Coming soon to a modelling site near you

July has been a rather quiet month modelling-wize for me. I finished up a work engagement at the end of June, only to have to pull one or two knives from my back a few days later - you just have to love those players that wait until you are off-site to put a knife between your shoulderblades and then twist it. We are also moving house at the end of August, so the missus and I have been doing a bit of packing. Apart from the review items and a few kits I have bought since, all the kits and figures have been packed.

In order to try get out of this modelling motivation funk I am going through, I have seconded the missus' help: she is to ensure that I spend at least an hour every night either writing or photographing reviews. Hopefully that way I can make some decent progress through the pile.

So, the reviews I currently have on the go, and coming soon to a modelling site near you are:

• Wee Friends' WF35020 WWII German Infantryman, with PPSH
• Alpine Miniatures' 35086 German Heer Panzer Crew Set

Both of the above items are being reviewed for Armorama. I am also working on a review of Tamiya's 1/24 Volkswagen 1300 Beetle ('66), which I'll post on my own site (RRSM).

In addition to the aforementioned, I do have a number of other items due, however I had better not commit to a specific date just yet, however I do hope to complete most (preferably all) prior to the move.

Watch this space... and wish me luck!

Mr. Mojo Risin'

As you might tell from the title, I think I might just have my mojo, modelling mojo that is, back. I actually managed to put a few epiphanies I've had regarding the tunic and breeches of Alpine Miniatures' recent 35081 German Infantry Officer to paper, which is something I've been unable to do in recent weeks. And something I am extremely embarrassed about, and something which has caused me even more guilt and embarrassment everytime I've seen Taesung online.

But before I get depressed about this again, on with the mojo story. So not only have I managed to pen a few thoughts, but I finished up the photography of the parts last night. Hopefully if I can get out the office on time tonight I'll put on some The Doors (yup, I'm a fan), wrap up the editing of the photos and get cracking on the text again.

A few modellers have been asking me where I've been lately, i.e. they haven't seen me online. Well, friends, that's all to do with losing my mojo. What has contributed to losing it? Well that's a tale for another day - but you'd have to be blind not to have seen it if you frequent the same places I do...

Watch this space, friends, hopefully Mr. Mojo keeps on risin'.

This and That...

Regular readers will have noted it has been some time since my last blog update, about 3 weeks ago with the DML Bison I review. So this blog update is really just a quick catch-up on what I have been up to, hence the title: "This and That...".

Let's start with the personal front. The last few weeks have had their highs and lows. 

The low being the passing away of my paternal grandmother this past weekend (Sunday 17 May 2009). It was all a bit of a sudden, in fact neither I nor my family (mother, brother, sister) even knew she was ill until she phoned my brother on Saturday to tell him she'd been in hospital - she died that night. It goes without saying that this is made all the more difficult for me being a continent away. Rest In Peace, Gran.

On the flip-side, the definite high for the past 3 weeks has been hearing we got the finance for the house I mentioned about a month ago!

Situated in a South-Eastern bay-side suburb some 30 odd kilometers out of Melbourne, it's a unit on a plot containing 3 similar townhouses. It's a double-story 3 bedroom house, with a slightly extended garage which will be great for modelling. Here are a few photos which were posted by the estate agents on their website:

From a modelling point of view, what have I been up to? Not much I'm afraid. While I finished the DML Bison I review, I'm still going through that slump I mentioned last month. Which really sucks considering the queue of reviews which has built up. There are some really nice products there, so watch this space! Also, let me offer my public apology to those vendors whom I owe reviews - I can't begin to tell you how guilty I feel.

I've also made an attempt to start my entry for the Kitmaker staff challenge. What's that? Well basically it's a group build between some Kitmaker staff members wherein we're each building something out of our normal modelling genre. Each staffer nominated a few kits, each from a different genre and we allowed the Kitmaker members vote on which kit they'd like each of us to build. Let's just say this wasn't an easy initiative to get going, from trying to get staff to participate (some were keen until it was explained that "out of our normal modelling genre" does not mean simply building something of a different nationality to what one normally does - then they strangely didn't have the time, and couldn't see the point or benefit to Kitmaker) to getting the public to vote (eventually we offered prizes in a lucky draw). Oh well, all in the name of fun!

