Good luck Brian - let’s hope the missing pieces appear . I can’t imagine they would be far from HG’s workbench. To my way of thinking they simply must be there.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop .
Richard
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DELIVERY UPDATE
It arrived yesterday in a most sturdy box!
You can see the dimensions on the left towards the bottom. Quite a container for a 1/48 model!
I’m making arrangements to bring it over to the new builder’s shop in a light industrial building that is part of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard.
I’m no stranger to such places, having worked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard a mere 50 or so years ago, first on board a destroyer and later in the shipyard itself in 1971-74.
But that’s a very different subject!
I’ll do a “trip and unboxing report” after we have our meeting with the builder this coming Sunday. It should be quite an event.
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Keep the box for future transport, you paid for it.
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25 kg is a word for a model that weights about 100 gr … 
A Tight Fit
The last loading obstacle is overcome.
Takeoff scheduled between 0900 and 1000 hrs 22 OCT 2023.
I did not want to have to rent a truck for this leg of the journey.
This is childish to include, but there’s no fool like an old fool.
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Trip Report, Unboxing, and a New Start
“What can I but enumerate old themes”
is how this old Irishman might start this post
but the better course is simply to list the losses,
describe with certainty what is truly gone
(and why I think it is missing), and then lay
out the task for the new builder, whom I will
properly introduce below.
But first, the trip to Brooklyn via the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
By Jesse Vega - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, File:Look out point (cropped).jpg - Wikimedia Commons
We always go to Brooklyn via this architectural beauty linking Staten Island to the rest of NYC, rather than risk slow death by traffic-jam in the Holland Tunnel and crossing lower Manhattan to drive over the Brooklyn Bridge.
It’s a shorter distance, but * * * *
Anyway, here are a few random views of the infamous BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) on the way to the Navy Yard.
New Yawk.
So we met the new builder for the first time in person in his wonderfully spacious work area where he plans and executes numerous specialized production plans – display fixtures, artwork, marketing designs, and other physical promotional materials – for a major firm located in the Navy Yard that caters to many businesses.
His name is Marks Havens and his skills are awesome. We hit it off very well in person. You can tell from his tee shirt and work product in the background that he loves WWII aviation as much as I do.
The first thing he did was unbox the model, the top of which contained the build,
while the lower tier had all the extra parts that Frank had collected for shipping.
Note the electric drill, which was quite the time saver. I will add that Marks was very impressed with the job done by Edmonton’s Custom Crating, Ltd. First class: the model arrived exactly as it was at pick-up.
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Well, NO. No daffodils here.
I gaze and gaze and mull over what is lost.
The plexiglass nose is gone, though I have a replacement, and there are no handheld guns anywhere, nor the brass brackets for the cheek guns that H.G. made. The bombardier’s floor in the nose, with the handmade tub for extra ammo for the nose gun is gone, as is the tall driftmeter I hand-built. We’ll have to take a flashlight to the interior and see what, if anything, lies behind that! I worry about the navigator’s station, the oxygen bottles on the bulkheads, etc.
As previously noted, both turrets are also gone, and I am missing all crew access doors. The two turrets are gone, too.
So, what happened to this stuff? “You would think” H.G. had it all carefully stored for access at the right time. My theory is that in the last two weeks of his life, his health deteriorated dramatically, not just in the neurological, body control symptoms that he experienced, but also (not surprisingly) in his ability to focus, concentrate, and remember things. It’s my belief that the missing items simply got lost and were thrown out somehow.
I can’t be angry about this. I just have to remember our friendship and all the pleasure our collaboration brought us both and leave it at that. But more on this when I do his obit in the near future.
With Marks’ expertise, this will get done. I donated an HK B-17F kit to the project, and there are plenty of things in it to make good on the losses, albeit not in the way originally intended. I will say that the model as received is a thing of beauty. The detail is fantastic and it looks so damn good sitting there waiting for skilled hands to finish it and make it a world-class build.
So, I’m happy to end this post on a positive note with what I guess is my signature sign-off:
Stay tuned. More to follow.
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Great to see LL glided to a perfect landing, on a wing & a prayer for sure. Best wishes to your new ground crewman, I’m already admiring Mark for enlisting 
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Thanks, Martin. Yes, Marks (with an s) is a real expert at this. I feel good about our upcoming collaboration.
In case you’ve never been here, the “on the road” photos are intended to give a glimpse of my environs.
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It never gets old hearing it said like that!
Happy landings, indeed. Looking forward…
BTW: Inspektor No. 172 welcomes you aboard Marks. Also, he approves your t-shirt. 
—mike 
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Apologies to Marks & while we’re correcting names, my first name is Tim - third strike & you’re out 
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Duly noted!
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A confederate infantryman?
Although to ears beyond the Atlantic & Pacific, the full effect is Noo Yark – udderwise it’s coytans fo’ yow.
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Kinda’ like the Arnold Ernst Toht villain in ‘Raiders of the Lost Arc.’
—mike
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I see this phase as just passing the controls for a bit but the mission continues.
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Perhaps. 
Another post coming later today.
That, BTW, is a great still from the movie.
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I do like dialects.
Years ago, I used to work in Philadelphia. I remember one time at the local deli for lunch, the waitress asked,
“What can I get cha for lunch, Hun?”
Quintessential Philly accent.
Later on, shortly after I made my move to Northern New Jersey (aka “North Jersey”) I was with a new lunch party at The Meadowlands Diner.
That I had moved to a distinctly different area was clear when the waitress came to our table and asked,
What duz yuz want?
It still burns my ears.
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I want two eggs over-medium and a order o’ Scrapple, please. 
A.K.A. “shrapnel!” 
—mike 
In Philly - waitress asks “ ya want a glass of ice wooder witchure cheesesteak? “
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