Sorry about that last update, that was ‘Bad Joe.’ I deleted it, so, if you didn’t see it, you are better off. For those who did… Well, ‘Bad Joe’ was punished.
OK, I shipped 5 more orders today, and I finished a mold I poured yesterday. 2 of today’s orders were outside the queue, so I now have 17 orders left on the official queue.
Unfortunately, I am going to have to make some new molds. These will be big ones (turrets and upper hulls). I will do everything humanly possible to make them by Sunday night, but I keep the Sabbath and our youngest son is coming to town to visit during Spring Break. That will eat up a good part of Sunday. That said, I still have hope of finishing by next Friday. If anything, I will have 3 orders left (all big, all from guys who specifically told me they could wait). Everyone else will ship next week — even if I have to work through the night a time or two (I need to finish as much as you want your orders).
As I start to draw closer to the very end of things, I find myself wishing I had been able to just take a break for a while. There are so many things I still want to finish. Unfortunately, as much as I might wish otherwise, it is too late to salvage anything from my decision to close. So, baring a serious buyer (or I win the lottery), it does look like TMD is going to close its doors for the last time somewhere around March 20 — 22.
I’ll keep up the countdown on Facebook, but my next regular blog update will be my last. Until then, stay safe, guys.
Joe
It’s really too bad for the modeling community. While I was working on an M4 hatch today I thought that I’ll never be able to use this on another Sherman kit and will have to go back to scratch building small pieces again. Frown. I had a number of projects I was planning on doing so I bought several hundreds of dollars on parts in advance and bought some items that I always wanted to build some day like the M8 and M10 trailers, but going back to update older kits and missing seeing what you would have come up with for the spate of new kits on the market made me sad.
But you have to do what you need to do, so I wish you well, Joe! MK35 closed, too. Im waiting for the next shoe to drop. I have my suspicions but hope Im wrong!
Getting back into armor modeling late in life, I was lucky to be able just squeak an order in at the buzzer. Today, I received my first and last order from you Joe. Thank you so much. Now seeing your work first hand, clearly it was it was well worth the wait, I am truly appreciative and just wish I’d been able to place a larger order. I wish you the best of all things going forward, I hope you find the peace and happiness you seek. You are truly an artist and man of devotion.
Much Thanks,
Ziptar