FINALLY got to see this!! only took me all day! Im so glad your happy with it Trent. You forget this was a team effort, i couldn't have brought it to this level with out you. and im not just talking about your legendary 2nd generation stencils. You helped me through it all, the wind vane color was a genius idea. i personally think you matched the wind vane color PERFECTLY. i cant take any credit for it, all i did was follow your instructions and try try try.. until i finally got it. and i would of got it sooner if i wasn't so ignorant
i still to this day remember the picture i sent ya when i finally got it... the feeling of accomplishment was indescribable. That was, and still is the hardest part of this build. and i couldn't have brought it to this level of accuracy with out ya.
all the tricks you taught me along the way.. i really really appreciate it.
I had so much fun with the conference calls. Trent and I would try and meet up a few nights a week and go over strategy on this build. we were going for the elitist level of accuracy so there was a lot of experimenting and presentations over the months. Plus i was working unrealistic hours, so it was tough sneaking in "shop talk". Thursday nights seemed to be the night we could plan the most. of course after i bring the groceries in for mom, thursday is grocery night
how many times did i go to walgreens and print out reference pictures lol, or ask you " can you blow this picture up, what do you see?!" "what do you think about this?" " you think this is dented enough?" " does it have enough brown in it?"
This was a incredible journey, i had so much fun with this build. ive learned so much as well. The joint effort i think is what was the best, just the team work.
i found myself constantly smiling and chuckling through out the videos. im so glad you recorded this, i felt like i was right there with ya. im so glad your as happy with it as i am. Im very very proud of this piece.. truly feel likes its my biggest accomplishment
ive had this for so long it actually saddened me to see it go...
of course the day i planned on shipping it i was stuck and didnt make the post office. but when i got there a few days later and saw it sitting on the shelf.. i felt like a piece of me was leaving with it... and i guess i can say that it did..
some of you may or may not know, but the last 2 years of my life have been pretty screwed up. I was engaged, making the next huge step in my life, (wife, house & kids) when that all was pulled out from under me over night... i lost everything, and i mean everything... brand new car (first time ive ever bought a brand new car), gone, iPad, computers, custom hand made race bicycle gone, cell phone.. you name it...Hell even a lot of my cloths... i had to start over.. then my work vehicle broke pretty good.. my father ended up getting sick.. i was down for the count and when i hit rock bottom she still had the power to stomp me into the ground whenever she had the chance...
why am i saying all this personal crap? because i used trents v2 to escape... Id throw this V2 on my workbench and leave this screwed up world. this is where i could focus on every little detail... every nick, scratch dent... burn.. screw... D ring.. It helped me cope. A lot of people are intimated by the stencils, i find myself at peace when weeding them.. it takes me a week, doing one small section at a time. but it was my therapy.. I enjoyed every minute of this build.. i got to escape..
So seeing this video, hearing your expressions when opening it up.. brings complete happiness, and the highest level of accomplishment. i haven't felt this in years.
Your a good friend Trent. thanks for everything, I couldn't have done this with out you and thats the gods honest truth!!
and everyone in here with all your comments, thank you so so much. I live in a pretty small world, dont have many friends, and LIVE for this forum.. you are all very important to me. and i really appreciate your friendships.
-Halliwax
so now back to my joking internet self. I cant top trents unboxing video. i think my favorite part was him setting up everything for the unboxing including a garbage can for the peanuts. and once he got about halfway through opening it he says "screw it" and starts throwing the peanuts on the floor!! LOL!!! classic!!
but here is a video i made a few days before i shipped it off to him. i had a little over a week in poly-ing the box... we had 3-4 weeks of record high humidity for us.. i honestly in all my life cant remember it ever being this bad here were i live..
i would do 1 coat of poly after i got home from work (around 10pm) but when i would get home from work the following day, the humidity would do something to the poly and turn it a milky white... i would sand it all down and start over. i seriously did this 5 times... thats 5 nights.. after the 5th failure i poly-ed it right in my room.. smelt like hell but with the cold basement cranking and my father cranking the AC, the damn poly would run.. i couldn't win. I ended up finally getting it on the 7th time, and ironically i did it back out in the shed with my duel fans blowing all day..
I cant take credit for the box, pixel piper made a box like this a few years back for a build he did. i love his design so much i wanted to build one like it. so i didnt come up with the design, that pixels great thinking.
the video below just explains every step ive done to bring it to this level. I would work on Trent's V2 any chance i got. the chemical age was the hardest part for me. NOT the actual physical part, but finding the time to do it.
Chemical aging takes me all day, and im serious. if i start at 9am im done 9-10pm at night. its a all day affair. the past 15 weeks i managed 4 job sites, worked every single day and night (except 9 nights, i even worked 4th july and memorial day) if i had the night off, i was tinkering with this. realistically the hours in this i couldn't tell you.. there is a lot.
even though this video is my second attempt, i did miss a few things that i just through in as captions.
there is a few easter eggs in there so its worth the watch. this isn't the end, i still have a few more videos i need to pump out for the tutorial. I have a lot of seat time this weekend baby sitting my dad( he is now doing freak'n awesome!!), so i will FINALLY tweak this tutorial with new photos ive had for months. so be on the look out
https://youtu.be/yterPQoLxts
just realized i spent 2 hours writing this... damn...
