Scale and Thunder Boat Graphics

[Mike McKnight]

New screen shot for the 2011 Valken showing the striping kit available has been uploaded. Two new sets of these have already gone out. Also some screen shots of access hatches and newer style turbine rescue hatches and emergency handles have all been uploaded as well.

Now as to shipping changes for 2012 and beyond...no change to all domestic shipments. They will continue to be shipped with USPS Priority International and will have a delivery confirmation tracking number. ALL international shipments will be shipped USPS Express unless you specify another carrier that has point to point tracking and delivery confirmation. Express is THE ONLY service USPS offers that has tracking. I have confirmed this several times. If you do not want to pay the added expense for shipping USPS EXPRESS or any other carrier with tracking, I will not take the order. Sorry it has to be that way but I have had one too many issues with Priority International.

Ok back to work I am already starting 2012 with a bit of a backup.

 

[Mike McKnight]

I have updated and added some boats to the 70's section. Some detective work finally paid off and I have gotten some pictures and info that have allowed to to complete some shovelnoses with every decal that was on the boat. I have not put every single decal in some of them for reasons that I will explain in a moment. I have also nearly completed the 2011 Graham Trucking set at the request of a customer. That screen shot will be up soon.

A question has been asked of me lately why my screenshots look jagged or incomplete. I will tell you that this is intentional. I do A LOT of research when I put a set together. Some others have tried to benefit from my homework. Needless to say I'm not going to let someone cheat off my test or copy my notes if you don't mind the high school analogy. My screenshots are low resolution and size to minimize piracy. Also, a lot screen shots do not have every decal shown for the same reason. If you want a high res screenshot to make a purchase decision just ask. I will send you a watermarked high res copy. Sorry for all the security but I have busted three people since July of piracy. By the way thank you to several of you that tipped me off to it. I truly appreciate it.

I'm in the office this weekend trying ot get stuff out as 2012 is getting off to a really busy start. Guess my boat in my garage has to wait a bit longer......

 

[Mike McKnight]

Ok things have been silly around here since the start of the year but I have been trying my best to get orders out in a fairly timely manner despite the fact that at one time I was 23 sets deep! That is not counting a couple of sets that were re-dos and two that were trades. Right now Gas and Nitro are about even in orders and there are a few FE's mixed in there as well. Needless to say I have been spending some late nights in the office to keep up. In the middle of all of this I have still added a few more new sets and finally posted screenshots of stuff that should have already been up but wasn't. I will also be posting a set of aluminum vents and inspection covers for older boats from the 50's-70's soon as well so look for those in the coming week or so.

Something else that is new is that I am doing big boats now as well. I'm doing restoration jobs on full sized fishing boats now. Fishing boats really? Yes....for some reason guys like me that have these really trendy aluminum river style boats that have jet drives or outboards and they like to look cool too. This was a restoration job of the vinyl on my own boat. All of the white below the gunnels and logos reg numbers are new replacing all the old dinged up vinyl.

Now all of a sudden I have other fishing boats lining up for the same stuff. Plus there are several Region 11 APBA outboard drivers that will be sporting graphics out of my shop. I'll have pics of those soon. I'll be hopefully getting all caught up here soon as my race season here in District 9 is about to begin. But I will still take orders during the race season.

 

[michael winter]

In that case, I need to get another order to you! Nice to see a great American Company moving forward these days.

Mike

 

[Lennard Cuenco]

hey mike...

if your going to alfred's race, can you bring my re-do set please?

thanx

 

[Mike McKnight]

Len your deck decals and the blue and the orange for your verts are on my cutting table I will grab them today before I go home to start getting ready. I'll be getting there sometime tomorrow by 2pm I would imagine. I also have a scrap of the white vinyl so you can have it scanned. They usually need something about a credit card size or larger to be able to scan correctly.

 

[Lennard Cuenco]

thx mike...

i will be there saturday, talked with alfred and he will be out there friday testing as well...

yellow, not orange right?

http://newtonmarine.smugmug.com/Hydroplanes/1991/9733197_26rksS#!i=705399247&k=SrLsQ

 

[Mike McKnight]

Got some good news and some bad news....bad news first. I have no idea how I did it because this would be something you would normally attribute to some sort of athletic injury...not even close. I have somehow torn my meniscus as well as some cartilage as well as a partial tear in my MCL on my left knee. So upon approval from my insurance I will be having some surgery probably next week. I'm told it'll be crutches for a couple days then 6 weeks of therapy. I'm not expecting to miss more than a day or so out of the office. Just wanted to let you guys know with pending orders that I'm going to get as many out as possible before surgery. I'm getting severael a day done so it should only be a minor slowdown.

Now the good news. I have purchased new parts and inks to refurbish a 60' wide format printer that I have had sitting here as a dead unit. It is being revived since I now have demand for large format trailer decals as well as graphics for fishing boats and full sized race boats and RVs. I will also be buying a refurbished 30" print and cut machine to make the smaller decals easier and faster to produce since I can use one machine for two operations. You guys have had me hoppin' so I am going to make things a little more streamlined. I hope to have all of this online by April. In the meantime everything will be BAU and feel free to call or email with orders and or questions. Thanks for your support!

