Artful69

Cheers Gaz ... It looks like I'll have to order the entire Barracuda parts catalogue! Will read when I have time. Rog

Apparently I have a couple of Amur Reaver correction sets and props on the way to fix up the G-10 Erla kits I have … BUT … they have no stock of the G-6 correction, which - to my knowledge - was the best out there. So - needs must … does anyone else do anything to fix that mess that’s actually worth the outlay? Rog

It seems like fairly complex story! At least you made some money along the way ... The mining construction boom in Western Australia lasted a fair few years ... beginning to thin out around mid 2015 ... In the 15 years or so of growth (early 2000's onwards) property values skyrocketed!! I was basically priced out of the market. The property market went into a period of recession from about 2016 onward. It was JUST getting to the point where a house and land was within my affordability while working a Pest Technician, when the Federal and State Governments decided to "Stimulate" the economy during the early stages of the COVID debacle. Throwing taxpayers money at the housing market, without any real thought as to how to apply the funding in a fiduciary manner, meant builders took the absolute mick' and prices skyrocketed again overnight. Furthermore there wasn't enough land to feed the instant demand growth and ... the end result was that I was priced out of the market again - and I was not happy. I was almost at the point of getting some building contracts made up too. I gave it about another 6-12 months and then decided that I just needed to go find more income - which I did - in my current FIFO role! Banks look at 12 months in FIFO roles as being the minimum acceptable ... so that hurdle is overcome. Because of the size of the income increase I can fund something better than I was originally getting too - despite recent rate rises. It seems things worked out decently for both of us! Rog

Good question! Firstly … I currently rent a 3x2 unit. There is a master bedroom with an ensuite, a second bedroom that is almost the same size as the master … and a third bedroom that is smaller. currently I use the master bedroom as my bedroom, the second bedroom as the stash room and the third bedroom as my study / office. in the new place the bedroom without robes or doors is the office (bedroom 4) and one of the rear bedrooms will become the stash room - leaving the other as a “guest room” Later, I will install a drop stair ladder and some MDF boards into the roof space and some insulated cladding for a storage space where I can probably leave the stash. the front of the house faces ESE … so the RHS of the building will catch most of the sun. Rog

Had to move out of even the outer-burbs to get this sized block - 17m wide and 25m deep … $148K AUD about an hour south of Perth City and 10 mins from Mandurah … the build will cost about the $305K mark and has a few inclusions besides the slab, bricks, windows and roof. More to come buddy! Rog

There’s always a smart arse or two in the room! … To answer Scotts questions on my priorities … there are a couple of things to be considered here - bank valuation is one of them. Regardless of fit out and inclusions (detailing and AM In modeling parlance!) the bank wants to know how many bedrooms, bathrooms, square metre-age of living space etc etc an so forth before agreeing to finance the damn thing!! … Airbrushing (and anything creating fumes) will be conducted in the oversized garage - There is enough space for shelving and a VERY generous workbench! … primary assemblies will be conducted in what is now titled “Living Room” (the Theatre being the lounge room with TV) … you will note the high window on the RHS wall - allowing for me to build a lovely sized display cabinet there … so build, paint, display ✅ Al fresco is an old friend of mine … we've shared many a cappuccino, pasta, dolcetto or bourbon together … holds a special place in my heart and so is allocated an appropriate outdoor area to share a sunset and muse over the days. Engineering reports just about done … awaiting on some documentation so I can apply for finance (which is a “slam dunk” I believe!) … as soon as that’s approved we’ll be moving to pre-start where all the colours and styles are picked out. There is a lot I have elected to do in parallel with the builder but will save me money doing separately … more on that later … and yes this will be the build thread, so I will provide plenty of updates and photos as they happen. Rog

Yesterday afternoon (when I woke up - because I’m on night shift presently!!) the final preliminary sketch plans arrived for the house I intend to build … To date I have selected the block of land - which was a mission!! … and FINALLY engaged a builder who was willing to provide the closest possible outcome to what I wanted. After several sketches and a bit of back and forth, this is where we are up to! Rog

FINALLY!!! ... One of my holy grail kits makes an appearance!!! ... If they build this thing modular (and with that separated nose assembly it looks like it!), they can sell a few variants ... and in that case I see me landing 2 or more kits ... The A-20 was always a fav of mine ... Now if they'll just get on with that Ju-52 and Do-17z my life will be complete!! lol Well ... Perhaps a Vickers Wellington Mk.III also ... Rog

Bill, I take it that Fw190D-9 comes via that discount I posted?? Rog

Kev ... Actually the FV101 was the Scorpion light reconnaissance tank ... the Spartan was FV103 ... I dug up the article listing all types built on the same chassis here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Vehicle_Reconnaissance_(Tracked) All in all, the array results in quite the miniaturised panzer division - with the diversity of vehicle types represented on the same chassis. Either way ... the FV432 is not based on the same chassis - just a similar one Rog

If you're referring to the guitarist from The Who ... the nose is out about 10 scale mm ... Rog

