lol:

What I ended up doing is scanning the MG RGM-79Q Quel kit plans, and enlarging them to the required scale. I went to Ninja Science's flickr photo gallery and found the images for the necessary parts of the arms and the various pieces of the shoulder armor that I needed.

I decided to construct the low profile shoulder armor instead of using the normal RGM-79Q shoulder armor units. Right now I still have to construct the mounts for the shoulder armor, and cut the beveled edges for the arm.

I have not constructed the hands yet, I am still deciding how to tackle this project, scratch build them, or buy two UC Hardgraph kits and take the hands and use them on the hazel. Yes, I will have to modify them if I do this.

I am not sure yet. :unsure: :doh: :(

Here are the photos for the arm.

Update - January 20, 2008

I am posting a quick status update on this project.

This project is not abandoned or forgotten, because of the Holiday Season, and my Traveling to Europe for New Years, I have not worked on this project for a while.

Before I left, I started work on the Thruster Pack Clamps, Top Booster Unit mount, and the Beam Saber mount on the Thruster pack, but I am out of Styrene, so I am going to have to order some from Walthers before I start on this project again.

I have also created the plans for the Hazel's torso and weapon mounting point.

I traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, Prague, Czech Republic, and Toronto, Canada, but I brought back a unwanted souvenir, I got sick on the way home.

Update - February 03, 2008

It took me a while, but I am back at work on my Hazel, I had to order some more styrene, and wait until Mom flew back home before I could start work on this project.

I am working on the torso right now, I started on the Rear torso maneuvering thruster unit that attaches to the Hazel's rear torso, I have completed the construction of the basic shape, and started construction on the torso it self. I am using .100 styrene for stiffness and support, the outer skin will be .040 styrene, so far I am progressing faster than I had expected.

Eventually I will cut out the six holes in the tail for the maneuvering thrusters, it should not be a problem looking for something to replicate the six thrusters, the two 20mm or so diameter thrusters that sit in between the tail thrusters will be a challenge. I have to find something that looks like rocket thrusters, so far I have not come up with any ideas yet.

Here are a few shots of the construction process.

Here is a shot of all the plates from a test fit after I completed cutting and construction of the frame.

I will post more photos once I finish work on the torso unit, I did on realize how much bigger the Hazel's torso is compared to the GM-Q Quel's torso unit. I still have a lot of work to do, I have to cut and sand the corners of the rear tail, and make the 6 thruster bays.

If you are at all curious, here are some photos from my trip. Click here to check out my photos.

Enjoy

Update - February 06, 2008

To create the plans for my hazel, I started out with the 1/100 MG RGM-79Q Quel plans in the instruction booklet and scanned the plans to the size that I needed, then I went to Ninja Science's weblog and looked through the scans that he had posted, his flickr photo gallery is also a great place to look for AOZ scans from the Dengeki Hobby Mag's AOZ Specials to research the Hazel's mechanical parts, and draw the plans that I needed. :ninja: :geek:

Since I am building the primrose unit, I had to do a lot of extra research, the Hazel and the Quel share common parts externally, but that is where the similarities end. :sweat:

By the time I finished, the original plans looked completely different from my finished plans.

I did not create my hazel's plans based on a model, I wanted to do the research myself.

I am including links to the two sites I am talking about below.

Ninja Science's Flickr Gallery

Mechascientific

Update - February 09, 2008

Ever since I returned from my trip, I have been working on the torso, so far I have made good progress on the construction of the torso. I started out by cutting out the basic shapes of the mobile suit from .100 styrene, per my previous update. To provide support for the waist sections that will support the waist armor and the side ammo storage racks, I have laminated pieces of styrene together so that when I drill holes for the support rods there will be some thing behind the walls of styrene to support everything.

Torso Unit

Torso Unit hole

As I progressed in my construction, I drilled pilot holes to mark where the leg jounts will go, I will make the holes larger and add the needed detail later, once I finish construction of all the mobile suit's major components. In one of the photos below, I drew a red rectangle around the spot where the pilot holes are, there is one on each side. In the other photos, I have stacked up the pieces of styrene to show what I am trying to accomplish, later I will add some kit bashed parts into the spaces to simulate the internals of the waist sections, normally you will not be able to see this since the normal Torso unit will cover the detail. But the Primrose unit is narrower, and sits higher up, so I have decided to add some detail in this area and a few other places.

Right Torso Section

Right waist section

I have made lots of progress with the tail section. I have cut out the holes for the tail thrusters, and started to cut the beveled corners of the tail. I test fitted all of the parts, but I will have to do some sanding and cutting to create the correct corners.

Rear Thruster plates

Tail section rear

rear close up

After the construction on the waist units were completed, I test fitted all of the parts for the torso, below are some photos of the work I have completed so far. I have to build the torso weapons latch and the ring mount that attaches to the latch, eventually I will drill out all of the holes needed to attach the parts. I have decided that I will drill holes and super-glue the metal rods in place to provide the needed support for the other pieces of the model. I still have to add some styrene to the rear and raise the tail higher, plus I have to add the ring mount for the chest unit.

Here are some photos of my progress so far:

front view torso

top view torso

side view torso

Rear view torso

I have to thank everyone for their support in this project, and giving me the encoragement to keep working on this model.

Thanks everyone.

Update - February 11, 2008

Well, Since I spent Sunday waiting for the handy man, and football season is at a end... :(

I had a lot of time on my hands, so I spent the day working on the Hazel, I started to cut the plates for the Hazel's lower leg armor last night, and finally started to trim off the base plates for the 4 parts of the lower leg armor, and the upper leg sections.

I got a far as assembling the front knee Armor for the Hazel's lower leg, here are a few more photos from the construction process.

I still have a long ways to go, but I am making some progress.

Update - February 18, 2008

Ever since the last update, I have been hard at work on the lower legs, I am going to have to order more styrene for the other leg, the feet and the head. This is the progress that I have made so far on my Hazel, I have finished glueing together the pieces of the left lower leg, I still have to glue the support struts onto the rear exhaust fins for the rear thrusters.

I added a photo of a 1/35 German Soldier to give a sense of scale.

Below are a few shots of the leg generators, I have left the center cover plate open, I still need to ad some detail to the small openings on the front side of each generator unit.

This is what I have done so far, I spent most of the week working on the long box in the center, all of the other pieces will attach to it

Now, I have to go back and work on the knee, I still have to ad the front and rear thruster ports and create the thruster fins that sit below each of the thruster nozzles in the front and back.

Update - February 26, 2008

I am adding a few pictures to this thread, I have been working on the torso and the tail of the Hazel, so far I am making great progress. My next task is to go back and work on the arms, I completely forgot about this part of the project. I also started work on the rear thruster tail fins, started to drill the holes, and build the mounts for the leg thrusters.

Here are a few photos.

I most recently finished work on the tail thruster, I drilled out the mounting holes for the 6 tail thrusters.

Update - March 04, 2008

I am posting some more progress photos, between both updates, I have been working on the arms, drilling the holes that I need to insert the pins and the mounting port that is located on each of the lower arms. To create the hole on each of the arms, I used a ruler and pencil to draw the outline of the port, and then I used a electric drill to drill all of the holes, I cut out the plastic with a modeling knife and filed the sides smooth.

Later, I laminated pieces of styrene scraps to thicken the side walls of the 2 elbow sockets, then the pieces are all test fitted.

I have started work on the two wrist socket guards and connectors, I finished one of them and test fitted the pieces.

Update - March 08, 2008

Hi Funaka, thanks for the compliment.

I am also looking forward to my first test assemble of the pieces, then I will take some size comparison photos. Right now, a educated guess says that the Hazel will be roughly 23 inches tall, when you include the heels, larger abdomen, and different head unit. So far so good, I can't believe I have been working on this project since October. :twitch: I have made more progress than I thought I would, I have completed the torso, back pack, high speed power unit, tail, left leg, and the two arms.

I am still working on the arms, I have been drilling the holes that I need to insert the pins in the arms. The good thing is that everything fits, all of the holes line up.

Update 16 - March 16, 2008

My current project is the Hazel's head, which compared to the rest of the body is going much faster than I expected. I started out by cutting the basic shape of the head, and used the scrap pieces of styrene from the construction of the other parts for the various support struts on the head. I have the basic shape of the head completed, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, my next project is to begin work on the face and the machine gun intake ducts for the head. I still need to build the ammo loading doors on the side of the head.

As of now, I have finished constructing the two Antennas on the head.

I have also been working on the warning and alert decals that will go on to the Hazel. I thought about using aircraft decals, but decided against it, since most of the text is ledgible at 1/32 scale. I don't want to put a warning for the ailerons on to the handles and locking bolts for the Mobile Suit's various panels and access doors. But my biggest problem has been finding a large enough TTT Bunny logo for the Hazel at 1/35 scale, so I bought one of the AOZ books and scanned the logo on the back. I had to create from scratch the other TTT Logos, and the other related Hazel related decals. For the Omecha logo, I used the Greek letter Theta and turned it on it's side, then stretched it out, I used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create the needed artwork

I have also been going back to the other parts of the Hazel and adding detail and retest fit all of the parts.

Update - March 21, 2008

Thanks for the compliment, I am guessing that everyone is waiting for the head, well, me to. A Gundam is not a Gundam without the correct head. I started out by creating a set of plans for the head, I used the Gundam Quel's head as a starting point, and enlarged or scanned all of the images I needed to build the plans. I cut small polygon and triangular shaped pieces of styrene, and hand bent them to shape, a little heat helps (there are plenty of threads on this forum that cover the topic); since the pieces are glued to a frame and filled with putty the strips do not have to be exactly curved because the puttied surfaces will be sanded and shaped.

Since the Hazel's head is not a perfect sphere it does not have to be perfect, the shape has to close as possible. At this point in time, I do have the face plate for the head completed.

Hehehe.... I am going to create a great big sample decal on the tail...

FitchtenFoo: Thanks for the bunny logo, I greatly appreciate the help.

Update 18 - March 29, 2008

Hi Everyone, it is time for another update. I have been busy puttying, filling and sanding all of the seams for the parts that I have created thus far. I am using Milliput Putty for the job, I have a box of putty for over 1.5 years, I knew that I had to find a way to get some use out of the stuff so that it does not get waisted. So I had to use the putty before it hardened and became unusable, a knife was needed to cut the putty into small pieces and lots of muscle was needed to kneed and soften up the putty, it was already starting to harden.

