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The work here is beyond exceptional, as usual. Love the earings. Inspired. Wonderful sir.

Thanks chaps. Sorry for the tardy reply.
Glad to hear you liked them.

Sadly, I don't return with good news.

Recently, my parents were scammed out of the contents of their bank account.

In short, it started with a leaking gutter,
That led to "oh, this needs doing, that needs doing" and a bloated bill.

But that's not the scam...

That happens when they draw up a new bill for all the work and say that they will refund what you have already paid.
You have to pay the bill first.

Then when Dad cancels the extra, unnecessary work. They draw up another new bill, for the work that has been done (fixing the gutter, twice), and they'll refund all the money paid so far.
You have to pay the bill first.

They basically hold your money hostage to get you the pay more and more.

There's a bit more detail on my GoFundMe page, here: https://gofund.me/3d316651
I'm hoping to raise the money to "refund" my parents the money that was stolen from them for the mistake of trusting someone.

I've posted this to both my FB page (https://www.facebook.com/TheMiniDetailsOfDrH), and my Twitter (https://twitter.com/Dr_Steve_H).

Please share/RT my story as a warning for your friends and family.
And if you can, please help with my gofundme.

I will be back with a model soon, just not now.

That's harsh man. Best of luck with the Go Fund Me campaign. I have elderly parents who've been swindled before so I can empathize.

Jeez o mate. That's awful.

Some model work below...

No traction yet, so re-share:

Dr H wrote:...
Recently, my parents were scammed out of the contents of their bank account.

Spoiler:

In short, it started with a leaking gutter,
That led to "oh, this needs doing, that needs doing" and a bloated bill.

But that's not the scam...

That happens when they draw up a new bill for all the work and say that they will refund what you have already paid.
You have to pay the bill first.

Then when Dad cancels the extra, unnecessary work. They draw up another new bill, for the work that has been done (fixing the gutter, twice), and they'll refund all the money paid so far.
You have to pay the bill first.

They basically hold your money hostage to get you the pay more and more.

There's a bit more detail on my GoFundMe page, here: https://gofund.me/3d316651
I'm hoping to raise the money to "refund" my parents the money that was stolen from them for the mistake of trusting someone.

I've posted this to both my FB page (https://www.facebook.com/TheMiniDetailsOfDrH), and my Twitter (https://twitter.com/Dr_Steve_H).

Please share/RT my story as a warning for your friends and family.
And if you can, please help with my gofundme...

Thanks Gits'. Sorry to hear you've been in a similar situation.
Thanks Graven'.

Modelling.
I've been building a scale model of our home for my parents wedding anniversary.
I hope that the scam doesn't taint it in the end.

After looking at the various scales I could build this at, I decided on N-gauge (1:160), as larger scales (that I could buy brickwork plastic for) would make the final house just a bit too large.
Found the right brick layout, and a roofing that looks close enough.
Estimated the size of the house and calculated scale dimensions.
Carefully cut out the pieces,
Very carefully cut out the holes for the windows and doors (and forgot the back door and had to do that right at the end),
Window and door inserts were created from 0.5mm plasticard on 1.5mm plasticard with some gap filling with more plasticard,
Mitre-d the corners (bricks go all the way to the edge) and stuck it all together with some braces.
Roof on and filled the interior with plaster to give it some weight.
Detailed the outside.
Stuck the bottom on.
Added the missing door.

And now it should be ready to paint.
It's a semi-detached, hence the one plain wall.
This is how the house looked when my parents first moved in, not as it is now.


Thanks.

Excellent work indeed. Always staggered at your varied skills.

That is terrible news about your parents. My mom just recently had her checking account hacked. At 84 years old she doesn't get out much so it was easy to track down the culprit, but it will take a long time to bleed that rock. My parents had their house taken out from under them about a decade ago, it was a harsh battle and lesson to be learned, but I believe it was for the better in the end.

That's a cool Anniversary gift your making

Hello again. Been slow going, but the N-gauge home is now finished.
There wasn't much to really show as for painting-in-progress, so straight to the finished photos.

After late replies...

Thanks Graven. Too kind.

Thanks Theo'. Sorry to hear about your parents past problems.

The police are still looking into our scam, no major news or updates though.

...
And back to models.

Not a lot to say about it, it is what it is: Not far from what it should be.

Thanks for sticking around and being patient with my minimal output of late.
Still distracted with running about Night City in 2077, and now with solving a murder on Eridanos.
But some model work may happen again before we all die of old age.

And I will ask again, if you can share my scam story around to make as many people aware of how these things happen, I would appreciate it.
Directly from the link below, or from either my FB or Twitter pages.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/replacing-my-parents-stolen-money
Thanks.

That's really lovely, looks brilliant. Hope the pace picks up on the case

Sorry to hear about the scam on your parents. As a former railway modeller with my dad, who was a perfectionist, I am so impressed with your work at such a small scale! I thought 00 was fiddly! I must say the house looks great.

Just had a quick look through the last few pages of your blog, and the quality is amazing.

Thanks Graven'.

Thanks RobertsMinis, welcome.
I too have perfectionist leanings. High praise.

Cool to hear that. I have links in the OP of this thread to each post with the finished photos in for each project, if you or anyone else would like to quickly view all my work (in lieu of anything new to look at). And the same is true for my other blog that houses my personal 40k collection.

Still no pictures to share with you. Been building in FO4, but not in RL.

There is good news and bad news though. Which do you want first?

Bad news it is.

Not content with "only" overcharging for materials and labour for a basic job and planning on emptying my parents bank account, they were also common thieves:
We found out earlier this week that they have also stolen a hedge-trimmer and it's charger from the garage.

