Welcome to the Montreal Miniatures website – Bienvenue sur le site de Montréal Miniatures

lizYZdUCIeRmSwA0moQ3vO5Wj80@144x84

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<a href=”http://montrealminiatures.com/”><img alt=”lizYZdUCIeRmSwA0moQ3vO5Wj80@144×84″ src=”http://montrealminiatures.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/lizYZdUCIeRmSwA0moQ3vO5Wj80@144×84.png” width=”144″ height=”84″ /></a>

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If you want to install my clickable logo taking your visitors directly to my website, please highlight the http code above and copy and paste it in your website at the place of your choice.

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Si vous désirez installer mon logo cliquable qui mène vos visiteurs directement à mon site, surlignez le code http ci-haut, copiez-le et installez-le (coller) à l’endroit désiré sur votre site.

 

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Liliane_1

Please click on the pictures to see it in bigger size.
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S’il vous plait cliquez sur les photos pour en augmenter les dimensions.
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The figurine is 1/25th scale. It stands 3 1/8 inch or 8 centimeters.
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La figurine est à l’échelle 1/25. Elle mesure 3 1/8” ou 8 centimètres.
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Liliane_2

Liliane_3


Liliane_4

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“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” said king Solomon a few thousands years ago about mankind activities. Reading what he wrote following these words, made me realize that what ever we do or think, we can not escape from ”vanity”,

since  all our hobbies, our fashions, our sports, our habits, our ways of living, our customs and everything that we do in this life is filled of ”vanity”

it really seems to me that we have been created to be beings of vanity, what ever we do or say, so this website is not an exeption to that rule.

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This blog has been created by me, a french canadian guy suffering of chronic depression since many, many years.
At first it was intended for creating a business of selling hobby items crafted by myself  and from a friend, but recession and hardships are pushing away this project, always further.

Will it end up working one day? I don’t know. Should I remove my title? It makes commercial and I don’t sell my stuff. Well, at least you know a bit of the story. I always have been crazy anyway.

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Ce site web a été crée par moi, un canadien-français qui souffre de dépression chronique depuis de nombreuses années.

Au départ, je l’ai construit dans le but de monter une petite affaire, de vendre des items  créés par moi et par mon amie, mais la récession et des tas de difficultés repoussent sans cesse ce projet plus loin.

Est-ce que cette affaire finira par démarrer un jour? Je ne le sais pas. Devrais-je changer mon entête qui fait commercial, bien que je ne vende pas mon matériel? Au moins vous savez une partie de l’histoire. Je ne suis certainement pas le seul dans cette condition. Je pourrais vendre plusieurs items car j’ai une quantité de moules de fabriqués, des items déjà ensachés avec mon logo commercial. Ils dorment dans des boîtes et des tiroirs parce que je n’ai pas de copyright pour mon matériel et j’ai décidé de ne pas les vendre sans cette protection.  À ce jour, personne ne possède aucun des items sur ce site.  Nous avons fabriqué 2 figurines spéciales qui ne sont pas sur le site comme cadeau à un ami. J’ai fait les moules et tout s’est arrêté là.

Mimi a fabriqué 2 autres figurines pour un autre ami, il y a déjà quelques années mais comme je n’ai pas eu l’occasion de faire les moules, elle sont encore chez moi et elles aussi, elles dorment.

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The logo, the slogan, the title (business name) are my ideas, as most of the material on this website, except some figurines made by my friend Mimi.
I am the author of every page except the page that Mimi has done, but the corrections and translation of her page are from me. All the different topics that I wrote are in the column at the right on every page of this website.

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Le logo, le slogan, le titre (raison sociale) sont mes idées, comme la plupart des choses que vous verrez sur ce site, à l’exception de certaines figurines crées par mon amie Mimi.

Je suis l’auteur de chaque page excepté la page écrite par Mimi, mais j’ai fait la correction de ses textes ainsi que la traduction de sa rédaction en anglais. Tous les différents sujets que j’ai écrits sont dans la colonne de droite sur chaque page de ce site.  J’ai plusieurs pages en anglais que je n’ai pas encore traduite en français et parfois c’est le contraire. Parfois j’écris dans une langue,  parfois dans l’autre et parfois dans les deux langues.

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Once in a while I create a new page on a different subject of this hobby, and sometimes I can even talk about things a bit, (or a lot) out of the main topic. You don’t have to agree with me, it’s only my opinion. I am not all the time rationnal and I’m a nobody. I don’t claim to be intelligent, not at all when I see all the mistakes that I do regularly (but who doesn’t make errors?)