Anyway, I digress. The kit that was chosen for me to build was Tamiya's 1/24 scale VW Beetle (1966). So, with the end of June deadline looming, I eventually dragged the box out earlier this week and photographed the sprues. At this point in time I'm not sure if I'll be doing a kit review to help out Mike at Automodeler.com - I really do want to help him out, but that whole time thing keeps getting in my way. Hopefully by building something different like this it'll inspire me in the same way painting Warhammer figures for a few months did.

Still on the work-bench is the M8 HMC, but something else I'd like to get cracking on is the Bison I. I'm thinking perhaps a French Campaign theme, but Barbarossa calls as well...

Speaking of the M8 HMC, I've fixed all the faulty photo links. Hopefully this tutorial is of benefit to some.

All is quiet on the modelling front...

Or is it?
I came to the shock realisation earlier this week that it has been more than a few weeks since I last gave an update on the Tamiya M8 HMC, indeed the last update was the 24th of February 2009. I do apologise for this, but I do assure you that I have not been quietly plugging away at the project and not updating the SBS. No, unfortunately I have not been doing any work on it.
So just where the hell have I been? What the hell have I been up to? Well, a lot I guess! Some of it scale modelling related, and other just life really. So this blog post contains a bit of everything really, but mostly it is an explanation of what has stalled the M8 HMC build and an insight into what I will be working on in the forthcoming weeks.
Let's start on a more personal explanation: what has been going on in my life these past (almost) two months? As everyone (the press, our clients, my bosses) keep reminding us, we are amidst a "Global Financial Crisis", which has lead to a slow down in work for the company I work for resulting in quite a few people being laid off. Fortunately I was not one of them, but I do think if I had not been sent out to a client a few weeks ago I might have been one of those unhappy souls. I am now doing some process documentation and analysis for Australia's largest telco. What started as a week-long "freebie" in February has led to a longer contract. It really is interesting, but somewhat of a challenge as it is quite technical and really takes me back to my days as a network/systems administrator. Most importantly, I am off the bench, out the office, earning revenue for the bosses, and (hopefully) out of the firing line. A further plus to this is that I generally do not work more that 8 hours a day while on a client site, which means that when I work through my lunch-break, which is most days, I can be home before 17.00 if I hop on the train.
Something else that has been going on is that The Missus and I have been house-shopping. The buying process certainly is different here in Australia. I will not attempt to explain it, as I will probably just get it wrong. The long and short of it is that we have seen two houses we really liked. The first one we lost out on due to our offer being too low. In retrospect we could have afforded more and put in a higher offer, but we did not due to our own ignorance of our lending capacity at the time. More recently we put in an offer on a townhouse which we really liked as well. The offer was accepted, but we heard yesterday that the bank valuation of the property was about 10% less than we offered. This despite the fact that the offer was below the area median price for similar properties. We have instructed out mortgage originator to apply through another institution. If they also undervalue the property, we will probably cancel the deal and perhaps offer the vendor a lower price. If they do not accept then we know it is not meant to be. It will be a pity though, because I really like this house.
So what else has been keeping me from the project? I seems to me that I have more time after work.
To be honest I had become a bit unmotivated with the project. The photo-etch instructions were becoming annoying to say the least. I would sit down at the desk, look at the parts, try to decipher the Eduard instructions, get annoyed, and then get up and watch TV or surf the 'net instead.
And that is when it happened. I saw a post on Armorama asking for review volunteers for a range of products, including DML's new Bison I SPG. How could I resist not putting my paw up? Yes, I have volunteered to review an armour model! When I received the box from Jim Starkweather, the Kitmaker publisher, he had also included quite a few more interesting kits for review. Just prior to this though, Neograde had also sent me a few resin accessory/conversion sets. As did Pat McGrath, a fellow Kitmaker staff member, albeit figures. But let's face it: I love writing modelling reviews, and I am really grateful to all who indulge me by supplying samples.
So you ask why I am not at the workbench? It is because I am reviewing again. That is not a bad thing: someone around here needs to write decent, objective (I hope) reviews.

