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I’ve gotten burnt out on doing website side projects (yet again), and at some point downloaded a program called Blender. I’ve been working with it for a few weeks now, and am pretty happy with my progress. To give a quick overview, this is the type of program that Pixar and Dreamworks use to create movies like Toy Story, and Shrek (ok, that’s GREATLY oversimplifying it, but I’m trying to be breif). This software can also be used for making “stills” or “renders” that are photo realistic. That’s what I’m trying for. You can see some of the work I’ve been doing with it in my gallery here, under “cg” (as in “Computer Graphics”).

Polikarpov I-16 Render in Blender

So, after playing with rendering a Polikarpov I-16 (I thought an airplane would be easier to start with, and I was right!), I ran across a forum that was having a contest to create your favorite movie car. Many of mine were already being done by others, so I finally decided to do the Ferrari from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off“, a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California; but like the post title, it wasn’t quite that simple. After digging into it, it turns out that the car in the movie was actually an MG with a bodykit that made it look like one of these exceedingly rare cars. In addition, I was unable to find enough reference photos of either car to do a dead-on accurate version, so I’m doing my best to get pretty close to what I think it looks like.

Here’s a few images (more in the gallery):

1961 Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California

1961 Ferrari 250 GT Spyder California

• Monterey 2008: Pebble Beach celebrates California Spyder’s 50th
• The Pixar Touch
• Pixar Opens Their Doors But Once a Year

I’ve been bicycling most of my life (haven’t we all?)… riding BMX, freestyle, flatland, Mtn. Bikes with no/front/full suspension, and currently am riding a Trek that I’ve cobbled into a singlespeed (freewheel, not fixie… yet) ‘cross type bike. For the past several years I’ve wanted to build my own bicycle frame, but haven’t had the tools to do so (oxy/acetelene torch or TIG), but now that I have a TIG, I’d like to give it a shot!

After seeing this Excelsior Henderson race bike, I now had the inspriation to do so! I found a junk 70’s frame at my grandparent’s house for practice, and am hoping to get going on it once we get back from California in a couple weeks.

Here’s some more inspiration I came across from Zach Suhr for your perusal:

This past Sunday, Michelle, Emmett and I took the stroller down to Blacksmith’s in Hugo, to Emmett’s first swap meet.

We put him in the stroller, and he slept most of the morning, doing a little looking around. We ran into Titus from the HAMB, and he had a nice GM Tilt & Telescoping Steering column for cheap, so we bought it, and on the way back to the car, we found a cool old three gauge cluster with three generic gauges in it. It’s cast aluminum, and chromed, and kinda 60’s-ish, so we’ll use it in the truck.

I spent some time yesterday re-organizing the garage, and while I was at it, I mounted the cab on the frame for the first time in about a year! That was pretty exciting, and it really looks alot better now!

I also turned the truck around, so I can get at the rear suspension to rebuild it, and c-notch the frame easier… so while it was in the driveway, I took a couple of photos. I also shot some of my own photos of the new Miller 330A/B TIG welder I recently bought. I got a tank of Argon for it, and have fired it up. Mainly I’ve just contaminated my tungstens, but it seems like with some (read: ALOT OF) practice I’ll be able to TIG weld.

Firing the Engine for the first time from Ben Carlson on Vimeo.

I finished welding up the motor mounts this afternoon, and started modifying the transmission mount for the truck. The motor mounts went slick, then I had to narrow and raise the transmission mount. I went to put the new rubber cushion I had purchased under the trans, but it wouldn’t fit! I ended up having to take a half-hour to run up to the parts store and buy a new one. It ended up that I needed one from a 1984-1986 Chevy Caprice to fit it.

So, I got the transmission mount modified, and then it was dinner time. I buttoned things up and now, all I have to do is do some measuring, and drill eight holes, and the engine and trans will be bolted in place.