This has been a busy week–well, maybe not so much busy. I guess the word I'm looking for is out of the ordinary. This week every year is like that for me–the post-Le Mans let down, for one, gets to me. Of all the motorsports events that take place around the world every year, this has got to be my absolute favorite. And, because of that, I tend to want to watch all of it that I can, which leads to sleep deprivation, which slows me down for the following week.
We've also got an airplane in the final phases of an inspection, and that's when things tend to get hectic. Parts are arriving, final checks are being done, and everyone is working to make sure that A: the airplane gets done when promised and 2: we don't miss anything or compromise the safety of the airplane in any way. Believe me, there are times that the latter provides enough stress to last a month of Sundays.
And, an additional factor is the heat. The calendar may indicate it is late Spring, but here where I'm at, it is most definitely summer. The hummingbirds are back–we've put both feeders out for them–and the whip-poor-wills are hanging around in the evening, singing away. Even those annoying gnats–we refer to them as "dog-pecker gnats", since they tend to congregate around that particular part of canine anatomy–common to South Carolina are back. Most telling is the heat and humidity. We're going on maybe 20 days where the daytime high has been at least 90 degrees so far this year. We've not had a lot of rain, either–although the skies did open up on Wednesday evening and knocked power out for several hours, we haven't had a good, steady rain in quite some time. And while the weather-guessers and meterolog-ities (you know, "celebrities" who guess the weather–folks like Al Roker and Jim Cantore) will tell you, "It will be a hot one, stay inside!", they don't say what to do when your job consists of working outside year-round. The best we can do is stay hydrated and keep the fans running, but even that doesn't help much. So, at the end of the day, the heat and stress take their toll. These days, my Fun Meter is usually pegged out come mid afternoon (maybe 2PM), and Going-Home Thirty can't come soon enough.
On other fronts, the local IPMS Chapter held their monthly meeting this week. There was a good number of models on the table for show and tell this month–I'm always interested to see what others are doing, and this month's turnout was a treat. At the same time, the local AMPS Chapter is in the final planning stages for our Inaugural Show/Contest, so things are getting busy on the hobby front, too.
As usual, I'm trying to keep some build momentum working, but I hit a bit of a snag this week. I shot the silver paint on the NASCAR Monte Carlo this past weekend, so that I could start putting the decals on this week. Well, a decal sheet that has been kicking around in my stash for some 15 years is a little worse for the wear. The decals shattered when I tired to soak them off the backing sheet (the inks have become brittle, and the more layers of color, the worse it is), and the kit contingency decals are no great shakes, either (typical of Monogram decals from the '80s and '90s). I can touch up the decals and finesse the contingencies, but what I'm probably going to do is strip off what I have on the car and clean up the paint. There's supposed to be a new sheet of the same scheme coming out soon, and I think I can wait. After all, the project has been waiting for the past 15 years, what's another month or so? I can finish the engine and chassis, clean it up the painted body, and put it aside again–temporarily–so that I can get back to work on the A-10A and the StuG IV. I'll be happy to finally get some more projects moving along and finished.
I made myself a promise–other than the Le Mans build, I will not start another project until I can get the A-10A and StuG finished. And I intend to follow through…and as soon as I can get replacement decals for the Monte Carlo, it will get finished, too.
Thanks for reading. Be good to one another, and I bid you Peace.