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À l’occasion j’écris une nouvelle page, sur un différent sujet de ce hobby, et quelques fois je peux même écrire au sujet de choses un peu (ou beaucoup) en dehors du sujet général du modélisme. Vous n’avez pas à être d’accord avec moi, c’est seulement mon opinion. Je ne suis peut-être pas toujours rationnel et je ne suis personne. Je ne prétend pas être intelligent, pas du tout quand je regarde aux erreurs que je fais régulièrement (mais qui ne fait pas d’erreurs?).

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If you don’t see new pages added regularly, think that suffering of chronic depression is nothing obvious, even being really fully functionnal is rarely possiblle. If some days are productive, some others are a total loss, the ones when you feel like a fever and your body is like an enourmous stone to move, the days when you do everything upside down, when you forget everything, when you do only or almost only mistakes. Those days you can not predict them. They come and they go but there is always this feeling of sadness about this human existence, suffering of mankind, the misery of human spirit as I say. When you get your concentration doing something, you forget for a while, but it comes back regularly. Nevertheless, in my free time, with a lot of patience and courage I am able to create nice items or, I suppose, some acceptable articles on this website or blog or call it like you want.
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Si vous ne voyez pas de nouvelles pages ajoutées régulièrement, pensez que souffrir de dépression chronique n’est rien d’évident, même d’être parfaitement fonctionnel, mais néanmoins j’arrive à fonctionner tant bien que mal. Un hobby est un passe-temps et ce doit être un moment de relaxation, un temps intéressant… mais non, pas toujours. Il y a des étapes où on est très motivé, heureux des résultats de notre labeur et il y a aussi des moments de frustrations intenses où on ne réussit pas malgré tous nos efforts.

À travers les années j’ai créé une multitude de très beaux items et au fond j’en montre très peu sur ce site étant donné que je n’ai pas encore de copyright (Il faut de l’argent, de l’argent et toujours de l’argent pour réussir à en faire un jour, et je n’ai pas ”la bosse des affaires”, bien que j’ai des idées à profusion, des filières remplies de photos de mes travaux, des outils que je créé, des techniques de fabrications et ainsi de suite. D’un autre côté je dois gagner ma vie assez péniblement. J’ai fait mille métiers et j’ai écopé des milles misères qui vont avec, surtout de l’apprentissage d’un nouvel environnement, de nouvelles façons de faire à chaque fois et tout le stress qui s’en suit. J’ai appris beaucoup sur plein de choses mais à quel prix? Nous vivons dans un monde qui change constamment (trop vite) et il faut toujours s’adapter. S’adapter à un rythme d’enfer à ce qui change constamment (dont le domaine de l’emploi).

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I want to thank everyone visiting this website and above all, thank the ones who take the time to leave me a comment (my email address is at the bottom of this post). It is extremely important if ou have any question and would like a reply to send me a message directly from your own email system, otherwise I can’t give you a reply. Each time that I tried to answer a question using the internal system of this website, the email was returned to me being unable to reach the recipient. Is it possible that so many people make a mistake when they write their email address in the LEAVE A REPLY section? I don’t know but up to date I tried many times and it never worked. I have been loosing my time writing back to these persons each time that I tried, so one day we learn to do the things differently.

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Je veux remercier tous ceux qui visiteront ce site, et par-dessus tout, remercier d’avance ceux qui prendront le temps de me laisser un petit commentaire (mon adresse courriel est au bas de chaque page). Si vous avez des questions ou voulez suggérer une correction je vous prie d’utiliser mon adresse courriel autrement je ne pourrai vous répondre car les commentaires laissés sur ce site sont souvent des pourriels et souvent faits par des systèmes automatisés. Je ne vend les adresses de personne et n’envoies pas de pourriels, d’offres ou publicités quelconques.

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Ce site est ma propriété. Je paye pour le maintenir, il n’y a pas de publicité, de pop-up qui vous sautent en plein visage.

Quand je conçois des choses, je suis un travailleur lent, je pense beaucoup. Je peux essayer différentes solutions, j’ai beaucoup de patience, je suis perfectionniste, minutieux, consciencieux. J’ai le souci du détail et de l’exactitude. Ce n’est pas un problème pour moi de laisser un projet de côté le temps de trouver ou penser comment fabriquer certaines pièces compliquées, le temps de me documenter car j’adore la recherche et au fil des années j’ai remplis de très nombreux dossiers de documentations de toutes sortes. Mes constructions sont constamment ponctuées de recherches, pour des idées, des photos de détails, d’expériences, de créations d’outils particuliers, de gabarits, de perfectionnement, d’ajustement et de nouvelles idées. Je suis de par nature, un ”patenteux” comme on dit par ici. Je suis une terrible ”ramasseux”, je démonte presque tout, tout ce qui ne fonctionne plus, je recycle des pièces de toutes sortes. Elles me servent à fabriquer plein de trucs. Je regarde une pièce quelconque et elle m’inspire à faire quelque chose. Parfois je crée de toutes pièces et en d’autres occasions je modifie des pièces existantes, j’y ajoute, j’y retranche du matériel. J’adapte d’autres pièces ensemble. Je crée avec des tas de matériaux différents, que ce soit des plastiques, du métal ou autres. Parfois j’utilise des pâtes plastiques, du mastic de carrosserie, de l’époxy, de la résine de polyester ou autres. Je fais du moulage, j’explore de nouvelles techniques, j’improvise, je découvre.
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I am not going to use your email address and send you spams, offers or things of the kind, or bothering you, neighter that I will give, exchange or sell your address to anybody. I refuse to use the kind of software or program that is gathering emails from people to send them unwanted advertising, or build a database of these addresses or things of the kind, so if you have some questions, concerns, any correction or would like to participate or suggest something and would like a reply, PLEASE, PLEASE, send me a message from Your own email software. Otherwise I say it again, I won’t be able to answer you trough my website. Please copy and paste my email address at the bottom of this post.
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There won’t be any damn pop-up exploding in your face on this website. Enjoy your passage.

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I am a slow worker and I have to think a lot. I work hard on an extraordinary project since a long time, I take pictures of the work in progress and it is a long process because as usual I create plenty of parts from scratch or I modify and work hard to adapt one part to another and it is a bit like a chain reaction. You have to modify the next one also and the following one and so on… Then you always need something else and at first you are not sure what would fit between this and that. You scratch your head, you have to stop and think, and think, and think again. Sometimes you think that you need a specefic piece, but you look everywhere and don’t find something close enough. You think about another solution, another kind of part. You look trough hundreds of parts and you end up with 3, 4 or 5 pars and you have to fill the gaps and change other parts, stard over on some section. And then you get a better idea and start over again. You never have enough material. For example, I have 2 boxes full of tubes, smaller ones in one box and bigger ones in the other one. All kind of tubes, styrene, vinyl, chrome, steel, brass, copper, all kind of dimensions. There are plenty of kind of tubes that we don’t even think of : A marker is a tube if you cut both ends, a pen is a tube, the ink tube is in another one inside of the other one, a round vitamin can is a tube, a shampoo container can be a tube if it is round, a cap of a paint spray can is a tube if you cut the top part. Any cylindrical part is a tube, far to be only plumbing parts, tubes are all over, a roll of scotch tape has a tube in its center. A shock absorber on a car is a tube, a peanut butter jar is a tube
a big cartridge of silicone or caulking is a tube and so on. I recycle all king of material. If you are a good handyman there is always something broken that must be repaired, something to install, something that doesn’t fit and you need to fabricate some type of homemaid adaptor. So this is what I am. A guy who is repairing, modifying, creating things. A sneaky guy who likes to dismantle something broken and look if it can be fixed. If not, there is plenty of components useful for other repairs or constructions.

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Si vous voulez construire quelque chose de beau, droit et symétrique, vous ne pouvez pas utiliser seulement vos yeux comme outils de travail. Vous avez besoin de lignes guides. Vos mains et une paire de pince ne sont pas toujours les meilleurs outils pour y arriver. . Vous n’irez pas très loin de cette manière. C’est pourquoi souvent je fabrique des gabarits qui me permettent de faire un beau travail. C’est l’une des raisons pourquoi j’ai des tas de boîtes, de tiroirs pleins de pièces, de matériaux, de fixations, de vis, boulons et choses du genre, et un placard plein de tiges de barres, de plaques d’acryliques, d’aluminium, de contreplaqués, de tuyaux et j’en passe. Je passe parfois plus de temps à créer un gabarit, que le temps à réaliser la pièce comme telle. Je peux me consoler que ma pièce est cependant bien faite, c’est le prix à payer.
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If you want to build something nice, straight and symetrical, you can not use all the time only your eyes as a guideline, your 2 hands and a pair of plier or a screwdriver. You won’t go very far that way. Sometimes you just can’t create an item only with these things. It is not rare that I need to fabricate a tool or a template, or a jig if I want to be able to create an item, or modify it. This is one of the reasons why I have boxes, drawers and storage bins plenty of all kind of material : brackets of all dimensions and all kinds, tubes, fittings, adapters, treaded rods, studs, fasteners, connectors, bolts, nuts, screws, cutter pins, springs, ball bearings, locks, terminals, plugs, u-bolts, grommets, wires, caps, rods, washers, anchors, rivets, toggle bolts, puleys, bushings, hinges, steel angles, flat bars, plywoods, sheetmetals, you name it. You never know what you will need! As for tools? If I could own a machine shop I would be so happy, but this is not the case. I have a bunch of power tools including a drill press, router, arc welding, grinder, band saw and tool boxes for carpentry, plumbing, car mechanic and other ones. My father was a very good handy man and I grew up working with his tools. I worked also in many workshops in my life and learned plenty of things, but many jobs means also many periods with no income in between the jobs, and a lot of stress when you learn a new job, so much stress!, a lot of insomnias and sleepless nights because of my weak nervous system.

