Agent G

I refer to sick days as "mental health" days. G

That is very very nice. G

All the above was accomplished right after lunch. Never letting free time go to waste I pulled out this one again. I added some detail painting and began the next round of weathering using oil paints. G

Mark I couldn't agree with you more. I actually had the day to myself and nothing else to divert my attention. Amazing what can happen. This set up and an Optivisor allows me to build the tracks. Once I get a string of 96 or so links I "paint" them with Tamiya Extra Thin cement. I let them sit 20 minutes or so the peel the strip of track up. Remember all those wheels? Well here's one of the reasons I built them first, This side took 92 links, the right side 93.I form them around the wheels which this time were a good tight friction fit. I tape the connecting ends together on the bottom. As you can see I weight them down with coins. This keeps the upper run in contact with the return rollers. I let these dry for about three days. I found out the hard way if I take them off before the cement sets completely, the tracks tend to shrink. It's no fun after painting and weathering to find out the tracks are a fraction too short during final assembly. Additional coins keep the track sag in place. I initially formed that withmy hands. G

I got it but, whooo baby it's obscure. G

Both are beautiful! G

Sound like my ex wife #2, one more year of child support then I will never have to contact her again. G

Adam Henry grade 1 The stripes put me into Pri%&us status. G

Windows are open, ceiling fans are on, let's get some air in here. 79 by the weekend. G

Thing was Andy I didn't have to be a total "P" for long. Once I asserted myself and stated my rules, all ran smoothly. I just had to do my part, which was, simply put, to do what I could to make my people ....... wait for it ................happy. Happy troops, who know you have their back, work like heck for you. Being fair, asking for a good work ethic and insisting for a good end product is only part of being a boss. Leadership by example, being out there with them and sharing knowledge and info are the real keys. Knowledge is power, share it and we all become powerful. Hide it and we all suffer. I'll give a hint here as to where I come from regarding leadership, USMC, 0311 Infantry. I simply cannot stand backstabbing of any kind. I never tossed a subordinate under the bus for some percieved shortcoming. I always shared info and not kept interesting tidbits to myself for my later glory. I have a boss now who is fond of saying "If you're right I'll stand behind you." I asked him once in a briefing that "if I'm right why do I need you?" I also asked "If I'm 95% right, that's when I need your opinion, what will you do then?". I also said why stand behind me, why don't you stand next to me and we get this done together. He had no answers and now I'm the office malcontent. I love it. G

Unfortunately John, that stuff happens too. No matter what you do you can't ride with them and hold their hands all the time. I'll be honest, folks who didn't work for me thought I was a pri%&. Those that did knew my expectations and worked accordingly. I AM a pri%&, but a fair one. Big agencies have a hard time keeping policy up to date with the times. Having the victim respond to the scene of occurrence is typical 70's era policy. I understand why, but it's mostly useless today. G

Unfortunately in this time of budget crisis and ever increasing crime rates, prioritizing calls is a must. No cop ever wants to "let one get away" but when you are running from violent crime to violent crime, it happens. Let's look at numbers you can relate to, NYPD has right at 39,000 cops. Cool until you dig deeper, roughly 500 retire every week. It takes about a year to get a new hire trained and on the street where they are just proficient enough to get themselves killed. NYPD has academy classes that number 1400-1500 about twice a year. Factor in a 30% washout rate and you see where administrators are pulling their hair out on a daily basis. The two biggest budget items in any department are salaries and fleet. City fathers know deep down public service agencies are a black hole for finances. Police, Fire and EMS render services, which at first glance are pretty straight forward for Fire and EMS. Saving lives, God Bless them. Cops work in that gray area of public perception. Everybody wants cops when they need them, but nobody wants to see them all the time. Realize this, for every cop car there has to be anywhere from 6-8 cops assigned to it. 24/7/365 operations, total manpower, days off, vacations etc. all effect the final total of boots on the ground or as I always said "butts in seats". Divide that by total workload and you see how thinly spread some departments are. Even then, total numbers of cops out there at any given time has absolutely no impact whatever on the crime rate. None, zip, zilch, nada. I was assigned to supervise a precinct of 12 people, 8 of which were working at any given time, to fill 4 cars daily. Cool, 4, two man cars and me in arguably the worst neighborhood in the US. I return from a spring vacation to find I now have 6 guys assigned to me, 4 of which are working at any given time to fill 4 cars daily. With my use of basic math that makes 4, one man cars for the same area. Did I mention that Headquarters, aka the "Tower of Babel", decreed my area was to have 4, two man cars at all times? I was admonished to maintain a level of manpower decreed by higher authority, ie 4, two man cars, to which I asked if I was supposed to $#!^ policeman. Yeah I was tossed out of the captains office that afternoon, made my point but gained a reputation. I wouldn't have had it any other way. Now realize all this applies to EVERY darn police department anywhere in this country. City cops, county cops, sheriff's, State Troopers, Highway Patrol's etc. EVERYBODY. Even where I'm at now, a small state police agency, has these same issues. Jersey City? Oh My that's one of the places that routinely trades the title of "Most Dangerous City" with Camden, St Louis and Detroit. In my last two years, the district I was assigned too averaged 4 shootings a week. I have seen three unrelated shootings going on at the same time. My little slice of heaven accounted for 1/3 of all homicides in the St Louis area every year. Las Vegas Metro PD and Henderson PD will not respond to burglar alarm soundings, ever. You must contract with private security for that. The cops will respond if a crime is confirmed which in my mind is ridiculous. Yes I know most alarm soundings are false and a waste of time, but darnnit I want to catch someone! It's a sign of the times. A viscious circle of financing. Raise taxes for more cops? Or, cut the cops budget and pay making more of the kids quit? (It's a calling true, but ya gotta feed the family) Cops have a Marine Corps mindset, left to themselves they will improvise, adapt and overcome. No excuses, I just wanted you all to hear the other side of the issue from a retired police boss. G

