4 More

We only need 4 more pre-orders to go to production.  Can we do it???

Timfusco@hotmail.com to request a PayPal invoice for your pre-order.

Have you ever noticed....

It never rains, it pours.  Not only am I still down to part time work (yes, apps are going out) but the heating unit went out yesterday.  $1000 repair. My wife goes to the dentist (also yesterday) and comes home with a $700 bill. I still have medical bills from the cancer.  And last night, nasty storms came through and did this to our back yard....

I have no idea where the cover for the grill went.  It was even tied down. The 4" anchors worked...

Oh, check out the poll for this years releases.  Vote now.  Now, I said!

Victor Pre-Order Update

There are 10 Victors paid for in only 5 days.  Nice!  I appreciate your support.  5 More to go and I can get this shipped off to the new caster.  I have narrowed it down to 2.  Both are reputable and fairly big names in the Sci-Fi kit industry. Decisions, decisions.

Oh, and I have been playing with the head a bit more.  The flanges that form around the "chin" will be molded as separate pieces.

Victor Test Shots

The latest build/kit, the IS Victor Battlemech, is about 90% done.  This is a hybrid...mostly MW4 design using a paper model found at MW3.org and some TRO elements.  I am still tweaking the upper arms...when I first tacked it together, they were way too long.  There is a bit more filling, filing, and sanding to do but she is about done. The Victor will come in at 8.5" tall at roughly 1/60 scale.

There are 5 left for pre-order.  Don't miss out!

 I have not decided whether to go with the square thrusters for the jump jets (left) or the nozzle type (right).

Victor Pre-Order Update 1: Update

9 Victors have been purchased.  Only 6 more remaining.

Victor Pre-Order

Alright everyone, I am going to start taking pre-orders for the Victor.  I will have some "finalized" pics up this weekend...its just lacking arms.  The costs is going to run about the same as the Daishi...$125 plus shipping.  Shipping to the lower 48 will be a flat $15 and a flat $20 international.  Shipping to the lower 48 will be insured as always.  Unfortunately, the USPS won't insure overseas shipments.  The other option is UPS but that shipping would run upwards of $60-$80. Once I get 15 paid pre-orders the kit will be sent to the caster. It will take about a month after that to get the molds made and kits produced. I am estimating mid-March for this round of kits. As with the previous pre-orders, if I cannot get 15 pre-paid orders, then all those who did prepay will get their money refunded to them. This is why I use PayPal...I hate the fees, but it protects the buyers.

Currently, I plan to do just this ONE RUN of Victors.  If you don't pre-order, I cannot say when, or even if, I will do another run.

Update:  If you have pre-ordered in the past and do so again, I am working to include a little something special and unique in your package.  I can't say what here, but I think it is pretty cool!

So, while we are waiting on the Daishi to be re-cast, e-mail (timfusco@hotmail.com) me for an invoice to get the Victor pre-ordered.

Victor Commission

Here are some more pics of the latest commission I am working on.  There are also two others being done...Shadow Cat and Flea.

Good News, Bad News: Update

I got home today and there is a huge box on the front porch from Mana Studios.  There is only one thing that can be...DAISHI!!!!!

But then, I opened the box....5 of the torso units are damaged beyond repair.

As I continued going through them, I noticed that many of the torsos just looked...wrong. As you can see in the pic below, most of the remaining torso units look almost...smooshed...as you can see with the torso on the right.

So, I have e-mailed the caster and will let you know when I hear something back.  Sorry for the wait, everyone.

Update:  These are heading back to the caster so we will have to wait a while longer.  One option is to make these solid cast rather than hollow cast, but that would increase the cost.  Please post your thoughts in the comments sections.

Current Commission

Hi All.  I am working on a Victor that I was commissioned to build and posted a pic over at MWOMercs.com and have gotten a couple of e-mails about kitting it.  I would have to get the permission of the client to kit it though.  Anyone have interest in the Victor?

The inspiration...Dave White's redesign for MW4 Mercenaries....

Cool stuff post

Hi all. Posted a review of the Gurkha Ghost over on my personal blog.

Enjoy!

Daishi Update...and other stuff

I heard from the caster and it will be a little longer on the Daishi.  It is really taking time to hollow-cast the main body of the beastie.

On a few other notes, I still cannot get this thing to upload photos through IE9.  I am getting so frustrated I may just switch to FireFox permanently. 

I want to post some photos later of the latest commission build I am doing.  This one is a 1/60 scale Victor.  I really need to reconsider my pricing as (once again) I seriously undercharged for the time it is taking.  I may make the equivalent of about $5.50 an hour labor...less than minimum wage at McDonalds, but way more fun!  But here is the thing...when someone wants a scratch-built mech, I have a real hard time telling them it would be $500 or so. Most people would shy away from that...I know I would. I don't know...

The Poll results seem to have been split down the middle, so what I may do is Publish the main articles on my personal blog (with one follower...not even my wife at that) and link to it from here.  Cool things might include cigar reviews (as I do love a good cigar), recipes, interesting news articles and the like. Who knows, I may even use it as a place to bitch every now and again.

More later once I have a chance to play with FireFox.

Tim

Blogger/IE issues

Anyone having issues with IE 9 and Blogger?  When I click to add photos from my PC, it does not display the "Choose Files" button (although it did 3 days ago).  I can upload from within the blog or from another site but not from my PC.  However, when I tried with Firefox, it worked fine.  Also, I cannot properly access the MWO site from IE9...only through FireFox or my old PC with IE7.

I tried doing a system restore, but that did not help anything.  Fricking Microsoft.....

Also, check out the new Poll that has been clarified.

Thanks!

Battletech Mech Sizes

Mech sizes have been a sticky point for us builders for a long time.  All the games seem to have different sizes...and I have never seen any definitive sizes stated.  We builders (Scott, Simon, and myself) tend to use the Armorcast Atlas as our reference point.  However, I was recently cruising the contents of an old computer and I found the following image...with sizes.

Jenner TRO style

Okay, okay.  Enough pestering.  Here is one...and only one...pic of the Jenner I just completed. It is a scratchbuild based on the TRO illustrations done without the use of paper model plans.  I took on-line pics and had to draw out the blueprints.  The customer is happy...but I HATE the TRO Jenner.  Yes, hate!  This pic was taken right before I did some final touch-ups.  Enjoy.