Wednesday, February 20, 2013
DHS Diecast Collectables , Inc
(Their Norscot Caterpillar Models)
Last week, I wrote about Sword Precision Scale Models. Chuck Sword is the owner of this company that makes beautiful scale models. He also owns another company by the name of DHS Diecast Collectables, Inc. Last week, I was trying to get a local Canadian supplier of toys and models to allow me to photograph his large-scale models. I got nowhere, even though I knew him (through playing baseball and patronized his store to buy painting supplies when I bought and sold antique toys on e-Bay). I wrote another e-mail to Chuck Sword, who at the time was in Europe at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. That's supposedly is the # 1 toy fair in the world. Then he went to the NY toy fair and the Las Vegas Toy Fair. That's a lot of travel in 10 days or so.
He returned at thankfully, he wrote back to say that I could use the photos on the DHS Diecast Collectables, Inc. site. I thought I was in "toy heaven". This site is excellent both for what the company sells, and the resources on the site. There are lists of the many companies that are sold through DHS, as well as a sub-menu titled "INFO". There you'll find Forums, Classifieds, Links, Artisan Models, and Galleries. There you can read about the people and their fine collectible models. The Links sub-menu is also a great resource to guide you around the hobby of diecast model . Also mentioned on the DHS site is that it is "The World's Largest Diecast Collectible Distributor".
Diecast models are geared for adults, and I keep reading that these are not "toys", and young children should not be allowed to play with them. The most important reason is that these outstanding models have plenty of small detail through their parts, and young children (heaven forbid!) could swallow these parts!
Continuing along, Norscot Models is an American company just like Sword and DHS Diecast Collectibles. Norscot is company specializing in many areas, but my interests lie in their fine line of diecast models.They also specialize in promotional and brand-identity programs for many of the Fortune 500 companies). My sister-in-law worked for a computer pasts and memory distributor, and they would often have promotional products made for their company to broaden their footprint in the marketplace. As well, the major monitor, memory, motherboard companies would also have promotional products for her company employees. This is one of the many ways that companies try to promote themselves to create their name and identity.
(Please press above to be redirected to the DHS Diecast Collectables, Inc. website)
(Please press above to be redirected to the Norscot website)
For myself, this week has been interesting for several reasons. I was asked to add a watermark by 1 company. A watermark is like the barely- visible logo or photo that you see when you hold my paper currency to light. It's also found on checks, and fine-quality paper.It helps to either provide a trademark, or to prevent in the case of paper money - to prevent counterfeiting. In my case, the reason was for protecting the images from being copied. If you've been to my website, each and every photo that I use has always has some written information at the bottom. The information says Copyright, the name of the owner or Company and a sentence asking people to write the company if they'd like a photo.
I liked the use of the watermark accompanying the image, and I was able to place the watermark just on parts of the image to "imprint" the image, but not to be distracting. It's all a matter of how opaque or transparent the watermark is desired for the image. I'll probably write a post on my Photoshop blog about this.
I also decided to make the copyright notice less "in your face" or bold. This is so that the great photos and manners by which the toys were photographed allow for the photos to be the major view on the page! I hope that the notice will still be seen, and people will respect the copyright notices (and laws).
If anyone would like to comment to me how they like the new image and type presentation, that would be mince. As well, you can suggest improvements, especially if you're a graphic artist or page layout person. I'm neither, but I do know that page design is a true skill!
And of course, 1 final interesting point. I'd seen the DHS Logo for weeks and weeks, but never looked at it too closely. I liked the 3D design,and the large-sized fonts of the 2 sides of the rectangular 3D logo. Only when I was enlarging the logo to do some minor Photoshop retouching, did I see the bulldozer carefully placed in the top representing the protective cases that usually accompany these fine toys - Clever!
Of course, I'm sure everyone will recognize the CAT name, and of course the famous specific colour of yellow that trademarks these machines. Going to the CAT site is also a real "treat",but there's only so many sites to see in 1 day!
I forgot to mention that most of the items today are 1:50 sale. That simply means that if the toy is let's say 3" long, then the real item would be 50 x 3" = 150" or 12 1/2" (feet). In metric,
that's 65mm x 50 = 3250mm or 3.25 M
Being a photographer and retired teacher, I'd always have to think of interesting ways of photographing or having students do assignments. Scale was 1 assignment, but my assignment was in the "small world" The assignment would ask for a student to create an interesting image for a product 1:1 or smaller. 1:1 in photographic terms means that the has to be the exact size on the then media of film, as it existed in the "real world".
This week, I was talking to Frank, one of my friends who I see for coffee. He's a retired computer programmer. We talked about 1 of his friends who is in the fly-tying and accessory business. I mentioned to him about how I used to bring in miniature items to demonstrate to students what I'd like to see for an assignment of 1:1 or larger. I sent Frank the above image that I scanned onmy Epson 700 scanner.
The above are fishing flies,and the coin is the now-defunct (no longer made and soon to disappear) cent or penny. Our penny is about the size of the American penny. These flies in the fishing world are designated by numbers as to their size. The larger the number,the smaller the fly.The above are 3 24 hooks. They're not the smallest. The smallest is a # 32.
You have to use a very fine monofilament (clear plastic) line to go through the eye of the hook. That line is slightly thicker than a human hair. I'm sure many of you will have lots of thoughts about these tiny flies. Now I understand the skill that is needed by specialized surgeons when the y have to do micro-surgery on small parts of the body. Now that's skill and ability that you just can't say thank you enough!
Thank you for dropping by to visit,
and as always, have a great part of the day,
wherever you may be.
Stacey
