Artful69

No facepalm 🤦‍♂️ reaction button 👎 Rog

I was JUST going to go with the whole spy balloon thing - Trumpeter’s team now have the correct dimensions to design one lol 😆 Though they’ll still mess it up somehow! Beat me to it!! Rog

Maybe old news for some? But Tamiya’s 2023 new tool LSM’s … … and another Border Model LSM release … Rog

Trumpeters effort a bit dodgy?? 🤔 Rog

An Update ... I flew home on Wednesday last week after my usual 2 weeks away at work ... and thanks to a set of botched home loan documents, a hefty PreStart cost estimate quote, some documentation to complete - which had to be posted ... and some settlement issues, I had my R&R mapped out to do some significant sorting work. Then came the call from my manager about 3 hours after arriving home - Please cut your R&R short and come back on the Monday ... So I had to fly back to work early! .. Even so ... I Posted the important documents off on Friday ✅ ... Got the corrected Home Loan documents on the Monday a couple of hours after I arrived back on site - signed and sent off ✅. Settlement is arranged for the 8th of Feb ✅ ... which gives me about a week or so to go through the PreStart quote and mark questions etc ✅ ... Next stop ... Land Settlement! Rog

It's quite simple ... It's taxation used to add value to the politicians wallets!! Rog

It’s amazing, isn’t it, just how diverse our hobby is … my favourite part of modelling by far, is assembly … like putting together a puzzle. I build everything closed up too … it tends to hide my painting errors. Decal application is not my strong suit either! My first couple of weathering attempts were disastrous - to the point of putting me off completely … so now I do the factory fresh look with paintwork and pray I don’t stuff that up - funnily enough I don’t seem to have that issue with Armour or AFVs in general. Anyway, Basic or SWS, I will grab any ZM kit on the release schedule - the style of assembly is interesting enough and the kit represents an accurate scale model when completed. Rog

The Fw.190 series will (apparently) consist of kits in the standard SWS format and a new configuration called the “Basic” series. Back in the early days of ZM … when a LOT of feedback was coming through … enough people were whining about the parts count and complexity of the kits that they decided to try a new approach … Of course, there have been a few delays in the development of the Fw.190 - it was announced long before the reveal of the Ki.45 or the Henchel or the Bf.109 … OR … it might just be that these kits were being developed in the background long before the announcement of the Fw.190. No idea! Either way this is the one and only time that we have seen this format referred to by them. Certainly, none of the more recent offerings are anything other than the SWS we have come to know and love. While the exact details are still not fully known (we’ve seen some preliminary CAD work), the idea behind the basic series is to have “enough” detail for the modeller to display, while substantially reducing the parts count and thereby the RRP to the customer. as for the kits themselves … A-3 Basic A-4 SWS A-5 to A-7 Basic A-8 and A-9 SWS Rog

“Music I listen to” covers so many genres, it would take forever to list the artists. One of my favourite bands through my late teens and twenties is Iron Maiden. I hadn’t really seen a band come into existence since them that is as “tight” as they are … until I saw a Japanese all girl group call Band Maid a couple of years back (these girls are THAT good) … I have them playing in the background around most of my activities now … … unless I’m sorting out the stash room - then I have Mission Impossible playing! Rog

What model/year of scooby?? My Aussie charger had a 340 with a 4bbl Edelbrock 650 … took off like greyhound after a furry!! The ultimate conversion!! … and here we are converting 1/32 scale models. Rog

Carl … Downlights are simply lights that are recessed into the ceiling so that they sit close to flush with it as opposed to hanging. They used to be predominantly, Halogen … but since LEDs have become widespread, use less power and generate less heat, they are the go-to mostly now. Yes … it took me a couple of days to get over it … but I’m just going to move on now. Well there’s the rub … I started the whole conversation about buying months ago … at which point recessed LED’s were mentioned as a required inclusion amongst a host of other things. I must admit, I dropped the ball here - I probably should have scrutinised everything against a check list at every stage … but when I get to drawing version number 20, it all gets a bit muddlesome. TBH most people get downlights fitted after the fact here … it’s much cheaper to go to the electrician directly anyway. Rog

