One for the road?

So, I have been fine tuning the Masakari with an eye towards casting it.  The main thing I am playing with is the 4 PPC barrels.  I think they need to be more burly.  Should we try to get one more kit in this year?

For those that pre-ordered the Dervish, it should be ready about month end.

Comment away!

Madcat MK II

Several of you have said you are interested in the Madcat MK II.  The caster says the molds are still in good shape.  Rather than me order a bunch and end up with some sitting in the closet, I am going to do this like a pre-order.  If you want one, I can invoice you. Once paid orders are collected, I will send them to the caster bearing in mind he does not like randomly casting one or two at a time.  So, for another order I need at least 5 pre-pays.  If you want one, e-mail me your name, PayPal e-mail, and country to be shipped to and I will invoice you.

Just heard from the caster.  The molds are officially dead. Sorry for those of you whose invoices got cancelled.  We really thought we could get more pulls but its just not happening.  For the two that paid, I am filling your orders out of my personal stash. 

Awesome? You be the judge.

I finally got my hands on one of Thor's 3D printed mechs.  While it is great to have access to some of these new MWO mechs, I have to say that these mechs are NOT for the inexperienced modeler. Heck, I am a little intimidated by the amount of work that is going to go into making these things shelf worthy.  The detail is awesome...that's for sure.  The big drawbacks for me are:

1.  Lots of pieces and no instructions. You can fiddle and get it, but the build is not straight forward.

2.  The printing process itself leaves lots of lines as it builds the different layers.  You can use acetone or Mr. Surfacer on it, but again...lots of time consuming work.

3.  My biggest concern is that the pieces are "splitting" in various areas. There are several spots on the torso and legs where the layers are coming apart.  You can see it in the pics.

These are just my thoughts.  I have heard from others in our community they have all had different experiences. Pics are below.

On another note...

As you may have noticed, International Shipping costs have gone up again.  The USPS will now only ship mail to certain countries via Priority International and its not cheap.  In fact, I took a hit today when I shipped a Bushwacker to England and it cost $40.

Anyway, here are the promised pics...