IJN Sasebo Gray

[herrmill]

Any IJN fan should love this story...

As many of you folks know by now, I've been enjoying the pleasures of "decorating" both a new home & office these past few months as we prepare to move from the sprawling megapolis of Shanghai, population 21 million, give or take a few million migrants, to Hangzhou, a smaller city of only 6 million. One of these days, the nightmare will eventually end & I'll again have time to get back to my models once I have a real workshop - currently everything except some parts of my Yamato are now packed away since the mother-in-law moved in 6 weeks ago & took over my hobby room. All I can do is keep repeating over & over... "Remember, you married a local gal & this IS China." :mad: :censored:

Last weekend we went to inspect the office expecting to see the walls & ceilings prepped for paint & the woodwork stained a nice light grey that my wife labored on for the past 2 weeks to get that correct pastel shade similar to Minwax Pale Gray (http://www.minwax.com/products/woodstain/pastels-color.cfm). We both walk through the front door, excited to see the past week's work since most everything these workers have done to-date as been spot-on, 100% according to what was specified in the contract, a rarity for anyone who has any experience in China, only to find ourselves looking at a dead ringer for WEM IJN Sasebo Gray (http://www.shipcamouflage.com/images/Ijn2_sheet.jpg) on all the lovely hand finished woodwork: doors, casing, base, catalog & sample racks, etc... There is nothing quite like that feeling as the blood drains from one's head & you feel like taking the nearest 2x4 to lash out at the foreman who was happily showing off the work. :mad:

I mean, I would have had a hard time of matching that color myself, yet these guys had found a way to take a light pastel stain that had been prepared for us, added pigment & PU base paint to make it easier for them to spray & then started painting everything before our weekend arrival so we would have to accept (in their minds) what had already been done! My wife now thinks we can easily remove the paint & restain so this should be an interesting weekend in the making since she has never done any finish work herself & thinks that this dark paint will easily come off using a local paint remover.

At least I don't need to be concerned with my earlier plans of displaying the 1/200 fleet at the office since it certainly now won't conflct with the decor! :D

Chuck

[Kmot]

Kill the dirty :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: :censored: !!!!!!!!

[herrmill]

Tom, those were my exact thoughts & figured you would certainly understand after what you just went through with your remodel.

[bigford]

chuck

it's simple you just DO NOT PAY untill the contractor fixes his
mess

[herrmill]

Ah, the American thinking... as with anything here in China, its a bit more complicated than that. In all likelihood, we'll have them redo the woodwork to the best of their ability without having to pull up & replace the trim & then be negotiating this out until the rest of the work is completed. They happen to be doing both office as well as my house, so we'll have plenty of time to settle. This is China where EVERYTHING is negotiated & renegotiated ad naseum!

Keep in mind that here, your contractor/workers live 24/7 on-site as they do the work so a lot of things can & will go wrong. I could fill you with horror stories of having building material being sold & substituted by the contractor with inferior product, wiring or plumbing not installed to maximize their profit, even empty paint cans being used to fill voids destined for concrete & brick. Building codes & inspectors don't exist.

And to think this took place with having my father-in-law there overseeing the work... as they say, it could always be worse! Actually its my wife who is more PO'd - I kind of like how it contrasts with the tile & bamboo wall panels we used & it does match my ship collection quite well! ;)

[Kmot]

Aarrgghh!

[Stu :)]

I can see it now... Yamato proudly mounted on the wall, guests come by, you show them your pride, the guests look at the wall confused, look at you suspiciously and ask "What Battleship?" :D

My wife now thinks we can easily remove the paint & restain so this should be an interesting weekend in the making since she has never done any finish work herself & thinks that this dark paint will easily come off using a local paint remover.

Yes, but as sort of said; you are in China and the 'local' paint stripper could strip the white off rice at 100 yards. :eek:

Stu :)

[herrmill]

Well guys I thought I'd share a few photos of this weekend's work. Don't ask me how the decoration scheme has now changed to include a dark American walnut stain... that's apparently a woman's prerogative no matter what section of the world one resides. :rolleyes: