HubertB

I have to disagree with you, guys. Even if you enter a high amount early in the process, you are not « showing your hand » , as the bids that will appear will not be your maximum price, but the ones a few cents above competitor’s bids. Your maximum amount will only be reached if competitors are getting near it ... And if you are outbid, even a few days before the auction’s end, so be it. You were not ready to pay a higher price anyway, just like Gazzas pointed out for the auction he was following ... Just my (anyone wants to propose ... ? ) Hubert

Whilst it is unavoidable if you want to sustain intensive agriculture, this stuff is dangerous if wrongly manipulated, or stored in unsafe conditions, like with possible contaminations of oil, fuel, etc. Which is why most countries have very strict safety rules Imposed on companies stocking them. And the bigger the stock, the tighter the rules. And, btw, It will not burn or explode with an « ordinary » flame. It needs a very high temperature trigger to explode. In Beirut, it seems it was a stock seized 6 years ago, stored there waiting for further notice. But, alas, the dereliction of the country and its structures has made it impossible to dispose off this hazard properly. And there is wide speculation that the primary explosion was one of fireworks, or a cache of explosives Hubert

The answer to your first question is yes, there can be a reserve price set by the seller, but the buyers don’t know about it. Some people make it a game to bid in the last minute. To avoid this trap, I always do as Bill said: I enter a bid with MY maximum possible price. The Ebay system will increment the last bid (in your case the first one) by a fixed amount. IIRC the increment is determined by the starting bid price, usually for kits, by 50 cents, then by $ 1 above a certain threshold. The system will keep incrementing the bids against the « last-minute snipers » up to your maximum bid. And, btw, for two identical amounts, the earliest one will win, this being judged by the time your bid was submitted. Some bidding wars end up being just pissing contests between alpha-males, to the point of nonsense. To set YOUR maximum possible price look for similar items with a « Buy It Now » price. Entering your bid with your maximum price is the best way to avoid the temptation of this courtyard last-minute brawls One last tip : people tend to bid in round numbers, or with multiple of 5 for the decimals (like $ 10.55). Making your maximum bid with an extra cent can sometimes yield a win (like 25.01, or 30.66) HTH Hubert

I certainly wish everyone here all the best, and it’s good to know that Karim’s family has not been hurt, at least physically. I have seen the videos, and the blast is just unbelievable. It is said that some 2 750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, stored there for the last 6 years, blew off. In September 2001, the Toulouse explosion involved 300 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, and the damage and death toll was hard to recover from. Lebanon sure did not need more chaos Hubert

Another beautiful build, John ! Well done ! Hubert PS : and I still prefer the Spit with elliptical wing-tips

Great renderings ! When do you think we will see a full kit ? Hubt

Nice and original build ! FWIW, MEK works great on ABS. Hubert

Break ! Break ! There’s flak hidden in the middle of the targets ! Hubert

Speaking of the devil ... Look what arrived this morning in the mailbox ! Hubert

That's what my wife is telling me also ... I wonder why Does "reassigning with smaller kits" count as downsizing the stash ? Help me with the terminology, guys. ! Hubert PS: I gave away/sold some 13 boxes, and am up 5 ... I am still good on my target. If you want to help me more :

Had a bit of a shopping spree with Central European manufacturers and sellers in the last 3 months. Still missing the Silver Wings Tiger Moth, which got shipped but seems to have been lost in-between Poland and Portugal ... Hubert

This is old (published end of April), but probably worth reposting here as an illustration : Hubert

I absolutely love this build (and so jealous of the many masterpieces you are able to turn out whilst I procrastinate about my builds ) Hubert

Not a fan of the Gladiator myself either, but your build could just make me change my mind Hubert

Sure. Even I could decipher « Flugzeug ». I was just making fun of the world’s most renown terrible handwriting profession: MDs. Mind you, pharmacists manage to decipher them. I wonder if they get special courses for that ? Hubert, who seldom uses handwriting now, and whose wife complains about « undecipherable gibberish »

You’re sure this has not been written by a doctor and it’s not a prescription ? Hubert

For those looking for a late Felixstowe, I am open to offers. See 6) in my ad : It’s coming out of Europe though, so the shipping is the usual major PITA Hubert

Last time I flew to Berlin, it was in Tempelhof, in the early 90s ... Goes to show I’m getting old ! Hubert

Wouldn’t this make a cool diorama in 1/32 (the DC-3 AND the Ju-52) ? (Yeeah, I know ..l please don’t tell me about the space requirements, you spoils ...) Hubert

After all the (self-generated and self-inflicted) hype, I have to say it is a bit of an anti-climax ( the analogy that comes to my mind is that we went to the theater for a Hollywood cliff-hanger blockbuster, to find it was in the end a verbose French « Art et Essai » film) ... Still, let’s hope it generates plenty of cash, to support other HKM projects ... And, btw, in as much as I would love (and buy) a 1/32 Ju-52, I have some doubts whether HKM would be able to recoup their design and tooling investment In such a kit ... Hubert

The Tante Ju has been announced for some time (hmmmm..... a civilian Ju ! Yummy ) by HKM. But it is apparently not the mystery release by HKM, supposed to arrive this month. Our resident mods with close ties to HKM are apparently in the know but can’t tell yet Hubert

Soon, Peter, soon . Now that I think I have secured the future of my business for the next 12 to 18 months, I should have a freer mind to allow me to sit at the bench ... Hubert

Let me second everyone else's comments on longer shipping times. Sometimes, or in some countries, the organisation of the sorting centers in Post Offices has been completely wrecked by the necessities of social distancing and sanitary precautions. Point in case is the French Postal system, where an ordinary mail (not even talking of a parcel) can take any time between 2 weeks and ... never arriving (ask me how I know !) I have ordered stuff from Ukraine, and the delays have been looooooooong lately. Not that I got worried. None of this is essential, and my stash has me busy for 150 years even before I grow it up ... On the other hand, I sent parcels to Canada recently, from Portugal. The reputation of both Canadian and Portuguese Post Office is not very high, AFAIK. Yet, the parcels arrived amazingly swiftly given the initial reputation and the current circumstances. Finally, when something is Air mailed, remember that you have not seen many flights anywhere in the world lately. Karim must have had some extra bench hours of late (where are the results of all this extra time, my friend ?) Just my Hubert

I would be happy, without any restraint. Good job ! If I was the pilot, I'd be seriously worried about this fly. She's huuuuuuge ! Hubert

Apologies if I misread your statement there was no vaccine on polio. You’re right, vaccines are there to trigger early immune response to the real virus when the body is attacked. In today’s world, a virus must cause enough Social disruption or cause enough deaths or crippling sequels to warrant the cost of researching a vaccine. Why is why we have vaccines - or research for them, like in the case of HIV - for lethal or incapacitating virus-triggered epidemics. I’d venture that developing a vaccine for SARS-Cov-2 has been demonstrated economically necessary and valid, which does not mean the research will necessarily succeed... I’ll rest my case here about further comments. It seems the topic has become a far too sensitive and divisive political subject in the US for me to make comments from my European perspective, agreed on that. And, even if we have perceived differences of opinion, I still consider all of you my friends, so no quotes needed Hubert