OFF TOPIC: How are you holding up during these troubling times?

Hello Onesixthfigures Ladies & Gents

With what’s happening in the world I thought it would be a good idea to check on all of you to see how you’re holding up. Are you okay? Are you still working? Are you stuck at home? How’s your health? Is everyone in your family safe and healthy? Have you taken this time to do anything?

I’ve noticed our traffic here has slowed considerably (and for good reason), but it would be great to here from All of you, even if just a few words, to let us know you’re safe and okay.


My wife and I, and our Italian Greyhound (who just turned 14 a week ago), are still okay, though my wife has to work from home now. Her company is considered “essential”, but she can’t go in to work. I’m considered essential, so I still have to go to work — though things are starting to slow down for my company — but my exposure to others is moderately limited. I’m one of those people who is at high risk for any bug or virus, but so far so good. We used to run errands together on the weekend, but now she does them without me to reduce my exposure to other people. Most of my adult life has been living in big cities all over this country, but now we live in a small town, so it’s nice to be able to have nice neighbors who all check on each other and make sure everyone is okay — from a safe distance, of course.

During this time I haven’t been able to do much hobby-wise, but I am collecting parts. We started painting the inside of our house about a month ago — slow going since we’re basically doing one wall at a time starting with the kitchen and connecting dining room (something we wanted to do before we even moved in 2.5 years ago). The entire house was rather blah, neutral colors, which I was finally able to convince my wife I just couldn’t take any longer — not that we’re going super crazy with wild colors or anything (the wildest is the peach color we chose for the kitchen and dining room). This is the last house I’m going to love in, and after living in mostly blah apartments and the townhouse we owned prior to this single-family home, have all had that neutral blah — boring AF — paint jobs. (I blame it on HGTV wanting some color). We’re only doing one wall at a time because we have so much crap (probably partly unnecessary)it’s a pain in the @$$ to have to move things away from the walls to even get at them. It’s amazing the amount of stuff you accumulate in over a hundred years of combined life-spans — i should really stop collecting stuff at this point, but I just can’t. My wife’s going to outlive me by a large margin, anyway; I’ll let her deal with it.

Our dog, Dexter (not named after the serial killer show — though he was insane when he was a pup), is hanging in there — though he’s slowed down considerably now that he’s 98 in human years, and arthritis is an issue we have him on a few different meds for. I’m not one of those people who is holding on to him while he suffers, he hasn’t gotten to that point yet; our Vet is really good, and she’ll let us know when it’s time. The wife and I never had kids, so this is it; don’t like kids — hate kids (well, not really... cooked right, they taste a lot like chicken )

Anyway, stop in and let us know how you’re doing, if you care to share, and at least let us know how you’re doing.

Be safe and stay healthy.

Thanks for checking on us. Our hobby and community might be a refuge or even escape from the "real world" in a way, but we remain part of it. As some of us have demonstrated, isolation has sometimes resulted in more hobby-related work. On the other hand, following the latest news and performing elaborate disinfection routines can be distracting (not to mention depressing) from both work and hobby, and in fact I'm behind on both. We've luckily finished with a major part of our planned house repairs a few weeks before this crisis hit us, but there are some more planned, hopefully soon, hopefully in healthier times yet to come. In the meanwhile, we're hunkered down waiting for the storm to pass, with limited and cautious outside exposure. But I suppose it is much like that for most of us.

I'm sure others have figured this out, but the news that the Coronavirus can survive on plastic surfaces for up to several days is additional cause for concern. I don't know that it's enough, but I tend to leave packages I receive unopened for at least one and ideally 3-7 days, then open them carefully outside or in a designated interior area and dispose of the packaging carefully and as fully as possible. I disinfect or discard plastic baggies and (if the latter) wash the contents or leave it be out of the way for a few more days. And, of course, wash hands after handling. It's probably a bit of an overkill to treat everything that came from the outside as possibly "radioactive," but I suppose better safe than sorry.

For now I hope that all of us stay safe and healthy, specially essential workers like you and yours Stryker. I hope to post something this week just to keep the routine going along. ‍

I'm glad most of you are ok but for those who are having tough times, I hope things would improve for you! This coronavirus sucks, I hope it goes away already!