None the less, I did get the job done.

I am now working on the two armored hip sockets, I started out by using a 1/35 late WW2 German Steel road wheel, and heat formed the strips of styrene into the round shape that I needed before I glued them on to the road wheel. This is my first serious attempt at using heat formed plastic on a model project, it was much easier than first thought. I used a Socket wrench bolt socket to wrap the plastic strips around, then I clamped everything down with a pair of plyers. After a few minutes in hot water, I cooled the plastic down with cold tap water.

In the photo below, you can see the socket that I used to wrap the plastic around, in the middle is the finished heat formed plastic, and on the right is a piece of the plastic I used to wrap the plastic around. Now, you see the finished part, I have already cut out the round discs that go on top, glued, puttied and and sanded the part down.

Now I have started on the armored plates for the thighs.

Update

I am amending this post, over the weekend, I spent a lot of time working on the upper legs of the Hazel.

This is what I accomplished., there are two of them, one for the left leg and another for the right leg

I have more photos and comments on flickr.

Update - April 02, 2008

I puttied the seams and the cracks in the plastic plates with Squadron White putty and Milliput Putty, after I cut the plates and assembled the support struts, then used Milliput to make the plates look thicker than they really are.

This is what the thigh looks like after I finished glueing the plates together.

I did not realize myself how big the thing is until I test built the primrose unit. I was not prepared for how big this sucker is until I built the Abdomen and tail.

Update - April 06, 2008

Since my last update, I have been working hard on the neck and mount for the neck, I have completed most of the work, I spent quite a lot of time going through my scrap model parts containers. I found the pig snout mantle from a WW2 King Tiger Tank, and a German All steel road wheel as the base for the neck, I used the various pieces of scrap plastic that I saved, to construct the parts for the neck and mount for the Hazel.

Then I test fitted the head along with all of the pieces I finished, I know that the neck looks like it is suppose to be. After I took the photo, I cut out some of the extra plastic in the head, and now it is about 1/3 of a inch or about 7cm lower than before, and sanded down the other parts of the base so that the neck is now much shorter and looks more natural.

Before I started construction of the neck, I added some detail to the arm mounts, I had to add a groove to the two blocks that I built early on in the project. Adding thin plastic to the already built parts was easier than cutting a square groove into the existing plastic.

I am now in the process of thickening the side walls of the neck mount, I still have a long ways to go.

Update:
Here is a better shot, I spent most of the day working on the side walls, of the mounting plate, I lowered the height of the base, and removed more material from the head, it now looks more like the real thing.

Update - April 07, 2008

Thanks for the compliment, I am happy to hear that you both like the head. I have to thank Ninjascience for all the scans of the head, I would not have been able to build the correct shape with out all of the pics on the Flickr account.

@Mrex-sgundam: I am also very happy that I took the time to plan things out the way I did. I under took this project to channel all of the stress and craziness in my life right now, this is how I am relieving my stress. If anyone wants to attempt a build like this, I encourage you to do as much reading and research as you can, especially a AOZ MS.

@FichtenFoo: I am going to get as close to G-System as I can, I am going to give the external surfaces as much detail as I can without going over board, like the vicious project kits. I am not going to super detail everything, and build a full internal skeleton, right now I am focused on building the exterior it will be very detailed; but super detail the parts of the internals that will be visible, like the leg joints, abdomen, knees, ankles, neck (I am working on now...), cockpit. :ninja:

About the resin kit idea...

I have thought about making a kit, but I have no experience with resin casting, I can only imagine how much resin would be required. If I do make the resin masters for casting, my neighbors would get high and then angry at me from all of the resin fumes I would create.

I have not ruled anything out, I am getting way ahead of myself with the model kit idea...

We will cross that bridge when we get there. :sweat:

Update - April 08, 2008

After working all weekend on the neck and mounting plate, I could not resist assembling all of the pieces of the torso to see if the bust of the hazel will fit. Wow, I am amazed and relieved at how well everything fits together.

I used some of the figures for a long abandoned WW2 model project as size references.

I am now working on the two front Armor Plates that protect each the thighs.

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Places I have traveled to

2008-04-11T20:08:00.001-07:00

Prague, Czech Republic

Stockholm, Sweden

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Munich, Germany

London, England

San Francisco, CA, USA

San Diego, CA, USA

Create your own travel map or travel blog

Visit TripAdvisor.com

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Changing Planes in London/Heathrow

2008-01-13T21:29:00.000-08:00

During my vacations over the past few years, I have chosen to fly with British Airways, over all I am happy with my service, the planes are on time for the most part, but what I do not like is having to change planes in London/Heathrow Airport.

Since I am having to fly from North America to Europe, and Vice versus; I have had to change terminals to catch my connecting flight. Over the past few years, I have experienced Whiteouts, nearly missed connections, and missed flights while I have tried to change planes. I am loosing patience with this process, the last time I should have had lots of time to catch the connection, but because of a delay, I missed my connection to Stockholm because of a 1 hour delay.

The process often involves landing at one terminal, deplane to a bus, and go to the security screening to connect onto another terminal. some times there is just not enough time to complete the task.

Personally, I think the process sucks!!!

This is just my 2 cents, I think I am going to give Paris or Amsterdam a try next time.

First Snow Fall

2008-01-04T02:24:00.000-08:00

A few days a go was the first major snow fall of the winter season, there was significant snow fall overnight, and I was greeted with a nice smooth blanket of white snow over the entire landscape. The snow was undisturbed, no one had set foot on it yet, I was so excited to see this in person. Normally I do not get a chance to see things like this, being from San Diego, where there is warm sunny weather 9 months out of the year. I spent part of the day outside in the snow, it was a lot of fun, the snow was white, soft and fluffy. I remember the last time I saw snow like that was in Canada when I was a little boy where I spent Christmas with my Uncle and his wife.

When I went outside, it was not so bad at first, the snow was on the ground, and the children in the neigborhood were out playing in the snow, it was very nice until the wind came, then 0c feels like -8c. I was nor prepared for this, so I went inside, but the kids were still outside playing around inspite of the cold weather.

Just like in San Diego, the city of Stockholm was getting use to it's first snow fall, I heard from my cousin's wife that there were lots of accidents all over the place. In San Diego when the rain falls, there are accidents all over the place, I guess it is the same way here in Stockholm.

Stockholm in January

2008-01-02T23:06:00.000-08:00

New Year's day has come and gone, and I am enjoying my stay here in Stockholm, on New Years day, the snow fell in Taby, and we made a snow man yesterday. I went on a nice hike throught the woods and we went to look for some branches for the snow man. He now sits outside the front door of the house.

Another thing that I did was visit a Ikea in Sweden, I always wanted to do this, I know it sounds lame and corny, but I had to do it just for the sake of doing it. My relatives had to go furniture shopping, an rather than sit around and do nothing all day, I got to accomplish one of the goals I had set for myself. It is much bigger than I expected, but they have more stuff in certain departments, but there were so many people there when I went inside, the cafeteria was even more crowded than I first thought.

But I now can say I have been to the real thing!!!

Over all, the weather has been cloudy and over cast the whole time I have been here, It is so cold, but the snow that has fallen has turned into ice, this makes walking very hard to do. I am walking in small steps as I head down the street. The sun comes up after 08,00 (8am) and sets by 15,30 (3:30pm) and is dark by 16,00 (4pm), my relatives and I have gotten started at about 10,00 so you can image we see very little sunlight during the day. But life goes on, and we have a normal day as best as we can.

Sorry, I have no pictures yet...

Chris

Happy New Years

2008-01-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

I am celebrating New Years in Stockholm, it really is cold, but not as bad as before. I am celebrating New Years with my cousin, his family and few friends, in Sweden, they rang in the New Year with Fireworks, the whole sky was full of fire works set off by the locals. We drank some Champagne outdoors, as we watched the fireworks outside, but what is Champagne with out Oysters Mmmmm...

I guess traveling in the winter time is now with out it's problems, this time my flight from Chicago to London was delayed one hour, that was enough for me to miss my first flight to Stockholm. This time I did not get stranded in London overnight like 2002/2003, there is no whiteout like last time. I was very worried about my luggage not being able to arrive with me into Stockholm.

I guess, I should not have worried to much, in 20/20 hindsight everything worked out in the end.

Well, Happy New Years everyone.

The Social Web Browser

2007-12-22T18:32:00.001-08:00

I first learned about Flock while watching Veronica Belmont and Mahalo Daily, I was very skeptical when I first heard and learned about Flock, a social network web browser, part of the reason why I have not joined My-Space or Facebook yet, procrastinating on updating my weblog is because of all of the work involved going between each of these websites, and web communities. For those of you who do not know, Flock is a Social Networking web browser, Youtube, Flickr, Facebook, twitter, photobucket, Blogger, del.icio.us, and many others are just one click away. After spending 1 evening I am very pleased with the results, I am hooked!!!

I have to thank Flock for getting me off of my lazy butt and setting up a Facebook Account, with Flock I don't have to switch between different websites any more. I recommend Flock to anyone and everyone who has one or more social network of any kind to give the web browser a try.

Click here to go to the Flock website.

Check out the daily video on Mahalo to learn about Flock.

Click here to view the video.

Check out the post on Wikipedia to learn about flock.

Click here to view the web page.

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San Diego County Burning!!!

2007-10-24T15:36:00.000-07:00

After a very dry year with very little rain, it has finally happened, a big fire, but no one expected the worst fire in the history of San Diego to occur, the fire has engulfed a large section of Northern and Southern San Diego county, to the North, a large section of Rancho Santa Fe, Fairbanks Ranch in the west to Ramona in the east have been engulfed by flames. This fire is called the Witch Fire, for the Witch Creek, which is near Julian and Ramona, where the fire started. Rancho Bernardo, Parts of Poway, and Carmel Mountain have been swallowed up by the flames. From what I understand over 1250 have been burned, and many businesses have been lost. The fire is in it’s 4th day so far, the smoke has made it hard to breath outside, and ash spread by the Santa Ana winds have made it very hard for the fire to be put out.

