Category: Blog news

Hello everyone,

I will try to not to extend myself too much on regards the virus since I believe everybody knows what is going on with it. However, I have to say that the state of alarm declared in Spain about 15 days ago has been prolonged for another 15 days as a safety measure, in fact, the peak will be reached within this week most probably. So this translated to the fact that I still can’t ship orders and I prefer not to do so because of the reasons I have explained in the previous entry.

Now on regards the projects, I am currently making units of the GSE but at the same time I am testing new items  that I would like to release once all these things can get better, the items that I will be releasing once things go back to normal are:

• A brand new modeled LEAP 1A engine for the A320/321 family, these engines are going to be more accurate than the first release for the simple fact that I worked directly on top of real reference photos and blueprints for the measurements. It is 3D produced but it will be casted in polyurethane resin like the previous ones. At initial idea, the fanblades will be PE made.
• A350 Sharklets based on the geometry of the A350.
• 1/200 GSE models; at first I will be releasing the towbarless pushback AST-1 F 600 as well as the GPU Houchin C690. I am currently still testing things because I want to make parts as detailed as possible within the capabilities, so I am glad to say that the pushback will have solid driving mirrors, and by that I mean, no flat PE except for the same parts as its bigger 1/144 brother. Elements such as the cones, fire extinguisher and rear signals will be included as well.
  The cabin will be solid, this is something that I feel a bit forced to do, reason being that there won’t be much detail inside due the size, so I do not know if at this point it will just be better to use a photorealistic decal for the windshields. It is something I haven’t fully decided yet, but I am taking into consideration that this is just not for me, other modelers will have to assembly it, so I also have to do things in a way that can be assemblyable.

 

Here is a very (and I mean a very) early photo of the progress:

 

I am also working on the B737 cockpit, I must say that I hate to show renders of that thing without it being something physical yet, but I just wanted to let you see how is the progress so far, and yes, everything has been redone and yes, there  is a lot of work to do and to modify on the sidewall and the union with the main panel.

The cockpit is in a very, very early stage as you can see, and many things have to be finetuned at this point.

That is all for now, I am making units of the 1/144 GSE although it takes some time because as I said, things are quite different now with the problem we are dealing with, but I progress as much as I can.

Best wishes,
Guillem

Dear all,

The government declared yesterday the State of Alarm in the whole country land. This means that in order to slow down the number of infections by the Coronavirus, people must remain at home and only go out for the basic actions such as; groceries, take care of elderly, work, go to the drug store or go to the gas station.

It is not recommended anymore, but now it is mandatory to remain at home unless the actions I wrote before are really needed.

As such, I took the precaution of not shipping orders within the next 15 days which is a reference date that the government has fixed to see if the curve of people contagied diminishes and to see how things are evolving. This time frame may need to be extended.

Why I won’t be shipping orders during the next 15 days? The answer is simple, I want to follow the indications dictated by the government because I don’t want to either risk myself to get the virus and/or infect any member of my family nor anybody for that matter, elderly is specially very weak in front of this virus. Second of all, this situation is very stressful and I really need a time to reorganize myself.

All orders placed so far have been shipped, the last orders placed on Friday will be shipped tomorrow morning if possible, will indicate if those were successfully shipped as always by including the tracking number at the order details and set the order as “shipped” which customer will be able to see by loggin in and checking the order details.

Online store will remain open for those who wish to check their order status and have access to tracking information.

What will happen with the stock production?

At the moment I have material to prepare a few more items, however, I do believe that people are purchasing items for their homes that are far more important than the resin I use, therefore I don’t want to be one of those who adds to the “collapse” of the shippings of things that may be vital or important for people in need.

During the upcoming week I will be working with the computer, I will be reworking the 1/200 models, preparing livery decals for the future silk screen printing and working on other items such as the B737 cockpit, the A350 sharklets and another thing that I am preparing at the moment.