For me, well, my latest job is being an Uber driver. I've been doing it for 2 years since 2018 and now because of the coronavirus, I can't drive and risk taking the virus home where I live with other people. I went back to my previous job as a small time toy seller making tiny profits here and there. I'm seriously considering also going back to doing those little Amazon Turk jobs (I used to be able to make $800 to $1000 a month from that a long time ago).

Actually I have a short story about the last passenger I had before I stopped driving near the beginning of March. I picked up some guy from a University in Irvine (California). Anyway we were happily chatting going to LA (around 1 hour and 30 minute drive due to lack of traffic since the virus was already scaring people from going out at the time), when suddenly, my passenger told me he'd like to close his eyes for a while and rest.

On the final 30 minutes of the trip, he started making weird sounds, I thought he was just snoring. Later on, he requested me to open the windows. Suddenly he started apologizing and said he might throw up but I shouldn't worry because he's gonna pay for it. That's the first time I had a passenger who was about to throw up (I'm a day time driver for safety reasons and to avoid drunk people), so I asked him if he wanted me to pull over or take him to a hospital. He said he can still fight the bad feeling and we should just continue on our way. He would alternate between almost throwing up and just moaning at the backseat. Finally we arrived at his destination, which was a restaurant where he was going to meet some friends. He asked me if I could help him out so of course I tried... but then suddenly I found out he already lost feeling in his legs and arms! He never told me about that! Thankfully, his friends were waiting for him in front of the restaurant and they carried him away. After that, I found a parking spot and then immediately disinfected my car, even the outside of the car lol! After that day, I decided that it's not a good idea to drive anymore because people seem to be getting sicker by the day.  Personally, I'm the type who never really gets sick, or maybe I've already encountered the coronavirus but I'm just the type who never suffers unlike the others who get it. Majority of my passengers are from Asia (there's a huge Chinese population in Irvine where I usually drive around). Anyway, aside from safety issues, it's pointless to go out Uber driving right now since there aren't any passengers.

As for what I've been spending time on for fun, I'm trying to complete my childhood Justice League characters (in Mezco form). I still need Flash! I used to have those Kenner DC Super Powers toys lol!





I've also been spending time watching youtube tutorials on how to draw... too bad I'm not yet good lol! It's like I'm stuck in elementary/highschool level drawing!



If I manage to sell some more stuff, I'm thinking about getting a 3D printer, filament or resin type. I really want the resin printer like the Elegoo Mars which you can get for around $200 on Amazon, BUT the problem is that resin will stink up my place and I only live in an apartment. Small enclosed space, not good for stinky resin. I'm probably gonna end up getting a normal filament 3D printer for around $200 since that won't stink, but at the cost of loss of detail on the items I'll sculpt in 3D.

Maybe I'll also go back to making another piano recording. It's been a long time since I last recorded one lol! Maybe my next tune to cover will be "I Don't Have the Heart" by James Ingram. I've always loved that song.

Thank you Stryker for starting this thread it's very much appreciated.

Well I'm still here and doing fine but going stir crazy, it seem a lot like being under house arrest and I'm beyond ready for this nightmare to end. I'm retired so it's kinda like old song from Styx Too Much Time on My Hands. LOL

I've only been to town 2 or 3 times last month for food, supplies and medicine and hopefully I have enough supplies now for the next 3 or 4 weeks, I've been getting quite lazy lately watching a lot of news mostly local, world and Fox News and binge watching TV shows like SG-1 but I do try to go outside for a walk at least once a day, I may be one of the more fortunate ones, I live on a farm and ranch in the Midwest in SD and my closest neighbor is at least 3/4 a mile away.  LOL

Indeed please stay safe and healthy everyone.

I work in an electrical retail store. A lot of businesses have been closed but not us. Many of our customers aren't taking the restrictions seriously so I am exposed to at least twenty people a day who get too close and we have not been given any protective gear. I suspect it won't be long before I catch it.

We have been crazy busy. We are more busy now than we were at Christmas time. The phones never stop with hundreds of calls a day from customers who don't want to come in. We ran out of freezers, breadmakers, and webcams a month ago. A week later, there were none in the entire country. Now we are out of printers, fridges, and are almost out of TVs. We can't get stock. Only half the trucks we usually get are turning up and they are half empty. We usually keep around $3.5 million worth of stock. Now we have less than 1.5.

My favourite line at the moment is: "I'm sorry the global pandemic has been an inconvenience to you."