The other major fire is the Harris fire in Southern San Diego County, which started near the border with Mexico, close to Tecate. The fire so far threatens Chula Vista, Spring Valley, and East Lake, unlike the Witch fire, it has not spread as fast, but it has destroyed a number of buildings in the area. Unfortunately, the high winds and thick smoke has hampered fire fighting and until now, grounded the airplanes that would have aided in fighting this fire.

I am fine, my home is not close to the fire zone, but my heart goes out to my co-workers who have been evacuated from their homes and/or lost property in San Diego County because of the fire.

www.signonsandiego.com

The San Diego Comic Con - 2007

2007-07-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Like almost every year since 2001, I have made my annual pilgrimage to the San Diego Comic Con. It really has become a pop culture extravaganza's, it is not just comics any more, there is some thing for everyone. Unfortunately it is sold out, and if you did not buy a ticket before comic -con started you are out of luck. This year, every day was packed full of people, this year I had to stay at the convention all day, usually I can come and go as I wish. There were so many people inside that it got hard to move around around, we were all packed inside like a can of sardines.

Thursdays is mostly media, comic and movie industry types, Friday is a day full of mostly adult attendees, Parents with their teens, or individual adults, there are a few people who dress up in costumes, Saturday is going to be a crazy day, Teens, Kids, and their Parents are added to the equation, and Sunday is a winding down day, everyone is tired out, but since all 4 days are sold out, this day may be different.

This is the first year that it is sold out and there is no major move to draw the crowds. I will post the photos that I will take when I finished attending the Con.

So Sad...

2007-06-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

After having had over a month to digest and contemplate what I had lost, I thought it is time for me to post one of my greatest losses on this page. The events of the past few weeks, weight on me like a cold wet cloak, I do try my best to keep things in perspective. I believe that no one saw this coming, I received a package 3 days later, after reading the letter believe that not even he expected to have what happened happened. He was looking to the future, and the excitement and joy it brought.

On June 4th of 2007, my family and I suffered a great blow, one of my uncles passed away, I am going not going to post his name, but he was the center of my extended family's universe. It is such a tragic loss considering that this was preventable in 20/20 hindsight. My family had no idea that he suffered for about one and a half years with his ailment until it was to late. He passed away on Monday morning while he was sleeping, I am happy that he did not suffer, but the following days of wondering what he was suffering from was pure agony, until we found the answer.

Right now, as I cope with this tragic loss, I feel like I have a seed in my Heart; like my heart has been taken out and misplaced some where else. Despite the distance, and the time that has passed, I am still suffering from the loss of the man who taught me how to drive, and inspired my interest in travel and photography.

I know that I must move on and live my life yet carry his memory in my heart, life goes on...

UT Team Award Winner

2007-05-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, work has been keeping me busy...

Well, I am a UT Team Award Winner for May, I won for Customer Service, I got a nice shiny new key chain and a gift cardas a prize for winning the Customer Service award. I redesigned a website for one of our customers, I took a 3 page website and designed a 31 page website on my own, they wanted to be able to to resize the pages, I gave them a new and improved website.

The client was very happy, they say that they are getting more traffic to the site, and the are very pleased, they even wrote a official letter to the Union-Tribune to thank me for my work.

Here is the link to the Website that won me my reward, click on the title of the blog post to see the website.

www.bajaspecials.com

Around San Diego for the Morning Sun...

2007-02-05T19:49:00.000-08:00

Many years a go, I use to spend a lot of time around Pacific Beach, I use to surf Tourmaline Beach, Pacific, and Mission Beach all of the time. So, I decided to get up early Sunday morning and have a look around, I started up at Garnet near Henry's Market, and worked my way down to Mission Blvd., I walked through the residential area, then ended up at Feldspar and Mission Blvd. There was a Automobile Transport Tractor Trailer with Opels from Germany there, the driver said that hotel near by is using them as courtesy cars or something like that. I started out at 08,00, by this time, it is around 09,00, the driver and I chatted for a few minutes, he said the automobile company is trying to build some brand awareness for Opels, they have done the same thing in a few spots around Southern California.

What I did notice is that a lot of cafes have sprung up around the beach area of PB, a few residential houses are now Restaurants, Skip Frye's Surf board studio and the adjoining lot is now a hotel on the beach, the Lucky's supermarket is now a different store, and several other places are no more. Star Surfing Company has changed sides of the street, apparently the landlord and the owner of the surf shop did not see eye to eye. I sold several of my surfboards there, and ate at the taco shop that was next door, but now the new place is much smaller, but all of the old photos have survived the trip to the other side of the street.

The Crystal Pier and the Crystal Pier hotel are still the same, but the bar Blind Melons is now the 710 Club, I was in this area at night, but I did not realize there was so much activity in this area at night.

I walked down the Boardwalk that runs along the beach, this wide sidewalk runs from a couple streets north of Feldspar all the way down to the end of south Mission Beach, it is quite a walk, but I did not go all of the way down there, but I did go down to the middle of Mission Beach, and see where the city widened the board walk by 6 feet. A few years back, the city decided to widen the Boardwalk at mission beach by reclaiming the land that it least to the owners of the adjacent properties. You can clearly see where the city demolished the gardens and beach front patios of the property owners so that the boardwalk could be widened.

I remember when this place was much different, back then there was very little order, but you could make bonfires on the beach, and drink on the beach at night, not any more. I remember when the near by drugstore use to be a Liquor Barn alcoholic beverage mega store. But there are a lot of cafes along the beach now, many of the hotels have restaurants on the beach side of the establishment, there are many people getting up now, hey have hats hand sunglasses on, many of them have been late up drinking at the bars hear by, now hungover.

I see that the Green Flash is still there, but the lifeguard station now has a very large restroom and shower facility, unfortunately there are a number of homeless around the are who make the area their home. I did have to turn down several requests for money in the area, in spite of this there were still a lot of people on the boardwalk talking their morning walk or Sunday brunch out with the family. Like the rest of PB a lot has changed, I still recognize most of the landmarks, by 11,40 I was finished, time for a early lunch...

Here area the rest of the photos that I took that day, a few days earlier, I did take a walk around Downtown La Jolla, if you are interested.

Downtown San Diego at night.

2007-01-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

Here it is - Check it out.

This is my latest panorama, I froze my rear-end off taking the photos of Downtown San Diego from Shelter Island, it was windy, and cold but worth it. In the end, it turned out nice, but there was a lot of traffic on the bay, and a search of one boat that was anchored on the bay by the police, first there was one police boat then there were two, and then the police cruisers started to show up, and before you know it, there were police all over the area.

I had to move several times, to find the right shot, but I did get most of downtown, except for the convention center, which was blocked by shelter island. I had to use a tripod, and slow down the shutter speed to it's slowest setting for the best results. I started out at Humphrey's by the bay and worked my way over to Bali Hai, on Shelter Island.

I was not sure what to expect, there was so much activity on the water, there were lots of sale boats, boats ships and ferries on the bay that night. I was not sure how the photo would turn out. But I got a couple of clean shots and I was able to put together this really nice panorama of Downtown San Diego.

Christmas in San Francisco and back...

2006-12-30T17:16:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a while since I have entered anything in this blog, so it is time for me to stop procrastinating and get to work. I spent 5 days in San Francisco for the Holidays, I had a lot of fun, on the first day I was there, I went to the Stone Town Galleria, and Japan Town Center; I found what I was looking for, and went to the building on the other side of the square, I have not been there before, it was nothing to write about.

The flight to San Jose was not to bad, my Mom and I waited in line for a long time, we were in the Sky Cab line, and the Rapid Check-in Line to check in our bags, I got on TV, the Channel 10 crew saw me outside and inside, they started asking me a few questions about my experience inline, and viola! I am on TV...

Saturday was not much to write about, I went to Fry's Electronics in Palo Alto in search of a Camera, my Sony V1 went out on me, and I have to find a new Camera. Uncle Cheun had to buy his white elephant gift.

While I was in San Francisco on Christmas Eve, I did see a acrobat performance at the palace of fine arts, and the movie the Good Shepard, on Christmas day, both were entertaining. Even during Christmas Day, there were a lot of people waking around downtown.

Before the performance I did take the time to call Uncle Richard in the UK. But unfortunately the call dropped when I moved the cellphone it to the kitchen of the flat. It was nice talking to Uncle Richard, he was genuinely surprised I called.

On Christmas Day, my uncle's flat was full of people, and two dogs, there were people all over the place. We had a wonderful meal that my Cousin Raymond cooked, and after that it was the Elephant gift exchange and we passed out some presents. After the guest left, it was time to clean up.

On Christmas Past, Some of us to the Airport to drop off Howard, then we went to visit Shelly's home, and to see a Warrior's game at Oracle Arena in Oakland. The game was a lot of fun, after we finished the game it was time to go home and pack, the next morning it was time to fly home.

My Mom, Uncle Cheun, and I went to San Jose to catch our flight, the line was also long, we had to stand inline for Southwest Airlines, and the Security Screening. My mom had her bottle of Lillet taken away from her. After a hour in both lines, we were at the gate. After boarding our plane, we should have taken off, but a power outage at the terminal kept us from leaving.

30 minutes later, we were off the ground and on our way home.

now, back to work... :-(

The flight back...

2006-11-05T15:20:00.000-08:00

Prague, London, Chicago, San Diego - July 21st, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

At 04,30 I received my wakeup call, I dragged myself out of bed, and I went to answer the phone, after my normally reliable alarm stopped working, I took a shower, and finished packing the rest of my things, I guess I will have to get a new clock...

At 5:00 I got to the airport, the taxi driver got me there in 30min, there was not a single car on the street of the city, the sun just started to creep over the horizon and by the time I was halfway to the airport the sun was up. The Czech Taxi driver got me there in one piece, the Praha Aeroport was just starting to open up, and I then boarded a plane, then I am on my way to London/Heathrow, I was not put into a holding patter this time, I have 3 hours to kill in the connection terminal, this is not to bad compared to the other time I came to this place, but going from Terminal 1 to 4 by bus is a real drag!!! I remember getting stuck in a white-out in 2002 during my flight to Munich. I got stranded overnight and stuck in the terminal 4 area. :-<>

At 12,55 they begin boarding the plane to Chicago, but my queue got stuck going nowhere fast, because 4 people traveling together did not properly pre-board before they checked in their flight, the information for their passport had to be entered in manually by the gate agent, this is a real drag!!! 15 people waited in line for the queue to start moving again. But we do board our plane and we are away to Chicago, and we are away to O'hare International Airport.

