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Anyone heard from Hisham Haikal lately?
knewton
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Posted: Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 12:45 PM UTC
Usually a regular poster here with news, but nothing lately. Given the turmoil in his part of the world, I hope that the guy is OK.

K.
staff_Jim
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Posted: Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 01:04 PM UTC
That got me worried as well and then I noted he hasn't been on the site (logged in) in a long while. I am happy to report (and a bit sad too) he is fine and well and posting on his Facebook page as of yesterday.

Facebook... joy.

Cheers,
Jim
HermannB
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Posted: Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 01:24 PM UTC
While we`re talking about "missing" members, anyone knows what happend to 18Bravo, Robert Skipper?
Thirian24
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Posted: Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 04:34 PM UTC
Another one that used to post all the time, that I haven't seen in a long time is Dennis Struck - M4A1SHERMAN.
165thspc
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Posted: Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 04:44 PM UTC
If you recall Hisham posted roughly three months ago that he was going to have to be getting out of the hobby and off the blog for an extended period. He did not say why but I think he eluded to troubling family matters.

Mike
ReluctantRenegade
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Posted: Sunday, June 25, 2017 - 04:51 PM UTC

Quoted Text

If you recall Hisham posted roughly three months ago that he was going to have to be getting out of the hobby and off the blog for an extended period. He did not say why but I think he eluded to troubling family matters.

Mike



Thanks for the info, Mike. I also payed attention to his absence...
knewton
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 01:30 PM UTC
Cheers, guys... cleared that up. Yeah, Facebook. It'll never catch on.
young_sven
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 01:59 PM UTC
Guys, I tried to resist the Facebook thing for many years, but it is here to stay. In the end I joined up and as long as I completely stay away from all the heated political, religious and other (sometimes very hateful) debates, it is actually useful and a great way to get in touch with like-minded people. I have also made a lot of new friends there who practice our wonderful hobby.

More and more people (including myself) post our work on Facebook, and join in on discussions there - as do the manufacturers of course.

I, like many others, have my own FB page dedicated to modelling and have had nothing but positive experiences from it.

Facebook does not have to be seen as a competitor to great sites like Armorama, that's not how I see it anyway.

The major (and very, very ugly) downside of FB (and any social media lacking any form of mediation for that matter) is that many use it as a platform to spread hate towards peoples, religions, race etc.

You have my respect for wanting to stay away from it, but I think its a loosing battle to resist FB, IMHO.

Sorry, off topic!

Here's hoping that Hisham is ok and will be back soon, he is truly a positive contributor on this site.

Hederstierna
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 03:07 PM UTC
Strong the power of the dark side is, my young apprentice
I see right through you Darth Young, and you won't get me
Jacob
jon_a_its
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 03:22 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Cheers, guys... cleared that up. Yeah, Facebook. It'll never catch on.



FB is OK, providing you don't give in to the 'Dork side' ..

& then block all the haters...
young_sven
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 04:37 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Strong the power of the dark side is, my young apprentice
I see right through you Darth Young, and you won't get me
Jacob



Haha, so true my friend, but the dark side calls upon you to join the FB Empire
Maki
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 06:40 PM UTC
I've been talking to Hisham and as far as I know there are no troubling family matters. Also, he is definitely not getting out of the hobby... Hisham is very active on FB where he reports on his figure painting sessions. I hoped to see these images on Armorama as well, but it seems some rude comments on our forums crossed the line and Hisham decided to leave the community.

I did notice several members who are downright rude with comments which seem to serve only to degrade someone's work. Are we turning into an elitist community where only master modelers are allowed to post their work? Sharing your work with the broad public is never easy, so do we really need snide remarks to scare people away from Armorama?

A long time member and contributor leaving the site... this is a wake up call, not just for the Armorama community but for moderators and editors as well.

Mario
RussianArmor
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 06:43 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I've been talking to Hisham and as far as I know there are no troubling family matters. Also, he is definitely not getting out of the hobby... Hisham is very active on FB where he reports on his figure painting sessions. I hoped to see these images on Armorama as well, but it seems some rude comments on our forums crossed the line and Hisham decided to leave the community.

I did notice several members who are downright rude with comments which seem to serve only to degrade someone's work. Are we turning into an elitist community where only master modelers are allowed to post their work? Sharing your work with the broad public is never easy, so do we really need snide remarks to scare people away from Armorama?

A long time member and contributor leaving the site... this is a wake up call, not just for the Armorama community but for moderators and editors as well.

Mario



That's certainly why I don't post my work here. I stick to Facebook and groups like the Trumpeter build group.
sgtreef
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 06:56 PM UTC
On the subject what about Jim Lewis ,Sabot to name a few



Jeff
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 07:21 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Guys, I tried to resist the Facebook thing for many years, but it is here to stay. In the end I joined up and as long as I completely stay away from all the heated political, religious and other (sometimes very hateful) debates, it is actually useful and a great way to get in touch with like-minded people. I have also made a lot of new friends there who practice our wonderful hobby.

