Hi fellows! Flo, I believe a greasy hamburger and American fries would be good for lunch today. Maybe a small piece of that coconut cream pie.
My weekend challenge:
Over the weekend, I came to the conclusion that all the tech writers for MR kits are the children of Satan. Most kits have quality design and engineering, but when it comes to their directions, God help us all. Usually, I have been able to read through the entire set of directions and decipher the meanings and methods of each step, but the more complicated kits requires cognitive skills beyond average, the gift of advanced spatial-temporal reasoning, interpolation of dimensions, and a handful of luck.
Case in point: I am building Walthers Refinery kit and have been working on it at a reasonable, but careful pace. Bang! I spent hours putting the halves of the columns together, sanding, filling, painting, and when completed, the next well hidden instructions tell you to add the unpainted manhole covers to the columns. What color should they be painted? The same as the columns. Crappo! Hey, I already spray painted the columns and now I have to hand paint the danged manhole covers that could have been installed and sprayed with the columns.
Next: to align the columns in the proper position on the the floor, it says to align the vertical seams with the marks on the floor. Hey man! I have spent hours getting rid of the seams with filler and paint. So, I looked inside the columns and was able to mark the seam with a pencil.
Next and worst: After some piping was installed, the instructions say to mount the completed work platforms to the columns. OK! Where! There are no marks and there is not a hint for the exact location in the hard-to-see drawing nor can you get an idea from the one and only photo of a completed kit. I think I have it figured out and go ahead with installed the platforms: Wrong! Finally, I jumped ahead and got the ladder and safety cages put together and was able to figure out how to align the platforms. Maybe!
Now, is this over? Heck, I still have to run piping into some very tight areas of the columns/platforms and they have to fit perfectly in order to match with the piping on other parts of the kits. Thank goodness for liquid glue where I can re-apply to loosen and move parts.