Tech Review 2011 Part 1

Hello All.  It has been a while since my last post, but I have been busy working on a new concept.  As of right now, I cannot get into detail about it, but as soon as I can, I will and post images. 

Every now and then, I like to point out products and services that either really stink on ice, or perform really well and deserve praise.  I am happy to say this post revolves around the latter.  (Click here and here to read about other product and service reviews).

Cell Phones

For a long time, I mean a really long time, I had a flip style cell phone.  To be specific, it was the Sanyo SCP 7050 – key word – RUGGEDIZED flip phone from Sprint. 

My Old Sanyo SCP 7050 Flip Phone

This thing was awesome.  I could throw it at a wall, run it over with my car, drop it in water and it would just keep working every time.  I never had an issue with it, so I never upgraded the phone.  I was 4 years past due for an upgrade by the time I went to the Sprint store.  Every time I got the itch to get a new phone, the first thing I would ask the clerk was “where are the indestructible phones?”  I would often get a puzzled look, and I would proceed to explain just how durable my flip phone was.  Of course, they would proceed to tell me that there is no phone like that one, so I would leave with my trusty Sanyo.

However, eventually, my tech side got the best of me, and in the world of mini laptops and net books, iPads, iPhones, and affordable smart phones, I decided it was time for me and my wife to upgrade.  After much toiling and playing at the Sprint store, I decided to go with the HTC Evo Shift built on the Android platform, and Allie went with the LG Optimus.  

The HTC Evo Shift

The LG Optimus

This really is a great little device.  I have found that, with the exception of writing a document, this phone has essentially replaced my laptop.  It goes with me everywhere, I use it for texting (which I NEVER did on my old phone), web searches with Google Voice, GPS, as an MP3 player, portable television, and of course, Angry Birds.  The versatility of the phone has been truly amazing, and its reliability has been, well, above average.   My old flip phone had to be restarted due to lock up, seriously, twice that I can remember.  There have been a few instances with this phone due to trying to do too much at once, or an over abundance of updates.  The other thing that I really like about this model is the slide out keyboard.  At 6’-4” tall, I have been blessed with large hands so the little glass touch screen keyboard it not going to cut it.  The keyboard on the EVO Shift is a bit on the small side, but with some practice, I have managed just fine.  As far as ruggedness goes, I purchased a hard plastic cover that mounts to the back of my phone.  It then has a second hard cover that slides over the glass faceplate of my Evo and locks in place to the back piece.  When the phone is not in use, or attached to my hip, it is secured in its own hard plastic cocoon.  Should I upgrade the phone in the future, I may look more into something like the Samsung Galaxy, which my father-in-law recently purchased. 

The Samsung Galaxy

The screen is bigger then my Evo Shift’s, therefore typing on the screen is a little easier.  However, it is so light, I feel like I am holding a Noisy Cricket.

"I feel like I'm gonna break this damn thing!"

I'm Still Here!

Just a quick note to my readers - I have been diligently working on a new project, and I will be adding new posts soon.   Thanks for stopping by!

It’s A Spray Paint Party!

When my wife and I went to Portland, Oregon, we wanted to bring home something unusual, something to really capture the weirdness and coolness of the city.  We landed on a gumball machine.  It wasn’t old or original or anything, but it was interesting.  The actual base of the gumball machines are made of plastic, the gumball tanks are clear plastic and they sit on a wooden platform supported by a balustrade. 

Perfect.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a before photo, but here is the gist of it: 

There are two plastic bases – one was black, the other green.  The balustrade post was purple and chipped.  All of the internal mechanical parts were ripped out and just sitting in the clear plastic gumball tanks.

Here is a photo of the gumball machine during prepping for restoration:

The base of the gumball machine.

The tanks and bases have been removed, so all that is showing here is the purple balustrade and tank base plates before sanding (which was done by my wife, Allie).

After Allie sanded the support base, I went to work on painting and putting it all back together.  For the restoration of this and the next project discussed in this post, I used spray paint only, as did Allie on her projects, which you can read about here. 

The colors that I used are Rustoleum’s Regal Red and Canvas White for both jobs.

Regal Red.

Canvas White.

I painted the purple base white and the green and black gumball bases red.  I left the hardware the original metallic color (we had considered painting them silver, but decided we liked the original brass instead).

The finished project.

I used Devcon’s High Strength 5 Minute Epoxy Gel to put all the major components back together.

The epoxy - this stuff is awesome!

Most of the internal components were set aside (possibly for a future art project) simply because this gumball machine is no longer operational.  As a matter of fact, Allie and I were thinking about filling the tanks with marbles or dice (we would be open to other suggestions – feel free to leave them in the comments section).  I did however fix the exterior hardware – the trap door and turnkeys.  Sadly, one turnkey is missing, so I am on the hunt to find a replacement.

The missing turnkey is on the left - anyone know where I can get one?

After that project was completed, I turned my attention to two filing cabinets that I bought at Goodwill.  Originally, my thought was to replace my old, mismatched filing cabinets for a tall 4 or 5 drawer unit.  After unsuccessfully looking for a tall cabinet for a reasonable price, I decided to get two almost identical cabinets – they were both the same height, but one was wider then the other.  I figured they would look okay stacked up, which is how they were at the Goodwill store.