Demystifying "The Thing"

If you are a regular reader of this Blog you may recall back in May 2008 I mentioned "The Thing". You may also recall that at the time I was reluctant to broach the subject, and that I said I would reveal all soon. Well, that soon is now about 6 months later, and indeed about 3 months since "The Thing" took place. In actual fact "The Thing" will perhaps not be as exciting or intriguing as some may think. And no, it is not an addition to the family!

"The Thing" was simply, and certainly by no means am I trying to downplay the event nor the near nuclear fallout effect it has had on our lives, my wife and I immigrated to Australia.

This was not a rash decision. Nor did the process take place overnight. Indeed, this was about 18 months to 2 years in the making.

So why leave SA? Our reasons were and are numerous. But mostly we were wanting more security, both in the economic and personal sense. Unfortunately SA, due to the extreme poverty in Africa, has become governed by thugs and violence. While I am not referring to the current government, because I believe the pre-'94 governments were little different, I cannot help but wonder how a man who sings about and dances to revolutionary songs about his AK-47 could possible be fit to govern the jewel of Africa. Naturally there are many more reasons which I will not discuss here mostly due to space, and it becomes almost easy to find them if one becomes negative enough and justify the decision.

Of course I have to add, that I have always wanted to leave South Africa. My mother reminded me of this when I broke the news to her that we had decided to start applying for permanent residency in Australia.

So why Australia? When we decided to leave SA, we put together a shortlist of countries we were interested in moving to, and realistically could move to. The final 2 being the United Kingdom and Australia. While my wife has family in the UK, we decided on Australia - mostly for the way of life, but also the weather - my wife is very much a summer person.

So why the secrecy? Well there was and was not secrecy around this. For one thing, the decision to pack up one's entire life, particularly if you are fairly settled in, is difficult enough. Talking about it and sharing it with one's friends is just as hard. Then of course there were also professional reasons. We took a decision not to tell anyone about our intention to move. One of the reasons for it was the negative impact it potentially could have had on our careers. My wife worked for a rather temperamental (mostly just mental in my opinion) woman who in all likelihood would have instructed her to leave immediately had she told her of her intent. In my case, I was up front with my boss as I needed the references for my visa. However I decided it best not to repeat it in modelling circles as it could have unsettled the status quo of the site I was managing, and cast doubt and unsettle vendor relations.

So what has this got to do with a scale modelling Blog? Probably nothing. But, this is my Blog, and it may also serve to inform all why there has been such a slow down in my modelling of late, as well as my decision to resign from Historicus Forma.

Over the coming days and weeks, I will probably be discussing more on the move to Oz, our experiences as well as a very brief comment on my decision to resign from HF.

Oh, and just for the record: my modelling stuff has arrived in Australia, and I am reviewing figures again. I have however decided to become a little more subject focused. I have decided to return to my roots and my own interests, and thus will be focusing on Roman and WW2 subjects again. That said, I also have a modern Russian figure set lined up for review. I also have several projects lined up for 2009 already, but I would prefer not to discuss them until I get going with them.

More soon. See ya later.

Great haul, and yet...

