Hi everyone,
It has been again some time since my last update, things have been very busy here as it is not easy sometimes to take care of our elderly. I’ve been somewhat burnt and gloomy, however work distracts me thankfully and I’ve been working hard on the upcoming restock which I predict for the second or third week of March, so no updates usually mean no time to post due work.
I am trying to increase the numbers per item, from the usual ten units to at least twenty. A week will be dedicated to finish the base parts, and two will be required for those parts resin-casted and for the photo etched.
Along the way I am also doing some modifications in the making process in order to cope with the production rate maintaining the same quality, so for example, the twobar pushbacks have now their bodies resin casted, which is similar as the AST-1 F method for its body, same body/quality just different production process.
Work on the belt loader TUG 660 “v2” has progressed forward and I expect to make a test and a finished version soon.
I plan to have the TLD ABS 1740 stairs truck handrails resin printed as opposed to resin casted, this makes the process a bit quicker but also allows me to add some more extra handrails in the set. Also, I will probably be changing the 1,5mm metal rod by a plastic one (which I may provide silvered) as the time to cut/sand each metal bar was extending a lot, the brass tubes will still be included.
Basically all units for the AST-1 F600, stairs truck and the Commander FMC15i are nearly done. Production of other items is also on the way.
So as I mentioned earlier, I plan to have a general restocking each month, so if I restock on March 18th, I will be producing again for the third week of April and so on.
As production is taking me some time, progress on the current projects is a bit slow (but steady) so this weekend I was able to dedicate it to the 1/12 B737 cabin project:
Sidewalls will come next together with the forward electronics panel (FMC). Note that the work done so far still requires detail such as screw heads (and all the panels for each section).
Regarding the 1/200 scale GSE, it is a reality as I was able to test it finally. The 1/200 scale will consist in finished GSE items though, so these will be more limited (and perhaps customizable), but for test purposes here is the first F110 next to the 1/144 version and near the USB drive for size comparison:
To my surprise, the model was able to retain all the details, including the figure, the rear engine grid, fire extinguisher and even the holes of the chocks and panel lines.
The 1/72 is also moving forward:
Apologies for the overexposed photo, details are on the engine cover despite they can’t be seen here.
Although the F59 in 1/72 is progressing well, it sure has much more work to do than the 1/200 models.
The cabin shown here needs a lot of modifications and improvements, it is merely a “mockup” to see the overall fitting. The cabin will most surely be resin casted as so is the body and engine cover. A lot of work still required on this one which I will now move on to weekends.
There is so much going on with all the projects that at times I do feel quite overwhelmed as I do not want to disappoint anybody, however I have set myself schedules and times to do things so that I can actually finish something before going to the next.
That is all for now, I will most surely be publishing more news next weekend as I progress with stuff.
Take good care everybody.
Best wishes,
Guillem