Of course, I don’t have a before photo, but I do have a pre-prep image:

The grey outer shell of the cabinet.

Just imagine another 2 drawer set in metallic grey, and that’s what they looked like.  I decided that I wanted to add some pop to these cabinets, so I painted them. I used the same white and red spray paint combo from the gum ball machine.  Those colors actually went very well with the wall colors in my office, which consists of Venetian Stucco (an off white) and Red Delicious (a deep red).

As I mentioned before, I was going to stack them, but after doing so, they just seemed too big and bulky and awkwardly placed in the corner.  So Allie suggested that I make the cabinets the supports for my desk.  Originally, I was a little hesitant – my desk was supported by two industrial sawhorses; what I thought was a unique solution (also thought of by my wife).   

The desk with sawhorse support.  Note the old, mismatched filing cabinets in the corner.

I would like to take a moment to point out the paper shades in the windows - those are no longer hanging in my office.  Allie, my wonderful and talented wife, made me, that's right, made me, my own custom Roman shades.  You can read about that project here.

However, the case to change out the horses for the cabinets was a strong one – I could have more readily accessible file storage and stronger (wider) supports for the desk.  I was also able to better hide all of the seemingly hundreds of cables and plugs out of view and de-clutter the corner of my office.  So, after much wrangling, Allie and I were able to swap out the sawhorses for the file cabinets, and they look great:

The larger (wider) filing cabinet.

The narrow cabinet.

Wide shot of completed cabinets and desktop.

View of cabinet color and wall color

Both projects took the course of a weekend to complete, and all in all, I am very happy with how they came out.  We got them finished just in time to beat out the Arizona heat. 

Thanks for reading!

More From GarageMahals.....

So far, 2011 has been one of the better years for GarageMahals, LLC – a company owned and operated by Michael Rhodig in Phoenix, Arizona.  As many of you know, Lone Wolf Drafting and Design has done extensive work with GarageMahals over the past few years.  Michael typically designs the garages and provides sketches that I turn into 3D renderings.  So far, we have worked on a couple of garages this year.  The first garage, designed to hold a private collection of Ferraris, is shown below (note differences in artwork and cabinet colors in some of the images; the renderings provided allowed Michael the ability to show his client different detail options that were available):

Layout showing artwork and blue cabinet system to the left

Looking across the garage.

Note the garage door graphic on the right.

Same angle as above, note the different door graphic (and yes, it is supposed to upside down)

Another view showing blue cabinets.

Same view as above showing silver cabinets and alternate door graphic.

Same view as above 2 images with different door graphic.

After this design was completed, Michael wanted to present a design that featured a unifying chrome band that ran around the perimeter of the garage.

Option with chrome banding.

Another view with chrome banding.

Finally, Michael came up with an additional detail for the client’s consideration – a perforated panel in the corners of the garage.

Perforated corner panel detail.

Another garage developed by GarageMahals centered around a unique graphic on the back of the garage doors.  Michael wanted to create the illusion that the actual garage extended beyond the garage doors by creating a realistic looking pseudo garage.  Therefore, I had to model and render to separate garage for this project – a fake garage that would be used to illustrate Micheal's door idea and the actual garage that would be constructed for the client.  The creation of the fake garage posed a unique challenge, as I had to imagine where the owner would be standing in his garage to create the proper perspective so it would look real when the observer was looking at the doors. After determining the correct position, I had to take a snapshot from that location.

Left door graphic

Right door graphic.

From there, the rest of the garage was fairly easy – a nice wainscoting system, metallic walls and custom columns between the garage doors.

This was the original wainscoting system.

Alternate wainscoting panels.

Looking at the doors from the center of the garage.

Same view as above with black and white doors.

Back of the garage.

Looking across the garage.

 

Most recently, Michael had the opportunity to step outside of his usual role as a garage designer, and was given the chance to create an entry way for a private, in home movie theater.  Michael presented a couple of different options, one using a metallic wall covering with a two tone option, and a second design using a interesting dimpled material.  The results for both designs were quite stunning:

View of the theater doors with 2 tone walls.

Crystal lighting and ceiling design.

Red carpet strip with Oscar Statues.

Oscar Statue.

Theater entry with dimpled material.

Oscar with dimpled material behind.

 As we were developing this concept, Michael felt that the reflectivity of the dimpled material was not being illustrated quite right.  The problem was that the material was so reflective that it was hard to determine how this much of the material would react in such a small space, especially because I was using such a small sample to base the image off of.  Therefore, I created 3 images of the same shot with different reflectivity values for the wall material so Michael could determine which image best showed the material in the most realistic manner.

The least amount of reflectivity.

A little more....

The highest amount (anything more would have been to mirror-like).

We hope the rest of 2011 will continue to be as profitable and interesting as the first quarter.  Thanks for reading!

Jade Phoenix and Mega Tokyo 2041

Hello all – This is just a quick a follow up to the original Jade Phoenix and Mega Tokyo post.  Here is the Hugh Geit Research and Development Facility at night.  Thanks for stopping by!

For more information on this project, please follow these links:

http://jp-studios.com/news.php

www.lonewolfdrafting.com

http://www.indiedb.com/company/jade-phoenix

http://www.indiedb.com/members/lonewolf1211

The facility from above.

Central atrium.

Central atrium with bridge and elevator cores.

Front view.

Side view.

Rear view.