Dog days 2fer

I’m going to run a very informal sale for the next two weeks only to the folks who read this forum. Buy any kit thru the usual way and email me to tell me what your second kit (of a similar price) will be. I will email the kit to you. (The enginehouse is exempt, its just too damn big to send) Buy a DVD download and we will discuss the extras. send your second kit choice to this email (tanimate@aol.com)

You have the remainder of August.

The bridge

I’ve got a side job building a bridge for another professional builder out of Tennessee. It’s plastic and I’m told its one of the best out there. I’m learning a lot. Mostly how not to design a bridge kit. This thing is a mess. There is no logic behind how it’s built, at least from the stand point of how to make something go together straight and strong.

Also all the flash and cleanup of parts as you remove them from the sprue. Some of the parts are so thin that I’ve snapped a couple during the clean up. Most of the box beams still need to be cut at specific angles. Why not mold them correctly in the first place. I was told 20 hrs to build this. More like a hundred.

I can’t wait to get back to cardstock.

Wood's mill update

Sorry its been a couple of days since posting about the mill but it moves forward.

Working on the fiddly bits, primarilly the wheel itself. Lots of clearance issues that will have to be tested. I started by modifying the wheel I had made for another model but I’ll likely do most of it from scratch. The hardest part is the troughs that catch the water on the wheel. They are at a pretty severe angle between the two wheel faces and I think it will be hard for many people to model well. I could of course just make it a paddle wheel but that’s not prototype. Anyway I warned that it would slow down. This happens often with kits where 90% of the design happens in 10% of the time and the last 10% takes 90% more time.

The models that time forgot.

As I focus on new and more elaborate models, it’s important to not lose sight of past models that have not gotten the attention they should. Especially during this season that seems to be a modeling desert. Summer sales are always bad  and we appreciate your continued support. The small sales and donations really help. Personally I can’t understand when folks say they can’t find anything to build. We keep prices down so modelers can take chances and try new things without much risk. We have a very deep collection. (and getting deeper) It’s a bit hard to manage. Every kit needs to pull its weight. Prices on newer kits have creeped up but with items from $2 to $20, things are pretty reasonable. We have to sell a lot of $5 and $10 kits just to cover monthly costs, (Have you seen the cost of ads ?) and sometimes in summer we don’t. Still we’re hanging on and we still enjoy what were doing.

This isn’t aimed at the stallwart fans who have every DVD, but to the dozens of new friends joining every week. We are getting more visits and complimentery likes then ever, (thank you Facebook) yet sales are essentially flat. I hope all you new friends will go on the adventure with us. Try a freebie and hopefully come back and buy a small kit.

So I thought I’d post some pix of forgotten kits that I personally think never got enough attention.

This is one I really like that never sold well and I don’t know why?

The Wheel Wrights Shop. Talk about versatile. Where wouldn’t this look good?

For $9 bucks this is a lot of coolness.