trekprops.de

A few weeks ago, Paula Hammond – a UK-based freelance writer – approached me via eMail telling me that she was putting together an article for the British monthly magazine Stamp & Coin Mart. For the February issue, she would be looking at movies and TV shows which feature coin/money motifs and wanted to mention my Gold Pressed Latinum replicas. Thrilled about the prospect of being published in a print magazine, I sent her some images and press material for her to choose from. [More...]

After giving it some thought I decided to make a small change to the blog and abandon the idea of having weekly Twitter roundup posts on the blog.

Why? Well, the matter of the fact is that they are simply unnecessary. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, so what sense does it make to repeat the information that is already there as a post in a “bigger” blogging system and make it available in two places? None as far as I can see. On top of that, all of my recent tweets are listed in the sidebar on the right as well, so the information is not only doubled, but tripled!

The other thing is that these Twitter roundup posts are keeping people from seeing the “meat” of the blog by taking up too much space on the homepage. I’ve noticed that it quite often happens that I’m twittering small updates which don’t warrant a full blown blog post, which is absolutely what Twitter is for. However, if I do this for a few weeks without publishing a “big” blog post, all these roundup posts can add up and obstruct the view of the “real” contents of the blog. That’s also why I have removed all of the existing roundup posts, so that all the recent blog entries are better visible from the homepage.

So, if you want to continue to catch my Twitter updates, the simplest way to do so is to follow me (@trekprops). In addition to that, have a look at the sidebar where you will see not only my status updates, but also my Twitpic pictures. A simple click on “More updates…” will take you directly to Twitter and to my complete timeline.

What do you think about this change in the blog structure? Do you feel it’s for the best or would you rather keep those roundup posts? Let me know in the comments.

After my efforts of starting a Neutrino Probe replica were suddenly brought to a halt last week, I couldn’t do anything but wait for my Dad to repair the lathe which had broke down on us. Fortunately, he was able to find a new capacitor quickly and replaced it in no time at all. So, we could schedule a new session to get back to work. This time, there were no interruptions and I was able to continuously work on the three main parts for two days. [More...]

Bad News. Today I made my first attempt to use a turning lathe to make the main parts for the Neutrino Probe from wood. For this purpose I went to my parents house where my dad has the required equipment. Well, everything went pretty smoothly at first and while working on a test piece I got confident to be able to shape the wood in such a way to mimic my schematics almost exactly. So far, so good. [More...]

There is one prop that I wanted to build forever and never got around to it. In fact, this goes back to the early days on ASAP, when I just got into the hobby. At that time, I didn’t have a lot of experience obviously and was just figuring out how to build stuff. So, after seeing this prop in “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair“, my first impulse was to build it because it looked cool and I had recognized it from the show. [More...]

Identifying found items which the prop makers used to build the props for the show is always a challenge. But with the help of some fine folks in the prop community as well as a few very helpful pointers from people in the prop industry, the base item used for the construction of the Desktop Computer on “Star Trek: Voyager” has been identified! [More...]

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated anything on this site. The reason for that is that I’ve obviously not been able to do any actual prop building for quite some time. However, even during this period of inactivity, I didn’t abandon the hobby entirely. I’ve been watching episodes, capturing screenshots, participating in forum discussions, buying stuff and so on. However, there was no update to this place. [More...]

Ah, Starfleet cases. They come in all colors and shapes and I love all of them! Especially the ones that were used by the engineering staff to carry around their great little tools and instruments. But that’s not the only use for them, of course. They’re also very useful to store PADDs for example. And that’s exactly what Captain Picard uses his briefcase for in the TNG-Episode “Starship Mine” (6×18) when he leaves the ship, which is due for a Baryon sweep that requires a complete evacuation. [More...]

To absent friends… To family.

These are the words that Jean-Luc Picard spoke in the end of “Star Trek: Nemesis” after Data had sacrificed himself to rescue the Captain from the exploding Romulan vessel Scimitar. And it was that occasion, that brought all of Datas shipmates, friends and – in a sense – family together to honor him and taste Chateau Picard, the wine that Picard’s Brother [More...]

Raktajino (Klingon coffee) is one of the most popular drinks aboard the space station Deep Space Nine. Much like “normal” coffee, it can be ordered in several variants, such as: Hot, iced, black, double sweet, with milk etc. It however always comes in the same futuristic, very sturdy looking purple colored mug. [More...]