Time for what seems to be a monthly post. Apologies, things have really just been a bit crazy with trying to get things sorted for "The Thing". I'm not quite ready to discuss "The Thing", but I promise I will be spilling the beans soon. Probably towards the end of the month, but inevitably everyone will know soon anyways.
Anyways, as the title says, "Great haul, and yet...".
About 2 days ago I received a phone call from a good friend of mine, Roland, who happens to run a hobby shop. "Rudi, my old chum, my old mate, oh great guru of model related items" he says (okay... he didn't say "old chum"), "I've just received a call from a fella whom is selling an Aztek airbrush, in wooden box with 3 nozzles and a hobby compressor for R500." Now I won't get into the exchange rate discussion or even the math, but know that R1 (ZAR = South African Rand) equal about US$7-8. This is one good deal!
"What's wrong with it?" I says, being all too sceptical of this all too good sounding deal. "Well I haven't actually seen it," my chum says, "but apparently nothing. This dude needs cash urgently, today even, and is desperate to sell. I don't know too much more, but he bought it from Brian (the owner of another LHS) a few years back." Now, knowing what Brian sells, I probably have quite a good idea of the value of the item.
"Hmmm," I thinks doing the sums in me noggin (not only did I pass Matric with an A in mathematics and do 'varsity maths, but I can multitask!), "this all is worth over R2000 at least. The compressors sell for at least R1000-1500." Roland gives me his number and I prepare myself to tackle the next huge hurdle: clearing this transaction with the missus!
I'll spare you the embarrassment of me discussing (i.e. asking permission) this with the lil' lady, which I think must have brought a big smile to the faces of my colleagues, so we'll leave it at she said yes.
So, now having permission, I ring the seller up - no answer. A bit later, I ring him again - he answers. Turns put he's actually visiting Brian's store, which is not 5 minutes from where I'm working. Since it was near quitting time, I asked him to wait there for me.
With ants in my pants I eagerly watched the clock drag it's lazy arms for those 15 minutes before rushing out, telling the security guards to sod their Apartheid style car search.
Their waiting in Brian's store was a rather rough looking middle-aged gent. Unshaven and looking the worse for wear he'd definitely seen better days. We took a stroll out to his little hatchback sedan. I noted the Zimbabwe plates.
As we chatted, he revealed he had been working for a gent up in Zim, keeping the farmer's equipment running for many years. The gent had recently passed on through a series of unfortunate events: partially due to the state of that nation, partially due to illness, partially due to money hungry family members. The mechanic had been promised something for his years' service, but this had not materialised due to the meddling of aforementioned family. Now, he had moved down to SA in the hope of making a new life. Hard up for cash he was now selling off his modelling gear.
I checked the brush and compressor, I paid him and we parted ways.
But why the title "Great haul, and yet..."? Well simply because when I got home I gave the gear a really good looking over, and it's in great condition for stuff about 6-7 years old. Without a doubt, I've scored big time here. Seriously a great bargain! Great haul!
And yet... I feel guilty. I know the guy is hard up for cash. I know this stuff is worth more. I know if he had gone to a pawn shop or waited a few days more he could have got double, if not triple, the amount I payed him for it.
Should I feel guilty? I paid him exactly what he wanted...

Sound Familiar?

I must apologise for the the lack of posting these last few weeks. I'm sure you can all relate to my situation...
After the period of the last posting, the missus decided that now is as good a time as any to paint the house - IN & OUT! So, as small as my house may be, I have spent the last 3-4 weeks painting. Not figures - walls! Not with model paint - with PVAs! Not with sable hair brushes - with rollers! Sound familiar?
I suppose I should be happy that the house looks nice, but throw me a freaking bone here! I need a break! No more house painting already!
Now you might be thinking why don't I paint figures at night? Well, I'd love to, but I can't get into my room!
Okay, let's change the topic ever so slightly.
I've been in regular (okay, this is me we're talking about: irregular) correspondence with the host of another, much more hardcore, figure forum. In discussing various issues, but mostly him imparting much appreciated advice upon my person, he mentioned I should consider doing a regular editorial piece on HF. Be a little more edgy, ruffle a few feathers.
So, as soon as the KitMaker Network comes online again (I think they got wind of my desire to editorialise and decided to just shut down the whole Network! LOL), you will start seeing Tarok's Tales becoming an editorial type column on HF as well. It'll be a duplicate of what gets posted here, except totally different! No - just kidding. I'll post the editorial type stuff both here and on HF. My WIP stuff, what little there is, will remain as is - here as a blog entry, and on HF and MedRom as the regular type of thing... So if you read both HF and my blog and think "That sounds familiar" - it probably is!

Validating one's work

So you'll notice I've entitled this post "Validating one's work", so you should be warned that this is just a little rant. So this is how the story goes...

On Saturday evening I published my review of Alpine's 1/35 scale "WW2 German Officer Set". Now what many don't realise is that it takes time to put a fairly decent, or even a fairly mediocre, product review. I worked on the review on and off over about 10 days, I'd say total time including photography - which itself takes me about 1.5-2 hrs to take the pics with my crappy camera and resize and fix them. Now let's talk upload time... it's weekend, the review needs to get published, I have no choice but to use my home dial-up (our older readers may remember those - well in darkest Africa most of us still use these due to parastatal monopolies - but that's another rant for another time). So add another 1-1.5hrs for the upload of the photos.

