Artful69

Lots of times ... always good! ... Buy in bulk - say: 5-6 kits and save big time, even with shipping included! A couple of years back I got some solid savings on Tamiya / Hasegawa kits ... Including postage it worked out to about 70-75% of what I would pay here in Australia. Regards Rog

I have no understanding of 'U Values' ... so I'll leave that one to the engineers / drafts-people who have to get these things council approved. I think that there's a thin thermal blanket installed onto the back of the Face Brick, within the cavity walls? ... I have seen it used on buildings but I have no idea if my house fits within that particular building code. I do know that every house built these days has to have some form of roofing insulation installed. But because there is no BAL (Bushfire Attack Level) or soundproofing requirement (highways or close industrial areas etc) registered against my house, it will only have standard ceiling insulation installed (Fibreglass bats) ... I would have liked to get sarking insulation also ... but that was cost prohibitive to my budget and I had other priorities which were more pressing. Rog

Sorry, you will need to be more specific? Are you referring to roofing insulation? ... What is a 'U Value'? Rog

1) Brick design ... the industry 'standard' in Western Australia is double brick ... a standard brick size is 230mm long, 110mm wide and 76mm high ... and these are nowadays defined as a 'single course' brick ... however, looking at my photos, you will notice that most of my bricks are larger - because they are 'double course' bricks. These are becoming somewhat of a 'standard' on their own now ... as easy for bricklayers to lay as standard single course bricks and more 'area' can be laid in a day ... meaning more wall can be assembled in pretty much the same time frame as traditional builds. Of course, we have other methods of construction. These include Brick Veneer a stud framed wall on the inside with a brick wall on the outer. Another is a stud framed wall with plasterboard internal, insulation in the framework and some form of cladding on the exterior (Asbestos used to be used - until that became a no-no - now it's either colour-bond steel (like my corrugated roof will be), Fibero Cement or Hardy-Plank). My walls will be double brick ... as per the construction standard laid out below ... The external wall is laid upon the concrete footing, while the internal wall is laid upon the slab edge. The outward facing brick is known as the 'Face brick' as that is the one that everyone sees when looking at the house ... and in my case those are the limestone coloured ones. The internal brick is traditionally rendered and then covered with a plaster 'set' ... although in my case I had a no cost option to select 'dry wall' plaster board. In this case the interior walls will be 'cleaned' up (no lumps and bumps) and plasterboard will be stuck to the brickwork. When I consulted a painter about the best option he said grab plasterboard if it's not going to cost you extra - no cornice join cracking or paint splintering and only one coat of primer required! Easier to paint also The concrete blocks you refer to are still used here ... we call them 'Cinder Blocks' (for whatever reason?) and although there have been some residential applications ... mostly you see them (if used at all) in commercial applications. 2) Metal door frames have been used here for a long time. Mostly for internal doors (which are paper/wood ply) - while external door frames are still traditionally wood frames, the larger spec (1200mm) entrance door that I have included is all alloy frame and door with a toughened glass (Below - but with a white coloured frame) - I simply asked if my laundry door could be the same style of design. there is, of course, the traditional metal framed sliding door to the Alfresco area. Rog

