Hello all,
Mark contacted me about two months ago about registering with NDG...
This is important to me and I wanted to give it due diligence, so I put it off until I had time.
I've been really busy with projects, but finally had an extra hour today.
My name is Aaron and I live in Valparaiso. I'm an engineer and I work for a major industrial gas company. Prior to that, I did 8 years in the U.S. Air Force as an avionics systems specialist on F-16/F-117 fighter jets and served during the Gulf War in Kuwait. For as long as I can remember, I've been building and tinkering with things. I can design with CAD software, fabricate and TIG weld. At any given time, I have multiple projects going on, but they tend to take awhile since I'm blessed/cursed with perfectionism. Do it once and do it right! My wife is a pharmacist/professional musician/licensed massage therapist and owns wedding decoration business. We also build stage sets and do custom lighting for theaters. We've got a 2,000 square foot heated shop with lots of industrial equipment and a Bose sound system (because music is a huge part of our creativity!). There's NEVER a dull moment at our shop!
Projects including a couple pictures (because as they say, without pictures, it didn't happen!):
1930 Ford with 7" chop on '32 frame rails powered by a '56 331 Chrysler (baby Hemi), 6 carbs & a Cirello magneto
Multiple E-11 blasters (including my FISD steel pipe build and carbon fiber pipe build)
Screen Accurate Metal Power Cylinders (I became good friends with Andy "PlayfulWolfCub" while making these!)
Astromech (I've been collecting parts for about a year. I designed/fabricated/TIG welded accurate aluminum foot shells, then shared all my files with the Astromech community so others could do the same. That post reached over 12,000 hits!!!)
Salzo V4 Studio Scale X-Wing with aluminum armature (I work on one or two pieces at the end of every evening before bed)
AP TK costume (about 1/3 finished, but I've got everything I need to make Centurion and then some)
Lots of custom prop pieces (most recent was a "piano bar" gutted and restrung with 50 lb monofilament and lit with LED's)
Jes Gistang costume for my wife (I've got pull #17, but haven't even opened the box yet)
And last, but not least...
Skunkworks (secret) project: I'm on an international team working on a HUGE project which will be released on FISD later this year.
I wish I could share more, but I've been sworn to secrecy. I can promise it's worth the wait!!!
I hope this provides some insight to who I am.
I hope to finish my TK, bribe Mark to accept me and join you at area troops later this year!
Thanks for taking the time to read this far!
Aaron
