It's ready for paints

My friends, I finished the construction stage of the diorama. Laminating with veneer was extra painful because of the size of this base. I don't have a large enough sheet to wrap the entire base with the woodgrain going vertical - which is the easiest way to wrap a round diorama with veneer. With horizontal woodgrain, it's much more difficult. As such, the filled gap in the back is an eyesore... but it could be worse. I finished the diorama with a sore throat and runny nose because last Wednesday, I went on a ride and the cold air did a number on me. I think narrating the video will be interesting with this strange muffled voice that I currently have.

On a different note, I have some sad news I wanted to share. A few hours after I posted the previous update, early on Friday morning, my grandfather passed away. He was 85 and died of old age. Over the past year, each time I saw him he grew smaller and more frail. The last time I saw him alive was on Thursday evening, but at that point, he wasn't aware of where he was or who was in the room with him. But I'm glad he didn't have to be in a hospital and instead passed away at home, in his bed. We buried him on Sunday. He was born in 1939 and remembered some parts of the war. He used to tell me: "I remember shaking hands with the Germans when they were passing through our village towards Russia, and a few years later I was greeting and shaking hands with the Russians". He would repeat and remember this sentence even when his Alzheimer's was getting really severe. He also told me once that they had a dugout in the garden in case things got bad during the war.

As I was reminiscing about my childhood spent with him, when I used to go on vacations to my grandparents' house, I realized one thing. We might have just a few more years before the last WW2 veteran passes away, and a little bit more than that before the last person to actually remember the darkest era in human history is gone. We have to make sure that these people and their memories are never forgotten.

Another thing I realized during the past few days was how he might've influenced me in ways neither he nor I realized at the time. Heck, I didn't realize it until now. When I was around 10-12, he used to take me on long walks across the fields and countryside. At that age, my biggest dream was that one day I'd own a sawmill or a brick-making factory. Don't ask why, I was just going through this industrial-entrepreneur phase or something. Of course, every adult just scoffed, like "Yeah, whatever" when I told them about my dreams, but my grandfather was supportive. He took me to a sawmill owned by his friend so I could learn some know-how, showed me a piece of land he owned where I could build my factory, etc. One time, we went to a landfill to snatch some old bricks, we brought them home on a wheelbarrow and he showed me how to remove the old mortar and make them look nice and clean, ready to be used again. I mean, he never cared about my modelling, but he was the only adult who supported me in my fascination with all things brick&industrial. And look where that took me today :)

So yeah, I wanted to let you know earlier but things turned out this way. I'll put the construction video together so it's ready as an early release on Friday - there will be no outdoor intro as I'm still sick, and I'll probably try to keep it on the shorter side and to the point, because I haven't been in my traditional cheerful and stoked mood for the past few days. But we'll see how it turns out!