Where's the earthshattering kaboom?!

In short, I'm in a foul mood :D. For the past few days I'm having a lot of problems walking as my knee really, really hurts, I really should rest it more the coming week. I've noticed I've become easier to anger, and quicker to reply when I think something is not right.

This week, I had received my Britannia (Grubby Tanks) order and found all of the metal castings to be ok instead of one who had a mould shift right across his face.....but I will behead him and replace his head. The resin castings however......

Yes, I can spend time filling each and every single hole there is. I had high hopes that the bad casts from 4 years ago were a thing of the past but clearly they are not. The other Panzerjager was just as bad. I sent a email to Grubby explaining that I was not happy with the castings, slept a night over it, and then sent him another email that I would be returning the casts to him. I have not had a reply yet.

Yes, they are not expensive, but I've had plenty of casts from small to large businesses that are not expensive and bubble free. With a half decent vacuum chamber you can prevent 99% of the airbubbles, or so I'm told.

And today I took a trip to the Scale Model Convention - a weekend long event in Veldhoven and actually the first modelling event I have ever attended. I picked up 2 Panzerjager IV Lang and a SdKfz 140 kit I had traded for online, met up with our American expat Britt, spotted some familiar faces from Crisis that I could not put a name to, and had a nice walk around to find the Mig Ammo Filter for German Yellow and Dark Green. And no matter how well I looked, I could not find it! I only saw 3 stands carry Mig Ammo and none of them had Filters with them. So for trials I grabbed AK Interactive Nato Tanks and Light Filter for Wood to try them out, and I will be going over the Crisis listings this week to find traders who possibly could sell the Mig Ammo filters that I need.

Other then that the trading corner was a bit too much of the same thing? Couple of companies with tools, couple of companies with plints, couple of companies with paper stuff, couple of companies with tons of kits and paints..... I'm guessing I'm spoiled by Crisis and the great diversity that is on offer. Here....not so much. Hidden in the back I did find Mark from MBM, I grabbed a seat there for 15 minutes to rest my knee and talk to his gf about the selling season and Belgian things in general. I did buy a kit off him, Italeri T-34/76 m42 in the seal for only 5 euros. Will make a great wreck.

There were some offers kit kit sellers (most had 20% off) but I seem to have gotten used to the low prices of the trading sites as most seemed to be double or more of what I would pay on the groups. And there were massive price differences too, 1 chap was selling Modelcraft kits for 3,50-5 euros, and the stand across them had all the same boxes plastsred with 10 euro pricetags. It was a bit ridiculous at times.

2 traders or older kits had been placed opposite of each other but I seemed to find a lot of kits without a pricetag, or asking for more then I wanted to pay for them. All the way in the back, stuffed in a small discount box, I found a 1/144 Ju-88, B-25 and B-29 that I picked up for 10 euros total. When I turned around I was shocked to see a whole stack of 1/144 kist at the other seller, with the same B-29 having a 17,50 euro pricetag on it. Again, ridiculous.

In the end, not counting the pre-paid trade, I spent 15 euros on kits. The Ju-88 and the B-25 are for Battlegroup, and I have no clue what to do with the B-29. I guess I wasn't thinking when I bought that. 9 euros for 2 pots of filter, and my final purchase was a Mininatur box of Horse Tails for 4 euros (discounted from 15 euros) in a discount bin somewhere. Not many people had discount bins, and most in it wasn't even worth the prices they charged for it.

But this was just 1 hall! The other hall had row after row after row of modellers showing off projects or working on them, and a area beside that for all the people competing for prizes. The latter was pretty crowded when I got there so I'll grab a few pictures off the net of the ones I liked :)

In no particular order....I just picked the ones that gave me ideas :)

With that, the show was over for me, just too much pain. I actually arrived home in a empty house, Kim and the kids had gone downtown for a walk and a drink. So I took a few minutes to go over the stuff I had picked up.

And then found out one of the Hasegawa Jagdpanzer IV Lang was already started and all of the steel roadwheels were missing!!! Fuck! No such thing was mentioned by the seller.

After a good 45 minutes on Messenger, telling him of the problem, telling him again what was missing for more then 8 times! (he kept repeating the question: "What is missing exactly?") Showed him pics and all. First he said it was a packing error by Hasegawa (You have got to be joking mate!) and then he admitted he had already started it. He has now promised me to send the 4 steel roadwheels from the Revell kit so we'll see what happens when those arrive. I need those wheels to adapt the PSC Panzer IV chassis.

And thus ends my weekend. Kids will be at my parents for most of the week, I'm expecting a call from either the UWV or Maatwerk with an update, but other then that not much is planned. If my knee can take it, it might be a good time to leave my room behind for a minute and get cracking with making space in the back end of the attic to put up my spare cabinet and use it for all of the spare kits I have. Atm, with so many packed up, I'm rather clueless to what I have in stock and what can or cannot be sold off. I need to sort that. Anything else I find that can be sold before Crisis is a bonus.