I may be using the remaining material for the testing of the 1/200 models prior I continue with the stock production which I will begin on Monday 23rd if possible.

I want to take this chance to organize things and keep on working with other things that I had to work on anyway.

I will write another update on the next weekend.

Best wishes and stay safe everyone,
Guillem

 

Hello everyone,

You may already be somewhat “tired” to hear about the coronavirus on the news, however, I would like to write a bit about how it may be affecting the store and the production of these items.

At the very moment I can handle the orders fine, orders will be shipped as planned, but, that does not mean that the government may take more and more measures and who knows if post offices will be closed since I think it is a place where there is quite the transit of people. I personally don’t think that will happen, but one never knows how things can go, I believe we haven’t reached the peak in Spain yet.

I am taking measures myself by protecting my hands everytime I have to sign on their tablets with the attached pen, so I hope that the post office can remain open and orders can be shipped as usual.

On regards material, people are getting in a kind of frenzee, I could not even find alcohol for cleaning the resin parts at my local hardware store, so will have to find it elsewhere.
Most of the material I use is purchased online, so I am not sure how this virus will affect the delivery times and such.

I personally don’t think that this will affect very much the production, but just a word to alert of what may happen, specially after seeing the situation of our friends in Italy.

People are staying at home, no school, no sport events etc, I think it is important to take the recommendations seriously, remain calm and try to go through these next weeks as prudent and calm as possible.

I want to dedicate a post about what is next after the release of the stairs truck which has been sold out recently, more units are being made and there are things I would like to explain about future projects, specially those which I am working with at the moment like the 1/200 GSE. I will comment a bit more about the 747 cargo deck set and other projects in another entry soon.

From here, a message to everybody, take good care and stay safe!
Best wishes,
Guillem

 

Dear all,

I have been able to complete the crew figures that fit the stairs model, both will be released on next Monday, I expect to release the workers without helmet as well.

I am not feeling in a high mood to explain more about things, but all I can say is that the set will include 8 figures and wires to make the purse straps and baggage handles.

Best wishes,
Guillem

Dear all,

Having been able to correct and fix things with the printer, I am glad to get back on track and continue with the plans that I had, which fortunately will not change very much since I’ve been able to fix this quicker than I thought, this was for me a very good experience to learn from and understand a bit better how this equipment works.

I am at the moment packaging the first units of the stairs truck, will be producing a few other parts during this week to have everything ready for March 9th. The crew figures are giving me a bit of problems due their tiny size, I want to capture all the details so I am still adjusting some settings, they are a bit more difficult than the ramp workers to make, but I will try my best to have them ready on March 9th as well.

I am already starting to process the first 1/200 models, will produce the AST-1 F 600 first and then the Houchin GPU C690. Again, I want to capture as much detail as possible so I am sure that it will require a few trials and errors.

I would like to post an update once I can advance a little bit more with the 1/144 crew figures, so I hope to do so very soon!

Thank you all for your patience.
Best wishes,
Guillem

 

Hi all,

I remember myself writing the last entry and thinking that if nothing bad happens, I would be releasing the stairs truck at the end of the first week of March, right… so bad things happened!

No, I did not buy myself a piano… that is an apparently failure of the screen of my printer.

I have been having issues lately to get proper prints of the stairs truck, so running a check on the equipment showed this weird defect on half of the screen, whereas it should show a complete rectangle and not a series of rectangles.

This printer has been already working for some months… and as I read about it, both LCD screen and UV are prone to failure with time. A replacement is due to arrive today and I hope to fix this issue soon and mantain the release date of the stairs truck as intended.

I only have one equipment at this moment… so production have to be stopped until this issue is solved, my aim is to have more equipment in the future in order to be able to keep producing units. This is the problem of technology, it works amazingly when it works… but nothing is perfect and when things start to fail, finding a solution requires some time.

Enough chit chat, it is time for me to focus on solving these issues, and will do my best to get things back on track.

Best wishes,
Guillem