I had enough on Sunday so I asked for and received two weeks annual leave. Hopefully things will be better when I have to go back. Either we are shut down completely or they get more serious about keeping customers away from us.

On the plus side. I'll have some time to work on my blacksmiths project.
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t903-scratchbuild-blacksmith-s-workshop

I have to get it finished so Mark stops hassling me.

Just wanted to say thank you to Stryker for starting this thread, it's really good to hear from everyone at this extremely worrying time. I hope you and your wife continue to remain safe and healthy, and your dog too. And I hope everyone here remains in good health for as long as possible. <3

[post redacted for privacy reasons]

Anyway... thanks again everyone for checking in. You're all in my thoughts.

shazzdan wrote:

On the plus side. I'll have some time to work on my blacksmiths project.
https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t903-scratchbuild-blacksmith-s-workshop

I have to get it finished so Mark stops hassling me.

It’s about damn time! (I was going to hound you over at the Old Site when I saw you post about it yesterday, but I didn’t think most over there would get the joke.)

Sorry to hear about the people coming into your store — its amazing to me how many people I still see out and about, and doing nothing to protect themselves or others by following the rules.

Skywalkersaga, thank you for being so honest about your struggles. I created this thread to make sure that, though we may have to Social Distance to the people in our immediate vicinity, we are still a community here that can stay in touch. Communicating with others, even at a distance — something we all do here, anyway — is more important than ever to maintain our sanity, share our frustrations, etc. We at least have a hobby, though discussing those types of things isn’t necessarily what this thread was intended for, is a good thing — as there are a lot of people who don’t; any form of escapism in this time of strife is a good thing, but being able to “talk” about our feelings, troubles, etc., with others can be therapeutic. I’m a bit of a loner, and since my last close friend past away in December, it’s just my wife and I (and the dog). Sure I have family, but we don’t talk all that often; my wife, on the other hand, while a wall-flower among strangers, has been in constant communication with the people she works, and laughs, with on a regular basis through texts, emails and phone calls (some of that is necessary due to work requirements, but they usually devolve into bull$#@ting). And she and I laugh and joke together all the time, despite what’s currently happening.

Stay safe, stay strong, and love and care for each other as best as possible, people. And know that our little community is a “family” of like-minded goof balls that like to play with dolls, and we should be here for each other.

Sky, hang in there. I know it's easy to say, but really there is no other viable choice. This too shall pass, and as you already do, you have positive things to focus on (including your awesome husband and dogs). And for my part, if I ever get around to finishing it (I'm behind on real work), I do have something you will probably like in the works, I promise.

My miniatures business is doing better than ever. I guess lots of people are stuck at home looking for things to occupy their time. I had just got ready my largest ever batch of parcels to take to the Post Office when I get a message saying that Aust. Post is cancelling all but Priority overseas parcels due to flight restrictions and those that do get sent will have delays of 2-3 weeks. That knocks out around 90% of my business. My smaller items can be sent as letters so I'm hoping that the restrictions only apply to parcels and not letters as well. If so, I should be able to salvage 40-50% of orders.

I have to go back to work tomorrow after a week of paid standby.  I had a cold during an inspection and feared my health would deplete since it lasted till this past Saturday. I had this feeling someone sat on my chest. I'm better now.

Skywalkersaga, I get tired as well. However I mostly feel angry about stuff and do pull ups. If you ever get bored or need a break from the hobby, try Animal Crossing. I've been playing for hours. I barely got a shovel in my community and had to look for fossils so the Museum director could tell me the vast story of dinosaurs. Apparently he hates bugs.

I have a neighbor named Reneigh, a horse with hot pink bangs, but color scheme is pink and purple. She ends every phrase with 'Hyup Yup.' Then there this Freckled face blue reindeer with a green track jacket. He likes getting swole and lifting weights named Bam, who ends every sentence with Kablang!

Back in the real world, I get to make Christmas treats, Filipino donuts and Mexican chocolate pudding. There is also this thing called biko, It is like hot rice pudding but it is eaten like a rice krispie.




TL;DR= I got sick but feel better. Played Animal Crossing and exercise to relieve stress. I like making and eating Christmas desserts whenever I feel like it.

Wow, Adeno, nice Pianoeering! To my luck I started the piano video before reading your text, gave your Uber Story an...interesting vibe.


Cheers to all you awesome/badass wives/husbands/parents/lonely wolves/dogs/wolfdogs/hallucinated ponies etc.


