ScottsGT

Happening everywhere. I buy something on Amazon with Prime. Use to be here in two days. Now I’m lucky if it ships out in two days. Wife told me (in the 11th hour) to order some really nice water shoes for a cruise we were going on last week. So I look them up online and it says 2 day shipping. Not a problem. It’s Monday morning, leaving the following Sunday morning. B@$**#ds didn’t ship them until Friday and the delivered them to my house when I was in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.

Got home from an 8 day cruise and went back to work on the Cougar. Got the cracked and warped wing air splitters fixed using brass sheet to cut and file new ones. of course Mr. Quality Control inspector had to get involved.

Hey guys, proud dad moment. Today my son was part of the Mecum Auction in Indy with a car he built in a matter of just over a month. He works for a semi-retired wealthy guy that dabbles in cars as a hobby. From old to new, he buys, builds and flips them. He started with basically an almost stock ‘62 Corvette and installed an LT4 supercharged engine, 8 speed auto, new wiring harness, aftermarket IRS (factory was fixed axle in ‘62) and had to make it all work together including getting the computer to work with the engine and transmission. Even though it seemed like auction prices were a little weak across the board (I think yesterday’s stock market shenanigans had folks spooked) it pulled $160K sale price at the hammer. His first build was an AC Cobra kit car they sold last year for $58k, so this build was quite the jump. During the build When I was his age I was doing the same thing, but no where near this level of builds due to not having the opportunity his boss has given him. I seemed to only find guys that wanted everything done for next to nothing. I can say, I was way ahead of my time 35-40 years ago.

Got the Panther too. Snagged this one last week after searching for years for one that wasn’t priced in the stratosphere. Figured it was a great kit to break in the new bench. id love to have a two seater, but I’m poor now. 🥵

Honestly, this was one of my “The straw that broke the camels back” issues. Being a (former) state employee, pay raises are a rare item and handed out to “buddies” and paperwork manipulated accordingly. We were all working from home and given “busy work” that was a complete waste of time and managers were having online meetings to justify something, no one knew what. But a good bit of us all came back to work and then they offered for those that sit behind a pc all day to work from home 3 days a week. Some even more. The rest of us had to come in. It really put a burr under a lot of saddles with these guys working from home not having to spend on gas money and some were no longer using daycare for their kids. And to add insult to injury, they would try to schedule our work around them coming in on Monday or Friday or try to dump their responsibilities on someone there so they didn’t have to come in. In a nutshell, they got a big pay increase while the rest of us got the same old thing. Not to mention I was driving 90 miles a day round trip.

Two weeks today. I’m ready to call them back and see if I can return just so I can get a break from all the work. Harv, you nailed it. I’ve finally unpacked about 99% of the moving boxes of my hobby stuff from the move a year ago tomorrow. I’m not unpacking the “shelf of doom” boxes thought. Shoveled a yard of top soil around the yard yesterday and going for another truck load this afternoon.

Two weeks today. I’m ready to call them back and see if I can return just so I can get a break from all the work. Harv, you nailed it. I’ve finally unpacked about 99% of the moving boxes of my hobby stuff from the move a year ago tomorrow. I’m not unpacking the “shelf of doom” boxes thought. Shoveled a yard of top soil around the yard yesterday and going for another truck load this afternoon.

Reliable dealers? Appears to be originally Steven’s International? I ask because all my coworkers pitched in and got me a $250 gift certificate for my retirement gift. Not really anything out there catches my eye right now, but I am hoping they stock the coming Trumpeter 1/32 F-35C.

No natural lakes here in SC as well. The dam for this lake is about 5 miles down the road from me. We also get the fire ants, copper heads, rattle snakes and coyotes. And now the invasion of the armadillos has begun.

Oh, and my view out the window….

So here’s my final result after many redraws and rethinking how I wanted my layout. And my tool chest with my paint rack I built. (It spins!) Using the top 3-4 drawers to keep sprues for the kit I’m working on.

Been through a minor renovation and I can just imagine.

So now I have my semi-gloss black on my new bench. But wait! There’s more! What could this be?

Awesome! Thanks Ernie. But now I'm focusing on getting my retirement taken care of since the wife gave me the green light. I'll be listing them later next month.

And just tonight she told me to see if I can move the date from May 1st to April 15th. She works that weekend and wants to have a retirement party and if I bump it back two weeks, she’s off from work.

New bench, first coat of sanding sealer.

I’d like to see the results airbrushed on a polished surface.

I think my hardest part is going to keep telling my daughter "NO" to monday morning babysitting duty for our 9 mo grandson. He's a cute little bugger, but getting up at 5:30 am and driving to their house and sitting all day is not my idea of a retirement. I can't even bring him to our place because there is no way to safely put a baby seat in a 2015 Mustang GT. Summer is around the corner and the truck's AC doesn't work too.

Well, I thought I'd dig up this old thread just to say she gave me the green light on retirement Friday evening! Called the state retirement center today and things are even better that the initial numbers I got using the online calculator. I'm rolling about 6 months of Annual and Sick leave over to time served, and that alone was a huge bump in retirement pay as well. I think what finally got her on board was a combination of a lot of little projects around the new home, we have our boat now, got her the hot tub she wanted and now she wants me to start building some of the outdoor furniture after pricing them out online or at the stores. I'm still kind of in shock over the whole thing. It's finally happening!!! Edit to add: Looking at a May 1 start date on retirement.

Na, all my hair dryers are 1/32 and those will be the last I let go. Unless someone wants to pay me that $777 a guy was asking on ebay for a 1/32 Tamiya Thunderbird. What I'm looking to unload is things like 1/72 EC-135C, couple of 1/48 C-47 kits, 1/72 KC-135A that I swapped out with parts to build a K, older Testors H-43B huskie, UH1C Huey that's already started and a few more odds and ends kits. Nothing really highly sought after. I think my only large scale is a ZM-P51 I got a few years ago on one of the Christmas gift drawings on TOS. I've built two Revell P-51's since and just cannot see myself building it.

I'm starting to liquidate some of my stash I know I will never get around to building with so many new large scale kits coming out or have come out since I bought these. Are we OK to post non-LSP items up here? Couldn't find any rule book on the subject, so I thought I would just post up the question here.

I cooled the flames a little by selling my 1/48 B-1 kit I was about 99.9% sure I would never build. I've pulled a stack of non-1/32 kits and slowly posting them up for sale as well. Only makes sense to dump those I know I will never build, and makes momma happy knowing its less for her to haul to the dumpster up the road when I go.

I thought I was going to be joining y’all’s club last night. Thankfully she was at work today when another one arrived.

My other post about ordering the ICM Stearman kit, yea. Was supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Thursday. I planned it like this since the wife is at work until late in the evening. But noooooo!! USPS decided to finally get off their ass and deliver it today when she's home. Oh, and the hitch for my new riding mower is also showing up a day early as well. You know, the hitch she said I don't need for my new $6300 Zero turn mower that she said I didn't need as well. Expect ranting text pics from my wife sometime today. I love living on the edge!!