The drought is over! I’m finally getting new models to review 😁! I got word from my trusted dealer that some models that I had pre-ordered last year (!) will arrive this week. So I’ll finally have new stuff to show. Besides, I just scored a nice Bang locally last week. The review is done and I already made all the photos, so it’s ready to go. HOWEVER, I’m having what I think is DNS issues at home, so I first need to sort that out before I can upload anything 😣. The problem is waaaay beyond my mediocre computer knowledge, so I’ll need outside help. Yet, I think that in a couple of days I’ll get it sorted.
Yep, it’s not your impression, things ARE slow. I haven’t been posting much reviews because I’m not getting many new models. Unfortunately, Brazilian Customs is hammering every single purchase from eBay with a 60% (!!!) importation tax 😤. With that, buying new models from eBay has become prohibitively expensive. That means that now I have to rely on local markets and on my dealer, which in terms of price is not that terrible. However, pickings became very slim.
So yes, the W-143 Garage is really slow nowadays 😥.
Courtesy of https://www.instagram.com/dirtfishrally/
As I’m sure you noticed, there’s been a lot of rally cars around here. The fact is I just can not be totally flabbergasted by the kind of racing you can see above. It takes some very special skills (and a certain type of crazy) to drive like that 💀. Out of this world! If you want to see more, head to Dirtfish that they have a ton of content like this short video above.
In early October, I showed a photo of a new project I was working on. It took a while, but I finally finished it. Nothing fancy, I only used simple stuff – I guess the most “pro technique” I used was static grass. Nonetheless, I had to test my ideas every single time, since I wasn’t sure things would work out as I expected. Also, lots of PVA glue and painting, that took sometimes more than a day to dry. With all that, it took me basically a month to get it done 🙄. Well, good or bad, here it is! And I think it worked out okay. Pretty soon I’ll use it in my review photos 😎.
Though I was over the moon when the game launched, after a couple weeks of FRUSTRATING game play, I advise staying away from the game. The biggest issue is that it’s not stable on my XBox System S – I can’t go through one session of gaming without needing to reboot the game. And every time that happens, the race I just finished is not registered in my career. Therefore, to progress in career mode, you have to do the same race one, two, three, four times (or more) until you get lucky and the game doesn’t crash. This is also happening with the XBox X and the PC versions of the game.
The other problem is graphics. They look really bad. Some stuff look like they came directly from Forza 6. So all that hype that “Forza Motorsport was made from the ground up” is utterly baloney. Sound is just okay, yet many cars sound generically just the same. There’s no in-game damage or tire wear in single player, and the penalty system (for going off track or collisions) doesn’t apply to the AI.
In essence, it feels dated and is full of bugs – looks like it’s a beta version. Adding everything up, DO NOT BUY IT. Perhaps Studio10 will fix it in the future, however for now do not waste money. After this I’ll never again buy a game in pre-order or will buy anything from Studio10 🤬.
So, you’re a model collector and in your back yard you have trees that grow money for leaves… And you you live in a huuuuge house. What do you collect? Amalgam models, of course. Just check the video above 😮😮😮.
Not huge upgrades, yet upgrades nonetheless. I got a better set of Allen wrenches, a new wire-stripper pliers, a set of insulated screw drivers and a small set of picks. I also managed to hang on the wall display two sets of drivers using new metal hooks and a small wood base that I drilled to fit them. Previously they were on the workbench, therefore I uncluttered my work space.
Most important of all, I got a new steel wall display for my cordless power tools. Previously I used a plastic display, that is great for lighter stuff, but power tools are too heavy. With that, in some spots the display was literally sagging, so I had to do something about it. With this metal display weight is not an issue anymore, and I even was able to hang more and heavier stuff, like my jigsaw and nail gun. By the way, I was a confessed Makita and Bosch fan boy, and now I can also say I’m an Einhell fan boy as well. Terrific tools!
The new steel display freed some plastic panels, so I used them on another section of the wall. With this new area, I was able to free up some space on the main wall. And best of all, I now have some free space on three wall displays for future stuff! Do you recognize a pattern here? Yep, think ahead, I always say.
What’s next? I still haven’t bought a Makita cordless router yet, and though a router is not exactly something that would see a ton of use, for some jobs it’s a godsend. And oh yes, I discovered I need a cordless circular saw. For sawing wood, I mostly use my Japanese saws (pull saws), which I love ’em. Really, I can make a cut at least 99,5% straight with them using a simple and cheap plastic jig. However, for longer cuts a power tool would come in handy. Right now I’m using an Einhell jigsaw, and it’s fantastic for none-linear cuts, yet tricky for straight cuts. Therefor, Bosche’s GKS 12V-26 is perfect for me.
And as you see, like collecting 1:43, the must-buy list NEVER ends 🙄.
On June 14th, 2018, I wrote the first post here on W-143. And that was in the wee hours of a Thursday, yet I was REALLY anxious to get the show on the road. However, some pages here have a “publication date” prior to that, because those pages I initially published at Scale43, a defunct online forum that I was a member of back then. Independent of those pages, W-143 really began on that Thursday. And from that day forward, it has been 600 posts, over 540 pages and one global pandemic. And we’re getting close to 500 cars reviewed! Oh boy, that’s a lot…😲 So let’s hope that Mercury, the God of Speed, continues smiling towards W-143 and that one day I’m complaining that I’m close to 1000 cars 🍻!