The weather has been patchy here for the last few days ... vacillating between bright and sunny to stormy and rainy. A sure indication that the weather is finally turning toward winter ... unlike a lot of countries or regions where the change incurs freezing temperatures with constant rains or snows, a typical West Australian winter (below the tropics) is characterised by cooler weather than the summer with an increased propensity for rainfall. This is perfect building weather as any cement used will cure at a measured rate ... rather than with extreme rapidity - as in the hot summer. I received a courtesy email a day after my last visit advising me that bricks were due to be delivered to site within the next week. Since I can't fly back to work, I'm stuck home until the COVID symptoms dissipate ... and with the weather being calmer yesterday, I decided to take another trip down to the block and have a look to see if anything had changed. It's actually a nice relaxing drive ... and definitely not "Just around the corner". With the way that the weather has been, I wasn't expecting much to be honest, but I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived. The block has been cleared up, the trench on the RHS rear filled in, the footings cleared and building supplies delivered to site. As I drove around the bend in the road, these are immediately apparent: The portable toilet (also referred to as the "site shitter" or "dunny") along with the portable tool shed (which at this point houses the shrink-wrapped pallet of cement and lime bags. A truckload of "brickies sand" has also been delivered along with the two types of bricks used in the build ... The grey doorframes are those for the interior ... bedrooms etc ... They will be painted much later in the build process at the same time as the attached doors, cornices and the ceilings. The powder coated white frames are plastic coated (to prevent scratching) - these are external window and door frames ... You can see that the site has been well cleared ... Very well done, I think! The bricks have been placed strategically around the site in order for the brickies to have them to hand for building, rather than have to constantly wheel loads of them into the area being worked on. On every wall of the house - except for those at the front (viewed from the road) - The red clay bricks are built up on the slab edge ... while the lighter 'limestone' coloured bricks are built up from the footing as a "face" brick ... this will leave a 50mm "breathing" cavity. At the front of the house, the red bricks will be "Face" bricks also - as a render will be applied to them. In order to get my budget sorted for the rest of the process, I called the builder admin to get some projected timeframes ... From "Slab Down" (beginning of May) to "Plate high" (walls built to roof level) should be around 8 weeks or so ... which means the walls should be up by around the end of the first or second week of July. From the there the next stage is "Roof Cover" which should take around a month after "Plate High" and from there another month until "Lock Up". At that stage all the interior works will be commenced and the next official stage will be "PCI" (Practical Completion Inspection). At "PCI" I will go around the house with the building supervisor and note any issues that will need to be redressed before "Hand Over" ... which is when I take possession of the house. Rog

Believe me, within the 'standards' there are 'good' trades and 'poor' trades ... Home Group have a good reputation and inspection of the concrete slab did not disappoint! The surface was skimmed properly - smooth as marble! The wet areas were dug out beautifully and with plenty of depth for the tiler to pitch their desired gradient. The Slab edge was even the whole way around with no blemishes in the slab edge. Daniel (who was doing the parging to the slab edge when I arrived) has been a Termico employee for 20 years and is one of their most trusted employees. The job was done flawlessly - I inspected it afterward ... Looking forward to the next stage in the build now - brick walls!! Rog

In Australia ... well Western Australia at least ... its a building standard that all wet areas are built with overflow drainage ... This earlier shot shows this drainage piping circled ... The near one is for the minor bathroom at the rear of the house, the next one is for the ensuite bathroom at the front and the last one is for the separate toilet within the ensuite. The reason that the wet areas are 'dug out' is to ensure a gradient can be formed from all directions toward the overflow ... or in the showers case ... toward the shower drainage hole. There is a similar drainage hole in the laundry also. There is actually going to be extensive tiling throughout the house. The only carpeted areas will be the 3 bedrooms and the home theatre. Rog

I arrived home at the end of this last swing with my first ever dose of COVID ... I've had minor head colds that were more savage than this thing, which I can only describe as a minor annoyance. Not much to report from the first pass at the block ... It looks a little more messy ... but that's because all the stormwater drainage soak wells and piping have been dug in ... Site should be cleaned up shortly with bricks delivered next ... Rog

A quick trip down to the block today before flying out to work tomorrow. The slab is down!! I had to wait for photo's as an old work colleague from the pest control company sprayed the slab edge with parging chemical (the blue is actually a dye mixed with the clear chemical so you can see where you've sprayed - and if you've missed any) ... The slab is well poured and finished - a good tradie! The footings poured away from the slab are either for the garage wall or pillar / posts. Rog

Ok ... so you see the photo above where the concrete footings have been poured? ... The black polyurethane plastic is the moisture barrier - but before this is rolled out there is a termite barrier spray conducted (pumped through a shower head into the soil) using concentrated Bifenthrin (I know because I used to do it for the company that is doing the termite work here!) ... according the Australian Building Standards that is called the 'Part A' barrier ... 'Part B' is the perimeter barrier sprayed into the soil surrounding the building at the end of the build ... Where a concrete hardstand is poured into the garage (99% of WA houses) a full pretreat is conducted before concrete pour also. Some buildings use a physical barrier system instead. All timber for building here is milled and graded before sale to the builder ... a truck delivers it to site for the chippies. I'll provide details of the different bits as we progress through the build ... Rog

