Thursday, September 29, 2011

Moving my modeling Website to this blog


I have maintained a website, "The Modeler" for a number of years through Apple's service DotMac, then, MobileMe. This is going away this year and rather than ccontinue it, I will be mvving much of the content to here. I won't have as much flexibility in terms of format and media as with the original site, but I wlll be able to post and update more frequently since I won't be tied to a single web application for that. With Blogger, I can (as I am doing now) manage with my iPad or any computer for that matter. I can also post via email or my iPhone.

My modeling output has slowed considerably since moving to Colorado. Here in La Veta, I am a two hour drive from the nearest IPMS club. I have found no modelers in the area, although some local advertising might help, so this blog will kind of serve as my connection to the community of my modeler friends.

I am slowly working through some of my orphan models, completing some and fixing others. Today I am finishing the 1/48 Hasegawa F/A-18E that I began in California. It was not quite done and the landing gear did not survive the move. I have that back on now and am glueing up the LG doors and painting the tires and wheels.

I have started an internet forum focused on Wingnut Wings - models and the company itself. I am letting it proceed at its own pace for now, which is very slow. I got 160 members in two weeks, but few participate, which is not unusual for internet forums I think. I will pay more attention to it in the winter.

I also briefly participated in the new Great Air War forum, but being given a discourteous reply to a suggestion by a moderator, then, after some email communication, working through the issue, I was banned for, get this, continuing to post in a foreign language after being warned repeatedly, and for sending a member "unsolicited" personal messages. I wasn't aware that English is a foreign language and that one has to get permission from a person before sending that person a personal message...

I was unable to address these issues, being banned from the forum and having been provided no email addreses to communicate with them privately. I guess I don't have their permission to send them a message or defend myself. I think, also, they were upset that I announced my new Wingnut Wings Forum on their forum. Their reply to this leads me to believe they think they have a proprietary right to WWI modeling forums.

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On other topics, I am waiting for my IPMS review kit of the Eduard SPAD XIII Early to arrive before starting one of my own models. I'll need to finish the review kit first. Since I now have some EZ Line, from WnW, for rigging, I will continue to experiment with this on the SPAD. I used it on the WnW Sopwith Pup, RNAS, even replacing most of the monofilament rigging I had initially used. The WnW kits are so structurally soound they do not need added support from monofiflament rigging and the EZ Line stays taut and does not break when you twang it with a tool or your fingers accidentally.

I now have in my stash, the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire MK IXc, the WnW Gotha IV, the Eduard MiG-21 SMF and new 1/72 Hellcat kits. These are now the top contenders for the next kit on the bench. My plan now is to do one kit at a time. I am leaving the option open to interject a simple build during a long, complex one just for sanity's sake. I can see the Gotha taking a Loooong time, so I might end up pausing the build and getting a simple kit done during that process. Maybe not as I tend to get off track like that.