There's a segment of the motoring public here that loves the look of the desert racing trucks. They modify their 4wd pickups with everything they see in a catalogue or at the races. That makes the pickup totally useless for on road use, anywhere. G

Thanks guys! Jim I have built only one King Tiger simply because of all the wheels. I got them all prepped, primed and base coated in a long weekend. I sprayed the second color and when final assembly rolled around realized I camoflaged the backsides of the darn wheels. I traded a second kit for a AAV 7P with full interior. Joe I have finally taken the plunge into full on weathering and am loving the results. Desert subjects are easier as I have lots of references right out my back door. Using filters still scares me a bit so I thin them out a lot and apply sparingly. I suppose that's why it works so well for me. G

While I'm here, let's see the Panzer I again shall we? This is where we were. Here is where we are at the end of stage one. Decals are added early on so to exhibit the wear and tear. This is a command tank, so it wouldn't be out front facing the enemy directly. Battle damamge would be minimal. I wanted to show weathering and wear from the enviornment. I took a old brush cut short and with a bit of windex scrubbed the paint away in certain areas. I concentrated on places the crew would be climbing on or over. Once I achieved the look I wanted I took some tan enamel and mixed it with Burnt Umber oil paint. That gave me a dirty light brown color that I thinned out and washed into the nooks and crannies to add depth. This is a tank operating in a bright hot sunny area so I wanted a faded bleached appearence. When that dried I used a yellow orange enamel filter in certain areas on the top of the tan. That gave me some tonal variation in the seperate panels which adds the illusion of mass. G

I love that engine! Here's a little Panzer III update. Realize that while it doesn't look like much, I have added quite a number of parts. Wheels, yes it is possible to grow them in the desert. Hull Keep in mind nearly everything shown is a seperate part added to the hull. This kit is super! G

You should have been here in '08 when we got 8" of snow by my house. The average in Henderson was 6" that time. It created a traffic jam similar to Atlanta's on our Eastern Ave. That one beat the record of 5" set in the mid 70's. G

That's funny right there, I don't care who you are. G

Oh heck yeah! Bring on the Bone! G

For the longest time I simply did not "weather" an armor build in the sense that I added no real wear, tear or dirt. The Tank Art books by Mike Rinaldi gave me the inspiration to go ahead and weather that perfect finish to make it more realistic. Using his techniques as guidelines I am finally getting the hang of it. G

That looks just right for a car going up and down all them country backroads. More please! G

You are in my thoughts and prayers. G

Let's go a bit sideways shall we? Remember this one? Base coated in Floquil enamel, Afrika Korps palm tree stenciled on using Tamiya Flat White. I used liquid mask over the palm tree and attached the build to my hitech paint stand. A mix of Tamiya buff, Deck Tan and White yielded these results. More to come. Gotta go to work. G

48 and rainy here today. Naturally I had court so I wore a suit. G

The Vette is painted black and curing as we speak. She's debating the colors on the 49 Merc too. She's interested in building one of those old Revell Caprice copcars so I might just turn her loose on one of those too. She'll be posting finished pics soon enough! G