The Dude

Yeppers! I plan on going to both Texas and LV. I'm gonna have to start saving (and building) for them now.

F it! lets go bowling!

That sucks Ernie. I was a tech for almost 20 years, 5 of them being a GM master tech, I gave it all up in 2009 because dealers around here don't pay worth a darn. Funny as most good techs around here leave dealers and go to indy shops. Now I m an assistant manager in a local retail shop- go figure.

Got in some more bench time the last few days and I finished painting the wings and also did some touch up on the fuselage. The wings are on but no glued yet. I gotta do some rigging before I permanently attach them.. Still a fun build so far although I have to be careful with the tail plane assembly because its pretty fragile. The colors look little funky as no rhyme or reason to the pattern, I guess I'm used to German WWI AC .

Right on, I actually might be able to attend 2 nats in a row and maybe even 3. My wife is happy that is in Vegas and actually wants to go too. It's gonna be another 'Dry heat" IPMS convention lol.

Ah heck the cops will probably be partying at his place too, Its gonna be epic!

Man it sounds like the preshow party at Ernie's place is gonna be way bigger and longer than the ipms show itself! No pressure Ernie!

Ok so the dates are confirmed? LV in 2021 and Omaha in 2022?

Wow, holy crap! Well That dude ain't gonna be invited back! Sounds like he was a flipper only there to make money and not in the hobby. Where was he from? Thats a good excuse for a blanket party latter on...

Cool nice haul Ernie. Is that the Umm wire wheels?

Cool, that is a good idea...

IMHO a messy workbench is a productive workbench.

i have 3 in the current build rotation.. First is my WnW salmson which is on the WIP thread on here. then m,y HK lancaster then the simpsons airliner then I slapped this guy together last sunday afternoon he is OOTB.

Well I had some more time to work on it and I made some more progress this past week-- Again so far an over all great kit. It is been challenging to paint this one. Multiple colors to mix, masking etc. and it's been one of the more challenging WnW kits i have done. The other is the Gotha GIV. But it has been fun so far! Next are the wings and then the rigging on them.

Very cool Mark! I'd be honored to have received this too. IMO That is the REAL payoff off the job. Your peers and the people you helped obviously appreciated your efforts even though your soon to be ex employer did not, You'll see that you did good in the long run.

Thanks for the replies guys. Rob, the salmson isn't one of my favorites either but it such a cool model so I had to give it a try. I have several German wwi AC and one British AC so I figured i'd do a French one now to branch out lol.

That sucks Mark, I went through the same thing in'09. General Motors was going through there, uh, 'correction' and they sent out a head hunter to my place to make our lives miserable by deliberately pushing all our button and force us to quit. I was literally thinking it would be worth a night in jail just to watch this guy, who is making my life hell, spit out half his teeth and a pint of blood. It wouldn't have been hard to do as my fist was nearly the size of his face lol. At that point i knew it was all over. After 15 years of dedicated service I too left with nothing, Ernie is right, they are cutting off the higher paid folks to bring in warm bodies. Warm bodies = No vacation, lower pay and less bennies, if any. Good luck on this Charlie Foxtrot! BTW didn't you just move to where you are at now for this job?

Well this is my WIP on here so hopefully y'all will enjoy it. So here is one of my latest project in my rotation of builds, It is the WnW salmson 2. I started this this a few weeks ago actually. So far I have about 28 hours into it. Needles to say the fit is very good so far. This will be my 14th wingnut kit I have done. Cockpit is of course first up on the build, it is one of the more complicated 'pits i have done with all the wires and internal rigging... fuselage sealed up this past weekend engine shots Engine test fitted to the fuse. rigging Mostly finished engine shot Here is a teaser shot of my other concurrent project.. more to come soon...

Looks good Ern! I like the non- standard paint scheme you are doing.

lol, I was thinking crayons but food coloring would work too.

Really?? It seems like cRustoleum is killing off the Testor paint line altogether. This in't gonna be good.

I was there too, lots of good models on the table. Ernie I see you discovered my DH-9 and W.12 there. Sorry I missed ya! Brian