Luke (DeWitt)

Ran to the store, worked on the field section to my layout and made dinner. (chicken and gravy with homemade biscuits) Now I'm watching M*A*S*H reruns on tv.

Joe would you mind sending some of the warmth over here? Haha, it stayed about 2 degrees today with a rainy mix for part of the morning and rain ending late this afternoon. They still say it will be around 8 degrees tomorrow but then it drops right off again.

Again, simply amazing. You are a master at what you do. 8)

Cloudy with a snow/rain mix. Around 0 degrees right now but Friday is suppose to be around 8 so it will be a bit more pleasant out.

Today I wasted hours getting Microsoft Office 2010 loaded on to my works computer.After 1 and 1/2 hours of trying to install it I had to phone our ever so helpfull IT service desk in India to be told to abort reboot and try again. On reboot Outlook wasn't there so back on the phone to a different person who then had to dial in mess about and reinstall. Meanwhile I left him on the spreaker phone so I could answer questions for our external "alligators" aka the auditors. All fixed now but the morning was wasted and thank goodness I decided to finish at 2pm today.

After all the times I have been on the phone with customer care from various companies Microsoft has got to have the worst customer service. They once argued with me over the fact that my software license stated I could install it on up to three computers and I had only installed it on one computer but they insisted that the licences was for only one copy.

Today I plan on re building one of my old displays to make room for some fields.

They all look great but that Komatsu dozer is really neat.

Luke thanks its in the attic I will have to get it out I have not got it out for a good couple of years

I have however seen them on sale but not with display case included.

I will look it up again but I remember it being listed as including a case. When I looked it up there were two models, one was painted grey and one was cat yellow. Either way they looked like a couple of very impressive models.

Stanley Surform Shaver, a friend recommended it to me a few weeks ago so I bought it and it sure is handy for shaping foam board on my layout. A lot faster than sandpaper. I think I paid around $6

Do you happen to have a picture? If it is what I am thinking there are still for sale here in the US for around 100-120 USD. (appx. £63-75)

My grandfather bought a Panasonic similar to the one you were looking at. It seems to do good for the price. I do not have a whole lot of experience with Nikon's but I generally hear good reviews. Personally i would look into a Sony cyber-shot, my brother has one and that one seemed to take the best pictures of any point and shoot I have seen and they are becoming relatively cheep now days.

I just bought a GE X500 and I am finally getting used to it, there was quite the learning curve but it seems to be working out and I am quite happy with it.

Neat brochures, I wonder if they were ever offered in the US.

Great update, the last picture with the power washer is my favorite though.

Great looking models, I love the weathering detail.

This is a very interesting topic, I was just talking to a toy dealer at a local show and he stated that he does not see as much demand for custom parts because of the detail Ertl is adding to their models. I personally think that there will always be space for builders to add details to models no matter how detailed companies like UH and Ertl get. I take the new 1 64 John Deere S-690 combine for example, Ertl failed to add flasher lights. Collectors can also add a custom feeder house from Moores Farm Toys that offers lateral tilt and is made of metal vs the plastic one Ertl used. Moores also offers metal augers and better steering components that add better detail vs the stock parts Ertl added in my opinion.

Granted we are talking about two different companies and two different scales but it seems like Ertl is going the same way in some aspects. In my opinion these companies are just mass producing these items so it is hard to make the finer details truly look authentic. I just feel that custom builders can still take the best stock model and turn it into a work of art no matter how much detail a major company added. Hopefully I made some sense here, I tend to ramble and not make much sense at times.

In the original post I quote "I post this in the UH topic but it applies for all manufacturers of course. Nowadays all models are build by little children in China working for 30p an hour in dreadful conditions. The standard of living is increasing rapidly in China and the like so wages will have to rise as well. And then it will be the model prices as well? Plus costs of raw materials rising as well, oil most notably." Personally I think that once the price of goods from China reach a certain price range we will once again see a shift of manufacturing to another country that can produce goods cheaper. Before china we made plenty of goods cheaper here in the US before that it was England and so on. I am not saying we will see this shift next year but if history repeats itself as it usually does, I think it is safe to say that with in the next 100 years we will see a major shift. Any how, Ill stop rambling now

Nice work, it looks very realistic.

Fantastic collection, I am a big fan of the 4WD's

Going to clean stalls for a friend. Then plowing out the driveway and finishing off the day playing cards.

Great job, I love your attention to detail.

Chris, you speak the truth!!!! ;D Welcome aboard Shane, hopefully you can post some pictures of your collection soon.

Great job, I really like the outside shots.

Fantastic building, the ladders are a nice touch.

Congratulations Ben

Great work, it looks like it would be right at home with one of those boom mowers.

Ran to work for a bit this morning and then went back to a local farm show. Now I am enjoying some homemade apple pie.

I decided to make another trip to a local farm show so I picked up a 1/64th Massey Ferguson combine.