Hi Guys,

Hope everyone had a great weekend. It's Sunday night here, and I'm finally getting back to the computer after a few days away. This has turned out to be a very busy couple of weeks for me. The end of school for my son, Cooper, combined with his impending trip to Europe with a cultural exchange program, has had me running constantly, trying to get everything taken care of in time. On top of that, this is high season for his swim team.

Those of you who have teenage kids are most likely nodding knowingly right now. Those of you that don't have teenagers, I have one word of advice... vasectomy. I'm kidding of course. Really, I am. The rest of my time in the last few days has been taken up with filling orders, and getting new products ready to go.

This crush will be over on Thursday, as Cooper is off to the airport at oh-dark-thirty, as the saying goes, to comply with the new regulations that require you to be at the airport 17 hours before your flight leaves. This gives the security staff time to complete the CAT scans, DNA testing, and prefessional luggage ransacking required by the National Security Division of Unnecessary and Ridiculously Paranoid Travel Regulations. And that's just to park in the short term parking. If you want to FLY on an actual airplane, the testing gets much more rigorous and personal.

Being that the flight to Italy will be over 12 hours long, TWO bags of complimentary peanuts will be served as well as a complimentary beverage. No movies will be shown, but I understand that there are 6 viewmasters available per flight, and disks on How to Prepare for Y2K and The Wonders of BetaMax are free for the viewing. This is the Golden Age of flying my friends.

The only modelling related news today is that there is now a tab on the BarracudaCals website that takes you straight to this blog. That should help new readers to easily find it. Thanks to John for getting the link up and running.

I will be announcing the next three sheets at the end of this week. They should be available for sale by the middle of next week. I will be interested to see what you think.

More soon. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy modelling. Roy

More new decals coming soon.

Hi Guys,

And by guys, I mean both men, women, and assorted other genders. All are welcome here. We have a "don't ask, don't tell, don't care as long as you buy something" policy here at BarracudaCals. Enough nonsense... for now.

BarracudaCals will be releasing 3 new decal sheets later next week. More new sheets are ready to go to the printer, and a backlog of new sheets is growing by the week. When I started working on ideas for BarracudaCals about a year ago, my primary concern was that I would run out of schemes to do. In the meantime, I have come across so many subjects that are crying out to be done, that I still find it hard to believe.

BarracudaCals will be in attendance at the IPMS USA National Convention this August in Columbus, Ohio. There will be some new decals launched at the show. I have some other surprises in store as well. This is a great show, and if you have never attended, I highly recommend that you give it a shot. It is an impressive spectacle. Over 2,000 built models in one room. Hundreds of Vendor tables, with a huge variety of goods to drain your bank account, are begging to be perused.

Best of all are the attendees. The hall will be overrun with people from all over who share the same passion as you. I look forward to attending each year, as I get to see many friends I have known for years. I also enjoy talking with customers new and old. I am always interested to hear what people have to say about BarracudaCals or even the hobby in general.

Now, I will be signing off. I am going to finish masking the wing stripes off on my 1/72 Hasegawa Spit HF VII. It will be finished in the Operation Starkey markings from the BarracudaCals Spitfire IX Series Part 1 sheet. I have decided (as painful as it may be) to show it with the upper wing roundels overpainted by the temporary wing bands. While not as pretty this way, it seems to me that for this very short lived Operation, they would have not bothered to carefully paint around the upperwing roundels. Of course, whatever I decide; after the model is finished, a photo will surface showing that what I had chosen was wrong. Isn't that what usually happens?

I will post pictures up of this project tomorrow. I hope to have it in the decalling stages by the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

Happy modelling.

Roy

Welcome to Roys Rants!

Hi Guys!

Until this afternoon, my only experience with blogging was in reading the occasional update by Chris Bucholtz from Obscureco. Thanks to my good friend Chapman, I have now been plunged into the world of blogging. Blame him! He sat me down on the phone this afternoon and walked me through the process of getting Roy's Rants set up.

I woke up this morning sick as a dog with some sort of nasty stomach virus. My son was sick on Sunday and 48 hours later, I came down with the same thing. My head was splitting the whole time Chapman was helping me get it set up. I just wanted to go and bury my face in my pillow, but he persisted. I'll be grateful later... My cell phone finally died, and I collapsed into a fitful sleep.

Now, it's the next morning, and I am feeling a lot better, but my headache still persists. Luckily, headaches are a rare occurence for me, but it does help me to grasp a small part of what my friend Mike Braun goes through with his severe migraines. I can't even imagine...

The upshot of all this is that, now, I have a blog. "There will eventually be some discussion of the hobby on this blog?" you may well be asking. Yes. It will deal with a number of various subjects. Plastic modelling, my company Barracuda Studios and the decal line BarracudaCals, Cooper Details, RAF and FAA aircraft, updates on my personal projects, and even 21st Century Toys and my 5 plus years with that company.

Welcome to my blog. You can count on updates every few days, as well as full daily coverage of the IPMS US National Convention from the show with pictures.

Happy modelling!

Roy