Mad Cat MK II

Good evening.  Figured I would drop some pics of the Mad Cat MK II  I am working on.  This one is for me.  I decided to go with a generic air craft gray and some weather.   Also, I am having an "artist" work on a BMC Unit logo.  I am meshing the old FASA logo with the defunct Fasa Studios logo. Should look cool if the can pull it off.  If not, I may hit up one of you.

Marketplace Update

FYI: The Dervish is now available in the Marketplace.

Dervish Pre-Orders

All the paid pre-orders have shipped...with exception of two international orders.  Those will go out this weekend. 

In the original pre-order, I had offered up a Cougar kit if we hit 15 paid orders. We only hit 12 but since the caster gave them to me at cost, I figured, "What the heck" and did a drawing for 2 Cougar kits.  Those were sent out with the orders...one to Perry and the other to BM.  Thank you all for your continued support. 

Currently I am working on the Vulture MK IV which is driving me nuts.  I am just not happy with the SRM launchers and keep redoing them.  I have spent two weeks playing with just that one part of the kit. There is also the Masakari. I am making it more "casting" friendly as well as correcting some things that manifested as issues on the Daishi kit. Additionally, I am going to include two different style barrels.  On top of that, I have a Vulture commission to build and a Dervish to build for Sam so he can pitch his "Combined Arms" idea.  Busy, busy, busy.

Dervish...'nuf said

Here are some shots of the first of the Dervish kits.  They should start shipping in the next week or so.  As for the drawing for a Cougar, we did not hit the 15 mark.  That being said, the caster still got me a couple "B-" grade casts out of the old molds. Being the generous soul that I am, TWO of you (randomly drawn, of course) will have Cougar kits in with your Dervish pre-orders.  You can post here if you wish...to let others know the free kit drawing was not Bovine Scatology.

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...