I guess all of the sudden I am 'essential' now, too, working in an intensive care home for people with mental disabilities. (The paycheck still doesn't reflect my sudden essentiality yet, though...)
So I can't stay at home, although unwashed celebrities in their living rooms tell me otherwise.
We still have a lot of traffic there. No visitors of course, but so much personell going in and out...risky business. The people living there really need occupation but with all their workshops/day care closed they don't have their regular structure and routine which might make them want to break things and people even more than they already like to. 
Hope I don't have to be quarantined there some day, have to work there over the Easter holidays...
One guy there can literally eat anything to survive, including aluminium foil, paper, plastic, wood, dangerous insects and.... other stuff, maybe he can teach me some survival skills. I guess if he gets Corona, he will just digest the virus and become the ultimate antidote.


Anyway, spring hit us hard. With sunshine, good weather, birds singing, (probably dirty songs), little cute lambs bleaking (probably exchanging insults)no plane in the sky (two model planes once in a while), living at the end of the village with the forest 5 minutes away is quite fine.
For now, I like to work with leather and wood in the garden to the sound of heavy machines mowing down the real forest.


I can distract myself, but still sad for all the lonely elderly folks, declining businesses, the people trapped with abusive family members. Or those poor parents having to teach math now.


And the 1/6 hobby, yes, still into it. I feel like I should have more time because the media takes the perspective of home office workers, but it's not less or more than before. 
The weird thing of course is the post-pandemic/apocalyptic based topic of most of my figures.


Weirdest coincidence moment of last week: My Cargo state main characters are from the area of Rotterdam, they are descendants of port based quarantine camps and ship crews/passengers who managed to survive because of good communication.
Now there is a cruise ship named MS Rotterdam transporting quarantined passengers from another cruise ship that was not allowed to enter a port.
Also, the big stadium in Rotterdam where the annual Song Contest was supposed to be held is now turned into a hospital.
Not weird at all.xD


Now to something completely different: Did you know that the forests around Chernobyl power plant are burning at the moment?


Anyway, have a nice week everyone!

Ovy wrote:Now to something completely different: Did you know that the forests around Chernobyl power plant are burning at the moment?

Yep. Some of the radiation that was locked up in those trees is now being released into the air, but apparently the radiation spike isn't high enough to cause a concern.

Next project: I'm wondering how Bond and Arnie would handle being stuck inside during a quarantine...

Well, turns out I’m not as essential as they led us to believe at work. When I went last night (actually 2 am this morning) there was an email letting many of us know that we could be getting furloughed soon. This afternoon I got the email telling me I’m furloughed as of now. That was fast. Tomorrow I have to file for unemployment, I guess.

Hmmm, part of me is relieved you will be less in harm's way. But having to file for unemployment can't be too good. Is a furlough a temporary layoff?

GubernatorFan wrote:Hmmm, part of me is relieved you will be less in harm's way. But having to file for unemployment can't be too good. Is a furlough a temporary layoff?

Essentially, yes (2-4 weeks... hopefully), but a furlough means the job will be waiting for you when they can start up full operations again. But, we can still file for unemployment.

Stryker2011 wrote:Essentially, yes (2-4 weeks... hopefully), but a furlough means the job will be waiting for you when they can start up full operations again. But, we can still file for unemployment.

I see. Glad to hear it (and to have understood correctly).

Australia has tried a different system. Businesses are being given AU$1,500 a fortnight to keep paying the worker even when they don't come to work. It keeps them out of the Unemployment Office queues and gives the business some flexibility if they want the employee to do a little work from home.

We’re doing something semi-similar for smaller businesses here, but unfortunately my job requires me to be out and about — nothing I can do from home.

Hi folks, Like a lot of folks... I seem to be picking up on this ragged undercurrent of panic, and in some quarters, this zombie apocalypse mentality. Yes this is some serious stuff, but I'm trying to not get sucked into it...my social media posts are my usual self effacing "man you're a dork" level of humour.
I'm currently still working... I work in building services for a large-ish printing company. We're considered essential due to being light manufacturing with our product being shipped to europe, asia, the US. I spend about 3 hrs a day just doing touch point sanitizing at the two buildings in our complex with two other guys, in addition to keeping the place clean and my other sundry duties. about half our workforce ( the office staff, is working remotely, so that removes around 300 ppl from the site. We also thermal screen every employee every day upon entry... if they fail, they get sent home and their card access is revoked...so far nobody has been diagnosed with covid...call it lucky so far (knocks wood).
With the background anxiety, I haven't found the creative inspiration to get cracking with a number of wips that are 3 or so years going lol.
My thoughts are with all of our community, your friends, and loved ones

I'm doing well so far.  My day job, (when I'm not moonlighting as a photographer) is working in the sales department of a manufacturer of transformers.  (The electrical kind, not the action figure kind)  That makes me part of an essential industry, and though business has seen a huge slowdown, we still have business.  

