Dave Ambrose

I think I can provide an authoritative answer. This site is supported by ad revenue. It covers the bill, plus a little. In effect, nobody is getting paid for their work. This site will keep going for a long time. There are backup plans in place. Gregg can obviously step in if I have a catastrophic SCUBA accident, and I have the capability of stepping in should something happen to Gregg. This site requires a dedicated server, so operating costs are substantial, especially when software maintenance gets factored in. We've tried to avoid the pay for play track. Part of the magazine's mission is to support the community, and a free to use forum is a key part of that mission.

Thanks. I'll chase that one down and report it. You can also do that. There is a little triangle on the ad that will allow you to report it to Google. I'm getting very tired of advertisers misrepresenting their ads and gaming the system.

There's been a lot of debate about like buttons with good points on both sides. But, time marches on, and customs evolve so we've enabled a like button for posts. This will help those on mobile devices, phones and tablets, to more easily participate. It will also help anyone at a loss for words. (I frequently fall into this category) If it becomes a problem, we'll revisit the question, but for now, the positives seem to outweigh the negatives. That said, I urge people not to put too much stock in your number of likes. Keep posting your builds, asking questions, or offering comments. Unlike some other places I can think of, this is generally a kind and supportive community. I'd very much like to keep it that way.

You should be able to see them now.

My Holy Grail kit was always the Nautilus from Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A few years ago, we had the pleasure of meeting Scott Brodeen, who restores movie props, and also makes a resin kit of the Nautilus. After some discussion between my wife and I, we decided to get the 31 inch version. Scott wasn't getting any younger, and the built ones we saw looked very great. I'm glad we did. I'm working at bringing my weathering skills up to the level this kit requires, but it's lovely. Fit is generally excellent. Detail is good. I picked up some 3D printed parts for it. Now to learn how to apply rust washes.

These planes were at one of my local airports a few years ago. Took the morning to go up and see them with my wife and son. Very cool. Even my son liked them. You don't realize how cramped they are until you get inside one. There were very brave people flying those. I also had the pleasure of seeing the B-17 overfly us at the beach. A beach a little south of where we were is the turn-around point for the passenger flights.

Thank you for the kind words. Feeling better now. It was the right time, and she's at peace.

We had to say goodbye to Shasta today. 4 years ago, she was diagnosed with feline lymphoma and had to go on chemotherapy. We knew it would stop working at some point and only expected to get 2 years. She got 4 years of good, quality life, and for that I am very grateful to her veterinarian, and his staff. She enjoyed 18 years of good life. She was a rescued feral, and the outdoors were her preferred place. But she spent a lot of time with me at my hobby table, quietly rearranging parts, and putting cat hair in places where they would only reveal themselves after paint was applied. Everyone in our family is going to miss her.

Guy on the right. With the Speedo. I rest my case. ? Nice Alia board tho. Don't see those very often. I grew up in the SF Bay area. We had our share of hippies. There are some notable exceptions, but I learned a long time ago that clothes didn't necessarily indicate very much about a person's character.

Bill, do you remember what we wore in the '60s and 70s? This guy looks downright dapper next to some of those fashions.

It's a wonderful model display. I spent more than a few minutes looking at it on my last visit.

I don't think there is, per se. But, you can define your own custom activity feeds. I think that allows you to select areas of interest, so you can probably just not select Off-Topic.

Don't go looking for wetsuits either. ?

LOL -- I'm surprised that hasn't gotten us in trouble. Maybe it just tips the scales a bit for elsewhere.

The like button is especially useful on mobile/tablet devices. Typing on these things is a pain, and you'd want to have something more substantial to say before doing an actual reply.

That's exactly what happens. Posts in the drag-racing section are occasionally flagged as adult content, especially if there are certain types of adoring comments. I'm so looking forward to the era when AIs can be diagnosed with mental illnesses. ?

This is great. Thank you for posting them, but they belong in a different place. I'll move it and leave a link to the new location.

I don't like the missing pictures either. Losing Harry Pristovnik's build pictures hurt a lot. We spent a lot of time in a very awkward place where we didn't have enough readership to afford a better host, and needing too many resources for an affordable hosting plan. Externally hosting the photos was the only solution we had, then Photobucket turned around and bit us in a place not normally mentioned in the New York Times. It was little more than a crass grab for revenue. It actually backfired on them. Many people were laid off, although I believe the decision makers were allowed to slink away. We're now on a bigger server, and we can get the resources we need. This site needs a tremendous amount of storage. Our full backups are pushing 300GB. This is why we have the ads. I don't like them either, but it pays the bills. If you want to go back and fix your old threads, We'd appreciate that very much. Please contact me and I can enable that.

I've got a bit of a space problem too. I'm storing our collective model stash in the garage rafters. But my real troubles began when my wife went up there for something and exclaims. "Where did all these come from?!" It didn't help that the model railroad stuff that my wife wants to keep and my daughter's kits were up there too. Additional kits are a rarity these days, and to be honest, that seems to be just fine.

They're still here. Between Google's intransigence and advertisers gaming the system, this is getting ridiculous. I'll go tweak some more settings. I'm about ready to build a cruise missile.

I generally try to avoid getting duplicate kits. There are exceptions. I have two of the Accurate Miniatures Corvette Grandsport, a couple of the Revell '30 ford Coupe, a couple of the Revell '29 Fords, and a pair of the Ernie Irvan #4 cars. But, it's getting to the point where I can't keep track of what's up there anymore, so I'm doing a kit inventory as part of our garage remodel.

I tweaked the settings. We'll have to see if they addus giganticus goes away and stays gone.

We've talked about this before, and the general feeling seems to be that the like button is an impediment to good conversations. We may well revisit the topic in the future.

Unfortunately ad blockers means we don't get the revenue we need to keep the site going. I have mixed feelings about the ads. Without them, we don't have a site. But, Google is getting worse on several fronts. It's been an ongoing problem. Ideally, we'd be able to place model car ads on the site ourselves. It'd be a great way for kit and aftermarket manufacturers to reach the very people who want their prodcts the most. But we're not there yet. We don't make any significant money on this site. It would be nice, but the revenue has just never been there.

I listen to music. What music depends on my mood. It can be anything from Hindemith to the Tragically Hip.