Well ... there's a slight delay in this post ... Largely because I was a VERY unhappy chappy for a few days. I went to the Pre-start meeting as planned ... and made a few fine tuning suggestions as planned. And then we got to the electrical schematic ... single bayonet light fittings. I had specifically asked for LED down-lights to be installed during the quote process ... end result is that no lights will be fitted to most rooms ... instead there will be a junction box fitted inside the roof cavity in each of those particular rooms so that I can pay an electrician to come and install down-lights for me ... great. Let's just say that my attitude throughout the next 5 hours (during which I was not offered coffee or tea, a snack ... or even water!) probably sucked. As a result - I might be changing a few of these selections around ... I wasn't really focused. External selection for the front facia of the building. Dark grey window treatments (a good contrast - yet not as harsh as a outright black!) ... Single course red brick for the bottom 7 courses, with a light grey render from the top of those to the roofline ... a medium blue/grey (more grey really) corrugated roof, guttering and downpipes ... The steel verandah posts, front door and garage sectional door will also be this colour ... (no blues available in the range though). The rest of the external walls (rear and sides) will be in this limestone coloured double course brick ... Paving will be in this light grey (silver) ... Internal fittings ... The stone bench tops (not pictured) is a white colour with a grey marbled effect ... while the cabinets will have a white / grey woodgrain ... Main area tiling will be the bigger 600 x 600 medium grey ... with the lighter mottled 300 x 300 tile installed to the wet areas ... I am taking the premium underlay for the carpeted areas ... with a grey carpet. I explained that I wanted to work with grey's and blues ... not much around in the blue department (but that makes wall paint selection easy!). There was, however, this tile 200 x 400 (which will be the wall tile in the wet areas) and it has very light blue/grey lines running through it - so a good transition. All tapware and fittings will be brushed nickel ... And this is the vertical blind selection Waiting on formal bank approval (probably another week) - and then settlement on the land. Rog

Ok ... super surprised that this hasn't made it on here yet, but ... Due in late March apparently? Rog

I think they were referring to purchasing second hand ones off the USA ... the argument being that the F22 is still a far superior performer than anything anyone else can put in the air and will be for years to come. We could get more bang for our buck, in theory. Rog

Our defence force experts here in Aus are taking pot shots at the government ... They reckon we should be buying F-22s instead of F-35s Rog

This sounds all very familiar 🤔 ... Very nasty and spiteful accusations, it appears. I'm not banned - but apparently I'm responsible for the decisions of others also ... had a very nasty PM sent my way and decided to limit my involvement there moving forward. The name of this "Mod" ... does it, by some chance, start with a K?? Rog

A few weeks ago I had Metro's call me up and advise that a few of the kits I was chasing had arrived. So I placed my order and collected this from the post office yesterday ... A few quick slices of the knife and the box came apart ... not exactly inspiring confidence in the packaging!! The latest Zoukei-Mura 1/32 scale kit had arrived ... but the latest 1/48 F-4 Phantom II kit hasn't. Still I had decided to grab the 1st three 1/48 kits made to round out the collection ... Funnily enough, the 1st two in 1/48 are the same as the first two in 1/32 ... The J7W1 and the Ta-152.H-1 ... While, for whatever reason, the Horten Ho-229 made the cut for the 3rd 48th kit made ... Of course the 1/32 kit that I was waiting on is the Hs.129B-3 ... with the big gun! ... It means I can toss out my resin kit of the same ... sans Schatton Modelblau turned brass barrel, which will be repurposed for this kit ... I wonder if we'll get another Bf.109G kit next ... or we'll get the first of the Fw.190A's?? ... either way ZM has a smart release schedule - 1 super detailed, expensive kit per year, it seems ... so it won't smash my new "paying-of-a-mortgage-tightened" budget! ... Speaking of Bf.109s ... Revell's new G2/4 boxing just arrived also ... I believe I saw written somewhere that the original CAD / sprue layout / moulding design of the latest tooled 109's was based around this particular kit and not around the G-6 or Erla G-10 ... which is why they ended up as error ridden as they were - not enough attention was paid to the "adjustments". How accurate this information is, I have no idea ... But considering that reviews, for the most part, seem to indicate that this one is about where it should be in terms of accuracy, it would also seem to imply that the story has some merit. I'm really waiting for a couple of 1/16 Panzers to make an appearance at the store ... but there's more than one or two kits on backorder 😏 heh heh!! Rog

Ok ... So ... build contracts arrived yesterday lunchtime ... via email, for DocuSign. I only got a quick glance at them this morning ... 91 pages ... a witness is required, which I wasn't notified about. Can't be bothered with it all this morning ... probably look at them later today and work out what to do ... Rog

Arrived home on Wednesday afternoon ... Completely knackered after a 2 week night shift. I have, now, to hand ... my first copy of the working drawings ... along with ticking off on the consolidation process during the last couple of weeks, for the small outstanding debts I had. I'm just waiting on building contracts now ... which apparently are taking a while due to technical problems within a government department. Hopefully they come through soon because I cannot attend pre-start, until they are signed - and currently, my pre-start is booked for Tuesday!! Rog

Yep ... That's about what I thought ... tooling is usually the PoNR for a kit release. We saw too much hard plastic (including canopies) for them to quit ... I think the Val and Kate will be solid earners for them too ... The A6M2b is STILL a solid earner for Tamiya and most builders would like the carrier 'triple' in their collection. Rog

Happy New Year!! Rog

Thanks for all the hard work organising this ... again! ... and again - thank you for all the generosity of the community! Rog

When magical reindeers just aren’t gonna cut it …. Rog oh!!, and… Merry Christmas everyone!!

lol ... I didn't post this until after I saw your's ... all good - as Ern has merged the thread and I can still edit my list as we move forward. Great minds think alike Rog