Another box arrived at the post office the day before fly out ... Since I had to head down to Ravenswood to check the block I called in to collect it on the way back. The latest ZM 1/48 Phantom II ... the Late E I already pre-ordered two Fw-190A-4's and after the salary goes through tomorrow I'll pre-order the latest Skyraider kit ... They must be good sellers - I have the 1st two ... then the limited edition ones (with weapons sets included in-box) ... now there's this latest one to get! Rog

The two concrete tanks are for storm water - soak wells ... They will be buried in the ground at the front of the property in front of the verandah, with PVC pipes laid around the perimeter of the building collecting from the downpipes and running it to the soak wells. Sewerage is handled by pipes deep underground - septics now only exist in remote areas. The only serviced item on the property will be gas ... there are no gas lines to the properties in that region - so bottle delivery it will be for now! The two materials available for roofing structures here are timber or steel ... the steel is a blue colour - due to the protective coating used Depending on the style of construction, steel may be used in wall frame construction also ... my house will be double brick so there will be no occasion for steel, regardless. The other material used, is in fact timber ... Either straight up pine or composite (glued ply) depending on the structural requirement. We have special pine tree farms for the growth of the stuff as the pine grows quite fast ... Most hardwood is now protected under the heritage laws. Sometimes the pesticide coating on the pine will produce a blue or green colour, but all structural timber is pesticide treated due to building regulations regardless now. Rog

A few pic's of my land from settlement to present day! Rog

Absolutely! ... I made a couple of mistakes in the most recent design that I will need to rectify and they can only be done once the house is built now, unfortunately ... I'll explain those later! But otherwise, I couldn't be more impressed. Apart from the design amendments mentioned there will be some additional cabinetry inside that will need doing - largely because their cabinetry is all pre-designed flat pack which is assembled in-situ ... and I need both some 'additional' and amended items installed. Apart from that - all that is required of me internally is painting! as everything else will be done. Externally its a slightly different matter but 🤷‍♂️ Actually there are strict requirements on building design depending on proximity to other developments and bushland ... I think I'll be all good on that score. My philosophy is minimal maintenance ... so brick paving and artificial turf will be the order of the day ... the absolute LAST thing I want to be doing on my R&R is gardening - yuck! I have a chemical spray backpack for weeds, insects and spiders - and I'm not afraid to use it! Rog

The latest satellite imagery of the immediate locality with my block circled ... ... and revised floor-plan with new builder. I lost $10K in the contract cancelation with the old builder ... I would have lost more but I threatened to go slam them on social media. At any rate, the sales person for Home Group (Alby) invited me into the showroom when I called and asked if I could send in my plans from the old builder via email. At this stage the old contract had not been finalised ... but the upshot was ... I got pretty much all of the inclusions I wanted originally PLUS an extra 10 SqM of floorspace for $5K LESS than the old builder ... which meant I could relocate my laundry inside the house, although I had to sacrifice a metre off the rear of the garage to fit it how I wanted - and at a higher specification for fixtures and fittings ... I also got to relocate the garage to the same side as the alfresco area, creating more outdoor living area on that side of the building. There is a slight mess up in design involving a window that I will need to engage a professional renovations builder to fix once I'm moved in ... but that's partly my fault. Rog