K... so we're talking max 12hrs working time for a review which takes a reader about 10 minutes to read and browse the pics. And here's my main gripe... after the 12 working hours, and the 10 minute read, and (at time of rant) 464 times the review has been read.... I get one comment... sheesh people, give a reviewer some feedback! How are writers supposed to know if the other 463 readers found the review useful? If you think the review sucks, or is unfair, or is just another product endorsement like some other reviewers I could mention give.... for heaven sake say so!

Now please, don't get me wrong. I really love doing figure reviews. I love it from the moment the moment I first open the box through the research (and how I love the research - it's probably my favourite part) through the photos (pain in the arse they may be to me) to the final publication and seeing my opinion in print. (I get the same feeling from being a business analyst and doing the requirements stages)

I just really want some validation for my work.I don't think that's too much to ask is it?

Rant ends here

BTW, I'd added the link to the review to my list of reviews.

BTW2, I finally got the Platoon 1/35 Panzer Assault Gunner published last night as well. Gawd, it took me long enough to get that one out...

Cya later

What a day...

Sheesh, what a day! Ever have one of those days when you were incredibly busy but feel like you accomplished nothing? Well, I have those a lot, and today was definitely one of those.

I started the day by forgetting to copy the Alpine pictures I resized last night from my laptop to my memory stick - so that's kinda delayed the publication of the review for a day or so.
The day at work started off really slow... then sped up to such a rate than no sooner had I finished lunch than I was going to fetch SWMBO from work.

I must admit my first day back from leave yesterday was okay... but today was just a drag! Feel like I need leave again...

So... I didn't get to publish the Alpine review... but it is done (honest) and should be tomorrow night. Then I start on the LAH set. Actually started researching Max W.... last night. Will be interesting to see how close Taesung managed to make the likeness,

BTW, you'll notice I've added a list of links to all my reviews down the side. Feel free to either comment on HF or mail me about them. I'm always open to constructive critique.

Cheers

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!! May 2008 bring you fair winds and calm seas.

So... 2007 is done... Hmmm, all those unfinished projects... oh well, no use groaning over what's done - or this case what's not done.

I've set myself the personal goal of completing all those old projects by June (that's 2008 in case anyone asks ;-) ). Reason? You'll find out later in the year ;-)

I managed to put in some more work on the one Alpine review, the WW2 German Officer Set (guess I let the cat out the bag, eh? Consider this a head's up of a forthcoming review ;-) ), and the review should be published toward Thursday. The photography is done, just to resize and watermark, and the review itself is about 75% of the way. Unfortunately I'm back to work tomorrow so it's back to modelling by candle light while Eskom continues to loadshed. Best make sure the laptop's batteries are charged.

Well that's all from me tonight... still trying to recover from the party at my brother's place... those shots of Jack and my sister-in-law's awesomely wicked punch are still taking a toll :-D LOL

Have a great 2008 everyone!

Welcome

Hello, welcome to my blog.

As you can see from my profile, my name is Rudi, and I am a scale modeller.

This blog is pretty much dedicated to my hobby, although I'm sure the odd other thing will creap in time to time. Now admittedly I'm not that good at keeping these sorts of things going (if there was one kid that would ever let his Tamagotchi die it would be me) so please don't expect updates too regularly. Then again, please check regularly as well, as I'll also be letting folks know what reviews I'm working on for Historicus Forma - sneak peaks if you will ;-)

Okay, so what am I working on? Well figure-wise I have a few things on my workbench.

- Tamiya 1/16 scale WWII Wehrmacht Tank Crewman (Africa Corps)
- Pegaso 54mm Crusader Knight in Holy Land XIII Century
- Warhammer Bretonnian Questing Knight
- Warhammer 40K Eldar Autarch
- RAF Pilot Bust
- EVD 54mm Sertorial Legionary

And then... there are the reviews... I won't give too much away at the moment, so I'll just say I'm working on another 2 stunning WW2 figure sets from Alpine. As always the attention to detail is incredible. Seriously, I wish I could sculpt like Taesung. Man, the dude is so talented. And the resin... oh, baby! The resin is awesome to work with. It's like working with plastic. It's not that crispy type that VLS and co use, this stuff is the really good stuff.

The first review should be live on HF within the next 2 days or so, but fear not, dear reader, I'll post the link here ;-)

Until we meet again...

Cioa baby