Ace-Garageguy

Ummmm...it's "who's".

Country music always seems to be my choice whenever I drive across Texas.

That bites. Way too young. And yes, the kits have indeed been works of art. I hope the company goes on, and maintains the same standards. All too often, when a founder dies or is replaced, the product deteriorates due to lack of visionary leadership.

First time I've seen this one from USPS tracking: Jun 27, 2023 1:45pm A train derailment has delayed delivery. We're adjusting plans to deliver your package as quickly as possible. I expect the next update to be "the dog ate it".

Well, they could save over $20 million a year just by getting rid of Mary Barra, who as far as I can tell has no qualifications for the job of CEO of GM other than being the token woman. Yeah, MBA bla bla bla cost cutting bla bla bla dumping unprofitable lines bla bla bla. Big whoop. Pay me $2 million a year, I could have done the same thing, and taken some of the insane, unnecessary complication out of all the vehicles as well...and greatly enhanced repairability. Far as I can see, her single major accomplishment was to turn GM's classic logo into something that looks like it belongs on a tampon package, seeming almost as if it's embarrassed to be the logo of a car company.

A man's GOT to have priorities...

Parts of inferior quality are often marketed as "just as good but cheaper", which is almost always baloney.

Absolutely, yes, 100% IF you sand thoroughly and mix correctly. I sure as H. wouldn't put this much effort into something that didn't work.

OK, you have a valid point. We have no certain attribution or source for the photo. But we still have indisputable facts. 1) The sub failed catastrophically, in a manner consistent with a pressure-vessel implosion. 2) The CEO is on record saying he didn't want "50 year old white guys" (even though they might have been experienced and highly qualified submariners or engineers), and preferred young people from "diverse" backgrounds (but apparently zero engineering or submarine credentials), also saying "anyone can pilot the sub". 3) The court filing the whistle blower made in 2018, citing egregious safety issues, including problems with the carbon fiber layups, that went ignored by the CEO. 4) To the best of anyone's current knowledge via media, the structure was not periodically subjected to NDT (non-destructive testing) for pressure vessel integrity...which is the very minimum anyone sane with an understanding of filament-wound carbon-fiber structure failure modes would demand. So the only rational conclusion is that, purple-haired diversity-hires or not, or screws driven into the pressure vessel or not, nobody in the loop was competent to manage the program or to operate the damm thing at 13,000 feet below the surface, at pressures of 6,000 PSI. Anyone with a reasonable understanding of pressure-hulls, carbon-fiber filament winding, or the result of a hull failure at those pressures, would have refused to participate in the dive in the absence of verifiable and recent NDT data.

Beautiful airplane, good looking model. Really like the finish.

Because today's ridiculous push to hire based on ethnic or gender quotas, or ANY characteristics that have NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH ABILITY AND EXPERIENCE is going to lead to more and more engineering and product failures, injury, and death. THAT is the point.

Sounds like exceptional planning and resource management to me.

Yup, sure is. And just like so many, your response is automatically assuming and implying that I'm opposed to hiring people different from me. Standard strawman tactic. But here's the thing...I don't give a good rat's backside WHAT color or gender anyone is, or what background anyone is from, AS LONG AS THEY HAVE THE QUALIFICATIONS TO DO THE DAMM JOB...WHICH NONE OF THESE PEOPLE OBVIOUSLY DID. Anyone allowing that sub to make a dive with people on board, with screws driven into the carbon fiber pressure hull, is an unqualified, ignorant fool. The CEO stated he didn't want "50 year old white guys", even apparently if they were the best qualified. So how'd that work out?

There's a thing called a "Flip Lok" that rabbits on about being made from "aircraft aluminum", whatever alloy and heat treat that is, but it's still held to the door frame with nothing but 4" long wood screws...and of course is shown "securing" doors with glass in them. I always have to chuckle.

I guess you find that offensive? Well, here's proof positive that hiring based on anything other than MERIT and EXPERIENCE, especially in a technically demanding endeavour, is a recipe for disaster. In case you missed it, check out the SCREWS driven into the pressure vessel, holding the monitor. That's all you need to see to know...assuming you know the first thing about composite structures and pressure vessels...that NOBODY involved had a clue.

And around and around and around...

According to the reviews they're perfectly fine for normal people driving around with the windows up, the AC on, and a couple bags of grass seed in the back. But according to the Army's evaluation of the military vehicle based on it, it's just not tough enough.

PM'd

Nope. Missed the point again. The point is that we-know-better purple-hairs are reinventing the wheel just about everywhere, with little to no oversight from people who actually know what they're doing. The pathetic mess Ford made of the front door hinge pillars on the full size van is just one case, just one example of stuff I see every day. Maybe you missed the post about the pillars. We have a contract to do bodywork for Lockheed's fleet vehicles. At 40,000 miles, the front door hinges on the full-size Ford vans are ripping out of the pillars for no reason other than poor design. Our fix is to re-skin the door pillars, sometimes replacing the door that's damaged from dragging on other bodywork, and install proper reinforcement inside he pillars, like the things should have come with in the first place. The problem is so pervasive, we've made up kits to do the mod. The rear door on the new Bronco has deficient hinge mountings as well, especially when the poor thing is burdened with some goofy, huge, insanely heavy "offroad" wheel/tire. And the Panhard bar is too weak for the job it does too. Etc. etc. etc. But it's SOP today that when somebody speaks out and tells the truth, they're usually either shouted down, canceled, or fired. It's rampant. It's everywhere. Not just in engineering circles, but in journalism, education, health and medicine, energy, and dare I say it...nah, better not.

But hey...it looks like it came out of a video game, and has LED lights and lightening holes everywhere. Plus the design team most certainly tics all the DEI boxes. So who cares if it's junk? Old fogey stuff again. EDIT: Dig that no-protection for the radiator core, too. This thing is supposed to go through the woods? I once had a little branch from a downed tree limb punch right through the rad core on a '69 Ford pickup. Just sayin', as they say.

Changes can be good or bad, but change just for the sake of change...well, you can have it.