Since it is a statutory holiday, the kids are off school, and the shop is quiet. But it was far too nice a day not to work on Henry’s Jeep/parade float. The first order of business and today’s task was to give it a thorough pressure wash. I was ready to give Henry a hand, but he was ready and (barely) able to handle the considerable back pressure of the big pressure washer. He diligently sprayed every square inch to clean off years of neglect. It is now ready to push into the shop for disassembly, repaint and the installation of a new motor. Henry (and grampa) are counting the minutes until there is room…
Allmost ready to ship
The last of the NEB’s Wall pieces have been ‘baking’ in the shop over the long weekend. On Tuesday morning, when the crew returns, we’ll remove everything from the shop to make room for a new set of projects, including Henry’s parade float vehicle. This is the middle lower section of the wall, one of ten large pieces in all. Next week, we’ll order the window plastic to prepare it for shipping.
Research trip complete
Matt and I had a fabulous time at the Disney Parks in Japan. We averaged about 20,000 steps daily in the parks and poked into every nook and cranny we could find. We looked at every clever detail the Imaginers and fabrication crews had carefully crafted into the parks and did our best to record all we saw. Over the last few days, I have gone through the photos I took, editing and sorting them for future reference. My collection added up to more than 3,000 photos, plus what Matt captured. When he returns to work next week, we will blend our collections to get a complete picture of the parks.
The thing we enjoyed the most was the cleverness with which the Imagineers visually told the story of the area they were portraying. They layered detail after detail, often in unexpected locations. Since we strive to do the same in our work, what we saw brought us immense joy and inspired us to continue and expand our repertoire in the future. My favourite reference shots were not those of the typical visitor, but rather these small, seemingly unnoticed details. Here’s one of those favourite reference pics… two cannonball hits in a plaster wall. This feature was tucked away in the back corner of one of the restaurants.
