Hawkeye’s Squawkbox

April turned into May…that goes without saying, but where was I? April was a blur, things were busy around here but not in the way I wanted it to be. As with any year, we seem to have procrastinated about getting our taxes filed and each your we say we’re not going to wait until the last minute. Seems we’ll be working on that again for next year.

Though the government doesn’t want to say the word “Recession,” I will. Business slowed to a near stop in April, which meant tightening the budget belt rather snuggly. I’ve talked to other businesses who have also felt the pinch, yet we all feel optimistic that it will rebound…the question is when.

Talonized Finish!

Aaron Malone shared his P-36 with us that he finished using Talon acrylics. His efforts garnered him a first place trophy at a recent contest in Mobile, Alabama.

Amaury de Barros Conti sent in a picture of his beautiful F-86 also done with Talon acrylics.

Alex Bernardo did a striking job of both building this YB-49 as well as using some creative photography to depict this masterpiece finished with Talon acrylics.

Hawkeye’s Squawkbox Blog

Those who follow and read my blog, Hawkeye’s Squawkbox, know that we moved it to a dedicated domain. The old blog format was okay, but our host seemed to always be behind the power curve with updating to the latest upgrades and features. So, we moved to a hosting provider who understands how important this is. The old blog articles will be migrated over to the new location eventually, but for the meantime they are still viewable here: http://hawkeyeshobbies.com/squawkbox/ . The button on our homepage now takes you directly to the new blog URL http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/ . Hope this isn’t too confusing.

In The Media

I’ve been doing some writing of articles/columns for publication in a trade related publications. Hopefully these will appear soon; when and if they do, I will be sure to let you know. These articles are not consumer directed, but are geared toward business owners and how to better manage their businesses.

The problem with doing articles for print media is the timing of their publication. In many cases, the information contained in the articles is time sensitive. So I will be including several of these articles here in my blog for others, both in and out of our industry to read. I’m also advocating that the publishers of the print media utilize their websites to post these time sensitive articles, so their readership can act upon the information contained in them.

Personnel Announcement

We were recently informed that we should expect the Stork to visit us sometime in October to deliver our fifth grandchild. As of this date we do not know if it will be our first grandson or another beautiful grand daughter. Regardless, we are excited about the news!

Cottage Industry

Part of our mission at Hawkeye’s Hobbies is to help provide those who have a product and entrepreneur interests to take their ideas forward. For the uninitiated, this task can be very difficult and expensive. What we provide is a means to accomplish this task in a simple manageable format. If you have a product idea that you want to “take to market,” let us assist you. Contact us for more information.

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You know the old saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. That is so true when it comes to left over modeling parts and pieces. My spares stash has been in existence since I first started modeling nearly forty years ago. A recent acquisition was a tote full of sprues filled with parts as well as assorted loose parts and subassemblies.

When you first look in you really don’t know the value, but as you work your way down you find treasure in many forms. Like this sprue of 1:48 B-29 transparencies. You just have to slowly dig your way to the bottom.

When I am feeling a bit under the weather and not in the mood to build, I pull the sprues out and start sorting the parts. I have several of these totes to sort through as well as several smaller ones.

You just grab hold of your sprue cutters and a sprue and start sorting out the parts by category or application. I’ve gotten to the point I need more of these large drawers, they are starting to fill to capacity in many cases. I could probably spend a whole year sorting through all of what I have on hand.

Besides sourcing these from my own projects, I also find them at rummage sales, some have been donated to me (unfinished projects someones kid started or believe it or not…modelers who do not believe in having a “Parts Stash”. Isn’t that breaking a modeling law? If you don’t want them…I’ll take them!

So do yourself a favor now that will pay you dividends later. Get yourself a small set of drawers like the ones you see pictured above and start keeping those unused parts. If you keep them managed well, you’ll have a valuable resource when you need to do a little kit bashing or scratch building for a future project. Besides they make great trade goods when bartering for something you really need on the cheap.

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Taking the first of a series of steps to create a new website and blog format. The old blog was okay but our host seemed to always be behind the power curve with updating to the latest upgrades and features. So, we started a new one with someone who understands how important it is.

I will be moving the older entries over to this new site. In the coming weeks (I hope) the Hawkeye’s Hobbies website will undergo an upgrade as well. It will be more product orientated with more emphasis on application and technique. It will also include more customer builds featuring our products.

This will be the primary source for our “newsletter” in the near future so please subscribe to this blog!

Talk to you soon! Happy Modeling!

Gerald

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