Well ... It's been a LONG time since I updated this thread! ... As noted above ... The land I purchased settled on 8th February last year. After exchanging several emails with the pre-start co-ordinator for the builder I originally engaged, I discovered how badly they had ripped me off. I had started with a list of inclusions that, from experience and research, I should have been able to include in the build price. During the planning phase I had let the sales rep negotiate me out of just about every one of them ... to the point where the building contract I signed maxed out my affordability, while having a bucketload of finishing work still required in order to make the house 'liveable' when complete. It sucked the life out of me so much that there was no excitement left towards the build. After mucking around for a couple of months with the pre-start consultant, trying to get something working, she referred my file to the sales manager. His assessment was that the contract should be terminated ... which it was eventually ... but this comment started me off with a builder that I knew had a good reputation of offering value for money in well constructed homes ... So now Home Group are building my home after a delayed Administration period ... Pictures and Updates to follow! Rog

A couple of days to reset the body clock after flying home from two weeks of night shift - and I made the trip down to the post office to collect a few orders that have arrived ... Firstly ... this small box ... Contained an even smaller item ... A replacement for a missing part of my Meng 1/12 McLaren MP4/4 kit ... Well done Meng! Next box ... From NZ ... Kotare had a sale on via their webpage and - given the discount, a more favourable AUD/USD exchange rate at the time and decent shipping charges ... I decided to grab a few Spitfires ... because, as everyone knows, you can never have enough quality Spitfires, Hurricanes, 109's and 190's in the stash. Seriously though, including the shipping charges, I saved about $30-40 AUD per kit over the standard Australian retail pricing ... Next up was this large box from Sydney ... Which contained the latest edition of the superb HKM A-20 Kit ... I cannot stress enough how much this kit has jumped in design quality from previous HKM kits. If everything they produce in the future has this level of quality to it, it will be a whole new era for HKM ... Congrats to Neil and his team for this work of art!! Next up was this box from BNA ... Which contained another great second edition kit ... This time an earlier variant of Gecko models excellent 1/16 Panzer II ... ... And ... while shopping for this - I decided to grab some metal barrels for both kits. They didn't have the correct MG.34 barrel around ... BUT ... they did have the main armament via an Aber part. It's just a pity that the 1/16 kits don't usually come with a standard figure or two ... It does seem like the 1/16 figure market IS expanding though ... I have to think that Andy's Modeling Headquarters is somewhat responsible for the surge in product sales ... I'd love to see an early war panzer III (37mm main with twin MG.34's in the turret) and Panzer IV (Short 75mm 'stump') make it into big scale. Rog

The next ZM kit has been announced: There should be an Fw.190A-3 in “basic” format after this one I suspect … Aren’t we supposed to be getting another Hs.129 at some point? … with a different 37mm gun and was produced more than the others. Rog

So ... the standard release ZM Fw-190A-4 kit is up for pre-order ... 11,000yen + taxes Rog

4 Days … Thats how long it took to arrange a replacement part … to be shipped, with tracking, on Friday. Most of that delay time was taken by me not responding to questions asked straight away. If only everyones customer service was this sharp! Rog

A pleasure, guys. The level of detail and the refinement on this Meng kit is truely on another level ... I hope they do more ... like the 1986/87 Williams FW-11 of Nigel Mansell / Nelson Piquet - I don't think the externals of the Honda V6 were any different than those on the McLaren - or the Lotus 99T. The problem is, though - instead of putting all the engine components on their own separate sprues, you can see they've smattered them about the place ... so this engine is pretty much tied to this kit! There are a good number of F1 machines from this era that I'd love to see Meng do though ... The Benetton Ford V8 combo with the 4 colours ... Nigel Mansell / Alain Prost Ferrari ... Micheal Schumacher's first World Championship Benetton etc ... the possibilities are endless. Rog

Returning from taking my mum out for the evening, I had a look at 'Stage 2' of the build instructions - dealing with the transmission and rear suspension area. Although (in theory) there was supposed to be a couple of screws used in the engine block assembly (I didn't bother with them!), this will be the first stage in the build that metal components will be utilised. As you can see in my first post here, all the metal components were in a bag together ... so I opened the bag and began separating the parts - and hit the first snag of the build! ... 3 seemed like an odd number ... This photo of course, is enlarged - but it's very difficult to make out the differences between them without the magnification ... A quick Google search gave me an email for Meng to request spare parts and it was just a matter of finding out what pat number needed replacing ... ... and the winner is - MT-6! ... I sent off the email and within 30 mins or so I got an automated response indicating that they will look into the issue in the next few days ... we'll see how we go! Meanwhile ... I figured I'd get started on 'Stage 2' .... At this point I realised that When D31 and D32 are glued in place it will be awfully difficult to paint the coil-overs (D21 & D22) ... It would have taken a while to get another build section sorted out and it was getting late anyway so I packed up. and left it at this ... Perhaps my next R&R will yield more time? Rog