This thing looks like it was built on the Scorpion FV101 chassis! Rog

Hey hey ... Boxes arrived!! ... I have some more traffic inbound ... but the missing link in my '48 ZM F-4 collection arrived ... Purchased off e-Bay out of USA on the global shipping program ... Not wrapped up as I asked ... but bulletproof nonetheless! SWS48-04 ... the first of their F-4J's Going back a few posts on here ... you may remember I got a few kits from Hobbyeasy out of Hong Kong that turned up in a less than satisfactory state due to poor packaging ... by far the worst was the GWH P.40 which had broken and damaged parts all through the badly crushed box ... I had to press my point to them - but they agreed to send a replacement ... Originally I was looking to get my Border Lancaster out of the same store ... but I decided that the risk of damage in transit was too great and arranged to buy that one locally ... I advised them to send the replacement - asking them to use a complete cardboard box - not an "assembled" one - and to use a different shipping company ... At least they got the second one right! ... but it appears that they are still making up their own cardboard boxes!! The box seemed to be sturdy but once again suffered some compression damage to the underneath of the GWH box ... ... but at least the box top is without any real blemish ... ... and more importantly ... thanks to the additional bubblewrap placed inside the box ... there's no damage to the kit parts ... almost! Unfortunately once again ... the PE, being in its own wrapper and floating around separately inside the box, has been partly lodged between the sprues and the box side - as well as the bottom ... not badly and certainly not almost destroyed like the last lot ... but enough to suggest that maybe GWH should look to summarily bag instructions, decals and PE like most other companies do! ... Rog

U poor bastard ... lol Rog

Got an email this morning ... not relevant to me - It's out of USA and I have the kit already ... Rog

Perhaps the recent Midway movie and imminent release of a 32' Val and Kate - announced a year or two back - inspired them into action! Rog

I like a good bust too ... just on a completely different type of model Rog

No ... it's not your age ... I saw a You Tube clip of it on a forum somewhere back in about 2013-14 ... At the time WOT was an extremely popular world online game which really assisted in making the anime so attractive to the general populace. I'm an absolute tank nut - so I chased the show down and watched it ... Carl describes it pretty well below ... as he says there's some huge suspension of belief involved (which is where we get the saying when we're explaining anything off the wall - "because ... anime" - Like the "School Carrier" reference Carl makes below) - but it makes it all the more fun ... The original artists didn't expect it to take off so well ... the 1st 3 episodes were presented at some well known spring anime festival in Japan where the latest Naruto or other well known series are presented ... that year they were up against a reimagining of a VERY historically popular anime in Space Battleship Yamato - and apparently it stole the show! If you like overcoming underdog / coming of age / redemption type stories ... this has it all. The title song went to #1 over there and was my phone ringtone for a year or so. It proved so popular that a full feature length movie was planned and made ... and to satisfy the demand in the interim ... a glossed-over story from the TV series was revisited and elaborated on during a 1 hour TV special (The Real Anzio Battle)... The movie was rated as #1 in Japan for months and the fans were not satisfied in the slightest - so Das Finale was conceptualised ... DF is one competition spanning 6 episodes of varying length - to date 3 have been released in theatres and the 4th started production last year. The handbrake manoeuvres and drifting escapades from the auto-club girls make me laugh ... But it's the volleyball club girls (team Duck) that are constantly trying to incorporate their tactical ideas and game references that crack me up the most! ... They are always the ones to come up with some daring, left-field plan that goes against anyones better judgement - and they actually pull it off!! ... "Operation Killer Serve" was my all time favourite! I absolutely LOVE all the memes that pop up on the internet using GUP as a reference Rog

Carl ... I don't recall you mentioning that before ... but its great that they watched it ... it's a great anime - and it was what got me into watching other anime, looking for similar 'feel good' stories, a good decision - considering the awfully written woke garbage thats constantly rammed down our throats these days. It's funny ... in World of Tanks most people refer to Soviet SPGs as "Troll Canons" as they are the least likely to hit a target that they are scoped at ... in the GUP movie it was Mika's BT42 (Continuation Academy) that did the trolling - on the University girls team with the Säkkijärven Polkka playing in the background. The German tanks don't get too much attention though ... and the Panthers get whacked at near the start of every match they are in! 😭 Rog

Girls Und Panzer!!! ... That's Maho Nishizumi's tank ... tho why Erika Itsumi is popping out of the loaders hatch, I don't know 🤷‍♂️ ... She's the commander of a Henchel turreted King Tiger. I might just grab that one ... I got the original Panzer IV.D Rog

Actually the ONLY things I think I'll be saving from my earlier Tamiya kits ARE the figures ... Most of them being replaced by Dragon equivalents. The vehicles themselves are accurate, easy to build and well detailed ... It was a combo of Tamiyas' rubber band tracks and Dragons all-in-one Smart Kit approach (photo etch and metal barrels) that did them in for me. These newer generation jobs with the link and length track bring Tamiya back into serious consideration! Rog

... Fortune passes everywhere! ... I forgot to mention Not enough bang-for-buck, or too many bucks for the bang!! None of these manufacturers can win lol ... Rog

Guys ... what y'all are missing here is that I'm single At least until Jane arrives in country next Feb ... She's seen my stash ... and knows I collect ... I've told her I want to start rationalising the older stuff apart from the new (A couple of Kotare Spitfires will replace the Revell/Hasegawa/Hobby Boss stuff in the stash etc) ... and some of the double ups ... I will sort out what to sell before we move into the new place and she will look after e-Bay while I'm away at work ... She also wants to build (Tanks) alongside me ... So a win there also ... The stash is built NOW so I don't have to do it LATER when my available funds will be limited to a couple of kits per year ... Rog

Hammer, Nail, Head ... So true ... whine about accuracy ... detail / no detail / wrong detail / too much detail ... price ... AM / no AM ... Rog

just browsing a local hobby store … $180 AUD … dunno how much postage would be out of Aus … but it’s a rare find nowadays!! Rog