PBY: Almost DONE!!!!

I got the beautiful red propeller warning stripe on the side, and all the lettering and emblems!
In fact, I only need the blisters, light frames, antenna wires and lights hooked up and I'm all done! I've been working on this for.... two years? Longer?

I can't wait to have this done. Frankly, I could hang this up right now and I would be very happy with it. But I'm so close it would be stupid to stop now! I have a smaller project next, the Disney monorail shadowboxes. That will only take a week or two. and THEN... and THEN!!! 

5' long Nautilus with real copper sides, functioning oculus portal and lighted interior!

PBY: Vacuform!

I built a perfectly functioning Vac-U-Form for $12!! Granted, I had all the wood already, the shop vac, screws and the hot glue. I just had to buy a $12 window screen kit for the frame. I ordered a large sheet of thin clear plastic from walmart.com for super cheap, and cut it up into 8 pieces of 12"x12" sheets (thermoform plastic). I set up two pieces of wood on either side of the stove top burner on the oven, set the plastic in the frame on top of the wood, and waited for it to heat up properly. Basically, you turn the burner on high and wait till you think it's sagging enough. (Pro tip: it needs to sag more than you think). The good news? If you screw it up you can probably use the same sheet twice. The first one I pulled a little too early and it didn't get around the seam at the bottom of the blister window sharply enough, so I just did it a second time! I'm very very happy with my results!