I was disappointed that I didn't get any spare recreational time on my last R&R break to tackle either this kit or the Beemax Lotus ... Today I made some time available to make a start on this one! ... Hopefully over the next couple of days I'll have more of both. And so ... with the Western Bulldogs and the Gold Coast Suns beating seven shades out of each other in the Football on streaming while I enjoy coffee and some model work ... here is 'Stage 1' of the build ... As stated previously ... the instruction manual feels a lot more 'precise' than the Beemax kit and this assembly looks like it will have a Zoukei-Mura feel to it - lots of detail to have fun on assembly, that will remain hidden afterwards. I won't be painting much until the sub assemblies are all ready to go! Following the layout to this first stage I grab all the relevant sprues ... Following the instructions (which appear far clearer than the Beemax effort) ... I'm amazed at how easy it is to snip the parts off the sprues, clean them up and fit them together. In most cases there is no gap between parts that have a very positive, tight fit - and so I am relying on Tamiya's Extra Thin capillary action to glue the parts. In other cases where test fitted parts yield a small gap after clean up, I'm using my standard Revell cement as a filler ... just as you would for a normal gasket seal! And just like that - two halves of a V6 engine! Moving along ... Putting both halves of the engine together, plus a couple of add-ons ... The next lot of add-on's includes a full clutch assembly ... The instructions invite you to paint all the parts before assembly ... Fat chance! The whole deal will be hidden inside a bell housing when attached to the transmission in 'Step 2' ... Fun and easy to assemble though! ... and very well detailed. Next I snip all the parts required for the next add-on's from the sprues and lay them out to clean and glue ... A small amount of assembly work ... and we're done! So ... First impressions of this build ... This Meng kit is the first I've ever started on from this company ... and if it continues onward in a similar fashion to how it has impressed me so far - it will NOT be the last ... The detail and positive fit of cleaned up components feels very much like Tamiya, Zoukei-Mura or HKM's new A-20G, while the instructions read (and feel) a lot like a ZM assembly also. The difference between this and the Beemax kit are like night and day ... While this thing gives the impression of professional precision, the Beemax feels like an old Matchbox kit in comparisson - and so it also leaves me with a lack of confidence in how the poor fit/finish issues might compound the further into the build it goes. Hopefully more to come before fly out! Rog

Whoa boy!! ... I hope so!! ... They were taking scans near a Spey Phantom II and a Bf 109.E also. ... and with all that - the externals need to be re-scribed to pretty it up enough to make MM gear worth the exercise. A new tooled Beau is well past the due date ... AND the big plus is - you can (like with a basic A-20 airframe) get several versions for minimal alteration of the main shape which minimises additional cost in tooling. As long as it's accurate, MM components can be fit to either provide extra detail or corrections to internal errors (if present). This would be the big hope! ... fully detailed engines ... a range of interchangeable components - Thimble radome, underwing rockets, torpedo etc ... I'd buy at least 2 or 3! ... And yet it seems to happen all the time Peter! ... Look at what happened to the Hobby Boss A-26 and B-24 ... Wing location, shape and dihedral should be pretty basic items to get right (even if panel lines are out!), one would think! ... I really hope this one comes to fruition ... Rog

Carl ... Thanks for picking up on my shortfalls - you're more than welcome to add anything you think I've missed!! ... The post is open and if anything comes to mind, from anyone, they can add it in here! ... I didn't add Andy's M10 / Achilles kits in here because I honestly thought they were 2024 releases (2023 announced). The big surprise for me was Trumpeters late Tiger.1 ... didn't hear a thing!! Rog