More and more people (including myself) post our work on Facebook, and join in on discussions there - as do the manufacturers of course.

I, like many others, have my own FB page dedicated to modelling and have had nothing but positive experiences from it.

Facebook does not have to be seen as a competitor to great sites like Armorama, that's not how I see it anyway.

The major (and very, very ugly) downside of FB (and any social media lacking any form of mediation for that matter) is that many use it as a platform to spread hate towards peoples, religions, race etc.

You have my respect for wanting to stay away from it, but I think its a loosing battle to resist FB, IMHO.

Sorry, off topic!

Here's hoping that Hisham is ok and will be back soon, he is truly a positive contributor on this site.




I killed my fb account last July and couldn't be happier, got away from the ads, clickbait and everything else that was eating up my time. 6 months ago my brother killed his. He's quite happy now too, doesn't get his blood pressure up anymore at the idiocy. The kids however think they'd rather have their arms cut off than go without fb. Sad really.
Thirian24
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 07:34 PM UTC
I also feel like sometimes people comments can be harsh, even sometimes people comment things that are zero help nor constructive. Like they just want to come off as rude. Maybe that's just how it seem because it's hard to take how someone is coming across over a forum.

But I also feel like people should take things with a grain of salt. Not everything you say/do/post is going to please everyone. If someone says something I disagree with, 99% of the time I'll ignore it.

I'd also like to mention, if it weren't for this site and fellow modelers being helpful and critical, I'd still be light years behind where my abilities are at now. Not that I'm an awesome modeler by any stretch, but I'm happy where I'm at now versus where I started and I can attribute that to this awesome community.
ReluctantRenegade
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 07:38 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Sabot



I see him (I think...) online a lot. Not posting doesn't necessary mean somebody's gone from the site.
bison126
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 07:45 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I killed my fb account last July and couldn't be happier, got away from the ads, clickbait and everything else that was eating up my time. 6 months ago my brother killed his. He's quite happy now too, doesn't get his blood pressure up anymore at the idiocy. The kids however think they'd rather have their arms cut off than go without fb. Sad really.



Well, I have waited a long time before using FB just because of the reasons you mentioned. I solved this issue by accepting friends only when their page showed more posts about modeling than any other matter. When FB friends start to go out of my intended way, I just stop follow them. And once a year, I do some clean up in my friends list.
That's simple.
In addition, to avoid any blood pressure excess, I also subscribed to some humor related pages. They are not always the smartest but generally I have a lot of fun with them.

Olivier
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 10:14 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I also feel like sometimes people comments can be harsh, even sometimes people comment things that are zero help nor constructive. Like they just want to come off as rude. Maybe that's just how it seem because it's hard to take how someone is coming across over a forum.

But I also feel like people should take things with a grain of salt. Not everything you say/do/post is going to please everyone. If someone says something I disagree with, 99% of the time I'll ignore it.

I'd also like to mention, if it weren't for this site and fellow modelers being helpful and critical, I'd still be light years behind where my abilities are at now. Not that I'm an awesome modeler by any stretch, but I'm happy where I'm at now versus where I started and I can attribute that to this awesome community.



My getting rid of FB had 2 purposes: that the Gov't agency I work for frowns upon it (ID theft), and the few self absorb idiots that use it. As far as Armorama goes, even a couple of folks here on Armorama blasted me on my first (and now the only) review I ever did. The sad thing is it's almost a daily occurrence in having to witness their hate/rants/diatribe/vitriolic criticism against others. If Hisham has been the brunt of aforementioned vitriolicness, its only serves to embarrass the rest of us. He and I have had quite a few PM's over a few years...and I find his wisdom and modeling prowess to be a benefit. I hope to see him back. For the most part, I myself still learn from the majority of folks on Armorama, even after 50+ years of modeling.
staff_Jim
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 10:53 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I've been talking to Hisham and as far as I know there are no troubling family matters. Also, he is definitely not getting out of the hobby... Hisham is very active on FB where he reports on his figure painting sessions. I hoped to see these images on Armorama as well, but it seems some rude comments on our forums crossed the line and Hisham decided to leave the community.

I did notice several members who are downright rude with comments which seem to serve only to degrade someone's work. Are we turning into an elitist community where only master modelers are allowed to post their work? Sharing your work with the broad public is never easy, so do we really need snide remarks to scare people away from Armorama?

A long time member and contributor leaving the site... this is a wake up call, not just for the Armorama community but for moderators and editors as well.

Mario



I'm sorry are we talking about posts in the forums or articles we put up as features or reviews? I hardly think we only publish articles from 'master modelers'. If anything Armorama IS the place where we don't do that sort of thing. Granted we do get the occasional photos submitted that don't meet a certain basic level of quality (usually photo quality) to publish, but there are tons of examples of features we have posted recently that are clearly not 'master' level work.

