IPMS/FSM Forums Member and FSM Subscriber goes to China for Lunar New Year...

General Discussion FSM Ready Room
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Fellow SMs (that’s Scale Modelers…NOT Sado Masochists - although they seem very similar at times…)

I think we have all wondered, at one time or another, if Chinese scale model shops are filled with weird, plastic nerds like us. I intend to find out!

Today i drive south to one of my nephews’ home in Massachusetts. I’ll leave the wheels there and get dropped off at Logan International tomorrow. Then BOS to Shanghai - 12+ our layover - then on to Guangzhou. From there, go to Shenzhen for a few days then on to Enping. Not my first trip to China. But it will be the first trip where i intentionsally go looking for scale model shops. :slight_smile: My wife (NOT my ex-wife, the current wife :-)) is from China and she is already there. I will be joining her and her family for the Lunar New Year. Will have almost 3 weeks there and hope to buy a kit for my Japanese Group Build and who knows what else??? She knows about my plans and is already worried about how much time i will spend on modeling stuff…Bwah-Ha-Ha-Ha! I am bringing gifts for the family and her older brother is getting a Revell Jug 1:72 and the basics he needs to build it. Hopefully we’ll get him hooked. The woman says he was quite into them as a boy.

Anyway, i thought it would be cool to keep a travelog for you guys and try to make it a fun and interesting thing to share with my FSM peeps…

So, tune in here for pics and posts all the way to the other side of the world and back.

Sib

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That is really cool! I’ll be looking forward to your updates!

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I’m in…

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Sounds great.

Jim [cptn]

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But that isn’t what happened. For reasons too silly to mention, instead of driving to the nephews tonight, i will instead drive to BGR and hop on the bus to Logan/BOS. it’s better for me in all respects EXCEPT i won’t get to visit my nephew and his Mrs and their new baby girl… well, she’s 3. sorta new…

so, until tomorrow… Keep your hatchet scoured!

Meanwhile, here’s pics of my modeling space…

sibs

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I’m sure you’ll find something over there. After all, new model companies are sprouting up in China like weeds it seems lately. Somebody there has to be buying the stuff to allow that to happen. We are lucky to get a new model company in this part of the world once in a decade or so.

On a side note, we have a fellow here who is in the local AMPS & IPMS chapters who is of Chinese heritage, and a businessman who runs back and forth between here and there. He comes back from his trips like Santa Claus with bags full of goodies of the latest releases that he finds there to sell to us less fortunate souls. I suspect that you will have a similar good time there.

Enjoy!

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Stik! That is cool news man. I know there are a ton of manufacturers in Guandong province - that’s where i’m going, via Shanghai. If you could ask your fellow chapter member if he has traveled to Shenzhen or Shanghai - and if he has shopped in those cities, could he send me a message with just names or if poss, addresses of shops he may have frequented in those two cities? i will be there for almost 3 weeks so if you have a chance to contact him, my email is lonemoose@live.com or maybe he can point me to a website (mandarin or english) where i can get those details myself… if it isn’t possible or convenient, no hard feelings - but i had to ask…

and i am also hoping to be coming back like Santa Claus - loaded with the goodies!

sibbles

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I can’t remember if he does work out of Shanghai or Hong Kong. I’ll see if I can get in touch with him by email. My schedule has rotated and I won’t see him at meetings again for three months when my days off rotate again. When do you leave?

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HAHA! I leave tomorrow. Doh! :slight_smile: I shoulda joined the forums earlier man. No worries though. I will be going back to China pretty regularly. FYI - Shanghai can always be a first stop for me with a long layover, and Hong Kong is just across the bridge from Shenzhen. So - if he works in one of those 2 cities he could help me out with some shop names… Thanks brother.

sib

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Hey FSM Forum! Sibz here – or rather – not here, but there. In Shenzhen City - China, People’s Republic of… had a good trip from Maine to Boston to Shanghai to Guangzhou. No doubt due in part to my lucky travel socks. My wife met me in Guangzhou and then we took the train back to Shenzhen where her sister lives. It is early Sunday morning here in Guangdong Province (what we know more familiarly as Canton). We are in southwestern China and the South China Sea is very close. Shenzhen is separated from Honk Hong by a small strait and the bridge between is very busy.

