The Lindenbergs

I got the Trouble Alert shaped, painted and added the viewscreen and details. Pierce and Anna decided the Hall of Doom should be on the view screen (I think it was a good choice). The interior of the Hall got finished Thursday night. There are very few images of the interior walls posted on the net, so I had to make up most of the details myself. The buttons and controls on the Trouble Alert are also my interpretation.


I started on the conference table this morning. It's polyethelene cut with a razor than shaped with a palm sander. The "globe" on top is half of a superball that Pierce donated (although I didn't ask his consent -he's got a million of the things).

I'm hoping to get the entire Hall complete by the end of the weekend.

During lunch and after work (with Anna's help), I was able to add a few more coats of paint to the Hall of Justice and add the windows.

The windows are polystyrene (left over from a Proton Pack build) spray painted with semi-gloss black with a faint mist of blue to make them appear reflective. The last coat of paint on the building is a dusting of gray to make it more like stone.

I also built the Trouble Monitor and painted it gray. Anna and I are going to determine what picture it should show. Still left to do is some more detailing on the outside and, of course, some interior decorations.

Here's the pics:

Pierce and Anna are both fans of the old Superfriends TV show (I guess you can figure out who turned them on to that). They have a fair number of superhero action figures and they used to use Anna's doll house as the "Hall of Justice". I always thought it would be pretty easy to make a scale version of the Hall as a neat project and something Pierce and Anna would enjoy. So, for no good reason, I tackled the project this afternoon.

The Hall is made from polyethylene, the same housing insulation material that I used to make a couple of proton packs. All the pieces were cut with a jig saw and the building was assembled with wood glue and sewing pins (for reinforcement). Having started at about 1:30 this afternoon, I'm wrapping up my efforts at about 11:30 pm. Major construction is complete and the Hall has been coated in Modge Podge to help strengthen it and get it ready for painting.

Anna's very excited about the building and "helped" me for a good portion of the afternoon. Here's what it looks like now (the Wonder Woman figures are about 4.5" tall and the building is a little larger than 24" on a side) -click an image to view a larger version:

Labels: Hall of Justice Superfriends Justice League Superman Wonderwoman project greatest heros construct build foam

Mahafie farm is about 3 miles from our house. It was built in the 1800s by one of the Olathe settler families and was constructed specifically to act as a stagecoach stop. Nora made arrangements for Pierce's cub scout den to visit the farm last Saturday.

The farm is owned by the City of Olathe and is being restored back to its original structure (it was a private residence up through the 1970s). The farm is usually closed through the winter but was to be open on Saturday specifically for a Winter on the Farm day.

And boy was it. Starting early in the morning we started getting snow. By the time we got in the car to go to Mahafie's there was a good 4 inches on the ground and more coming down. The rest of the cub scout families opted not to come due to the weather, but it was definitely their loss.

The farm is staffed by volunteers all in period costumes. We met a blacksmith, watched the summer kitchen being used to make soap, watched ham and bacon being smoked in the farm's smokehouse, and went down into the farm's cellar to see the evening's meal being prepared in the turn-of-the-century kitchen. Again, due to the weather, we were the only ones at the farm so we got LOTs of individualized attention.

The farm features the only still-operated stage coach in the country, so we got a nice ride. The staff also broke out the sleigh, so we had an opportunity to take a one-horse open sleigh ride around the grounds complete with jingle bells (seriously).

We spent a couple of hours there and I don't imagine we'll ever have such a unique, and individualized, opportunity again.

-Eric (Dad)

For long-time readers of this blog, you may remember that Pierce got his very first remote control car as a reward for successfully using the potty five times in a row. That car has been around forever, shedding pieces of plastic as its been driven into walls, furniture and pets. But it kept on running.

Until now. The car logged its last mile a couple of weeks ago and Pierce has been keeping it around for sentimental reasons. Over the weekend we convinced him his period of mourning had expired and it was time for the dead car to go to the great garbage dump in the sky.

Pierce was reluctant, but relented. And off to the trash it went. Pierce probably has an additional 5-6 remote control cars (most stored in the basement and rarely seeing the light of day), so this car's demise is no big loss. But, I think I'll miss it anyway. It did represent a significant achievement for our young man.

Speaking of the demise of things. The trainscape Pierce, Anna and I built together has been living under Pierce's bed for a couple of years. It used to get pulled out and played with often, but it has fallen out of favor and Pierce has been asking for track that he can assemble at will. On Sunday we disassembled the trainscape and Pierce is now the proud owner of a box of track, two power transformers, and a huge carton of electric train engines and cars.

-Eric (Dad)