A small victory...

[Drake69]

Hello again everyone! Sorry I've been away for awhile, but I think I'm going to be able to build again, hopefully like I used to. Here's what happened that nearly killed my whole modelling system (as well as nearly killing ME in the process!).

Back in 2011, I had a great basement setup with plenty of room to work on my models in relative peace and quiet, without worrying about damaging or destroying parts of the house with random oversprays or leaky glue bottles.

All until Hurricane Irene came through and dropped a huge tree on us. As it happens we were actually in the bedroom and NOT THE BASEMENT where we should have been, and nearly lost our lives as a result of it.

[Drake69]

Damage to the house, causing massive water damage in the basement area...

With the tree removed....

Thickness of the trunk where it struck the roofline... my 4ft. 9in. wife Sandy to scale....

So, after getting our estimate done on how much was lost (we rent, not own, BTW...), we relocated to a house across town and packed up what we could that was not damaged in the storm. Although some of my modelling stuff was packed away I tried to set up what I could to keep building, but lost the heart and will to it when I found out how "fussy" the landlord was about paint fumes and such.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Drake69

[Drake69]

Fast forward to a few months ago, and we are living in another house across town again. THIS time I have a large Florida Room to set things up without fear of damaging anything or smelling up the whole house. My only fuss is it gets cold in there in the wintertime, but I have a spot heater and a baseboard in there to warm things up!

New pictures, still setting things up:

I still have space for things, I just need to add some shelves and possibly another worktable in there. I'm still hunting through boxes looking for my Dremel press and other tools I had, but at least I have a place now to sit and plan my next model out, and even quite possibly get back to building them again!

[Drake69]

Ohh, and thanks to the Sitcky Fingers Model Club (RAMS) of which I belong. I know I haven't been around awhile to make the meetings, but everytime I see the cars you guys put out, it gets me fired up to want to model again, not to mention the inspiration I feel to refine my practice. I'll see you guys after the New Year!

[mikemodeler]

Welcome back and glad to hear you made it through that terrible period of uncertainty.

[slusher]

Glad to hear things are working out for you.....

[1930fordpickup]

Good news is nice this time of year.

[southpier]

yeah; getcha mojo workin'

[Ace-Garageguy]

It takes a while sometimes to recover from major life upsets like that. Glad you're back in building-mode.

[Belugawrx]

Glad to hear everyone is ok!

Welcome back

Cheers

[Tom Geiger]

Wow! Quite a story. Glad you didn't get hurt and have a place to model again! And one of those situations where it was better to rent than own!

[keyser]

Great builds.

You guys made it thru weather, danger, PITA landlords, and came out better for it.

Never give up, and hope you never have more.

Strong work, great model room. You guys deserve it.

Happy Holidays.

[Joker]

Good to hear all is well Allen.

[Drake69]

Thanks for the comments guys! I hope to start building again real soon, just need to get my hose attachments and grill for the paint hood to vent outside and I'll be good to go.

[Deathgoblin]

Glad to see you're coming back up. By the way, was that Alternators Hound I saw on the edge of one of your shelves?

[Drake69]

Yup... good eye. I set it out as a display piece only, because once I try to "transform" any of those new ones, I can never get it to fit back together again.