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GrahamF@Iconicair

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Posts posted by GrahamF@Iconicair

    1:32 Scale RAF 'H' Bomb Trolley Now Available

    in Iconicair

    Posted

    On 3/7/2021 at 5:18 PM, Bomber_County said:

    Very nice Graham, with the HK Lanc arriving soon in 1/48, will you be scaling down any of your kits.For instance your David Brown?

    No I don't think so, none of any of the 1:32 Scale kits we did sold all that well, It might have been different with support from the trade and forums [that might be personal for some reason], people still haven't heard of us  The fact that a 1:48 scale Lancaster has been around for many years and I think we had two requests in 8 years, so I'm not encouraged.

    Graham

    • Like 2
    • Sad 3

    Ebay Auction Question:

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm an old hand at this, some people just don't 'get' how if you bid early all you are doing is raising the price for the eventual end sale price.

    If you really want it just think what your absolute max price would be then bid in the last 10 seconds, You have the best chance then, If you do that any earlier it's like showing your hand in poker and is utterly pointless.

    The theory if you bid high early you put people off is utter hogwash, you're just burning up the value of your bid, remember it's a world wide web and somebody out there probably has more money than you or is more stupid than you. All they need to do is bid a few pennys more.

    I've done this buying CNC machines and it usually works, if you are bidding a lot higher at the end and also [ because I have a good idea of it's usual selling price] it doesn't give them time to think about raising their bid.

    Graham

     

     

    • Like 4

    Odd question of scale?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    A similar thing happened with model railways, Hornby in the early years couldn't get the electric motors to fit in the British locomotives at HO 1/87 scale because they are smaller than European counterparts, so they tweaked the scale up to 1/76 called it OO but not the track, so now we have trains running on track that is too narrow and you can imagine there are lots of off shoot societies that model it correctly to differing degrees of accuracy. One manufacturer bucked the trend the Italian company Lima but then they were bullied into scaling up to OO in the 1980's and at one point were supplying the same model in two different scales.

    Graham

     

    • Like 2

    Custom Detolf Shelf

    in LSM 1/35 and Larger Work In Progress

    Posted

    The cabinet looks great Carl, I've got one for my live steam trains but I could really do with just two more shelves evenly spaced! I keep toying with the idea of welding on another set of rods then grinding all the originals off...

    I keep looking at the various lighting options and there are some that are linked together by thin wires and fit via magnets in the middle of the shelves but not sure how good they are.

    Graham

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

    What is on your bench right now ? Share a picture :)

    in Modelling Discussion

    Posted

    Not you're normal sort of bench but I'm making 4 more Narrow Gauge wagon kits to go with the completed one for my Garden railway Steam locos, Scale is [ SM32 which is 16mm to 1 foot, so 2ft gauge on 32mm wide track 1:19 Scale]

    I'm doing this in between casting David Brown RAF Tractor kits behind me, I also suffer from not enough bench space, I've always got a PC and other computer stuff on my bench like a 3D Scanner which doubles up as a shelf as its used only occasionally and is right PIA to unplug and set up, which I'm going to sort out soon after this lot is out of the way.

    Graham

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    • Like 10

    Vacumforming canopys?????

    in Modelling Discussion

    Posted

    It's not a black art but it takes some setting up to get consistent results, here are a few tips, btw I've been doing this since 1987.

    1. Your master part needs to be strong and very well finished and shiny, a trick to get this made easier is to vacuum form over your master and then vac over that again, I assure you it works, and you get a crystal clear result.

    2. have your master raised off the deck by a slab that recesses in slightly, that way the plastic will tuck under slightly rather than web out which leaves you with no edge to cut to.

    3. A lot of machines have timers and if you are doing mulitples it allows you to get the correct heat setting before pulling your mould up. The plastic usually drops down as its melting and then tightens up, once you see a little bit of smoke a few seconds afterwards this is the time to pull up the mould.

    4. Allow the mould to fully rise into the plastic before you put the vacuum on.

    5. Some plastics need to dry out before use to remove any hint of moisture before starting.

    6. If you ever get a forming stuck to a mould a quick blast from an airline between the mould and the edge of the plastic will pop it off easily.

    7. Don't be too stingy with the size of the sheet you are going to use the more you use the less likely 'webbing' will occur.

    Graham

    • Like 5
    • Thanks 2

    Share how COVID-19 Quarantine has affected you.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    My Mum had a massive stroke on Jan 12 this year, and the past few weeks have been visiting hospital until recently when she was discharged into a temporary care home until they organise an at home 'care package' this will involve about 4 visits a day by nursing staff to our home.

    She's in a really bad way and has not made any progress recovery wise and her prospects are pretty grim. She was sent back to hospital last week from the home as she wasn't eating or able to take her medication, so of course with this Covid 19 going on I am focused on looking after my Dad, trying to get food and supplies and keeping out of the way of other people, plus trying to finish The new RAF David Brown Tractor kit [ which is now done ] I'm just moulding the parts now.

    The care home put a lock down on saturday so my Dad saw her briefly and his worry is that it might have been the last time.

    My feeling is that as far as the economy is concerned it will not return as before, my last experience of a recession in 1989 [ yes this is one aswell ] is that the damage will be quite permanent and the effects of that last one followed me around for years. 

    In a way with mum in the care home in lockdown has at least prevented an army of nursing staff coming to our house and possibly transmitting the virus, but its been quite hard to get my Dad to stop worrying about everything!

    Graham

    • Like 6
    • Thanks 1

    So few jets.... Why?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I produced my first and last Jet kit last year, The only reason I decided to do the Attacker was to make use of the wing CAD and somebody said that if you do an aircraft that had service history it would sell better than the previous Spiteful and Seafang. So after spending many hours of CNC and machining a couple of visits all the way down to Yeovil to measure and check the last survivor I completed it. Which is not free to do by the way.

    The sum total was sales of 45.

    If it had been made by anyone else ( and the masters whittled out of wood by hand ) it would have retailed at twice the price and still be selling. I think what some people really want is the more esoteric jets but only if they are injection moulded by the big boys but this is likely never to happen because the cost of the moulds is 100's of thousands and it's only ever likely to be 'mass' appeal jets like American jets.

    Graham 

     

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    The end of plastic model videos on youtube.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm not overly worried by this, I've found that model videos of my own products however good and complimentary of them they are actually increase sales by a factor of zero.

    I think there are armchair modellers and then there are youtube modellers who are just entertained by what they 'could' buy.

    The Internet is very fleeting in it's effect and I for one am now convinced that old fashioned print and face to face selling is the way to go as well as being able to sell via website if that's needed.

    Graham

    • Like 4
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