Hello Ian
Yes indeed, call me Joe.
...though there seems to be many of us here with same name.
I certainly haven't baby'd anything I have and I seem to get alot flack for never cleaning them either.
You're not 1st to suggest sponsorship & I'd be all for it myself, but "they" gotta eat too. I'd be more than happy to continue to do it freely for just the good service, but I'm not getting much of that lately.
I think few ppl will/would ever punish their models like I have, and nowadays the majority seem more concerned with "details" & "scale perfection" than performance anyway. The manufactures really don't have a need for me to do any performance torture testing.
Yeah, young Mr Stahl's father's good name has turned to mud, but in all fairness, the late Mr Harald Stahl's sudden passing has left Lars in quite a bind to replace his father for much needed help in the biz. As I understand it, Lars is all by himself trying to manufacture & distribute these kits.
My father passed a couple of months before Lars' father did and I know 1st hand the position that Lars is in trying to find suitable help... finding some one who cares what they're doing moreso than "working the clock" is greatly becoming a rare commodity these days.
Lars is gonna have to make some tough decisions soon, before it's too late... either scale back production runs & focus on quality/complete kits, take the time to train a suitable employee or sell the biz. I wish him good luck & great success, I hope he recovers his loss of business reputation & continues on well into the future... I'm always gonna be needing spare parts as I wear out shyt.
I've thought about building a barge and putting one of my Stahl track hoes on it to do some dredging... that would be part of my outdoor trk park someday... which also might now be sooner than later...
With my father no longer and my mother has left the farm to live in the big city, there their big beautiful house sits empty, much nicer than mine! I had it rented out this winter to a young family that I know well, but they tell me today that they just bought a farmyard of their own and now the house will be empty again in a month. Ahhh, to go through the hassle of finding somebody I trust to respect the house & yard.
My parent's farm is the main yard. It's where all the equipment, the shop, the cattle/corrals, ect are. I commute 3 miles several times a day, everday... how much easier life would be if I lived there! But I go there and that'll be the END of the Lil Giants Basement Excavation project... that's really the only reason why I still live here in this old shack of house. It'll be 10yrs this July... how time flies!
Got some thinking to do....
Anyways, thank you for your interest in my hobby contributions and nice compliments. I look forward to seeing your Scania build and hope your enjoyment of detailing it is ever as much as I enjoy the hobby too.
Cheers from Canada
Joe
ps: I can't but help to write too much too.