Hello again everyone,
Apologies for the mixup on the previous newsletter, some things have changed since the last time I wrote a newsletter and I duplicated some of the content in it.
Today in this second update, I will be sharing the new sets of figures and the new tow tractor. A long time ago I wanted to make figures to go along the towbars, and it is now finally a reality.
Thereby, I share with you the two sets of figures:
Something you may notice with this new figures is a better resolution, higher detail and a more natural fold/wrinkle of the clothes. It has been quite a tedious work, I have been using a new base figures so the changes and challenges were big. The clothing is now more realistic and it adapts to the pose of the figure.
Having the base ready for printing was a bit difficult but now I am ready to make more sets, so I expect to work on new ones, especially crew in the near future.
For a long time I wanted to make a new tow tractor, I was taking a look at actual catalogs and came up with the Sherpa D from Goldhofer, so that was the model I tried to recreate:
Bear in mind the size of this little model, it is only 24,5mm long, and as you can see in the image below, the logo lettering is as tall as a fingerprint:
You can notice the yellow version has the door open. I am exploring the use of different materials and there are some new ways that I will be including in future projects such as,black vinyl wipers, as well as vinyl window frames. With vinyl you don’t need to worry about mask taping everything with such precision, you can simply take the precut frame and place it on the door.
Although I will eventually (with restock) switch from photo etched wipers to vinyl wipers, I may also try to explore another option to see if it works with the clear acetate used for the windows.
This tractor can be assembled without cabin, with the canopy (just the front/rear and top frames) or full cabin (with doors). The main difficulty when trying to make something so small to be as realistic as possible, is the size of the resulting parts. So the assembly of this cabin is modular, the kit will include an “canopy assembly tool” which can be used as base to glue the frames at the correct angle:
Now, talking about what I am currently working on to be finished soon:
- I am working on a remodel of the JST-25, founding new photos of its cabin and having the new printer, I decided to remodel this truck with similar technique for the cabin (but not with door opened) as with the Sherpa model presented in this update.
- I am also repositioning some parts for the GPU TLD414 since the new equipment allows me to print certain parts without as many voxel lines at some areas, therefore avoiding to sand them, a new printing solution will be done for this GPU, although the model is still the same.
- I made a Pulsar 7D model quite some time ago for a customer, so I am planning to downscale this model to 1/144, so I hope to progress with this in short time to have it available at the same time as the Sherpa D.
The items I will be releasing soon, my first scheduled date was May 12th, are the new sets of figures, the Sherpa D tractor, the remodeled JST-25 tractor and the container transporter Puslar 7D. I will need to move this date in the calendar because I am still doing tests with the remodeled JST-25, and the Puslar has not even been downscaled yet, it would be a straight forward progress to do, but its cabin is rather thin and I need to consider how to make it properly so I may delay the Pulsar 7D and release the new figures, the Sherpa and the remodeled JST-25 within 15 days.
These are the upcoming releases which will also come with new restock of the various GSE items currently out of stock, such as the stairs truck TLD ABS1740. I will also restock some other airliner parts that are currenly out of stock.
About the 787/747 availability:
The 787 cargo holds are finished, molds are made, decals/instructions completed, so production is ready to start.
The galleys on the other hand, are being tested in combination with the cargo holds, instructions are also being done. I am working alongside my 787 model to actually test/share results. The rear cargo hold/rear galley combo are going to be tested soon and if results are positive, I will move this project to the mold making stage.
I cannot say a date yet, but I am getting closer, what I want to do is release these cargo holds and galleys at the same time to avoid customers having to wait for another article and pay for another shipment.
The 747: I am currently done with most of the molds, I am trying to solve the issues I discovered when making the clear resin parts. The only remaining thing to do is to print the fuselage and proceed to the mold making for these fuselage halves. The rest of the parts are ready for printing and fitting as you have seen in the previous update, the upper deck was tested, ceilings were also casted, cargo holds were also resin casted, so small parts are needed to be placed on their correspondant bases with the usual numbers beneath them.
That is regarding the final test fittings I need to do. Instructions/decals/photo etch are yet to be done. The most important test will be to fit everything on the actual fuselage.
Because I know you may be wondering when these things are going to be ready, I am going to be creating an Instagram account in the next few days where I will share any progress no matter how small it is. I usually wait to have things to make a blog post or a newsletter, but with Instagram I will be sharing more “bits and pieces” and therefore “break down” such long updates in an easier manner. That doesn’t mean I will stop writing updates at the blog.
I also hope that Instagram will help me reach out to more people, because I can tell you that my “marketing” is terrible. I cannot do much more about it, if I am focused on one thing, I can’t be focused on another, that is why I am struggling so much with so many things started, so I am not doing anything else unless all the projects I have currently started are finished.
Future GSE model for once all is done will be an 1/144 hydrant dispenser truck. It has been requested many times, so I need to gather some more info prior starting the project.
The 1/200 GSE is still on pause until I can have more time to finish painting/assembling the first units of the F110 and F210 tow trucks, but I am defenitely not giving up on this.
I want to rework the photos of the products at the shop, I am not sure what it is, but I sense a negative impact of having 3D thumnails for the products, so I will be taking photos of my actual example models and rework the product galleries.
I am also going to be adding a UPS shipping method. For a bit more than one of the most common shipping rates at the shop, you can have your order within a couple days, so I think it is well worth it if you are in a bit of a hurry or don’t want to wait. I also will be re writing the delivery times because I can see they are faster than what is indicated (that had to be updated due Covid at that time) so I will track the latest shipments and write the delivery times accordingly.
That is all for now, I will be writing another update once my Instagram account is created so that we can catch up on stuff and you can actually see what is currently being done. This will be very useful as I also plan to use this platform to share progress on the first 747-8F build which will also be shared as chapters over Youtube.
Wishing everybody a wonderful Sunday,
Guillem