Today’s Travelog “Point-to-Ponder”© is: What percentage of your modeling equipment/tools would be permitted in carry-on baggage?

So the journey started on Tuesday morning on a bus bound for Boston. I met the wife at noon on Thursday. Seems like it was pretty short right? But you actually lose a day when you head West across the International Dateline. It is more descriptive of reality to say I started Tuesday morning and got here noon on Friday. But technically, I never existed on Wednesday, January 27th, 2016. During the entire trip, I was never anywhere on Wednesday. I disappeared for a day. J Anywho, it’s a long trip! The jet lag is pretty much gone though. When heading east, it is much worse. At least for me it is…

The bus ride to Logan was great. Glad I didn’t drive. Nice new coach, great seats, not too many people. The bus had WiFi so I was able to stay connected. Read some FSM forum, left some replies. Also, I had downloaded a bunch of modeling magazine apps from the Google Play Store for my Samsung Galaxy a few days before, and was checking them out. PocketMags is the sw system that some cool scale modeling magazine apps ride on. Maybe FSM uses pocket mags too? Don’t know since I get the paper version and not the digital. But the less expensive e-versions of some other magazines are very cool. If you search Google PlayStore or iTunes for these titles you can try them out. They include a free trial period - but watch-out! If you don’t cancel them after you read the trial issues they will start charging you. I think Tamiya ‘Model Magazine International’ and AirFix ‘Model World’ were the best overall eMagazines. But there is also; ‘The Weathering Magazine’, AFV Modeller’, ‘Scale Military Modeller International’, ‘Scale Aviation Modeller International’, ‘Military Modelling Magazine’, ‘Model Military International’, ‘Scale Model Addict Magazine’, ‘Model Airplane International’, and finally ‘Model Aircraft’. (One of these emags is from Spain! Cool!)

When you get the free trial issue (or partial issue) of one of these, it downloads to your phone, so it is with you all the time, even without an internet connection. Just like that, you can have a bunch of great model reading on a long trip to China and not have to bring a stack of magazines. I recommend that you try it out. Oh, and don’t wait until you get to China to download them – Google Play Store is inaccessible here. ‘Cause China no likey Google and no Google website or Google app on your phone is going to be able to access China’s Internetz. J After trying out the various model mags, I recommend downloading and keeping the PocketMags app on your phone. It will maintain a library of all the free trial issues you got from your model mag scouting, and you can search the universe of PocketMags titles about anything and everything. It’s like the magazine section of a bookstore. But more selection. Pretty cool. I had never seen PocketMags before since my current phone is the only one I have ever had that is ‘smart’ enough to easily handle apps.

Also, Italeri has a really cool live-interactive magic box reader for some of their products. It works like this; you’re at the model shop, you see an Italeri kit that is on Italeri’s list of supported kits (the list is in the app on your phone) and you use your Italeri app to scan the box-code (not the bar code, but the funky digital 1in x 1in black and white square). Then your screen goes live active with additional data about the kit in a way that is like an interactive video/audio ad! I thought it was pretty cool. (To try it out, download it and show it a supported Italeri kit box-code on your computer screen. Works just as if you were in a shop zapping the box on a real kit in front of you.)

OK – here’s some pics from Boston/Logan. Especially Terminal E, the international terminal…

For some reason, this sign made me think of my ex-mother-in-law…

The Mrs. And I are staying at an apartment that her former employer let us use. She used to be a BD and Sales Manager for a company that makes and cuts sapphire products for all kinds of different devices… After Mrs. Sibley put on the new pajamas i brought for her, we called it a night…That’s it for right now. Next installment is; Hainan Airlines, in-flight meals, rules for in-flight farting, people from Rhode Island, vegetarian meals, phones must remain off, 2 screaming babies, Shanghai…

Sibs

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Hey Sibs,

Great photos and narrative of your trip so far. You were kinda like Jason Bourne Wednesday 1/27/2016 totally off the grid. Hopefully you’ll get to hit all the “plastic shops” you want went you get into Shanghai. Look forward to your next installment, and have a safe and fun trip.