The Canadian government furthermore is doing its best to encourage businesses to keep employees on the payroll despite the massive slowdown in the economy, by offering to pay 75% of employee wages of companies who can show their business is down by at least 30% and encouraging, but not forcing the employers to pay the remaining 25%.  

I'm also very connected to my old reserve regiment, and the honorary colonel of the regiment, (a pretty wealthy guy) is making sure that anyone with ties to the regiment (active members, former members, members of the Artillery Association of Montreal, or 3rd Montreal Field Battery, the volunteer ceremonial battery which is supported by my old regiment, gets whatever support they might need in these trying times.  If someone is under quarantine and needs groceries, Steve Gregory will make sure someone is available to run out and get them. If someone needs help getting to a hospital or medical facility, ditto. A fund has also been set up for members in need of financial aid.  So far, I don't need any of this, but it's reassuring to know that someone has my back. Ubique!

Okay....The downside.  Most retails stores are closed and I can't get my hands on the foam core board I wanted to buy to start building my first real diorama this (long weekend). I've got to line up outside of liquor stores when I buy booze.  The police are patrolling public parks and making sure people don't get too close or go to far from where they live. Nothing on the news but COVID-19 news, SNL is nothing but reruns (okay, that's not that different from normal times,)  and there's massive uncertainty about the economy, but what can I say?  I'm okay for now, working (from the office) and I'm getting by.

Oh, and as an addendum, I'm wondering if I should change the change the global catastrophe in my post-apocalyptic collection from nuclear war to world-wide pandemic as it's a concept that seems a lot more plausible now than it was just a few months ago.

Stryker2011 wrote:Well, turns out I’m not as essential as they led us to believe at work. When I went last night (actually 2 am this morning) there was an email letting many of us know that we could be getting furloughed soon. This afternoon I got the email telling me I’m furloughed as of now. That was fast. Tomorrow I have to file for unemployment, I guess.

Ouch! That hurts. Sorry to hear about that.

shazzdan wrote:My miniatures business is doing better than ever. I guess lots of people are stuck at home looking for things to occupy their time. I had just got ready my largest ever batch of parcels to take to the Post Office when I get a message saying that Aust. Post is cancelling all but Priority overseas parcels due to flight restrictions and those that do get sent will have delays of 2-3 weeks. That knocks out around 90% of my business. My smaller items can be sent as letters so I'm hoping that the restrictions only apply to parcels and not letters as well. If so, I should be able to salvage 40-50% of orders.

Good to know you are doing well.

My wife works in the legal department for a casino in New York. Since all of those are shut down, she has been out of work for a while. Having to file for unemployment was a depressing day for her, she had trouble separating the feeling of it somehow being her fault from an unavoidable situation.
It’s just the two of us and we have been able to connect during this time in a way that gives it a real silver lining effect. We were fortunate to have made our usual grocery trip before anyone realized where this was headed, so we are sufficiently stocked up without having to hoard. 24 rolls of TP holds us a while. We keep large and family size versions of products to minimize our normal shopping, so we have soup and sanitizer and soap, etc. We have done everything we can to minimize our expenses and have turned off the heat in hopes of better weather. I venture out for milk, eggs, etc. and I wear gloves, N95 mask, dollar store disposable jumpsuit and eye protection. I strip down and sanitize in the garage before entering our home as well as dong my best to wipe down packaging.
I should mention that I am absolutely not worried about this virus, medically, but feel that these precautions are just good sense for my wife’s safety. I have asthma and allergies and as she says “ How would you even know if something was wrong?” Lol.
I had to fly in March and the experience of being in a commercial plane with only seven passengers on board was surreal.
I am not sure what my state, country or even the world’s exit strategy is for all of this. For now, all I can do is ride the ride along with everyone else and hope for return to normal in the future.