Clunkmeister

Awesome build. I have the ZM kit, and I’m not ready for that battle right now.

She finally has arrived! MY PRECIOUS!

Agreed there, Hubert. In this Country at least, everything, and I mean EVERY THING you see, read, touch, hear, or interact with has to be looked at with some bit of minor suspicion of whatever it is you're looking at being overly or underhandedly influenced by political opportunism. It's a sad fact of our times here. This Country is pretty much equally divided 45/10/45, 45% liberal, 10% undecided, and 45% conservative, and each and every thing we consume or experience has political undertones these days. Even stupid kid's cartoons. I've taken to listening to Dr. Fauchi when he gives his briefings every day. He's a bigshot immunologist and a qorld expert on infectious diseases so his words carry alot of weight. He's pretty much universally respected, or at least he was until last weekend, when he stated that the President's actions to quickly shut down all air travel from China in the early part of this epidemic, undoubtedly saved many, many lives. Then, of course, Dr. Fauchi was immediately trashed by the left leaning news orgs as being a traitor, having drank Trump's Kool-Aid, or whatever. Par for the course. Universally liked, as long as he says what your "side" believes in. I'm not the only one here to look at this whole thing with utter dismay. Not for my business, not for our life's savings, not for the uncertainty of my employees lives, but instead, for the uncertainty of when Wingnuts will release the Handley Pages and Lancasters. LOLOLOL (Hey this is America. It's all about ME, right?)

I'm blessed with a semi autonomous staff as well, Hubert, although I CHOOSE to take one of the paid positions myself simply because I haven't been able to fins someone who can do my job as well as I do. But I can, (and do), take time off to do modelling related shows, etc, when I can rely on a staff member to fill in when I'm away. #1 rule in business is not to be "the business" yourself to where the entire resale value of the business is the owner, but as for right now, I still need to be able to work, I'd go stir crazy otherwise. On Friday, the bottom dropped out. We have absolutely zero new business, and worse, website hiots are the lowest they've ever been and the phone is silent other than for spam calls asking about my car's "extended warranty." I have furloughed my two new hires, and my two key employees are keeping things moving. Both are good men who, in our meeting this morning, advised that they would work at the level the shop needs, so one went home already and will stay on call, and the last one will stay and handle all our carryover from the previous week. As is typical for the US Government, one Party put a pretty decent sounding small business assistance plan together, and the other Party just skuttled the entire thing, so as of right now, there is still nothing on the horizon for small business. Government mopving in this Nation involves one side putting a plan together, and, in exchange for their votes, the other side loading it all up with "pork" so they can get their own personal pet projects funded. that's how we get the Bridges to Knowhere and the 10 million dollar studies determining the mating habits of freshwater leeches after being immersed in Jack Daniels Whiskey for 2 hours. But, hopefully, sanity will return and we can get on with our lives. We are going to a "Stay at Home" type order, all resturants are closed, all sporting events cancelled, concerts and symposiums cancelled as well as live Worship Services. All can be done by live feed, but as of right now, only the Churches are taking advantage of that. Discipline here is much, much worse, with young people in many places absolutely refusing to follow the rules, and congregating on beaches, in parks, etc. The pictures of 10s of thousands of young "Spring Break" college kids on the beaches ibn California and Florida just boggle the mind......

Yep, if nothing else, maybe our creative juices will get flowing.

Stunning work either way

Is all this included in the kit, or is it mostly scratched?

I haven’t been shut down yet. An “essential business” they say. But I have zero customers so I’m at a standstill now. We’ll see how things go. I actually had what amounted to a good, solid 2 hours bench time. And, after my B-36, I’m considering building my first wooden sailing ship in 40 years. Cochrane’s brig HMS Speedy in 1/64 scale by Vanguard Models.

Thanks Dale. I’ll remove my response. Your life experiences are such that I admire your strength and determination That’s am amazing testimony to your inner strength

Sure is, Phil. Obviously our lives have been turned upside down here, but I’m still working on this every moment I have. Im wiring the engine right now, Sosa soon as that is done, I’ll get it mounted and we’re home free.

I have an “essential business” But no customers, so I sit and twiddles thumbs.

Bad idea but doable.

Not really my bag, but I figured I’d give it a try...

Yes they are. I buy from Hannants, as I find they have much of the Eastern European “Mom and Pop” shops stuff in stock.

Well, I don’t know if it’s feel good propaganda talk meant to cheer the masses, or the real deal, but I’ve heard plenty of talk from reliable sources today about a very closely controlled clinical trial, conducted in France, of using Hydroxycholoroquine, an old Malaria and arthritis drug on Covid-19 infected. The results were 100%. Every single patient recovered, and recovered quickly. Then, there are tests using a new anti viral agent originally developed to fight Ebola on Covid-19 patients. Again, very successful with a complete turn around within 24-36 hours. Hydroxychloroquine is a readily available, cheap drug, and the Ebola serum is of course, new and extremely expensive. Of course the Drug Companies are pushing the new drug hard. But people ARE at work, and I expect some breakthrough, (if this isn’t it), very, very soon. Most of the world has a distinct advantage over the USA in this regard. Approval is generally quick in most of the world, but in the USA, where bureaucracy reigns supreme, even old trusted therapies must be completely retested with trials and FDA submissions for approval before it can be used in the general public. This, best case, is months away for the USA. The President said there was plenty available, but the FDA immediately shut him down, saying that it needed clinical controlled trials, studies done, reports written, and more studies done before it would even b considered for use. So who the heck knows.

Mike, did PP custom make that prop for you, or is it one from his selection?

Very, very nice work Mike! Phenomenal as usual!

Tim, maybe we need a GB of these. It's about the coolest looking WW1 plane there is.

Coming from Bob von Buckle, that's quite the compliment!! -E

Phil in honor of your birtday, your next build needs to be a D.VllF with the high altitude Bimber inline 6.

yep. That old Bimmer (Bimber?) engine looks great, though.

Barry I use the tamiya 2 part epoxy putty. You just have to form it a bit. But this got it beat 100 times over. And what works GREAT for creating the rough cast look on glasis plates and such is the Mr. Surfacer 500 that comes in the jar. just apply it with a sponge and keep working it to get that stippled look. When it dries it looks all the world like rough cast steel plate.

Mike, I love your approach on this. Like yourself, I find some kind of odd masochistic pleasure in pleasure in HPH kits as they provide us with subjects nobody else dares tackle in 1/32 "The One True Scale". Personal;ly,. I would probably have hauled out the Evergreen sheet and started drilling, but in retrspect, I think you made the right move here. I have this kit sitting in my stash somewhere, but before I tackle it, the HPH B-36, Fisher's Guppy Skyraider, and Fisher's September Fury need to be finished. I'm wondering if I need to build the Aviattic Balilla first to get me in the frame of mind to tackle this one. When I see a builder like you scratching your head on a build, even if it is HPH, warning klaxons go off in my mind and I stop and take immediate notice. hahahaha

HOT DIGGETY, Mike! This is looking stupendous. I love seaplanes I love resin I love WW1 biplanes, so what's not to like on this?