Friends,
I am very hesitant to make any declarations of what I am going to do. I have a bad track record in that regard. Therefore, I am just going to report on what I am actually doing right now, and what I am considering doing in the coming year. You can decide what to make of it for yourself.
ON THE BENCH
I have returned to the M18 driver’s compartment. I hope to stick with it to completion. I have gone back to my original plan of using laminates for the floor and sidewalls. I also discarded the idea of re-working the Verlinden transmission. This will set me back a bit, but I have a dream of getting this thing on the market before I take my holiday break.
I am also working on a BORDER MODELS Leopard 2 A5/A6, SOB build. I’m thinking of doing the experimental urban camo scheme.
A CHANGE OF PHILOSOPHY
As I build my first kit in years, I find myself still afflicted with the AMS bug. However, I have also discovered that I am no longer obsessed with making things like perfect shrink-ray representations of the real thing. Any more, I want things to: 1 — FIT THE KIT! Then, 2 — Correct an error in the kit and finally 3 — Improve the appearance of the kit. In short, if it looks the part and is easy to use, I’m happy. This will effect the way I make all future masters.
RE-WORKING THE CURRENT LINE
I have made the decision to just start re-working the current line. I will update and re-tree most of it, to bring it up to current industry standards. When I re-work the masters, I will do my best to bring them into alignment with my new attitude toward modeling, as stated above. I will also be assigning the re-worked items entirely new numbers, writing new descriptions and even taking and positing new and much better pictures.
ADVERTISING
As I stated in my last post(s), I am going to use FaceBook to announce new or re-worked items, but nothing else. I will restrict UPDATES and JOE’S CORNER posts to this blog page only. If you wish to share them you are free to do so. I’m not going to do it. In many ways, I am already withdrawing unto myself. I just want a good kit — from the stash (already paid for) — some tunes or a good war movie and peace to just imagine I am a teenager again while I build.
Until next time, stay safe and try to build something (I’d appreciate it if you consider using TMD resin in that build).
Joe