Bruce Roberts Designs

Ride 'em lil buckaroo!

that's a good lookin bit of horse flesh, cowboy.

 

LOL thanks TollyWally

a pretty basic design really but if ya set one on the floor kids scramble to it.
I think that's the goal!!

I've been experimenting a little with flame painting with a propane torch. The hooves and muzzle were not painted but rather scorched on. Hardwoods take it well. softwoods catch fire and char but I think with enough practice I could do some nice markings that way.

 

Not gonna get that at Walmart for fifty bucks...or any other price.

I used to make simple pull-toy ducks for kids, with wheels offset on the axle so they bobbed from side to side. Little ones were fascinated by them.

I also made duck string puppets with wooden bodies, feet and heads connected with clothesline. With the body and head connected to one cross-piece and the two round feet connected to the other, you could get some wild movement out of them with a little practice. Little ones couldn't manipulate them, but they loved watching them.

Kinda hijacking the thread, aren't we? Not to worry, folks. Eventually someone will drag it back on track....

 

TollyWally, I just noticed you said "Twin" granddaughters. Does this mean you will be building a catamaran? hmmm it will have to rock fore and aft rather than side to side. Let's think this through. Congrats!!

Troy, that is awesome. Nothing makes it more worthwhile than to see a small child giggle at playing with a toy you have just completed. forget the $$$$
as far as the thread goes, seems the points were made and agreed upon. I don't wanna drag anyone through the mud. Just wanna learn who to follow.

Our discussion of woodwork is giving me ideas for procuring materials and personalizing a boat project. That makes it relevant, I guess.

here is something I sent Ted that he marveled at. When the designer of one of the 100 most beautiful yachts in the country is humbled you know it's good.
check this out http://4largescale.com/fletch/d40.htm

 

Wow. I got through the first part, and bookmarked it so I can come back to the other seven parts.

 

I changed the link to: http://4largescale.com/fletch/d40.htm

it should load a little faster. check out the riverboat toward the bottom of the page. That justifies my putting it on a boat design forum. LOL

 

In fact, one of his most successful plans (units sold), the Tom Thumb 24, was designed by Canadian Grahame Shannon. BR later stretch this boat to 26ft.

I built seven of these TT24's in the late 80's and bought the plans for the TT24 then from Grahame Shannon.

I had said it in the past and will repeat myself; BR is a great marketer that can sell crap with some false claims like fast building time for instance, ease of building etc etc to mainly rookies and amateurs dreaming of paradise and glorious sunsets on a sailboat - hence he selling them the largest design possible they can afford - resulting in so many BR abandoned projects when the truth of real building costs and building time and expertise needed reveal themselves.

As some poster said somewhere on this thread - he surrounds himself with talented people and buying copyrights of good plans from third parties making a profit. That takes a good marketing man to spot good plans like the TT24 for instance. That said, it does not make him a good designer....

 

So is he a plus or a minus, in the grand scheme of things? I don't like the idea of abandoned projects because someone got suckered in over his head with false claims about ease of building. On the other hand, has his salesmanship managed to get a bunch of boats on the water that might not have been built, had he not pumped some encouragement into people?

 

"On the other hand, has his salesmanship managed to get a bunch of boats on the water that might not have been built, had he not pumped some encouragement into people?"

There is too much work involved in building a boat, a thousand things done right etc. etc. etc. for a huckster's silver tongued oratory to hold sway to the bitter end. Those that were going to complete a boat would have found another's plans. Of the remainder most of those boats were not going to be completed anyway but arguably more would have been completed if the builders had possessed a more realistic view of what the task would entail.

 

Troy,

there are two countries south of Germany, both German speaking.
One has a BIG Plus, the other one a very BIG minus in the national flag.

BR is more a Austrian, rather than a Swiss man....

 

I built a house made of gigantic whine barrels from somewhere in Cali
place consisted of three of them connected by cat walks and a roof.
Cost the poor guy a fortune and was not the most livable house I ever built.
Town called Gold Hill Col. and is owned by the guy who owns Om Banjo's, names Chuck and he was kinda a pain but not a bad fellow in the end.
I hated that job and it hated me. I was hired just as a carp. but when the general screwed up a few to many times I landed the job ( even though I did not want it ) and when I told the guy what I thought it would cost to complete he fired me right then and there.
Later he apologized when the project came in for nearly exactly what I had predicted.

oh
I found old Ted Brewer to be a decent sort
wrote him a few dumb questions about his Sofia Christina design and he was always generous with the answers

cheers
B

 

I've been to Gold Hill Colorado!! not far from Nederland right? don't recall seeing a house like that but that was a long long time ago. back when Cripple Creek was still a ghost town for real. LOL

 

yup
just outside of Ned past Ward off peak to peak highway
on the right to be specific
house was on the high side of town opposite lick skillet road by about 1 mile

PS
gambling destroyed every town it was legalized it
might as well have carpet bombed the place
not one old house survived in black hawk or cripple creek

 

Ouch!! I personally don't gamble, but I have come to terms with the fact that if people want to, there is no way I can stop them. I hate to see a place so rich with history changed that much to a completely different theme tho.
The irony of it is that Cripple Creek and the other gold rush towns got much of their start through gambling. Go figure.

 

Partly because it is legal in only a few places, in the US.