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I always liked to adapt things together, modify this and that, cutting, drilling, gluing, soldering, welding, making treads, sanding. Making some shapes with body filler, fibreglass, epoxy, plaster, plastic pastes and so on. I think that I am very good at creating templates and tools. This is a must if you don’t have a milling machine, a metal lathe, a CNC machine. If you think a lot about a way to create a complicated piece, some day you find a solution. There was some items that I wanted to create since several years but I didn’t know how. The only way for me seemed to give the work to a machine shop. Then, one day came an idea in my mind and I found the solution. It’s been like that for a couple of difficult items and one day or another comes a revolutionnary idea in my mind, an ingenious technique and then it can work. Sometimes it is curious how the human brain works. You are blocked by a problem for years and nothing happens. One day you think again about the problem and so many times it came back to your mind once in a while but no solution. Then suddenly it’s like if you would be hit by a lightning and comes this extraordinary idea. You now have the solution.

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So I was saying that I have boxes of all kinds of material. I happen sometimes to flip over on the floor the same box of parts 3 times in the same day, taking a look again at the same couple of hundred parts one by one, but this time I look for a different part, something that I didn’t think of the previous time. These boxes are made of sturdy cardboard. They are the type that we use for document storage. I have many of these boxes plenty of parts of all kinds, sorted by type of parts and dimensions, in bags sometimes. Some days I search more than I work on my project, but this is part of the game (silly game I would say). Sometimes you are discouraged because you tried many solutions and nothing worked. C’est la vie!
Another day it works better and finally you succeed, but the work is far to be finished. There is so many things still to do, so many questions. What will be the next step like? How am I going to do that? Will it be easy or a lot of work and frustrations? If you create a figurine you may sometimes have some hardship making a hand and when you work on the fingers they break and you have to start over but creating a vintage race car involves some crafting of mechanical parts (race parts) it involves some kind of engineering notions, some desing and some historical context, fashion of the time. If you don’t want to create only something that looks nice but not just like an empty shell with nothing inside or let say that you build a beautiful race car with 4 huge tires, nice graphics, supposed to be a MODIFIED STOCKER type, but under the car you left the factory stock suspension, under the hood a factory stock engine and the wiper motor is still there on the firewall and all the stock components. Let say that because people see the interior you build a pitiful rollcage more or less crooked and the rest is factory stock including a Chesterfield style seat (lol) Then you paint all the interior flat black, , so it is hard to see the mess. I have seen plenty of this. I studied mechanic at school and worked a lot on cars. I have seen plenty of race cars under all angles. I love to be well documented. I love details, fine details. It takes so much courage to transform a street car into something that looks like a real race car, but I mean with the correct suspension, rollcage, race equipment, especially if you have to create your own parts and I mean many of them. Ouf! I am working on something difficult at the moment. A project that I started around 6 years ago. I take it back at different times and when I am drained it returns on a shelf for a while. This is my nicest project. I solved many problems up to date and it is encouraging, but still so much to do.

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If you want to read some comments left by people, or leave a comment directly in this website (will be edited on approval), notice that I won’t give a reply to your questions if you don’t contact me by email. So I was saying if you want to look at the comments, go to the top of this page and click just after the title “Welcome…” on the smaller characters showing the number of comments, The page is going to load and you will see all the commens that I approved, then drag the slider down to the bottom of the page and you will see the white rectangular space with the title LEAVE A REPLY, where you can write your comment.

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Again, many thanks for your comments.
God Bless you of his mercy
Florent Beauchemin
My email address / mon adresse courriel:
florent.beauchemin@gmail.com

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