Honestly, I had great time in Prague, the city was beautiful, it has a good mix of new and Old buildings that sit side by side. The Old Town Square is a real tourist trap, the prices are outrageously expensive, the same meal is 400% less in the other parts of the city. The heat was horrible, and very oppressive, but I had fun none the less.

Stockholm was fun, going pubbing in Slüssen was cool, eating in Stockholm is not cheep, but I had a great time, I really enjoyed myself that evening out. The best part of the trip was going Horse Back riding, I had never done it before and I had a great time, Icelandic Horses are really patient and even tempered. Driving the Opel Speedster was really cool, I had a great time with Vincent, Eva, Anna, Malin, and Inge, it was a pleasure meeting Goran, Corrine, and their 3 girls, plus seeing Hasse and Margareta was a real joy.

Toronto, I finally visited the city again after 25 years, wow a lot has changed, the locks in the northern part of Ontario was very impressive, seeing the countryside was breath taking, it was very beautiful. Niagara falls was beautiful, but the Casinos really ruined view and spoiled the mood. I had a great time visiting the Canadian Wine Country, I finally visited Inniskillin winery where they make Ice wine, I see the bottle in the display case of Beverages and More, but I never dreamed I would visit the winery that made the port wine.

I heard that Italy was hotter than Prague, despite all of my complaining in this journal about the heat in Prague, the cold that I picked up, and the heat exhaustion. It could have been worse, I wonder how Vincent, Eva, Anna and Malin handled the heat, wow it is in the 40's.

I am finally in Chicago, the plane was on time, and the customs officials were not a problem, they kept looking through my passport and the places I traveled to in the computer, I told them everything they wanted to know. I figured out that they were looking for the passport stamps for the Czech Republic, I told them they are in the back of the passport, they then let me pass through. It has been 3 years since I flew into Chicago O'Hare. I have just 1 hour 25 min to catch my flight, and I lost 15 min in customs, waiting for my luggage, there was a lot of luggage on the carousel and it kept breaking down. The workers had to manually unload the luggage, to get the carousel started again. After another 25 min, I am finally able to collect my luggage, and I am on my way. I started to panic because I am short on time, and in the middle of this I boarded the wrong, instead of going to the the next terminal, I went to the parking lot. I lost 20 min because I had to go from the parking lot to Terminal 3, that left me 25 min to get through security, to board the plane, before the gate closes, so I actually had only 15-20 min to board the plane. I had to run really fast to catch my plane, but I made it, unfortunately I was not able to get anything to eat.

At this time, American Airlines like every other USA Airline Company is trying to survive, so they cut back on services, I had to buy a box of snacks, it had a lot of little crackers, cookies, and other things to eat. The worse part of the flight was listening to a little girl cry and scream the whole time we flew back to San Diego, she was a terror!!! I feel sorry for the guys that had to sit in front of her, she was kicking and hitting the seat the whole flight. The Parents were not able to control the child during the entire flight...

I returned to my life, my mom, San Diego, and job, my vacation is a great escape from all of this. One more thing, the Hotel that I stayed at is run by a Italian family, the father is from Bologna, thus the name Bologna. The food was good, and the room was nice for a 3 star hotel. The first 2 levels above the ground floor is the hotel, and the rest of the building is for private tenants, the building is located behind the main street in a maze of side streets and alleys, the hotel is very close to the Bethlehem Chapel, this is the place where Jan Hus gave is sermons in Czech, and communion in Czech, this is what got him in trouble with the Catholic Church, and got him declared a Heretic, then burned at the stake. The Church is a reconstruction, but the East wall is real, the church interior is really simple, this is not like other Catholic chapels at the time, even thought mass was held here, it is not a Catholic Church since it does not have a holy relic and altar.

This is my last history lesson of the trip...

Now, where next?

Prague National Museum and a cold - Just as hot!!!

2006-11-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

Prague, Czech Republic – July 20th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

I am up at 08,30 and got going by 10,00 after eating breakfast, I had to find a Bankomatic to get some cash, only one problem, I forgot my passport, can't leave with out that, so I had to go back, I found what I was looking for, and got the money I needed, I finally figured out what the man at the currency exchange was telling me use the Bankomatic instead, there is no fee there.

I then traveled to the National Museum by Metro, I took the short ride from Narodni Trida to Mustek and then to the Muzeum Metro Station. The Metro is nice and cool, but the city is hot again, I went into the Museum, there was nothing really special about it, lots of rock samples, stuffed animals, but the silk road exhibit was really nice, the exhibit told the story of how silk came from China to Europe, and how silk made, how it is used today, I was finished by 13,15, the old Communist Era Parliament Building is next to the National Museum, it is now Radio Free Europe's home.

I ate lunch at a Czech Restaurant, I tried to find Czech food in the City Center, but all I saw was Italian food, Pizza, Pasta, and more Pizza, it is every where. I really enjoyed the food, and it was so cheep, the whole meal cost me only 80 Koruna or so, this is at least 400% less than what I paid at every other place that I ate at. I spent the rest of the day looking for a book store that I had passed a few days earlier, the streets are like a maze, I can't find it. Wow it is so hot!!! I returned to the Hotel to shower, get some dinner, and then pack. I give up, I eat Pizza for dinner, have some Czech Beer, and settle the Hotel bill. I found out that the Hotel Owner is Italian, he is from Bologna, Italia, thus the name of the hotel.

I had a great time, I was ale to visit the city that everyone had talked me out of 2 previous times, visiting Prague was a dream come true. I would gladly visit the city again, I have to remember to take the time to visit the other parts of the Czech Republic. I am so glad that I did not listen to everyone, they tried to talk me out of visiting Prague. I really enjoyed seeing Uncle Chui and Amy in Toronto, Canada, visiting Vincent, Eva, Inge, and the girls in Stockholm, Sweden, and of course Prague, the city that I always wanted to see.

Now I have to fly home to the USA, a plus tard Praha!!!

Useful Links:
National Museum
Hotel Bologna
Jan Hus
Bethlehem Chapel

Prague Castle - Extremely Hot!!!

2006-11-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

Prague Castle - Extremely Hot!!!

Prague Castle, Czech Republic – July 19th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

I have been waiting for this day ever since I planed this trip to Prague, today I visit Prague Castle, I got up at my usual time, I ate breakfast, and then got a head start on the hot weather, everyday I have been here, it has gotten hotter and hotter each day. I went to bed last night not feeling so well, all of the walking, hot weather, and the horse riding got to me, I know I am sick because my body finally reacted to the Horse Fly bite, I feel miserable, I am sick from heat exposure, and heat exhaustion. But I decide to visit Prague Castle in spite of feeling like a over cooked piece of Carne Asada, I did sleep like a log though, the only thing that woke me up was a man screaming and yelling at the top of his lungs in Czech, then that was it.

I started out by reading through my guide book, and finding out what is the best way to get up to Prague Castle. I am so glad that I consulted the lonely planet Guide book, my saving grace. I took the metro to the base of the steps that lead to the castle gate, by doing this, I saved my energy for the hike up the steps of the Castle. I took the Metro from Narodni Trida to Malo-Stranksa which is located at a nice area of Prague. I got out of the station with the other tourist, and we began out hike up the steps as the street vendors set up their stands to sell the wares that they are pedaling, it is only about 08,30 and it is already so warm, I felt the heat already as I began my hike up the steps, compare to the heat outside, the Metro Station is nice and cool. As I hiked up, I was sweating from the heat, not from being tired, I heard that it was only 29c, but it felt like 31c I finally got up to the top, I am happy to have made it, some older tourist had to turn back, they could not make the climb up, the Guards at the gate of Prague castle greeted me with stern and stoic faces. There are two gates, one goes to the Palace, Cathedral, and the other parts of the Castle, and the other leads to the Castle Garden.

My first stop is the History of Prague Castle exhibition, there are lots of stories about the history of the castle, relics, artifacts, and kios that tell the story of the castle and it's humble beginnings to how it grew and evolved to the complex of buildings that we see to day. I also went here to escape the heat and find a cool place to hide for a while.

My next stop is to get some Lunch, it is already 12,15 I had a small bite to eat, and found a café near the Cathedral, I had a sandwich, and Beer, Beer, Beer mmmmmm! Beer is cheeper than water here, it really is true the beer cost me 25 koruna, and the bottle water cost me 50 koruna. After lunch I bought a ticket that would get me into the Cathedral Chapel, Bell Tower, Old Palace and Golden Lane. St Vitus Cathedral or Chram SV Vita is the tallest building in the Castle, this is the place where they use to keep the crown jewels, and the site of the old Basilica of St Vitus. The front half of the Cathedral is open to the public, you need to remove you hat and there is no flash photography, the minders are all over the cathedral telling you that you can not use the flash on your camera. The alter where the relic is kept is of limits, so I visited the Nave, the Chapel, and the crypt of the cathedral, then I began the hike up the steps of the bell tower, we were making very slow progress, it was very hot, stuffy, and muggy at the beginning of the line was a very old man, he tried to hike up the steps to the top, but he has to stop, since he had trouble breathing. Besides, he held the rest of us up, eventually he listened to his wife and they let the rest of us pass by to the top.

A promise made is a promise broken, at Notre Dame, I promised myself that I would never climb up another cathedral tower again, well I was wrong, I am climbing up the narrow steps to the top, unlike Notre Dame, everyone uses one stair well. At Notre Dame, you went up one tower and went down the other tower it was very claustrophobic, all of those people in such a small space. At the top I Saw a beautiful view of Prague, the surrounding hills, and beyond. I finished the Cathedral by enjoying the beautiful colors that the stained glass windows created, it was really stunning.

I visited the old Royal Palace, this use to be the residence for the King of Bohemia, and where the last Bohemian King had his trial, the Winter King and the other leaders of Bohemia were found guilty by the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Church after the Battle of Yellow Mountain. Most of the Palace is empty now, the Chapel is nice, and that is it, the great hall is used for special government ceremonies, and special events.

