Red Sky Mods - Part Two

[Capt' Brian]

Ahoy all, end of the weekend again, what a shame....


Yeah, Holidays will be here soon, hope you are all making some plans to make it a memorable one. Personally mine are still a bit up in the air, hopefully I will have solid plans soon.

Yup, my back is doing better every day. I worked the whole day today and left my cane leaning against the table and never used it once... now if I could just do something about this wobbly peg-leg, arrrrr

Have a great Monday... hope you get some news about the house soon Waho!

 

[fright88]

I'll trade ya peglegs lol. Seriously though clad your back is doing better.

 

[Seb.]

Hello crew

Cappy, do you think my new Cutlass will be under my tree on Christmas day?

 

[Capt' Brian]

Ahoy all, hope this Tuesday has found you all well.

I took some time to inventory my available woods and I felt I had plenty of wood choices for panel wood, so I blew my whole budget on new body wood for this batch.

I needed another choice of wood thick enough for the wider Destroyers/Marauders and enough of it to make at least a dozen mods so I went shopping.

I actually ended up buying 3 new woods for bodies so the selection of body woods is now getting respectable again. I'll post pics when they come in.

I should be opening up pre-orders shortly before x-mas as well and letting it run for a week or more before I start the next batch.

I also need to put another contest on the schedule, and you know me, I don't do my contests when everyone else usually does them. I like to have them before or after the usual holiday time.

Hello crew

Cappy, do you think my new Cutlass will be under my tree on Christmas day?

The two weeks I lost are probably going to mean that they will be shipped just shortly before x-mas, so they may be in transit during the holiday. I will keep everyone informed.

Today I finished the little electronics covers and all that is left is to give the mods their final sanding tomorrow and then I can start the 4 day process of putting finish on them. Once that is done I will start final assembly which will take another 3 days or so. Call it 10 to 12 days before I ship? That should be a pretty close estimate. I truly am sorry for the delay

Later all, arrrr

 

[Capt' Brian]

Oh damn, I forgot I also have to put the engravings in tomorrow too, ah well, that will only take a few hours.


Here are the new body woods btw;

Curly Redwood. I used this once before and really loved working with it. Glad I found some more thick enough for all models;




Bloodwood! Finding it thick enough for bodies has been tough and some people have really been wanting a RED mod;





Brazilian Imbuia (also called Brazilian Walnut). It's darker than black walnut and has even better patterns. I needed a darker wood choice and this is ideal

 

[RiverNut]

That curly redwood looks great!

And I wouldn't worry too much about the delay Cappy. I'm sure most if not all are sympathetic to your back going out and are just happy to see you getting better.

 

[fright88]

Hmmm those new woods look good Cappy. But umm the example pic of the black walnut you have on the website looks darker then the Brazilian. That curly redwood might just tempt me from holding out for the black walnut

 

[Waho]

Good morning crew!

The new body woods look awesome Cappy, I'm partial to the Brazilian walnut myself

No news yet on the house. Stupid banks, just take my money!

 

[Capt' Brian]

Ahoy, happy Wednesday all!

Hmmm those new woods look good Cappy. But umm the example pic of the black walnut you have on the website looks darker then the Brazilian. That curly redwood might just tempt me from holding out for the black walnut

Hmm, you may be right. When it arrives I will have a better look at it. If you really want black walnut I can always glue two pieces together to make it thick enough. In a few days I will have pics and examples of several mods that I sandwiched wood together on, although I didn't use the same wood type when I did it. I may be offering a new pre-order option of having a center layer of the same color wood as the panels running though the mod but I need to work out how thats going to work.

When I was wood shopping I looked at the small amount of gabon ebony available and the only piece big enough for my use was not dry and they said it had 30% + moisture content. Why do they even sell it that way? If wood is not kiln/air dried for months/years before use then it is highly susceptible to shrinking and cracking later on. There is one supplier that I no longer use (even though he has nice wood) because some of his stuff was not dried as stated and I won't risk using him anymore. Causes me nothing but headache.

Have a good one, arrr

 

[Capt' Brian]

Here is one of the listings I looked at. It would be enough for 3 mods and would cost the buyer an extra $40 just for me to break even on the wood purchase. If it cracks/shrinks badly then I lose the mod and the cost of buying it. 30%, good grief.....