Hunter

P.S. - What are those white things next to your wife while she is drying her hair??

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Hey Hunter - the display cases next to the Mrs hold some manufactured sapphire in various configurations. the company (where she used to work) apartment we stayed at in Shenzhen doubles as a satellite office. her former employer makes and custom cuts sapphires for a variety of devices and applications. there’s 2 bedrooms upstairs, 3/4 bath etc. for free! :slight_smile: and the office was unused while we were there due to lunar new year holiday. most companies and self employed peeps take many days off…

sibs

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at the end of this post is an excerpted message i sent to lostagain - it summarizes a bit about how the plastic side of this China trip is going. overall i am happy with how it’s been so far. but, until today i did not have access to a computer besides my super-duper smartphone. trying to create updated narrative on the mobile phone has left me with a severe case of texterus thumbitis - this, and a tendency to hit the wrong buttons causing deletion of an hour of writing, has brought on a very severe case of eff-it. and, i am ready to kill Photobucket. i am going to switch to hosting my own pics.

i look forward to being able to daily use this laptop and the wi-fi here at the family house to catch up with the story updates from behind the Bamboo Curtain.

Message from me to lostagain after he replied to me about not having luck finding plastic shops in Shanghai…

thanks for getting back to me! i had a long layover in Shanghai on this trip (usually go through Peking) and like you - found nada. even though some very nice folks at Pudang airort tried hard to help me find one. After i arrived in Guangzhou i met the wife and we went straight away to Shenzhen for just a few days - so no searching there… we then went to Enping - wife’s home city - for New Year holidays. while i have been here in the small city of Enping i have had some fun and success in ‘treasure hunting’ among the small shops and stalls of the various neighborhoods. got some interesting plastic and i was actually very surprised - and pleased! - to find any plastic here.

now, i have a line on a plastic shop in Guangzhou - where i will fly out of on the 16th… we are going a day early to go shopping and just have a walk around Guangzhou. i hope to find 1 or 2 shps there. full details and tales re the China trip will be found at http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/general_discussion/f/50/t/169625.aspx

from Guangdong Province,

‘Sibbers Old Horse!’

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Sibz -

So far it sounds like your having a great time and you are better than me to attempt to do any typing on your smart phone [bnghead]. I hope you get to see some serious plastic. That would be horrible if you didn’t get to pick up a trunk load of models before coming home. Be safe and enjoy.

Hunter

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Hey Sibz, glad to hear your vacation is going so well! Very cool photos though if you get Photobucket to cooperate again I’d love to see some more of China.

And btw I’d be afraid to take any modeling tools on a plane anymore. With terrorists using box cutters a hobby knife isn’t much smaller and with the ban of liquid substances I’m not sure plastic cement would fly. There’s a talk show host a few years ago who talked about trying to bring a snow globe back from New Zealand to the States and was told he’s have to drain it because they were afraid someone could dump the water and fill it with liquid explosive. Which started the host on a hilarious rant about ‘stepping into the water-closet/restroom to ‘weaponize’ my snow globe’…

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This a a fun thread!

Thanks for sharing your adventures and please keep it coming. Happy New Year! (and a belated welcome to the forum)

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Have a fun, safe trip!

Mike

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gamera - i have a LOT of cool everyday scene pics of my visit. and i will definitely finish a charming, snarky, and complete travelog for my plastic peeps. it may not be finished until after i am back in Maine - GRRRR!!! - but i enjoy doing it, so, it will get done…

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Lol, cool! Thanks!

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Forget the plastic - where do I go to get me a Chinese wife?[8-|]

Seriously though - have you had any issues getting her a VISA or whatever forms the State Dept requires for her to come to the US?