I finished walking through the other courtyards,and walked around the castle grounds, event though I had lunch already, I was so hungry from all of the walking and hiking up the bell tower. I found a café that was in a quiet area of the castle, I ate there and rested for a little while, it took me about a hour to finish eating, after I settled my bill, I was on my way. I wanted to finish the last spot on the ticket, The Golden Lane, this is a street in the castle that shows you how the narrow streets of the castle use to look like, but it is a big tourist trap, all of the buildings are full of souvenir shops, and not much else. After I walked through the Castle Garden, I rested for a while, I took my time to walk through the garden and enjoy the view of the city.

I then headed back to the Hotel, I returned by Metro, the girl at the Hotel said that it is so hot, I agree. My visit to Prague Castle ended at about 16,20; I ate dinner at the restaurant in the Hotel, and after a walk around town, I called it a day at 19,00.

Useful Links
Prague Castle - Wikipedia
Official Prague Castle website

Wandering Malá Strada - Smoking Hot!!!

2006-11-05T14:13:00.000-08:00

Prague, Czech Republic – July 18th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

I was waiting, and trying to get in touch with a acquaintance who was also visiting Prague, but no luck, I would not get message all day, I did go to the Internet café again after breakfast, I found out they are the cheapest in town and everyone speaks a little English at the Globe Bookstore and Internet café.

Today, I got a late start, I had lunch, I was hoping that the weather would cool off, and I would be able to walk around in cooler weather, but I was wrong. It was hotter today than yesterday, I walked around the other side of the river, crossed the Charles Bridge, this is the symbol of Prague, and into Mala Strada, on the way I came across the statue of a patron saint, there were two spots on the statue that were rubbed clean by every one touching it, so I did, I found out later that by doing so, I was given 3 wishes.

Today, I though I would be able to walk up the hill and into Prague Castle, I walked along Mostecka, past Koster SV Mikulase up Nerudova, and into the Hradeake Namesti via the causeway called Ke Hrado, then I would be at the gate of Prague Castle!!! That was the plan, I got to the base of the castle, and saw how steep the walk up the hill was, so I chickened out and turned around and went back , the heat got to me. I could not go any further, the whole walk, all 2 hours was up hill the whole time in hot 31c weather. I then walked down some steps, and into a side street to Vlasska and Tritste where the Irish and US embassies are located, right next to the Policie Station, the Policie stop and search every car that comes up the street, and question the driver, then I walked up and down Karmeliska, eventually over to the Ministry of Culture which was on a different street, a church adorn with the Cross of the order of St. John of Jerusalem adorned the outside, it had caught my attention so I decided to check it out. I went down to Masska and Valdstejnska to the Metro station Malostranska where I dropped 100 Koruna for a bottle of water, wow was it expensive :-<

I got back to the hotel at around 17,00 and cleaned up so I could get read for dinner, I had dinner around 19,00 I had a drink at the roof terrace on the Hotel U Prince, and watched the sunset, walked back into the Old Town Square, I had Italian food for dinner, and strolled along the Vltava River at night, the city looks beautiful at night, and Prague Castle looks stunning all lighted up against the night sky, I walked along the Charles Bridge again, this time I crossed half way, after that I walked back to the hotel, and called it a day.

One of the Statues on the Charles Bridge will grant you 3 wishes if you rub it on the right spot.
All of the main points of the bridge have statues of the various Saints.
I had a great time during the evening out.
I never did get a email reply to my message sent. :-)
The Prague Metro is very efficient and fast.

Useful Links:
Charles Bridge
Prague Metro - Wikipedia
Prague Public Transport - Official site

Nové Mesto, Staré Mesto, and Nové Strada - HOT!!!

2006-11-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

Prague, Czech Republic – July 18th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

I got up early, after a lousy night's sleep, I was use to sleeping on a very soft mattress at Vincent and Eva's home, and in Uncle Chiu and Amy's home, so when I slept on a real mattress at the hotel, my body was not use to it, well be careful of what you wish for, I did not sleep at all that night.

I ate breakfast, and got a early start on the sightseeing, but I wanted to look for a Internet café, I did eventually find it, after I looked on the map in the guide book, and the map of the city that I bought. Amazing what a map can do, I got there early so I walked around Nove Mesto, this is a area that is just on the edge of the tourist zone, many of the shops catered to the local Czechs, the stores are not as dressed up as in the tourist area.

I found myself back at the National Theater, and in Nardoni, I wanted to take the Metro to a different part of town, I headed over to the Nardoni Trida Metro Station, along the way I saw grocery stores, cafés, banks, and stores where the locals shopped and ate. I validated the 5 day pass that I bought earlier, and traveled to Jungomanovo and walked to the internet café, today I decided to leave my guide book and map at the hotel, this was the best decision I made, that day. I spent the day on the right bank of the Vltava River wandering around the back streets of the city center of Prague.

I walked to Staré Mésto, in the old city center wandering the narrow side streets and alleys, eventually ended up at a street called Jungmanova where I walked over to the old Fruit Market, it is now a Modern Shopping Area, there are signs that point to the Mustek Metro Station are every where, and so is the Czech Policie. I wandered over to the Powder Tower, the Czech National Bank, and Henry Tower. I walked along Vrohlickeho Sady on the other side of the park is the Train Station. Don't worry, the area is safe... during the day, like any park at night, be careful. Wow, it really is hot, eventually I walked over to the National Museum, which looms large over Wenceslas Square, it has a Metro Station on each End of the Square. This whole area use to be a Fruit Market Square, on both sides there are shops, restaurants, vendors on the street, souvenir shops selling their Russian Winter Fur hats, Russian Dolls, and Russian trinkets, I ate at McDonalds which is located in the square, I broke a promise to myself, but Mickey D's it is for lunch. The square is safe during the day, but the side streets become Prague's unofficial red light district at night (this is what the Lonely Planet Guide book tells me).

The Old town Square and Wesceslas Square, are now a modern shopping area with lot so of expensive shops, and shopping centers, in Wesceslas Square, many of the side streets are drivable, otherwise vehicle traffic is not allowed in this area, otherwise the whole area is a big pedestrian zone. I did make my way over to the old town square where the Astrological Clock, the Jan Hus Statue, and St. Vitus Cathedral looms large over the area, the statue of Jan Hus marks the spot where he was burned at the stake for conducting communion in Czech instead of Latin, and preaching in Czech, I am sure there are other things, but I do not recall. The whole area is full of new construction, old buildings are coming down, and new buildings are going up, everywhere in Prague, old and new buildings sit side by side.

It is so hot!!! I ended up going back to the Hotel from 14,00 to 15,00, I had to rest for moment, clean myself up, and cool off. After that I did more roaming around the back streets of Prague, I ate at a Czech restaurant, next to a place called the Klud Architektu, I had my first full meal in the Czech Republic, the beer is cheaper than the botted water, beer is 20 Koruna, and bottled water is 40 Koruna. Through out the day, I had to of circled some of these streets 2 to 3 times, I kept telling myself, I have been to this street before.

I did find a really nice camera shop, with lots of vintage cameras from all over Europe, and Japan; they also had a lot of old east block cameras, there were also new cameras as well, but the collection of vintage cameras was very impressive, many were older than me.

I read a lot about the Astrological Clock, and how it puts on quite a show, with all of the parts moving around, I was not impressed, I saw two windows open up, the figures behind the window move around, then the windows closed up, that as it. I walked down the river, to check out the Tancici Dum, other wise know as the dancing building, I saw many photos of this modern building, but never saw it up close, it is a really cool building and it looks even better in person. On the way back to the hotel, I did see a really cool photo exhibit that was in a old military barracks, and underground ammo storage area in Nova Mesto. The photo Exhibit was called Forgotten Prague, it had images of the Prague that existed during the 19th century, photos of the city being expanded, the old city walls being demolished to make way for a bigger city, all of the photos were black and white.

After that, it is time to call it a day, my legs are still sore from the horse riding.

The city of Prague is a great mix of old and new, there are many different periods, Romanesque, Gothic, Neo-Classical, Baroque, Cubist, Communist, and Modern Architecture Styles.
All over the city, there are new buildings being constructed next to old ones, many of the old communist era buildings are being replaced.
During the time I was in Prague, there were so many Chinese tourist in the city during my visit.
While I was in Prague, there were lots of Roma dressed up as tourist many of them are dressed in tourist clothes, but the men have 12 inch beards, plus they are not very clean, I have heard that pick pockets are a big problem in the city.
The beggars on the streets, asking for spare change, as well as vagrants, transients, are every where, I was lucky, I did not get pick pocketed this time.
There is graffiti every where on the walls of the alleys, on the doors, on the lamp posts, and on the signs.
It is so hot, I was expecting the temperature to be feel like 25c, Since Stockholm was a very comfortable 19c to 20c, but was I wrong, it was 30c today, and very Humid, and uncomfortable.

Useful Links
Prague - Wikipedia
Prague.cz
City of Prague
Districts of Prague

Smetanova Park

2006-11-05T12:40:00.001-08:00

Smetanova Park
Originally uploaded by chrislee-cm.

This monument does not look like much, but my hotel is about a block away on the other side, the Vltava River is behind my back, the Charles bridge is to the left, and the national theater is to the right of me.

Flying from Stockholm to Prague

2006-10-31T23:09:00.000-08:00

Stockholm, Sweden to Prague, Czech Republic – July 16th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

Today is packing day for me, I put away my bed, packed my things, and ate lunch with Inge, Vincent, Eva, and the girls. Then it is time to do the thing that is the most difficult, saying good-bye to Eva, Inge, Anna and Malin, after Vincent dropped me off at the airport, we said our good-bye as well. I really had a good time in Stockholm, while I did not get to do everything that I wanted to do, I still had a lot of fun, I would love to have had a chance to see the Stockholm City Hall, but next time. The one thing that I did get to do was go pubbing with Vincent and Eva, that was really cool.

While I was at the airport, I did change my money from Swedish Kronor to Czech Koruna, there was a difference of 20 to 1 in my favor. I was able to get 8,000 Koruna, and it would last me most of the time that I was there.