Gabon Ebony Block 19 3 4" x 3 15 16" x 1 7 8" Curly Figure Legally Harvested | eBay

 

[fright88]

Honestly I am not picky Cappy. I wanted a dark body with a ligher panel because all of mine have been Zebrawood or zebra and marble so a change would be nice. But honestly the curly redwood looks really as good as well. Not sure how it would look with a dark piece though. If I really want a dark piece I might get Brasilian walnut body with a black walnut panel.

On the other hand I may see one of the extras like it so much I have to wait a round or 2 out lol.

 

[Capt' Brian]

Arr, time to knock off fer the day. I got everything I wanted to do done except for putting in the pistol grip edges, but they are now rounded, the doors have been sanded and fit tight (but not TOO tight) and the engraving is done. Yay!

I was thinking of putting engravings on the mods for the website but decided not to. If I engrave a mod myself, then 1 person may really like it, but 9 others might not, so I'm probably just making it harder to sell.

Have a good one me 'earteis!

 

[damselle]

Ahoy all, hope this Tuesday has found you all well.

I took some time to inventory my available woods and I felt I had plenty of wood choices for panel wood, so I blew my whole budget on new body wood for this batch.

I needed another choice of wood thick enough for the wider Destroyers/Marauders and enough of it to make at least a dozen mods so I went shopping.

I actually ended up buying 3 new woods for bodies so the selection of body woods is now getting respectable again. I'll post pics when they come in.

I should be opening up pre-orders shortly before x-mas as well and letting it run for a week or more before I start the next batch.

I also need to put another contest on the schedule, and you know me, I don't do my contests when everyone else usually does them. I like to have them before or after the usual holiday time.




The two weeks I lost are probably going to mean that they will be shipped just shortly before x-mas, so they may be in transit during the holiday. I will keep everyone informed.

Today I finished the little electronics covers and all that is left is to give the mods their final sanding tomorrow and then I can start the 4 day process of putting finish on them. Once that is done I will start final assembly which will take another 3 days or so. Call it 10 to 12 days before I ship? That should be a pretty close estimate. I truly am sorry for the delay

Later all, arrrr

Oh damn, I forgot I also have to put the engravings in tomorrow too, ah well, that will only take a few hours.


Here are the new body woods btw;

Curly Redwood. I used this once before and really loved working with it. Glad I found some more thick enough for all models;




Bloodwood! Finding it thick enough for bodies has been tough and some people have really been wanting a RED mod;





Brazilian Imbuia (also called Brazilian Walnut). It's darker than black walnut and has even better patterns. I needed a darker wood choice and this is ideal

I like that curly redwood and need a DNA bottom feeder for my malty. Cappy, do you have any pics of your prototypes. Looked online an couldn't find any.

 

[Capt' Brian]

I like that curly redwood and need a DNA bottom feeder for my malty. Cappy, do you have any pics of your prototypes. Looked online an couldn't find any.

I'll post some pics when I get on the shop computer tomorrow for you. Maybe I should get some pics on the website main page so people can see pics of the different models, gonna have to work on that.

 

[rtrain99]

It's time for check in. Been very busy at work. Holidays are hell for a freight driver. Hope everone is doing well. Back to the grinder.

 

[Waho]

Good afternoon crew!

Ditto busy at work. We're doing a build down of the last of the 2014 trucks before we go down for a month to retool for the 2015 models. The faster we get these last 4000 built the sooner we get our vacation

 

[Capt' Brian]

Ahoy all, been hammering down today and got everything I wanted to get done, done!

Damselle, here are the pics I promised yesterday, sorry fer the delay;


Here is the new DNA20 Cutlass;





and the new DNA20 Destroyer;




The outer appearances of all the models has stayed basically the same, I just re-adjusted the internals to fit the DNA20 circuit board.


Here is a link to the photobucket page where most of the mods have been archived over the last couple years for anyone who want to browse; http://smg.photobucket.com/user/brian_w001/library/Production?sort=4&page=1


Arrrrr

 

[damselle]

I likee! Will be following closely...

Photo bucket not working.

 

[RiverNut]

it's working now damselle. for me anyway

 

[Capt' Brian]

Hmm, not sure what was up with photobucket, but seems ok to me too. If you browse through the directories you will find nearly 3 years worth of pictures of mods, tools, jigs, machinery and probably even a dog picture somewhere. I really, really need to clean it up and sort it all out.... someday.... arrr!