While most of the "workmen" were off "buying materials" for the planned work, the youngest member of their gang stayed behind.
We allowed him to shelter in the garage from the weather.
He borrowed my dad's phone to check in on the rest of them...
What he probably was really doing was reporting back on the contents of our garage and what might be worth stealing.
As far as I know it's only the hedge-trimmer that's gone. Most of what's in the garage isn't worth taking really, but who knows if we find something else is missing when we come to use it.
So that's adding insult to injury.

However, the good news:

The bank has completed their investigation and concluded that we were a victim of an Authorised Push Payment Scam. (something for you to google and tell your friends and family about)

As a result we have been reimbursed the full amount of £25,700.

So less of an expensive mistake on our part, but it doesn't take away from the stress and hurt of the past months.
No news on the police investigation.

Thanks for sticking around, I hope to return at some point.

Outstanding!

Even getting the money back doesn't replace all the damage from worry and Angst. Hang in there my friend.

Good news is good. We're here when you're back old son.

Thanks chaps.

I have cleared the desk of the past few months of junk build-up, and there are a couple of birthdays coming up, so that may be the push needed to restart.

In the mean time (and also a reason for getting back to models), I've finished my latest build in Fallout 4.

Tour video of my Warwick homestead settlement here:



I even had to create a small mod for this one as the broken bridge over one of the pools is in the way of anyone wanting to build there.
The mod and the settlement blueprint are both up on the Nexus too: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/51890

Ta.

Good to see you're ticking over. Anything planned for the big 100?

Yeah, 100 pages deserves some kind of celebration!

Thanks for sticking around Gits' and Graven'.
I hadn't thought about it (or remembered noticing 100 coming up).

On my other blog I did army shots at 50, and "latest recruits" shots at 112 (was in the middle of the Predator tank at 100).
Can't really do that for this blog as 90% of the things I've built here have been spread out across the world, so I have no access.

We're already half-way down this page, so there's little time to plan something.

Maybe just a return to modelling as a celebration.
Or you can tell me about your favourite model that I've built? Might help bring back my motivation.

Anyway, I said birthdays were coming up and I've made a start on the first present.

Starting from a lump of polystyrene foam,
Covered in foil,
Made into a rough sphere shape with a layer of clay,
And detailed with milliput.

I'm sure some of you will know what this is...


I'm in the process of basing this and then it'll be painted ready for the end of the month.

Not at all, it's a pleasure. Beauty is in the eye of the... anyway
Your anime walker/pilot, CD City and first converted Kroot leap to mind

This was my all-time favorite... for more reasons than I can list. Just brilliant all-round.

Yeah I still distinctly remember that piece, it's so impressive.

inmygravenimage wrote:... Beauty is in the eye of the... anyway ...

I won't hold you to that. Maybe think more digitally, than table-top-y with your games.

All three of you for the CD City. I shall have to repeat that feat some day, if I find the right object and the time.
Maybe I'll try and find some words of something about that for page 100. No promises, I can't think of anything off the top of my head hence not putting any here now.

Thanks Graven', Gits' and Gwyn'.

I mean, people without a "G" can also comment here, if you want.

Your anime walker/pilot, CD City and first converted Kroot leap to mind

Ah yes, the HAW206 walking tank. An interesting kit build with minor modifications. I do still like the paint-scheme I chose for that.
And the be-winged Kroot, jumping in at the end. Was an old idea from my list. Was a good exercise in sculpting the wings.
Thanks.

And some painting-in-progress as something to show.

The base you can also see there, is a piece of wood and a printed off floor texture from the game in question: so it keeps the pixelated and flat look to it that was in all games back in the '90s.

 Dr H wrote:

Thanks Graven', Gits' and Gwyn'.

I mean, people without a "G" can also comment here, if you want.

Sure thing!

...

...Wait...

Seriously though, that Cacodemon is cool, is it for display or gaming?
Just seems a little large compared to 28mm minis

Your one-eyed monster is enourmous

"That's what she Said"

You have had a ton of brilliant builds over the years, even the non gaming gifts have been neat to see the outcome. Really like the CD city, but you've made some nice earrings as well.

I'll hopefully be back to posting more soonish,

Thank you Guardling.

Seriously though, that Cacodemon is cool, is it for display or gaming?
Just seems a little large compared to 28mm minis

Thanks. It's just a display piece, for a present.
It's about this big:

Theophony wrote:Your one-eyed monster is enourmous

"That's what she Said"

That's what Theo said.

You have had a ton of brilliant builds over the years, even the non gaming gifts have been neat to see the outcome. Really like the CD city, but you've made some nice earrings as well.

I'll hopefully be back to posting more soonish,

Thanks. Yeah the non-gaming things have helped me expand my techniques and creativity over the years. Which feeds back into the gaming things.

Mm, one of these days I'll find the time to visit everyone's blogs again and comment more on what you are all doing.

Photos are done of the finished Cacodemon, but the above is all you're going to get until the present is delivered at the weekend.
I'll have also had my first Vaccine dose by then, but won't get the 2nd until August. Just have to hang on just a little longer...

Finished photos of the Cacodemon.
Scratch-build based on the original 90's Doom design.

Higher angles:

And the scale shot for completeness.


Not a lot more I can say about it, really. There it is, look at it.

Next project is in the design phase. Will start building this week. Also classic computer game related...

You did an outstanding job man. Looks great!

Thanks Gits'. It was well received.

And on to the next project.
Also a present,
Also game related...

Can anyone guess what this is going to be?



This is just built with plasticard. Much more to do...

My money is on PS1 era Lara Croft...
Nice work on the Cacodemon as well!