If however this is alluding to 'critics' (or trolls) making comments regarding photos of work in the forums, I would say that has ALWAYS been around on the internet, including Armorama. Moderators should be stepping in when such criticism gets belligerent, but that is obviously a fine line and needs to be handled appropriately.

To be fair we don't really have a team of dedicated moderators for the forums. It's a problem that is only solved by people stepping up and putting energy into helping. If they think moving to Facebook (and I am not aiming this specifically at Hisham) is going to fix the problem... it's not. Sure they can ban people from their page, but they can do that here as well in terms of hiding responses from people they don't want to see. There are several groups on Facebook that I am a member of and they have just as much trouble with aggressive trolls as any site on the Internet. Maybe even more if it's large enough.

Facebook is about control. Facebook makes logging in mandatory. They allow you to control who sees what, ban people, remove comments, etc. Facebook is an entirely different animal than sites like Armorama, or any scale modelling forum. If you want a location that is all about YOU or about YOUR group, Facebook is definitely great at that.

Cheers,
Jim
parrot
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 11:02 PM UTC
I also miss him.
We have PM'd years ago about family and countries.
Some here can be harsh,but as mentioned"take it with a grain of salt". Maybe a wrong gun or pack you've used.If you can,change it,if not,be happy with it.All comments here are a learning experience.Always remember that we're all here for the enjoyment of the hobby and a place to share our work.If you get a rude comment,check the senders profile.It may be someone with a military background or as found years ago,a 12 year old that constantly tore a dio apart.

Tom
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 11:37 PM UTC
Jim Lewis is doing good and still working on models. I have him as a friend on Facebook. He is also a member of some of the Facebook model pages.

I have asked a friend who also knows Robert Skipper, but he too has not seen or heard from him.

HansBouwmeester
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Posted: Monday, June 26, 2017 - 11:43 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

I've been talking to Hisham and as far as I know there are no troubling family matters. Also, he is definitely not getting out of the hobby... Hisham is very active on FB where he reports on his figure painting sessions. I hoped to see these images on Armorama as well, but it seems some rude comments on our forums crossed the line and Hisham decided to leave the community.

I did notice several members who are downright rude with comments which seem to serve only to degrade someone's work. Are we turning into an elitist community where only master modelers are allowed to post their work? Sharing your work with the broad public is never easy, so do we really need snide remarks to scare people away from Armorama?

A long time member and contributor leaving the site... this is a wake up call, not just for the Armorama community but for moderators and editors as well.

Mario



That's certainly why I don't post my work here. I stick to Facebook and groups like the Trumpeter build group.



That's one reason why I recently removed all pictures of my work here and started my own homepage. The other is the lack of interest in the work of "newcomers".
Being on FB will only happen inmy worst nightmare.
RussianArmor
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Posted: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - 12:02 AM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text


Quoted Text

I've been talking to Hisham and as far as I know there are no troubling family matters. Also, he is definitely not getting out of the hobby... Hisham is very active on FB where he reports on his figure painting sessions. I hoped to see these images on Armorama as well, but it seems some rude comments on our forums crossed the line and Hisham decided to leave the community.

I did notice several members who are downright rude with comments which seem to serve only to degrade someone's work. Are we turning into an elitist community where only master modelers are allowed to post their work? Sharing your work with the broad public is never easy, so do we really need snide remarks to scare people away from Armorama?

A long time member and contributor leaving the site... this is a wake up call, not just for the Armorama community but for moderators and editors as well.

Mario



That's certainly why I don't post my work here. I stick to Facebook and groups like the Trumpeter build group.



That's one reason why I recently removed all pictures of my work here and started my own homepage. The other is the lack of interest in the work of "newcomers".
Being on FB will only happen inmy worst nightmare.



I'm finding that the group that Trumpeter set up on facebook to be pretty good. People are sharing builds and info on how they did certain things without the rest of the facebook crap or negativity
grunt136mike
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Posted: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 - 01:07 AM UTC
Hi Everybody;

IMHO I generally find the People on Armorama to be Kind & very Smart people, altho at Times we need to be More helpful in our Commits on member's who post there Model's ! Someone who will ask for critic should not be Hurt by A critic who points out A mistake or problem area's: But we are only Human and our Feeling's are easily Hurt especially if were young and less knowlegable ! I try to be helpful in my commits on one's work if they ask for Help; But at Times, I Don't put in words the rite meaning at what I'm trying to say and after I catch myself and Slap myself across the face. As one individual who greatly Appreciates Armorama can only Say that; I am Very Sad at the absent of Our friend Hisham Haikal and HOPE He will forgive Us for any ill feelings !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHEERS EVERYBODY; MIKE.
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