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Re: SMMW ribbed boxcar

 

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I guess all this mess is my fault but it is apparent that the issues I had are evident along with others by others.? I just wanted to compare notes with others for the most part.? Sorry bout that!
However, I do have interpretation issues with some of the instructions--that's why couples sometimes get divorced, but fellow modelers will find a solution!

Over the years I've worked with many clients of all kinds in compiling instruction manuals and methods leading to suitable results.? As an example, I just saw a news report of a patient who has received a transplanted kidney from a pig.? I was involved in that sort of research 25 years ago--they were just starting research at that time.? Then I worked on a lengthy service manual for a Wire-line truck for the oil fields.? We nearly tore a truck apart--by the way they also had a couple of Russian made trucks for a different firm.? That client had problems repairing the trucks from Freightliner- & Mack-the Russian versions were more familiar to their guys and simpler!?

So when we get into digital media--wow.? As a photographer, if I saved all my old toys, I'd have a boneyard of both PCs, Macs, and what was also hung on to them.? Most don't work anymore and passwords have dissolved from my mind.? However, I'm not going to purchase any new toys if I can avoid them.? I'm typing this on a once high-end 27"IMac that was given to me.? My repair guy was updating one of his clients, so he had several dozen units that were now surplus--so he gave me one--dumpster diving, I admit! Obviously they can't be updated but at my age that's probably all I need!

Now my newest Mac Mini is close-by upstairs but I have to crawl about 8' to get back and forth--and that's not going to happen repeatedly either.? So my burner can read the mini discs just fine.? But like you and Peter state, some machines need to suck-in the disc.? My daughter was given a G3 laptop years ago that I thought might work, as it's small but the CD is the sucking kind!, so no go!? Bring in another CD drive--now I've got a too large system with several cords and whatever. And don't get started on dried-out printers, & btw price that ink!?

So I'm doing the best I can, but I also have several kits where an xacto and glue will still work just fine too!

Bob Werre


I find it extremely frustrating to read comments re: "hating the discs" or not liking instructions because they are subject to interpretation.? If you don't want to use the disc I provide in each kit, now standard since the mid-2000s, don't use it.? Technology is constantly changing and manufacturing costs will NEVER return to what they were just a few years ago.? To offer paper instructions, in color, is not going to happen.
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The underlying culprit to these comments seems, to me, to be outdated computer-related equipment and unwillingness to "upgrade".? Am I to hold back the info provided in my kits to reflect "ancient" office equipment?? Nope.? I consider a laptop and "cheap" HP black & white laser printer, now available on Amazon for just $120, to be gotta-have equipment, especially for model building.? These are just as important as X-Acto knives and glue.
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If you don't want to invest in such equipment, which lasts for MANY years without upgrades, that's your decision.? You can take the CD to just about any office supply place, like UPS Store or OfficeMax, to have the PDF instructions printed in color for about 25 cents per double-sided sheet.? Of course, you'll miss out on the 40+ prototype pix of the MILW box found elsewhere on the disc ... all in universal JPEG format and viewable on Apple or Windows just by clicking on them.? If you don't possess a computer with horizontal disc tray, you can get an external 5" (which also reads 3.5") drive/tray on Amazon for $34 today, which can also be linked wirelessly to your computer or tablet, both of which should be 100% portable.
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5 inch CDs came out 43 years ago in 1982.? The 3.5 inch "mini", which holds 200MB of info, debuted 10 years later from SONY.? Flash-drives, which I'm considering as replacement for the discs, are the current means of quick-and-simple information transfer.? Gene Fusco (Rail Yard Models) was the first resin kit manufacturer to use CDs in his kits because his instructions often surpassed 80 pages.? I think I was the 2nd kit manufacturer to adopt this because it became "obvious to me" that SO MUCH info could be packed into a small space and the mini's fit inside my kit boxes.? Where else are you going to get all of the info you find on my kit disc without spending WEEKS scouring online photo sources and scanning slides that I've either shot, bought, traded, or otherwise collected since 1975?
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Jim King
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