The flight to Prague from Stockholm was uneventful, I sat next to two guys traveling to Sarajevo, Bosnia; they served us a small meal, it was nothing to write home about, there was a roll, slice of cheese, lettuce, and a piece of Pimento loaf, there was some fruit and butter, plus a few other things. It was something to keep us busy before we arrived at the Airport. Just like in other European airports, we board buses to the customs area, I got through customs fast, They did not ask any questions the passport control officer just stamped my passport in the back and let me through. After claiming my luggage I left the arrival area of the airport.

I have to say, I was full of butterflies in my stomach, in other words, I was really nervous; I had no idea how much English any of the Czechs spoke, or how friendly they were, or how I would get to the Hotel. At least I would be able to get to my hotel in the day, the last two times I went my trip on my own, I arrived late, really late, I caught the last subway train to the hotel, or I had to take the street car carrying my luggage. It was a real pain in the ass!!!

I did find a taxi to take me into the city, it is a 30 min ride from the airport to the hotel, I followed the Lonely Planet's advice and found the Airport Taxi dispatcher waiting at the curb, he got me cab. I finally checked in to the hotel, and I left my luggage and headed outside for a walk around the town.

Most of the city sites are in and around a group of hills (one of which is home to Prague Castle), are on one side of the Vltava River and thePrague City Center on the otherside of the river, to German speakers it is know as the Danube River, the city is spread out on both banks of the Vltava River, the city is connected by a series of bridges that connect both sides of the river. Prague Castle sits on top of the largest hill near the city center on both sides of the river.

I eventually get to my hotel, the Residence Bologna in Nova Mesto, I was hoping to check my e-mail before the day was over, I spent part of the evening waking around the neighborhood looking for a internet café, and to familiarize myself with my surroundings, to my disgust, I was looking in the wrong place, I should have go farther down the street... :-<

I did go to the Charles Bridge, but I did not go very far, I got hungry and found some place else to grab a bite to eat, then I called it a day, and went back to the Hotel.

I have to ad one thing, today the weather was not to bad in Prague, I read the weather reports at the weather channel's website, and Yahoo weather, I really was hoping that it would not be to hot, hey said 27c, I can handle that, more on this later.

Packing and resting day

2006-10-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

Stockholm, Sweden – July 15th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

This is the day that Eva and Vincent have to pack, they are traveling to Italy for 2 weeks, we all are taking it a easy today, I am to tired to do anything, so I am spending the day studying my French, and doing my laundry. I have to read my Prague guide book, I had to also find out where my Hotel is located, I was surprised to see that the city was like a maze, there are so many side streets and alleys that have businesses.

Inge came over later in the day, but the weather got progressively worse as the day went on, it got colder as evening closed in on us. During the course of the year, Vincent and Eva have been renovating their house, so this is the reason for all of the new side molding, and bare unpainted walls around the house. Later, we went to Taby Centrum for dinner, we are eating Swedish Chinese food, honestly it was quite good, I did not go in with high expectations, but it was very tasty, during the course of the meal Malin had two large glasses of Coca Cola, this would keep her up as we watched a DVD, I heard that she would stay up late into the night.

We watched a DVD, the girls rented something also, but they watched it later the next morning. Vincent, Eva and I watched flight plan with Jodie Foster, not bad for a rental, the story was nice, but there were lots of holes that remained unfilled, the story fell apart at the end of the movie.

At the end of the day I said good night to my last full day in Stockholm, Sweden.

Packing Day
Malin had way to much Coca Cola to drink, she stayed up until after 02,00
Wow, was Malin moody today!!!
Flight Plan was a good rental, but would not pay $9.50 to see it.

Pubbing in Slüssen

2006-10-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Stockholm, Sweden - July 14th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

Today, I took it easy, Eva suggested that I go into town with Vincent, and then she could pick me up later when she went in or I could go in and meet them later when we went pub hoping. But I was to tired, my legs were really sore after riding the horses, I was full of energy, but my muscles were sore, as a result, I felt felt sluggish. The day was nothing special, went errant running with Vincent, ate dinner, Inge stayed over night with the girls.

Tonight, we got pub hoping in Slüssen, Stockholm, this area use to be a real working class neighborhood, there use to be lots of old shops, and businesses in the area, but now it is populated with mostly trendy restaurants, bars, pubs, and clubs. The best comparison I can make is South Beach in Miami, before all of the trendy and expensive restaurants, bars, clubs, and hotels moved in, the area was very different; Slüssen is no South Beach in Miami, but it is in the same situation. I really had a great time, we stayed out very late, but not to late, sunset is not until about 22,00 in Scandinavia this time of the year, so there was plenty of sunlight left in the day, in a few hours at 03,30 or so, it will be sunrise again.

Tonight, we went to a British, Belgian, Swedish outdoor, Irish Pubs, and a Swedish Beer Hall. I bought a round at the Irish Pub, we decided to play it safe, and take the taxi cab home after a night of drinking. Everything went well, there were no problems, or hang ups, we did run into a really drunk Swede at the came into the beer hall and demanded a drink, well, a public drinking hall is exactly that, kids are allowed in except they are not allowed to drink. I made direct I contact with him, big mistake, he stare straight at me like he wanted to sit down next to me, and demand that I buy him a drink, then the bartenders lead the man outside, and convinced him to leave, we later left to go home, other than that, it was a very nice outing.

All of the Pubs that I went to tonight, were located in the same area.

We ran into a Italian colleges of Eva's, he also works in the Swedish Insurance industry, he was wearing a jacket with “Italia” emblazoned across the front of his jacket. He was waiting for his Italian friends. It reminds me of the movie cars, where the two cars had all of their “Go Italy” gear on, any ways it was really funny.
In the winter time the area is full of younger bar hoppers, to night many older people went bar hoping, everyone was out, even the ladies of the night, standing on the street corners.
On this night, we had a pint at each Pub.
We took the cab home, I was surprised that the cab took us all the way to Täby.
I bought a round at the Irish Pub, but I have so much trouble remembering that Swedish Money is worth much less than US money.
Vincent and I went back to the Optician, we went to the hardware store to buy side molding, and to the molding store but it was closed.
Eva went shopping and over to Corrine's Birthday party, today Anna and Malin's cousin stayed over night with her Aunt, so she played with the girls.

Horses riding then dinner with the Blombergs

2006-10-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

Stockholm, Sweden – July 13th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

Wow today is the day, this is what I have been waiting for, Horse Riding!!! First, (this is a admission) I have to make before I continue, I have never ridden a horse before, nor do I know anything about riding a horse. But Icelandic Horses are really easy to ride, mellow and patient, in Iceland they are used to transport passengers to and from one town to the next. They are smaller than a North American Quarter Horse, and they have much more fur on the body than a typical riding horse. If I were riding a full size horse, I would not be allowed to ride on a trail with out a minimum of 1 season of riding, I would only be allowed to ride with the handler at my side, inside a enclosed area.

Today, Eva, Anna, and I got up early, to go horse riding at a ranch hear Vaxholm, Xanti Island Harsten, they have Icelandic riding horses. We arrived at about 09,00 we were greeted by a girl named Anna, she will be our guide for the morning, we spent the first 30 min bonding with the horses, this way we get use to the horse and the horse gets to know us, I got a really slow and mellow horse, the name is Viking, he is the most patient of the 4 horses that we will ride. Anna (Wong) got a horse named Maple, Eva got another horse, and the other Anna got a horse named Baby Doll. We spent another 30 min orientating our selves with the horses, getting on the horse, learning how to turn with the horse, riding around the coral, get the horse to start moving, speed up and slowdown, then stop the horse.

For the next 2hours 30min we will be on the trail riding with the horses on a trail. It was a lot of fun, I really had a blast riding the horses, after riding on the trail we took a break, the horses were tied down and we sat down, had coffee, cookies, and chatted for a little bit, the guide is a very sweet girl.

We started back to the ranch, during the whole trip, I was the last person on the trail, my horse is mellow, patient, and calm, this means that he does not go very fast. At one point we lost sight of the others because he fell behind, he called out the other horses on the trail because he was alone. Horses are herd animals so they want to be in a group, when they are alone they get scared. I did not get the hang of getting the horse to start moving, I was quickly reminded, but through out the ride, I had to keep encouraging him to move faster. Viking at one point turned and looked at me, I guess he was trying to tell me stop encouraging him to move fast, he will move when he is good and ready to, I was always 3 horse lengths behind every one else during the whole ride.

On the way back, we were attacked by the Horse flies, both the horse and I got attacked on our legs, I got bitten, but did not react to the bites until I got to Prague. When we returned to the ranch, we brought the horses back to the stables and unsaddled and unbridled the horses, and cleaned or selves up. The guide Anna then took the time to take me around the stables and introduced me to all of the horses, she said that Viking knew that I was a mellow and patient person, so he took his time. She and the Horse were right, I would not have pushed the horse to move faster than it wanted to.

I did take a photo of Anna and Eva on the Horses before we took them back to the stables, later we said our goodbye to Anna, then headed back home. On the way we got something to eat at Mc Donalds, I so sore after the ride, I used muscles that I had never used before, I cleaned up at home, while Eva and Anna cleaned up at Inge's apartment. Once I showered and my muscles relaxed, I quickly fell asleep on the couch, but there is no sleep for the weary, we later had dinner at Hasse and Margareta's home, I would finally be able to meet Eva's Brother, Goran and his wife Corrine, and their 3 girls. After dinner and dessert, Goran was telling everyone about the pine tree that they cut down, I guess it was a very difficult job, since the tree was so big.

While the girls played, Eva and I walked Fanny the youngest girl back home after dinner, she wanted to go to mom, who was still at home. Goran drove Vincent's Opel Speedster back home, I finally meet Corrine, the Swedish pronunciation is so different than the English version, I felt so bad for butchering her name, I really feel bad about this, I did not mean to miss pronounce her name so badly, I kept using a English pronunciation, and Corrine kept saying her name in Swedish, I mean it, I feel really bad about this. Finally!!!, I drive the Opel Speedster, there was a road that did not have a lot of traffic on it, so I had a chance to drive the car, wow all of the reviews were correct, the car is hard to steer, and it has a real wide turn radius, but it does have good acceleration, maneuverability, and handles well, but the car is not for the timid.

It is time to say goodbye to everyone, I thanked Hasse and Margareta for their generosity, and it is back home to sleep.

