Embarrassment...

[CliffH]

I signed up to this site with alacrity, determined to restart - actually, and honestly - to start the model engineering that I'd somehow put off for more years than I care to remember.
I was very pleased and encouraged by members' response to my introduction, and began to consider what I could build, and looked for some bits and pieces that I knew I'd made to see if they could be incorporated somehow into well, whatever it was that I was/am going to build.
Looking at the kitchen workshop of jgb7573, I noticed his Cowells, a lathe that I've always liked and so decided to seek out my own ME90. Why did I need to search for it?  Well, we moved here almost 7 years ago, and I put the it into one corner of the garage-cum-workshop where it has lain, unused, ever since.
So, firstly, it - the Cowells - needed a stand of some sort: I went to IKEA and bought a small kitchen trolley, by name 'Bekvar'. It took a trice to assemble. It is quite substantial, has a solid wooden top, and two slatted shelves below, cost about £35, and whose top is 60cm x 50cm and height 85cm. The Cowells now sits on. It - the lathe - is not looking its best, and has suffered its lack of use and care over the last 7 years; I must needs take it apart and re-assemble it very carefully, and also need to eradicate some surface rust.
And I'd forgotten, in my enthusiasm, that I'd signed up for a painting course, and, just then, the course materials arrived and I was swept into it. The course supposedly requires 8 hours a week, but, in practice, I often find myself working 8 hours a day on it; add to this some musical activities (I play sax in a couple of local big bands) and I find very little energy to do much else. So, colleagues, I feel a little embarrassed by all this..
So as to demonstrate that I do something, I thought I'd attach a partly built locomotive...in this case, a depiction of an LNER class D2 4-4-0 at somewhere like Grantham in the 1930's; it is on canvas, and the underpainting so far completed is in acrylics, but I'm going to switch to oil for the top painting. Thought you might like to see it, and hope you like what I've done so far.
CliffH

[b.lindsey]

No need to be embarassed here Cliff. I admire artistic skills as well since I can't draw a cube without the aid of CAD   Besides, there is no race to the finish here, just hope you keep up your interest in machining as well as the art. And by all means post additional pictures of the painting as it progresses too.

Bill

[ScroungerLee]

I wish I could paint... Or sketch... Or hold a pen without getting ink all over my fingers.  Nice work, please post progress, I might learn something about painting techniques.

Lee

[Don1966]

Cliff the one thing we have that is inside all of us is the ability to do anything we want as time permits. No one will rush you here to accomplish anything. We post things for our own enjoyment and gratification. You have a gift from what I can see and no need to be embrassed. Like Bill said post your painting as you progress. There is another artist on this site name George Britnell and I am sure has a lot in common with you. This is his site http://www.acorn.net/cpsadc101/britnell.htm.

Don

[steamer]

No worries Cliff!   Thanks for sharing!

Dave

[Goldstar31]

Cliff,
        Your 'CV' informs that you live in Bedford, play sax in a couple of big bands, have aspirations- and some of the tooling- to build model locomotives, paint  express an interest in musical instrument making and -I guess- you are retired.

I'm a northerner- living perhaps 250 miles away but I can tell you that there are no limits to do these things in your area. You are within a whisk of tail from what is the seat of Distance Learning, the Open University. You could come out with a degree in Arts subjects, you could add a Diploma in Music and so on. I personally know three windplayers of exceptionally high standard who have done this.

Again, your interest in instrument making intrigues me. From what is now a fading brain, there are at least two outlets in your area. Both are high level and my remaining supplies of African Blackwood and Brazillian rosewood were passed on for use - perhaps early instruments to a base just north of you.
To your east, there is Cambridge which is a thriving area in arts, music and whatever.   I know a man-- di dah do dah( and some comedian who knows little about such things, will add his rebukes) but he or they, live in Cambridge.
Again, to your west is Northampton County Council with endless facilities to paint, play wind and learn thatching( )
To your South is London- and I shudder to comment further

In Bedford is 'Benslow Trust' but you should

Last year, there was the World saxophone Congress in StAndrews and before that 200 sax players congregated in what had been a church in Huddersfield.

A trio- a bit like those in Last of the Summer Wine sat around the old headstones and talked of traction engines, canal boats and other old people's pastimes whilst waiting for their wives- and obviously, their Maker

Aah, yes Rodge was having probs with his twinSU's which were like the rest of us- and I sketched out a new alignment tool. We all forget!

[CliffH]

Hello, Don and Bill: thanks, I looked at George Britnell's site where there are some beautiful paintings. I laughed out loud at your reference to needing CAD to draw a cube, Bill, as I haven't managed to master TurboCAD yet after several years with it...and to think that, when I first bought it, I thought that I could perhaps do some CAD work on a freelance basis for local consulting engineers. And, Lee, its great having inky fingers!
Well, Goldstar, you're right, I'm retired, but some way from getting my pension. And, yes, I know of the OU (did a music course there years ago) but I'm studying with the OCA, (on a degree course, as it happens)as I feel it gives a more practical approach. I suspect that it's less expensive than OU. My interest in musical instrument making is an academic one - there's just not the time even to think about making one. And, again, we're quite well placed here - Cambridge one way, Oxford the other (did you know that, several years ago, the idiots that like to think they run things around here had signs erected on Bedford's borders declaring "Bedford - on the Oxford/Cambridge arc"?)
The Benslow Trust is in Hitchin, not too far away (sometime play in a bigband there)
Goldstar, eh...I once had a BSA 500 twin, but my best bike was a Matchless G12, a lovely bike that I wished I still had.
Ok, then, guys, back to the drawing board,
Thanks again for you interest and encouragement,
Cliff
 

[CliffH]

Hello, again, here's one I made earlier, and hope you like it.
It's a B12/3 in LNER green, depicted some time in the late 30's. The sketch is in waterproof ink and watercolour on cartridge paper.
Cliff

[Don1966]

That is a beautiful painting Cliff and you should be proud of it. Talent such as yours should be shared. That's for showing us.

Don

[b.lindsey]

I like it Cliff !!   Would I be correct in assuming that it is pen and ink along with water color?

Bill

[90LX_Notch]

Cliff-

It's far better then anything that I could do.  My rendition of your painting would be a stick figure in a box with wheels and a few squiggly lines to represent the smoke.  Your's however, is a beautiful piece of art.

-Bob

[CliffH]

Thanks so much, Don, Bill and Bob: you've put me on my mettle now, so I'll just have to do something more - oh, after finishing the first one I posted.
Waterproof ink, Bill (I thinK I used a Staedtler "pigment liner") and then plain watercolour. There's a hint of gouache, too. I really like the Staedtler pens, my favourite being 0.05mm, but, unfortunately, they've become quite expensive here, and I'll swear don't last as long as they used to.
Kind regards,
Cliff