RACV Motor Show - Australia Day 2009

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but since I'd promised it to my friend Mike High, then Associate Editor, for publication on Automodeler.com but was unable to deliver due to technical difficulties on the Kitmaker group of sites, I've only got around to having it published now. Sadly Mike has since resigned his position, but I do like to keep promises to friends - well at least attempt to keep them.

Actually, speaking of AutoModeler, Mike's resignation has left the site without a driver so, dear reader, if you do know of any modellers with a serious auto fetish who are interested in running a site, contact the Kitmaker publisher (contact details can be  found on Kitmaker.net). Until then, and on a temporary basis, Armorama Associate Editor James Bella and  I have volunteered to help out with AutoModeler. Unfortunately my auto knowledge is limited to air-cooled VW's, so I'm definitely not any kind of subject matter expert, but I do know my way around the Kitmaker engine.

Anyway, enough on that, more about the real purpose of this blog entry.

The King's Domain Gardens in Melbourne was the venue of the RACV's, in conjunction with the Federation of Veteran,Vintage and Classic Vehicle Clubs, 2009 Australia Day (26th of January) Motor Show. A real favourite with families, and in addition to many family activities, the Kings Domain Gardens featured the famous historic vehicle display, with more than 500 veteran, vintage and classic vehicles.

This being the first Australia Day for both my wife and I, we set forth to the Gardens, spending a wonderfully warm day out car looking - and it’s amazing, I did not get one "they all look the same" comment from The Missus, as even she enjoyed the day.

The full feature article on AutoModeler.com

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.