I did better than I ever thought possible riding a horse, I did not fall off, that is very important, mission accomplished.
Did not get Kicked by the horse.
Even though I was the last person, I did not get lost on my first ride.
I drove Vincent's Opel Speedster, this is the first time I drove in Europe.
I did two first, I rode a horse, and I drove a car.

Fjäderholmarna island, and contact lenses

2006-10-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

Stockholm Island, Sweden - July 12th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

I got up at 09,00 wow it is soooo, so weird getting up at 05,00 and it is bright and sunny like it is 10,00 in the morning. We were all up at around 9,00 or so, Eva is up earlier working on the garden out front, All of us left home after a short walk to the Galerian Shopping Mall in near the City Centre of Stockholm (this is where we left the car) and walked down to the ferry, on the way we stopped at a stand that sold Italian Ice and the walked over to the docks where the ferries were to docked, on the way I passed by the Chinese Theater on the other side of the Opera house,this is where the family performed.

We took the ferry over to Fjäderholmarna island and had lunch there, we walked around the converted fortress, now it is used to store and produce spirits, during the summer many Swedes spend the afternoon here during the summer, the weather was very nice, it was not to bad, it was only 20c or so very nice. The girls spent part of the day doing sponge block printing, Vincent, Eva, and I did some walking around the area while the kids did their thing. There were a row of craft shops that occupy a converted barracks, the other former barracks is a restaurant and craft shop, the restroom is unisex, both men and women share the same toilets, this is a weird experience, since most of the restrooms in San Diego are for either men or women. We did some more waking around, and then headed back to the ferry because the girls are tired, so it is time to head back to the ferry back to Stockholm. Eva and Vincent wanted to go get another ferry that would take me around the canals and waterways around the islands of Stockholm.

Eventually we did some window shopping, on the way we went to a optician to get some disposable contact lenses for Vincent. While walking around the city center, I learned that both Vincent and Eva work in Stockholm now, Vincent works in one part of the city and Eva works near the City Centre. I had a really great time walking around town, the city is really nice during the Summer, everyone is out in their summer clothes, I am surprised that Swedes are such casual dressers.

The trip to the island was nice, the weather was cool, and the view of the waterway was beautiful, definitely better than in June when it rained. After we came home, I got to go for a nice drive in Vincent's Opel speedster!!! The car really moves, but I did not get to drive, none the less we went to Vaxholm and back home again. Vincent explained that Goran, Eva's brother is working on part of the highway project, I am not sure what the special occasion was but there were a lot of people on their motorbikes, sorry no Harleys or Choppers in Sweden.

With that, we had a nice chat before bed time, it is bed time.

The rain in Toronto then beautiful weather in Stockholm

2006-10-19T20:32:00.001-07:00

Toronto to Stockholm, Sweden – July 10th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

Today I fly out to Stockholm, and it rains!!! Wow, the weather reports are correct, I was very skeptical, in San Diego the weather reports called for rain but no luck, it was warm and sunny, what do you know, the weather report was accurate...

Uncle Chiu, Auntie Amy, and I had lunch and walked through another Chinese Shopping Center, I bought real Canadian Maple Syrup for Vincent and Eva, then another bottle for Inge. I got to the airport, said my goodbye to Uncle Chiu and Auntie Amy, and flew to London to connect to my flight to Stockholm.

During my hop over the Atlantic, I sat next to a German man, he was traveling back home to the Germany, Bavaria, I do not remember what town. But he was on holiday by himself and is returning home.

I got to London just fine, but with only one hour to change planes, I had to get from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 at Heathrow International Airport. I do not know why BA has everything setup like this, but it really sucks, I almost missed my flight to Stockholm. My flight was kept in a holding pattern for 30min because of some kind of bad weather or some other kind of problem, the ladder truck at the gate was not working, so we had to wait 10min to disembark the plane.

That left us only 20min to catch the plane to Stockholm, luckily there was a van waiting for us to take us over to terminal 1, we were then fast tracked through security and boarded the plain with 5min to spare, we had to run to the gate, very fast.

I got onto my flight just fine thank you, eventually arriving at Stockholm on time. I was lucky the weather was nice in London and very beautiful in Stockholm. This is just what I asked for, since the weather in Toronto was bad and steadily getting worse with thunder and lightening thrown in just for fun. The flight to London was 6 hours, add 1 hour in London, and then 2hours 20min to Stockholm, I am so not liking changing planes in London and having to go between two terminals. I am actually not doing to bad, I lost 6 hours due to the time change, so while it is 11,00 in Stockholm, it is 05,00 in Toronto, and 02,00 in San Diego.

I eventually collected my luggage, and meet Vincent at the arrival area, after a short trip to Täby where Vincent and Eva live, I was surprised to see so much road construction along the way. I am greeted by Eva, Inge, Anna and Malin. Later we go to the Botanical Gardens, Inge wants to buy some plants and so I decided to have a look around the Green houses, and the gardens that they had, it was so beautiful, and after a trip to the Greenhouse while Eva and Inge went to the nursery to buy some plants, we went back home.

After dinner we played a game called Kupp where you try to knock down the other person's wood blocks, then knock down the King in the middle of the playing field, we then called it a day.

The Frankie Tomatto and FIFA World Cup

2006-10-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

Toronto Canada, July 9th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

Today, is the World Cup tournament, we stayed around Scarborough and ate lunch at the Frankie Tomatto, I finally meet Bosco Sung for the first time in a long while, I also meet his girlfriend Cindy. Since it is France vs Italy all of the Italians eat quick then leave, normally they take their time to eat, but not to day, they wanted to go home and watch the game.

Today the weather is very cloudy in the morning, and stayed that way through out the day, it is suppose to rain tomorrow. :-( I watched the World Cup of Soccer final, I was hoping France would win, France had the better team, but Italy had the better players, I heard that Italy wanted to force a penalty shout out, the game was tied and was uneventful until Zinadine Zidane head-butted the Italian Player Marco Materazzi, and got red carded then thrown out of the game, from what I understand he use to play for Juventus FC of Torino, Italy, so I guess there were some old scores left unsettled between him and Materazzi, some not so nice comments were made about his family, so Zidane retaliated. Now he is with another soccer club, I believe REAL Madrid.

Eventually Italy won the match, on a penalty kick, one of the French players missed his kick, it sailed high over the net, and he missed the goal. Italy won, and is number 1 in the world, the French coach refused to look at the player who missed his penalty kick, the guy stood right next to the coach Raymond Domenech, but there was not even a stare. The victory for Italy was a brief respite from the match fixing scandal, and the doping allegations leveled against Jurventus FC, and 6 other Italian soccer teams, after the celebrations in Italy subsided, Jurventus was kicked down to Series C, 6 of it's best players left the team. The Italian National team head coach Marcello Lippi retired from his post as national team Head Coach. This was Zidane's last world cup game, what a sad way to go out.

Later that evening, I watched 100,000 happy, screaming, drunk, and crazy Italian celebrate in the middle of Corso Italia in Toronto, everyone packed the streets and celebrated well into the night. Tomorrow I fly to Stockholm, and meet Vincent, Eva, Inge, Anna and Malin, so I decided to do my laundry and pack my luggage.

Useful Links:
Frankie Tomatto
FIFA World Cup
FIFA
Italy Conquer World
Italian Soccer Scandal 2006

Trent-Severn Wateryway

2006-10-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

Ontario, Canada - July 8th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

Today, we got started at 10,00 again, we are going to take a road trip to see the lock system of Ontario Canada, the locks are scattered at regular intervals along the river that cuts through Ontario, Canada. Today, Penny is coming along with us, our first stop is Kirkham, Ontario where there is a lift lock that carries the boats, up an down river, this lock is at the highest elevation along the river, this lock is suppose to be the largest lock of it's kind in North America, the river eventually empties out into Victoria Bay which is part of Georgian Bay which is part of one of the great lakes, there are three different kinds of locks, two of them are near Kirkham.

At Kirkham, I was lucky I saw the lock in action, 2 times, WOW what luck. I was able to see boats being moved up and down the river, I heard about locks in Europe, the Panama Canal and on the Hudson River. But it was a real joy to watch the locks in action moving the boats up and down the river.

The last lock at Victoria bay took the boats up and down the river into Victoria bay via a special motorized ferry that moved up and down the hill, carrying the boats of different sizes. All of the passengers stay in the boat, and help the ferry workers secure the boat to the lift. The boats are supported on stilts and braces when they are out of the water. Like a train crossing the road, everyone has to stop and let the ferry pass by.

Through out the trip, Penny was a good girl, she was a very well behaved dog. The trip to and from Toronto was 2 hours each way, I really enjoyed the drive through the country side, there is nothing like this in San Diego, the scenery was very beautiful!

We got back to Toronto at around 17,45 when we got to the 400, 401, and 407 the traffic was so horrible, it took us one hour to get through the traffic, we were going to go to the Restaurant called the Frankie Tomatto, this is a Italian Buffet near Uncle Chiu and Amy's home. When we got home we were to tired to go out and eat, so it was Pizza Hut Pizza for dinner, later we found a injured bird, but it died from the stress of the injury. Later that evening I found Penny sitting under the tree again, this time I was able to take a picture of the momentous even.

It was so hot today!!!
The Kirkham lock was so Cool!!!
Penny was a well behaved dog.
I spent to much time photographing the locks and not enough time enjoying the scenery.
The Canadian countryside is so beautiful.

Useful Links
Trent-Severn

Downtown Toronto

2006-10-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

Toronto, Canada – July 7th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

I got started at around 10,00 then Uncle Chiu and I went out to to have a look at Downtown Toronto, I had not been to downtown Toronto in 25 years, while the buildings have not changed very much, the ethnic demographics of the city has changed greatly, there is now a Indian section, Portuguese section, Little Italy, and Chinatown near Downtown Toronto. The Sky Dome in Toronto is now renamed the Rogers Center, and the old Distillery where Hanna performed is now a entertainment center with a Theater, Restaurants, and a information office.

alt="sky dome" />There is still only one highway leading into Downtown Toronto, it is always busy, and everyone who wants to drive into downtown has to use this highway. It is weird watching Uncle Chiu drive in Downtown Toronto, you are allowed to park the car right in the pat of traffic on the right side of the street where permitted, the streets are setup so there are two lanes going in each direction, as we drove through downtown, it reminded me of downtown San Francisco. But the traffic is worse since you are allowed to park right on a busy street, this means everyone has to slow down and merge left to go around the parked car. Just like any big city you have to follow the trolley, but you can not pass when the trolley is stopped, so that the passengers can get on and off the trolley.