 

[michael winter]

MIke,

You take care of yourself first. As you are aware, I am very familiar with recovery times. Take the time you need as we want you around for quite awhile. .

Mike

 

[Mike McKnight]

Thanks Michael....Ok still waiting on getting in to get this knee worked on so I've been hard at it until the **** doc and my insurance can get this stuff straight. Had to stop down to do some drawing to add a couple sets to the catalog. Also a few more screen shots that I thought were up already have been added. Plus as boats are being completed I am adding some pics to the gallery as well. John Olson's new 1/6 Scale Gas 1974 U-95 has been added. John did some great cowl work on this one....check it out. www thunderboatgraphics.com

 

[Mike McKnight]

Well it's official I will be going in to get my knee scoped on Friday. Looks like I'm not racing this weekend or much of anything else for that matter. I have sent off about 4 sets this week and after the surgery I'll probably be drawing for a few days. Since I usually am standing while I do up sets looks likethat's out for now. Since I can sit and draw I'll get some drawing done on some logos that need to be digitized. Some detective work paid off and I located a few logos that appeared on some Bud boats from 2001-2004. Plus I also have the old Hilton Products (Hy-Per-Lube) from the 60s and 70s that needs to be digitized. I'll get a few more orders out today and tomorrow. Then I'll be out till Monday.

 

[John Seybold]

Hi Mike, good luck with your knee, when your back and ready for another order let me know. I'm finishing up my '93 T-plus hull and need a set of decals.

Talk with you soon,

John

 

[Lennard Cuenco]

mike...was obvious at the race that your knee was traumatized...glad your handling that....

thx for all your help on my stuff, you very much became part of the project down the stretch

get better soon,

Len

 

[Mike McKnight]

I am in the office these days and the bandages are off but I still have tape on the incisions so I am limited to mainly just drawing. I can walk without crutches but I can't stand too long without getting some swelling. It's getting better but I am taking advantage of having to stay seated and occasionally elevating the knee. Sooo a bunch of sets that were not quite complete or needed a correction are getting finished and I'm prepping for later this week when I can stand for longer periods.

I've added a couple more sets and screenshots and added a shot of Dan Brandon's new 1/8th Scale Miss DYC to the gallery. Very nice boat Dan!

 

[michael winter]

Glad to hear all went well. Don't push it

Mike

 

[Mike McKnight]

Almost back at full speed. Still have few more weeks of therapy left but feeling pretty good so far. I have to be out of the office a few days this week as I have several big Audio Visual jobs I have to be on site for but I will be back in late in the week. I know it is getting close to the beginning for racing for a lot of folks. My season has already started and I missed the first race because of surgery and got rained on all weekend last weekend. Wish mine hadn't started yet. Mother nature apparently is just now getting around to winter here.

I put up some more screenshots. The late 60's Bardahls...the Blonde and the Checkerboard...thought they were already up. Also the 1992 Miss Rock and both T-Plus hulls from 92-93 are up too. New gallery pics are up as well. Couple of beautiful shovelnoses.

 

[Mike McKnight]

I regret I have to type this update but I feel it necessary to update anyone with pending order or plan to make an order in the near future. I have a family emergency that is requiring a lot of my time at the moment. My father is 88 years old and was diagnosed with lung cancer last June. Unfortunately due to his age he was not eligible for most treatments and surgery because of his age he would not survive either option. I have kept this under wraps until now for sake of my fathers dignity but I need to let you know I may be delayed in getting some orders out. His health was fair until just a few weeks ago right before I had knee surgery. He has gone from being fairly mobile and still worked as a CPA every day to being almost completely bed ridden. The last few days have been the most dramatic of a decline and he now requires 24 hour supervision. At this point that is me and my brother with other family helping out. Since he lives right next door to me it is mostly me. I do still intend to come in to the office as much as I can to finish orders. First because I made a commitment to you when you placed the order and second because I am needing to get my mind in a different place while this is happening. At this point because of the rapid decline of his health I believe we are down to just days before this runs it's course.

If you have an order on the board I am going to do my level best to get it out when I promised. If you need to place an order I ask that you wait a while if you can. Thanks much

 

[Ray Sametz]

Priorities Mike, family first, only toy boats. Make him as comfortable as possible. B)

 

[Mike McKnight]

Thanks Ray...and thank you to those of you that have sent me private messages and emails. I appreciate the understanding. I am going to work today and tomorrow and maybe a couple of days next week and then I will probably be shutting it down for a couple of weeks. I have to handle some of my dad's buisness affairs and make preparations to close out his office. Since my main line of work is Audio Visual I of course have been charged with producing the memorial video since I did the one for my mom 12 years ago.

By the way, on the note of shutting the office down...some of you know I have shared the office with my dad for some time. I stayed mainly to share the rent and be his IT guy for his computer network and to keep him company after mom passed. The problem is the space is not really well suited to my needs but I wasn't leaving before dad wanted to retire. It has decent square footage but no warehouse space. Now I am scouting for a new place to move with industrial space with offices and I may have located one. I actually found one with more space and a nice big rollup door. So I will be moving my operation sometime in the next couple of months after everything settles down.

 

[Don Ferrette]

Hang in there Mike, like I told you in the e-mail been down that road and it's tough. Take care of the family stuff first, we aren't going anywhere and will be here waiting. Thanks for all you do.