I found all of this really CRAZY!!! I guess this is because there is no parking allowed on a busy street, and there are no trolleys sharing the same car lane with cars.

I passed by city hall, the new city hall is built right next to the old city hall building. I finally saw the building where the second Resident Evil movie was filmed. We drove down Yonge Street, this is the street that divides East and West-Toronto, Chinatown use to be located on this street, it moved farther west closer to Little Italy, I do remember coming down here to eat dinner when we visited, but all of the businesses and signs have changed. Near Chinatown is the Bloor district, and Bloor Street, this area has a lot of Second Hand shops, the University of Toronto, near by is the very upscale shopping area, the whole area has a nice rustic feel to it, we stopped here for Coffee at Starbucks, there is always a Starbucks some where in North America, or any where in the world.

We had to wait until a certain time, to enter the Royal Ontario Museum, because admission is free after that on that day. There was a exhibit about Native Americans in Ontario Canada, a biology exhibit, a really nice Oriental Asian Exhibit, and a Mediterranean exhibit, but that was it, since most of the museum was closed for renovation. Taking our time, it only took us 2 hours to go through the museum, since most of the building was closed off.

Later on the drive back, we hit some really bad traffic, every one was leaving Toronto to go home after work, the line of cars stretched for miles, and did not let up until we were near the highway interchange. Later after dinner we talked with my mom when she contacted us via Skype, I learned that Uncle Richard was hot sure if he would be able to make it, and auntie Nelly really likes Penny, since she did not like dogs before meeting penny, I was really shocked to hear that she bonded with Penny so well.

After dinner, I did follow Penny out into the yard, Uncle Chiu and Auntie Amy said that Penny can stay out in the yard all day, I wanted to see where specifically, to make a long and boring story short, Penny sits under the tree watching the Squirrels run up and down the tree.

Useful links:
University of Toronto Royal Ontario Museum

Niagara Falls, Niagara City, and Canadian Wine Country

2006-10-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

Ontario, Canada – July 6th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

Today, Uncle Chiu, Auntie Amy, Penny take a road tripto Niagara Falls, everyone got up at 08,00 and left the house by 09,30 since we are driving down to the US border and Niagara City, we decided to take Penny along with us, she was very well behaved during the long drive down to the Falls. The trip took 2 hours, and was uneventful, we drove to past the city of Hamilton to Niagara City.

I was expecting a clean and peaceful Canadian city, but no, not any more, the city has a big tourist zone, with entertainment for the visitors, casinos, theaters, and golf all along the falls. The casinos are all built right along the falls. I was shocked and disappointed, but Niagara Falls did not let me down, the sun was out, and not hot. We spent the day walking around the Canadian side of the Falls, their was no wind, so the water floated up wards instead of onto the side walk which would have drenching everyone on the walkway.

Auntie Amy Stayed with Penny, after lunch, we decided to go down to the base of the falls, I had a great time visiting the water fall, after a drive along the Niagara River and a visit to the souvenir shop, we drove through Canadian Wine country. We stopped at Niagara Lake on the way to Inniskillin Winery to see Canadian Ice wine and the other types of wine being produced. But not today, the museum was under renovation, so we were out of luck. I did do some wine tasting while I was there, I some nice Meritage and Pinot Noir, during my visit, this winery sells Canadian Ice Wine in the USA. Uncle Chiu stayed with the dog during the winery visit. On the way back, we drove through the wine country instead of heading right back to the highway. I was able to see the wine vines in the fields, and the beautiful Sunshine without a cloud in the sky.

It took us 2 hours to return to Toronto, and we were home by 08,00 we had carry out food for dinner and the we called it a day. I watched a DVD, then it was bead time.

Niagara Falls was really beautiful.
The visit to Inniskillin winery was really nice, this is the company who's bottles of wine are on display while I am shopping at Beverages and More.
On the way back, I did see the Niagara Power Station, and the battle field where the USA tried to invade Canada during the War of 1812.
Niagara City is such a tourist trap!!! All of the amusement rides, and casinos make the city look really disgusting.
I finally realized how close Pittsburgh, Buffalo,and Detroit are to Canada. Detroit is on one side, and Windsor is on the other side.
Highway 401 goes from one end of Ontario to the next.
Penny was such a good dog during the trip to Niagara Falls.

Useful links
Niagara Falls Tourism
Inniskillin Winery

Around East - Toronto, Scarborough, Markham

2006-10-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Toronto, Canada – July 5th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

Today we decided to take it easy, Chiu and Amy decided to show me around town, in Toronto, Dim Sum it is served 7 days a week. I was really surprised by this, I was not expecting to eat Dim Sum for weekday lunch, personally, I am use to seeing Dim Sum served on the Weekends. We drove around Scarborough,and Markham, like I said, things have changed a lot, the last time I was here there were no Chinese businesses. if you wanted to eat Chinese you had to go to Chinatown in West Toronto. Now in there are so many Chinese Businesses and Restaurants in Scarborough, Chiu and Amy hardly speak English any more.

Later in the Day, we went to the Pacific Mall, we walked around and had some Chinese Dessert, I had some red bean soup. Wow, the Pacific Mall is big, there are lots of different stores, every one has a 3 to 4 meter square area set up their shop, all of them are enclosed in a big steel and glass building, I am guessing there are at least 600 stores and restaurants in the building, next to the Mall is another shopping center, when we finished the visit, we returned home to watch World Cup Soccer, Chiu and I watched Portugal vs France play each other in the World Cup.

During my visit to Toronto, I learned that Toronto is very spread out, the traffic is horrible, there is only one main highway leading into Downtown Toronto from the Eastern Suburbs. But I did not get a chance to ride their subway system. All of the small towns like Markam, and Scarborough are growing together, many of the people who live in the city are moving to the suburbs. We drove through each town, I did not notice any difference. WOW!!!

The Pacific Mall is Huge!!!
East Toronto is inhabited most by Chinese, the Lonely Planet guide book calls it Chinatown-East.
Today, France won the match against Portugal.
I had Dim Sum for lunch today.
We spent the day driving around East-Toronto, visited Markham, Scarborough, and the other suburbs of East-Toronto.

Useful Links
Markham - Official website
Scarborough, Canada

MS IGLOO Apocalypse 0079

2006-10-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

While I was looking around the Zionic Site I found this very cool Mobile Suit Gundam website called MS IGLOO, I am unable to provide you with a lot of information (I don't read Japanese, most of the information is in Japanese), it is Gundam, and it is about the Principality of Zeon circa 0079 UC. The cartoons are 3D Animations, if you are interested in Gundam and are Zeon Fans, the website and videos are worth checking out, this kind of 3D animated cartoon has been around for some time now.

Hey If you are a Principality of Zeon fan I am sure you will enjoy.

Click here, to visit MS IGLOO Apocalypse 0079.

San Diego to Toronto

2006-10-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Ontario Canada – July 4th, 2006
Toronto, Stockholm, and Prague

American Independence Day, No traffic or people at the airport... WRONG!!!

At 07,30 I boarded my flight to Toronto, Canada there where no problem getting to the airport, but I did have to wait a long time in line for a very long line to get my bags checked and to get through security screening. I did have one problem, I showed the ticket agent at the counter only my ticket to Toronto, the ticket agent then told me that I had to have a ticket to another country or a ticket back home. I forgot that you have be a citizen of Canada to have a one way ticket to Canada, now I remember, this also applies to Europe as well.

The flight was very uneventful flight with no problems, I actually heard French in action!!! Air Canada had all of the announcements and airline literature are in English and French. After the plane landed and we disembarked the Stewardess said good bye to everyone, I said à bientôt to her, she was genuinely surprised that I knew French, later I got through customs with out any problems, but the passport control agent did ask a lot of questions and I did have to wait a very long time for the luggage, after that I meet Chui and Amy in arrival.

As I traveled through Toronto I was amazed how much the city had changed, the city has grown so large and is now inhabited by 4 million people. When I first visited Toronto 25 years a go there were no where near as many people in Toronto, 25 years ago at the time there was a China-town and Little-Italy, but the immigrant population was different, the neighborhood that my Uncle and his wife live at was a suburb outside of the city, but not any more, one part of the city of Toronto is 80% Italian, and in East Toronto, the suburb of Scarborough where they live, it is now mostly Chinese, the Pacific Mall is in this area, Chinese stores and businesses line the streets of this area, I feel like I am in Chinatown in San Francisco or in Los Angeles. The neighborhood use to be very Canadian, and the City use to be mostly Canadian and Canadian French, now, there is ethnic diversity in the city, Italians, Chinese, Indians, Portuguese, Muslims, French and others. It is World-Cup Soccer season right now, everyone has their national and Canadian flags out, all of the drivers have their flags flying on the cars.

After I arrived in Scarborough, I was introduced to Penny, Uncle Chiu and Aunt Amy's new dog, I heard that the dog is a terror, but she is really nice to me, I guess she is on her best behavior. I got on the plane early in the morning, and it is already the late afternoon. Ughhhh I feel like I have lost most of the day, but I did finally have my first square meal of the day, after eating a small burrito, and buying a small Sandwich on the Airplane, I was so hungry. At last I have real food!!!

After dinner and some TV, it is bed time, I have to call it a day, it is bed time for me.

Air Canada no longer has meals provided, they serve food for purchase.
No One Way tickets are allowed for international flights unless you are a Citizen of that Nation.
I heard a family member got detained when they last visited Toronto.
Air Canada's literature, announcements, and air crew are all bilingual in English and French.
I learned that after the Hong Kong Chinese immigrated to Toronto and Vancouver many of the Parents who owned businesses in Hong Kong, returned to China to make money and left their families in Canada.
Penny is actually a nice dog, she is trainable, but she is has been through a lot.

Useful Links
San Diego International airport
Greater Toronto Airport Authority
Toronto - The official City of Toronto website
www.signonsandiego.com

Flickr

2006-10-01T00:28:00.000-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

blog is onine

2006-09-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

I have just activated the account, content will be posted at a future date.